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galatheaGiven Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming’s rather uneven track record for Supernatural, I went into Man’s Best Friend with Benefits with very low expectations, and unfortunately the episode did nothing to improve my opinion of the writers. Awkward may be the term that best describes this episode; from the unfortunate implications that come with the animal familiar/human witch storyline, to the cringe-worthy frat boy humour, to parts of the characterisation, the episode commits quite a few blunders. Still, I did not hate the episode. Mainly I was bored, actually, and if it was not for the few, somewhat meaningful Sam and Dean scenes, it would have been an entirely forgettable episode.
Sam: "You know, maybe I actually pull this one off."
Dean: "I’m just saying."
Sam: "I know what you’re saying, Dean. You’ve said it. You know, I’ve been going over this and over this. Asking myself, why doesn’t he trust me. It occurred to me finally. It’s not that you don’t trust me. It’s that you can only trust you."
I guess it was to be expected that Sam’s decision to take the 'hell trials' would disrupt the peace between the brothers to some extent, so their arguments in Man’s Best Friend with Benefits are not all that surprising. Now, I think it is understandable that Sam has some trust issues where Dean’s trust in him is concerned. I mean, as I already pointed out in my review to Citizen Fang, it will be increasingly difficult for Sam to ever trust again that a reconciliation between him and Dean is actually solid. Considering that, just a few weeks ago, Dean threw Sam’s past failures in his face – failures Dean had seemingly forgiven him years ago – and told Sam that he cannot trust him because he let Dean down in the past, it makes perfect sense for Sam to now have doubts that Dean will ever again genuinely trust him with anything, no matter how much Dean may protest to the contrary. So, while I am not overly happy that there are once again trust issues between the brothers, it provides at least some continuity to the first half of the season. Granted, I think there is some truth to Sam’s accusation that Dean only trusts himself. Dean has problems with trust in general, he admitted as much back in The Mentalists, but I think to entrust Sam’s safety to anyone other but himself is particularly difficult for Dean, even if that other person is Sam. After all, experience tells Dean that even though Sam is more than capable as a hunter and a person, terrible things tend to happen to him when he makes choices that serve the greater good, things Dean then has to save Sam from, like his death in Cold Oak, the loss of his soul or the destruction of his sanity, and he has no reason to believe that the trials will be any different, so it is understandable that Dean feels a little anxious to hand over control to Sam.
That is why Dean’s words at the end of the episode about trusting Sam with the deal and supporting him one hundred percent are a big step forward for Dean. As I said before, it is one thing for Dean to acknowledge that he needs to let go of his role as Sam’s protector, but another thing entirely to actually do it, and I only hope that he will be able to keep his word, even when Sam is not okay. By the way, Dean’s statement that he realises for the first time that only by hanging together they were able to get through the years of pain and suffering is rather dubious. I mean, really? He only sees that now? I highly doubt that, dear writers. Anyway, as ill luck would have it, the moment Dean tells Sam that he trusts him to be okay, Sam starts coughing up blood and just like that he finds himself in an impossible dilemma. If he tells Dean, his brother will undoubtedly insist on taking the trials himself, and Sam will not only lose the chance to prove his competence, but he will also have to face yet another situation in which Dean places himself in mortal danger for him – and he simply cannot watch Dean die on him again. If he does not tell Dean, however, he jeopardizes the very trust he is so eager to earn, so he is really stuck between a rock and a hard place. Overall, I am not thrilled about the fact that we are heading towards yet another conflict about lies and secrets between the brothers; I find it really frustrating that they have apparently still not learned that particular lesson. However, at least this is the kind of conflict that comes from a place of love and protection and, unlike the conflict we had in the first half of the season, that is something that makes sense to me.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) Sadly, Man’s Best Friend With Benefits is one of those episodes that dumb Dean down for exposition purposes – the notion that Dean would not know what a familiar is seems rather ridiculous – and/or portray him as a sixteen year old, hormonal teenager, who is flustered by all things involving sex, as a (questionable) form of comic relief. I really wished the writers would stop using Dean in this manner whenever it is convenient and stick with an age-appropriate characterisation instead. Dean’s regression is neither funny nor cute at this point in the show. On the other hand, I really like the consistency in Dean’s characterisation where witches are concerned. Dean always had a problem with humans who deliberately turn to the supernatural as a means of empowerment, so his reserved attitude towards their mutual friend James feels very consistent. And while we are talking about Dean, I know some fans think that Dean’s dislike of dogs is somewhat out of character, given that he was rather friendly towards the golden retriever back in Mystery Spot, but I think it is important to remember that that was before he was torn to shreds by hellhounds. I mean, in Yellow Fever Dean was terrified of a Yorkshire terrier, and while his fear may have been amplified to the extreme by the ghost sickness, I think it did reveal a genuine, deep-seated fear of dogs in the aftermath of his hellhound experience.
