SPN 3.04 Sin City
Oct. 26th, 2007 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sailorhathorMy recap of Supernatural ep 3.04 "Sin City." Spoilers for the ep below the cut.
Overall, I didn't like this episode. Boring. Too talky. Too much forcing of the show's flawed mythology. Bleh.
I don't really like it when writers try to send a message and force their own political agenda when they tell a story. I felt like that's what was going on here, especially with the Dick Cheney joke. I don't have any particular feelings toward Dick Cheney (except that Jay Leno has had some pretty funny jokes about him shooting that guy in the face), but I'm also incredibly bored by political talk. I vote. But I don't feel like it's really all that influential in most cases - we get about three presidents per century that really make a difference, who really change the world. Most of them make all these promises to get elected and then forget those promises to instead focus on their own political agenda once they get in office. When I vote, it's in hopes that this president will actually do what he promises. Most don't. So, anytime a show gets political, I fall asleep.
I'm also not too crazy about the whole "people are corrupt" conversation coming up. As soon as that demon started in on it, she sounded like a textbook of cliches on the subject. Blah blah BLAH blahblahblah I've heard all this before! I KNOW people are idiots. But I also know they can be pretty great. It's just tiring to hear it coming out of the mouth of a being known for doing nothing but spreading pain and destruction throughout the world. I mean, I don't pretend to know anything about demons firsthand, including whether or not they really exist, but we know that that is true of most demons on Supernatural, anyway. Obviously, this particular demon had done some awful things in her time, so for her to criticize people for being corrupt is like a drug dealer criticizing people for taking drugs. I have a really hard time listening to people make excuses for reprehensible behavior. I wanted Dean to lay the verbal smack down on her for that, and he did to an extent, but then he just sort of whimped out along the way. I know that she wasn't supposed to be as bad as other demons, but really, she WAS. She not only murdered Richie (she really took him home to fuck him or to kill him?), but she also possessed an innocent woman and destroyed her life. I hope that Dean wasn't just going to let the demon go for that!
I'm glad that they revealed more of the SPN mythology and finally identified the Yellow-Eyed Demon as Azazel, something I already knew from other fans figuring it out. WHY did it take two seasons to reveal that? The reveal taking so long made it pretty lame in my mind, since so many fans had already figured it out. I guess that they were only concerned with the average fan and not the geeky fans that most of us know (and are). They should have told us his name by the end of the first season; sitting on that knowledge when the reveal wasn't anything special made it lame when it should have been a big moment.
But anyway, Azazel. Revealing that renews my fear that they are going with the "Sam is YED/Azazel's kid" storyline simply because of the nature of the story of Azazel that others have researched and posted about. I don't see HOW they could go with that storyline since it doesn't make any sense, granted that they've not only done things on the show that would make it impossible, but other characters have said that Sam is human - more than once, I might add. But that's never stopped tv shows from putting out bullshit storylines in the past. I just hope they don't do it here, because it would just about ruin the entire show for me if these two weren't really brothers. It's the backbone of the whole show!
I do like that they covered demons having their own religious figures. I would think that if demons did exist, they would have their own forms of spirituality. And I suppose that if they're going to give power to Christian religious figures/prayers/artifacts, then the logical religious figures for evil are Lucifer and principle demons of that religion. But for some reason, it was a boring revelation for me. I guess because I kind of already knew it, and because every show goes with the same old religious figures to represent good and evil. I'd just like to see some new religious subjects for a change. Like, the whole Dahok storyline on Xena was just about my favorite thing they did on that show, partially because I'd never seen it covered before. Once they started wiping out all the Greek gods in favor of the Christianish storyline, the show started to suck. Not that I always find it boring - The Omen is one of my favorite movies of all time. But in this case, my reaction was meh.
I just think that they revealed all these things in this ep, expecting it all to be this amazing revelation for the fans, and instead, it was all stuff many of us already knew or could have figured out for ourselves long ago. Kind of a letdown.
