Review | 7x15 | Repo Man
Mar. 5th, 2012 04:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galatheaI guess it is fair to say that Repo Man, by courtesy of Ben Edlund, is a drastic change from the light-heartedness of the previous episode. Like most of Edlund’s dramatic episodes, Repo Man is tightly written, well paced, rather dark in tone and emotionally intense. The 'monster of the week' is probably one of the creepiest cases files the show has featured in a very long while. It does a good job of reminding us that Supernatural is a horror show, and not only in terms of guts and gore, but also in the portrayal of the dark and disturbing. Moreover, the episode finally explores Sam’s mental issues and gives us extensive insight into his perspective – and it is not pretty, to say the least. Overall, Repo Man is a great episode that sets the tone and direction for the last quarter of the season, and I cannot wait to see how it will all play out.
Lucifer: "Big brother is probably dead."
Sam: "Shut up."
Lucifer: "He said 'shut up' to me."
I guess it comes as no surprise that the in-depth look at Sam’s current mental state is by far my favourite aspect of Repo Man. ♥ I have been complaining about the lack of a Sam centric perspective for a while now, but Repo Man managed to reconcile me with the writers’ decision to only now reveal the true extent of Sam’s condition, and that’s mainly owed to the fact that this one episode retroactively bridges the narrative gap in Sam’s storyline from Hello, Cruel World to the present in a convincing manner. Moreover, the sudden perspective change effectively highlights just how different Sam and Dean’s realities have been all this time. Of course, the show has been telling us all season long that, even though we are not always aware of it, Sam still sees Lucifer on a daily basis, but Repo Man finally shows us the extent of his hallucinations and illustrates what Sam actually means whenever he reassures Dean that he is handling his condition. As I already assumed after Slash Fiction, Sam’s outward display of stability and composure is nothing but a continuous act, an effort to appear normal even though his everyday reality is anything but. Basically, Sam has taken to ignore his hallucinations of Lucifer by focussing intensely on the few things he can reliably discern as real – and that ties in well with the highly driven Sam we have seen throughout the season. It explains Sam’s tireless focus on the hunt, his sudden obsession with a fitness regime and his preoccupation with Dean and his issues. Essentially, Sam deliberately directs his attention away from himself (and thus Lucifer), which is sadly ironic, really, given the usually introspective nature of Sam’s character.
Now, to contemplate the specifics of Sam’s condition is a bit of a mind-bender, especially if we assume that Lucifer only exists in Sam’s head. Of course, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility that Sam’s Lucifer is, in fact, real. I mean, it is possible that an actual part of Lucifer latched onto Sam’s soul when Death rescued him from the cage and now tries to gain control over Sam. There is also a chance that when Lucifer possessed Sam in Swan Song, he created a permanent psychic link between them, thus allowing him to torment Sam from within the cage. However, I do not think that either of these scenarios are likely. Personally, I believe that Lucifer is a construct of Sam’s own subconscious, and I mainly base that assessment on the fact that he seems to be entirely dependent on Sam’s mind and body. If Lucifer were an autonomous entity within (or outside of) Sam, he should not only remain unaffected by Sam’s physical pain, but he should also have knowledge and insight that extends beyond Sam’s. Yet every single one of Lucifer’s comments can clearly be attributed to either Sam’s memories or thought processes. Moreover, I think it is worth noting that Sam only started seeing Lucifer after the destruction of the wall in his mind forced him to assimilate his memories of hell. But if the real Lucifer had indeed somehow managed to invade Sam’s body/mind when Death resouled Sam, he should have started seeing him right away. After all, the wall Death put up in Sam’s mind only protected him from his memories, and there is no reason to assume that it would also have blocked out an actual intruder. Not to mention that, surely, Death would have noticed if Lucifer had somehow managed to latch onto Sam's soul when he retrieved it.
So, allow me to sketch out the progression of Sam’s mental issues as I would construe it: In The Man Who Knew Too Much Sam reintegrated the trauma of his time in hell, as well as the memories of the time he spent soulless, and in order to be functional enough to get to Dean, he was forced to hastily throw up a mental wall of his own. That only worked as a temporary solution though, and in Meet The New Boss Sam’s mental block started to slowly disintegrate, progressively allowing his traumatic memories to filter through. However, since Sam’s mind is unable to process the trauma of the time he spent in the cage, his only viable option to avoid falling into yet another coma or going insane was to transform it into something his mind could actually comprehend – and hence his subconscious created Lucifer, a reflection of the creature that tormented Sam in hell. In effect, Lucifer is a manifestation of Sam’s trauma that allows him some measure of control. "Seeing Lucifer is fine with me. At least all my crazy is under one umbrella, and I know what I am dealing with," Sam told Bobby in How To Win Friends And Influence Monsters and that basically expresses the same concept, namely that Sam’s trauma manifested in one specific form (Lucifer) that Sam can confront or, as it is, ignore. Still, initially, Sam could not cope with Lucifer either, which resulted in his breakdown in Hello, Cruel World. It was only when Sam learned to handle Lucifer with the help of his aforementioned coping mechanisms – i.e. physical pain, vigorous exercise and intense focus on Dean or the hunt – that he became functional again.
