S4 In Retrospection

[galathea]

So, I kind of took a semi-break from the show and fandom over this hiatus for various reasons. I mean, I re-watched S1-4, but that’s about it. No fanart, no metas, barely some fanfiction and only the odd discussion here and there. But the hiatus is nearing its end (where did it go?!), and I am slowly trying to get back in the swing of things, so I thought a general meta about S4 is a good starting point, especially since I had that one on my to-do list all summer. Usually I do a midseason compare&contrast about the current season and the one that came before, but S4 went into the winter hiatus with Heaven and Hell, which I hated so fiercely that I felt disconnected from the show and it left me with no interest in writing up a meta. I hope this little essay makes up for that negligence. :)



I’ll admit upfront that I feel extremely torn about S4. On the one hand, I think the general quality in writing improved considerably from the previous season, it was energetic, multifaceted and had what S3 unfortunately lacked sorely - a clear sense of direction. Some exceptions notwithstanding, there was a distinct progression of the various plotlines as well as the characters, which made for a compelling viewing. On the other hand though, the mytharc became increasingly inconsistent and unfortunate shifts in the focus of the narration compromised the integrity of the character arcs, not to mention that the extremely dark tone of the season and the slow but steady deconstruction of the brotherly relationship made this season exhausting and uncomfortable to watch.

So, there have been positive and negative aspects in S4 for me, and I went into this essay with the intent to keep both aspects balanced throughout, but fact is that I feel very strongly about the points where this season failed my expectations of the show, so I might get into rant-mode at times. That doesn’t mean that I think this season has been bad, on the contrary, I think there has been an amazing run of high quality episodes, but when it was bad, it was so bad, that the negative impact influenced me disproportionately. Now onto the analysis, but be warned, for some reason it turned into a wordy monster again. In fact, this is the longest continuous text I have ever written in English. *gives herself a pat on the back*

Some Production Notes
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Three new writers joined the staff this year, namely Julie Siege and the writing duo Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin. Julie Siege convinced me right from the start, mainly because her character work for Sam and Dean stroke me as insightful and always on the right note. She wrote my two favourite brotherly moments this season, i.e. Dean giving Sam a pep-talk about faith in It’s The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester and the brothers’ conversation about growing old in Criss Angel Is A Douchebag, not to mention that she also gave me my No.1 wish-scene: the boys doing laundry! ♥ Anyway, in her episodes the brothers’ relationship had a very 'old-school' vibe, without feeling forced, given the tension between them in S4, and I really appreciated that. I loved all of her three episodes dearly, and I am really looking forward to see more from her in S5.

Dabb & Loflin on the other hand didn’t have the best start with me, as Yellow Fever is one of my least favourite episodes of the season, mainly because of its crude and juvenile humour. They came off as Ben Edlund wannabees with that episode and honestly, one Ben Edlund is more than enough for this show. However, from there on their writing improved drastically for me. I enjoyed the flashback episode After School Special immensely, minor characterisation problems notwithstanding, and their Jump The Shark is easily one of my favourite episodes of S4, with its pitch perfect depiction of the complex, dysfunctional Winchester family dynamics, convincingly spanning the brothers’ development from S1 to the present. More of that please!

I doubt that I need to shower any more praise on the acting of Jensen and Jared at this point, still, the way they portray the immense emotional range of their characters blows me away every time. From physical comedy to heartbreaking drama, they master it all, and even when the writing fails the characters, their acting often manages to salvage a scene. Furthermore, S4 was extraordinarily blessed with acting talent for the secondary characters. Naturally good actors are always a treat, no matter the show, but since Supernatural’s focus on the Winchesters usually doesn’t lend itself to fleshed out secondary characters, it’s even more rewarding when they are portrayed by skilled actors, who manage to take a small role and infuse the character with a memorable persona.

This season Mitch Pileggi not only gave us Sam and Dean’s grumpy grandpa, he also delivered a delicious version of our beloved YED. Amy Gumenick’s charming and sassy young Mary left a lasting impression, as did Traci Dinwiddie’s portrayal of a perky, yet flawed, Pamela Barnes. On the angel front Misha Collins not only infused Castiel with an otherworldly but gentle quality, he also displayed a fascinating dynamic with Robert Wisdom’s wonderfully spiteful Uriel. Christopher Heyerdahl made Alistair appropriately creepy and terrifying and Rob Benedict as the prophetic slob Chuck, wormed his way into my heart instantly. Although not new to the cast, I can’t leave Jim Beaver unmentioned, because his portrayal of Bobby continues to be a highlight of the show for me.

On a different note: I was very relieved to see the washed out colours, harsher lighting and darker look of the earlier seasons back. Last year’s switch to a brighter, more colourful and overall 'glossy' look always annoyed me and didn’t really fit with the atmosphere of the show. Unfortunately the budget constraints continued, which didn’t allow them to include more rock music in the episodes and I still miss the poignant use of music of the first two seasons. Out of the little we got, my favourite song was The Kinks 'A Well Respected Man' in It’s A Terrible Life, which really set a fitting mood for the episode, with the lyrics reflecting back nicely on Dean’s character.

