SPN Ep: Reading Is Fundamental

[the_other_sandy]

Well, the thunderstorm was pretty.

This was another one of those episodes where there was a lot of talking, but not much actually happened. I liked the character stuff, but there was about 15 minutes of plot stretched out to an hour.

Ben Edlund has been with the show for a long time and he really knows the characters, so the character development portion of the episode made the thin wisp of plot bearable. Castiel in particular had some pointed remarks to make, from commenting on how "troubled" is a primary aspect of Sam's personality to "You know me, always happy to bleed for the Winchesters." And that whole scene using the game of Sorry! as a metaphor was brilliant.

Castiel seems a lot more childlike since he took on Sam's crazy, which is kind of odd because that's certainly not how it affected Sam. Anyway, Castiel now can't handle conflict to the point that he runs away from it, he likes to play games and tell little kid jokes, and the trench coat seems to have taken on the status of a security blanket. I'm not sure he should be on his own, but he still has angel powers, so it's not like Sam and Dean can stop him from going if he really wants to.

Even though I was heartily sick of the angels by the time their story arc ended, I'm kind of curious how things are going for them now. After being disappointed by God, then throwing their lot in with Castiel and being disappointed by him too, at least some of the remaining angels seem to be very bitter and resentful. I wonder what they're going to do with those feelings.

And poor Kevin. I'm glad he was able to translate the tablet for the Winchesters, but now that the leviathans have him, I don't think he's going to be having a very good time of it for the next little while. On the plus side, he'll have plenty to write about in his college entrance essay.

Comments

[zanne68.livejournal.com]

Dean was really kinda bitchy to everyone this episode. So it was nice to see Sam and Castiel have a nice friendly conversation, where Sam was worried about him. And watching Sam chase that kid around the asylum yard was kinda hilarious. Like watching a dog try to catch a rabbit, zigging and zagging.

The Leviathan story is reeeeallly getting stretched out. Just the mention of Crowley made me realize how much I'd rather see the boys going up against him instead.

Memo to Ben Edlund: Next season you better write us a cracktastic whacked out episode, we've been missing that this year. Something akin to "Smile Time", please. I totally want to see Puppet!Sam's bitchface and floppy hair. At the very least, find a way to bring back Gabriel. Pretty please?

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I'm not as enamored of Crowley as other people seem to be, but I would really like to get back to demons and poltergeists and vampires and urban legends and stuff. The leviathans just aren't doing it for me.

And I'd really like to see Rachel Miner replaced as Meg. She's not doing it for me either.

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

I agree that the Leviathans aren't so interesting a big bad as I initially thought they would be. They seemed much more interesting at first, but it's just... sort of worn out. I think it's the master plan. It's so blah to me. I'm tired of master plans. I love myth arc stories, but it hasn't felt organic in a while.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I have issues with the master plan too. I think part of it is that it's too public. The leviathans are going about their business in full daylight and in the media (not that anybody knows what their real end game is). They could be any corporation doing something shady.

[cheeky-duckie.livejournal.com]

Yeah. This could just as easily be an espionage show as it could be a supernatural show right now. Just remove the whole crazy mouth thing, and it's got no real distinction in master plot.

[just-ruth.livejournal.com]

I had problems with this episode - I work in the pharmacy of a psychiatric center and well, I know people "on the inside" -our clients- who really act the way Castiel does. Mind you, they don't zap themselves our of a room when a conflict happens but it still left me with an uncomfortable feeling.

Which goes to prove Misha Collins is an amazing actor.

[the-other-sandy.livejournal.com]

I used to work in a psych facility too, and having this episode be more realistic actually made it easier for me to watch, as opposed to Dean's "Pudding!" scene in "Sam, Interrupted," which just makes me ill every time I see it.

[light-ftw.livejournal.com]

Personally, I really liked Dean's bitchy, and that Sam gets to be the sympathetic guy, I was thinking they both were in character for the situations they were facing? I was kind of 'suspicious Dean who trusts just his brother? Cool. That works for me.' feeling, and his frustration with the Sorry game was very believable.

Mmm, haven't thought of Castiel as actually *not* playing sorry, but being in some childlike mentality as a result of experiences he took over (and his unconsciousness). That makes sense, and makes me re-think his acting in the episode.
I have quite lot more sympathy for him in that from the 'psychiatric patient' view, similarly as I had for Sam. Kind of viewed him as 'angel, and angels in this show? are bastards. He screwed up with the Leviathans, it's -his- mess, what is he pulling now.' view and I see that may really not be the *only* important thing in his characterization there.

I felt the most for Kevin, with that whole ep. I mean, poor kid. I was so afraid they'll turn him into 'evil', just because he's gifted, gifted in the Prophet sense too, and scared (aka, writers of fiction usually use that to show how influencible the character is, afterwards, how making bad choices, I noticed), but he turned out incredibly strong, and capable. I liked that.