Bloodlust

[fairyd123]

Considering how fond I am of the mytharc episodes I was surprised at how relieved I was to see the show go back to a fairly simple monster of the week premise in Bloodlust. As superb as Everybody Loves a Clown was it was also the most emotionally draining episode of the show so far and I'm not sure that my delicate constitution could have coped with week after week of watching Sam and Dean in such agony. So here's my thoughts on the ep in a somewhat linear fashion..........

The teaser sequence with the terrified girl being relentlessly chased before being brutally be-headed was one of the most disturbing sequences I've seen on this show.Generally I don't actually find Supernatural the slightest bit scary (freaky clowns aside) but there was just something about that curved blade that completely freaked me out.

Completely gratutitious car porn! What a fun way to start the post-credit sequence with a long, slow look at Metallicar in all its shiny glory. I'll overlook the fact that it probably would have taken Dean weeks and a small fortune to get it working again (considering that Bobby said it needed a completely new engine).

I adored the scene of Sam and Dean with the sherrif. All the silly aspects of the show that I love in one fun sequence. Sam and Dean look like little boys playing dress up in these suits - its nice work from the wardrobe department as honestly they coudn't have picked two suits that the boys look less comfortable in if they'd tried. And the guy who played the sherrif took this really small part and created something very memorable with it. He went from professional to bemused to exasperated in 2 seconds flat once he realised that Sam and Dean weren't on the level. He didn't even have the energy to threaten them - just kicked them out. Although seriously boys how difficult is it to remember the name of the newspaper you're meant to be with?

Clever editing to another gloriously silly scene of the boys playing dress up and Dean lying dismally and obviously to a completely oblivious schmoe. And yes damn did they look good in lab coats!

Of course by the time Gordon had entered the storyline I wasn't sure what posed the greater danger to the boys - Gordon, the vampires or all those falling anvils.

It was like the writers sat down and decided that all of the themes of this season had to be introduced in one episode. Subtle it wasn't. Did we really need to see Dean literally showered with gore to understand that without John as his anchor Dean is completely lost? His undefeatable dad has just been ripped from his life but not before saddling him with some unpleasant truth about Sam, he doesn't know that the demon was responsible for his resurrection but fears that something terrible happened in order for him to be brought back. He's angry and hurting and of course he's going to take that out on the things that will fight back - the creatures they hunt. The bucket of blood wasn't necessary - Jared Padalecki's reaction shot was all that was needed. He very effectively managed to convey disgust at the brutality of Dean's kill, slight fear at the darker turn Dean is taking and heartfelt concern for his brother with one look.

The "No shades of Grey" and "If its not human we kill it" speeches were equally unsubtle. They practically screamed "Hey pay attention and remember what's being said here as it's going to come back to bite Dean in the ass right about November sweeps." They certainly seem to be heading down the path of Sam being revealed as half demon, although admittedly I would love it if the person who didn't turn out to be all human was Dean - not quite sure how that would fit in with his hunter's sensibility. I do think though that the writers need to rely a little more on the ability of their actors to convey what isn't being said. Best moment of the episode for me was Ackles reaction shot to Gordon's blithe "Sammy doesn't seem to be like us." In that moment Dean looked truly dangerous, in that moment I didn't doubt for a second that Dean is a killer. It was a terrifying reaction shot and spoke volumes about whatever John told him.

Gordon - I could have done without him being given Gunn's backstory, and I thought he was a touch too psychotic (the sequence of him happily slicing Amber Bensen up was a tad over the top) but as a potential future human antagonist for Sam and Dean I thought he was fairly interesting. For me the only mistake Kripke made in season 1 was killing off interesting characters too quickly (there was no way Pastor Jim should have been dispatched so dismissively and by Meg of all people) so its nice to see that he's given himself the option of bringing back a very pissed off Gordon in the future.

Of course Gordon's introduction was worth it purely for those scenes of him and Dean in the bar. The scene where Dean retold how he accepted the hunter lifestyle made my heart break. I never hated john as a character but you can't help but feel that he should have encouraged Dean to try different things - not to accept the life of a hunter at barely 16 years old. The scene of Dean admitting what a hard time he's having with John's death was also lovely. John was practically a superhero to Dean. For Dean there was nothing John couldn't do, no trouble that Sam and Dean could get into that John couldn't save them from.John was infallible and those thoughts kept Dean safe at night. Now his safety net has been stripped away, he's in free fall and he doesn't know what to do next. Dean is incredibly vulnerable at the moment and he would be very open to a stronger more dominant personality twisting him to his own devices(and yes I do want to read that fanfic!). You could see in that bar scene that if Sammy wasn't around Dean could quite easily have teamed up with Gordon and gone along with his brutal approach to hunting. But who the hell told Dean that he had to be a rock around Sam, that he could never show him that he was scared or hurting?

