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afaimsarrowverse · 3 years

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Arrowverse Update 2021:

I am doing one more of those before the new Seasons are rolling in, because we got major news about one project and some more bits about everything else, so… let’s start with the bad news and then continue with the rest:

Green Arrow and the Canaries

Is officially dead. It is currently unknown if and how we are going to get a resolution of the cliffhangar from the Backdoor-Pilot and its other open plot-threads. Yes, we were promised that all of this would get resolved somwhere else, if the show would not get picked up, however that was one year ago. Since then a lot has changed.

The main problem is that the project was just buried a couple of days ago, meaning that there is no chance for anything of this to be resolved in this TV-Season, which is already completly planned through for all the Arrowverse-Shows (and even half filmed already in some cases). The other problem is that a good portion of the people responsible for „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ is not a part of the current Arrwoverse anylonger. Yes, Marc Guggenheim could come back just to do a Crossover that resolves all that is still open, but why would The CW want its next Crossover Event to revolve around a never picked up show? There would have to be something else in that Crossover Event, provided one of those could even happen any time soon. As for doing just a singular episode the problem is where. The shows with ties to „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ might not be around any more or be in their final season by the time such an episode could be made, and all of the shows might again get shortened seasons, so the producers are going to have other priorties for their own shows in the next year.

So we might not get a resolution to „Green Arrow and the Canaries“ at all. On Televison that is. There is the alternate route though: A Comic Continuation.

As of now however it’s way to early to know anything for sure though. They are looking into it, but as I said, things are a lot more complicated right now, then they were a year ago.

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Batwoman

Season two is rolling around in a few days, therefor they released a new accurate synopsis and The CW has been and is still putting out a lot of promo material. You can watch most of it on Youtube.

A couple of days after I wrote my last one of these, it was reported that Christina Wolfe will be part of the main cast this season. In other news, we also were told that we will get yet another version of Victor Zsasz. The Arrowverse-Version will be played by Alex Morf.

Also David Ramsey will guest star as John Diggle and also direct an episode (but probably not the same one). And yes, this might be the Crossover Episode. However is has to be said that is has become awfully quite around that illusive „Batwoman“/“Superman&Lois“-Crossover. Given the news about David Ramsey being in all shows, it might have been replaced by a Diggle-Storyline that goes through all the shows including „Batwoman“. We will have to wait and see.

The Season opener will go into Kate Kane’s fate (without her being in it though) and Gotham will have to confront the False Face Society and new drug called Snakebite in the opening episodes. The tone of the new Season might be drastically different from before, there are hints for that, and I am not speaking about BLM instead of LGBT-issues. The words „goofy“ and „fun“ are kind of present, if you know what I mean, however this could just be promotion.

As for the episodes:

2.01 „Whatever happend to Kate Kane?“ (Directed by: Holly Dale, Written by: Caroline Dries, Airdate: January 17 2021)

2.02 „Prior Criminal History“ (Written by: James Stoteraux & Chad Fiveash)

2.03 „Bat Girl Magic“

2.04 „Fair Skin, Blue Eyes“ (Directed by: Menhaj Huda, Written by: Ebony Gilbert)

2.05 „Gore on Canvas“

Black Lightning

Everyone is still very tighlipped about the final Season of „Black Lightning“. So I have nothing new, apart from titles (which are in line with the previous seasons and therefore not telling us anything, if we are honest):

4.01 „The Book of Reconstruction: Chapter One“ (Airdate: February 8 2021)

4.02 „The Book of Reconstruction: Chapter Two“

4.03. „The Book of Reconstruction: Chapter Three“

4.04 „The Book of Reconstrucion: Chapter Four“

4.05 „The Book of Ruin: Chapter One“

4.06.

4.07 „Painkiller“-Backdoorpilot

The Flash

So, yes, someone on the Production Team was tested posivite, and they had to shut down the production for a short period of time because of this, but it remained a pretty isolated case (or so it seems) and the production did resume. To make up for the lost time the Christmas Break was shortend, and they are back to filming already, so no need to worry, everthing is on schedule.

This season will see the return of John Diggle to Central City. David Ramsey will also direct an episode (but probably not the same one). We will also see the return of the Meta-Human Task Force, which will clash with Frost. This storyline will also involve Joe. Eric Wallace has hinted before that there will be a storyline involving the police and abuse of power with Joe in it, and I did assume it would be BLM-storyline, however this is „The Flash“, so this storyline might be what he talked about instead, and we might get a Meta-Human are being hunted and abused-Storyline as a substiute.

As for the first couple of episodes:

7.01 „All’s Wells that Ends Wells“ (Airdate: Feburary 23 2021)

7.02. „The Speed of Thought“ (Airdate: March 2 2021)

7.03 „Mother“ (Airdate: March 9 2021)

7.04 „Central City Strong“( Airdate: March 16 2021)

7.05 „Fear Me“ (Airdate: March 23 2021)

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Superman & Lois

The new Morgan Edge is in and it will be Adam Rayner, who will inherit the role from Adrian Pasdar. We also learned that Joselyn Picard will play the other Cushing-Lang-Daughter Sophie. Reporters we will get to meet on the show not only include Ron Troupe but also Chrissy Beppp played by Sofia Hasmik, while Leslie Larr played by Stacey Farber will be a cold former idealist, probably tied to Morgan Edge, and presumable an antagonist.

David Ramsey will guest star as John Diggle somewhen this season and will direct an episode as well. He will make his way through most of the shows (as Diggle) and might be the Crossover-Factor of this season. Even though the „Batwoman“/“Superman & Lois“-Crossover is not officially of the table, we haven’t heard anything about it in a while, so maybe this actually is it.

We got a proper look at the new suit and also the first real trailer, which is … unusal. More artsy then revealing, but is around one and a half months until the season starts, so there will be another trailer coming out soon.

The first couple of episodes:

1.01 Pilot (Directed by: Lee Toland Krieger, Written by: Greg Berlanti, Todd Helbing, Airdate: February 23 2021)

1.02 „Heritage“ (Airdate: March 2 2021)

1.03 „The Perks of Not Being a Wallflower“ (Airdate: March 9 2021)

1.04. „Haywire“ (Directed by: James Bamford, Airdate: March 16 2021)

1.05 „The Beacon“ (Airdate: March 23 2021)

Legends of Tomorrow

Aliyah O’Brien will guest star as Kayla a fearsome deadly alien warrior in this season, who won’t be to happy about the Legends, because she is a pro, and they are …. well … the Legends. David Ramsey will also guest star this season, however he won’t be playing John Diggle, but another role instead. Who or what this other role will be remains a mystery. He could play Diggles ancenstor or descendant, if time travel is still an element in Season 6, or a shape shifting alien or an illusion, however they could also go full prosthetics and have him playing a character with no connection to Diggle at all.

