Review | 8x12 | As Time Goes By
Feb. 6th, 2013 03:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galatheaWell, I enjoyed that. Granted, not nearly as much as the previous episode, but, unlike many other episodes this season, rewatching Adam Glass’ As Time Goes By for reviewing purposes did not feel like a hardship. The episode not only expands the mythology, but also the Winchester family history, and I think it does both reasonably well, especially considering how complex the mythology has become at this point in the show. Surprisingly enough, it is the mythology aspect of the episode that I find particularly intriguing, and that is certainly a first this season. Still, I do have a couple of problems with Sam and Dean’s characterisation – mostly because of continuity issues, which really seems to be the main problem of S8 – and that is the reason why As Time Goes By is 'only' a good episode in my book, rather than an outstanding one. But the fact that we had two enjoyable episodes in a row now gives me some hope that this season may have turned a corner.
I admit, watching As Time Goes By was an emotionally confusing experience for me. I mean, on the one hand, I felt really comfortable. The episode has a lot of the ingredients I love in a Supernatural episode – amicable brothers, an interesting plot, the exploration of the Winchester family history, compelling one-off characters – so naturally I enjoyed myself. On the other hand, I felt frequently irritated by oddly dissonant moments in the episode, moments where I felt that something is off, but I did not exactly know what. After mulling it over, though, I came to the conclusion that, once again, this is a problem of continuity. See, where the brothers’ characterisation is concerned, the episode feels like it could be set in S2 and therefore generates a sense of familiarity. After all, I know the S2 characters like the back of my hand. However, we are currently in S8, and S8 Sam and Dean are just not S2 Sam and Dean. The characters have changed to such a degree over the past couple of years that a straightforward S2 characterisation at this point in the show creates a vague sense of disconcertment, which obviously clashes with the comforting sense of familiarity and hence results in an emotional dissonance for the viewer. Well, for this viewer, at any rate. Mind you, it is not a continuous feeling. Most of the episode works just fine as it is. But Sam and Dean’s positions concerning John, as well as Dean’s emotional speech about saving Sam, feel off to me. I will go into this in further detail in the corresponding sections below.
Dean: "Henry, you need to understand something. When my dad died, I couldn’t save him. No matter how bad I wanted to. I never want that to happen to Sam. Ever. If there’s a chance that I can save him, I’m gonna do it. He’s my brother. He’s the only family I got."
Sam and Dean’s amicable interaction in As Time Goes By continues well from where we left them off in LARP and the Real Girl, and I enjoyed their dynamic immensely. It is apparent that the brothers’ mutual efforts to emotionally reconnect have paid off; they are visibly comfortable around each other and their usual smooth teamwork is back in place. I love especially Sam and Dean’s pensive talk about their family’s legacy at Henry’s grave. I admit, I kind of missed their usual roadside heart-to-hearts this season, so their conversation here was a pleasant surprise. Anyway, I think both brothers’ reaction to their encounter with Henry is rather in character. Sam takes something positive from his time with their grandfather, namely a new understanding of his own family history and hence a new context for his and Dean’s past. Dean’s reaction, on the other hand, is visceral rather than cerebral. He keenly feels the loss of yet another family member and only sees another Winchester sacrifice made in the name of the greater good. However, that final shot of Sam and Dean, standing shoulder to shoulder at their grandfather’s grave, still conveys a sense of hope. ♥
Sadly, Dean’s emotional speech about his need to save Sam is the only brotherly moment that does not sit right with me. Now, usually, this would exactly be the kind of speech that pushes all my Sam'n'Dean buttons, so I was quite distraught when I felt irritated rather than touched. I guess my problem is that Dean’s words express a sentiment that rings true for S2 Dean, but not for his present-day self. Not because he loves Sam any less or would not do everything in his power to save him, but because the brothers’ past experiences have taught them that saving each other at all costs comes at a terrible price. Dean might not have known the exact scale of Abaddon’s plans, but he should know better than to give into the demands of one of Lucifer’s knights just because Sam’s life is on the line. It is not that I think he should not have tried to save Sam, but I would have liked Dean’s little speech to reflect their problematic history with demon deals. Moreover, I would have expected his words to reflect the brothers’ recent conflict. I mean, one would think that Dean’s anger and hurt in view of the fact that Sam did not look for him when he was in purgatory would affect the sentiment expressed in his words negatively. After all, only a few weeks ago Dean told Sam that Benny is a better brother to him than Sam ever was and resentment like that does not just go away. Sam and Dean’s efforts to reconnect have been an important first step towards reconciliation, but I need them to have a mature discussion about the reasons why they had a falling out in the first place. I may find the brothers’ conflict in the first half of the season contrived, but now that it is canon, I need it to be resolved in a believable manner, or brotherly moments like Dean’s words about Sam here will probably always feel somewhat hollow to me.
