Well, that was that. Looks like those of you who warned me last week not to count my Dean-centric chickens before they hatch were correct.
Hello and welcome to the last Gripe Review of the year, and the last time I will gripe about my biggest disappointments with this season. I have dubbed them the Mothership Gripes of Season 10, and listed them below, preceding the less predominant gripes of this episode.
The Mothership Gripes of Season 10
A - The transformation of Supernatural from a genre show into a procedural
Think about what a procedural is like. The cops (doctors, nurses, fire fighters, lawyers, paramedics, crime scene investigators,) have a case of the week in which they meet a cast of characters that become the main focus of the episode. The cops only observe and investigate those people, they aren’t a part of their story. Their own stories, if they have any, are in the background and only mentioned in the passing. Those stories advance but at a very sluggish pace.
Now think about this week’s episode and imagine Sam, Dean and Castiel as cops trying to help teenage Claire off the streets. One of them (Castiel) knew her father and was the cause of his disappearance. She resists them, but in the end they manage to rescue her. Another one of them, who had a long history of PTSD, is triggered by an event and loses control. He ends up killing all the perps in cold blood.
This isn’t a bad story for a typical procedural. It's a bit uninspired and cliché , which isn’t unheard of in the two dozen such shows currently on TV. The problem here though is that Supernatural is a genre show.
In a genre show, particularly in the style established by the earlier seasons of Supernatural, the story belongs to the main characters and it dictates everything. The heroes save some people throughout the seasons, but the story is ultimately about their quest. The most important episodes focus on them, and the bit-players only show up for standalone episodes fitted in the season to give the main storyline some breaks. Of course there are genre procedurals out there too. Grimm is an example, but even Grimm keeps the focus on the core cast nearly all the time. The main hero’s special power is what decides the fate of every case not the personal talents of the week's supporting characters.
It’s no mystery that procedurals have a lot of fans and some of them are more popular than genre shows. This could explain why so many still watch and love Supernatural despite the weirdness of the recent seasons, and why the ratings remain high. A lot of people don’t mind this format, some perhaps like it even more than the genre format because it doesn’t require them to constantly follow a plot. Add to them the core fans who watch for the characters and their relationships, and schmucks like me who watch just to see how it all ends, and you get a healthy, hefty viewership for a show that has had the equivalent of a face transplant from its earlier seasons.
B - The single minded pursuit of the anvil-over-the-head themes
Did you get it this week, the “absent parent” motif than ran through the entire episode? How could you not? It was hammered on top of everything, with sirens and flashing lights going off every time it was hinted.
Having a common theme in one's story is a double edged sword. Done right, it could enhance its quality and emotional effect like a dash of spice. Done wrong, it could ruin the whole thing, just as upending an entire bottle of spice would do to a dish.
Aside from the lack of subtlety Supernatural writers have exhibited throughout this whole season while applying their so called 'themes' (taken to the extreme in the Godawful anniversary episode,) they also have bent logic and character in favor of delivering those themes. Take this episode for example. "Abandonment issues" and "Absent Parents" has to apply to every storyline no matter who the players are and what the story is about. So we have Castiel getting hit by paternal instincts bus and suddenly desiring to adopt Claire when he has no home or job. We also have Claire accusing him of taking away her dad when, for all intents and purposes, her first reaction upon seeing him should be, "Oh shi-,it's the angel who possessed my dad!"
For the same purpose Dean's established backstory is altered to serve this theme (Gripe #10 below) and Crowley's stuck in a stranded b-story that sacrifices his well-loved personality and the way we've known him so far to enforce the idea that he too is on the absent parent boohoo train bound for angstville even though it’s unclear how that idea is supposed to help his story in the future.
C - Repeating plots and characters
I touched on the problem with the uninspired, irritating supporting cast in the last review. But this time I realized the problem was deeper than that, and had to do with the show essentially being put on autopilot. There's literally no imagination put into any of these one-off stories to at least make up for the absence of the main cast. It's like they have a pile of standard plots, attached to a stack of generic character profiles, and they shuffle through them. So we get the "Teen girl is forced to live on the streets and is picked up by a guy with bad intentions,” one week, then the, "Loved one turns into irredeemable monster and has to be killed by character," the next.
