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Article by Sylvia Bond
Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. "In my day," she says, "we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet." It's a wonderful world. 
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Just read an interview with Rebecca Dessertine who wrote a Supernatural book called “One Year Gone” (coming out soon I think) all about what happened to Sam and Dean just after he got out of hell. She wrote it before S6 got started but confirmed with TPTB to make sure she had nothing in the book that they wanted to use. It turns out she wrote Sam waking up in Stull Cemetery and how he hooked up with the Campbells. TPTB at first asked her to omit it as they were going to do that in a flashback episode. What did we get instead … Unforgiven … all about how Sam was a cruel BAMF (albeit a very Hot one!) as if the first 6 episodes of that weren’t enough. I want to shake the daylights out of them and ask what the hell were they thinking! That is EXACTLY the episode the should have given us. Unbelievable. I think I will be buying that book just to kill my feeling of unresolved frustration.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you, Sylvia, for giving us another year of your wonderful reviews. Show may let mr down but you never have. Have a wonderful summer. I leave you with a youtube that might cheer you up. It is a funny ode to Jared’s hair. Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=13Vhi1ghjiI
P.S. Though I did enjoy those 99 close-ups of Sam in Unforgiven!
Those closeups were the best, weren’t they?
I was disappointed in the non-resolution of Sam in pieces after the wall came down- great set-up, nice execution, well acted, yet no depth, no effects but those cheesy special effects, no resolution at all- what, did we run out of time, or just couldn’t think of any way to deal with the tremendous buildup?
“At one point I began to think that Bar Chick represented some portion of Sam’s psyche”
I think she did, at one point,- namely- Normal! but was defeated by Sera’s inability to follow through on anything, and overrun by the first commandment- Thou shalt slaughter every character that helps the boys, unless you forget to do that immediately and find their fan ratings are through the roof, in which case they will enable OOC helplessness and stupidity for said boys until the fans get tired of it, then turn them evil and/or slaughter them for extra angst.
AFAIK, though- Castiel didn’t start the soul thing till after Sam came back, so *didn’t* deliberately leave his soul behind, and nobody but Sam knew exactly what he did to Sam at the end of the last ep- Dean and Bobby saw unconcious Sam convulsing once in a while, is all. So Dean had nothing but an ambiguous promise to fix Sam after, no reason to blame Cas for tearing down the wall yet. Sam, though, had plenty motive to try to kill Cas at the end, even if he didn’t catch all the expository dialogue.
“I can’t imagine that Show feels that its treatment of Sam’s character is justified by the Holy Civil War storyline, not when that particular story has nothing to do with Sam or Dean”
It wasn’t. It could have been, and should have concerned the boys, but apparently the writer/producers couldn’t figure out what the war was about till late in the season, so Cas never informed them he was still trying to stop the apocalypse, and so they all failed each other, for free angst without any troublesome plot. I got the impression Cas was originally trying to protect Dean’s shot at a good life, but once he was involved again, apparently motive became unnecessary for any of his subsequent decisions- including slaughtering any allies that weren’t boring yesmen.
I did like clever!Cas, finally! doublecrossing Crowley and tricking Raphael and Crowley, and Crowley catching on just in time to run for the hills- but it was a little bitty high point drowned in more beating of the dead “power dehumanizes and lobotomizes” horse.
“We don’t get to see him waking up, or dealing with his situation, … we get nothing of Sam, … We do see him arrive, but ..”
Yeah. Apparently the dreaded failure of the wall results in bright lights and a few flu-like symptoms, but Sam soldiers on to get there just in time to prove they’re too late.. I’m going to hope that the presence of several guards or gurad-bodies offscreen helps them all find the OPs room.
IDEK. Was there supposed to be some suspense in this finale?
I can’t see it…
“No reason to blame Cas for tearing down the wall yet..” Are you kidding me? Cas tore down the wall deliberately, and told Dean and Bobby that he was going to do it to keep them away; it was obvious to them and to us, the viewers, that Castiel made Sam a sacrafice to his plans despite Dean begging him to let them help in the previous episode. When taking Lisa and Ben didn’t stop Dean from trying to stop Cas, he picked the one thing that he knew would get Dean to stop at least for a time by turning on Sam. That’s not reason enough to blame Cas? Not even when Cas knew, probably better than Dean ever could what bringing that wall down was going to do to Sam? He is only causing Sam unending torture and pain and putting his life in mortal danger all to get the boys and Bobby off his back. Yeah, no reason at all for Dean to be angry. And now that Cas is “god” I seriously doubt that he will save Sam as he promised. He’s lost all his perspective and is mad with power. So, where does that leave Sam?
“..and nobody but Sam knew what he (Cas) did to Sam at the end of the last ep. Dean and Bobby saw unconsious Sam convulsing once in a while is all.” Of course Dean knew what was happening with Sam in the finale as he had already seen the same symptoms the last time Sam had a seizure in Unforgiven. His exact words were “It was Hell, wasn’t it,” then demanded that Sam not tempt fate by scratching at the wall again and put his life at risk. It makes no sense what-so-ever that Dean be passive about the use of Sam as bait or a distraction or any other thing Cas was doing, promises to save him or no. Dean should be beside himself with anger and vengeance; any other reaction makes no sense to the development of the character as we know him. Sorry to disagree with some of your points so strenuously, but this part of the story line is what really made me mad. Sam is so completely cut off from everyone… he can’t even seem to count on Dean to help him any more which makes no sense to the history of the series.
BTW, the last episode was written by Eric Kripke, not Sera Gamble and all scripts had to have final approval granted by Kripke so you can’t really heap all the blame onto Gamble’s shoulders. They write as a team, and as a team need to revel in the success and deal with the failures as a group.
Coming very late to the party here, but had to first of all thank Sylvia for another excellent season of reviews! I really enjoy them and find them thought-provoking – so, thanks! I’m late here, because for the first time EVER with this show, I DVR’d the episode and couldn’t bring myself to watch it. I waited a loooong time. I had a feeling (I don’t read spoilers or much about the show, other than things here on PRG, but I just had a feeling) that I REALLY wasn’t going to like the direction in which things were headed. When I finally watched the show, the tone of the episode FELT more like the good ol’ Kripke-penned eps, but it was just a slight glimmer of the former glory that used to be my favorite show on television. I want to applaud Joan for her comments on the season – I second them! And I agree with the frustrations Sylvia expressed in the review. Nothing felt developed or resolved. I am so torn about yet another season, because of how much more off-track these fascinating characters could become. What is it with sci-fi shows and the need to build the seasons up to some face-off with the BIG BAD (I’m looking at YOU, Buffy) so the characters become second fiddle to a titanic smack-down? What’s wrong with the original sparkle that made us love it in the first place? Instead of heading into summer with anticipation for the coming season, I’ve almost forgotten what I so looked forward to every Friday. I second your comments Andrea, BoGirle and others – thanks for all the great insights! Keeping my fingers crossed for a big, fat ol’ reset button.
Pink Raygun’s less than flattering review of “The Man Who Knew Too Much” *mc*… http://fb.me/LM2A57Kw
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