Status Report

[gwendolyngrace]

1. Thanks, everyone, who dropped by Thursday and Friday with hugs, etc. Joel's back in Pgh and I hope he's enjoying his day. I STILL EXPECT VIDEO, YOU GUYS! I know it's irrational and selfish, but I want to be there. Ah, well. Such is life.

2. Theatre party tonight! Going to "A Little Night Music" and then a dessert party after. Yum.

3. Watched Sweeney Todd trailers...hm. There's one where Mr. Depp is doing some of the spoken-through sections of "Epiphany" and when he does sing toward the end of the clip...it's very "pop" sounding. Thin. Hm. Visually, the trailers look good. They're using the Sondheim score. But my jury is still way, way out on the *singing*.

4. 3x04 thinky thoughts....and some meta
4a. Heaven vs. Hell. I hope they don't get too emphatic about this. I'd like to think that things in the SPN-verse are "real" in part because *every* culture's mythology is "real" and partly because large-scale shared faith in a mythology gives it strength. So in that sense, demons (and Lucifer) "exist" because [Christians] believe they exist. And they are susceptible to exorcism rituals because that's what makes them tick - and in that sense, doesn't necessarily have any more significance than silver for shapeshifters or salt for ghosts. It's possible that the demon war is simply front-and-center right now and may have more bite than others because (at least in the U.S.) they have the "big guns". However. Anytime a show of this type starts to get philosophical about Judeo-Christian themes, I get twitchy. Dean *would like* to believe in God? Okay, I get that in Houses of the Holy, he was angry and hurt and anti-God, but apparently he's been through a bit of a faith readjustment since then. (And Meh, to that.) Jury's out.

4b. Richie...yet another reference to hunting that Dean did while Sam was "in school" - by which we can understand him to mean Stanford. Well. First off, I didn't like Richie at all; he was oily and crass, without any of Dean's charm to offset his horndog nature. I did like that Dean both had a soft spot for the little pipsqueak *and* clearly felt that Richie was a piss-poor hunter and had no business on the job. And he was right. But.

I'm intrigued by all these sudden references to Dean hunting, supposedly alone. Yes, of course, he had a life while Sam was in college, and of course he hunted. It's very possible that without Sam, Dean and John took more breaks from one another, split up more often. But somehow? That doesn't ring terribly true to me. Before Sam left, Dean hadn't done a job on his own (which is different to taking a road trip) - Sam was nearly incredulous that John would let Dean out of his sight to run his own hunt. Dean's response, "I'm 26, dude," indicates that he and John reached a point of comfort - I don't think New Orleans was his *first* solo hunt - but I don't see him making it a routine thing. There's also the fact that as of the pilot, they were still filling out applications for joint credit cards, so they must have stuck together for the most part - or at least, more than they were apart. But now here's all this information about a hunt in Brooklyn, with no mention of John in evidence. And I think even a socially inept wiseass like Richie would have mentioned something to Dean by way of condolences if he had met John.

So, I don't know quite what to make of this.

4c. Oh, Sam. You are so sincere. I love that he's so focused on demonic influence that he instantly assumes every bad person they meet is a demon. And trying to talk to the priest, looking for someone who won't question his need for help, who'll be altruistic enough to give him information without a quid pro quo. I wonder if this informs his relationship with Pastor Jim at all? Again, though, I fear that his automatic response to someone in a cassock and collar indicates a willingness of the writers to take Sam on a religious arc to avoid becoming demonic (like HotH last season).

4d. Bobby. Rawks. I love him more and more and more.

4e. Dean, Dean, Dean. You liar. You are scared shitless. And you actually had a conversation with a demon. You even wanted to stop and talk before Sam shot her. Heh. You are so far from Gordon and where you were a season ago at this point, it's not even funny.

This was a little bit of a breather and a return to a more serious episode after the last couple episodes of hilarity. And that's good. As with any drama, the pace of the season needs to have some dips and arcs, balance the light with the heavy, and we're now ten months away from Dean's death sentence, so we need to pick up a little traction on the mythology if we're going to get to a solution for DDD and Demon Wars by end of season (and that's assuming we will).

