In the third episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, Sam and Dean follow a particularly violent set of murders linked to hearts. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of body horror\/gore, and cultural appropriation<\/b>.<\/p>\n
This is an okay episode. I understand how it functions within the exploration of Sam and Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contrasting stories in this season, and I think this case\u00c2\u00a0had<\/i> to feel like something out of season one for it to truly work. Sam and Dean are on such polar opposite journeys because of the events at the end of season seven, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made painfully obvious through a case that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reminiscent of where the Winchesters were when they started. If they can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even handle a normal case together, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to happen when they\u00c2\u00a0do<\/i> locate Kevin? What happens if they truly do close the gates to Hell permanently?<\/p>\n
I definitely found this subplot to be a whole lot more fascinating and rewarding than the case within \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heartache.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s undeniable at this point that these brothers are being brutally honest with one another, much more so than they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been in the past. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just unfortunate that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve finally gotten to this point right when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more disagreeable than ever! Dean can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept that Sam might want a life outside of hunting, even though he appears to successfully had one for a year. This is exacerbated by Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience with the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153purity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Purgatory. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like this dynamic was pulled out of thin air, either. Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been more prone to the hunt, and Sam had already tried a life away from hunting. So I\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i> find it believable that Sam would consider a relationship with someone, or that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d pursue college again. (I relate to that personally because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had an inkling in the last few years to actually go finish a degree, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s complicated. Mostly because\u00c2\u00a0FREE TIME??? HAHAHAHAHA<\/i>.)<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Dean is quick to dismiss Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feelings while Sam openly validates Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sad to watch because Sam has no desire to stop Dean from going after what he loves and what makes him feel alive. And yet, Dean is quick to tell Sam that this fantasy of his is absurd and just a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153phase.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect that this can be resolved by brute force or by ignoring the emotional state either brother is in. Dean is still hiding Benny from Sam; Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time with Amelia is still largely a mystery to the audience. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like more flashbacks to it, but I could do without that\u00c2\u00a0Touched By an Angel\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>sunny hue to them. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird!) These two have so much more to work out, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to get a means to talk about it until it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s forced into the open.<\/p>\n
I do wish that the rest of this episode was as engaging as Sam and Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship. I definitely had fun trying to figure out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, but the story lost me once it invoked a culture in a way that was too ridiculous for me to accept. While some of the lore professed in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heartache\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is technically correct in terms of who Cacao was, this episode utterly lost me when the thousand-year-old Mayan athlete is portrayed as a white dude. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re\u00c2\u00a0kidding<\/i> me,\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the show even bothered to explain how Brick came about! At some point, did Inyo suddenly realize he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t play sports in America as a brown dude, so Cacao reincarnated him as a pale guy??? WHAT? Because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that Brick Holmes only subtly changed his appearance for at least seventy years. There is a 0% chance he always resembled the guy we got to see in this episode.<\/p>\n
I admit that this is a little personal to me because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m part Guatemalan and part El Salvadorean (thanks, blood tests!), and Mayan culture has had a long-lasting influence on people of those nations. (PS: THE MAYANS DID NOT DIE OUT, NOR COULD YOU EVER CLAIM THAT THEY WERE SINGULARLY OBSESSED WITH VIOLENCE AND CONQUEST. You know who you\u00c2\u00a0could<\/i> describe in these terms? The fucking conquistadores from Spain who committed genocide of the Mayan peoples.) The writers hijack this culture for their own needs, and they do so poorly, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even make for a good story! What happened to the two men who had Inyo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s organs within them? Did they die? Are we supposed to believe that someone would gain superhuman strength and the ability to never age and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d hang out for\u00c2\u00a0years<\/i> in a shitty strip club??? Which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to slam on strip clubs or sex workers, but it just seems really strange to me that Randa feels like she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a warrior, and she uses this newfound thrill to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 work in a strip club? Does she feel like a warrior there? If so, the show should have explored this and explained why, but instead, Randa is a wholly one-note character with no real motivation. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing like Paul Hayes, whose health issues influenced his decision to keep up Inyo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacrifices. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get any development at all.<\/p>\n
All in all, this was a so-so story that showed promise for a while. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll remember much about this by the time I finish\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
About the future of Mark Watches Supernatural!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>With the recent news that\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/em> has been given an eleventh season, I’ll confirm that I will be watching the show for the site! When I catch up through season 10, the show will be replaced entirely by\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek: The Next Generation<\/em> so that I can finish my journey through the\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek\u00c2\u00a0<\/em>canon by my scheduled date of 11\/07\/2017. When season eleven begins to air, I will do\u00c2\u00a0weekly reviews\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>for each new episode. I will record my reactions and post a review on Thursday<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0At this point, I don’t quite know what time the review will go up, since I don’t know how long it’ll take me to record\/write on that day, but I’ll set up a regular time once I get this going. Huzzah!<\/p>\n Please look at my Master Schedule<\/a>, as all episodes through 10×23 are already on it.<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heartache\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 third episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural, Sam and Dean follow a particularly violent set of murders linked to hearts. 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-4366","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\/4366","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=4366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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