Review | 7x18 | Party On, Garth

[galathea]

As is often the case, Supernatural counterbalances the drama of the previous episode with a more light-hearted offering. Party On, Garth by Adam Glass is an amusing standalone episode that, as the title suggests, puts a spotlight on the dorky hunter Garth. The differences in personality and attitude between the brothers and Garth not only make for some nice comedy moments, but also accentuate that Sam and Dean’s way to approach hunting is not the only way to go about it, and I like that. Overall, I enjoyed the episode, even though I think the writers missed some great opportunities to use the plot of the episode for the exploration of Dean’s arc this season.



So, there goes my hope that the follow-up to The Born-Again Identity will give me the brotherly moments I missed from last week’s episode and, more importantly, that it will straighten out the problems I had with the writers’ resolution to Sam’s post-hell storyline. While the brothers shortly broach the subject of Sam’s recovery and Castiel’s situation, we don’t actually learn anything substantial about their respective conditions. However, it is clear that Sam is mostly back to normal, which effectively conveys that the writers deem him cured by Castiel’s actions, internal story logic be damned. Moreover, for some inexplicable reason Castiel’s mental situation seems to rapidly deteriorate, which makes no sense whatsoever either. Let’s assume for a moment I would actually buy into the idea that Castiel somehow shifted Sam’s trauma to himself. How is it even possible then that, apparently, Castiel suffers more from said trauma than Sam himself, who actually had to live through it? I mean, Sam managed to be perfectly lucid and functional for months, and he only broke down when the sleep deprivation set in – sleep Castiel does not need, I might add. So, why is Castiel a drooling mess? No, I stand by my assessment from last week that nothing about this resolution rings true. To me, it looks as if the writers wanted to give Castiel a redemption storyline and since they had written themselves into a corner with Sam’s arc, they disregarded consistency and previously established canon and took the easy way out. That’s not good storytelling though, it’s simply lazy writing. If the writers wanted me to feel for Castiel, compromising the coherency of Sam’s post-hell arc certainly was not the way to do it.

Now, apart from Sam's mental health issues, the writers’ messy resolution to Sam’s Lucifer problem impacts other aspects of his post-hell arc as well. See, like most of Sam’s storylines in the show, his post-hell arc has mainly been about choice and control. The majority of the events that happened to Sam after he jumped into the cage – returning from hell soulless, being resouled, having his memories taken away and then forcibly restored – have been beyond his control, and he struggled with that lack of control throughout S6. Only when Sam was given the choice to reintegrate the parts of himself that had been damaged in hell and endure whatever consequences that choice would entail (The Man Who Knew Too Much), he was able to take control over his life back, and his subsequent efforts to stay on top of his mental issues have been part of reasserting his autonomy. Moreover, we know from Defending Your Life that the choice to face the horrors he had suffered in hell helped Sam to realise that he truly did penance for his sins, thus allowing him to overcome his feelings of guilt and make peace with his past. However, Castiel’s actions fundamentally changed how Sam experiences the psychological aftermath of his time in the cage and that should on some level affect those developments. In the end, Lucifer’s cage was Sam’s burden to bear and no one else’s, which is without a doubt the reason why he now feels guilty for passing his 'crazy' to Castiel, even though he had no say in the matter. Sam did not ask Castiel to make a sacrifice on his behalf. In fact, from Sam’s hospital conversation with Dean we know that he did not want anyone to bend over backwards to save him, but once again Sam’s control over his own fate was taken away, leaving him to deal with feelings of guilt for someone else’s choices.

So, all in all, there are many different character aspects tied to Sam’s post-hell arc, and therefore it was crucial to resolve said arc with due diligence. However, by taking a broad-brush to the whole storyline, the writers also glossed over all possible implications, and that is a great disservice to Sam’s character. But well, given how the writers treated Dean’s post-hell story, I should probably not be surprised and just content myself with the fact that Sam did get a post-hell arc at all. Okay, sorry for the rant, but I feel incredibly frustrated at the moment. I have not been this disappointed with the resolution to a storyline for one of the main characters in a long time. None of the above is actually the fault of this week’s episode though, so let’s take a look at the rest of Party On, Garth now.

