In the ninth episode of the ninth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, no nopes left. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to yell at\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For talk of race\/representation, gore\/blood.<\/b><\/p>\n
I hate this episode. I hate it so much because until it becomes practically unforgivable in its awfulness,\u00c2\u00a0it<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so fucking good<\/i>. This is the episode I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been waiting for all season, one that advanced the angel storyline in a way that felt significant and haunting. Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot was disturbing and heartbreaking, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of potential left here that I hope the show will get into. We get a greater sense of the chaos left in the wake of the angels being expelled from Heaven, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done so well. Angel wars for power! Metatron realizing he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lonely and cutting deals to rebuild Heaven! Y E S to all of these things!<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure there are good stories to be told here. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what has kept me interested in\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> as long as it has. Even if I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily like everything I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m seeing in a season, I still find something of worth and value. The show certainly changed after season five, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not one of those people who believe that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all for the worse. I mean: CHARLIE. Do I need to say anything more??? (Okay, then: Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey; Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s moral quandaries and being held accountable for them; Sheriff Jody Mills; Dorothy\/Charlie as the ship I will die on; Benny; Purgatory.) The show has entertained me and frustrated me since the very beginning, and\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i> hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t changed.<\/p>\n
But I left one specific thing out of that parenthetical list on purpose. Look, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been all that forgiving of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, especially in these later seasons. I believe that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done an okay job of explaining the myriad of shit that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to stop doing. (List #2 for this review: Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disgusting Asian porn fetish; ruining dogs at every opportunity; the constant sexualization\/objectification of women; refusing to keep most women or people of color and combinations thereof alive for more than a few episodes; the misogynistic language; the utter disrespect for anyone with a mental illness; QUEERBAITING, GOOD GOD.) So I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s at all surprising that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m upset by the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Holy Terror.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d At the same time? I need to explain why, even though it may seem obvious to most of you, or even if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s repeating what a contingent of fandom has already said. (I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe that I am being unique with my commentary on this show; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m well aware that I may just be repeating what others concluded years ago.)<\/p>\n
Kevin Tran was killed for\u00c2\u00a0other characters<\/i>.<\/p>\n
That is the root of my problem with this episode, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this that you can see why this is such an egregious issue. Given that\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> is a show set in a country with a deeply diverse population, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always telling when most of the cast is white. Here, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even more obvious, especially when so few recurring characters of color get to survive. Sure, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the fabric of this show that people die horrible deaths all the time, but I find it incredibly lazy to rely so wholly on that idea that you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change it after nine years. And so I was excited that Kevin Tran began to take part in the mythology of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, that a character like him could contribute to the story in significant ways.<\/p>\n
Up to a point. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve not been secretive about the fact that I felt like the writers were ignoring him and not giving him any substantial plots in the second half of season eight or at\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i> in season nine. He showed up, he provided exposition or temporary conflicts, and then he was folded into the background like he was every time he made an appearance. This feels even more absurd than usual because then, instead of actually giving him his own stories, the writers started openly acknowledging\u00c2\u00a0within the script<\/i> that Dean and Sam (mostly Dean) were just using Kevin for their own ends. This is so frustrating because this criticism could EASILY be leveled at the staff of writers, too! You know what this reminded me of?\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Every time that show had one of their characters parrot that whole bit about how their was no oppression on Earth anymore, and yet, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be watching some of the most racist\/sexist garbage in the universe play out in the main plot.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not how character development works.<\/p>\n
Where is Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s development here? When you cast someone as talented and dynamic as Osric Chau, why not give him more to work with? How does any of this make sense in the context of his character? Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role is so deliberately passive in this episode, and all the spark of his character is gone here, which makes it all the more easy for Gadreel. But is that the only justification for what we see here? Unfortunately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what this feels like. Kevin exists here\u00c2\u00a0for other characters<\/i>. He is here to provide a threat to Metatron and, by that extension, Gadreel. He is here to provide a chance for Dean to feel guilt. And he is here to shock viewers, to make them realize how \u00e2\u20ac\u0153real\u00e2\u20ac\u009d this angel threat is, and\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s it<\/i>. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no loving send off for Kevin; there is no chance to reflect on his character\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s contribution to\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> as a whole; there is nothing here to suggest to anyone who might have tuned in to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Holy Terror\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without seeing the other episodes that Kevin Tran was a longtime character. Is there a value in killing off a character like Kevin Tran? Sure, if your show is more interested in the surprise than the substance. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no substance to Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death aside from what it can provide to everyone else who is still alive.<\/p>\n
So let me spell it out: treating one of the\u00c2\u00a0only<\/i> people of color on this show like a pawn to further the stories of solely white characters is\u00c2\u00a0fucked up<\/i>. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t unsee it. This feels so blatant to me, as if Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter anymore. I kept worrying that this show would do this, and they found a way to do it A BILLION TIMES WORSE THAN I EXPECTED. We didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even find out if his mother is truly still alive. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just dead and gone, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s awful.<\/p>\n
I hate this episode.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Holy Terror\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a> In the ninth episode of the ninth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural, no nopes left. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to yell at\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-4584","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\/4584","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=4584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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