Now, obviously ignoring Lucifer/his trauma does not make it go away though, and I think Lucifer’s continuous attempts to get Sam to acknowledge him, to let him in, are a reflection of the way Sam’s trauma constantly threatens to push into his consciousness. Moreover, the accumulated psychological stress resulting from Sam’s efforts to block out the damaged parts of himself seems to unload in a pretty spectacular manner as well, if Sam’s gruesome hallucination in the library – the one where the people around him suddenly start bashing their heads in – is anything to go by. After all, that is Sam’s subconscious viciously acting out in order to get him to deal with his trauma. The fact that Sam reacts rather calmly to the disturbing events unfolding around him suggests to me that hallucinations like that are a pretty frequent occurrence for him, and it is dizzying to think about the energy and the level of self-discipline Sam has to muster up just to stay in control in moments like that. I also think that in his efforts to block out Lucifer/his trauma, Sam sometimes inadvertently blocks out vital information or thought processes, and in order to access them, he has to lower his defences to an extent. I think that is what we see when Lucifer presents various hints and clues about the case to Sam. Even if he does not respond to Lucifer, he does listen to him. All things considered, Sam’s control is a truly precarious balance act and, quite frankly, it is a small miracle that he managed to make it this far without raising any suspicions or breaking down.
I guess it is not surprising that, in the end, it is the fear of losing Dean that finally tips that balance and causes Sam to lose control. He slips up for the first time when Lucifer taunts him with the possibility of Dean’s death, and from there on it is a steady downward spiral. Sam’s inner Lucifer easily uses his desperation to save Dean to get him to respond time and again, and each time Sam answers him or takes his advice, his solid grip on reality slips a little bit more, until the boundaries between reality and hallucination are lifted completely. The scene where Sam openly discusses the case with Lucifer like he is a real life person, like he would with Dean, effectively illustrates that point. I mean, to any unsuspecting person Sam would appear certifiably insane, talking to thin air like that. Anyway, the fact that Lucifer is able to circumvent all of Sam’s defences as soon as Dean is out of the picture demonstrates just how much Sam depends on Dean to keep himself together. Over the course of the season I often stated that Dean is Sam’s stone number one, but I think we are only now able to truly comprehend the magnitude of that statement. Without Dean, Sam is literally lost in his own head, and that retroactively adds new layers to Sam’s desperation where Dean’s recent suicidal tendencies are concerned.
In that context, I think it is interesting to think back to other instances this season where Dean was in peril or absent and consider the effect it had on Sam. In Defending Your Life, for example, Sam raced to save Dean from Osiris’ death sentence, and it is easy to imagine that Lucifer told him every step of the way that he would fail without his help, urging him to let him in. In Time after Time Sam had to face the devastating possibility that he will probably never get his brother back from his trip to the past, and I think it is safe to say that he would have given in to Lucifer there and then, had it not been for Jodie Mills’ presence. Without her to keep him grounded in reality, Lucifer surely would have had an easy job of tearing Sam’s defences down. However, I do have to wonder how Sam managed to cope in those ten days he spent alone after he and Dean split up in Slash Fiction. I mean, I assume that Sam tried to compensate for the loss of his main anchor to reality by rigorously concentrating on his other coping mechanisms instead, i.e. focussing entirely on the hunt and working on his physical fitness, but still. The constant solitude and the uncertainty about whether Dean was okay or not had to wear his resources dangerously thin. Of course that was before Bobby died and before Dean’s depression peaked and threw him into an increasingly suicidal frame of mind, both of which undoubtedly impacted Sam’s stability severely, but I still think those ten day had to be extremely difficult for Sam, and I wished we had some insight into that time.
In any case, the episode leaves us with the disconcerting image of Sam on fire and a triumphant Lucifer mocking Sam’s pain, and it is obvious that this marks a turning point in Sam’s story. Sam sacrificed one of his main coping mechanisms, namely the ability to control his hallucinations through physical pain, when he opened his mind to Lucifer, and I have no doubt that the rest will soon follow. Now, considering that Dean expressed several times that he cannot fully trust Sam’s judgment as long as he considers him psychologically unstable, I doubt that Sam will tell his brother about this recent development in his mental condition, and Dean’s totally valid and innocent statement about psychopaths and their attempts to act normal probably only cemented Sam’s position in the matter. However, I think that, without his coping mechanisms in place, it will be increasingly difficult for Sam to hide his condition from Dean, and even if we concede that Dean is caught up in his own depression and thus will take a while to catch on, the truth will surely come to light in the near future. Overall, I really have to say that, despite the long wait for insight into Sam’s issues, I find his post-hell storyline this season deeply satisfying. What happened to Sam in the cage was horrifying. In fact, it was so horrifying that it irreparably damaged Sam’s soul, and the way the writers deal with the consequences of Sam’s experience does that horror somewhat justice. Given my extreme frustration with the way the writers handled Dean’s post-hell story, I am glad that Sam’s storyline, at least, fares so much better in comparison.
