galathea | Review for 5x09 'The Real Ghostbusters' (Reply)

I knew about the premise for The Real Ghostbusters for quite a while and given my fierce dislike for the fandom jokes in the show, I dreaded the episode like no other. In the end, I didn’t loathe it quite as much as I thought I would – the brothers’ characterisation felt natural and their interaction had their old smoothness, the ghost case was genuinely creepy, some of the side characters were enjoyable - but it was still pretty self-indulgent, heavy-handed and (mostly) pointless storytelling. Additionally, the episode is adversely affected by the fact that it tops off a run of episodes that not only sorely lack in plot and character development, but also suffer from a tonal whiplash at the most inopportune time of the season. Overall, Eric Kripke and Nancy Weiner wrote a script that, on its own, would have been harmless at best, but combined with he episodes that preceded it, it further drags down the already struggling season for me.

Okay, so a fair warning ahead, this review starts off with a look at the problematic structure of the first half of the season, so feel free to skip this part and jump ahead to the actual part about the episode further down the line. :)

The Real Ghostbusters is the fourth episode in a row with a humorous subplot or off-the-wall premise, which is pretty much unprecedented in the history of the show so far, and for very good reasons. From the Pilot on Supernatural established itself as a family drama and horror show and that set the tone for the show to dark and angsty right away. Comedy has always been spread out over the season as a means to generally lighten the dark tone and set a deliberate contrast to especially dramatic episodes, e.g. Tall Tales following Born Under A Bad Sign or It’s A Terrible Life following the bleak On The Head Of A Pin. While at times the abrupt tonal changes, which almost inevitably accompany that tradition to follow dramatic episodes with humorous ones, felt forced or disrupted continuity, I came to accept it as part of the concept of the show. This unexpected row of humorous episodes in S5 though, infringes on Supernatural’s own long standing tradition and rationalisation for comedy in a dramatic series, thus alienating the viewer, or well, at least this viewer.

Obviously, the fact that I don’t find the humour utilized in Supernatural particularly funny, makes it generally more difficult for me to enjoy episodes that rely on comedy, but if a humorous episode at least connects to the mytharc or the story of Sam and Dean in some capacity, like for example Changing Channels did, it gives me an incentive to overcome my discomfort with the tone of the episode. Consequentially, for me the biggest problem with these last couple of episodes isn’t primarily their humorous tone, but the fact that it seems as if the writers used the sudden and extended tonal changes as an excuse to stop the ongoing storylines and, most importantly, the character development for Sam and Dean.

Now, I am not saying that there has been no character development at all in the last couple of episodes, as I Believe The Children Are Our Future touched upon Sam’s redemption arc, The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester moved Bobby’s storyline forward and Changing Channels and The Real Ghostbusters showed us Sam and Dean in a renewed capacity to trust each other and work as a team. However, I don't think these bits of development are anywhere near what these characters (or the audience for that matter) need or deserve, given the massive fallout to the S4 events for the brothers’ relationship. The main problem with the story so far is that the trust issues (or any other lingering issues) between the brothers have not been addressed yet. This is particularly problematic because, while the old intimacy between the brothers isn't restored yet, every passing episode returns Sam and Dean step-by-step to their former dynamics, although the show offered no satisfactory resolution to their interpersonal issues. While I can accept that their current day-to-day interaction, based on honesty and the mutual willingness to work past their issues, may alleviate some of the weight of their problematic past and inspire a fragile trust between the brothers, the sudden halt in the exploration of the reasons that lead to the deterioration of their relationship in the first place, unfortunately denies the brothers the chance to develop a truly new stage in their relationship. Don’t get me wrong, I am eternally grateful to have the basic feeling of Sam'n'Dean back, but the significance and meaning of their togetherness is undermined by the lack of resolution to their S4 storyline.

In this context it is especially regrettable that Sam's redemption arc was only touched upon in passing so far, and that the show didn't even start to look into the internal issues that caused Sam’s fall in S4 in the first place in some earnest capacity yet. Following Sam’s first step towards self-awareness at the end of Good God, Y’all, his struggles have only shortly been highlighted in Free To Be You And Me, where he confronted his addiction and, at least fleetingly, his anger management issues, but ever since his problems have mostly been absent from the plot, and he wasn’t allowed any deeper self-reflection. Furthermore, by cutting Sam’s self-reflection short, the show also denies Sam the opportunity to properly explain himself towards his brother, so Dean would be able to fully understand what drove Sam’s actions in the past. We, as the audience, gained crucial insight into Sam’s conflicted nature last season from episodes like When The Levee Breaks, Dean, on the other hand, is still completely in the dark about his brother’s motivations, apart from Sam’s remark in Fallen Idols that he needed to escape Dean’s authoritative hold over him, and surely the show doesn’t want to insinuate that this was the only, or even the main, motivation for Sam’s actions. To let that statement stand on its own, without at least exploring some of the other issues Sam had last year as well, completely undermines the complexity of Sam’s S4 arc, and that’s a huge disservice to the character. Overall, I think Dean’s self-realisation process so far was handled far better than Sam’s, which I find odd, given that it was Sam whose personality went through major changes last season.