I love how much fun the production designers have designing the various motels the boys stay in. The cactus key chain was a cute touch.

Ellen - Still liking Ellen and the way they're using her. She is actually useful. She imparts the necessary information, she's warm but she's not cloying. There's no fake mommy vibe. Definitely happy for her to be featured more heavily in the future.

Lenore - I like Amber Bensen, met her a couple of times and she's a very sweet intelligent girl. But considering that her casting was virtually the only bit of promotion Supernatural seemed to get over the hiatus (hell Alona Tal's casting apparently didn't warrant a single interview) I was disappointed with her guest turn here. Sure she completely rocked the dark locks and pale dead girl look but she didn't bring much to the part of Lenore. I rather felt that anyone could have played the character and achieved the same effect. Perhaps it was because we never saw her with a large group of vamps (maybe the budget for the episode wouldn't stretch to it?) but the character never seemed authoritative. I never once believed that this slightly insipid vamp was the leader of a nest.

Plus it was hard to actually empathise with the vampires plight. Lenore never said that they didn't drink human blood because it was wrong or because they were horrified at having to take human life in order to live but simply that they didn't go around draining people dry because it bought unwanted attention down on their heads and resulted in the hunters slaughtering them. Lenore doesn't drink human blood because her desire to survive dictates that she be discreet. But presumably were she to find herself in an area where all the cattle drop dead from some disease her desire to survive would have her feasting on humans again. The moment where she turned away from the blood dripping down Sam's arm wasn't enough to convince me that she was harmless to humans. The writers unfortunately mishandled this storyline to the point where I began to think that Gordon had a point.

Loved Sam being able to plot the course to the farm from memory. One of the things that has always irritated me about the show is that whilst we know that Sam and Dean were raised as hunters they never seem to display any sort of special skills. Sure they can fight, are pretty handy with a fake ID and can lie their asses off but they've never been shown to have any kind of skill at tracking or cornering their prey and they are often captured so easily you have to wonder whether John learnt anything from his time as a marine. So a big thank you to the writers for finally showcasing some of the skills that the boys should be showing off in every episode.

Slightly disappointed that the reveal that Gordon killed his sister didn't play out exactly as the sides suggested it would. In the sides Gordon revealed that he killed her because she wasn't human anymore and says "I didn't blink and neither would you." In the sides the stage directions indicated that we would get to see a reaction shot of Dean looking deeply disturbed at this information. But we didn't get to see Dean's reaction at all. If this was an editing choice I thought it was a poor one. Whether Dean would be prepared to kill his brother if he turned out not to be human is another concept that I felt the writers were setting up to be answered in future episodes and it would have been nice if we could have gotten Dean's reaction now.

The final fight was fun and suitably vicious (Dean seems a lot more capable physically this season than in the last). Dean's reaction to Gordon picking up the knife after Dean had removed the magazine from his gun was hilarious. Bad guys don't fight fair Dean! Haven't you grasped this by now?

The last scene was a lovely moment between the two boys which really showcased how far Sam has grown since we first saw him. Sam seems more comfortable with the hunter life now. He seems to have accepted the life - he doesn't seem to be viewing it as a stop gap before he goes back to College anymore. His character also seems much more appealing. I don't know whether its because the writers have completely dropped the "Sam doesn't want to hunt stroyline" or because we no longer have to worry about tedious storylines with the boys arguing about why they hunt and whether they're just blindly following their father's instructions but Sam suddenly seems to be the stronger, more mature character. It's helped by the fact that Padalecki is almost unrecognisable as the same actor who appeared in the Pilot episode. I've not always been a fan of his in the past but his acting seems to be improving in leaps and bounds in each episode this season. I adore Jensen but I do rather like the turnaround in the characters this year - Dean is in agony and whilst he has always been strong for Sam he needs someone to be strong for him now - and Sam has definitely stepped up to the plate. He is that person and it's great to watch.