Jeffrey: "No one asked you to get involved. To save me. To save anyone."
Dean: "What?"
Jeffrey: "Did you ever think that maybe I loved being possessed? Did you? I loved the connection, the power. And I loved him."
I have to say that I am really glad that I was unspoiled for the plot of Repo Man, because I think it is one of those episodes that works best if the viewer goes into the story without preconceptions. I mean, I pretty much took Jeffrey’s story at face value and only started to become somewhat suspicious of him, when he led Dean to the abandoned warehouse that supposedly served as the demon’s nest. Up to that point, the various misdirections that served to hide the true identity of the killer – for example, Nora’s avoidance of the devil’s trap in her office or Jeffrey’s apparently confused and frightful demeanour – worked pretty well and kept me in a permanent state of suspense. So, when Jeffrey dropped the victim act and revealed himself as a psychotic, but entirely human serial killer, I was completely caught by surprise, and the extent of derangement he displayed in his conversation with Dean truly creeped me out. In that regard the episode reminds me of The Benders, actually, which is still one of the creepiest Supernatural episodes to date for me. I think Dean’s infamous one-liner from that episode – 'demons I get, people are just crazy' – easily applies to Repo Man as well. Anyway, it saddens me that Sam and Dean are now burdened with the knowledge that if they had not saved Jeffrey’s life four years ago, nobody else would have gotten hurt. Of course the brothers simply could not have known that they set a serial killer free when they let Jeffrey go, but that has never stopped them from feeling guilty anyway.
Now, it is obvious that the writers use Jeffrey’s character to draw various parallels to Sam and Dean, and I think he works pretty well as a dark and twisted mirror for both Winchesters. The parallels between Jeffrey and Sam are fairly straightforward in my opinion. I mean, both men have been forced to put up the pretence of normality in order to hide the true extent of their psychological damage. However, Sam’s mental issues are the result of something that was done to him, and pretending to be normal is a coping mechanism that allows him to function and thus support his brother. Jeffrey’s mental illness, on the other hand, has always been part of his nature. The demon possession simply exacerbated an already existing problem, and Jeffrey’s 'normality act' is a deceit designed for the sole purpose of avoiding capture. As for the parallels between Jeffrey and Dean: As Jeffrey rightly points out, they have both been driven into depression and alcoholism when they lost their sense of purpose, even though said purposes are polar opposites, of course. After all, Dean wants to save people, whereas Jeffrey wants to destroy them. There is also a dark parallel in the way Jeffrey’s relationship with his demon mirrors Dean’s relationship with Alistair. Dean and Jeffrey have both been the star pupils of their demonic 'tutors' and they turned into instruments of torture and death under their 'guidance'. However, while Jeffrey revels in what he has become under the demon’s tutelage, Dean loathes that Alistair has turned him into a monster.
Admittedly, I find it slightly unsettling that the writers draw explicit parallels between Sam and Dean and a psychotic serial killer here – twisted parallels, but parallels nonetheless. It brings Bela’s statement to mind that hunters are only a stone’s throw away from being serial killers (Red Sky At Morning), and I remember that I strongly resented that assessment at the time. However, considering how comfortable the brothers are with torture nowadays or how easily they accept human casualties, Bela’s judgment does not seem to be quite as far off as it used to. Still, I daresay that Sam and Dean’s continuous struggle with guilt and self-loathing clearly distinguishes them from someone like Jeffrey, and the brothers’ genuinely caring personalities are a testament to their fundamentally good nature. Hunting may have nurtured the darker impulses that reside within Sam and Dean, just like the demon nurtured the darkness within Jeffrey, but where Jeffrey thrived on it and embraced it as his true nature, unleashing their inner darkness (almost) destroyed Sam and Dean. Overall, I think that the parallels between the Winchesters and Jeffrey add interesting new layers to this season’s exploration of the thin lines between hunters and monsters, good and evil, nature versus nurture. While I often mourn the loss of Sam and Dean’s innocence and the compromise of their moral boundaries, I do appreciate that the writers are consistent in their depiction of the self-destructive, dehumanising effects of hunting and how it changed the brothers over the years.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) Let me say a couple of words about Sam’s 'pain remedy' for hallucinations here: At first glance, it seems rather odd that Sam would still feel pain by applying pressure to the scar in his left hand, considering that it has been months since he cut the palm of that hand open. Surely, it should be fully healed by now. However, I think there are at least two possible explanations for the fact that this still works for Sam. One explanation could be that pressure to his scarred hand works like a classic conditioning by now, i.e. even though the actual pain stimulus is gone, the gesture itself has become inextricably associated with pain and hence achieves the same results. The second explanation is a little more straightforward though. I think it is entirely possible that Sam deliberately keeps the wound fresh, reopening the scar in his hand whenever it has healed. As far as I remember, we saw Sam cut into his healed hand at least once, namely in Time After Time, where he sliced the palm of his left hand open to draw the blood he needed for the summoning of Chronos. Theoretically, he could have drawn that blood from anywhere else on his body, so I think it is interesting that he chose this particular spot. Now, obviously the thought of Sam deliberately harming himself is rather unsettling, but in light of the severity of Sam’s hallucinations, it is understandable that he would consider self-harm the lesser of two evils, if it provides him with a reliable tool to control his perception and thus allows him to be functional.