Apart from the open issues in the brotherly relationship, which, admittedly, are the most pressing matter at the moment for me, there are plenty of other open plot strands that need to be explored, i.e. Sam’s powers, the demons’ open agenda to eliminate the threat that is Dean, Castiel’s search for God, the vessel mythology, the general search for alternatives to defeat Lucifer and, last but not least, the apocalypse and Lucifer himself. After all, we are talking about the end of the world here, and I think it's just impossible to fade these storylines into the background for an extended period of time, without losing momentum and credibility of the apocalypse plot. And since the writers don't even use the calm before the storm to psychologically move the characters into position properly, I feel they waste a huge chunk of the (possibly last) season on inconsequential episodes, where they should focus on meaningful storytelling. This is not S1 anymore, where resolutions could be pushed back to built up the mystery. This is S5, where all they have built up over the last four seasons should come to fruition, character-wise as well as plot-wise, and there is no reason to not push ahead and pull out all the stops.

And just for the record, forward movement for these plot strands, including the brotherly relationship, doesn’t necessarily equal heavy angst and tearjerker scenes, it can be achieved in a more light-hearted setting, without compromising the characters or the plot. The writers once knew how to work that fine balance, and I wished they would remember that. While I get that they wanted to give the show a lighter feel after the bleakness that was S4, there is still a difference between light-hearted and shallow. I just fear that even if the show makes a turn in the second half of the season and focuses on the apocalypse and Sam and Dean’s destinies, it will be too late to direct the appropriate attention to the interpersonal issues between the brothers that arose out of their differences in S4, as mytharc heavy episodes tend to fall short on character exploration.

Sorry for the rant. Don’t get me wrong, I love my show and there is a lot I enjoyed about the last couple of episodes, but given the extremely rich material the writers have at their disposal for exploration, I can’t help but feel very frustrated that they chose to not tap into the potential of it and instead wasted most of the screen time on superficial comedy. Let’s hope for a better second part of the season.

Sam: "Becky, what is this?"
Becky: "It’s awesome! A Supernatural convention. The first ever."

It’s no secret that I am not a fan of the fandom meta aspect the show added to the text by introducing the Supernatural book series in The Monster At The End Of The Book. While it was tolerable for that one episode, it already overstayed its welcome in Sympathy For The Devil and now becomes an outright annoyance. The fandom jokes in the show bother me for several reasons: Firstly, whenever the show breaks down the 4th wall, i.e. suspends the boundaries between the fictional setting of Supernatural and the audience, it forces me to acknowledge that the show and its characters are fictional constructs, thus subverting my emotional access to the show, which significantly depends on perceiving the characters and their conflicts as real. I might be able to overcome the friction between my willingness to suspend disbelief and the show’s insistence on its fictional nature for one scene within an otherwise serious episode, but an episode that is centred around this very aspect makes it near impossible for me to find my way back into the story, whenever they switch to Sam and Dean and the haunting. In short, I become detached from the characters and that’s simply not what I want when I watch my show.

Secondly, I feel that the writers can’t have it both ways, they can’t make the audience genuinely care about the show and its characters and then poke fun at the emotional core of their own show, without conveying the impression that it is ridiculous to actually care so much. For example, take the scenes where Barnes and Demian play out brotherly moments from Asylum and Hunted, fake growly voices and all. Now, obviously they deeply care about the characters, but by ridiculing Demian and Barnes in that moment, the show not only undermines the crucial emotional moments between Sam and Dean that they chose to re-enact, but also mocks the part of the audience that feels as serious about Sam and Dean as these fans do. Luckily part of that conflicting message is softened by the fact that later in the episode Demian and Barnes were shown as layered and genuinely caring characters, but it bothers me nonetheless, whenever those scenes come around. It’s not that I can’t take a step back and laugh at my own unhealthy obsession with Supernatural, but I don’t need the show to do it for me.