David Ramsey will also direct an episode this season. Caity Lotz did already direct an episode, Episode 5, and given that she tweeted about the strain of directing and acting at the same time, we will see more of Sara in this episode than in last year‘s „Mortal Khanbat“. However still expect less Sara in Episode 4 and 5 than usual.

There was an early air-date floating around for „Legends“, which proofed to be a mix-up. Don‘t expect Season 6 (or any mid-season replacement for that matter) before the end of May, and even that would be early.

As for the episodes:

6.01 „ Ground Control to Sara Lance“ (Directed by: Kevin Mock, Written by: James Eagan & Mark Bruner)

6.02 „Meat: The Legends“ (Directed by: Rachel Talalay, Written by: Matthew Maala & Morgan Faust)

6.03 „The Ex-Factor“ (Directed by: David Geddes, Written by: Grainne Godfree & Tyron Carter)

6.04 „Bay of Squids“ (Directed by: Sudz Sutherland, Written by: Phil Klemmer)

6.05 „The Satanist’s Apprentice“ (Directed by. Caity Lotz, Written by: Keto Shimizu, & Ray Utarnachitt)

6.06 „Bishop’s Gambit“ (Directed by: Kevin Mock, Written by: James Eagan & Emily Cheever)

Supergirl

Here we are again, with crumbs only. I still can’t tell you anything with value that happens this season. A couple of casting tapes leaked, one involving a prison break plot, however there is no telling if this isn’t just a single scene that leads to something totally different or the beginning of an actual sub-plot. We do know however that Young Alex and Young Kara will make their return this season.

We also know, that „Supergirl“ is about the only show on this list that does not have a finished Episode 1 as of now. They might have one or two finished episodes around Episode 5 or 6, but that’s it.

The reason we know this is that even though they are up to Episode 6 with filming, just like the other Vancouver-based shows, they did start a lot later, meaning they did not film whole episodes. The other reason we know that is that Melissa is just returning to the show this months. And there is no way she won’t be in Episode 1. She might sit out a couple of episodes that star Young Kara and Young Alex instead, but there is no way she won’t be in the first six episodes at all.

We will also get less Alex this year, or tob e more accurate less Chyler. She is having her directorial debute this season. Episode 6 is her episode, and this is the one with Young Alex und Young Kara in it. However present day Brainy und Nia are also in it, so it won’t be a total Flashback Episode. However, expect Chyler Light Episodes 5-6. Episode 7 will be directed by David Harewood. David Ramsey will also direct an episode this season and will guest star as John Diggle, however probably not in the same episode.

Also Odette Annable is back for the final season in some capacity. Wether as Sam or as Reign or both and for how much is unknown at this point.

And yes, „Supergirl“ is also the only show on this, where I can’t give you an episode list, because this is all we know.

Yes, it is the final season and they are extra-tight-lipped because of that, and also as I said they don’t really have finished episodes at this stage, but still it would be nice, if someone up there in Vancouver or someone from the Writer’s Room would give us anything. But it seems like they are holding back with any kind of promotion at least until Melissa starts filming if not longer.

#Arrowverse #green arrow and the canaries #Batwoman #Batwoman Season 2 #Black Lightning #Black Lighting Season 4 #The Flash #The Flash Season 7 #superman & lois #legends of tomorrow #Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 #Supergirl #Supergirl Season 6

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leverage-ot3 · 4 years

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to all the leverage fans out there, I thought I’d throw out some recommendations of other shows that y’all might like

this is completely centered around the lgbt aspects of leverage (how none of the characters are straight, how there is a canon ot3, etc), because I know other people have recommended white collar and stuff but I haven’t personally seen that and I’m just a humble lgbt wanting to share more gay shows with y’all

1. wynonna earp (my sideblog is @angelicearps)

just renewed for a fourth season after two years (this feeling is very familiar to leverage fans)

the first episode of season four aired last night and IM SCREAMING the writers served us a five course meal

the main love story includes waverly earp, a CANON (officially as of 4.01) bisexual girl falling in love with nicole haught, a lesbian cop-turned-sheriff (that’s a slight spoiler, so sorry about that) and both of them are main characters

wynonna earp, another main character, has a complicated relationship with two different men and is not slut shamed for it and is never put down about it

I’m serious- the healthiest and most stable relationship in the show is between waverly and nicole, so wlw nation rise

wynonna and waverly are descendants of the great gunslinger (and demon killer) wyatt earp, who ended up getting a curse on his future generations. the story of the show is centered around wynonna being the chosen heir having to fight demons and try to break the curse for good

doc holiday is another main character- yes, that doc holiday. he’s one of wynonna’s love interests and he has such a pure and loving relationship with waverly. he’d literally die for her and move heaven and hell to make sure she’s safe (that’s literally canon)

jeremy comes in around season two if I remember correctly. canon gay. gets in a relationship with another canon gay character whose name I am blanking on. they are very loving and very pure

literally, in 4.01, when armed military men are breaking into the earp homestead and he doesn’t know what to do, he literally says: “gays only?” lol they didn’t respect that answer

the show has so many good quips and one-liners. so many hilarious lines. it can be an angsty show at times but they definitely balance it out with humor and wlw softness between waverly and nicole

wynonna has a baby in season two and literally calls herself a milf

it also made fans faint because they have been calling nicole “daddy” for like six years and nicole was referred to as daddy three (3) times in 4.01

this show is NOT AFRAID to say things like gay, lesbian, etc. at one point someone tweeted at emily andreas (the writer) asking her to amp up the gay energy and she responded that she would

literally, emily andreas is on the same level as john rogers with trustability and dedication to fans

emily andreas heard of the bury your gays trope and did us one better: unkillible gays trope. the gays are unkillable.

2. motherland: fort salem (my sideblog is @fortsalem)

(HELL YEAH I WAS ONE OF THE FIRST IN THE FANDOM AND I GOT THE HANDS DOWN B E S T URL)

au where during the salem witch trials a witches named sarah alder made an agreement with the government that witches would serve for the us army in exchange for not being systematically hunted down and killed