(2) I know there is some discussion amongst fans whether the flashback of the brothers torturing demon!Jeffrey takes place in S3 or S4, but personally I have little doubt that it is set in S3, namely in between Time Is On My Side and No Rest For The Wicked. My reasoning for that assessment is twofold: Firstly, the flashback scene is very reminiscent of the opening scene in Time Is On My Side, where Sam and Dean ruthlessly torture a demon to attain information on who holds Dean’s contract. Bela tells them later in the episode that the contract holder is, in fact, Lilith, and it stands to reason that the brothers subsequently continued to interrogate demons in order to find her. So, in terms of characterisation, the end of S3 is a good fit in my opinion. Sam and Dean have both been desperate at the time, willing to go to any length to save Dean from his deal, and the flashback captures that sense of urgency and desperation very well. Secondly, the knife Dean uses to torture Jeffrey in the flashback is clearly not Ruby’s knife, which only makes sense if the scene is set before No Rest For The Wicked, where Dean stole said knife from her. If the flashback had been set in S4, Dean would surely have used Ruby’s knife to torture a demon, like he did with Alistair in On The Head Of A Pin. Of course, the illusion that the flashback is set in S3 is somewhat shattered by the fact that Sam’s appearance has changed rather drastically since S3, and even the delightful consistency of Dean wearing his old silver ring and his amulet cannot distract from that fact.
(3) I really have to say that, as much as I love Mark Pellegrino’s performance as Lucifer, I am glad that the writers refrained from using him more often this season. I feel that Lucifer’s appearances works best in small doses, because that way we cannot grow numb to his mind games or worse, become annoyed with his constant presence. On the contrary, whenever Lucifer appears, we are thrown off kilter and that really allows us to relate to Sam’s unusual situation better. As I already mentioned in my review to Hello, Cruel World, Sam’s current storyline reminds me a lot of John Crichton’s storyline on Farscape. John also suffered from permanent hallucinations of his arch-nemesis Scorpius, even though the neuro-chip that Scorpius implanted in John's brain and that contained Scorpius’ personality clone was removed at some point. Personally, I grew tired of Scorpius’ running commentary very fast, and I felt that, over time, the horrors that John suffered at Scorpius’ hands were somewhat undermined by the attempt to reduce him to a harmless comic relief figure in John’s head. So, I am really quite content that the Supernatural writers play the theme very differently. Sorry, I am rewatching Farscape at the moment, and I cannot help to constantly compare the two storylines in my mind, hence the little detour.
In conclusion: Repo Man is an excellent episode that managed to keep me in suspense throughout its run. The episode not only adds new layers to the main recurring themes of the season, but it also marks a turning point in Sam’s post-hell arc. It is obvious that Sam is heading towards another major mental breakdown in the near future, and given that Dean is long overdue for a spectacular crash as well, the next eight episodes should be very intense. And since the leviathans are only waiting for the right moment to strike, Sam and Dean’s fragile psychological situation could easily provide them with the opportunity to get rid of them once and for all, especially now that the brothers are virtually without reliable allies. So, basically, the Winchesters are screwed. It’s business as usual, really.
Lucifer: "Big brother is probably dead."
Sam: "Shut up."
Lucifer: "He said 'shut up' to me."