As a side note: I am not one of those fans who frequently accuse the show of misogyny or racism, in fact, I always argued vehemently against that position, but even I resent the fact that the only female fan representative in the episode, namely Becky, is depicted as an obnoxious, overly excitable, deluded and shallow caricature of a person, who is completely disconnected from reality and has no boundaries at all. Becky doesn’t have a single genuine character moment that would redeem her or at least show a more likeable side to her personality. The male fan representatives Demian and Barnes, on the other hand, while also affectionately mocked as geeks for a good part of the episode, reveal themselves as courageous and genuinely caring personalities underneath their geeky exterior, they get to save the day and on top of it 'get' the real message of the books. In contrasting Becky and Demian and Barnes so explicitly, the show makes it really hard to ignore these stereotypes of the crazy fangirl and the obsessive, but ultimately loveable, male geek. Especially since we know that Kripke & Co are very aware of the fact that the majority of the Supernatural online fandom/convention attendants are women. Now, I don’t really think that the show deliberately tries to cast its female fans in a particularly bad light, but a bit of variety would have gone a long way to avoid irritation here.

Dean: "I think that the Dean and Sam story sucks. It is not fun. It’s not entertaining. It is a river of crap that would send most people howling to the nuthouse. So you listen to me, their pain is not for your amusement. I mean, do you think that they enjoy being treated like circus freaks?"

The scene where Dean tears Barnes and Demian a new one for using their lives as a source of amusement, was one of the few highlights of the episode for me. I imagine that if Dean had met Barnes and Demian back in S1, he would have reacted with amusement at their silly antics. His natural optimism and good-natured confidence back then, would have allowed him to see the absurdity in that particular encounter. However, the immense personal sacrifices of the last couple of years gradually eroded Dean's natural optimism and life-affirming attitude through loss, guilt and depression and as a result Dean became more and more disillusioned and world weary. His hell experience in particular and the subsequent guilt and self-loathing drove Dean into an utterly fatalistic headspace. He only anticipated a sad and bloody future for him and his brother, and his estrangement from Sam only added to his fatalism. And while he picked himself up again and soldiered on, I don’t think the general outlook on his ultimate fate changed. So, it’s no surprise that presently he lacks the distance to see Barnes and Demian’s attitude as what it is: ignorance. In the face of the pain Dean endured over the years, Barnes and Demian’s naïve view on his (fictional) life and their exploit of his suffering for entertainment, is indeed insulting, and I think Dean hits the nail on the head when he points out that most other people would have ended up insane, living their lives.

Now, obviously there is a great deal of romanticism involved in the fan perspective that the hero’s life is more exciting and meaningful, and hence more desirable, than that of the average Joe. A hero tale, i.e. the story of an ordinary person, who is called to a special destiny, offers an escape from the everyday life and a projection screen for the reader/viewer. It allows them to be whoever they want to be, without actually needing to prove themselves. There is a reason why hero tales are so popular in fiction, after all, everyone wants to be special, or at least they think they do, because in the end they don’t have to test it against reality. That’s why I think it was especially poignant that in the end Barnes and Demian proved that Sam and Dean’s story isn’t only shallow entertainment to them. Instead it made a real impact on their lives and inspired them to take action in a, no doubt, frightening situation, because 'that’s what Sam and Dean would do'. The brothers became role models in their own right, and I loved that. ♥

Demian: "Real life? He sells stereo equipment, I fix copiers. Our lives suck. But to be Sam and Dean, to wake up every morning and save the world, to have a brother, who would die for you. Well, who wouldn’t want that."
Dean: "Maybe you got a point."

I am a bit torn about the end scene between Dean and Demian and Barnes, because on the one hand, I thought that part of their exchange was genuinely touching, but, on the other hand, it was also problematic in places. Let’s start with the positive: It is not often that Dean gets to witness how deeply inspiring his own dedication to his job, as well as his personal strength and values, are to other people. The realisation that he serves as a role model is a rare positive affirmation for Dean, and that’s especially important because he so often questions his own self-worth. Additionally, Demian’s statement that the deep and abiding mutual love between Dean and Sam is unique and can’t be taken for granted, as most people never get to experience a connection like that in their own lives, was heart-warming and rang very true to me. I loved that Dean got to hear this kind of positive outside perspective on his relationship with Sam, and if his expression is anything to go by, he was able to appreciate the truth in Demian’s heartfelt words. ♥

The more problematic aspect of Demian’s little speech though lies in his insistence that he and Barnes live the really crappy lives, because of their 'meaningless' existence as a salesman and repairman, while Dean at least gets to save the world, thus insinuating that Dean has no rightful reason to complain about his life. The show made a statement like that once before, namely in It’s A Terrible Life, where Zachariah told Dean to stop whining and accept that his life is still better than the dull existence of the average Joe with a 9-to-5 job. While the reveal of Zachariah’s true contemptuous nature retroactively allowed me to make my peace with that scene in It’s A Terrible Life, I nevertheless resented that assumption back then, and I resent it now as well. There is simply no way that the 'pain' of living a relatively boring and insignificant, but ultimately sheltered life is in any shape or form comparable to the enormous suffering both Sam and Dean endured these past four years alone. That doesn’t mean that there are no positive aspects in their lives as well - and Sam and Dean’s bond surely is one of those aspects - but that doesn’t negate the massive tragedy that is their existence as pawns in someone else’s apocalyptic game.