Last but not least, we also had to face an unexpected loss this season, when producer and director Kim Manners died of lung cancer. He was not only the most versatile and recognisable director on the show, whose exceptional visual work will be sorely missed next season, his close bond to the cast and crew, his sense of humour and his ability to create an easy-going working atmosphere also made his death a huge personal loss for everyone on set. RIP Kim! ♥

General Pros and Cons
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The Pros

One of the strongest suits of S4 was its thematic consistency for me. Various very distinct recurring motifs were woven throughout the season, creating a rich texture that gave the season a sense of unity. Furthermore, the main overarching themes this season all tapped into a similar spectrum of emotions and actions, thus reflecting and deepening each other. Not to say that the previous seasons didn’t use recurring themes as well, but I felt it was especially well-thought-out in S4. Themes this seasons involved the loss of control and choice, for example, or questions of faith and destiny, but clearly the dominant motifs were manipulation, deceit and lies. There were hardly any characters in S4, who didn’t have their own agenda and/or secrets to hide, trying to gain advantage and influence those around them through deliberate misinformation and lies.

Dean lied to Sam about his hell memories, too ashamed to share his guilt, while at the same time trying to protect his brother from having to deal with them. Sam lied to Dean about the use of his powers and his demon blood addiction, afraid to lose his brother's affection. He was burdened by guilt and self-loathing, but also eager to prove himself as independent and strong. With the brothers being separated by their own inability to overcome their differences, they were wide open for manipulation and promptly their respective 'allies' took advantage of their division, using the brothers for their own purposes. Ruby used Sam’s grief to bind him to her; she lied to Sam about her goals, purposefully fed him with misleading information and deceived him with her meek and gentle act, thus making him her pawn in her plans to free Lucifer. The angels used Dean’s guilt over becoming a torturer in hell and his anxiety over Sam’s destiny to push him into cooperation. Castiel manipulated Dean in an attempt to bypass his unpredictable nature and in the end betrayed him by setting Sam free from Bobby’s panic room, while he himself was lied to and manipulated by his fellow angels Uriel and Zachariah.

Moreover, these motives not only played out on the level of the mytharc, but also on the smaller scale of the episode plots, for example in Wishful Thinking, where the people manipulated the world around them to serve their own needs, in Criss Angel Is A Douchebag where Charlie deceived his best friends about his true nature, in Sex and Violence, where the siren tricked Dean into trusting him by taking advantage of his innermost needs, or in Jump The Shark, where the ghouls deceived the brothers by taking Adam’s form, just to mention a few. Overall, there’s barely an episode this season, where manipulation, deception and/or lies didn’t play a role in a more or less significant capacity. It makes S4 especially interesting on a rewatch, because the realisation that most characters this season have been unreliable narrators at one point or the other throws a new light on most episodes, and it’s fun to follow the misleading information and red herrings that were woven throughout the season.

Just like any other season of Supernatural, S4 also made sure to draw a lot of parallels between the different recurring/one-off characters and the Winchesters, and as usual I really enjoyed that aspect. Furthermore, the show made a point in S4 to open up a significant and somewhat unexpected parallel between Sam and Dean: In their time apart both brothers faced their own darkness. They both made choices that would eventually have resulted in the loss of their humanity, choices forced under pain (Dean) and through grief (Sam), but choices nonetheless. The torture in hell broke Dean and turned him into his own worst nightmare, resulting in a struggle with guilt, self-loathing and despair at realising the consequences of his actions in hell. Similarly, Dean’s death broke Sam and set the darkness within him, that he feared for so long, free. He, too, struggled with guilt and self-loathing and the consequences of his actions will surely hit him fully in S5. The realisation that their own darkness is mirrored in their brother should have enabled them to relate to each other better, but instead they were driven further apart by shame, guilt and fear. It was the first time in the show that both brothers were too severely damaged for the one to pull the other through the crisis, and that was one of the reasons why I found their separation this seasons so plausible. Of course this only scratches the surface of the complex dynamics between the brothers this season, but I really loved that particular parallel.

Talking about parallels: There were a lot of visual parallels woven throughout the season as well, adding another layer of depth to it, for example Sam losing control and feeding on a demon in The Rapture visually mirrored Jack Montgomery feeding on human flesh in Metamorphosis. Or Sam’s attempt to strangle Dean in When The Levee Breaks was foreshadowed by Dean's hallucination of Sam choking him in Yellow Fever. Also, Sam taking his usual place in the passenger seat after Dean returned in Lazarus Rising, thus symbolically surrendering control back to his big brother, is mirrored in Sam taking the passenger seat in Ruby’s car in In The Beginning and Criss Angel Is A Douchebag. It’s a visual reminder of Ruby’s relationship with Sam, the demon taking Dean’s usual place in Sam’s life and being in control.

The Cons
There have been two major narrative problems with S4 for me, which seriously put a damper on my enjoyment of the season and even managed to disconnect me from the show at times. The first problem was the way Dean’s post-hell story was handled, with regards to content as well as structure. I’ll expand on that in the section about Dean’s arcs this season (see below). My second problem was that there were sudden shifts in the focus of the story, away from the brothers Winchester towards the mytharc, for no good reasons at all, damaging the integrity of Sam and Dean’s individual arcs in the process. It was mainly in two episodes that the narrative was severely compromised by subordinating major developments in the brothers’ stories to the mytharc, namely in Heaven and Hell and The Rapture.