I guess it comes as no surprise that the in-depth look at Sam’s current mental state is by far my favourite aspect of Repo Man. ♥ I have been complaining about the lack of a Sam centric perspective for a while now, but Repo Man managed to reconcile me with the writers’ decision to only now reveal the true extent of Sam’s condition, and that’s mainly owed to the fact that this one episode retroactively bridges the narrative gap in Sam’s storyline from Hello, Cruel World to the present in a convincing manner. Moreover, the sudden perspective change effectively highlights just how different Sam and Dean’s realities have been all this time. Of course, the show has been telling us all season long that, even though we are not always aware of it, Sam still sees Lucifer on a daily basis, but Repo Man finally shows us the extent of his hallucinations and illustrates what Sam actually means whenever he reassures Dean that he is handling his condition. As I already assumed after Slash Fiction, Sam’s outward display of stability and composure is nothing but a continuous act, an effort to appear normal even though his everyday reality is anything but. Basically, Sam has taken to ignore his hallucinations of Lucifer by focussing intensely on the few things he can reliably discern as real – and that ties in well with the highly driven Sam we have seen throughout the season. It explains Sam’s tireless focus on the hunt, his sudden obsession with a fitness regime and his preoccupation with Dean and his issues. Essentially, Sam deliberately directs his attention away from himself (and thus Lucifer), which is sadly ironic, really, given the usually introspective nature of Sam’s character.
Now, to contemplate the specifics of Sam’s condition is a bit of a mind-bender, especially if we assume that Lucifer only exists in Sam’s head. Of course, we cannot entirely rule out the possibility that Sam’s Lucifer is, in fact, real. I mean, it is possible that an actual part of Lucifer latched onto Sam’s soul when Death rescued him from the cage and now tries to gain control over Sam. There is also a chance that when Lucifer possessed Sam in Swan Song, he created a permanent psychic link between them, thus allowing him to torment Sam from within the cage. However, I do not think that either of these scenarios are likely. Personally, I believe that Lucifer is a construct of Sam’s own subconscious, and I mainly base that assessment on the fact that he seems to be entirely dependent on Sam’s mind and body. If Lucifer were an autonomous entity within (or outside of) Sam, he should not only remain unaffected by Sam’s physical pain, but he should also have knowledge and insight that extends beyond Sam’s. Yet every single one of Lucifer’s comments can clearly be attributed to either Sam’s memories or thought processes. Moreover, I think it is worth noting that Sam only started seeing Lucifer after the destruction of the wall in his mind forced him to assimilate his memories of hell. But if the real Lucifer had indeed somehow managed to invade Sam’s body/mind when Death resouled Sam, he should have started seeing him right away. After all, the wall Death put up in Sam’s mind only protected him from his memories, and there is no reason to assume that it would also have blocked out an actual intruder. Not to mention that, surely, Death would have noticed if Lucifer had somehow managed to latch onto Sam's soul when he retrieved it.
So, allow me to sketch out the progression of Sam’s mental issues as I would construe it: In The Man Who Knew Too Much Sam reintegrated the trauma of his time in hell, as well as the memories of the time he spent soulless, and in order to be functional enough to get to Dean, he was forced to hastily throw up a mental wall of his own. That only worked as a temporary solution though, and in Meet The New Boss Sam’s mental block started to slowly disintegrate, progressively allowing his traumatic memories to filter through. However, since Sam’s mind is unable to process the trauma of the time he spent in the cage, his only viable option to avoid falling into yet another coma or going insane was to transform it into something his mind could actually comprehend – and hence his subconscious created Lucifer, a reflection of the creature that tormented Sam in hell. In effect, Lucifer is a manifestation of Sam’s trauma that allows him some measure of control. "Seeing Lucifer is fine with me. At least all my crazy is under one umbrella, and I know what I am dealing with," Sam told Bobby in How To Win Friends And Influence Monsters and that basically expresses the same concept, namely that Sam’s trauma manifested in one specific form (Lucifer) that Sam can confront or, as it is, ignore. Still, initially, Sam could not cope with Lucifer either, which resulted in his breakdown in Hello, Cruel World. It was only when Sam learned to handle Lucifer with the help of his aforementioned coping mechanisms – i.e. physical pain, vigorous exercise and intense focus on Dean or the hunt – that he became functional again.
Now, obviously ignoring Lucifer/his trauma does not make it go away though, and I think Lucifer’s continuous attempts to get Sam to acknowledge him, to let him in, are a reflection of the way Sam’s trauma constantly threatens to push into his consciousness. Moreover, the accumulated psychological stress resulting from Sam’s efforts to block out the damaged parts of himself seems to unload in a pretty spectacular manner as well, if Sam’s gruesome hallucination in the library – the one where the people around him suddenly start bashing their heads in – is anything to go by. After all, that is Sam’s subconscious viciously acting out in order to get him to deal with his trauma. The fact that Sam reacts rather calmly to the disturbing events unfolding around him suggests to me that hallucinations like that are a pretty frequent occurrence for him, and it is dizzying to think about the energy and the level of self-discipline Sam has to muster up just to stay in control in moments like that. I also think that in his efforts to block out Lucifer/his trauma, Sam sometimes inadvertently blocks out vital information or thought processes, and in order to access them, he has to lower his defences to an extent. I think that is what we see when Lucifer presents various hints and clues about the case to Sam. Even if he does not respond to Lucifer, he does listen to him. All things considered, Sam’s control is a truly precarious balance act and, quite frankly, it is a small miracle that he managed to make it this far without raising any suspicions or breaking down.
