Episode poll 14.19: “Jack in the Box”

[caranfindel]

[Poll #2092183]

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

Comments

[fanspired]

It's not that the events of this episode don't make sense exactly, it's that you can see the strings. You can see the writers manipulating the characters into an unacceptable premise, just to manufacture drama and all for the sake of a bad pun. And I don't think we can just blame Buckleming for this - it's clearly been the game plan ever since the box was introduced, so this was a team effort.

And this is what makes it unacceptable. The show has spent two seasons selling us the idea that Jack is Sam and Dean's kid. There's really no circumstance under which they might deliberately consign their kid to being buried alive that wouldn't leave a bad taste in the mouth, but this is the worst circumstance possible. Show has made us watch our 'heroes' trick their kid, a character we've been taught to love, into a most horrible fate that he didn't really deserve. There was no suggestion that this was just a temporary fix until they found a better solution. Dean's plan was to just commit his kid to this horrible fate and wash his hands of him. Yes, he's grieving for the loss of his mother - but Mary was a character that show never succeeded in making the audience care about. Yes, he was willing to go in the box himself, except he didn't, and Jack lost his soul as a consequence. And Sam went along with this plan. Yes, we've been set up to accept Sam just following Dean's lead because he's lost confidence in his own decisions, but Jack is his kid for chrissake, and, not to mention, Jack sacrificed his soul to save Sam's life. True, Sam may have been about to suggest looking for a better solution, but it was too little too late. Bottom line: Jack deserved so much better, from both of them.

Net result: in order to dramatically justify turning a beloved character into the Big Bad, without losing audience sympathy for the character, show has sacrificed audience sympathy for its own leads. The sin is not that its made the premise unbelievable; the writers have actually manipulated the characters with as much skill as they're capable of (and I say that advisedly), and the actors have also done their very best to help sell the premise. The sin is that it was a horrible premise to begin with.

In summary, when the show's heroes actually become the bad guys in the eyes of the audience: that's a BAD DRAMATIC CHOICE.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

I think Dean doesn’t think of Jack as Jack any more. He’s a bomb now.

[fanspired]

Agreed, but my point wasn't about Dean's character motivation. I've already said that I think the writers have made that believable to the best of their ability. I'm talking about the show as a fictional construct in which Jack has always been, and still is being, framed and played as a child, with Sam and Dean having been framed as his parents. And I'm saying that to now have them actually use their parental status as a tool to trick Jack into the box is a horrible premise to ask the audience to accept. Apologies if I'm not making myself clear.

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

No, I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just saying that the character’s motivation changed, but the writers didn’t bother to walk us through that. And yet, Dean has done some pretty awful things to Sam, who he “parented” even more than he did Jack, in the guise of saving him from himself and/or saving the world. So this capability is nothing new.

[fanspired]

Ah, but back in the day the show had writers who could create an absorbing story that drew you in and made you believe you were watching real people in terrible situations making terrible choices. Nowadays, alas, I look at the screen and all I see is characters in bad plot scenarios and the clumsy writing process that put them there :(