THIS IS NOT MILITARY PROPAGANDA. sorry, I just had to make this point early on because it’s not even though it might seem like it in the beginning. literally by the end of the season you see it’s very corrupt

since this is an alternate history of the united states, in this universe there are no heteronorms. literally, there’s literally no words for lesbian and bisexual that they use because it’s so normalized and common and accepted that there’s no need for terms like that

the main love story is of star-crossed raelle and scylla. raelle comes from a poor family and is a talented healer, and (this isn’t technically a spoiler because you find out in episode one) scylla is a member of the spree

the spree is a terrorist organization of witches that protests the compliance witches are forced into by having to join the military or die/be imprisoned

scylla is supposed to turn raelle to the “dark side” but falls so deeply in love with her that she can’t do it (THATS TRUE LOVE FOLKS)

the students at fort salem (the military school) are divided into groups of three: the main group being focused on is composed of raelle, tally, and abigail

tally craven is a pure-hearted baby and I’d die for her. she is very idealistic about fighting in the military (but don’t worry that’s fixed by the end of the season)

abigail bell weather comes from a high military family and is kinda really stuck up about it, but she’s humbled a lot by the end of the season. this girl has LAYERS (they all do, but abigail goes through a lot and goes from very stuck up and stuck up the military’s ass to questioning everything she knows)

the trio starts off rocky, especially between raelle and abigail, because raelle blames abigail’s mother for her mother’s death (her mother’s unit was led by abigail’s mother)

the beltane episode literally hits you in the face with how there are literally no heteronorms whatsoever. they do this sacred dance where by the end they will end up with the people they are destined to spend the celebration with (“trust the dance”). raelle makes friends with a gay guy and they spend the celebration making fun of the sex noises around them and become gay friends for life. abigail has sex with two (2) guys who kiss each other. a group of four girls went off together. a group of two girls and a guy went off together. and sex isn’t shamed. at all. in fact, it’s respected as a part of life. and y’all, literally this representation was OFF THE CHARTS

the witch’s most powerful tool is their voice,,, think about that for a minute

it’s an all girls school so there are like no guys whatsoever minus the beltane episode and a couple others

EMPOWERED WOMEN (of all ages and ethnicities too)

3. siren (my sideblog is @polymarinelove)

imma start off by saying that season three doesn’t exist. don’t watch season three. don’t do it. the disappointment is real

ANYWAYS

the central love story is between an interracial couple (a white guy and his black girlfriend that has a native american stepfather) that turns into a loving polyamorous relationship

maddie, the girlfriend, is amazing and incredibly smart and the first two seasons (and the beginning of the third) accentuate that and they never downplay her because she’s a black woman like many shows and movies do. she’s a smart stem woman and we stan her so hard. she’s also bisexual.

ben, the guy, comes from a rich family that are basically the hotshots of the town and own the fishing company that the community works for. his dad is hella untrustable. ben doesn’t trust him and neither should you. he is kindhearted and smart and respectful, and at one point teaches a merman about consent after being kissed by him (and he didn’t even #nohomo it which was AMAZING)

now to the mermaids

mermaids are apex predators. they are very dangerous. they are very strong. they’re also wickedly smart, canon smarter than humans

the story begins when donna, ryn’s sister, is captured by a fishing boat and carted off to a military facility. ryn comes to land to try to find and save her. (she literally choses her name because she sees a character on a kid’s tv show saying “I am ryn” which is also the first thing in english that she can say)

she ends up being helped by ben and maddie and legit is like these humans are hot imma learn english for them

there’s a lot of really cool and thought out lore as well as TONS of thoughtful marine biology science that makes sense

oh and transforming from mermaid to human? painful as FUCK. realistic depictions of having your body literally transform into something else

humans are wrecking the oceans and that’s a heavy theme of the show

oil rigs are poisoning the water (making them infertile) and killing mermaids with their sonic drilling

so ben and maddie lowkey commit an act of ecoterrorism but it’s chill

“ben and maddie are love” they’re poly, bitches

they come together in a natural, organic way

very healthy and communicative

ben’s alright but ryn and maddie are amazing

don’t watch season three if you don’t want to be majorly disappointed. the writers listened to the homophobic trolls on instagram and broke up the polyamorous relationship and I’ll NEVER forgive them for that. seasons one and two are amazing though. just don’t watch the third one.

#leverage ot3 #leverage #reccommendations #my recs #siren #siren freeform #motherland fort salem #fort salem #wynonna earp #mine

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elliebartlets · 3 years

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TWW REWATCH: 20 Hours in America: Part 1 (4.01)

• behold, my fellow followers, (probably) my favorite episode(s) of this series. it’s got everything: comedy, drama, sadness, sharp witty dialogue, the senior staff being idiots, a speech that punches you in the gut and makes you burst into tears. it’s got it all.

you’re probably thinking, “but elliebartlets, every west wing episode has that!” and to that I say yes, very true. but not like these episodes. these episodes are on another level. they belong in the MoMA. they belong in a time capsule to be discovered when we are long gone.

• anyway moving on

• amy adams! so funny that the first thing I ever saw martin sheen in was catch me if you can where he played amy adams dad

• I think I noticed this on my last rewatch but Bartlet just said “this is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars” which is what he says at the end of part 2 after the bombing

• Toby not being allowed near Bartlet when Bartlet has high blood pressure lmao

• Their faces at being left behind lol

• “You guys need a button? Bartlet for America?”

• Toby asking an audience member if Bartlet “landed” the section on HMO’s. like she’s gonna know lol

• Bartlet does the salute sign to the soldier before he goes up the steps to give his speech and it looks like Bruno does it too but what he really does is put his hand to the side of his temple in frustration and then bring his hand down. So it looks like a salute, but it’s really not. I just thought it was interesting

• “Wholesome but not too wholesome.” Josh shut up

• “How do you know Cathy?”

“She’s my girlfriend.”

“.....that’s great. She’s really nice. Is that corn out there?”

• “Are we out of gas?”

“Diesel.”

——

“We’re out of gas.”

“Diesel.”

“Nobody cares.”

• “Did we run out of gas cause I said she was wholesome, but not too wholesome?”

alsksjsh I love this show

• “This is fun, we’re roughing it.”

• poor Bartlet trying to be nice and funny to this secretary and she’s so dull

• oh god yes the aprons and rolling pins at abbey’s speech

• omg they still think the plane hasn’t taken off yet 💀

• lol now that I’ve started the newsroom I now also know Tyler as Jim

• IM YELLING THIS IS A MUCH BETTER REACTION

• the way Josh rounds his head on Toby cause he didn’t say “I work at the White House” lol

• that girl that says “how many unborn babies did you guys kill today?” is so stupid.

Yes, because the Bartlet administration is the first administration to legalize abortion, and they themselves are personally performing the abortions aksjsjs please stop

(I get what she’s saying “oh you’re letting abortion continue to be legal. You haven’t outlawed it yet. You’re immoral. Woe is me.”)

• oh god here we go

• my favorite scene

• “We changed time zones? We changed time... We changed time zones?!

“It's a common mistake.”

“Not for the U.S. government!”

“What kind of schmuck-ass system could this possibly...”

“That's good! That's perfect!”

“How did...? I don't understand.”

“Perfect! Just the break I'm looking for!”

“What do...? What do...? People, they just, they just, they- they reset their watches when they commute?”

“I can't take working here!”

“They just change their watches every time they cross a time zone? What is this, a joke?!”

“Serving my country!”

“Can we have a civilization?!”

“Okay, this is a whole new thing now. My guys are going to need to walk this off a bit before they can regroup.”

• absolutely lost it at “not for the us government!” and “schmuck ass system” 😂😭

• Toby banging the branch against the guardrail 💀

• “SAAAAM!”

poor Sam

• “We were waylaid by some mean schoolgirls. Alpha girls, you know what I'm saying?”

“Josh.”

“They were.”