(2) I am delighted that Bobby keeps getting mentioned this season – I really miss the character’s solid presence in the show – and I love that Sam and Dean still use Bobby’s spells and books, even though they have the Batcave and its endless resources now. I like particularly the shout-out to Shut-Up, Dr. Phil, where Sam and Dean tried to use Bobby’s witch-killing spell as well, but failed because the chicken feet were not properly chilled. Here, Dean not only makes sure that the chicken feet are frozen, but they also change their method of delivery, i.e. preparing a Molotov cocktail instead of lighting the ingredients in a bowl, which renders the spell ineffectual because the 'fumes' never actually reach the witch in question. We do not get to see it often that the brothers learn from past failures in their spell work and modify their methods, so this bit of continuity is especially appreciated.
In conclusion: Man’s Best Friend with Benefits is one of those unfortunate Supernatural episodes where poor writing meets a questionable premise, and the results are predictably eye-roll-worthy. Still, I find it a lot easier to just handwave a badly written episode like this than to get past the problematic characterisation and continuity of the first half of the season. I just hope the show will be back to form next Wednesday - and gives us new Batcave material. It is really funny how much I miss the place already.
I am sorry this review is so short, but my sisters were staying with me last week, so I had no time to write up more extensive thoughts on this episode. I figured that, rather than writing no review at all, it would be best to just focus on the main issue between the brothers and skip the rest. I may come back to it later and expand on some points, though.
Sam: "You know, maybe I actually pull this one off."
Dean: "I’m just saying."
Sam: "I know what you’re saying, Dean. You’ve said it. You know, I’ve been going over this and over this. Asking myself, why doesn’t he trust me. It occurred to me finally. It’s not that you don’t trust me. It’s that you can only trust you."
I guess it was to be expected that Sam’s decision to take the 'hell trials' would disrupt the peace between the brothers to some extent, so their arguments in Man’s Best Friend with Benefits are not all that surprising. Now, I think it is understandable that Sam has some trust issues where Dean’s trust in him is concerned. I mean, as I already pointed out in my review to Citizen Fang, it will be increasingly difficult for Sam to ever trust again that a reconciliation between him and Dean is actually solid. Considering that, just a few weeks ago, Dean threw Sam’s past failures in his face – failures Dean had seemingly forgiven him years ago – and told Sam that he cannot trust him because he let Dean down in the past, it makes perfect sense for Sam to now have doubts that Dean will ever again genuinely trust him with anything, no matter how much Dean may protest to the contrary. So, while I am not overly happy that there are once again trust issues between the brothers, it provides at least some continuity to the first half of the season. Granted, I think there is some truth to Sam’s accusation that Dean only trusts himself. Dean has problems with trust in general, he admitted as much back in The Mentalists, but I think to entrust Sam’s safety to anyone other but himself is particularly difficult for Dean, even if that other person is Sam. After all, experience tells Dean that even though Sam is more than capable as a hunter and a person, terrible things tend to happen to him when he makes choices that serve the greater good, things Dean then has to save Sam from, like his death in Cold Oak, the loss of his soul or the destruction of his sanity, and he has no reason to believe that the trials will be any different, so it is understandable that Dean feels a little anxious to hand over control to Sam.
That is why Dean’s words at the end of the episode about trusting Sam with the deal and supporting him one hundred percent are a big step forward for Dean. As I said before, it is one thing for Dean to acknowledge that he needs to let go of his role as Sam’s protector, but another thing entirely to actually do it, and I only hope that he will be able to keep his word, even when Sam is not okay. By the way, Dean’s statement that he realises for the first time that only by hanging together they were able to get through the years of pain and suffering is rather dubious. I mean, really? He only sees that now? I highly doubt that, dear writers. Anyway, as ill luck would have it, the moment Dean tells Sam that he trusts him to be okay, Sam starts coughing up blood and just like that he finds himself in an impossible dilemma. If he tells Dean, his brother will undoubtedly insist on taking the trials himself, and Sam will not only lose the chance to prove his competence, but he will also have to face yet another situation in which Dean places himself in mortal danger for him – and he simply cannot watch Dean die on him again. If he does not tell Dean, however, he jeopardizes the very trust he is so eager to earn, so he is really stuck between a rock and a hard place. Overall, I am not thrilled about the fact that we are heading towards yet another conflict about lies and secrets between the brothers; I find it really frustrating that they have apparently still not learned that particular lesson. However, at least this is the kind of conflict that comes from a place of love and protection and, unlike the conflict we had in the first half of the season, that is something that makes sense to me.
