Review for 6x03 'The Third Man'

[galathea]

I was wary going into The Third Man, mainly because I really enjoyed the character focus and down-to-earth feel of the previous episodes and angel centric episodes have a tendency to be the exact opposite. Unfortunately Ben Edlund’s script did nothing to change my feelings on the matter. It’s plot-driven rather than character centric, and it rapidly shifts the focus from Sam and Dean to the secondary characters, which never sits well with me. While I certainly enjoyed a lot of moments in this episode, overall it feels like a let-down to me.



This review will be pretty short – compared to my usual standards at least – as I will only look into the few brother relevant parts of The Third Man. I don’t feel particularly inclined to analyse the Castiel, Balthazar & Raphael show, so I won’t have much to offer for someone who is looking for a deeper exploration of the angel storyline.

Now, I didn’t hate The Third Man, but to be honest, for a good part of the episode I was simply bored. The problem is that I just don’t care about civil war in heaven, discord amongst the angelic brothers or obscure heavenly weapons being stolen. I have no vested interest in Balthazar – who just comes off as a less fun version of the Trickster anyway – and I have no interest in Raphael either. As for Castiel himself, I enjoy his interaction with Sam and Dean, but I don’t care enough about him as a character in his own right to feel invested in a storyline that revolves around him and his fellow brothers. That’s especially true when there is an interesting storyline about the main characters that’s just sidelined in the process. This is the first episode where the brothers are back on the road together, visibly struggling to adjust to each other, but as soon as Castiel makes his appearance, Sam and Dean's relevance for the plot becomes non-existent. They turn into passive obeservers who simply react to the events unfolding around them - if they are in a scene at all, that is. The focus shifts completely to Castiel and his quest, and that’s just not how the show works for me.

Lisa, Ben, the Campbells – these characters work for me because they are explicitly linked to Sam and Dean, they drive the brothers’ plotlines forward. The show fails to give Castiel, Balthazar and Raphael a similar relevance, even less so now than in the past two seasons, where at least the vessel mythology kept the brothers directly linked to the angel plot. At the moment I am not convinced that the 'civil war in heaven' storyline will converge with any of the other ongoing plotlines in a meaningful manner. It looks like a storyline solely designed to have a legitimate reason to keep Castiel around, and since the writers are not exactly known for following Castiel specific storylines through – Castiel’s search for God comes to mind for example – I just see no point in that. I simply fear that the angel storyline will be detrimental to the coherency and pacing of the season and The Third Man only reinforces that fear. So, unless the writers find a way to incorporate the angel storyline in a manner that supports the brothers’ storyline instead of sidelining it, I am not exactly keen on more angel centric episodes.

Okay, moving on now ….

The opening sequence about Sam and Dean’s morning routines is a wonderful study in contrasts that serves to highlight that the brothers are in very different places at the moment. Sam’s rigid workout regime is a reflection of his controlled state of mind, and the fact that he hired a hooker to satisfy his needs instead of picking up a nice girl at a bar – a habit Dean has been so fond of in earlier days – shows that Sam’s desire is all about physical satisfaction rather than emotional connection, however fleeting. A pick-up would require flirting and the willingness to show at least rudimentary interest in the person he is trying to win over for casual sex, and I don’t think Sam would even know how to do that at the moment. His callousness towards the hooker and his insistence on paying the girl, even though she would let him get away with a freebie, really emphasises Sam’s need to keep his distance, to keep it professional.

Dean, on the other hand, dreams about making love to his girlfriend, his workout is a rather casual stretching of cramped muscles and he tops his morning off with a hearty fast food breakfast. I love Dean’s dream about Lisa. I think it’s wistful and hopeful at the same time. Dean might have exchanged a warm bed and loving companion for a lonely nap in the car at the side of the road, but he has built something with Lisa that is part of his life now. It’s not only a dream anymore – like it has been in the past – it’s a memory, it’s real. By the way, I am glad that Dean’s dreams are not filled with horrific images of hell anymore, or well, at least not on a regular basis. I think this past year did Dean a world of good in terms of healing. ♥

I really like how the contrast between Sam and Dean in the opening sequence is picked up throughout the rest of the episode by emphasising the brothers' different approach to sensitive situations. For example, Sam is rather impatient and rude during the interrogation of the clearly disturbed police officer Ed Colfax, while Dean is more sympathetic. Obviously the brothers' differences are most noticeable in the scene where Castiel suggests to torture Aaron Birch in order to retrieve the information which angel marked the child’s soul. While Dean vehemently protests against the procedure, unsurprisingly so, Sam displays nothing but mild curiosity and indifference. He simply doesn’t seem to grasp the idea that something is very wrong about the suggestion in itself. I think he not only lacks the compassion for the child, but also the understanding of the ethical problem of the situation, and that’s a whole new level of worrisome.