Sam: "That’s our grandfather."
Dean: "I’m just sayin’. Before we break out the warm and toasties, let’s not forget that H.G. Wells over there, left dad high and dry when he was a kid."
Sam: "But maybe he didn’t run out on dad. I mean, not on purpose. Maybe he time-travelled here and, I don’t know, got stuck."
Dean: "Yeah, well, either way, dad hated the son of a bitch. "
Sam: "And dad did make up for that how? By being father of the year?"
Dean: "Dad had his issues, okay? But he was always there for us."
As Time Goes By gives us new insight into the paternal side of Sam and Dean’s family by introducing Henry Winchester, John’s father. Of course, the introduction of a new Winchester this late in the show inevitably comes at the price of consistency. For example, we know from In the Beginning that John’s father was still around in 1973, so the information that he 'disappeared' in 1958 contradicts that. Now, John was only four years old when Henry vanished, so it is entirely possible that his mother re-married at some point and that the father John referred to in In the Beginning was actually his stepfather. The fact that John apparently followed in his stepfather’s footsteps and thought of himself as a part of his family history – a mechanic from a family of mechanics – suggests to me that he felt a kinship with his stepfather and strongly identified with him. So, how does that fit with Dean’s sad recount of John’s lonely, emotionally difficult childhood and adolescence? The young man we meet in In the Beginning and The Song Remains the Same does not appear to be the product of a troubled childhood. On the contrary, he is a perfectly sweet, well-adjusted and caring young man. In fact, even his years in the Vietnam War did not seem to have left a whole lot of emotional scars. So to paint John as the tragic victim of paternal abandonment comes off as an attempt to retroactively justify his poor parenting choices, but it simply does not track back well and hence I find myself irritated rather than sympathetic.
That irritation is only exacerbated by Sam and Dean’s sudden change in attitude towards their father. I mean, these past years, the brothers’ positions where John is concerned have been pretty consistent. From S2 onwards, Dean, who used to hero-worship his father, gradually started to distance himself from John. From the anger with John he expressed in Dream A Little Dream of Me, to his utter disillusion with his father when he found out about Adam’s existence in Jump the Shark, to his fear of repeating John’s failures as a parent with Ben in Two and a Half Men, Dean’s erstwhile acceptance of John’s choices as a father progressively turned into rejection. He has never actively forgiven John or made his peace with him, so his sudden defence of John is just jarring. Sam, on the other hand, who used to reject everything about John, gradually started to understand his father better, and once he realised that his own choices in the aftermath of Dean’s death mirrored John’s choices in the aftermath of Mary’s death, he came to revaluate his father’s actions. In The Song Remains the Same, Sam genuinely forgave John for his shortcomings as a father and thus not only let go of his anger, but also outgrew his inner rebellious teenager. It was one of Sam’s most important steps towards maturity, so his snide remark about John as father of the year is just as jarring as Dean’s claim that John was always there for them.
This latter statement in particular is disconcerting, given that Dean already admitted in Dream a Little Dream of Me that John was never there for Sam (and by extension Dean) – and he was right. Paternal abandonment is not only one of Sam and Dean’s most consistent life experiences, but also one of their earliest. John first abandoned his family when Dean was only four years old and Sam was still a baby, namely when he moved out for several days after he and Mary had a fight (Dark Side of the Moon); an event that obviously had a profound impact on Dean. After Mary’s death, John frequently left his children to fend for themselves when they were only five and nine years old, respectively, and he stayed away for longer and longer periods of time the older his sons got. Heck, the show’s narrative began with John deliberately disappearing on his sons, and when Dean desperately asked for his father’s help in Home, or when he was dying in Faith, John could not even be bothered to call. John may have had a larger-than-life position in his sons lives, but his actual presence was spotty at best. "He did the best he could," Dean states at the end of the episode, and we have heard that statement about John many times over the course of the show, but that does not make it true. John’s choices as a parent, before Mary’s death as well as after, have never been his only possible choices; he just consistently chose to put his own needs ahead of the needs of his children. John loved Sam and Dean, there cannot be any doubt about that, but love does not automatically translate into being a good parent – and Dean used to know that.