I guess it is not surprising that, in the end, it is the fear of losing Dean that finally tips that balance and causes Sam to lose control. He slips up for the first time when Lucifer taunts him with the possibility of Dean’s death, and from there on it is a steady downward spiral. Sam’s inner Lucifer easily uses his desperation to save Dean to get him to respond time and again, and each time Sam answers him or takes his advice, his solid grip on reality slips a little bit more, until the boundaries between reality and hallucination are lifted completely. The scene where Sam openly discusses the case with Lucifer like he is a real life person, like he would with Dean, effectively illustrates that point. I mean, to any unsuspecting person Sam would appear certifiably insane, talking to thin air like that. Anyway, the fact that Lucifer is able to circumvent all of Sam’s defences as soon as Dean is out of the picture demonstrates just how much Sam depends on Dean to keep himself together. Over the course of the season I often stated that Dean is Sam’s stone number one, but I think we are only now able to truly comprehend the magnitude of that statement. Without Dean, Sam is literally lost in his own head, and that retroactively adds new layers to Sam’s desperation where Dean’s recent suicidal tendencies are concerned.
In that context, I think it is interesting to think back to other instances this season where Dean was in peril or absent and consider the effect it had on Sam. In Defending Your Life, for example, Sam raced to save Dean from Osiris’ death sentence, and it is easy to imagine that Lucifer told him every step of the way that he would fail without his help, urging him to let him in. In Time after Time Sam had to face the devastating possibility that he will probably never get his brother back from his trip to the past, and I think it is safe to say that he would have given in to Lucifer there and then, had it not been for Jodie Mills’ presence. Without her to keep him grounded in reality, Lucifer surely would have had an easy job of tearing Sam’s defences down. However, I do have to wonder how Sam managed to cope in those ten days he spent alone after he and Dean split up in Slash Fiction. I mean, I assume that Sam tried to compensate for the loss of his main anchor to reality by rigorously concentrating on his other coping mechanisms instead, i.e. focussing entirely on the hunt and working on his physical fitness, but still. The constant solitude and the uncertainty about whether Dean was okay or not had to wear his resources dangerously thin. Of course that was before Bobby died and before Dean’s depression peaked and threw him into an increasingly suicidal frame of mind, both of which undoubtedly impacted Sam’s stability severely, but I still think those ten day had to be extremely difficult for Sam, and I wished we had some insight into that time.
In any case, the episode leaves us with the disconcerting image of Sam on fire and a triumphant Lucifer mocking Sam’s pain, and it is obvious that this marks a turning point in Sam’s story. Sam sacrificed one of his main coping mechanisms, namely the ability to control his hallucinations through physical pain, when he opened his mind to Lucifer, and I have no doubt that the rest will soon follow. Now, considering that Dean expressed several times that he cannot fully trust Sam’s judgment as long as he considers him psychologically unstable, I doubt that Sam will tell his brother about this recent development in his mental condition, and Dean’s totally valid and innocent statement about psychopaths and their attempts to act normal probably only cemented Sam’s position in the matter. However, I think that, without his coping mechanisms in place, it will be increasingly difficult for Sam to hide his condition from Dean, and even if we concede that Dean is caught up in his own depression and thus will take a while to catch on, the truth will surely come to light in the near future. Overall, I really have to say that, despite the long wait for insight into Sam’s issues, I find his post-hell storyline this season deeply satisfying. What happened to Sam in the cage was horrifying. In fact, it was so horrifying that it irreparably damaged Sam’s soul, and the way the writers deal with the consequences of Sam’s experience does that horror somewhat justice. Given my extreme frustration with the way the writers handled Dean’s post-hell story, I am glad that Sam’s storyline, at least, fares so much better in comparison.
Jeffrey: "No one asked you to get involved. To save me. To save anyone."
Dean: "What?"
Jeffrey: "Did you ever think that maybe I loved being possessed? Did you? I loved the connection, the power. And I loved him."
