Episode poll 14.18: “Absence”

[caranfindel]

[Poll #2091947]

Remember, no spoilers in the comments, please, and that includes episode titles and casting information. Thanks!

Comments

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

I will be totally cheesed if Jack becomes the Big Bad. He's an adorable piece of nougat!

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

{sigh} Prepare for it.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Agreed! He's not evil - he didn't mean to kill Mary, and Nick was a nasty piece of work so I ain't shedding no tears for him!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Mary's initials carved into the table - this was the main thing I didn't like about this episode, as the DW/SW initials were copied from the Impala and should have stayed as Sam and Dean's, their mark upon the world.

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

I agree with you 100%. No one else's initials belong there.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

It made me quite angry at the time. I don't think Jensen and Jared were very impressed either, as they said at SPNCHI that the table might end up being like a guest book with everyone's initials added!

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

I agree. If they added hers, they should have added John’s, but really they should have left it as just the two of them.

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Exactly, I'd have found it more poignant if they'd added John's initials as well, but they should've left it as just Sam and Dean.

[candygramme.livejournal.com]

This!!!

[jj1564.livejournal.com]

Yes!

[verucasalt123.livejournal.com]

Right. So. It took me a bit to get around to this ep. I just lost my dad a week ago, very suddenly and unexpectedly, so I was obviously already in a super emotional state. But I went ahead and watched bc wtf, it's there and I already pretty much knew what was going to happen.

The flashbacks, just like any other time Show tried to put Mary in a position where she talked about parenting or kids or being a mom, just really sat wrong with me. Like, she knows nothing about parenting. She knows nothing about Dean and Sam, compared to pretty much anyone else in their life.

I wish Jack weren't being set up as S15's Big Bad but my wishes aren't really coming true these days. (Except I wished for that blue and orange plaid shirt and now I own it, how do you like them apples?)

Also, please give Sam at least one point for changing into a clean and more subdued shirt for the funeral pyre.

RE: Heaven - I doubt she's really with John. When they first brought her back, she said she'd been with John and her very small children the whole time she was in Heaven. I was confused as to how she ended up in Heaven to start with, but I don't have a job in the writer's room. Anyway, that was her image of Heaven - she thought she was with John but obviously he wasn't there, on account of he was alive for a long time and then in Hell for a long time. It's what she wanted Heaven to be, so that's what it was for her.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

I’m so sorry about your dad.

And you’re right, we already have evidence that the John with her isn’t really John. But I guess she doesn’t know that. And doesn’t remember what she (I assume) learned in Life 2.0 about him and her babies not truly being with her in Heaven 1.0.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

How do we feel about the last two episodes of the season? You missed an option:

I don't know what to expect and nervous as hell.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

You’re right, we need that option!

[fanspired]

You know, I've been thinking about Dean's response to realizing Mary might be dead, and I don't think the issue was the snake, or that he blamed Cas. I think what was significant was who he didn't blame. When Dean's hurt it's always been his first response to lash out at whoever's available. Those that cop it are really just the collateral damage of his pain. In the past, when Sam's been the only one around, it's been Sam, but these days Dean has a choice. When Dean began the sentence about if anything had happened to Mary, he paused, like he was searching for someone to blame, before he settled on Cas and made him the scapegoat for his rage. He simply went through the pecking order and lashed out at the one he cared about least. He could have found an excuse to blame Sam, but he'd rather blame Cas. The real issue, though, is that the one person who might have been the obvious target of his rage, was the last person he wanted to blame. He blamed Cas, he blamed himself; everyone blamed themselves. But nobody expressed any anger toward the one who'd actually killed Mary. Nobody blamed Jack. If only Jack himself could have seen that and appreciated its significance.

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

I did not like the initials at all. That should have been reserved as a Sam and Dean thing.

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

Saddest absence in this episode: Michael. It would have made more sense for him to be the one harassing Jack, since Jack absorbed his grace. And I'm so. Fucking. Tired of MP's smirking face.

How do we feel about Mary's death?: I'm just tired of them always narrowing the world to just the white dudes we know.

Is Mary actually in Heaven with John? I'm going with a simulacrum of John, because his name isn't on the door. Unless, maybe the way soulmate heavens work is that each person gets their own, and they have a direct connection so the two people can pass between them.