Now, despite the disappointment and disillusion Dean expressed in regard to John's choices these past couple of years, he obviously still loves him, and I do not think that will ever change. So, I guess it is possible to rationalise Dean’s sudden shift in attitude towards John by attributing it to his encounter with Henry, specifically. It is possible that, rather than genuinely reverting to his former hero-worship for John, Dean simply feels protective of his father when his grandfather shows up. After all, Henry had apparently abandoned young John, and if anyone can relate to the hurt of an abandoned child, it is Dean. It is also possible that the anger Dean directs at Henry for abandoning his family in favour of upholding his commitment to the Men of Letters is redirected anger at John for abandoning him and Sam in favour of committing himself to the hunt for Mary’s killer. It is not entirely uncommon for Dean to transfer his conflicted feelings about John to someone else. Still, overall all this remains speculation, as the episode itself does not give us much to go on where Dean’s motivation – or Sam’s, for that matter – is concerned. I just wished the writers’ approach to the topic had been a tad more nuanced.
Henry: "My father and his father before him were both men of letters. As John and you two should have been. We’re preceptors. Beholders. Chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters. The very elite. They do the rest."
Dean: "So, you’re like the Yodas to our Jedis!"
I have been very critical of this season’s mytharc, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that As Time Goes By delivers a new twist in the mythology that finally manages to engage my interest. The introduction of the Men of Letters – a (now extinct) secret society of scholars devoted to the research of the supernatural, who used hunters as their 'enforcers' – not only fits well into the already established mythology, but also opens up new narrative options, as well as the possibility of new recurring characters. Most importantly though, by tying Sam and Dean’s family history to this new part of the mythology, the brothers become central to the mytharc again – provided the storyline about the Men of Letters and their fabled collection of supernatural books, spells and items was not only a one-off, of course – and I have wanted that for the past two and a half seasons. Granted, a secret society of scholars is not the most original concept – I guess parallels to Buffy’s watchers’ council are inevitable – but still, it works well as a counterbalance to Supernatural’s hunters’ community.
I think the idea of a central organisation that collects and stores information and makes it available to hunters in order to optimise the fight against the supernatural makes a lot of sense. I am actually rather astonished that the society has not been rebuilt after it was (apparently) wiped out by Abaddon in 1958. It could be of immense use to the hunters’ community, after all. I mean, most hunters are loners and general exchange of information amongst them seems the exception rather than the rule. The Campbells, for example, hoarded their extensive knowledge and never shared it with the community at large, and most hunters keep their individual journals, but they rarely seem to compare notes with others or try to make sure that their findings pass on to other hunters once they die. Just last season, Sam almost died because the information on the vetalas’ hunting practices in John’s journal was wrong, and Dean, who knew better, never thought to chronicle or share his own experiences (Adventures in Babysitting). Incidents like that could easily be avoided if the flow of information was centrally regulated. I guess that, in a sense, Bobby was an unknowing successor to the Men of Letters – a walking library on the supernatural, a collector of rare books and items, who made his knowledge available to other hunters – and I think he would have loved the idea of such an organisation, even if he would not have approved of their snobbism.
I also rather like the thought of Sam and Dean as legacies. They may not be the kind of legacies Henry had in mind, but maybe they constitute even better ones. After all, Sam and Dean represent the union of both worlds – the Men of Letters (Sam), as well as the hunters (Dean). The Men of Letters may have been knowledgeable, but they were still wiped out by a single demon. The Campbells may have been capable hunters, but they, too, are now extinct. They may have been the elite that were entrusted with the Men of Letters’ knowledge – which, by the way, would explain why the Campbells knew about obscure rituals/spells, like for example, the cure for vampirism – but their inability to work with others was their downfall. Sam and Dean, however, are still standing, even after everything life threw at them and that illustrates that they represent the only viable combination of 'the brains and the brawn'. I am really looking forward to the brothers’ quest for the Men of Letters’ hidden treasure, and I find the prospect of Sam and Dean becoming the new guardians of the supernatural 'mother lode' rather exciting. Sharing that ancient knowledge with the hunters’ community at large would probably give the hunters the absolute advantage over the monsters, and in combination with closing the gates of heaven and hell, it could mean the end of the supernatural threat as we know it.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) I think Abaddon is a rather interesting villain, and I am somewhat disappointed that she meets her demise (kind of) at the end of the episode. I particularly like her ability to partially possess humans to gain access to their memories. It illustrates Abaddon’s superiority over lower demons, but still works well within the established demon lore of the show. Of course, the question is why one of Lucifer’s knights would look for human information on the supernatural in the first place, but the timeline suggests to me that Abaddon is Azazel’s predecessor, i.e. that she is looking for a way to free Lucifer from the cage. I think it is entirely possible that the Men of Letters came across information or a spell/artefact that could be exploited for that particular goal. However, since Abaddon obviously never succeeded in her mission, the torch passed to Azazel, who set his own plan in motion. By the way, I really love that Dean and Henry incapacitate Abaddon with a bullet that has a devil’s trap carved into it. It is quite an ingenious idea! I love that, after so many years, the writers sometimes still come up with new twists.
