In the first episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, well, I was wrong about most things. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Like the season 7 premiere, I ultimately felt that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been more shocking and more emotive premieres on this show. In some ways, it felt like\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> was merely going through the motions. We needed to get Dean out of Purgatory; we needed him to reunite with Sam; we needed a hint of an ongoing story arc for season eight. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of potential here, though, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to see what the show is going to do with what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen here.<\/p>\n
Dean \/ Benny<\/b><\/p>\n
Is their ship name Denny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so into this, please make it happen.<\/p>\n
Okay, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot to unpack here. The writers give us a\u00c2\u00a0lot<\/i> of hints about what Dean was up to for that year in Purgatory. I loved the glimpses of the place because a lot is said with very little. All we know is that Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time spent there was purely about survival. Did he need to eat or sleep? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heavily suggested this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the case, that he devoted his every moment for the past year (!!!!) to killing every single beast that came across his path. Well, not\u00c2\u00a0every<\/i> beast, of course, because there is one exception.<\/p>\n
Benny.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible at this point to ignore the hypocritical nature of Dean Winchester. While I personally wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dare to judge him for his alliance with a vampire in order to survive and escape Purgatory, this is coming from the same man who ran Sam through the ringer for wanting to ally with Meg or Ruby and who killed Amy and who has consistently maintained that all monsters are to be killed regardless of their use because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what hunters do. The same man who held up his end of the agreement upon Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death \u00e2\u20ac\u201c moving on, trying to start a family, ending his life as a hunter \u00e2\u20ac\u201c spends a good deal of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We Need to Talk About Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d berating Sam for doing the\u00c2\u00a0exact<\/i> same thing. But how does this relate to Benny? How is he tied to all of this? I think that Benny and Dean share an experience that Sam can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t relate to, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the reason Dean can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t adjust to life back on Earth as easily as he thought he might. While Sam gave up the hunter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, Dean was busy being a\u00c2\u00a0pure<\/i> hunter. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a juxtaposition that Dean can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get past, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clouding his perception of Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choices. Which I understand, by the way. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect Dean to come back from a traumatic experience and be perfectly fine with the world and himself. Life in Purgatory was, as far as I can tell, an unending nightmare. It makes sense that in this context, Dean would relent from one of his immovable moral stances.<\/p>\n
But holy shit, IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST AN EXCEPTION TO DEAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S RULE. I need approximately FORTY THOUSAND HOURS OF FOOTAGE explaining to me what the\u00c2\u00a0hell<\/i> happened in Purgatory between these two. There\u00c2\u00a0has<\/i> to be more to it. Why would Dean offer his assistance to someone like Benny? THIS IS NOT A SMALL FEAT FOR DEAN WINCHESTER. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do this for just\u00c2\u00a0anyone<\/i>. And where is Castiel? Did Dean\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i> see something that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d interpret as Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s end? Or was he lying to Sam about what truly happened?<\/p>\n
Sam<\/b><\/p>\n
HE HAS A DOG AND HE IS IN A RELATIONSHIP AND I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M GOING TO EXPLODE BECAUSE\u00c2\u00a0WHAT<\/i>. Like Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time in Purgatory, Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time with Amelia is given some bare-bones exposition, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that this is what the writers intended. I imagine we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see more of this in the coming episodes. What else did Dean do in Purgatory? How had Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life changed when he believed he was truly alone? I worry, though, that the narrative is going to continue to be harder on Sam than it has been to Dean. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that the show is pinning Kevin Tran on Sam and blaming most of what happened to him on Sam. I do understand the context of it; Sam and Dean had sworn to protect and take care of Kevin, and in the wake of the season seven finale, that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen. Sam had no one to turn to, and so he honored the pact he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d made with Dean. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean he should be off the hook for ignoring Kevin when Kevin clearly<\/i> needed him, but I want there to be some sympathy for Sam Winchester. Of course, ALL OF THIS BABBLING ON MY END COULD BE FOR NOTHING. Perhaps this is the point of all of this!<\/p>\n
What is Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dog\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name? These are the important questions that this show needs to answer. Who cares about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Benny\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153closing the gate to hell forever\u00e2\u20ac\u009d because\u00c2\u00a0THERE<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A DOG<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Kevin<\/b><\/p>\n
I would be utterly thrilled if this show decided that Kevin would be around all the time because he is a\u00c2\u00a0delight<\/i>. I know that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing new for\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> to introduce a character to the nightmare that is the world of hunters and demons, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m SO INTO the way it was done with Kevin. (Well, aside from Channing\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fate, BOOOOO.) Kevin adapted to this world remarkably fast, given that he double-crossed Crowley and avoided capture for over a year. (Which is why I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m bored by fridging Channing; Kevin already knew how awful this world was; the writers didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to kill her, too, in order to demonstrate that to him.) Amidst this, though, Sam wants to make sure that Kevin has a choice. Dean is convinced that Kevin\u00c2\u00a0doesn<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> have a choice here, that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just part of this world now and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the end of it. But Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s choice\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> important; he chose to attack Crowley a second time, and he chose to help the Winchester\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s close the gates of Hell. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just worried along the same lines that Sam is: Will this guarantee his death? KEVIN TRAN IS SO GREAT. Where\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his mom, by the way???<\/p>\n
Like I said, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this is a groundbreaking episode, but I appreciate the emotional beats established by these three characters. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intriguing to me, and it leads me to want\u00c2\u00a0more<\/i>. I want to know how Sam, Dean, and Kevin will adapt to this world, and I also want to see if they can truly close the gates of Hell FOREVER.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We Need to Talk About Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS. In the first episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural, well, I was wrong about most things. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[591],"class_list":["post-4346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supernatural","tag-mark-watches-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4346\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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