SDCC 2012 | S8 spoilers
Jul. 18th, 2012 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galatheaMost people are probably aware that, as usual, a row of S8 spoilers were released at the Comic-Con in San Diego last weekend, and I just had to get some thoughts about those spoilers off my chest. Please be aware that this is highly spoilery for S8, so continue at your own risk.
I admit, after reading through most of the Supernatural interviews and panels from last weekend, I kind of went into a meltdown of massive proportions. I haven’t been this miserable and depressed for a long time, and since I am still upset several days later, I decided to vent a little – and maybe make some rationalization attempts. I was frustrated right from the start, when it became clear that S8 would see a return of the heaven & hell storyline, a part of the mythology that, in my humble opinion, has become truly tiresome and repetitive at this point. I had high hopes that the writers would use the opportunity to finish what Sera Gamble had started these past two years, namely a gradual disengagement from the angel and demon mythology that dominated the mytharc for five years. Alas, the writers decided to march into the opposite direction. But well, ultimately I don’t care about the mytharc, so I was willing to accept this turn of events, as long as the emotional arcs for Sam and Dean would be satisfying. Everyone who reads my episode reviews will know that I was highly optimistic after the S7 finale, because it opened up so many intriguing possibilities for the character arcs next season. However, almost everything the writers and producers revealed about Sam and Dean’s time apart and subsequent reunion was the opposite of what I had imagined, which, honestly, I could have lived with, if the writers had presented a scenario that I find even remotely engaging – but instead the spoilers read like my worst nightmare come true.
So, here’s a short summary of the spoilers in question: Apparently, about a year will have passed since Sam and Dean defeated Dick Roman, and while Dean was in purgatory, Sam quit hunting and returned to a civilian life. With no leads to go on in regard to Dean’s whereabouts, and with all his friends and family dead, Sam seemingly decided that he has given enough to the cause and successfully builds a new life for himself. When Dean returns from purgatory – he apparently made a deal with one of the monsters he met – he finds Sam settled and content and is unsurprisingly hurt when he learns that Sam never even looked for him. They hit the road again for some kind of 'quest', the details of which have yet to be revealed though.
Sounds familiar? That’s because it’s basically a rehash of the beginning of S6, only with reversed roles for the brothers. Apart from the repetitiveness of it all, the idea of Sam simply abandoning his brother because he doesn’t know where to look is so ridiculous, I can’t wrap my head around it. In fact, the idea is so outrageously out of character for Sam, that I can’t quite believe the writers would honestly think it is a valid scenario for S8. I will not deny that the writers came up with some questionable ideas over the years, but whatever their shortcomings in general, their character work remained relatively steady. Now, it’s no secret that I lost my trust in the writers long ago. I may believe in Jeremy Carver’s ability to write the brothers well, but let’s face it, he has been away from the show for two years, and who knows if he is still as in touch with the characters as he used to be. However, there has always been one person who managed to retain my trust throughout the years, and that person is Robert Singer. Ever since I saw him and Eric Kripke argue about character-driven versus plot-driven approach to storytelling back at the S1 Paley festival – Kripke openly admitted that it was Singer who brought the depth to the characters, whereas he was mainly focused on the urban legends aspect – I trusted him to know what’s right for the characters, and it’s inconceivable that he would not see how problematic the abovementioned scenario is for the integrity of Sam’s character. So, this whole set-up has to be a misdirection, I have to believe that or I will not be able to watch S8.