Dean: "Something is different with you. You know that."
Sam: "Yeah I know."
Dean: "Really?"
Sam: "Yeah. I mean, I’ve been hunting non-stop for the past year. Kinda on the wild, you know. So yeah, I suppose I’m a little rough around the edges."

The final scene between Sam and Dean is undoubtedly my favourite scene of the entire episode. I love the symbolism of Dean making place for Sam’s things in the Impala’s trunk – he makes place for Sam in his life again. ♥ I also love that Sam finds Ben’s Halloween mask in the trunk – Dean has a little piece of his new life with him as well now – and for once doesn’t make fun of Dean or has a snarky comment ready, instead he just smiles and softly compliments Dean on the accuracy of the mask. That little moment between the brothers really warms my heart.

Anyway, as was to be expected Dean has no qualms to confront his brother about his disconcertingly indifferent behaviour when Castiel tortured young Aaron, and I find Sam’s reaction to Dean’s accusations fascinating. He’s not angry or defensive, he just seems lost. Intellectually Sam might know what Dean is talking about, but I think he lacks the corresponding emotion that would allow him to truly understand what is wrong with him. While Sam is clearly aware that he should feel all the things Dean is telling him – maybe he even remembers that he felt them once – it seems he has a blind spot when he looks inside himself now. So he tells Dean what he thinks he is supposed to say, even though he lacks conviction. And when he tries to come up with an explanation for the change in him, i.e. hunting non-stop for the past year, he is obviously grasping at straws. It’s the self-evident reason, right? But why is he hunting in the first place? Without compassion hunting is meaningless, and I am not under the impression that he hunts because he enjoys the kill either. He hunts because he doesn’t know what else to do, so in the end relentless hunting is just another symptom of Sam’s problem.

I really love though that Sam tells Dean that he can’t know how Sam feels because their ways of dealing are very different, and I think that he genuinely means it, when he tells Dean that it is not a question of strength, but character. We have seen several times that Sam and Dean react very differently to similar stimuli/events, so even if Sam and Dean’s hell had been alike, they would still have experienced and processed it in a different manner. However, I think that Sam’s experience in hell has been radically different from Dean’s experience, after all, he hasn’t been in hell per se, but in Lucifer’s isolated cage. Dean’s hell was all pain, maybe Sam’s hell was absence of all feeling, physically and emotionally, which would resonate with the fact that Dean felt too much after he came back from hell, while Sam feels not enough. In light of Sam’s apparent 'coldness' I can’t help to think back to Swan Song where Lucifer told the brothers: "Most people think I burn hot. It’s actually quite the opposite." Sam carried that cold fire inside him for an undetermined period of time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it left an imprint on Sam’s soul.

And talking about souls, something Balthazar said made me think that there is another possible scenario that may have caused the current changes in Sam. The angel mentions to Dean that he started to collect souls because they are invaluable and hold great power – a statement that coincides with Crowley’s explanation that the soul is the key to the crossroad demon’s powerful ability to make deals. So what if whoever snatched Sam from the cage took his soul in exchange for his services? Maybe Sam sold his soul for his freedom, maybe it was taken from him against his will, but Sam being soulless would certainly explain his current lack of compassion and feeling as well. And given that Bobby’s soul still hangs in the balance, too, it’s possible that the collecting/regaining of souls will become a recurring theme this season. By the way, this scenario brings me back to my theory that it has been Death himself who set Sam free, he is the reaper of all souls, after all.

I have seen comments that compared the current Sam to Sam in S4, and I have to say that I vehemently disagree with that assessment. I think Sam in S6 is distinctly different from any other 'version' of Sam we have seen so far. First of all, Sam in S4 was driven, he knew what he wanted and how he wanted it. He was angry and hurt and prideful and desperate, in short, he was a mess of conflicting emotions. Sam in his current state is dispassionate and detached, especially from his own emotions. Secondly, in S4 Sam’s anger was directed at Dean, while now he actively seeks out Dean’s company. Dean seems to be the only one who is actually able to pull any responses out of Sam. Obviously Sam’s detachment shows in Dean’s presence as well at times, but overall it’s like Sam remembers who he is supposed to be whenever he is around his brother. Lastly, Sam’s behaviour in S4 was a choice and I don’t think his current emotional state is. It’s either an extreme psychological reaction to what happened to him or something that was done to him. Either way, he has my sympathy. So, overall I find Sam’s characterisation compelling at the moment.

