.spn 6.06: or, truthiness will set you free
When she came to visit me a couple weeks ago, 
trinityofone ended up spending roughly seven consecutive days being allergic to New England. Well, now it's my turn. I went up to Freeport today to winterize myself (more fleece! more wool socks! long underwear!) and sounded like the person who is Patient Zero in movies like The Stand or Hot Zone, whose snufflings and splutterings eventually lead to the eradication of 75% of the country's population and requires Gary Sinise to be really hot and be in charge of the few desperate refugees as they battle against evil. For the record, I have sounded like this for about a week solid. So, at last, I caved and took a Benadryl, and as of this writing it has been eight hours hours since I took the fucking thing and I'm still stoned out of my gourd.
These are gourds.
Consider this a warning that my episode review may not be terribly coherent. But it could be amusing!
NEEDS MOAR CAS.
Obviously. Argh. Two minutes, writers? Seriously?
You know, I've had five seasons and six episodes to get used to the sight of Dean Winchester's scarred, tattered soul being flayed yet again... but goddammit, Jensen Ackles still brings it. When Dean confessed that he wanted a home and a family but couldn't square that with the life he actually knew and was good at, seriously, my heart broke all over again, just like it did ten million other times during the past several years. And when Lisa told him that was it (which, NOOOOOOOOOO come on, can't Dean have like one thing that is not completely awful in his life? [Answer: Of course not])... severe cardiac damage was sustained, okay?
When Dean was spilling his guts to keep from, you know, spilling his guts, I wondered about the kind of truth Veritas demands that you tell. Is it objective truth, or purely subjective? (Although I suppose you could also say that subjective truth--what the truth is to you--is no less valid or absolute than objective truth.) That is, is what Dean says--that he's a hunter and a wanderer, and can't be the family, stay-at-home guy he wants to be--actually a statement of the way things are, fundamentally and irrevocably? Or is he speaking what he feels is the truth, something that's been influenced by how catastrophically fucked-up Sam is, how badly things with Lisa have been damaged? Even though Lisa's apparently been considering letting Dean know things are over... Dean was getting better until Sam showed up, right? Clearly there were issues, but things, at least from what we saw in the few episodes we have, were getting along somehow, and Lisa had wanted to keep a place for herself and Ben in Dean's life after he took off.
Oh, Dean.
On to Sam... obviously, we all knew something was up. And that something will come out in the next episode (see below for a plea not to spoil things for anyone who may not have access to the previews), and whatever-it-is gives him the ability to lie like a very fancy Persian rug. And, seriously, if I were Dean, I would have punched the living daylights out of him too, because when it comes down to it, Sam's asking Dean to go back out on the road with him, and riding the issue until Dean caved, it's very possible to read that as Sam's "You know, I don't give two tiny shits about anything that isn't directly related to me and hunting." Which is, if you think about it, not a terribly gigantic leap from the sort of self-centered asshattery that's characterized Sam in the past. It seems like this Sam is sort of the distilled version of Sam Winchester, parted from the things that make him someone Dean has issues with but still loves anyway.
As for Cas. Oh, Cas. Dean jumping on him for being less human is really bugging me. (Even though, obviously, I would have preferred that Cas fly to Dean immediately and do whatever he could to comfort him.) It's like, Dean, I know your problems seriously suck, and you're freaking out about Sam, but Cas just got done fighting one apocalypse, and now he's trying to keep another from happening, more or less by himself. Cut the guy some goddamn slack for once. And, you know, if Cas were back to being a full-on, I-have-nothing-to-do-with-humanity asshole, he wouldn't have offered to help with Sam, and he also wouldn't have tried to explain that he's now in the position of not being able to toe the line and disobey, because he's the one who's trying to get things done. While he hasn't shied away from doing regrettable things in the past--making Dean torture Alastair, attempting to kill Jesse, being ready to smite the town in 4.07 if he had to, fighting Uriel and Anna, killing his own brothers--he was also more or less able to bend the rules if called upon to do so. But now he can't, and I think it's implied that he's stuck between two competing forces: helping Dean (who is still his friend theyhaveaprofoundbondhomggggg) and doing what he has to to keep Heaven's war from spilling shit all over Earth again.
So go easy on him, Dean! And tell him he needs to take a break and pour one out with you, for old time's sake. Then go make out or something. Please.