For the better part of the first half of the season the writers built up the mystery of what happened to Dean in hell, and as usual the pay-off to that mystery was scheduled for the two-parter before the mid-season hiatus, alongside the reveal of what happened to Sam during the summer. But while Sam’s story was given the appropriate room in I Know What You Did Last Summer, with Anna’s story being reduced to the b-plot, Dean’s episode Heaven and Hell bore the brunt of the plot about the confrontation between the angels and the demons, burying the climax of Dean’s post-hell story in the process. Due to the amnesiac!Dean storyline there was no built-up to Dean’s breakdown prior to Heaven and Hell, and there was also no time for a proper built-up to Dean’s breakdown in the episode itself, so his roadside confession to Sam felt tacked on at the end. There was no sense of momentum to his emotional struggle throughout the episode, not even a handful of scenes that touched upon his psychological status. Dean’s story fell flat, resulting in a lack of impact of his confession.

The same structural problem affected the climax to Sam’s blood addiction plotline in The Rapture. Again, the writers spent the better part of the second half of the season on slowly building a deep chasm between Sam and Dean, mostly created by Sam’s attempt to hide his demon blood addiction from his brother; a reveal he feared so much that he rather accepted an estrangement from Dean than admitting to it. And then the events leading up to this very reveal were crammed into a couple of minor scenes that were buried somewhere within Jimmy’s story. There was no sense of progression to Sam’s story throughout the episode, he started on withdrawal and then he snapped at the end, and in between there was little to no development for his struggle. The moment he gives into temptation was practically anti-climactic, because it lacked a proper built-up, and it was almost instantly shoved aside in favour of continuing the drama between Jimmy, Castiel and Claire.

It used to be that the writers broke down every episode primarily with the question: What are Sam and Dean going through and how do we illuminate those conflicts through the plot? This is true for most S4 episodes as well, but for Heaven and Hell and The Rapture the focus seems to have shifted to: How do we expand the angel mythology and how do we bring Sam and Dean into the mix? This shift is all the more disconcerting because it happened at crucial points in Sam and Dean’s stories, without actually achieving any important development for the mytharc that would have justified such a disservice to the main characters. Neither Anna nor Jimmy had any real significance for the overall plot of S4 and their stories could have been told just as effectively as a concise b-plot, with the pay-off to Dean’s post-hell arc or Sam’s addiction arc taking the a-plot.

My biggest fear is that these problems in the narrative structure carry over into S5 and compromise the story of the Winchesters further; that the writers will not be able to strike a balance between the ever increasing scale of the mytharc, the extended cast and the needs of Sam and Dean’s story. I know a lot of fans admire the way the overall story of Supernatural expanded to epic proportions and while it does widen the scope for the writers and adds to the variety of character dynamics in the show, there is also something irretrievably lost, namely the attention to detail, the intimacy of story-telling that comes with revolving around only two characters, not to mention the feeling that the story is personal. In the end S4 revealed that the whole story was never specifically about the Winchesters, they were simply the right people in the right place, willing pawns in someone else’s game plan and while they might be still in the middle of the events, they are not the sole centre of the mytharc anymore.

I would be lying if I’d say that I don’t miss the narrow focus of the earlier seasons, especially in moments where the epic scale of the mytharc threatens to override the careful exploration of the brothers that I have come to expect from the show. I guess I am so very frustrated by this issue, because not only do I feel that it wasn’t necessary to sacrifice the one in order to achieve the other, but it also threatens to change the formula of the show, the very core of how this story is told. And that’s more upsetting to me than a badly written secondary character or an annoying out of character moment for the brothers. I have no problems with adding Lucifer, the apocalypse and legions of angels and demons to the mix, as long as Sam and Dean’s story doesn’t suffer from it. I just hope the writers will prove my worries to be wrong next season.

Okay, that was me ranting, moving on now. :)

There have been a couple of other issues I had with S4, but those are mainly rooted in an emotional discomfort, rather than in a flaw of writing. As mentioned before, the season explored the darkness that lives within the characters, taking them to their breaking points, and in the process they veered into a morally murky territory that I found hard to digest at times. Looking at the blunt facts: S4 turned Dean into a torturer and Sam into a murderer and while the steps that lead them there were carefully laid out and plausible, it still crossed a couple of lines for me. I wasn’t sure if I would be able to accept that breach, even for Sam and Dean. Luckily, in the end my love for the characters overcame my extreme unease with these plotlines, but it was a close call, and I still think it’s unfortunate that the writers felt the need to go to such extremes with the characters.

Additional emotional discomfort came from the brothers’ relationship this season. The show has always been angsty and laden with dark themes, but Sam and Dean’s steady and loyal bond, the intimacy between them and their ability to pull each other through the darkest of times has been the positive core of the show ever since the beginning. Even when they were fighting, their love for each other clearly shone through and created a balance to the darkness of the show. S4 though set out to systematically undermine and disassemble the close relationship between the brothers, robbing the show of its very core and throwing it off balance. While it thankfully never got to a point where I felt that the love between the brothers was lost or that a chance of reconciliation was impossible, the estrangement between them reached dimensions that I found hard to deal with at times.

Don’t get me wrong, I love angst, but I also like the feeling that there is hope amidst the doom and gloom, because otherwise angst turns into bleakness. And that was exactly what happened in S4. Given my strong emotional investment in Sam and Dean, the impact of their desolate relationship on my mood was understandably huge. Nearly every episode in the 2nd half of the season left me drained and uncomfortable. It had all the hurt of earlier seasons, but almost none of the comfort, and I have never felt more exhausted at the end of a Supernatural season than after S4.