My initial thought was that Sam had somehow convinced himself that Dean is truly dead. I think it’s the only way Sam would be able to get enough closure to move on with his life. However, apparently Sam tells his brother upon his return that he didn’t know where Dean was and hence moved on – and honestly, that makes no sense. Back in Time after Time, when Dean tackled Chronos and vanished into thin air, Sam was perfectly capable of deducing that Dean was sucked into the past with Chronos, and the situation with Dick Roman in Survival of the Fittest wasn’t any different. Sam knows that, upon death, monsters return to purgatory, so it’s not even a leap to come to the conclusion that Dean was sucked into purgatory with the leviathan leader. Moreover, Crowley made no secret of the fact that he knows something about the side-effects of the anti-leviathan weapon, and surely, Sam wouldn’t rest before he knows what that something was. Sam also knows that it is possible to open a door to purgatory without letting every monster in it out. H. P. Lovecraft proved that. Now, I would understand that, after everything the brothers went through these last couple of years, Sam would be hesitant to open a door to another dimension, not knowing what horrors he might unleash on the world in the process. He knows better than that by now. I can see him retire from hunting in order to dedicate himself to the task of finding a way to get Dean back without starting another apocalypse, but for Sam to simply throw the towel right from the start is simply unimaginable. That’s just not who Sam is.
So, there has to be another explanation for Sam’s behaviour. Now, back in S6, when Crowley and Castiel plotted to open purgatory, Castiel’s goals have always been clear, but we never really learned what Crowley hoped to gain from their plan. I have no doubt that he pursued interests of his own though, and when Castiel betrayed him, those plans were obviously thwarted. In S7, Crowley laid low, no doubt plotting his comeback, and he is not stupid. He knows that Sam and Dean threw a wrench into every single plan concocted by angels, demons or leviathans, and he has been on their blacklist for quite some time now. So he has every reason to believe that he will have them on his tail as soon as he sets whatever plan in motion. Of course, he could simply kill the brothers to get them out of his way, but the Winchesters have a habit of coming back from the dead. Heck, they are even on a first-name basis with Death himself, so he might have come to the conclusion that a different strategy will yield better results. The first step would be to separate the brothers, obviously, and their reliance on his blood for the anti-leviathan weapon provided Crowley with a unique opportunity to get rid of one (or even both) of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had tempered with the blood – maybe he added a little spell work to make sure that the weapon had the intended side-effect – but maybe he simply knew that the weapon would allow him to kill two birds with one stone. Still, even on his own Sam would probably be capable enough to cross Crowley’s plans, so he had to get him out of the way as well.
So, I think it is entirely possible that he offered Sam a pact, namely Crowley’s help with Dean’s situation in exchange for Sam turning a blind eye to Crowley’s activities by retiring from the hunt. For obvious reasons, pacts with demons are a sore topic for Sam, so Crowley would have had to have a very convincing argument to get Sam to agree to a cooperation. The idea of a pact between Crowley and Sam is based on one of the exchanges between the brothers in the S8 opener. Apparently, Dean asks Sam if he wasn’t paying attention to the strange things happening around the country, and Sam evades Dean’s question by telling him that there have been others hunters out there to take care of things. That just doesn’t sound like Sam at all, especially if we assume that those 'strange things' refer to more than just the normal supernatural activity. Something major is going on and that’s when Sam decides to quit the life? I don’t think so. Those 'strange things' that are happening around the country could very well be connected to Crowley’s activities; activities he knew would draw Sam’s attention as a hunter, which is why he wanted Sam out of the picture in the first place. Of course, Sam would hesitate to tell Dean about a pact like that, either because he is bound by a promise to Crowley, or because he feels too guilty and is afraid that it will remind Dean of Sam’s collaboration with Ruby. So that would explain his rather dissatisfactory attempts to explain himself to Dean.
I know, I’m making an awful lot of assumptions based on some very vague spoilers, but I have to rationalise these spoilers somehow to make the next two and a half months bearable. The thought that the writers might assassinate my favourite character on TV for no good reason just makes me physically ill. Maybe my worries are entirely unfounded and it works out just fine. After all, I had a major meltdown due to the spoilers for S6 as well, and then the season opener just put all my worries to rest. No matter how things turn out in the end though, all those spoilers sound suspiciously like a rehash of S4 and S6 themes, and I have to wonder why the team even decided to come back for another year if they are just going to tread old waters again and again. I hope that I will regain my enthusiasm for the next season, because otherwise it will severely mess with my motivation to write or make art for the rest of the hiatus.