Furthermore, for me there is a conflict between the statement that, if we just look at Sam and Dean’s lives from the right perspective, they don’t really have anything to complain about, and the statement that their heroic lives are inspiring to the average person. The very reason why Sam and Dean are heroes and their lives are an inspiration to others is that they fight the good fight in the face of huge personal sacrifices. It’s the fact that although they take one terrible beating after the other, they get up every morning and continue to fight anyway. Therefore, to downplay Sam and Dean’s suffering subverts what makes their lives so extraordinary and inspiring in the first place. Not to mention that I find it disrespectful towards the honest working class people to declare their lives as meaningless and crappy, just because they don’t save the world on a regular basis. Besides, anyone who ever worked in an office knows how important it is to have someone to fix the damn copier! ;)

That being said, however, I think it is important to note that Demian and Barnes’ knowledge about the brotherly 'adventures' doesn’t extend past Dean’s death in No Rest For The Wicked, as the Supernatural book series stopped production at that point. So they know nothing about Dean’s resurrection and the subsequent deterioration of the brothers’ relationship, about Dean becoming a torturer in hell or Sam betraying his brother’s trust and becoming a blood addict and murderer. They are clueless about angels, the breaking of seals, Lucifer or the apocalypse and the massive guilt both brothers have to carry. While arguably Sam and Dean’s lives sucked before Dean’s trip to hell as well, it was last year that not only their personal relationship crashed, but they also started the end of the world. So, a crucial part of the brothers’ story is closed to Demian and Barnes, and I think we have to take that into account when judging their perspective on the desirability of Sam and Dean’s lives. While, ultimately, it doesn’t make the general perspective that the brothers’ lives are nothing to lament any less false, from the perspective of this particular character, the position might become a bit more understandable. Anyway, I don’t think Demian’s words significantly changed Dean’s outlook on his own life, but nevertheless I am happy that Dean at least took something positive from his encounter with the fans.

What else was noteworthy:

(1) I really enjoyed Sam and Dean’s smooth teamwork in The Real Ghostbusters, which conveyed a level of comfortableness between them, that reminded of their pre-S4 days. I thought it was especially notable that Sam asked Dean several times how he was, inquiring about his state of mind, rather than his physical well-being, which showed that he is more aware of, and responsive to, Dean’s moods again, and that makes me happy. I would probably have mentioned here that I loved the fact that Sam and Dean spoke in unison in this episode, if it wasn’t for Becky’s comment "I love it when they talk at the same time", which pretty much instantly killed my joy about the very incident. There’s really nothing like having a character you loathe express your own thoughts - in the exact moment you're having those thoughts even - to ruin a potentially great brotherly moment. Thank you for that, Show!

(2) Talking about Becky, her reveal that in the book version of Time Is On My Side Bela gave the Colt to a demon called Crowley, is a completely contrived way to move the plot forward. We know that the content of the books slightly differs from what we see in the show itself, because Chuck not only deliberately censors information about the brothers’ story that he deems compromising or unimportant, but he also adds details, like a little nudity here and there, presumably to make the books more attractive. But the information about Bela and the Colt falls in neither category, so the difference between book and episode makes no real sense here. It was also always heavily implied that Chuck’s visions are about Sam and Dean’s lives, specifically, so there is no reason why he should have had a vision about Bela’s whereabouts and actions in the first place, unless she was in Sam and/or Dean’s company. The whole set-up smacks of a convenient, yet implausible, deus-ex-machina. It’s incredibly lazy storytelling to use a contrived plot twist instead of actually developing a reasonable storyline that would provide the right context for Sam and Dean to utilize their own abilities as hunters and ascertain a lead via research or other investigative methods. I was incredibly disappointed with the writers’ cop-out here.

(3) I am not quite sure why the writers felt the need to use the well known (in fandom at least) online names of two real persons, i.e. Demian and Barnes, who are the reviewers and moderators for the Supernatural forum over at Television Without Pity. It was probably intended as a friendly wink at the Supernatural community, but I can’t help and feel that it is very inappropriate to mock real persons, no matter how affectionately it was meant. I think that takes involving fandom in the show a step (or two) too far.

In conclusion: Unlike its equally wacky predecessor Changing Channels, The Real Ghostbusters unfortunately didn’t reveal much substance beneath the humorous surface and as such it’s a pretty self-indulgent and pointless episode in my opinion. It doesn’t add to the character arcs or to the development of the mytharc, and since its overplayed meta aspect makes me more uncomfortable, than it amuses me, there wasn’t much in this episode for me to enjoy. I just really hope the next episode is more substantial, as I don’t really find much joy in ranting at my favourite show for an extended period of time. ;)