That having been said, ahhhhhgh! Another thing I was going to do in one of my fanfics! The Devil's Trap under the rug trick! Okay, sure, it's not so original, and lots of people could have thought of it and probably have already used it, but I wanted to use it before they did on the show. Wah. Oh well. If I still need it when I get to that part of the story, I'll still use it; like I said, it's not like it was something others couldn't have thought of. It did surprise me when they did it in the episode, though. :D I didn't even see the rug until Dean pulled it aside.
The scene where Sam realized that he wasn't dealing with demons when he confronted Trotter was funny. The way he was like oh shit, now how do I weasel out of this? and got all flustered and embarrassed was cute. Why he was able to come back into the bar without being swarmed by police after that, I have no idea, though.
I knew something was up with the priest. I didn't expect him to be possessed, but I knew he was evil in some way.
When the priest told the nun he would take her to her car, I started giggling like a madwoman. The idea of a nun in full habit driving a car is freakin' hilarious, for some reason.
I still like Ruby a lot, but I'm starting to wonder why. It's just her attitude is getting a little irritating. She knows she has information that Sam and others need, so basically, she gets to call the shots and be a sarcastic bitch. But why? What's the point? Does she hide behind a mask of sarcasm to hide something else? I'd just really like a glimpse into her motivations. Ruby's appeared in three episodes now. Can she do more than just quip already? I want to learn more about her. I don't know, maybe people have been so "OMG an evil demon!" toward her for so long that she's gotten fed up and cynical. Maybe Ruby's tired of people automatically expecting the worst from her and she's just so burnt out on explaining herself that she's decided not to do it anymore. I can understand that. I still want her and Sam to get along already.
Not sure why she goaded Bobby into shooting her, either. Didn't get that.
And that really annoyed me that they just had Ruby go, "Now let's fix that gun," and then didn't show what they did to it at all! I was really curious to see just what they were doing. I mean, why did Bobby have to "rebuild" it at all? Seemed like the gun worked because of magick. What would a gun that can kill anything, even something supernatural and usually unkillable, have to do with the mechanics of the gun? Seems you would just have to know how to make more magick bullets. The gun itself doesn't seem to have power, or else you could just load it with regular bullets and the gun would make them work. The gun itself needing to be taken apart and reassembled just doesn't make any sense to me. It wasn't broken, was it? Did I miss the scene where the elephant stepped on it or something?
Man, this episode confused me. O_o Maybe I think too much.
The last thing about this episode that made me want to bitch is yet another lame attempt to make us go, "Oooooh, is Sam eeeevil?" yet Sam wasn't being evil at all. He came in the room, saw a demon choking his brother, and shot that demon. Then, before Dean could stop him, he shot the other demon. So what? If he hadn't, that demon might've killed both of them, for all he knew. He didn't have any idea that Dean had carried on a brief conversation with that demon, one that lasted what, maybe two hours?, and decided that this demon was redeemable although he hardly knew her. It kind of seemed like Dean was thinking with his dick there, but I digress. The fact that she had twisted Richie's head off suddenly didn't matter anymore. Because Sam shot her with a cooooold look on his face, well jeez louise, let's play the ominous background music! Pbbbbt. Puh-lease. Get back to me when Sammy actually does something unjustified. Not convinced. Not even afraid.
I don't consider it out of character for Dean to question Sam's actions because Dean is subject to the power of suggestion here. People keep telling him his brother is evil, so anything Sam does that seems even the least bit overprotective of him, Dean's going to question as possibly evil. Dean's not used to Sam protecting him. He's also not used to Sam being aggressive in killing anything, it seems like. Sam's always the one trying to look for another way to handle it. So, even though I understand it, I'm still finding it irritating. Sam just wants to protect his big brudder, damn it.
Parts I did like: Dean trying to remember the Latin exorcism and failing. Dean just says that Latin with such sexy conviction, even when he can't remember it. Also liked when Sam said something about feeling bad about shooting those people and Ruby replied something like, "Of course you do. You wouldn't be Sam if you didn't." Hmm, she noticed. You like that, Ruby? You wanna hit that? Ohhhh yeah.
I'm not opposed to talky episodes. They don't all have to be full of ass-kicking. I just didn't like this talky episode.