In each of these regurgitated plots the set of characters are exactly the same. There isn't much in terms of personality to distinguish Claire from Krissy, or Benny from Bobby, beyond what the actors bring to the table. And when the actors are young and inexperienced there isn’t much even there. In short, it seems like we don't need writers because the way the show is structured right now, a computer program could do their job.
The unloading of episode gripes
I had too many gripes with this episode so I dumped them all in one place without too much sorting or going into detail (this review is already long mind you.) Pick and choose whichever you like to read and discuss. Notice how some are directly related to the Mothership Gripes above.
#1 - Why are all teenage girls carbon copies of each other?
Krissy, Marie, now Claire. All smart-mouthed, brash know-it-alls who show no respect to older and more experienced people who are there to help them, even when they see the results of their bad behavior. I have seen enough teen girls in my life - I have been one myself - and I know they come in all shapes and sizes attitude-wise. So why is it that in Supernatural they are all exactly the same? Could it be part of the "Mothership Gripe C,” and the fact that they are essentially the same character, labeled as “teen girl,” in the character profile pile, and plugged by the writers whenever a female character of that age range is needed?
#2 -Why are we watching Krissy’s story again?
This too is mentioned in MSG -C. Claire is pretty much Krissy 2.0. What really astounds me though, is how closely her story resembled Krissy's, down to the slimy guy who gave her shelter after she lost her dad, then ended up betraying her. The writers aren't even trying anymore.
#3 - Why won’t a social worker release a runaway into the custody of her parent?
I'm just confused about this one. Does this really happen in the US? Last I checked here in Canada, caretakers were too happy to reduce the population of homeless youth under their care. An actual birth parent, who doesn’t look stoned or drunk or anything like a criminal, and who has the approval of the teen herself, should be a sure shot for a release.
#4 - Why can’t Castiel tell the difference between ketchup and tomato?
Is he perpetually dumb even though he's been on earth for more than seven years now, has the wisdom of centuries, and had supposedly the entire human culture history dumped into his head by Metatron last season? Do the writers keep this up just for the comedic effect? Or is his wisdom, like his powers, subject to the whim of the ongoing plot?
#5 - Why is Dean mad at Castiel for calling him and Sam?
When we first see them in the episode Sam and Dean are just sitting around in the bunker looking through books for information on the MOC. It’s not like they were in the middle of an urgent case and Castiel interrupted them. Why was Dean so dismissive of looking for a missing girl? Normally they seek this stuff out by going through police reports and newspaper articles and becoming suspicious of the circumstances. Castiel just gave them a case. And considering Claire is the offspring of a vessel, who herself had been possessed once, doesn't it at least have the looks of a potential supernatural incident?
Expanding the gripe, I must admit I no longer understand the brothers' interactions with Castiel. They don't see each other for weeks, yet when they get together it is as if they've had beer together just last night. Does Castiel disappear for a particular reason like he used to in seasons before, or does he just live separately from the brothers because he likes it? Is there a reason why he can't live in the bunker and help the Winchesters with their problems? And where does he go that he can meet up with them on such short notice?
#6 - Where does Castiel's money come from?
When I saw him reach for his wallet, the first thought that popped into my mind was, "Where did he get all the money?" How does Castiel pay for gas, lodging, or food? The last job he had was more than a year ago, so what's the explanation?
#7 - Why is there no supernatural hunt in this episode?
The show is called Supernatural yet we just sat through an episode about a juvenile delinquent being rescued from a bunch of criminals by someone playing surrogate father along with his buddies. More proof MSG -A exists.
#8 - Why does no one remind Claire her dad died to save humanity?
This really annoyed me. At one point Claire goes off at Castiel for taking her dad from her and causing her life to go down the drain. No one cares to remind her that if Castiel hadn't possessed Jimmy, and saved Sam and Dean multiple times from certain death so they could stop the apocalypse from happening, she would have no life. It's because his dad agreed to sacrifice himself for humanity and became Castiel's vessel that the world still exists and she still has a ground to stand on to accuse the angel of ruining her life. Someone needed to remind her that her parents still being around wasn't more important than the lives of billions of people around the world, but apparently they all forgot because of MSG -B.
#9 - Why does Claire trust a guy who gives her a gun and tells her to rob a store?