Garth: "I'll can the uniform, go Fed. See you at the brewery in forty."
Dean: "He grows on you."

As I already pointed out in my review for Time For A Wedding, the introduction of Garth has been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreadful episode for me, so I was pleasantly surprised to see him back here. It is no secret that I love stories that involve other hunters and/or the hunters’ community, mainly because they inevitably serve as a contrast or mirror to Sam and Dean, and Garth is no exception. I guess it is fair to say that, basically, Garth is the polar opposite of all things Winchester. As a hunter, he is clearly not as experienced as Sam and Dean, but he obviously gets the job done nonetheless. The fact that he calls the brothers when his standard salt-and-burn is not quite as cut and dry as he thought it was suggests to me that he mostly does simple routine jobs – and I think that is a perfectly valid approach to hunting. Moreover, Garth obviously enjoys his job and for a hunter who works alone, he is remarkably well adjusted. He is optimistic and good-natured, emotionally honest and open. He freely speaks his mind and has no problems to broach sensitive topics or to physically express his affection. He also seems to maintain a steady relationship outside of hunting, and despite his rather unconventional demeanour, he obviously manages to connect to people. Overall, Garth is maybe the first professional hunter in the show who illustrates that hunting does not need to be a self-destructive occupation shaped by violence and social isolation. Of course, we know nothing about Garth’s personal history, and it is doubtful that it compares to the horrors the Winchesters have suffered, but still, I think Sam and Dean could learn a thing or two from him, especially where emotional openness is concerned.

However, the brothers’ collaboration with Garth also highlights their professionalism, underlining how efficiently Sam and Dean work as a team and how well attuned to each other they are. Sam and Dean smoothly take over the investigation, putting the clues together and creatively working around their limited resources. They have entire non-verbal conversations behind Garth’s back – I really love when they do that – and dispatch the shojo in-sync with each other, even though one of them is heavily drunk at the time. Talking of inebriety, my favourite moment in the episode is without a doubt the scene where Sam and Dean get drunk together. ♥ I love everything about it, from the brothers amicably clinking their glasses, to Sam’s eloquent 'thingies' speech, to Dean’s statement that he missed these talks. I think the latter in particular is very touching; it not only hints at plenty of shared drunken shenanigans in the past, but also indicates that Dean felt he could not entirely relax around Sam as long as he was mentally unstable, and I am glad to see him moving on from that. Admittedly, I really wished the writers had expanded this particular scene. It would have been the perfect opportunity to make up for the lack of intimate brotherly moments in The Born-Again Identity. I mean, a drunken heart-to-heart would have given the brothers a chance to reconnect in the aftermath of Sam’s breakdown and process some of the recent events. Moreover, it would have been a great opportunity to address Dean’s drinking problem. Not that I do not appreciate Sam’s quip about alcohol substituting vitamins for Dean at this point, but it would have been nice, had it triggered a more serious examination of Dean’s alcohol abuse and how it affects him. Basically, the whole episode plot seems designed to deal with that aspect of Dean’s arc, so it is all the more disappointing that it is barely mentioned.

Dean: "Right, I mean if it was Bobby, he would let us know. I mean, who knows more about being a ghost than Bobby? Instant Swayze, right?"
Sam: "Exactly."
Dean: "Okay. Okay, so your theory is that we’re practically regular people about something for once."