In that context I want to point out that I really enjoy the many nuances in Jared’s depiction of Sam different layers. He sells Sam’s confusion and ignorance as well as his detachment and occasional callousness perfectly and balances it well with the little moments where he allows the Sam of old to emerge, or well, at least glimpses of him. Just like the Lisa & Ben storyline allows Jensen to show us new facets of Dean’s character, Sam’s storyline allows Jared to give us new nuances for Sam’s character as well, and I rather enjoy that.

One last word, while I am not worried about Sam’s storyline, yet, I do have some concerns. Firstly, these last couple of years the writers chose to make Dean the primary point of view of the show, not least because Dean is easy to relate to and usually represents the human perspective. However, the writers don’t do Sam’s character any favours by keeping him a constant mystery. By not exploring Sam’s point of view as thoroughly as Dean’s, the writers not only waste a lot of story potential, they also make Sam the less accessible character. While I don’t expect the writers to reveal what is wrong with Sam right away, there is no reason to completely forego Sam’s perspective either. We know that Sam feels that something is amiss with him, and the writers could use that self-awareness to explore how Sam experiences the changes in himself. The Third Man briefly touches on Sam’s point of view, but I would really like to see that expanded upon. Secondly, as things stand at the moment, it is not difficult to foresee that Sam and Dean are heading for yet another conflict of the 'I can’t trust you' variety, and words cannot express how tired I am of discord between the brothers by now. I fear that if this storyline drags on for too long without resolution or significant development, it will become really tedious.

What else was noteworthy:

(1) Despite my overall dissatisfaction with the angel storyline in this episode, I actually really enjoyed the first motel room scene between Sam, Dean and Castiel. Sam’s utter consternation at Castiel’s refusal to answer his prayers simply because couldn’t be bothered with Sam’s problems is palpable, and I love especially that Dean stands up for Sam and reminds Castiel that it was his brother who sacrificed himself for the world and thus earned some respect from the angel. ♥

(2) Can I just mention here that the show has become genuinely funny again? Last season I have been severely disappointed with the crude, juvenile humour that seemed to dominate the comedic moments. I simply don’t get any enjoyment out of that kind of humour, as it lacks sophistication and reduces the characters to immature caricatures of themselves. In S6 so far the humour flows more naturally from the storylines and keeps the characters in character at all times. There have been several hilarious moments in The Third Man, especially the brothers’ constant competitive bickering over their cars has been absolutely delightful. ♥ I love their little car race – synchronised door slam and all – as well as Dean’s blatant glee when Sam’s Charger is totalled after the angels crashed down on it. Man, I missed the brotherly banter! It has been very rare in the past two seasons. I also enjoyed Castiel’s typical unintentional humour. "I think we can rule Moses out as a suspect," is just classic Castiel! *g*

(3) Talking about Castiel: How has Castiel even been able to just drop by the brothers’ motel room? What about the Enochian sigils on Sam and Dean’s ribcages that hide them from every angel in existence? Surely those are still in place, so Castiel shouldn’t have been able to locate the brothers. It really bothers me that the writers dropped continuity/consistency out of convenience here, especially since they made such a big deal of Castiel’s need to use cell phones last season. And I don’t think that Dean’s prayer made any difference, because in Point Of No Return Dean had been unable to contact Michael via prayer himself, he needed someone else to pray for him so the angel could find him. Besides, if prayer had been an option, Castiel and the brothers could have used that as a means of communication last year as well.

In conclusion: I would have enjoyed The Third Man a lot more if it had given Sam and Dean more to do than to just act as Castiel’s sidekicks, but as it is, the episode reminded me of all the reasons why I have never been happy with the angel mythology in the first place. Still, the episode has some interesting and funny moments, so it hasn’t been a complete loss. I just hope that the writers do a better job at balancing the characters in the future.

Comments

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

Hey, you finished it. Good job, hon. I'm glad one of us is still writing!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Ah c'mon. You can't possibly have read this already. I just posted it! LOL

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

My timing was impeccable - I clicked on my flist, and there it was, all freshly posted!