Yes, I do realize the irony of lamenting how talky this episode was and I just go on and on and on about it. XD
Overall, I didn't like this episode. Boring. Too talky. Too much forcing of the show's flawed mythology. Bleh.
I don't really like it when writers try to send a message and force their own political agenda when they tell a story. I felt like that's what was going on here, especially with the Dick Cheney joke. I don't have any particular feelings toward Dick Cheney (except that Jay Leno has had some pretty funny jokes about him shooting that guy in the face), but I'm also incredibly bored by political talk. I vote. But I don't feel like it's really all that influential in most cases - we get about three presidents per century that really make a difference, who really change the world. Most of them make all these promises to get elected and then forget those promises to instead focus on their own political agenda once they get in office. When I vote, it's in hopes that this president will actually do what he promises. Most don't. So, anytime a show gets political, I fall asleep.
I'm also not too crazy about the whole "people are corrupt" conversation coming up. As soon as that demon started in on it, she sounded like a textbook of cliches on the subject. Blah blah BLAH blahblahblah I've heard all this before! I KNOW people are idiots. But I also know they can be pretty great. It's just tiring to hear it coming out of the mouth of a being known for doing nothing but spreading pain and destruction throughout the world. I mean, I don't pretend to know anything about demons firsthand, including whether or not they really exist, but we know that that is true of most demons on Supernatural, anyway. Obviously, this particular demon had done some awful things in her time, so for her to criticize people for being corrupt is like a drug dealer criticizing people for taking drugs. I have a really hard time listening to people make excuses for reprehensible behavior. I wanted Dean to lay the verbal smack down on her for that, and he did to an extent, but then he just sort of whimped out along the way. I know that she wasn't supposed to be as bad as other demons, but really, she WAS. She not only murdered Richie (she really took him home to fuck him or to kill him?), but she also possessed an innocent woman and destroyed her life. I hope that Dean wasn't just going to let the demon go for that!
I'm glad that they revealed more of the SPN mythology and finally identified the Yellow-Eyed Demon as Azazel, something I already knew from other fans figuring it out. WHY did it take two seasons to reveal that? The reveal taking so long made it pretty lame in my mind, since so many fans had already figured it out. I guess that they were only concerned with the average fan and not the geeky fans that most of us know (and are). They should have told us his name by the end of the first season; sitting on that knowledge when the reveal wasn't anything special made it lame when it should have been a big moment.
But anyway, Azazel. Revealing that renews my fear that they are going with the "Sam is YED/Azazel's kid" storyline simply because of the nature of the story of Azazel that others have researched and posted about. I don't see HOW they could go with that storyline since it doesn't make any sense, granted that they've not only done things on the show that would make it impossible, but other characters have said that Sam is human - more than once, I might add. But that's never stopped tv shows from putting out bullshit storylines in the past. I just hope they don't do it here, because it would just about ruin the entire show for me if these two weren't really brothers. It's the backbone of the whole show!
I do like that they covered demons having their own religious figures. I would think that if demons did exist, they would have their own forms of spirituality. And I suppose that if they're going to give power to Christian religious figures/prayers/artifacts, then the logical religious figures for evil are Lucifer and principle demons of that religion. But for some reason, it was a boring revelation for me. I guess because I kind of already knew it, and because every show goes with the same old religious figures to represent good and evil. I'd just like to see some new religious subjects for a change. Like, the whole Dahok storyline on Xena was just about my favorite thing they did on that show, partially because I'd never seen it covered before. Once they started wiping out all the Greek gods in favor of the Christianish storyline, the show started to suck. Not that I always find it boring - The Omen is one of my favorite movies of all time. But in this case, my reaction was meh.
I just think that they revealed all these things in this ep, expecting it all to be this amazing revelation for the fans, and instead, it was all stuff many of us already knew or could have figured out for ourselves long ago. Kind of a letdown.
That having been said, ahhhhhgh! Another thing I was going to do in one of my fanfics! The Devil's Trap under the rug trick! Okay, sure, it's not so original, and lots of people could have thought of it and probably have already used it, but I wanted to use it before they did on the show. Wah. Oh well. If I still need it when I get to that part of the story, I'll still use it; like I said, it's not like it was something others couldn't have thought of. It did surprise me when they did it in the episode, though. :D I didn't even see the rug until Dean pulled it aside.