(2) I also quite like Henry, and I think Gil McKinney gives a nuanced performance of the character. Henry’s emotions – his snobby attitude towards his grandchildren, as well as his genuine regret when he realises the effect his disappearance had on his son – transfer well from the screen to the viewer, and I think that is mostly owed to the actor’s performance. Just like with Abaddon’s character, I am disappointed that Henry does not survive the episode. Having him around for a couple of episodes would not only have allowed for an extensive exploration of the Winchester family history and their role as legacies, but also for a longer bonding time between Henry and his grandsons. ♥ Oh, and one more thing, the episode unmistakably confirms that Henry travels to 2013, so what happened to the two years the show jumped forward in time? The missing years in between S5/6 and S7/8, respectively, seem to have magically disappeared, and I am really annoyed that the writers seem incapable of remembering the show’s timeline.
In conclusion: Despite my disappointment with the many continuity issues in As Time Goes By, I truly enjoyed the episode, and that is mainly owed to the fact that, after such an extended period of (forced) conflict between Sam and Dean, I just relish their amicable interaction. Moreover, the new additions to the mythology are intriguing and promise to take the mytharc in a new, Winchester-centric, direction, and I can only welcome that. I just wished the writers would make more of an effort to incorporate the characters’ emotional history into their current characterisation. As it is, I am under the impression that the writers used Sam and Dean’s year apart as a simple reset button, and that just does not do the characters justice.
I admit, watching As Time Goes By was an emotionally confusing experience for me. I mean, on the one hand, I felt really comfortable. The episode has a lot of the ingredients I love in a Supernatural episode – amicable brothers, an interesting plot, the exploration of the Winchester family history, compelling one-off characters – so naturally I enjoyed myself. On the other hand, I felt frequently irritated by oddly dissonant moments in the episode, moments where I felt that something is off, but I did not exactly know what. After mulling it over, though, I came to the conclusion that, once again, this is a problem of continuity. See, where the brothers’ characterisation is concerned, the episode feels like it could be set in S2 and therefore generates a sense of familiarity. After all, I know the S2 characters like the back of my hand. However, we are currently in S8, and S8 Sam and Dean are just not S2 Sam and Dean. The characters have changed to such a degree over the past couple of years that a straightforward S2 characterisation at this point in the show creates a vague sense of disconcertment, which obviously clashes with the comforting sense of familiarity and hence results in an emotional dissonance for the viewer. Well, for this viewer, at any rate. Mind you, it is not a continuous feeling. Most of the episode works just fine as it is. But Sam and Dean’s positions concerning John, as well as Dean’s emotional speech about saving Sam, feel off to me. I will go into this in further detail in the corresponding sections below.
Dean: "Henry, you need to understand something. When my dad died, I couldn’t save him. No matter how bad I wanted to. I never want that to happen to Sam. Ever. If there’s a chance that I can save him, I’m gonna do it. He’s my brother. He’s the only family I got."
Sam and Dean’s amicable interaction in As Time Goes By continues well from where we left them off in LARP and the Real Girl, and I enjoyed their dynamic immensely. It is apparent that the brothers’ mutual efforts to emotionally reconnect have paid off; they are visibly comfortable around each other and their usual smooth teamwork is back in place. I love especially Sam and Dean’s pensive talk about their family’s legacy at Henry’s grave. I admit, I kind of missed their usual roadside heart-to-hearts this season, so their conversation here was a pleasant surprise. Anyway, I think both brothers’ reaction to their encounter with Henry is rather in character. Sam takes something positive from his time with their grandfather, namely a new understanding of his own family history and hence a new context for his and Dean’s past. Dean’s reaction, on the other hand, is visceral rather than cerebral. He keenly feels the loss of yet another family member and only sees another Winchester sacrifice made in the name of the greater good. However, that final shot of Sam and Dean, standing shoulder to shoulder at their grandfather’s grave, still conveys a sense of hope. ♥
Sadly, Dean’s emotional speech about his need to save Sam is the only brotherly moment that does not sit right with me. Now, usually, this would exactly be the kind of speech that pushes all my Sam'n'Dean buttons, so I was quite distraught when I felt irritated rather than touched. I guess my problem is that Dean’s words express a sentiment that rings true for S2 Dean, but not for his present-day self. Not because he loves Sam any less or would not do everything in his power to save him, but because the brothers’ past experiences have taught them that saving each other at all costs comes at a terrible price. Dean might not have known the exact scale of Abaddon’s plans, but he should know better than to give into the demands of one of Lucifer’s knights just because Sam’s life is on the line. It is not that I think he should not have tried to save Sam, but I would have liked Dean’s little speech to reflect their problematic history with demon deals. Moreover, I would have expected his words to reflect the brothers’ recent conflict. I mean, one would think that Dean’s anger and hurt in view of the fact that Sam did not look for him when he was in purgatory would affect the sentiment expressed in his words negatively. After all, only a few weeks ago Dean told Sam that Benny is a better brother to him than Sam ever was and resentment like that does not just go away. Sam and Dean’s efforts to reconnect have been an important first step towards reconciliation, but I need them to have a mature discussion about the reasons why they had a falling out in the first place. I may find the brothers’ conflict in the first half of the season contrived, but now that it is canon, I need it to be resolved in a believable manner, or brotherly moments like Dean’s words about Sam here will probably always feel somewhat hollow to me.