I did actually write a few paragraphs of a review before giving up this week, but it just turned into a long whinge about character-led versus plot-driven and how the angels drag the show from one to the other, and I felt I was talking more about last season than this actual episode, per se, and then I ran out of both time and steam anyway, so no review from me! Hence my gladness that you managed to be more articulate. *G*

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Heh, it was your half of our bran brain telling you to click on your flist, clearly. *g*

Yeah, I get that. The episode did awake some bad memories of episodes like Rapture and continued with the inconsistencies etc that make the whole angel mythology so annoying, but it wasn't quite as bad as some of the examples of the past two seasons. It's mainly about 10 minutes in the last third of the episode that I really resent. But I wrote the two paragraphs about how the angel story changes focus first as well and then decided to just keep it short before I fall even more into a rant. Looking at the Sam and Dean stuff was simply more fun. :)

[llywela13.livejournal.com]

I'd intended to only touch on the negatives, but then it turned into a rant, so I stopped! And then there was no more time (or brain...)

Ah well. I shall just watch and not review for now. I can just read your reviews instead!

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Aww I'm going to miss your writing, that's for sure. I guess it's good that we have MSN! *hugs*

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

Lol, you did it in time! :D Congrats!

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the episode that much, I guess yeah if you don't find the angels interesting, then you wouldn't....but as I said, there were some nice brother moments too, like the banter, which it's nice to see back again! :) I do think this season has better humor so far, with those moments and the Moses line for instance, which I think is up there with "He's not on any flatbread..." :p

I agree that Sam is a different case here than in season 4, and more sympathetic for all that he is different...I think it helps that he can see that there is something off about himself, acknowledge it too, no denial here, or not so much. I'm not worried yet either, but I do hope that this will be something that can be fixed, I don't want detached!Sam forever....

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

ROFL it was a race, that's for sure. But I didn't want to put off tomorrow's episode again LOL.

It's not only the angels in itself, but most of all the structuring of the episode. I mean, the writers are perfectly able to write other recurring characters in a way that I never have the feeling Sam and Dean are sidelined, it's only in angel centric episodes where they seem unable to balance the characters with each other. If they are so keen on writing angel stories, they should just ask The CW if they are interested in producing a Castiel spin-off. ;)

Yes, for all that I enjoy Sam's story so far, I don't want it to drag on for a long time. If there's no substantial development midseason I will be seriously disappointed.

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

No, definitely not, especially since Jensen will be directing, which I'm sure will be especially interesting to analyze! :D

And yeah, well I guess I just like the angels so much that I don't notice...though I do of course enjoy Cas best when he's interacting with the boys...;0

I'm thinking, or hoping, that we will get major developments mid-season, with big reveals, a la season 4...

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Heh, I am not sure if I know enough about the technical side of directing to analyse Jensen's work in the episode. LOL But I surely look forward to it, even though it should be brother light as well, what with Jensen's limited appearance in the episode.

Yeah, it's what they always do, saving the game changers for sweeps. :)

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

Heh, me neither, exactly, but still should be interesting! And yeah, I heard it will be Sam light as well, in part because they wanted to keep Jared Prankster Padalecki out of Jensen's hair as much as possible, so he wouldn't have that stress with his first directing gig! :p But it's about Bobby, so that might still be good...

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

LOL there has been an absolutely adorable video from behind the scenes of that episode. It focuses on Jensen as the director and everyone is incredibly supportive of him. Jared said that Jensen has been his favourite director so far! AWWW! ♥ But yeah, Bobby and Crowley should be fun, but I still want my Sam and Dean time. LOL

[sherrilina.livejournal.com]

Well obviously S/D is best! ;) And aww sounds awesome, linky please? :D

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Well obviously S/D is best! ;)
Well, for me anyway. Other fans have different preferences. ;)


Here's the link to the video! Enjoy. *g*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p7W7gaIlDk

[chiiyo86.livejournal.com]

He’s not angry or upset, he just seems lost.

Yeah, that was interesting. I agree with you that Sam is different from season 4 - in season 4, he would have been defensive, because deep down he wasn't sure he was doing the right thing. Here, he seems genuinely confused. Like you, I think that Sam's experience of Hell was very different from Dean's - and yes, Lucifer's line about how he "burns cold" is a good hint...

I've seen the theory that Sam is soulless floating around, and I don't know, I don't really like it. I think I'd prefer the changes in Sam to be psychologically related. That's a matter of taste, but I also think that with the importance the show gives to the soul, Sam would be catatonic if he was soulless.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

Well, I would prefer if Sam's problem was psychological rather than soul related, too, not least because it would be very intersting to analyse. But if the writers go the soulless route, at least the psychological effects of Sam regaining his soul and then having to deal with the emotional overflow should be spectacular.

I find it hard to determine what soulless means in the SN universe. We have never seen a soulless human before, so we wouldn't know how it affects a person. So far the show hasn't actually much of a soul mythology, apart from the crossroad deals. I guess we have to wait and see.