I admit, after reading through most of the Supernatural interviews and panels from last weekend, I kind of went into a meltdown of massive proportions. I haven’t been this miserable and depressed for a long time, and since I am still upset several days later, I decided to vent a little – and maybe make some rationalization attempts. I was frustrated right from the start, when it became clear that S8 would see a return of the heaven & hell storyline, a part of the mythology that, in my humble opinion, has become truly tiresome and repetitive at this point. I had high hopes that the writers would use the opportunity to finish what Sera Gamble had started these past two years, namely a gradual disengagement from the angel and demon mythology that dominated the mytharc for five years. Alas, the writers decided to march into the opposite direction. But well, ultimately I don’t care about the mytharc, so I was willing to accept this turn of events, as long as the emotional arcs for Sam and Dean would be satisfying. Everyone who reads my episode reviews will know that I was highly optimistic after the S7 finale, because it opened up so many intriguing possibilities for the character arcs next season. However, almost everything the writers and producers revealed about Sam and Dean’s time apart and subsequent reunion was the opposite of what I had imagined, which, honestly, I could have lived with, if the writers had presented a scenario that I find even remotely engaging – but instead the spoilers read like my worst nightmare come true.
So, here’s a short summary of the spoilers in question: Apparently, about a year will have passed since Sam and Dean defeated Dick Roman, and while Dean was in purgatory, Sam quit hunting and returned to a civilian life. With no leads to go on in regard to Dean’s whereabouts, and with all his friends and family dead, Sam seemingly decided that he has given enough to the cause and successfully builds a new life for himself. When Dean returns from purgatory – he apparently made a deal with one of the monsters he met – he finds Sam settled and content and is unsurprisingly hurt when he learns that Sam never even looked for him. They hit the road again for some kind of 'quest', the details of which have yet to be revealed though.
Sounds familiar? That’s because it’s basically a rehash of the beginning of S6, only with reversed roles for the brothers. Apart from the repetitiveness of it all, the idea of Sam simply abandoning his brother because he doesn’t know where to look is so ridiculous, I can’t wrap my head around it. In fact, the idea is so outrageously out of character for Sam, that I can’t quite believe the writers would honestly think it is a valid scenario for S8. I will not deny that the writers came up with some questionable ideas over the years, but whatever their shortcomings in general, their character work remained relatively steady. Now, it’s no secret that I lost my trust in the writers long ago. I may believe in Jeremy Carver’s ability to write the brothers well, but let’s face it, he has been away from the show for two years, and who knows if he is still as in touch with the characters as he used to be. However, there has always been one person who managed to retain my trust throughout the years, and that person is Robert Singer. Ever since I saw him and Eric Kripke argue about character-driven versus plot-driven approach to storytelling back at the S1 Paley festival – Kripke openly admitted that it was Singer who brought the depth to the characters, whereas he was mainly focused on the urban legends aspect – I trusted him to know what’s right for the characters, and it’s inconceivable that he would not see how problematic the abovementioned scenario is for the integrity of Sam’s character. So, this whole set-up has to be a misdirection, I have to believe that or I will not be able to watch S8.