What else is noteworthy:
(1) Sadly, Man’s Best Friend With Benefits is one of those episodes that dumb Dean down for exposition purposes – the notion that Dean would not know what a familiar is seems rather ridiculous – and/or portray him as a sixteen year old, hormonal teenager, who is flustered by all things involving sex, as a (questionable) form of comic relief. I really wished the writers would stop using Dean in this manner whenever it is convenient and stick with an age-appropriate characterisation instead. Dean’s regression is neither funny nor cute at this point in the show. On the other hand, I really like the consistency in Dean’s characterisation where witches are concerned. Dean always had a problem with humans who deliberately turn to the supernatural as a means of empowerment, so his reserved attitude towards their mutual friend James feels very consistent. And while we are talking about Dean, I know some fans think that Dean’s dislike of dogs is somewhat out of character, given that he was rather friendly towards the golden retriever back in Mystery Spot, but I think it is important to remember that that was before he was torn to shreds by hellhounds. I mean, in Yellow Fever Dean was terrified of a Yorkshire terrier, and while his fear may have been amplified to the extreme by the ghost sickness, I think it did reveal a genuine, deep-seated fear of dogs in the aftermath of his hellhound experience.
(2) I am delighted that Bobby keeps getting mentioned this season – I really miss the character’s solid presence in the show – and I love that Sam and Dean still use Bobby’s spells and books, even though they have the Batcave and its endless resources now. I like particularly the shout-out to Shut-Up, Dr. Phil, where Sam and Dean tried to use Bobby’s witch-killing spell as well, but failed because the chicken feet were not properly chilled. Here, Dean not only makes sure that the chicken feet are frozen, but they also change their method of delivery, i.e. preparing a Molotov cocktail instead of lighting the ingredients in a bowl, which renders the spell ineffectual because the 'fumes' never actually reach the witch in question. We do not get to see it often that the brothers learn from past failures in their spell work and modify their methods, so this bit of continuity is especially appreciated.
In conclusion: Man’s Best Friend with Benefits is one of those unfortunate Supernatural episodes where poor writing meets a questionable premise, and the results are predictably eye-roll-worthy. Still, I find it a lot easier to just handwave a badly written episode like this than to get past the problematic characterisation and continuity of the first half of the season. I just hope the show will be back to form next Wednesday - and gives us new Batcave material. It is really funny how much I miss the place already.
I am sorry this review is so short, but my sisters were staying with me last week, so I had no time to write up more extensive thoughts on this episode. I figured that, rather than writing no review at all, it would be best to just focus on the main issue between the brothers and skip the rest. I may come back to it later and expand on some points, though.
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 12:41 pm (UTC)What I really hope, though, is that they are returning to this pattern of protective concealment leading to lies, trust issues leading to breaking trust, with a view to breaking the pattern. My daydream is that for once the issue won't come to a head with Sam being found out, but that Sam will realize that the concealment is a bad idea and come clean. If TPTB want to make me happy forever and get a lot of fruit baskets, Sam's turnaround can come from a role-reversing conversation with Kevin in which Kevin turns Sam's advice back on him.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 05:34 pm (UTC)This is very true. He has been manipulated (with good and bad intentions) way too often to trust anyone nowadays. Still, I guess I always assumed that he at least trusts Dean completely, but Sam's latest experiences with Dean, namely that he cannot really trust Dean's trust in him, undermined even that belief. At the moment I am not quite sure if there is even the possibility that these trust issues between them will ever truly go away. :(
What I really hope, though, is that they are returning to this pattern of protective concealment leading to lies, trust issues leading to breaking trust, with a view to breaking the pattern.
Man, I really wished I could have faith that this is actually the writers' intent with this whole storyline. I don't dare to get my hopes up, only to be disappointed again, when we head into yet another contrived conflict in which the brothers have learned nothing of their past.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 03:31 pm (UTC)Yes, this. I admit I'm puzzled as to why these two were allowed back. Dabb and Loflin are similarly uneven, but they tend to swing between decent stories and eye-poppingly awful stories. They do at least provoke a response. When Buckner and Ross-Lemming get it wrong, they tend to be very, very dull. This one had some fairy awful stuff in it too, but it's hard to break through the torpor to get properly outraged about it.