Sam: "That’s our grandfather."
Dean: "I’m just sayin’. Before we break out the warm and toasties, let’s not forget that H.G. Wells over there, left dad high and dry when he was a kid."
Sam: "But maybe he didn’t run out on dad. I mean, not on purpose. Maybe he time-travelled here and, I don’t know, got stuck."
Dean: "Yeah, well, either way, dad hated the son of a bitch. "
Sam: "And dad did make up for that how? By being father of the year?"
Dean: "Dad had his issues, okay? But he was always there for us."
As Time Goes By gives us new insight into the paternal side of Sam and Dean’s family by introducing Henry Winchester, John’s father. Of course, the introduction of a new Winchester this late in the show inevitably comes at the price of consistency. For example, we know from In the Beginning that John’s father was still around in 1973, so the information that he 'disappeared' in 1958 contradicts that. Now, John was only four years old when Henry vanished, so it is entirely possible that his mother re-married at some point and that the father John referred to in In the Beginning was actually his stepfather. The fact that John apparently followed in his stepfather’s footsteps and thought of himself as a part of his family history – a mechanic from a family of mechanics – suggests to me that he felt a kinship with his stepfather and strongly identified with him. So, how does that fit with Dean’s sad recount of John’s lonely, emotionally difficult childhood and adolescence? The young man we meet in In the Beginning and The Song Remains the Same does not appear to be the product of a troubled childhood. On the contrary, he is a perfectly sweet, well-adjusted and caring young man. In fact, even his years in the Vietnam War did not seem to have left a whole lot of emotional scars. So to paint John as the tragic victim of paternal abandonment comes off as an attempt to retroactively justify his poor parenting choices, but it simply does not track back well and hence I find myself irritated rather than sympathetic.
That irritation is only exacerbated by Sam and Dean’s sudden change in attitude towards their father. I mean, these past years, the brothers’ positions where John is concerned have been pretty consistent. From S2 onwards, Dean, who used to hero-worship his father, gradually started to distance himself from John. From the anger with John he expressed in Dream A Little Dream of Me, to his utter disillusion with his father when he found out about Adam’s existence in Jump the Shark, to his fear of repeating John’s failures as a parent with Ben in Two and a Half Men, Dean’s erstwhile acceptance of John’s choices as a father progressively turned into rejection. He has never actively forgiven John or made his peace with him, so his sudden defence of John is just jarring. Sam, on the other hand, who used to reject everything about John, gradually started to understand his father better, and once he realised that his own choices in the aftermath of Dean’s death mirrored John’s choices in the aftermath of Mary’s death, he came to revaluate his father’s actions. In The Song Remains the Same, Sam genuinely forgave John for his shortcomings as a father and thus not only let go of his anger, but also outgrew his inner rebellious teenager. It was one of Sam’s most important steps towards maturity, so his snide remark about John as father of the year is just as jarring as Dean’s claim that John was always there for them.
This latter statement in particular is disconcerting, given that Dean already admitted in Dream a Little Dream of Me that John was never there for Sam (and by extension Dean) – and he was right. Paternal abandonment is not only one of Sam and Dean’s most consistent life experiences, but also one of their earliest. John first abandoned his family when Dean was only four years old and Sam was still a baby, namely when he moved out for several days after he and Mary had a fight (Dark Side of the Moon); an event that obviously had a profound impact on Dean. After Mary’s death, John frequently left his children to fend for themselves when they were only five and nine years old, respectively, and he stayed away for longer and longer periods of time the older his sons got. Heck, the show’s narrative began with John deliberately disappearing on his sons, and when Dean desperately asked for his father’s help in Home, or when he was dying in Faith, John could not even be bothered to call. John may have had a larger-than-life position in his sons lives, but his actual presence was spotty at best. "He did the best he could," Dean states at the end of the episode, and we have heard that statement about John many times over the course of the show, but that does not make it true. John’s choices as a parent, before Mary’s death as well as after, have never been his only possible choices; he just consistently chose to put his own needs ahead of the needs of his children. John loved Sam and Dean, there cannot be any doubt about that, but love does not automatically translate into being a good parent – and Dean used to know that.