As I said before, logic takes a backseat to the forceful assertion of episode themes in these repeated stories. Claire is an idiot who doesn't even suspect foul intention on the part of her stand-in dad when he offers her a gun and tells her to rob a store. We don't even get a hint of why she cares so much about him, other than her explanation that he picked her off the streets. We see no affection from him toward her, nor from her toward him, just a reminder that if she doesn’t do it he will be in a load of trouble. But if she does it and gets caught, then it would be her in a load of trouble, wouldn't it? It's not like he showed up at the home where she was put in solitary confinement to rescue her. Why would she put her own life and freedom in such danger just to help him when he didn't do the same for her?
#10 - Why is child Dean OOC in Dean’s story?
Maybe I've been in fandom for too long, but I remember wee-Dean from the flashbacks and the reminisced stories in the past, and he wasn't a brat. In fact his problem was always the opposite, as thrown in his face time and again by Sam. He was too much of a good little soldier to John and never argued or raised any objections to him, no matter how his dad treated him. Suddenly though, for the sole purpose of this episode, he tells Castiel that he kicked up a fuss when his dad picked him up from a club in New York. That's an insult to the legacy of the character by this current clutch of writers who can’t be even bothered to check the long established profile of one of the main characters, and perhaps, seeing the discrepancy, choose Sam instead of Dean for their parallel-the-rebellious-teen-storyline down the memory lane.
#11 - What exactly are Castiel’s powers?
We see him blow a guy out of the way by raising his hand, yet he still can't teleport, or read minds or smite demons with his palm. Was there an explanation on what his diminishing grace did to his powers? Is it willy nilly and based on whatever suits the current plot?
Speaking of his diminishing grace, how come he no longer coughs, or faints, or shows any of the side effects of the earlier episodes?
#12 - Did I just watch an attempted child sexual assault on prime time TV?
This isn't really a gripe, more like a shocker. We know Claire is underage and we know she was sold to the mob man by her shady caretaker. I expected her to be dragged away immediately. What was the man's intention for locking the door in her room? Was he going to do something unseemly to her? Why was he choking her to death a minute later when he had traded her by letting go of a load of money?
#13 - Is there a point to this storyline other than the blatant absent parent parallel?
I can't be the only one who was bored to death by Crowley's side story. We know they were drawing parallels between his mother abandoning him and Claire's father's disappearance. But there must be another purpose to this for the future, otherwise they wouldn't have spent so much time on the two of them. Why bore us with so much useless chatter and exposition then, instead of moving that story along in an engaging, exciting way? They could have sprinkled Crowley's abandonment issues throughout that action instead of grinding half of the episode into a halt just to let us know how much he hated his mom.
#14 - Pulling the Mark of Cain out of the seat of their pants?
And finally, just to fulfill the cliffhanger requirement for the mid-season finale, they have Dean's mark activate a few minutes before the credits roll. This, and the promo they released for this episode, look like underhanded tactics by the showrunner to pretend they are indeed staying true to the spirit of the show. They release a promo that focuses on the parts about the Mark, even include a Crowley dialogue that looks like he's talking to Dean. Then give us a story about Claire while putting their winning pony at the very end of the line. If they know this is what people want to see why not write the entire episode around it?
#15 - Why bring Charlie back right after the cliffhanger?
My final complaint is based on the promo for the show's return. Apparently Charlie will be back in the first episode of the spring season. My dislike of her is no secret to anyone. She tends to highjack entire storylines and make everything about her whenever she appears on the show, to the point of dumbing down and humiliating everyone. Even though this season that isn't a rare thing I'd still like to think season/mid-season openers and finales are reserved for the main characters because that’s when you create cliffhangers or resolve them. If she shows up in the midst of Dean's storyline she will most likely try to take the spotlight away from him with whatever silly gifts she's brought back from Oz. It’s bad enough she's like a rash that won't go away, it looks like she's now going to take the only chance the Winchesters have to be players in their own show.
Edit: I've been told Charlie is not going to be in episode one, but in episode two, of the second half of the season and that there was a mix up with the numbering of the episodes. Hope that doesn't mean Dean's story will be resolved in one episode.
This review got a bit lengthy. It's because, unlike last year, I'm not planning on writing an overall review for the season so far. I've said all I wanted to say about the bastardization of the show - turning it into something it was not - and I don't like repeating myself. Furthermore, I can't write anything character based since none of the characters have anything important going on with them this season. Therefore this will be my last gripe review for 2014. Feel free to sound off in the comments. Take apart and analyze whichever piece of the review you like, major or minor, regardless if you agree or disagree.
Have a happy holiday season and see you in 2015.
Tessa
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