I love Sam and Dean’s conversation about Bobby and grief. ♥ I love especially that Sam openly approaches Dean about what happened at the brewery and then does not allow him to deflect, pushing until his brother actually talks to him for once. Naturally, their conversation is somewhat heated, but they both listen to what the other has to say and they easily reach an understanding, and that once again demonstrates how mature the brothers are nowadays, even in emotionally charged, controversial discussions. Overall, I think their argument here is one of those situations where both brothers’ perspectives are equally valid. Fact is, there have been a row of 'coincidences' that can easily be attributed to either a ghostly presence or a grieving mindset, and the only tangible evidence either way is Sam’s failed Ouija board experiment - although I suspect said experiment would have yielded different results, had Dean (and hence Dean's flask) been present. By the way, I think it is completely understandable that Sam did not tell Dean about his attempt to contact Bobby. After all, Sam was unable to trust his own perception at the time, so it makes sense that he would feel the need to verify that what he thought he saw was real, before he talked to Dean. Moreover, it took Dean quite a long time to stop treating his brother like a ticking bomb that can go off at any minute after Sam’s initial breakdown in Hello, Cruel World, and I have no doubt that Sam feared to set off Dean’s alarm bells again by voicing his thoughts. In retrospect, Sam’s hurried explanation for Dean’s vanished beer in Adventures in Babysitting gains new layers knowing that he was afraid to lose his mind again, and his categorical denial of Bobby’s presence in The Slice Girls makes even more sense knowing that he tried to contact him.

Now, the show has been hinting at the fact that Bobby has turned into a ghost in several episodes, but Party On, Garth finally gives us visual proof, and I am not ashamed to admit that I started to tear up, when I saw Bobby’s ghost staring forlornly after Sam and Dean. Man, I missed the old man. ♥ Unlike Sam and Dean though, I do not find it particularly surprising that Bobby does not know how to contact them. I daresay that being an expert on ghost lore does not automatically translate into practical knowledge about being one, nobody should know that better than Sam and Dean. I mean, back in Death Takes A Holiday, the brothers struggled to interact with the real world as well, after Pamela had turned them into spirits, and if it had not been for young Cole’s crash course in 'ghost moves 101', they would have been utterly lost. Bobby obviously figured out how to manipulate objects pretty quickly, but I would assume that becoming visible or making himself heard is a different matter entirely. Now, we know that most ghosts become violent because isolation drives them into madness – exceptions like Mary Winchester notwithstanding – so Bobby’s failure to contact Sam and Dean does not bode all that well for him. I just hope that once he manages to establish communication with the brothers, his connection to them will be able to ground him. However, I guess we would be wise to remember that Marin, Sam’s fellow inpatient in The Born-Again Identity, maintained an emotional connection to the ghost of her brother, and he turned violent nonetheless.

That all being said, while the part of me that never wanted Bobby to die in the first place is delighted to have him back, the analytical part of me cannot help but wonder why the writers decided to take Sam and Dean’s support system away, if they now return all the characters (first Castiel, now Bobby) before they actually had the time to explore the ramifications of that decision. Don’t get me wrong, I am actually looking forward to seeing more of Bobby’s struggle with his ghostly existence. It is a storyline the writers have never done before and by returning Bobby as a ghost, they at least do not entirely undermine the emotional impact of Death’s Door. However, at this point, I would really like to see the brothers achieve success on their own, especially on the leviathan front. Not to mention that I am still waiting for Bobby’s death to actually serve as a significant driving force in Sam and Dean’s story. I mean, Dean’s initial thirst for revenge in the wake of Bobby’s death never really went anywhere, and apart from Dean’s one throwaway line in Out With The Old – about living your life in a way that would make your loved ones proud – there is not much indication that the brothers’ character development benefitted from losing Bobby either. So, I hope that if the writers pursue Bobby’s struggle as a storyline in its own right, they will do it from his isolated perspective, while Sam and Dean remain oblivious to his presence for a while. That way they would create a very emotional side-plot for Bobby, but still allow for an extended exploration of the brothers’ current status quo.