Now, despite the disappointment and disillusion Dean expressed in regard to John's choices these past couple of years, he obviously still loves him, and I do not think that will ever change. So, I guess it is possible to rationalise Dean’s sudden shift in attitude towards John by attributing it to his encounter with Henry, specifically. It is possible that, rather than genuinely reverting to his former hero-worship for John, Dean simply feels protective of his father when his grandfather shows up. After all, Henry had apparently abandoned young John, and if anyone can relate to the hurt of an abandoned child, it is Dean. It is also possible that the anger Dean directs at Henry for abandoning his family in favour of upholding his commitment to the Men of Letters is redirected anger at John for abandoning him and Sam in favour of committing himself to the hunt for Mary’s killer. It is not entirely uncommon for Dean to transfer his conflicted feelings about John to someone else. Still, overall all this remains speculation, as the episode itself does not give us much to go on where Dean’s motivation – or Sam’s, for that matter – is concerned. I just wished the writers’ approach to the topic had been a tad more nuanced.
Henry: "My father and his father before him were both men of letters. As John and you two should have been. We’re preceptors. Beholders. Chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters. The very elite. They do the rest."
Dean: "So, you’re like the Yodas to our Jedis!"
I have been very critical of this season’s mytharc, so it comes as a pleasant surprise that As Time Goes By delivers a new twist in the mythology that finally manages to engage my interest. The introduction of the Men of Letters – a (now extinct) secret society of scholars devoted to the research of the supernatural, who used hunters as their 'enforcers' – not only fits well into the already established mythology, but also opens up new narrative options, as well as the possibility of new recurring characters. Most importantly though, by tying Sam and Dean’s family history to this new part of the mythology, the brothers become central to the mytharc again – provided the storyline about the Men of Letters and their fabled collection of supernatural books, spells and items was not only a one-off, of course – and I have wanted that for the past two and a half seasons. Granted, a secret society of scholars is not the most original concept – I guess parallels to Buffy’s watchers’ council are inevitable – but still, it works well as a counterbalance to Supernatural’s hunters’ community.
I think the idea of a central organisation that collects and stores information and makes it available to hunters in order to optimise the fight against the supernatural makes a lot of sense. I am actually rather astonished that the society has not been rebuilt after it was (apparently) wiped out by Abaddon in 1958. It could be of immense use to the hunters’ community, after all. I mean, most hunters are loners and general exchange of information amongst them seems the exception rather than the rule. The Campbells, for example, hoarded their extensive knowledge and never shared it with the community at large, and most hunters keep their individual journals, but they rarely seem to compare notes with others or try to make sure that their findings pass on to other hunters once they die. Just last season, Sam almost died because the information on the vetalas’ hunting practices in John’s journal was wrong, and Dean, who knew better, never thought to chronicle or share his own experiences (Adventures in Babysitting). Incidents like that could easily be avoided if the flow of information was centrally regulated. I guess that, in a sense, Bobby was an unknowing successor to the Men of Letters – a walking library on the supernatural, a collector of rare books and items, who made his knowledge available to other hunters – and I think he would have loved the idea of such an organisation, even if he would not have approved of their snobbism.
I also rather like the thought of Sam and Dean as legacies. They may not be the kind of legacies Henry had in mind, but maybe they constitute even better ones. After all, Sam and Dean represent the union of both worlds – the Men of Letters (Sam), as well as the hunters (Dean). The Men of Letters may have been knowledgeable, but they were still wiped out by a single demon. The Campbells may have been capable hunters, but they, too, are now extinct. They may have been the elite that were entrusted with the Men of Letters’ knowledge – which, by the way, would explain why the Campbells knew about obscure rituals/spells, like for example, the cure for vampirism – but their inability to work with others was their downfall. Sam and Dean, however, are still standing, even after everything life threw at them and that illustrates that they represent the only viable combination of 'the brains and the brawn'. I am really looking forward to the brothers’ quest for the Men of Letters’ hidden treasure, and I find the prospect of Sam and Dean becoming the new guardians of the supernatural 'mother lode' rather exciting. Sharing that ancient knowledge with the hunters’ community at large would probably give the hunters the absolute advantage over the monsters, and in combination with closing the gates of heaven and hell, it could mean the end of the supernatural threat as we know it.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) I think Abaddon is a rather interesting villain, and I am somewhat disappointed that she meets her demise (kind of) at the end of the episode. I particularly like her ability to partially possess humans to gain access to their memories. It illustrates Abaddon’s superiority over lower demons, but still works well within the established demon lore of the show. Of course, the question is why one of Lucifer’s knights would look for human information on the supernatural in the first place, but the timeline suggests to me that Abaddon is Azazel’s predecessor, i.e. that she is looking for a way to free Lucifer from the cage. I think it is entirely possible that the Men of Letters came across information or a spell/artefact that could be exploited for that particular goal. However, since Abaddon obviously never succeeded in her mission, the torch passed to Azazel, who set his own plan in motion. By the way, I really love that Dean and Henry incapacitate Abaddon with a bullet that has a devil’s trap carved into it. It is quite an ingenious idea! I love that, after so many years, the writers sometimes still come up with new twists.