I have to say that I am really glad that I was unspoiled for the plot of Repo Man, because I think it is one of those episodes that works best if the viewer goes into the story without preconceptions. I mean, I pretty much took Jeffrey’s story at face value and only started to become somewhat suspicious of him, when he led Dean to the abandoned warehouse that supposedly served as the demon’s nest. Up to that point, the various misdirections that served to hide the true identity of the killer – for example, Nora’s avoidance of the devil’s trap in her office or Jeffrey’s apparently confused and frightful demeanour – worked pretty well and kept me in a permanent state of suspense. So, when Jeffrey dropped the victim act and revealed himself as a psychotic, but entirely human serial killer, I was completely caught by surprise, and the extent of derangement he displayed in his conversation with Dean truly creeped me out. In that regard the episode reminds me of The Benders, actually, which is still one of the creepiest Supernatural episodes to date for me. I think Dean’s infamous one-liner from that episode – 'demons I get, people are just crazy' – easily applies to Repo Man as well. Anyway, it saddens me that Sam and Dean are now burdened with the knowledge that if they had not saved Jeffrey’s life four years ago, nobody else would have gotten hurt. Of course the brothers simply could not have known that they set a serial killer free when they let Jeffrey go, but that has never stopped them from feeling guilty anyway.
Now, it is obvious that the writers use Jeffrey’s character to draw various parallels to Sam and Dean, and I think he works pretty well as a dark and twisted mirror for both Winchesters. The parallels between Jeffrey and Sam are fairly straightforward in my opinion. I mean, both men have been forced to put up the pretence of normality in order to hide the true extent of their psychological damage. However, Sam’s mental issues are the result of something that was done to him, and pretending to be normal is a coping mechanism that allows him to function and thus support his brother. Jeffrey’s mental illness, on the other hand, has always been part of his nature. The demon possession simply exacerbated an already existing problem, and Jeffrey’s 'normality act' is a deceit designed for the sole purpose of avoiding capture. As for the parallels between Jeffrey and Dean: As Jeffrey rightly points out, they have both been driven into depression and alcoholism when they lost their sense of purpose, even though said purposes are polar opposites, of course. After all, Dean wants to save people, whereas Jeffrey wants to destroy them. There is also a dark parallel in the way Jeffrey’s relationship with his demon mirrors Dean’s relationship with Alistair. Dean and Jeffrey have both been the star pupils of their demonic 'tutors' and they turned into instruments of torture and death under their 'guidance'. However, while Jeffrey revels in what he has become under the demon’s tutelage, Dean loathes that Alistair has turned him into a monster.
Admittedly, I find it slightly unsettling that the writers draw explicit parallels between Sam and Dean and a psychotic serial killer here – twisted parallels, but parallels nonetheless. It brings Bela’s statement to mind that hunters are only a stone’s throw away from being serial killers (Red Sky At Morning), and I remember that I strongly resented that assessment at the time. However, considering how comfortable the brothers are with torture nowadays or how easily they accept human casualties, Bela’s judgment does not seem to be quite as far off as it used to. Still, I daresay that Sam and Dean’s continuous struggle with guilt and self-loathing clearly distinguishes them from someone like Jeffrey, and the brothers’ genuinely caring personalities are a testament to their fundamentally good nature. Hunting may have nurtured the darker impulses that reside within Sam and Dean, just like the demon nurtured the darkness within Jeffrey, but where Jeffrey thrived on it and embraced it as his true nature, unleashing their inner darkness (almost) destroyed Sam and Dean. Overall, I think that the parallels between the Winchesters and Jeffrey add interesting new layers to this season’s exploration of the thin lines between hunters and monsters, good and evil, nature versus nurture. While I often mourn the loss of Sam and Dean’s innocence and the compromise of their moral boundaries, I do appreciate that the writers are consistent in their depiction of the self-destructive, dehumanising effects of hunting and how it changed the brothers over the years.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) Let me say a couple of words about Sam’s 'pain remedy' for hallucinations here: At first glance, it seems rather odd that Sam would still feel pain by applying pressure to the scar in his left hand, considering that it has been months since he cut the palm of that hand open. Surely, it should be fully healed by now. However, I think there are at least two possible explanations for the fact that this still works for Sam. One explanation could be that pressure to his scarred hand works like a classic conditioning by now, i.e. even though the actual pain stimulus is gone, the gesture itself has become inextricably associated with pain and hence achieves the same results. The second explanation is a little more straightforward though. I think it is entirely possible that Sam deliberately keeps the wound fresh, reopening the scar in his hand whenever it has healed. As far as I remember, we saw Sam cut into his healed hand at least once, namely in Time After Time, where he sliced the palm of his left hand open to draw the blood he needed for the summoning of Chronos. Theoretically, he could have drawn that blood from anywhere else on his body, so I think it is interesting that he chose this particular spot. Now, obviously the thought of Sam deliberately harming himself is rather unsettling, but in light of the severity of Sam’s hallucinations, it is understandable that he would consider self-harm the lesser of two evils, if it provides him with a reliable tool to control his perception and thus allows him to be functional.