• “Get dressed. Now.”

I say this to myself almost every morning

• “You ever love so much it hurts? Like, physically hurts?”

“Get in the car.”

Lmao

• Abbey saying “I’m just a wife and mother” isn’t that harsh though. Being a surgeon is a huge part of her identity and since she gave up her license, it’s like a part of her has been taken away. So now she’s only a wife and mother because she’s not a doctor.

• “Anyway, it's waiting for us down on the ground.”

“Then let's stay up here and have drinks.”

• “Do we have some sort of condensed Readers Digest index of... well, all human knowledge?”

“We usually just use Margaret.”

• Sam’s face after Bruno says “Abbey Bartlet’s a lesbian” L O L

• “I love dry rub! They take the meat and-”

*snaps flip phone shut*

#the west wing #20 hours in america #20 hours in america part 1 #rewatching the west wing #tww rewatch

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mittensmorgul · 4 years

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(1 of 3) Mittens, I know you're more of a 'what is on the show' than the 'what is around the show' but I was wondering if you had some more resources or information regarding something; i keep seeing here and there people talking about the show that Cas took on Anna's role (that Anna was supposed to become more important/the angelic guide/the love interest but because of the better chemistry the writers switched the roles around and "gave" cas what was to be Anna's role)

(2 of 3) That seems to be a common statement coming from a lot of fans/meta writers. I know I have parroted that as fact in my early days in the fandom as well. But when I actually went looking for actual sources for that theory, I came up empty. I find lots of people talking about it as given fact/gospel truth, but nothing for direct sources. It’s not in the Nicholas Knight season books, I haven’t seen any interviews or magazines that have TPTB talking about that.

(3 of 3) Admittedly I only got into the fandom in the s12/s13 time period, so missed so much of the early meta and interviews and things and it’s possible my Google-Fu has failed in finding where there is clearly sources for this. So, do you know if there is any veracity of this refrain that “Cas took the role they had originally planned for Anna’ theory? Thank you!

First off, HI! :D

Second, you’re correct. I think at this point it’s some awful game of telephone, that somewhere down the line there was a post detailing how the narrative actually handled it with a sort of tl;dr-- Anna was originally created to be a sort of “information key” for the Winchesters, a guide to open up their understanding of Angels via one that had also experienced humanity first hand, you know? But instead of giving her that role, THEY ALREADY HAD MULTIPLE EPISODES WITH CASTIEL and by the time Anna appeared, FANS HAD ALREADY BONDED TO CAS, and rather than expanding Anna’s role and killing off Castiel (whose only purpose at first was to rescue Dean from Hell and ensure the Winchesters participated in what Heaven needed them to do...), they chose instead to expand Cas’s role as an already established character via Anna’s introduction.

Anna WAS ALREADY ENTRENCHED IN HUMANITY HERSELF. But Cas? They could send Cas on a similar journey of discovery, and demonstrate that process of an angel truly falling in love with humanity, showing us how he came to the realization that heaven was corrupt, his mission had been corrupt.

Anna... could never have been THAT.

The show would’ve been fundamentally different if they’d actually killed Cas off and installed Anna as their guide to Heaven Stuff. It would’ve been a lot more “telling them how bad Heaven was” or “how controlling it was” or whatever, and way less struggle to understand and overcome. Even if she remained human, she would’ve been an information dispensing machine in ways that Cas could NOT be without having endured a similar journey for himself. And that.. would’ve been boring and preachy and weird.

And they decided VERY EARLY in the writing of s4 that Misha as an actor and Cas as a character, and his exploration and education about humanity and heaven was the story they wanted to tell. So if anything, Anna was merely one of the keys that unlocked that potential for Cas. I don’t even know if Anna wasn’t created SPECIFICALLY TO SERVE THIS FUNCTION FOR CAS. But that seems most likely to me.

Like... they decided that they would expand the character of Castiel to allow us to learn about angels, about Heaven, and the profound lack of understanding the angels harbored about Free Will and Love and Humanity. But they needed him to begin questioning his orders, to start opening some of those “doorways to doubt” that would allow him to feel emotions. And angels, as they were created, weren’t supposed to be able to do that. So THEN they created Anna to demonstrate that, while excruciatingly painful, and one of the “worst things” an angel could do according to Heaven, an angel COULD become human, could experience these human things, and actually CHANGE. That was her function. I don’t feel that she ever had any other intended role in the story than to show Cas that there might be another way, a bigger truth, that he had to discover for himself.

If Anna had remained and Cas had died, *we the audience* would never have seen this process for ourselves. There wouldn’t have been any struggle over it. It would’ve been an entirely different story. Unless Cas had instantly and unproblematically chosen to become human, or to throw in his lot with Dean after 4.10, there was no way for him to take over Anna’s story. Though there had been potential for Anna to have taken a bigger role in the narrative if they’d decided to go that route after Cas’s initial run on the show as “Heavenly Advisor on Angel Stuff to the Winchesters.” But by the time Anna ever even showed up, the writers had already decided they were Team Cas, and I don’t think there was ever really a serious consideration to replace him with her.

And like... that’s not how stories work, either. They’d already established Cas as a character in 4.01. Anna’s introduction was in 4.09. If anything, they may have briefly considered giving a bigger role to Anna, but it would’ve defeated the point of a lot of storytelling they’d already done building up Cas to the point they’d already chosen to take him, even by 4.09. Cas was already being Demoted By Heaven in favor of Uriel, who was much more willing to press Heaven’s agenda than Cas was. Or at the very least, as of 4.07-- an episode where Uriel was only there supposedly as a “specialist” to handle the specific task (or threat of the task) of smiting the whole town-- Uriel was installed to keep an eye on Cas and Cas was no longer ordered to interact with the Winchesters without “supervision.” And supervision that came with the “specialist in smiting” level of threat attached to it.

Cas was already beginning to doubt, to waver on the plans, and Anna just helped push him over the edge by 14.16 (and unmasked Uriel’s duplicity and Heaven’s unreliability). So. Once those earlier episodes had already been written and in process of being filmed, there was no erasing that story they’d already started telling.

tl;dr: they didn’t “give anna’s role to cas,” they created anna to show him the potential of humanity, and unlock the possibility for him to go on this journey we’ve been watching for the last 12 years. I have no idea (despite having been around a bit longer than you, but still only lurking in fandom meta spaces since s7) how that has morphed in fan dialogue into something that makes so little sense as to break reality... >.>

#spn 4.09 #spn 4.01 #spn 4.07 #spn 4.16 #spn 4.10 #castiel winchester #anna milton #li izumi

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avauntus · 3 years

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Supernatural - a retrospective

This is super self-indulgent, and I have so much else I’ve promised-- I owe a long-fic rec post, and ao3 comments, wip work, and that’s just my fandom stuff I’m behind on. *sigh*

But it’s late on a Saturday and now I’ve finished Supernatural, I want to share what I think are my top few eps, and a few other comments. I promise some of this will be different from the “greatest hits” you probably usually see, and I’ll try to make it worth your time. *wry smile*

Look, we have to have categories like: “Most Likely to Live in My Head Rent-Free for the Rest of my Life” and “Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction” that are different from “Favorites,” because that’s just the cursed energy this show has. ;-)

My top five

#5 - 13.01 - “Lost and Found”

Written by: Andrew Dabb | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia

In fandom, this is most often referred to as the start of the “Grieving Widower” arc, tongue-in-cheek. Also has Alexander Calvert (Jack) walking around completely in the nude for the first third of the ep. (Neither of these are why this is in my top 5, but he has a good story about wardrobe for his ‘first day.’)