My initial thought was that Sam had somehow convinced himself that Dean is truly dead. I think it’s the only way Sam would be able to get enough closure to move on with his life. However, apparently Sam tells his brother upon his return that he didn’t know where Dean was and hence moved on – and honestly, that makes no sense. Back in Time after Time, when Dean tackled Chronos and vanished into thin air, Sam was perfectly capable of deducing that Dean was sucked into the past with Chronos, and the situation with Dick Roman in Survival of the Fittest wasn’t any different. Sam knows that, upon death, monsters return to purgatory, so it’s not even a leap to come to the conclusion that Dean was sucked into purgatory with the leviathan leader. Moreover, Crowley made no secret of the fact that he knows something about the side-effects of the anti-leviathan weapon, and surely, Sam wouldn’t rest before he knows what that something was. Sam also knows that it is possible to open a door to purgatory without letting every monster in it out. H. P. Lovecraft proved that. Now, I would understand that, after everything the brothers went through these last couple of years, Sam would be hesitant to open a door to another dimension, not knowing what horrors he might unleash on the world in the process. He knows better than that by now. I can see him retire from hunting in order to dedicate himself to the task of finding a way to get Dean back without starting another apocalypse, but for Sam to simply throw the towel right from the start is simply unimaginable. That’s just not who Sam is.
So, there has to be another explanation for Sam’s behaviour. Now, back in S6, when Crowley and Castiel plotted to open purgatory, Castiel’s goals have always been clear, but we never really learned what Crowley hoped to gain from their plan. I have no doubt that he pursued interests of his own though, and when Castiel betrayed him, those plans were obviously thwarted. In S7, Crowley laid low, no doubt plotting his comeback, and he is not stupid. He knows that Sam and Dean threw a wrench into every single plan concocted by angels, demons or leviathans, and he has been on their blacklist for quite some time now. So he has every reason to believe that he will have them on his tail as soon as he sets whatever plan in motion. Of course, he could simply kill the brothers to get them out of his way, but the Winchesters have a habit of coming back from the dead. Heck, they are even on a first-name basis with Death himself, so he might have come to the conclusion that a different strategy will yield better results. The first step would be to separate the brothers, obviously, and their reliance on his blood for the anti-leviathan weapon provided Crowley with a unique opportunity to get rid of one (or even both) of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had tempered with the blood – maybe he added a little spell work to make sure that the weapon had the intended side-effect – but maybe he simply knew that the weapon would allow him to kill two birds with one stone. Still, even on his own Sam would probably be capable enough to cross Crowley’s plans, so he had to get him out of the way as well.
So, I think it is entirely possible that he offered Sam a pact, namely Crowley’s help with Dean’s situation in exchange for Sam turning a blind eye to Crowley’s activities by retiring from the hunt. For obvious reasons, pacts with demons are a sore topic for Sam, so Crowley would have had to have a very convincing argument to get Sam to agree to a cooperation. The idea of a pact between Crowley and Sam is based on one of the exchanges between the brothers in the S8 opener. Apparently, Dean asks Sam if he wasn’t paying attention to the strange things happening around the country, and Sam evades Dean’s question by telling him that there have been others hunters out there to take care of things. That just doesn’t sound like Sam at all, especially if we assume that those 'strange things' refer to more than just the normal supernatural activity. Something major is going on and that’s when Sam decides to quit the life? I don’t think so. Those 'strange things' that are happening around the country could very well be connected to Crowley’s activities; activities he knew would draw Sam’s attention as a hunter, which is why he wanted Sam out of the picture in the first place. Of course, Sam would hesitate to tell Dean about a pact like that, either because he is bound by a promise to Crowley, or because he feels too guilty and is afraid that it will remind Dean of Sam’s collaboration with Ruby. So that would explain his rather dissatisfactory attempts to explain himself to Dean.
I know, I’m making an awful lot of assumptions based on some very vague spoilers, but I have to rationalise these spoilers somehow to make the next two and a half months bearable. The thought that the writers might assassinate my favourite character on TV for no good reason just makes me physically ill. Maybe my worries are entirely unfounded and it works out just fine. After all, I had a major meltdown due to the spoilers for S6 as well, and then the season opener just put all my worries to rest. No matter how things turn out in the end though, all those spoilers sound suspiciously like a rehash of S4 and S6 themes, and I have to wonder why the team even decided to come back for another year if they are just going to tread old waters again and again. I hope that I will regain my enthusiasm for the next season, because otherwise it will severely mess with my motivation to write or make art for the rest of the hiatus.