So a decent episode but I don't think its going to stand up at the end of the season as an entertaining episode in its own right - more of a filler episode introducing key concepts and characters which will be explored more compellingly later in the season.

Comments

[astrothsknot.livejournal.com]

Fairy, get out of my brain!

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Well I would get out of your head honey but those fantasies you've got going on of you, Jensen and Jared are kind of riveting!

Glad to hear that you think I'm talking any kind of sense. I confess I didn't read other people's blurbs until I'd written up my own and with only a handful of exceptions (you being one of them) most people seemed to feel that Bloodlust was right up there with Faith as a great stand alone episode. And I just did not see that at all. To me the ep was a myth arc ep in disguise. It was all about laying groundwork for the future.

It was about introducing Gordon who is a nasty piece of work and has the potential to completely fuck them up in the future. It was about establishing that Sam has stopped seeing himself as a Stanford law student first and a brother and hunter second. It may not have been the destiny he would have chosen for himself but Sam is increasingly embracing the hunter life. Also loved the growth shown by his realisation that yes his father did indeed do his best in very difficult circumstances. John could have done better by both of them but in the end he did what he could and that's all you can ask of anyone. Bloodlust was about establishing that Dean is falling apart at the seams and that a role reversal will have to take place with Sam becoming the stronger more dependable half of the pairing for the pair of them to survive.

And it was about introducing the key season long questions. Are they hunters or murderers? Is the fact that something isn't human justification in itself for killing it? And why when John's sole purpose in life was to kill that blasted demon did he ignore the pool of talent and resources at his disposal by never joining up with the wider hunter network to take the demon down? Why did he purposefully make sure that Sam and Dean grew up never knowing who Ellen, Ash, Gordon and the rest of the hunters out there were? I wouldn't be surprised if that question remains unanswered and joins "Why did Dean's eyes bleed in Bloody Mary?" and "What's the purpose of Dean's amulet?" as questions the fans really want answers to.

[astrothsknot.livejournal.com]

Fantasies? What fantasies? *looks round nervously* Oh, yeah, the one with the handcuffs or the one in the Japanese soaphouse?

Thought you didn't like het? *g*

You know why I think that John never intro'd the boys to the hunting com. I did see someone else put up the theory that John wanted the boys to quit when this was done and have a normal life. I don't buy that.

I think we will find out about the eyes, but not about the pendant. And I don't think the pendant really matters.

[alethialia.livejournal.com]

They practically screamed "Hey pay attention and remember what's being said here as it's going to come back to bite Dean in the ass right about November sweeps."

::dies laughing:: Oh, how cynical you are...

As for the rest, I've never accused the show of being particularly subtle and yet the outright discussion of black-and-white morality didn't bother ma at all. Possibly this is because my group of friends is wont to make outright statements of black-and-white morality, but it seems to me that it's good that they're at leats discussing the issues. That's better than a lot of shows.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Cynical moi? Hell yes!

Agreed the show isn't an exercise in subtlety but the morality discussions just irked me because they seemed far too portentous.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Loved your thoughts on this episode.

was one of the most disturbing sequences I've seen on this show.
It was rather brutal, and I'm just grateful they pulled back and showed that awful conclusion at a distance and in the dark. I don't need more gore on TV, of any kind. I don't actually like horror movies at all. And now that "Bones" is joining the gross-out chorus, I'm feeling a little hemmed in by the gratuitous yuck-fests.

John was infallible and those thoughts kept Dean safe at night. Now his safety net has been stripped away, he's in free fall and he doesn't know what to do next.
Yes. Much as there were anviloid moments in that bar scene, Dean trying to talk about/around his father's death and how it's affecting him was really moving. Wish he'd share some of that with Sam instead of random strangers, though it's often easier that way.

Lenore never said that they didn't drink human blood because it was wrong or because they were horrified at having to take human life in order to live but simply that they didn't go around draining people dry because it bought unwanted attention down on their heads
Yes-- I don't know why this wasn't turned more sharply. "Not evil at this moment" is different from turning away from being evil altogether. I think she had, but I'd have liked it spelled out better.