I didn’t expect much out of this episode the first time I watched it, but I’ve gone over this ‘section’ of the show maybe 3-4 times in my Netflix catch-up, and I watch this one in full every time. From Jack being...not at all what anyone expected and an unsteady vindication, to the stunning cinematography (there’s a post that compares shots to Brokeback Mountain, but I think the shots here might be better), to the sheriff who takes the time to remind her deputy that “...there’s no such thing as ‘weird.’ Everyone’s normal in their own way,” to the slow reveal of exactly how hard the events of the previous night (12x23 - All Along the Watchtower) are hitting Dean and Sam and in different ways...(how long the episode takes to reveal to you how Dean fucked up his hand, and what he was saying when he did. Augh!) The Winchesters are trying to rally, but they have been taking hits for a long time, and the cracks are showing.

#4 - 15.06 - “Golden Time”

Written by: Meredith Glynn | Directed by: John F. Showalter

Supernatural has a terrible track record with representation in all stripes. It is infamously consistent in killing off anyone minority, female, or non-White. One of the interesting things about the chaotic meta-narrative of season 15 is you can see the lack of fucks some of the writer’s room had to give about not even being subtle about tearing down that type of ‘White-male-hero-journey” now that they were in a literal “what will they do, fire me?” situation.

I’m a Cas fan, and this episode, which gives him an actual, ‘case-of-the-week’ hunter’s narrative where he gets to save the day on his own, successfully, was wonderful. I love that for him! But more than that, for me, this episode is emotional to me for other reasons-- the way Dean and Cas circle around each other on their angry phone call (with the body language! They are broadcasting so LOUD and neither can see because they’re on the phone!), Sam’s story here, where he’s inheriting things from Rowena that allow him in turn to save Eileen, to Cas’ speech and quick anger at the lake when you reflect on his entire journey of self-realization from a soldier of blind faith to an agent of free will... “You selfish little men in your positions of authority...” I just... *clears throat, grabs tissue*

#3 - 6.20 - “The Man Who Would Be King”

Written & Directed by: Ben Edlund

Speaking of Cas’ journey... I know some folks don’t like the angst and drama of the ‘Heaven and Hell’ plots of Supernatural, but I am here for it. Oh, did we need another reason to include this episode? This has some of the most metal quotes I have heard from any TV show. Ever.

I mean, look at this:

“If I knew then what I know now, I would have said: Freedom is a length of rope. God wants you to hang yourself with it.”

“Explaining freedom to angels is a bit like explaining poetry to fish.”

The delivery of: “It's not too late. Damn it, Cas! We can fix this!” “Dean, it’s not broken!” is one of those Supernatural bits that will live in my head until the end of time. All of Edlund’s episodes are among my favorites, but this (along with “5.04 - The End”) was on another level.

#2 - 5.16 - “Dark Side of the Moon”

Written by: Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin | Directed by: Jeff Wollnough

I think of this episode every time I hear Bob Dylan sing “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” This is kinda a giant montage episode, but the connecting concepts are so...satisfying.

“Heaven is your favorite memories.” “ It’s called the axis mundi. It’s a path that runs through heaven. Different people see it as different things. For you, it’s two-lane asphalt.” “This is your idea of heaven? Wow, this was one of the worst nights of my life.” “I don’t think I realized how long you’ve been cleaning up Dad’s messes.” “It’s awesome to finally have an application—a practical application—for string theory.” “Everyone leaves you, Dean. You noticed?” “Why is God talking to me? Gardner-to-gardener, and between us, I think he gets lonely.” “You son of a bitch, I believed in... ” Whoosh.

#1 - 4.01 - “Lazarus Rising”

Written by: Eric Kripke | Directed by: Kim Manners

So...this is the episode where Castiel, angel of thee Lord, shows up. And that’s primarily why it earns the no. 1 spot, because 80% of my enjoyment of Supernatural from this point on was Cas-adjacent. Plus this entire episode just hits. ALL OF IT. Dean’s homecoming. Ruby, my darling. Bobby’s entire vibe. Pamela Barnes, easily one of the most interesting women Supernatural ever introduced. Cas being so hot to say “Hi” to Dean he forgets he wounds people.

But beyond that-- the way the show writes their ‘oh, by the way, angels’ narrative! If you haven’t seen this episode, would you believe me if I told you that THIS EPISODE, the episode where Supernatural said “canonically, Judeo-Christian Heaven is real, btw” involves no churches but does involve a séance, a soulmark handprint brand, and a himbo angel that “gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition”...but they were all “no homo, guys” for years?

Truly no one was out here doing it like Supernatural even back in 2008.

Others--

15.18 - “Despair”

“Most Likely to Live Rent-Free in My Head for the Rest of my Life”

Written by: Robert Berens | Directed by: Richard Speight, Jr.

You know why this episode is here. It broke reality. I could be wrong-- but I’d put good money on this episode being the subject of academic theses in the future. That doesn’t automatically make for interesting story, but...

Has there ever been a case, in a mainstream US TV show where a major lead character (Cas) came out as queer so late in the game in a narratively-important way? I’m not aware of it, but I might just be behind on my television.

This episode has great writing, and (blessedly) amazing direction and blocking anyway. Check out the above gif - that is some next level foreshadowing going on in the cinematography, and this isn’t even the most remarked upon shot in this episode. (Seriously, I had to search for 40 minutes for this gif, please respect my game, lol.) Everyone who was involved in 15x18 is giddy talking about their investment, from the costume designer to the actors to the director to the writer...

...And then a bunch of them steadfastly have avoided posting much Supernatural-related since. So that’s...loud. There is a bunch of subtext in this episode that is screamingly loud; there is a bunch of text in this episode that makes several things clear fandom has been chattering over for years and years. The meta-commentary around this episode continues, months later. There are over 700 fics on AO3 with this episode tag.

I have more to say about the themes of ‘free will’ and ‘love’ and ‘identity’ tied to this episode, but seriously-- you’ve probably read 17 versions of it on Tumblr already, so.

This is the last time we see Cas, and the last time Supernatural can claim anything close to narrative consistency. For that alone, it’d earn free head-space.