5. I'm watching Season 6 of The West Wing, because that's about where I stopped watching it on TV. Five was just so bad. But Six is picking up steam.

Almost 3:00. I should work on fic. I need to shower before tonight, too.

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

See, I liked the concept of Ritchie, because he completely fitted the mould of the kind of guy we've seen Dean bond with before now, however much charm he lacked. I could completely see Dean running across this guy while working a job and taking a shine to him in much the same way that he liked Ronald so much in Nightshifter or Andy in Simon Said. There's just something about the bumbling, unambitious loser that appeals to Dean. I have no trouble believing that he met Ritchie while working a job alone, because we know that he started working solo gigs while Sam was away at university, even if he and John remained together for the most part. If he didn't think Ritchie was much cop as a hunter, which he clearly didn't, he wouldn't have ever considered him a contact to call on for help or information ever, and it isn't much of a stretch to see Ritchie as out of the loop of the hunting community, just out there doing his own thing, much as the Winchesters have always been.

Religion on TV always makes me twitchy, as well. It's a large part of the reason Houses of the Holy is never going to be a favourite episode of mine. I'm willing to go with the show's take on demon mythology for now, although I don't want them digging any deeper into the nature of God and the Devil, thanks very much!

I actually like that Dean has more of an open mind on the subject of God now than he did last season, though. He's seen John climb out of hell and move on, hopefully someplace better. He's had all kinds of weight fall off his shoulders. I can see where he'd be a little more open to possibilities. Also, he was fencing verbally with a demon, so it figures that he'd play his cards close to his chest. No sense giving himself away.

That Sam so automatically trusts priests and vicars I think says a lot for the good experiences he's had - mostly Pastor Jim, who we know was the first port of refuge for them in an emergency while they grew up, and we had further evidence with Father Reynolds last season. Priests are definitely a blind spot for him! Although that might change a little after the demon priest here.

*runs out of thoughts*

[gwendolyngrace.livejournal.com]

Ah, but see, Andy and Ronald didn't strike me as scumbuckets. Losers, yes, but lovable losers, not sleazebags. Richie was a little too smarmy. I can buy Dean having encountered him and writing him off, absolutely. I just don't want to hear that the minute Sam went to school, Dean and John started parting ways. I guess it'd be sort of okay to learn that this was toward the end of the Stanford era, when Dean was more independent, but I like the idea of him and John sticking together more as a two-man team once Sam is away.

As for Dean's open mind...I dunno, I know he's seen a lot, but I still like him skeptical. I do believe that his initial rejection of religion had more to do with losing Mary and home than anything else, but given what they see, I can understand him wanting the same kind of confirmation about "good" myths as "bad" ones. OTOH, I can see him changing his mind slightly now that he's condemned, in the hope that there's something "good" that can show itself to help him out. So, I guess I can live with it that way. It is what it is, after all. He said it; therefore it's so.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Richie was a lot sleazy, probably more than perhaps intended, but Dean does tend to just like people. He likes connecting to people, even if only for a short while and on a relatively superficial level. And we weren't told just when they met, whether early in the Stanford era or late. It ties in with what we already know, that Dean started working the odd solo gig while Sam was away, but it is also fairly clear from the Pilot and other eps that he and John were together most of the time. I don't see the solo gigs as a regular thing. They probably did grow in frequency as time passed, though, as Dean in the Pilot took it very much for granted that he worked his own gig and then hooked up with John again after their separate jobs were complete.

And I think Dean is still very sceptical. He was very guarded in his response to the demon. Suggesting that he'd like to believe there is a God out there isn't the same thing as embracing the idea wholeheartedly. He's just not rejecting the idea of a greater good out of hand any more, and that has to be a positive sign. Or maybe he just didn't want to let the demon too far inside his head by saying anything too concrete!

[beatricedwinter.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to tell you, but I've been thinking about Joel and his family. Please send him my best and *hugs* to both of you.