The scene where Sam realized that he wasn't dealing with demons when he confronted Trotter was funny. The way he was like oh shit, now how do I weasel out of this? and got all flustered and embarrassed was cute. Why he was able to come back into the bar without being swarmed by police after that, I have no idea, though.
I knew something was up with the priest. I didn't expect him to be possessed, but I knew he was evil in some way.
When the priest told the nun he would take her to her car, I started giggling like a madwoman. The idea of a nun in full habit driving a car is freakin' hilarious, for some reason.
I still like Ruby a lot, but I'm starting to wonder why. It's just her attitude is getting a little irritating. She knows she has information that Sam and others need, so basically, she gets to call the shots and be a sarcastic bitch. But why? What's the point? Does she hide behind a mask of sarcasm to hide something else? I'd just really like a glimpse into her motivations. Ruby's appeared in three episodes now. Can she do more than just quip already? I want to learn more about her. I don't know, maybe people have been so "OMG an evil demon!" toward her for so long that she's gotten fed up and cynical. Maybe Ruby's tired of people automatically expecting the worst from her and she's just so burnt out on explaining herself that she's decided not to do it anymore. I can understand that. I still want her and Sam to get along already.
Not sure why she goaded Bobby into shooting her, either. Didn't get that.
And that really annoyed me that they just had Ruby go, "Now let's fix that gun," and then didn't show what they did to it at all! I was really curious to see just what they were doing. I mean, why did Bobby have to "rebuild" it at all? Seemed like the gun worked because of magick. What would a gun that can kill anything, even something supernatural and usually unkillable, have to do with the mechanics of the gun? Seems you would just have to know how to make more magick bullets. The gun itself doesn't seem to have power, or else you could just load it with regular bullets and the gun would make them work. The gun itself needing to be taken apart and reassembled just doesn't make any sense to me. It wasn't broken, was it? Did I miss the scene where the elephant stepped on it or something?
Man, this episode confused me. O_o Maybe I think too much.
The last thing about this episode that made me want to bitch is yet another lame attempt to make us go, "Oooooh, is Sam eeeevil?" yet Sam wasn't being evil at all. He came in the room, saw a demon choking his brother, and shot that demon. Then, before Dean could stop him, he shot the other demon. So what? If he hadn't, that demon might've killed both of them, for all he knew. He didn't have any idea that Dean had carried on a brief conversation with that demon, one that lasted what, maybe two hours?, and decided that this demon was redeemable although he hardly knew her. It kind of seemed like Dean was thinking with his dick there, but I digress. The fact that she had twisted Richie's head off suddenly didn't matter anymore. Because Sam shot her with a cooooold look on his face, well jeez louise, let's play the ominous background music! Pbbbbt. Puh-lease. Get back to me when Sammy actually does something unjustified. Not convinced. Not even afraid.
I don't consider it out of character for Dean to question Sam's actions because Dean is subject to the power of suggestion here. People keep telling him his brother is evil, so anything Sam does that seems even the least bit overprotective of him, Dean's going to question as possibly evil. Dean's not used to Sam protecting him. He's also not used to Sam being aggressive in killing anything, it seems like. Sam's always the one trying to look for another way to handle it. So, even though I understand it, I'm still finding it irritating. Sam just wants to protect his big brudder, damn it.
Parts I did like: Dean trying to remember the Latin exorcism and failing. Dean just says that Latin with such sexy conviction, even when he can't remember it. Also liked when Sam said something about feeling bad about shooting those people and Ruby replied something like, "Of course you do. You wouldn't be Sam if you didn't." Hmm, she noticed. You like that, Ruby? You wanna hit that? Ohhhh yeah.
I'm not opposed to talky episodes. They don't all have to be full of ass-kicking. I just didn't like this talky episode.
Yes, I do realize the irony of lamenting how talky this episode was and I just go on and on and on about it. XD