Runners-up: “4.20 - The Rapture”; “5.04 - The End”; “7.21 - Reading is Fundamental”; “8.21 - The Great Escapist”; “9.06 - Heaven Can’t Wait”; “12.19 - The Future”; “14.08 - Byzantium”

6.17 - “My Heart Will Go On”/8.07 - “A Little Slice of Kevin”

“Most Likely to Inspire Unnecessary Fanfiction”

Written by: Eric Charmelo & Nicole Snyder (6.17); Brad Buckner & Eugenie Ross-Leming | Directed by: Phil Sgriccia (6.17); Charlie Carner (8.07)

Usually the show kills off it’s “one-episode” female characters, but do you know one time it didn’t? When the Moirai (the Fates - specifically Atropos, the shearer of the Threads of Fate) showed up in canon in 6.17. She was posited to have “two older sisters that were bigger than her- in every sense of the word,” ...and Castiel had to back down when she challenged him to a cosmic game of chicken over the Winchester’s lives.

Then they never returned to that idea again.

“A Little Slice of Kevin” is on here for the opposite reason -- an amazing idea that was really underwritten in the episode it showed up in. Dean Winchester has been dragging himself across the fabric of universes; the literal Word of God is in play in a warehouse in Middle America; Cas is back from Purgatory, but what does that mean, micro and macro? As a person on the street, what would it mean, or feel like, to learn you were a Prophet of the Lord, uncalled? That what you are, everything you are, is a cosmic contingency?

Maybe Fate has an opinion on all these shenanigans?

Perhaps all that doesn’t make sense, but it certainly made an impression on ~2012 me. To this day, it remains the WIP I can open up and fool myself with the ‘twist.’ I wish I remembered where I was going with it so I could finish it.

Runners Up: “2.20 - What Is and What Should Never Be”; “5.04 - The End”; “6.15 - The French Mistake”; 12.12 - “Stuck in the Middle (with you)”; “13.05 - Advanced Thanatology” “14.03 - The Scar”; “14.10 - Nihilism”; “15.15 - Gimme Shelter” ... and “15.20 - Carry On” (obviously)

Fifteen seasons. There were plenty of other episodes I loved that didn’t make these limited lists. But overall -- thank you, Supernatural, for the run. Even if I’m upset at the ending, I can appreciate the game. If you watch the show, what were your favorite episodes?

#spn #supernatural #meta #review

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actuallylorelaigilmore · 4 years

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you feel like home

Post-4.01 fic, includes episode spoilers. After the census and Schneider's big announcement, Penelope tries to come to terms with what her life will look like once she's truly alone. Her efforts do not go as planned, especially once Schneider has more news she wasn't expecting.

Penelope x Schneider, ODAAT. available on ao3 with extra author’s notes.

She held on tight to the bigger questions that had been piling up since Victor’s wedding, when Schneider left her sitting alone in the middle of a perfectly nice conversation. When she watched him and Avery dance as though nothing ever broke between them.

Aren’t you supposed to avoid huge, sudden changes in your life? She wanted to ask him. It can’t really be that simple to start over, can it? Do you miss me as much I miss you?

Ever since Census Brian stopped by her apartment, it felt like the whole world was conspiring to make Penelope feel more alone than she had before. Even when she first separated from Victor, there were parts of her life that kept her focused, that distracted her...that didn’t feel quite like this.

She’d had the kids to look after, her mother to argue with, and Schneider striding into her house at all hours. New job, new empty bed, new medication she resented having to take.

But now she was 42, and her life was settled. Her Mami was proud of her, in her own complicated way. Elena was waiting for college acceptance letters and Alex had a girlfriend. Penelope had never been better at her work, and she might be lonely, but she was used to the loneliness.

Nothing about this was new--so she didn’t know why it was bugging her as much as it was.

She found herself thinking about the year 2030 a lot, not as some abstract concept but as a specific point in time that felt like it was coming right for her. Elena would be in her late twenties, probably far away, and Alex would be independent, too. They wouldn’t need her as much, if at all.

Penelope would like to believe that her Mami would still be behind her curtain, as vibrant and healthy as ever, but she was an NP. She knew time had already been kinder to Lydia Riera than lots of people her age. What were the odds she would stay that lucky?

And then there was Schneider.

It took her a few days after the census to realize she hadn’t even included him in her mental picture of what 2030 would look like.

That was for the best, Penelope thought. He was already visiting less since his reunion with Avery, and now that his girlfriend would be moving in....she doubted that would mean the two of them spending extra time with the family.

They had invited Avery over a lot in the beginning, but she rarely tagged along with Schneider for dinners or game night. Schneider only came down for morning coffee these days if he woke up alone, and Penelope didn’t know if that was because the duo preferred his fancy espresso machine when they were together or if Avery was actually avoiding them.

Whatever the reason, Penelope missed him. She could admit that to herself. But she refused to interfere with Schneider’s happiness, so she wouldn’t be admitting it to him. She texted him more instead, checking in, asking after his AA meetings or wondering if he would make it to movie night.

Aren’t you supposed to avoid huge, sudden changes in your life? She wanted to ask him. It can’t really be that simple to start over, can it? Do you miss me as much I miss you?

It was lonely, Schneider’s absence at the dinner table or on their couch. Especially because no one else in the family seemed to feel it. Her kids were dating, and her mom had whatever platonic thing was still happening with Dr. Berkowitz. Everyone was growing outwards from the roots of their family, and she knew that was how things should be.

Growth was good. Change was healthy. Nobody was doing this to abandon her.

It sucked anyway.

So as 2030 crept into her thoughts whenever she had a spare moment to feel the anxiety and strange sense of grief that heralded her soon-to-be empty nest, Penelope deliberately imagined a Schneider who settled down upstairs with Avery, and kept drifting away.

In ten years, he would be the best friend who was reachable when she really needed him, but not around most of the time. He and Avery would get married, a picture-perfect couple. Maybe they’d stay upstairs, but they probably wouldn’t. He would lease his place to another hipster and they’d move somewhere more upscale to start a family, or adopt purebred dogs, or whatever rich people did when they had endless money and time.

Penelope tried to accept that picture, feel it like it was real, so she could get used to it. She wanted to embed it deep in her heart, where it wouldn’t be able to hurt her as much when it happened.

It made her feel like she had lost Schneider already.

And that left her raw and open and unprepared for his midnight text a few weeks later, asking her to come upstairs.

****

Penelope offered a quick and grateful prayer to the God she only kind of believed in when he opened his door and he wasn’t visibly drunk. She was still waiting for the next relapse--it had only been five months. A part of her might always be waiting for the next relapse.

“Hey, Pen,” he said, stepping back to let her in.

She sat on his couch, realizing as he joined her that his place looked different. Emptier. Less...bright.

Penelope hadn’t visited as often lately; with Avery living there too, boundaries seemed more important. But she knew that the art missing from his walls had been an Avery purchase. Primary colors, splashes and curving lines that probably cost thousands of dollars.