(2) I know there is some discussion amongst fans whether the flashback of the brothers torturing demon!Jeffrey takes place in S3 or S4, but personally I have little doubt that it is set in S3, namely in between Time Is On My Side and No Rest For The Wicked. My reasoning for that assessment is twofold: Firstly, the flashback scene is very reminiscent of the opening scene in Time Is On My Side, where Sam and Dean ruthlessly torture a demon to attain information on who holds Dean’s contract. Bela tells them later in the episode that the contract holder is, in fact, Lilith, and it stands to reason that the brothers subsequently continued to interrogate demons in order to find her. So, in terms of characterisation, the end of S3 is a good fit in my opinion. Sam and Dean have both been desperate at the time, willing to go to any length to save Dean from his deal, and the flashback captures that sense of urgency and desperation very well. Secondly, the knife Dean uses to torture Jeffrey in the flashback is clearly not Ruby’s knife, which only makes sense if the scene is set before No Rest For The Wicked, where Dean stole said knife from her. If the flashback had been set in S4, Dean would surely have used Ruby’s knife to torture a demon, like he did with Alistair in On The Head Of A Pin. Of course, the illusion that the flashback is set in S3 is somewhat shattered by the fact that Sam’s appearance has changed rather drastically since S3, and even the delightful consistency of Dean wearing his old silver ring and his amulet cannot distract from that fact.
(3) I really have to say that, as much as I love Mark Pellegrino’s performance as Lucifer, I am glad that the writers refrained from using him more often this season. I feel that Lucifer’s appearances works best in small doses, because that way we cannot grow numb to his mind games or worse, become annoyed with his constant presence. On the contrary, whenever Lucifer appears, we are thrown off kilter and that really allows us to relate to Sam’s unusual situation better. As I already mentioned in my review to Hello, Cruel World, Sam’s current storyline reminds me a lot of John Crichton’s storyline on Farscape. John also suffered from permanent hallucinations of his arch-nemesis Scorpius, even though the neuro-chip that Scorpius implanted in John's brain and that contained Scorpius’ personality clone was removed at some point. Personally, I grew tired of Scorpius’ running commentary very fast, and I felt that, over time, the horrors that John suffered at Scorpius’ hands were somewhat undermined by the attempt to reduce him to a harmless comic relief figure in John’s head. So, I am really quite content that the Supernatural writers play the theme very differently. Sorry, I am rewatching Farscape at the moment, and I cannot help to constantly compare the two storylines in my mind, hence the little detour.
In conclusion: Repo Man is an excellent episode that managed to keep me in suspense throughout its run. The episode not only adds new layers to the main recurring themes of the season, but it also marks a turning point in Sam’s post-hell arc. It is obvious that Sam is heading towards another major mental breakdown in the near future, and given that Dean is long overdue for a spectacular crash as well, the next eight episodes should be very intense. And since the leviathans are only waiting for the right moment to strike, Sam and Dean’s fragile psychological situation could easily provide them with the opportunity to get rid of them once and for all, especially now that the brothers are virtually without reliable allies. So, basically, the Winchesters are screwed. It’s business as usual, really.
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Date: 2012-03-05 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-05 03:47 pm (UTC)You've done a great job parsing this one, kudos :)
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Date: 2012-03-05 04:09 pm (UTC)And tell me about it. The review for 7x14 practically wrote itself, it was effortless. But for this one I basically slaved over every single sentence. LOL
Thanks! I am glad that it makes sense outside my own head as well.
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Date: 2012-03-05 04:16 pm (UTC)You can always tell when I really liked an episode or story, because the review gets long. And involved. *G* And a really strong, psychologically complex Sam story? Yeah, that's always going to tickle you in all the right places!
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Date: 2012-03-05 04:33 pm (UTC)It's true. We don't get 'inside Sam's head' episodes all that often, and I revel in the opportunity to analyse him.
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Date: 2012-03-07 09:03 pm (UTC)I had one little detail quibble. The demon interrogation flashback clearly took place in season three, not four: another dead giveaway, beyond the logic points you mentioned, was that the Impala had her spotlights. But that little production detail would have meant the flashback took place before 3.10, Dream A Little Dream Of Me, when the spots disappeared, while as you pointed out, the brothers didn't learn the name Lilith until 3.15, Time Is On My Side. I shook my head and chortled to think that, in their zeal to get the details of the past right and cement them by visuals fans would instantly glom onto, they missed the target by just 5 episodes! Oops ... *grin*
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Date: 2012-03-07 09:54 pm (UTC)Anyway, thanks. Glad you enjoyed my little analysis. Sam's head is a fascinating place. *g* And good point with the Impala. I don't really pay that much attention to the car, so I would never have been able to deduct the timeline from that detail. LOL But good to know.