Whether Dean would be prepared to kill his brother if he turned out not to be human is another concept that I felt the writers were setting up to be answered in future episodes and it would have been nice if we could have gotten Dean's reaction now.
I actually thought that was conveyed-- I did at least see some reaction from Dean that showed that Gordon had fallen right off the edge of the world when he said that. Killing evil creatures is one thing, but Dean puts family above all else EVEN when it isn't the right choice. That's why the Demon got away and John's still dead. And so might they all have been. But he chose his family first, because he couldn't not do that.

helped by the fact that Padalecki is almost unrecognisable as the same actor who appeared in the Pilot episode.
No kidding. I didn't think much of his performance last year-- there were just some moments that fell flat on the floor due to his acting, and he wasn't quite up to the part. This season, though? The doubts are gone. Solid, heavy-hitting acting in every episode thus far, with a fairly broad range of humor, strength, pain, vulnerability and fierceness. Awesome improvement.

What I _do_ fear seeing is "Saint Sam and Dark Dean" becoming the soul characterization of these two men. Kripke has not let us down thus far, but it's rare in television not to screw things up. My poor, beloved Prison Break. :( The characters don't much resemble last season's people at all-- they've been put through a Random Motivation Generator and come out scrambled and unrecognizable. :(

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Loved your thoughts on this episode.

Why thank you! That's sweet of you.

I am a bit of a sucker for gore myself but it was the quite extended sequence of the girl running for her life, trying desperately to hide from her attacker before her head was quite casually lopped off (complete with grisly sound effect) that unnerved me. It was the girl's sense of building terror rather than the rolling head which made the scene very hard for me to watch.

Yes. Much as there were anviloid moments in that bar scene, Dean trying to talk about/around his father's death and how it's affecting him was really moving. Wish he'd share some of that with Sam instead of random strangers, though it's often easier that way

I thought the whole episode was worth it for the scene in the bar, the scene where Dean punches Sam and he quite calmly takes it and the end talk between our two boys. Everything else was just background noise. I agree that speaking to a stranger is easier than Dean actually confessing weakness to Sam but it won't be able to go on. It will build and build until Dean will have to tell Sam how he is feeling. And personally I cannot wait to see that episode!

"Not evil at this moment" is different from turning away from being evil altogether.

Beautifully put. That was my problem with the storyline. Just because Lenore wasn't chowing down on people this instant didn't mean she wouldn't be in 6 months, a year, 10 years. I couldn't decide whether the vampire storyline was just poorly conceived or whether they were going with the shades of grey montif again. Should Lenore be killed because she has the potential to be a danger to human life - even though by a conscious choice she isn't right at this moment? Little of both I suspect. I think it was unfortunate that the vamps themselves were so unmemorable. A stronger performance from Amber could have papered over the cracks in the storyline.

I clearly missed Ackles reaction shot to Gordon. Dean does indeed put family first above everything, including himself.

I didn't think much of his performance last year-- there were just some moments that fell flat on the floor due to his acting, and he wasn't quite up to the part.

Yes I wasn't a fan of Jared's acting in season 1. He wavered from dire to passable (I still cringe at the scene where he and John argue in Dead Man's Blood). I've read a few of the reviews of the dvd and most mention that Jared has no presence in the role (although to be fair I have read a couple of reviews where they're not much kinder to Jensen) I ended up loving Sam not because of the writing or Padalecki's performance but because of all the wonderful fan fic out there. But this year Padalecki just has me. All the little moments that Jensen can do effortlessly but which Jared seemed to struggle with he is completely nailing. He's now giving a very self assure performance and its wonderful. I suspect I'm always going to be more of a Dean girl but you can't have one actor carry an entire show. This year the acting is much more equal with both boys giving very strong performances.

What I _do_ fear seeing is "Saint Sam and Dark Dean" becoming the soul characterization of these two men.

Yes that would be pretty dire. As would be Dark/Demon Sam and on the side of angels Dean. I'm hoping that the characterisation will remain that they are both equally good, well meaning men who if pushed are also both capable of extreme acts of violence in order to protect what's important to them. I'm happy with the notion of Dean becoming increasingly more reckless and darker in his inclinations - if it leads to a breakdown scene and Sam and Dean actually talking things through. But an entire season of Dean playing a more sociopathic, dead eyed version of Alec from Dark Angel with Sam acting as his personal Jiminy Cricket? Would be unbearable to watch.

[astrothsknot.livejournal.com]

I doubt your last paragraph will happen. There's been plenty chances for this to go tits-up and so far it hasn't.

One of my mates has suggested that the off feeling was purposesful, to show how off-kilter Dean is. I'll go with that because I can't put my finger on why this ep for me was off.

I was disappointed that there wasn't more blood showering Dean in the woodmill. I want my gore, dammit!!