That said, however, I do admit that no matter how much it hurt me to watch the slow deterioration of the brothers’ relationship, it made for good drama to explore what happens if two people, who obviously love each other deeply, disagree so fundamentally with each other that they are not able to build a bridge between them. I can see how exploring this theme appealed to the writers and that they found it challenging to test how far they can take the storyline without irreparably damaging the relationship between Sam and Dean. A couple of scenes notwithstanding, I’ll hand it to the writers that they made the brothers’ separation psychologically plausible for me, and that’s an achievement in itself.

Dean’s Arc – I wish I couldn’t feel a damn thing
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My biggest disappointment this season was clearly the way Dean’s post-hell arc played out. After the finale of S3 I thought that the writers’ decision to send Dean to hell was a brave move and a very appropriate and emotionally intense end to the storyline about Dean’s deal. It was the single most traumatic event that has ever happened to one of the characters on the show, and as such I expected its consequences to resonate strongly throughout S4. After all, why would they choose to have this terrible thing happen to one of the main characters and then not milk it for all it’s worth in terms of character development and angst? Now, looking back on S4 as a whole, I am under the impression that either the writers got too caught up in the demands of the mytharc to make time for exploring Dean’s trauma to its full extent or they were never really interested in certain aspects of his story in the first place. In any case, I think the plotline and the character deserved better. My complaints are mainly directed towards the lack of a proper PTSD arc for Dean, the one-sided focus of his post-hell story and the lack of clarity in regard to the progression of his arc.

One of the first problems that arise in Dean’s arc is the question when exactly Dean regained the full memory of his time in hell. In the first half of the season the writers decided to go with an amnesiac!Dean story, presumably to heighten the suspense of what happened to Dean in hell and allowing them to concentrate on the mytharc in the beginning, instead of having to deal with the fallout right away. Fair enough. The first seven episodes of the season supported this storyline perfectly. Dean was his old self, good-natured, a big flirt, throwing himself into the joys his (newly given) life offered to him, focused and competent on the job. He basically came back from hell unchanged. The only indication that something had happened to him came in form of sleeping problems and nightmares, but those didn’t seem to affect his waking hours, and he also always recovered instantly from his short flashes of hell, without showing any sign that his memory went any deeper than that. In short, he made the perfect case of someone who repressed his memories.

So, when Dean stated in Wishful Thinking that he fully remembers hell, it came out of the left field for me. If we act on the assumption that Dean tells the truth in that moment, it suddenly presents only two options: Either Dean remembered hell right from the start or he regained his memories at some point over the course of the first episodes. Personally, I think Dean’s behaviour in the first couple of episodes simply doesn’t support the theory that he remembered hell from the moment he came back. We have seen Dean under the effects of emotional trauma before and know that he tends to either spiral out of control (S2) or overcompensate (S3). That makes it hard to believe that Dean would show no sign at all that he was troubled behind his carefree exterior, especially if we take into consideration how subdued and depressed he was after his confession in Heaven and Hell. Surely, he would have had moments of self-loathing, guilt or shame before, had he really remembered what happened to him right from the start. However, since there was no discernible change or transition in Dean’s behaviour before Wishful Thinking, which would have indicated a slow re-emergence of his memories and their gradual impact on Dean, it’s also difficult to support the theory that he regained his memories later. So, no matter which way I look at it, the timing of the whole plotline is off and doesn’t allow the viewer to have a clear sense of progression for Dean’s early arc.

Another frustrating problem in Dean’s post-hell arc for me is the one-sided focus on the torturer issue of his story. Dean’s trip to hell comprised two related, but nonetheless different and equally important, aspects. On the one hand there was what was done to Dean, i.e. being tortured for the subjective equivalent of thirty years, on the other hand there was what Dean himself did to others, i.e. torturing souls to escape his own suffering. Throughout the second half of the season the latter aspect was the sole focus of Dean’s story: His guilt, his shame, his need for redemption and forgiveness and, last but not least, his complete devastation at the realisation of the consequences of his actions in hell, namely becoming the first seal. The other aspect of his hell experience though, the fact that he was a victim himself, was barely acknowledged at all, neither by Dean himself nor by the other characters. The show didn’t even make an attempt to acknowledge that Dean has to deal with that aspect of his trauma as well and simply swept that issue under the rug.

I think Family Remains made perfectly clear that when Dean started to face his memories, he was unable to relate his actions in hell to the circumstances that created them, i.e. realising that his actions were a result of him being victimized. He built a subconscious barrier between Dean, the helpless victim and Dean, the ruthless torturer, who enjoyed to inflict pain on others, and that dissociation allowed him to focus on the aspect that was 'easier' for him to process: his guilt. It also explains why Dean was mostly able to function normally, and why he barely showed any signs of PTSD at that point. I expected though, that at some point in the story Dean would be allowed to deal with the trauma of what had been done to him as well, in order to start a genuine healing process. However, over the course of the rest of the season, Dean’s emotional and mental dissociation from this crucial part of his hell experience was never picked up again. I assume, the fact that Dean’s role in the mytharc was mainly dependent on the consequences of his actions in hell, mislead the writers to put off a proper post-traumatic stress story for Dean, until it was too late to incorporate it smoothly into the development of the season, and I find that most regrettable.

