{"id":4423,"date":"2015-02-02T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T21:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4423"},"modified":"2015-01-24T10:43:17","modified_gmt":"2015-01-24T18:43:17","slug":"mark-watches-supernatural-s08e10-torn-and-frayed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/02\/mark-watches-supernatural-s08e10-torn-and-frayed\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Supernatural’: S08E10 – Torn and Frayed"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tenth episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, A LOT HAPPENED IN THIS EPISODE, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For talk of race fetishism, body horror\/gore, nonconsensual medical procedures, queerbaiting<\/b>.<\/p>\n

LORD TOO MUCH JUST HAPPENED. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chat, everyone.<\/p>\n

Two Feet In<\/b><\/p>\n

Seriously, I thought this whole episode was going to focus solely on the fracture in the Winchester relationship. BUT NO. However, I do recognize what a huge development this is for the show as a whole, since this feels like the closest Sam and Dean have come to truly walking away from one another. At times, the reasoning for this felt a little muddled, and perhaps that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because there\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> a lot going on in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Torn and Frayed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Part of it is also because I feel like the writers drop the ball a bit on specific issue, despite that they nearly address it! (Am I allowed to call this the “E.L. James Problem\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve earned that.)<\/p>\n

So, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only part of this that made me scratch my head. I understand the direct parallel between Sam\/Amelia and Dean\/Benny. Both men are stuck, more or less. They are challenged by their allegiances to one another and to the people they respect and trust. (AND LOVE. GODDAMN IT, HOW IS BISEXUAL DEAN WINCHESTER NOT CANON AFTER THIS SHIT? What the fuck, that is the most deliberate use of queerbaiting I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen on this show. How the hell do the writers create these \u00e2\u20ac\u0153romantic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d relationships that they purposely compare, only to completely drop the ball on calling Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship with Benny romantic? Booooooo, boooooo, BOOOOOOOOOO.) Both Winchesters are also flawed in their approaches to these relationships, and the writers have no problem demonstrating that. Sam slept with Amelia, despite that he knew she was married. He knew it was a mistake, and he did it anyway. Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the thing. I totally get his anger at feeling like Sam is abandoning him\u00c2\u00a0again<\/i>. After finding out that Sam didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t spend much time at all looking for him, Dean has every right to feel further betrayed by Sam running away again.<\/p>\n

Except DEAN SENT HIM RUNNING AWAY AS A TRICK. And while there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a brief moment in this episode where this is acknowledged, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quickly passed over and Dean goes back to being angry again. Sam was dealing with his heartbreak over Amelia on his own, and then Dean sends him right back to her, KNOWING THAT HE ONCE HAD TO DO THE SAME THING WITH JESS\u00c2\u00a0EXCEPT SHE TURNED OUT TO BE DEAD<\/i>. Like, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s super fucked up, right? Sam has a whole lot of trauma around that incident, and Dean basically triggered him in order to get him to go away. So it seems particularly crass to me that he\u00c2\u00a0then<\/i> goads Sam about Amelia when Sam wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even be conflicted about her if Dean had not fooled him into going to Texas.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that the heart of the conflict is then negated. Sam had to realize that he couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stay with Amelia and build a life with her. Plus, the events of this episode influenced his decision to stay with his brother instead. Hell, both of them had epiphanies: they were torn between two lives, and it was making them sloppy hunters and terrible brothers.<\/p>\n

So they chose each other. I\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i> liked that conversation near the end of the episode where Dean could admit that he was jealous and Sam could admit that he was horribly distracted. I said on video that it was possibly the most mature conversation these two goobers have ever had, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sticking to it. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also take a moment to admit that Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s break-up scene with Benny is a goddamn break-up scene, and let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s take a moment to shake our fists in anger at such a cowardly refusal to\u00c2\u00a0not<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0make that romantic. And I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind calling the head writers cowards here because this is the same show that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s totally cool making gay and queer people the punchline more than it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s willing to make them ACTUAL CHARACTERS. There is nothing here that would disrupt Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization to confirm that his affinity for Benny was romantic. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to be a sexual thing either. (HELLO,\u00c2\u00a0SUPERNATURAL<\/i>, ASEXUAL PEOPLE ALSO EXIST. Not to say that Dean is asexual. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not! He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just got a ridiculous and disgusting fetish for Asian women, which this show needs to get rid of immediately. Seriously? A fucking\u00c2\u00a0gong<\/i> when he opens his laptop? What the fuck???) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 bah, you got so close, and then you jettisoned in the opposite direction. BOOOO.<\/p>\n

Naomi<\/b><\/p>\n

HAHAHAHAA I WANTED MORE, I GOT MORE, AND EVERYTHING HURTS. Amanda Tapping is, unsurprisingly, incredible in this role.\u00c2\u00a0I just love the ways this show has toyed with the angel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mythology, and what we see here fits in with what we know. Namely, angels are\u00c2\u00a0jerks<\/i>. While the reveal of Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subservience is shocking, the IDEA of it is not. The angels have always stuck to such rigid hierarchies, so it makes sense that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do so in a physical sense. How else can you have such an obedient force at your disposal? The angels are programmed through some form of heavenly lobotomy, and that includes Castiel. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Torn and Frayed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d finally tells us how Naomi is able to control Castiel. She drilled a goddamn hole in his head, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Any angel can be controlled through this method, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious how long this might have gone on. If these angels were always programmed to protect the Word of God, do they have other \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Factory Settings\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n

Of course, this season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arc is advanced even more by the reveal of the Angel Tablet, which means that ANGELS COULD BE PERMANENTLY SEALED IN HEAVEN, TOO. I feel pretty comfortable, then, stating that this puts the angels in direct opposition to the Winchesters in some sense. While the Winchesters are deeply invested in closing the Gates of Hell, I think they might also be interested in closing Heaven, too. Aside from Cas, when has ANYONE had a good experience with the angels? Without some massive overhaul in how angels think of humans, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re always going to be a risk.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kind of amazing to me that the show has taken angels so far in this negative direction without earning the ire of LITERALLY EVERYONE, but I suppose all my lovely spoiler blockers could have also prevented me from seeing the reaction to how\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> uses Christian theology liberally. Still, I want more, and I feel SO TERRIBLE for Castiel. He looks utterly broken at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Torn and Frayed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not okay. AT ALL.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Torn and Frayed\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.
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features will be\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, seasons 2 – 4, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>.<\/b>
\n– The 2015 Mark Does Stuff tour is being announced!!! Check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"