> SERIOUSLY, WHY THE FUCK WOULD SAM WORK WITH THE BMOL?
You know, it's not so utterly impossible when you think about it. I'm just re-watching Criss Angel is a Douchebag - that convesration:
Dean: it ends bloody or it ends sad; that's just the life. Sam: what if we could win? cut the head off the snake.
We know that Sam is capable of a kind of "end justifies the means" pragmatism when he's up against it. (We saw it in Jus in Bello and Mystery Spot, too). Now, true, he was up against the Apocalypse then, and his relationship with Dean was critically damaged, neither or which are the case at the moment. Nevertheless, I think the show has made an effort to make it psychologically plausible. Firstly, the Winchesters have just saved the world from the feud between God and his sister, and Sam thinks they've defeated Lucifer, too. It's possible this could have re-ignited his old hubris that it's his job to save the world, especially combined with the damage that was done during his spell in pseudo-guantanamo. He's admitted he's still having issues with that, and I think they went deep. Was it you I was talking to about the scene where he was working out and how I thought that was a nod back to The Third Man and a shorthand way of saying Sam was losing his soul in that place? Now, I know BMOL stuffed up but I think Sam was already well on the way to being sold when he saw what they'd achieve in the North West Region or whatever it was, and I think the fact that they actually showed some vulnerability may even have helped - when he saw the place was staffed with ordinary people who were just trying to do their jobs, and that Daniels was willing to acknowledge their failures. Also, I believe wanting to bond with Mary is a huge factor in this. All season we've been seeing subtle hints that Sam is even more desperate than Dean to have a relationship with her and, though I'm not suggesting he thought of it this way consciously, I think the division between Mary and Dean over BMOL presented him with an opportunity to 'get Mom's attention' by 'picking her side'. What Mary has signally failed to appreciate up until now is that the little boys who never had a mom are still very much alive in the adult men in front of her but, possibly, she's starting to get it now.
Were there great gaping holes in the plot of the episode? Hell, yeah! I think Dabb's main weaknesses are in plotting and sometimes a certain moral blindness, plus there are some really really weak links in his writing team, but I do think he has a reasonable understanding of the characters, and cares about them in a manner that's been woefully absent in preceding seasons. I actually do feel that, whatever else this season's episode have sometimes lacked in the execution, there has been more effort made to maintain emotional and psychological credibility and continuity than there has for years. So, I'm gonna give show kudos for effort :)
Possibly interesting addendum: at the end of Criss Angel, when Sam goes to meet Ruby, he tells her "I'm in." Exact same words he said to Daniels. Hmmm. *strokes chin*
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You know, it's not so utterly impossible when you think about it. I'm just re-watching Criss Angel is a Douchebag - that convesration:
Dean: it ends bloody or it ends sad; that's just the life.
Sam: what if we could win? cut the head off the snake.
We know that Sam is capable of a kind of "end justifies the means" pragmatism when he's up against it. (We saw it in Jus in Bello and Mystery Spot, too). Now, true, he was up against the Apocalypse then, and his relationship with Dean was critically damaged, neither or which are the case at the moment. Nevertheless, I think the show has made an effort to make it psychologically plausible. Firstly, the Winchesters have just saved the world from the feud between God and his sister, and Sam thinks they've defeated Lucifer, too. It's possible this could have re-ignited his old hubris that it's his job to save the world, especially combined with the damage that was done during his spell in pseudo-guantanamo. He's admitted he's still having issues with that, and I think they went deep. Was it you I was talking to about the scene where he was working out and how I thought that was a nod back to The Third Man and a shorthand way of saying Sam was losing his soul in that place? Now, I know BMOL stuffed up but I think Sam was already well on the way to being sold when he saw what they'd achieve in the North West Region or whatever it was, and I think the fact that they actually showed some vulnerability may even have helped - when he saw the place was staffed with ordinary people who were just trying to do their jobs, and that Daniels was willing to acknowledge their failures. Also, I believe wanting to bond with Mary is a huge factor in this. All season we've been seeing subtle hints that Sam is even more desperate than Dean to have a relationship with her and, though I'm not suggesting he thought of it this way consciously, I think the division between Mary and Dean over BMOL presented him with an opportunity to 'get Mom's attention' by 'picking her side'. What Mary has signally failed to appreciate up until now is that the little boys who never had a mom are still very much alive in the adult men in front of her but, possibly, she's starting to get it now.
Were there great gaping holes in the plot of the episode? Hell, yeah! I think Dabb's main weaknesses are in plotting and sometimes a certain moral blindness, plus there are some really really weak links in his writing team, but I do think he has a reasonable understanding of the characters, and cares about them in a manner that's been woefully absent in preceding seasons. I actually do feel that, whatever else this season's episode have sometimes lacked in the execution, there has been more effort made to maintain emotional and psychological credibility and continuity than there has for years. So, I'm gonna give show kudos for effort :)
Possibly interesting addendum: at the end of Criss Angel, when Sam goes to meet Ruby, he tells her "I'm in." Exact same words he said to Daniels. Hmmm. *strokes chin*