By lingering only on the torturer aspect of the story and excluding the trauma caused by the torture itself, the magnitude of what happened to Dean was diminished in my opinion, and I think that the storyline and the character deserved better. It doesn’t help matters that over the course of the season Dean was repeatedly told to stop whining and get over it already, insinuating that he had no valid reasons to feel depressed. The disrespect for Dean’s suffering expressed in that sentiment annoyed me greatly. While the different statements in itself may make sense in the context of the scenes they were expressed, the real problem is that there wasn’t much in terms of balance, because there have only been a couple of fleeting scenes where Dean’s suffering was acknowledged by other characters at all. Again, this problem relates directly to the fact that Dean himself wasn’t allowed to properly deal with his trauma. The lack of a PTSD arc not only limited Dean’s own ability to express his torment, it also robbed other characters of the opportunity to react to it sympathetically. As a result the few instances that seemed to mock Dean’s pain were given a disproportional weight.

So, as a whole I found the execution of Dean’s post-hell arc dissatisfactory and inadequate, but there were still some aspects of it that I enjoyed immensely. For example, I really loved how Dean’s overwhelming need for redemption and forgiveness for his actions in hell impacted his approach to faith this season. While the existence of angels in itself challenged his beliefs greatly, his inherent mistrust against everything supernatural extended to Castiel & Co as well, angels or not. However, Death Takes A Holiday showed that since Dean wasn’t able to forgive himself for the horrible things he had done in hell, he drew a sort of strength and comfort from the fact that God himself gave him, the worst sinner, a second chance to prove himself, and for a while he allowed himself to believe in a salvation from an external source. I think that’s why the realisation that he wasn’t saved because he was especially worthy of forgiveness, but because he was a necessary tool in the fight against Lucifer hit him so hard and added to his complete breakdown at the end of On The Head Of A Pin. The fact that Dean had his hopes crashed so badly, makes it even more admirable that he found the strength to go on within himself in the end. Dean’s ability to barrel on through his own pain is one of his most fascinating character traits for me. ♥

Another, non-hell related, aspect of Dean’s story that I loved was his part in the S4 arc between the brothers. When Dean comes back from hell, he is confronted with a Sam, who has only a vague resemblance to the kid he left behind four months ago, and Dean’s continuous attempts throughout the season to re-establish their old siblings dynamic fail miserably, because he doesn’t know how to react to Sam’s need to assert his independence from him and his ever increasing tendency to shut Dean out. Dean’s inability to adapt to the changes in Sam and find a new balance in their relationship is part of their struggle to reconnect in S4. While Dean does make a valiant effort to drop his completely hostile reaction where Sam’s powers are concerned, I don’t think he ever manages to convey a level of acceptance that would allow Sam to overcome his feeling of being rejected by Dean, and that partly fuels Sam’s need to keep things hidden from his brother.

However, despite their problems, it is Dean who continuously reaches out to Sam and tries to give him every opportunity to come clean with him. Even though Sam lies to Dean time and again, he himself opts for complete openness and honesty with his brother, once he dropped his pretence to have no memories about his time in hell. Dean in the second half of S4 is probably the most open we have seen him in the whole show, and I love how far he has come in these last couple of years. Anyway, apart from his short moment of doubt in Lucifer Rising, Dean never gives up on his brother, no matter how bad things got between them, and I love that despite the many changes these characters went through, there are some traits that stay consistent. Dean’s unconditional devotion to his family is one of those traits and that makes me very happy.

Sam’s Arc – I’m just trying to take this curse and make something good out of it
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Over the course of the season I’ve read a lot of negative fan comments on Sam’s story this year, stating that his behaviour was out of character, that he was pushed to the sidelines and that his motivations throughout the season were unclear. I have to say that I was surprised at that, because personally I think Sam had the most complex and consistent arc since S1, and for the first time in a long while I found myself drawn in by Sam’s story more than by Dean’s, not least because his arc was so much clearer and well-thought-out in my opinion. Unfortunately I am under the impression that a lot of fans didn’t really make an effort to understand Sam and simply wrote him off as unsympathetic or evil, which is sad, because Sam’s arc this season was so deliciously complicated. That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t hard at times to see him stroll down the dark path so determinedly or that I think that making Sam a blood addict was the best way to go (which I really don’t), but his psychological journey this season was compelling and convincing. And yes, some of his more unpleasant character traits were pushed to the forefront, but those traits have always been part of the package that is Sam.

We can track the character traits that are responsible for Sam’s behaviour in S4 back to as early as the Pilot. One of the first things we learn about Sam is that he lies to Jessica about who he is, he also lies by omission to Dean about his visionary nightmares. Sam lies in order to protect, he also lies when he is afraid to be rejected as a freak, a behaviour that we see more than once throughout the show. So, Sam lying through his teeth in S4 isn’t all that surprising. We also learn early on that grief and guilt tend to throw Sam into a revenge-driven and determined state of mind, he becomes short-tempered, impatient and is easily provoked into aggressive and impulsive behaviour (Wendigo, Salvation, Devil’s Trap). As Dean rightly points out back in Wendigo already, Sam’s usually gentle and thoughtful approach is easily replaced with a 'shoot first, ask questions later' attitude when he is under emotional stress, an attitude that becomes increasingly prevalent in Sam in S3/4. Additionally, right from the start Sam shows a tendency to be snappish and even condescending towards Dean when he is agitated or when they argue and can’t find common ground (Wendigo, Asylum, Scarecrow), so his dismissive behaviour towards Dean in S4 is nothing new either.