I'm just not sure it's a good idea to have writers on staff who have a 50/50 shot of putting the audience to sleep.
After all, experience tells Dean that even though Sam is more than capable as a hunter and a person, terrible things tend to happen to him when he makes choices that serve the greater good, things Dean then has to save Sam from, like his death in Cold Oak, the loss of his soul or the destruction of his sanity, and he has no reason to believe that the trials will be any different, so it is understandable that Dean feels a little anxious to hand over control to Sam.
While I am also leery of another 'secrets and lies' plot, I am at least pleased at its potential to address this stuff. I think it's interesting (and possibly hopeful) that they hit Sam with this early in the trials plot. Usually, Sam is fine until suddenly he's not. All Hell Breaks Loose and Swan Song were both sudden deaths. The wall worked pretty damn well until it didn't. He was able to sit on the demon blood thing and his hallucinations for a long time. Even the soullessness could be concealed for a while. Hitting him with what is effectively an illness that he's going to have to carry through the trials makes it more likely that they are going to make Sam's health and his ability to survive this a major plot point.
I'm also pleased that we saw this, rather than hearing about it around episode 20. There's an uncomfortable trend of treating how Sam is doing as an unfathomable mystery. This reminds me of the early plot around Sam's visions. We know about it well before Dean, and can now will Sam to come clean about it, it's something that we can't really expect to be fixed immediately, and because it has obvious physical symptoms it's probably not something he can conceal for long.
It depends what they do with it, obviously, but this could work.
Sadly, Man’s Best Friend With Benefits is one of those episodes that dumb Dean down for exposition purposes
What really bugged me was when they made him stupid to avoid exposition. There was a point where they could have a conversation about how familiars work and maybe iron out some of the more troubling aspects of the plot ... or they could pretend Dean is too juvenile for that and make a sex joke instead. And obviously they picked option B. So now I don't know how familiars work in Supernatural, I'm bothered by some of what the episode suggested about them, and I'm irritated that they think Dean can't get his mind out of the gutter for three seconds in pursuit of information. Thanks, writers.
And while we are talking about Dean, I know some fans think that Dean’s dislike of dogs is somewhat out of character, given that he was rather friendly towards the golden retriever back in Mystery Spot, but I think it is important to remember that that was before he was torn to shreds by hellhounds.
Huh, really? I'd have thought this was obvious. I mean, even the damn golden retriever savaged him. Not that he'd remember that, but Dean's history with dogs is pretty horrifying. It's not so much that he doesn't like them as that they don't like him. He has good reason to be wary of them.
I just hope the show will be back to form next Wednesday - and gives us new Batcave material. It is really funny how much I miss the place already.
And also this. Never before have I actually envied Sam and Dean. They've always had the kind of life I'm very glad I don't. But, um, I do kind of covet their art-deco fortress with mysterious free power, water and internet and epic library. :)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-27 05:07 pm (UTC)Well, I guess that's what you get for nepotism. Eugenie Ross-Leming is Robert Singer's wife. ;)
While I am also leery of another 'secrets and lies' plot, I am at least pleased at its potential to address this stuff.
I just wished I had trust that the writers will actually use it in this manner instead of just pushing for another contrived conflict. The first half of the season really destroyed my faith that these writers understand what they are doing with the characters.
I'm also pleased that we saw this, rather than hearing about it around episode 20. There's an uncomfortable trend of treating how Sam is doing as an unfathomable mystery.
Yeah, that is very true. I doubt that Sam will be able to hide it for long anyway, especially if the symptoms get worse. I just hate that this is another one of those things that just happen to Sam, something he has really no control over (again!) and he doesn't even know where it leads! One would think that God's test isn't designed to kill him before he even has a chance to complete the trials, but who knows. SPN's God really sucks!
Huh, really? I'd have thought this was obvious.
Yeah, it kind of baffled me, too. I think that sometimes people have their head canon - like Dean loves dogs, for example - and they cannot reconcile it when the show contradicts their personal canon, so they complain that show!Dean is out of character. It happens!
But, um, I do kind of covet their art-deco fortress with mysterious free power, water and internet and epic library.
ROFLMAO, me, too!