(2) I also quite like Henry, and I think Gil McKinney gives a nuanced performance of the character. Henry’s emotions – his snobby attitude towards his grandchildren, as well as his genuine regret when he realises the effect his disappearance had on his son – transfer well from the screen to the viewer, and I think that is mostly owed to the actor’s performance. Just like with Abaddon’s character, I am disappointed that Henry does not survive the episode. Having him around for a couple of episodes would not only have allowed for an extensive exploration of the Winchester family history and their role as legacies, but also for a longer bonding time between Henry and his grandsons. ♥ Oh, and one more thing, the episode unmistakably confirms that Henry travels to 2013, so what happened to the two years the show jumped forward in time? The missing years in between S5/6 and S7/8, respectively, seem to have magically disappeared, and I am really annoyed that the writers seem incapable of remembering the show’s timeline.
In conclusion: Despite my disappointment with the many continuity issues in As Time Goes By, I truly enjoyed the episode, and that is mainly owed to the fact that, after such an extended period of (forced) conflict between Sam and Dean, I just relish their amicable interaction. Moreover, the new additions to the mythology are intriguing and promise to take the mytharc in a new, Winchester-centric, direction, and I can only welcome that. I just wished the writers would make more of an effort to incorporate the characters’ emotional history into their current characterisation. As it is, I am under the impression that the writers used Sam and Dean’s year apart as a simple reset button, and that just does not do the characters justice.
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Date: 2013-02-06 03:45 pm (UTC)I'd agree with that. I enjoyed the episod, and I'm so relieved to have enjoyed it that I'm inclined to be forgiving, but at least some of that enjoyment depends on not thinking about it too much. If I take it on its own there's a lot to love. If I try to fit it into the current canon ... Well, I can't.
I'm ambivalent about it. In a way, I'd be happy to forget that the first half of the season ever happened. But a) that would hardly be good writing and b) there's a difference between erasing the last several episodes and erasing the last several years.
So to paint John as the tragic victim of paternal abandonment comes off as an attempt to retroactively justify his poor parenting choices, but it simply does not track back well and hence I find myself irritated rather than sympathetic.
This is one of the things that annoyed me most, largely because I think it could work if only they put some effort into it. The Men of Letters plot is new and interesting, and I wish they'd built up to it from the beginning.
If they had used Sam's retreat from hunting to have him stumble on fragments of his father's history, they could have had him (say) discover that John's mechanic father was actually a step-father. That would make this new information about John, rather than something Sam and Dean have always known. It would fit into the season's theme of changing perspectives. It would make John's amiability in earlier time-travel episodes just one more mask he wore to protect himself. It would even go a long way toward justifying some abrupt changes in Sam and Dean's attitudes toward John, because they would be struggling to re-contextualise his behaviour.
Watching season eight feels like looking at someone's first draft. There are interesting ideas, but they're often underdeveloped - and they keep getting bogged down in sub plots that don't go anywhere.
Most importantly though, by tying Sam and Dean’s family history to this new part of the mythology, the brothers’ become central to the mytharc again
This is, I think, the most exciting aspect of the story. It gives Sam and Dean a reason to be invested - those books are rightfully theirs, and they would be uniquely qualified to disseminate the information. And it's such a hopeful storyline. The best they could hope for with the apocalypse was maintaining the status quo - the world does not end. But here they have the opportunity to lift other hunters out of darkness, and maybe even save some people from monstrosity.
I am actually rather astonished that the society has not been rebuilt after it was (apparently) wiped out by Abaddon in 1958. It could be of immense use to the hunters’ community, after all.