I think this consistency in Sam’s character traits is fantastic, and I find it convincing that these particular traits were drawn to the surface and informed most of his decisions and actions after Dean died. Even Sam’s more extreme actions, like sleeping with Ruby or drinking her blood weren’t completely unthinkable, given how lost he was. We have seen in Faith, In My Time Of Dying and Mystery Spot that nothing unhinges Sam more than the thought of losing Dean. Losing Jessica, losing John, that didn’t even come close. Dean’s death broke Sam, completely. I Know What You Did Last Summer showed clearly that he was every bit as traumatized as Dean, and the fact that Dean came back was by far not enough to heal Sam or to allow him to move on from his grief and anger, especially since it wasn't him who saved Dean. The part of himself that closed off after burying his brother never fully recovered and as he admits to himself in When The Levee Breaks, he didn’t allow himself to fully acknowledge that he had Dean back at his side, alive and kicking.

The season opener Lazarus Rising already set up the intriguing dichotomy for Sam’s character arc perfectly and told us almost everything we needed to know in order to assess Sam’s reactions throughout the season: On the one hand he is relieved and overjoyed to have his brother back, but on the other hand he reins his feelings in almost instantly, when the reality of his situation comes crashing down on him: He failed to rescue Dean from his suffering in hell, he broke his promise to respect Dean’s dying wish when he decided to use his powers, he struck an alliance with a demon, slept with her and started drinking her blood. The guilt and shame resulting from these actions, as well as the fear of discovery, put a barrier between him and Dean right from the start. However, he also feels a deep sense of satisfaction and independence when using his powers, making it undesirable for him to simply drop them. So, Sam is trapped between conflicting emotions as soon as Dean shows up at his motel room.

Sam’s joy at having Dean back clearly comes out on top at first in Are You There God? It’s Me, Dean Winchester and Monster Movie (which is pivotal to see in its original place as the third episode of the season, characterisation wise), but he is unable to open up to his brother. Knowing Dean’s position when it comes to his powers all too well, he is unwilling to risk a fight. Inevitably his secrecy backfires though and forces a confrontation with Dean in Metamorphosis, which results in a distance between the brothers, a distance that still shows in Sam's behaviour in Yellow Fever. However, with the air between them cleared for the time being and Sam abandoning his powers and his habit to drink Ruby’s blood, we soon see some of Sam’s softer character traits return: His easy relationship with Dean and his struggle with his faith in It’s The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester, his worry over a distressed Dean in Wishful Thinking, his readiness to compromise and be the first to confide in Dean about his self-destructive behaviour in I Know What You Did Last Summer, as well as his genuine sorrow at what Dean suffered in hell and his silent and steady support for his brother in Heaven and Hell and Family Remains.

The crucial turn for Sam’s arc came in Criss Angel Is A Douchebag though, where he comes to the conclusion that not using his powers might be the right thing, but it might also be the thing that eventually dooms them. Dean’s bleak fatalism in regard to their future and the realisation that the seals are rapidly falling, seemingly without anybody able to stop Lilith’s progress, push Sam into action, with complete disregard to the consequences for him personally. He is tired of not being in control of his life, tired of seeing Dean suffer and resign, and his powers seem to offer him, them, a way out of that helplessness. It’s when Sam resumes his activities with Ruby and again starts to drink her blood in increasing quantities, that he becomes more and more detached and cold, entangling himself in a web of lies and deceptions in his effort to hide from Dean. In the process he tears open the distance between them again that was about to close by their mutual confessions midseason.

Still, throughout the 2nd half of the season it clearly shows that Sam is inwardly torn apart by conflicting emotions and isn’t at all sure that he has chosen the right path, but he barrels on regardless, misguided by Ruby, lead by his own pride and driven by the need to prove that he can take his curse and make something good out of it. That he fails in the end and achieves the very opposite of what he intended, because he allowed a demon to use his good intention for her own plans, makes his story all the more devastating. I am glad though that the writers didn’t go the easy route and drew the simple equation of Sam using his powers = Sam is evil, but instead gave him a layered and complex array of motivations and difficult, if not impossible, choices. At least that way Sam’s fall was given tragic dimensions and didn’t reduce him to a stereotypical villain.

As a side-note: From a story-telling point of view I would really have preferred if Sam had struggled with the impact of using his powers directly, without the additional external factor of the blood addiction. Ruby's blood might not have been the real source of Sam’s powers, but it surely influenced him emotionally, mentally and physically, something that’s supported, amongst other things, by the fact that his demeanour changed so rapidly after he resumed drinking blood in increasing quantities. Anyway, as it is, it’s nearly impossible to discern between the effects of the blood, possible side-effects of the powers itself and genuine changes in Sam due to his hardening attitude. So, overall the blood addiction storyline muddled the plot further, instead of clarifying once and for all how exactly the powers work and why there have been differences between the psychic kids. Not to mention that it would have spared us a gross storyline and some disturbing visuals involving Sam. Still, I can see that the storyline gave the writers an easy tool to believably draw Sam back from his dark path, once the external factor of the addiction is removed, and I do prefer that to a permanent corruption of Sam’s soul. I just think that it could have been achieved with different means as well.

Lastly, a word regarding the lament that Sam was pushed to the sidelines: I’ve complained about the lack of exploration of Sam’s point of view of the story ever since early S2. Too many times his story has been severely neglected: The lack of closure to his confessed feelings of guilt over John’s death, the lack of a proper fall-out to his intense emotional tour de forces in Born Under A Bad Sign, Heart and Mystery Spot, or the fact that he was never allowed to deal with his own death, because he was too focused on saving Dean from his deal - these were all wasted opportunities to delve deeper into Sam’s psyche and develop him more thoroughly. This season though, it was the first time since S1 that I felt that almost all of his driving factors and the fallout to his decisions received appropriate attention, and, unlike Dean’s story, which seemed to stand still for considerable parts of S4, there was continuous forward movement for Sam throughout the season.