One last word, I really have to say that, up to and including Out With The Old, I have been pretty happy with the direction of S7, but now that we are in the resolution phase of the season, I get the impression that the storytelling seems to be somewhat falling apart. As I already pointed out, the resolution to Sam’s post-hell storyline is an utter mess, and Dean’s arc made no true progress throughout the season, which, in turn, prevented the brotherly relationship from moving forward as well, since Dean’s depression and unresolved issues kept him emotionally withdrawn from Sam to an extent. Furthermore, Bobby’s death did not serve quite as much purpose as I anticipated and, with Bobby and Castiel returning, the overarching theme of Sam and Dean’s isolation seems to become a moot point. That leaves the leviathan storyline, and I fear that the writers will pull a last-minute deus-ex-machina out of their hats to get rid of that one, too. Of course, it is still possible for the writers to pull it together in the last couple of episodes, but at the moment I am not very optimistic.

What else is noteworthy:

(1) I have seen a row of angry fan comments about the scene between Dean, Garth and the traumatized girl Tess, complaining about the fact that it is Garth, and not Dean, who deals with the girl and pointing out that it is unrealistic that Garth’s 'creepy' sock puppet works on her. Personally, I don’t think Garth’s interaction with the girl is meant to diminish Dean’s unique way of connecting with children at all. We know that Dean is fantastic with traumatized children, not only because he is able to relate to them due to his own childhood experiences, but also because he treats them with respect and takes them seriously. However, as I said before, Garth’s character is mainly used to build a counterpoint to Sam and Dean, and this scene is no exception. Garth may use completely different methods than the brothers, methods that appear unconventional or even silly at times, but he still gets the job done. Of course, the Mr. Fizzles moment is played for laughs and, consequentially, it is a tad over the top, but that does not necessarily mean that the idea behind it is invalid. I know from personal experience that there are children who respond exceptionally well to hand/sock puppets – there is a reason why they are used in children’s therapy – so Garth’s success with the girl is not entirely implausible in my opinion. I would concede that Tess is maybe a tad too old to still react to puppets like that, but I would argue that in her fragile emotional state a certain level of regression is not surprising.

In conclusion: I guess whether or not someone enjoys Party On, Garth largely depends on how much they can connect to Garth’s character. Personally, I like him, and I would not be averse to seeing him again, in moderate doses at least. Moreover though, I love it when the brothers make new friends, especially friends who are not primarily Dean’s friend or Sam’s friend, but who are equally attached to both of them, and I think Garth fits that bill. Anyway, since we are now moving into the final stage of the season, I try to stay away from spoilers, so I have no idea what the writers have next in store for us. I just hope they will address at least some of my concerns where the various character storylines are concerned, because I would hate it if my overall love for S7 would be marred by a weak closing act.

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Did you know? In order to keep his return as a spirit a secret, Jim Beaver spread rumours about his new movie project 'The abominable Snowman' on Twitter. He even went as far as googling images of film crews in the snow and posting them on his account. (SDCC 2012)

In other fandom news: I guess by now almost everyone will be aware of the fact that Sera Gamble will step down as a show runner and that Jeremy Carver will take her place in S8 – provided there will be a S8 of course. I really have to say that I am sad to see Sera go. She has been with the show from day one, and I think there is no denying that she wrote some of the best episodes Supernatural has to offer. Just this season, she thoroughly impressed me with her writing for Death’s Door, and I cannot help but feel that we lose an invaluable member of the Supernatural family with her departure. Furthermore, I loved her direction for S6/7. In fact, I preferred her seasons by far over the last two seasons with Kripke at the helm. I think she did wonders for the level of maturity in the overall writing for the show, not only for the characters, who were finally allowed to act their age, but also for the humour, which stopped being crude and juvenile. I have always hated the bashing Sera had to endure from this fandom, she did not deserve that and I just hope it didn’t play a part in her decision to leave. I wish her all the best for her future. ♥ That being said, Jeremy Carver has been one of my favourite writers in S3-S5, and I was devastated when he left the show to produce Being Human (US), so I am obviously thrilled to see him return to Supernatural. I have no idea how he will do as a show runner, but I am looking forward to what he will bring to the table. At the very least I have trust in his ability to write the brothers well, and that is a good start.