The scarves and hats Avery always seemed to have draped everywhere--chairs, counters, wall hooks--were gone too. The entire apartment was less colorful now.

So was Schneider.

Even his blue eyes looked a little grey tonight, Penelope thought. And asking him felt cruel, when it was obvious what happened. But she knew talking would help.

“Avery moved out,” he said before she got the chance to broach things gently. “A couple hours ago, they picked up the last of her things. I haven’t been able to sleep."

Penelope held herself steady as Schneider leaned against her, staring blankly forward. “I knew you would come. Thanks for that.”

“Whenever you need me,” she reminded him. “I wouldn’t have promised it if I didn’t mean it.”

“Tomorrow’s Wednesday,” he thought out loud after a few moments of silence. “I won’t keep you long, I know you have an early schedule on Wednesdays.”

She blinked, trying to remember if she had told him that. They’d talked so rarely lately, it didn’t seem likely. But Schneider keeping tabs on her wasn’t new--in fact, it was the most familiar and comforting reminder of their friendship she had felt in a while.

“That doesn’t matter,” she told him. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Okay.”

“Did you call Nick?”

“Yeah. I called him after we broke up this morning. The movers took a while,” he added.

“Ah. So she didn’t just...move out.”

“No.” He sighed. “I thought this would bring us closer, but somehow it did the exact opposite. The more time we spent together, the more it didn’t work, and we tried harder to make it work and that just made it hurt more.”

“Oh, Schneider.” Breakups were always hard, but this was his first serious relationship. Of course he fought to keep it; of course he was devastated to lose it again. She reached for his hand and held tight.

“Yeah. Today we were having this stupid fight about scrambled eggs, and both of us sort of stopped in between the yelling and looked around, like what are we even doing right now? And so we stopped yelling, and we talked. About everything since she moved in: how she didn’t want to play games or watch movies with you guys, how scared she is that I’ll relapse and how unprepared she was to live with a recovering alcoholic. About the life she knows she wants eventually, and the one I really don’t.”

Penelope was still holding his hand, but she tried not to squeeze harder on instinct. “Does Avery want kids?”

Schneider shook his head, and she exhaled. “No, it’s not that.”

He knew her, though. Schneider let go of her hand to wrap an arm around her, a silent show of support while he continued.

“She liked that I had real world skills, that I’m more than just another rich guy--but she likes her money, too. Even though it makes her feel guilty. I guess she thought that eventually we were going to move on from this place, and this version of my life, and into one that was more like hers. Ballrooms and regattas and the stuff I tried to get away from.”

“Oh.”

“Yep.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that. She’d be lying if she said she was surprised. But Schneider didn’t need an I told you so. Penelope settled for the truth.

“That sucks, Schneider. I’m really sorry.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re gonna be okay,” she added, with the wisdom of experience and the affection of friendship.

“Sure,” he agreed, his temple resting against the top of her head. The hopelessness underneath his agreement broke her heart.

“You will be,” she insisted. “It’ll take time, but you’ll see."

“No offense, Pen,” Schneider said quietly, “but you were still hoping to have a future with Max a couple of months ago. If you weren’t over him two years after you broke up, I don’t see sunny skies ahead.”

Penelope turned to face him. “Well, you don’t have to. I can see them for you, until you do. And in the meantime, you won’t be alone.”

“Remember that, okay?” She pulled him into a hug. “You’ve got us, always. You’ve got me. And I know what it’s like to survive a terrible breakup.”

Schneider was hugging back, his cheek against her hair. His breath tickled her ear when he replied. “It wasn’t terrible. That’s the worst part. It was barely...anything. Like we used all our feelings up.”

“Pobrecito,” she murmured, rubbing his back and holding on. There was no cure for heartache. And it would be tougher for Schneider, going through it sober again, she thought.

The decision was an easy one--she made it without even considering other options.

“All right,” she said, sitting back up. “You’re staying with us tonight.”

“Pen--”

“No arguments. I won’t hear it, Schneider. This is what family is for. Let’s go.”

The hint of a smile he gave her was barely there, but it was more than she’d seen since she arrived, and Penelope considered it progress.

****

She texted her mom while Schneider grabbed a few things, and Lydia was awake and waiting for them when they arrived downstairs.

“Sit,” she told Schneider. “I will fix you a little something.”

“Lydia, it’s super late. Let’s all just go back to bed.”

“You will sleep better fed,” she chided him. “And I will sleep better if you are fed. You were not at lunch or dinner.”

He sank into the couch, giving up. “Well, then. Thanks.”

Penelope watched as Schneider closed his eyes and relaxed. She knew she had made the right call--now, he was home. With her Mami fussing over him and the kids to look forward to seeing over breakfast in the morning, maybe he really would sleep.

“Lupita,” her Mami said, “You should rest now. I am here.”

She nodded, eyes on Schneider for a few moments longer. Penelope couldn’t have said what she was looking for, but she found it when he seemed to feel her attention and straightened up.

“Your mom’s right, Pen. Go to bed.”

She knew he was remembering the same things she was: his last breakup with Avery, the last time she wasn’t paying close enough attention to his pain, their last long hug on a couch while she tried to comfort him.

“I’ll be right here,” Schneider assured her.

“Good.” The soft, single word was full of all those memories, and fears she only shared with her support group friends. She nodded at them both as she exited to her room.

Exhaustion hit as soon as Penelope shut the door behind her. She had managed to keep it at bay while Schneider needed her, but now it was back, ready to tug her into sleep. She settled into bed, comforted by the faint sounds of her mom fussing over her best friend, and was nearly unconscious when a realization joined the fatigue running through her.

She might not be alone in 2030 after all, her mind whispered. Schneider might still be beside her.

And if that was still a possibility, what would that look like? Without her kids to treat him like a goofy friend, or her mom to treat him like a second son, where would that leave her and Schneider? What would their relationship look like?

What did she want it to look like?

She hadn’t had to think about that, when he was living in bliss with Avery. She hadn’t had to examine the fuzzy edges where her feelings blurred around missing him, and try to understand what they meant.

Now, lying in her dark room alone, it was a picture as clear as the ones Schneider turned into photo puzzles of her family.

By the time the next census came around, Penelope wanted Schneider in the picture with her. Fully. No Photoshop.

She was in love with her best friend.