I think the impression that Sam was pushed to the sidelines is a result of the same misperception that drove Dean fans to distraction in S1/2. In their opinion the fact that it was Sam who was at the centre of the YED arc and that Sam was the one with special powers, seemed to reduce Dean’s importance for the overall story. Similarly, in S4 the angel plotline was extremely prominent and the fact that it was foremost Dean who was tied to that storyline, prompted Sam fans to see the importance of Sam’s role in the overall story diminished. Personally, I disagreed with the Dean fans in S2 just as I disagree with the Sam fans in S4. The fact that Sam and Dean come in one package, i.e. what affects Sam affects Dean and vice versa, makes it irrelevant to me which of the characters has a temporary spotlight in the mytharc. At the very centre of the story is always their relationship and as such both characters are always equally important.

The Mytharc
* * *

The writer’s strike last year affected the show in many ways, but undoubtedly one of the most surprising results of it was the addition of angels to the mytharc. In the original plans for S3 it was intended for Sam to save Dean from hell by giving into his powers and going 'dark side' in the process, but since the strike cut the amount of episodes short and there was no time to develop Sam’s storyline in the 2nd half of the season, they dropped those plans and sent Dean to hell instead. So, the angel storyline was born as a direct result of the problem to get Dean believably out of hell again. Like with so many things this season, I think that there have been positive as well as negative facets to the new development of the mytharc.

On the one hand, the new story-telling possibilities that opened up with the extension of the mythology infused the writers with new energy and that’s reflected in the high quality of most S4 episodes. The new angel mythology also elevated the meaning of favourite episodes like Faith and Houses Of The Holy to a new and exciting level and deepened the exploration of the characters in terms of faith, doubt, choice and destiny. On the other hand, as I already discussed in length above, the enthusiasm of the writers for all things that involved angels, threatened at times to overpower the demands of the brothers’ story. The fact that we had 15 episodes this season that connected in one way or the other to the mytharc, instead of the usual 8 episodes, demonstrated clearly that the prominence of the mytharc limited the time for 'conventional' stories considerably. Personally, I am still undecided if the positive aspects of the angel storyline outweigh the negative aspects of it for me, but I guess my vote on it will be influenced by how S5 will play out.

One of my least favourite aspects of the mytharc this season was the way the writers decided to bring the YED’s arc and Lilith’s arc together under the common goal of freeing Lucifer. I admit that I always wanted both mythologies to merge into one big arc, it was always more a question of how to bring them together, and I think the solution they chose in the end just didn’t ring true for me. While rewatching the show disproved my initial impression that the merging of the two plotlines completely buried the consistency of the mytharc under a myriad of flat-out contradictions, the different elements still don’t fit together all that well. It’s like a huge puzzle in which several pieces were crudely trimmed to fit somehow, but of course the bumps and the little gaps are still visible and distort the overall image. I won’t go into the details here, because as promised I still plan to post an additional analysis for the mytharc in two parts, one focusing on Ruby and Lilith, the other one on the YED, which look extensively at the different problems, but it’s not only consistency issues that bother me.

I think what annoys me most is that I feel that the whole plot of the mytharc was diminished by the way the two storylines were forced together. The convergence of specific events that was required in order to release Lucifer from his prison, i.e. finding the one special child, opening the gates of hell to set Lilith free, trapping a righteous man in hell and break him, destroying the 66 seals etc., is dependent on a huge amount of unpredictable variables, and it would make sense that it took centuries for such a convergence to happen. A fact the YED seemed to confirm in his 'generations' speech to Sam in All Hell Breaks Loose I. That Azazel and Ruby managed to achieve this epic endeavour within three decades, with the first generation of psychic kids, cheapens the magnitude of the project for me and in the process diminishes the especialness of the Winchesters. It would have been a nice touch if the storyline had at least reached as far back as the creation of the Colt (1835), so these two storylines would have been tied together.

So, overall I would have preferred if the YED had retained his own agenda and that his goals tied in with Lilith’s differently. It would have fitted his arrogant persona and independent spirit better in my opinion, because I can’t really see him bowing to someone else. In any case, I guess I’ll get over it sooner or later, but it will always be a development that I find a tad disappointing in its execution.

Conclusion:
* * *

As I already said in the beginning, I feel ambivalent towards S4. As much as I admire the energy of the season, the well-thought-out themes and the consistency in some of the arcs, the negative aspects frequently put a damper on my enjoyment of the season. Admittedly, I am not really good with drastic changes. Not that I don't love development ('cause I really do), I just prefer if it is done slowly and doesn't leave the characters behind the plot. I think S4 was an excellent season, it just didn’t emotionally resonate with me on the same level as the seasons that came before, which is mainly a result of the brothers' estrangement.

All in all it is not surprising that those episodes in S4 that for one reason or the other managed to connect back to the earlier seasons were my favourites. They either featured the brothers as close as they would get in this season (After School Special, It’s A Terrible Life), focused solely on the Winchester family (In The Beginning, Jump The Shark), had a good S1 casefile feeling to them (Criss Angel Is A Douchebag, Monster Movie) or found the perfect combination of the new and the old (Death Takes A Holiday, It's The Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester). A special mention goes to the season opener Lazarus Rising, which set up the themes and the mood of the season perfectly, and to the episode When the Levee Breaks for its long overdue exploration of Sam’s innermost thoughts. The bottom of the barrel this season for me were the already mentioned Heaven and Hell and The Rapture, as well as Yellow Fever and Wishful Thinking, which didn’t appeal to me because of their crude and inappropriate humour.