I don't know, I think it makes some sense. I agree that Bobby (and now Garth) looks like an attempt to rebuild, and to a lesser extent Ellen's Roadhouse probably served a similar purpose - hunters could at least exchange information there, Ellen was a knowledgeable source and Ash was her resident tech.
But I also think it looks as though hunters have been sent into a deliberate Dark Age over the last few decades. Since the Men of Letters' library was mislaid, it would take a long time to reconstruct it. The Campbells were best placed to do that, but even if any of them tried they were wiped out themselves relatively quickly. The Roadhouse went early in the demon war. Bobby seems to have hung on in part because he wasn't giving hunters a space to congregate and learn from each other - he was one guy with a big bookshelf and a lot of phones. That allowed him to keep a relatively low profile.
If the demons keep knocking humans down every time they start to organise ...
I think it is entirely possible that the Men of Letters came across information or a spell/artefact that could be exploited for that particular goal.
Given all the setup, I would assume the Men of Letters either have the angel tablet or have information on where it is. I don't know if it says how to liberate Lucifer - but if I were a demon knight trying to liberate my angelic god from his prison, I'd want a look at that thing. :)
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Date: 2013-02-06 10:43 pm (UTC)Yeah, that is the problem with writing reviews. You're required to think about it in more detail. I actually came away from the episode pretty happy, but the more I thought (and wrote) about it, the more it diminished my happiness. Some episodes just don't hold together well and are better enjoyed on a superficial level.
Watching season eight feels like looking at someone's first draft.
I hear you. I often wonder why that is. I mean, okay, Jeremy Carver doesn't have much experience as showrunner, but neither had Kripke or Gamble and they did just fine. Also, Carver has experienced people like Edlund and Singer at his side, who have been with the show for a very long time and know their way around plotting and character development. Shouldn't they step in when they see that the season is falling apart. I guess I just don't understand what's happening in the writers' room at the moment.
And it's such a hopeful storyline.
Yes! I like that, too. I also like that it allows the brothers to be proactive for once. And it certainly is a worthy endgame for the show.
I would assume the Men of Letters either have the angel tablet
Oh, okay, that makes sense. I didn't think that far ahead, but of course it is entirely possible that the MoL secured the tablet.
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Date: 2013-02-06 06:16 pm (UTC)In matters large and small, I'm increasingly convinced that continuity of canon isn't something we can expect or even something they are aiming for, and that makes me very sad. I'm actually getting more out of struggling with the earlier part of the season, where the discontinuities are jarring enough to be potentially creative for me, than now, when things are smoother and no closer to real care.
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Date: 2013-02-06 11:01 pm (UTC)Oh man, I couldn't agree more. I think that's what I felt regarding Dean's 'save Sammy' speech. I felt like I was being manipulated by the writers; they wanted to push our buttons, but they tried too hard and it backfired. I hate when writers do that. I just don't understand how they can ignore basic in-season continuity, let alone across seasons continuity, in this manner.
it also bothers me that two weeks in a row we've gotten much more of a glimpse of how Dean is thinking and feeling about Sam than vice versa.
Well, from S2 onwards Dean's perspective has consistently been overemphasised in the show, so I am not even surprised about that anymore. I don't really feel like I know what Sam has been thinking throughout most of the season so far. The writers never really give Sam someone to confide in, while Dean connects with and talks to every random person they come in contact with. Even Amelia, who would have been the perfect character to reveal Sam's innermost thoughts and feelings on a number of things, has not been used much in that capacity. It's just frustrating for us Sam fans.
I'm increasingly convinced that continuity of canon isn't something we can expect
Sadly, I agree. From what I have seen of the season so far, the writers do not care at all about continuity. And given that the show used to excel in character continuity, it makes me really, really sad. :(
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Date: 2013-02-06 06:37 pm (UTC)And it's 2013, really? The only fan handwave I can come up with is that Dean hasn't updated the Impala's registration tags, but that seems unlikely as it's basically just a neon sign asking to be pulled over by the police. Pretty silly that they can't keep track of what year it is on the show, maybe that should be our clue to not expect much in the way of overall continuity. Disappointing, but understandable I suppose when the show has gone on so long now.
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Date: 2013-02-06 11:09 pm (UTC)Dean is processing his own feelings of guilt at having abandoned Ben and Lisa
That is quite possible, yes. I just wished the writers would have made Dean's motivation a bit more transparent for the viewer, rather than randomly reverting him to his S1 position.
Disappointing, but understandable I suppose when the show has gone on so long now.
See, I think it would not actually be that difficult to tell the story they're telling and still maintain continuity. It really only needs some adjustments here and there and it would work just fine. As it is, the writers give the impression that they are either to lazy or not interested enough to actually think their story through in terms of continuity. It's frustrating.