Next week: CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS
And, for those people who don't have access to the previews, no talking about the huge ginormous elephantine whale-spoiler for next week, okay? Although it is nice to see theories confirmed, and man, do I have some questions now. Like, even more than I did before.
trinityofone ended up spending roughly seven consecutive days being allergic to New England. Well, now it's my turn. I went up to Freeport today to winterize myself (more fleece! more wool socks! long underwear!) and sounded like the person who is Patient Zero in movies like The Stand or Hot Zone, whose snufflings and splutterings eventually lead to the eradication of 75% of the country's population and requires Gary Sinise to be really hot and be in charge of the few desperate refugees as they battle against evil. For the record, I have sounded like this for about a week solid. So, at last, I caved and took a Benadryl, and as of this writing it has been eight hours hours since I took the fucking thing and I'm still stoned out of my gourd.These are gourds.
Consider this a warning that my episode review may not be terribly coherent. But it could be amusing!
NEEDS MOAR CAS.
Obviously. Argh. Two minutes, writers? Seriously?
You know, I've had five seasons and six episodes to get used to the sight of Dean Winchester's scarred, tattered soul being flayed yet again... but goddammit, Jensen Ackles still brings it. When Dean confessed that he wanted a home and a family but couldn't square that with the life he actually knew and was good at, seriously, my heart broke all over again, just like it did ten million other times during the past several years. And when Lisa told him that was it (which, NOOOOOOOOOO come on, can't Dean have like one thing that is not completely awful in his life? [Answer: Of course not])... severe cardiac damage was sustained, okay?
When Dean was spilling his guts to keep from, you know, spilling his guts, I wondered about the kind of truth Veritas demands that you tell. Is it objective truth, or purely subjective? (Although I suppose you could also say that subjective truth--what the truth is to you--is no less valid or absolute than objective truth.) That is, is what Dean says--that he's a hunter and a wanderer, and can't be the family, stay-at-home guy he wants to be--actually a statement of the way things are, fundamentally and irrevocably? Or is he speaking what he feels is the truth, something that's been influenced by how catastrophically fucked-up Sam is, how badly things with Lisa have been damaged? Even though Lisa's apparently been considering letting Dean know things are over... Dean was getting better until Sam showed up, right? Clearly there were issues, but things, at least from what we saw in the few episodes we have, were getting along somehow, and Lisa had wanted to keep a place for herself and Ben in Dean's life after he took off.
Oh, Dean.
On to Sam... obviously, we all knew something was up. And that something will come out in the next episode (see below for a plea not to spoil things for anyone who may not have access to the previews), and whatever-it-is gives him the ability to lie like a very fancy Persian rug. And, seriously, if I were Dean, I would have punched the living daylights out of him too, because when it comes down to it, Sam's asking Dean to go back out on the road with him, and riding the issue until Dean caved, it's very possible to read that as Sam's "You know, I don't give two tiny shits about anything that isn't directly related to me and hunting." Which is, if you think about it, not a terribly gigantic leap from the sort of self-centered asshattery that's characterized Sam in the past. It seems like this Sam is sort of the distilled version of Sam Winchester, parted from the things that make him someone Dean has issues with but still loves anyway.
As for Cas. Oh, Cas. Dean jumping on him for being less human is really bugging me. (Even though, obviously, I would have preferred that Cas fly to Dean immediately and do whatever he could to comfort him.) It's like, Dean, I know your problems seriously suck, and you're freaking out about Sam, but Cas just got done fighting one apocalypse, and now he's trying to keep another from happening, more or less by himself. Cut the guy some goddamn slack for once. And, you know, if Cas were back to being a full-on, I-have-nothing-to-do-with-humanity asshole, he wouldn't have offered to help with Sam, and he also wouldn't have tried to explain that he's now in the position of not being able to toe the line and disobey, because he's the one who's trying to get things done. While he hasn't shied away from doing regrettable things in the past--making Dean torture Alastair, attempting to kill Jesse, being ready to smite the town in 4.07 if he had to, fighting Uriel and Anna, killing his own brothers--he was also more or less able to bend the rules if called upon to do so. But now he can't, and I think it's implied that he's stuck between two competing forces: helping Dean (who is still his friend theyhaveaprofoundbondhomggggg) and doing what he has to to keep Heaven's war from spilling shit all over Earth again.
So go easy on him, Dean! And tell him he needs to take a break and pour one out with you, for old time's sake. Then go make out or something. Please.
Next week: CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS
And, for those people who don't have access to the previews, no talking about the huge ginormous elephantine whale-spoiler for next week, okay? Although it is nice to see theories confirmed, and man, do I have some questions now. Like, even more than I did before.