Okay, I am ready for S5 now. Bring it on, Kripke! *g*

Comments

[lindahoyland.livejournal.com]

Thank you for a great essay which echoes many of my own feelings.I so hope S5 will recapture the brothers' old closeness.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am glad you found some of your own opinions reflected here. And yes, I am desperate for the brothers to find back to each other, rebuild their relationship and the trust between them and get close again in the process. I just hope they won't torture us for too long in S5. :)

[chiiyo86.livejournal.com]

It was really interesting. Let me sort out my thoughts, because there's a lot to think about!

The realisation that their own darkness is mirrored in their brother should have enabled them to relate to each other better, but instead they were driven further apart by shame, guilt and fear.

Yes, exactly. I rewatched the season with my sister during the summer, and it was even clearer than the first time I watched it. It does make the growing gap between the brothers more plausible, and also, maybe it will allow them to reconnect later.

I agree that Dean's post hell storyline wasn't handled very well. It's probably the thing that bothered me the most this season. I hope they will pick it up next season, but I'm afraid they won't.

I don't feel the way you do about the shift from Sam and Dean's story to the mytharc. In fact, I kind of like that they were pawns to be played by more powerful beings, but that's my personal tastes and I understand what you say when you don't like it. I'm not too worried about the writers forgetting that the show is about Sam and Dean, but I guess we'll see what happens.

I loved what you said about Sam's storyline. I also find it very consistent. And I don't think that Sam had gone "darkside" or "evil", and I'm annoyed that people keep throwing carelessly those words without thinking about what they mean.

Thank you for this! I'm waiting expectantly for season 5, and look forward to your thoughts about it when it'll be there.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading! :)

I hope they will pick it up next season, but I'm afraid they won't.
I won't put any money on it either. If they didn't do it in the immediate fallout to the hell story, they surely won't do it later. Besides, I am sure they will be too busy with the whole apocalypse/Lucifer stuff to worry about lingering trauma issues for Dean.

I don't feel the way you do about the shift from Sam and Dean's story to the mytharc.
I know! I know a lot of people who enjoy the broadening of the mytharc and the new dynamics that are brought to the table. That's okay, we all like different things. But the way Sam and Dean's arcs were disrupted for the mytharc will never be okay in my book. It's what makes me worry so much that the writers suddenly set new priorities and forgot that this story is supposed to be about Sam and Dean first and foremost. I have always been very pessimistic though, and I will be more than happy if I am proven wrong by the writers next season. *g*

I'm annoyed that people keep throwing carelessly those words without thinking about what they mean.
I hear ya! The amount of crap Sam got this year in fandom makes me so furious. There's no doubt that he did a lot of questionable things this season, heck even downright mean things, but there has always been a complex reasoning behind his actions and to dismiss that without a second glance really does injustice to the character. I am surely not happy about every detail in his arc, but overall this was the most complex Sam story we ever got in this show, and I can never regret that.

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! It is done at last - and it is fabulous. You have managed to say absolutely everything that I would have wanted to say, which saves me from having to do so. :)

I would say more, except for being stuck on thie prehistoric computer in the wrong house - so will have to come back later instead!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

LMAO you know, you basically posted this at the exact same time I posted my reply to your recap! Brain twins again! *g*

Thank you! I am pretty proud I managed to get it done as well, although I ran out of steam in the last part, the mytharc. I wasn't really all that keen to expand on it, so I cut it short, while Sam and Dean's sections grew and grew, and I still feel I only covered half of what there is to say about their complex stories this year. Each of them would deserve an essay of their own. /sigh

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Great minds always think alike ;)

I think we could write about these boys indefinitely and still not say everything we want to say! Crap, but there was something I specifically wanted to comment on and what I wanted to say now escapes me...

*skims through again*

Oh, it was about the mytharc:
It’s like a huge puzzle in which several pieces were crudely trimmed to fit somehow, but of course the bumps and the little gaps are still visible and distort the overall image.
I really love that analogy! It is so true - you can trim the wrong piece to fit in a hole in a jigsaw, but that doesn't mean the edges of the picture will line up.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Definitely! These boys are just endlessly fascinating and complicated.♥

Thanks! :) Yep, it's not like there are glaring contradictions in there, but it's not really consistent either. Well, it's too late now, we can only mourn and move on. *shrugs* Admittedly, my investement in the mytharc itself slowly dwindled down after S2 anyway. I still find it interesting enough, but I don't really care that much about it. Certainly not like I care about the characters. But well, that's quite impossible anyway I guess. LOL

[shang-yiet.livejournal.com]

You write such deep meta. I like! Thanks especially for a fair, balanced and thorough review of Sam and the motivations for his behavior. As a Samgirl, I really appreciate it as I've had enough of ep reviews that give me the impression the author wants to slap Sam.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. :) I love both brothers equally, and I was really, really disappointed this year about the crap Sam had to take in fandom. Yes, his arc was difficult and complex and uncomfortable at times, but it was an amazing arc nonetheless. I could have written an analysis this size on Sam this season alone! I still feel my essay only covers half of what was going on with Sam, but I had to cover a lot of ground for a general S4 meta, so I needed to boil it down to the essentials, and after all I go into Sam in length in my individual episode reviews. :)