#alvareider #odaat #penelope x schneider #one day at a time #odaat spoilers #alvareider fic #odaat fic #spoilers #my fic

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twins2994 · 4 years

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Chicago White Sox-Minnesota Twins Series Preview

8.31.20- Lucas Giolito RHP (3-2) 3.09 ERA Vs. Rich Hill LHP (1-1) 3.55 ERA

9.1.20-Dallas Keuchel LHP (5-2) 2.70 ERA Vs. Michael Pineda RHP (11-5) 4.01 ERA (2019 Stats)

9.2.20-Reynaldo Lopez RHP (0-1) 9.00 ERA Vs. Jose Berrios RHP (2-3) 4.75 ERA

The White Sox At A Glance- The Chicago White Sox are one of the hottest teams in baseball right now. They are (11-2) in their past thirteen games and have rocketed themselves to a first place tie with the Cleveland Indians ate (21-13) overall. The Sox have hit their way to first place with some good pitching mixed in. Tim Anderson leads the American League with a .343 average and has added six homers and eleven RBI’s. Jose Abreu leads the team with twelve home runs and Eloy Jimenez has eleven homers on the year. Since we last saw the Sox, they traded for Jarrod Dyson and recently called up Yolmer Sanchez, who was in camp with the Giants, but got released. The Sox didn’t make any huge trades leading up to the trading deadline. The Sox have pitched well with a 3.75 team ERA. Lucas Giolito, Dallas Keuchel, and Dylan Cease have been their best starters. Closer Alex Colome has given up just one run in 12 1/3 innings. Evan Marshall owns a 2.51 and Aaron Bummer is out with a left biceps strain. The team released Kelvin Herrera, who had a tough time in a Sox uniform.

The Twins At A Glance- The Minnesota Twins have been a streaky team in 2020. They started (10-2) and were off to that great start. The team then lost five of six games before winning five of six. The Twins have lost five games in a row and return home, where they are (12-3) on the season. I think this team just needs to return home and relax. The front office didn’t make any big moves at the trade deadline and I’m glad. The Twins will get back Mitch Garver, Josh Donaldson, Byron Buxton, Jake Odorizzi, Zack Littell, Homer Bailey, Michael Pineda and Cody Stashak. There’s no sense to make a trade to have a player come over for 25 games in this shortened season. Over the course of a 162-game season, the Twins would be able to use their depth and wear down the young White Sox, who haven’t been in a pennant race before or exploit the lack of offense in the Cleveland Indians. The Twins offense has been awful lately. They scored two runs in all three games in Detroit. The Twins had thirteen total hits in the three games and hit 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. That’s not going to get it done against any team let alone the Detroit Tigers. Randy Dobnak had some bad luck in 4 1/3 innings on Saturday, Matt Wisler only got five outs when the team needed him to go two innings, and Kenta Maeda threw the ball well on Sunday. The bullpen is having success from odd places. Matt Wisler and Caleb Thielbar have sub-2.00 ERA’s and are looking good. Tyler Clippard (1.23 ERA) and Tyler Duffey (2.13 ERA) are getting it done as well.

What To Watch For- The Twins won two out of three games against the White Sox to start the season. The Twins amassed 27 runs in that series and it seems like forever ago. The White Sox offense has surged, while the Twins has looked dreadful at times. The Twins went (6-3) against the White Sox in games played at Target Field in 2019. Lucas Giolito is (4-6) with a 5.34 ERA in eleven starts against the Twins. Nelson Cruz and Max Kepler each have two homers off him. Rich Hill owns a 6.41 ERA in seventeen appearances against the White Sox. Dallas Keuchel is (4-3) with a 3.57 ERA in seven games versus the Twins. Nelson Cruz has five career homers off Keuchel. Michael Pineda is (5-3) with a 3.24 ERA in eight starts against the Sox. Reynaldo Lopez is (1-5) with a 6.48 ERA in eight starts versus the Twins. Max Kepler has two career homers off Lopez. Jose Berrios is (11-2) with a 2.76 ERA in fifteen games against the Sox. James McCann has homered off Berrios four times. The Twins will likely send Juan Minaya down after Monday’s game to make room for Michael Pineda on Tuesday.

-Chris Kreibich-

#Twins #MnTwins

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sunlightdances · 5 years

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Blooming in the Shadows (5/6)

Pairing: Dean x Female Reader Rating: Overall PG-13 because of canon-typical violence. Also swearing. Words: 2,730 (this part) Warnings: Angst! Dean and the Reader swearing like sailors! Mutual pining with a dash of bed sharing and a slow burn romance added in for extra fluffy goodness. Summary: You and Dean Winchester are barely friends. His sudden reappearance from Hell brings you together, and you find yourself right back in the life you ran away from when you were a teenager. (Canon AU that takes place during season 4, specifically starting at 4.01 - for reference, Dean is 29) This chapter: This is the first chapter I wrote that originally was intended to be a oneshot. There’s a particular line of dialogue in here that inspired this entire fic. One more chapter after this one, folks. Thanks for sticking with me.

Links aren’t working - find the full master list for this plus the link to this story on AO3 on my blog!

You take a deep breath, the sound of it rattling through your rib cage on its way out. It’s silent in the old barn. Almost too quiet.

Your mind keeps flashing back to the way Dean was looking at you outside, the way he keeps half confessing things to you… you’re at your wit’s end.

You know deep down inside you that Dean Winchester doesn’t hate you. Just the same, you’ve never hated him, even after he basically stomped on your heart.

It’s time to put it in the past. There are bigger things to worry about, and you can’t lie - you’re terrified.

Pamela is out of the ICU now, according to Bobby, but blind, obviously. You’ve never seen anything like that. You think the sound of her screams will stay with you for the rest of your life, as will the crazed look in Dean’s own eyes during the attack as he held onto you and Sam for dear life.

And now you’re summoning whatever did it. Truly, probably the dumbest thing you’ve ever been a part of as a hunter. Sam’s fidgeting and Dean is pacing. The ritual has been done. The summoning is over. Now… you just wait. You’re still struck by the absolute silence.

You can’t shake the feeling that you’re not alone.

Suddenly, the doors to the barn begin to shake. The lights flicker, and sam and Dean both ready their rifles filled with rock salt. You do the same, the sawed-off comfortable in your hands despite the way your hands are trembling. You take a deep breath to steady yourself, though you can’t get rid of the feeling that tells you you’re in way over your head.

A clap of thunder, and then there’s a man standing there. Piercing blue eyes, almost blank expression on his face, but somehow still an intense look in his eyes. The look he’s giving you all makes the hair on your arms stand on end.

He takes a step forward, right through the devil’s trap, and your heart starts to race. “What the fuck…” you breathe, feeling Sam and Dean come closer on either side.

Almost as if on cue, the three of you begin firing, your rock salt doing nothing to slow down the man striding towards you like he’s on a mission. Your heart stutters again when he gets close enough to touch.

“Who the hell are you?” Dean asks, and you want to smack him for being so flippant.

The man’s voice is deeper than you expected and seems to echo around the barn. "I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from Perdition."

A beat, and then Dean’s smirking, the idiot. “Thanks,” he says snidely before lunging forward, the demon knife in his hand, and stabs the man in the chest, almost to the hilt.

It does nothing.

“Shit,” you say, and take a step forward, Sam heading up the rear. Before you can do anything, the man is turning to face Sam, two fingers on his forehead, and then Sam slumps to the ground.

Dean curses, and your eyes widen when he turns his attention on you, but the man is already there in between the two of you, pressing his fingers to your face before you can defend yourself.

Everything goes black.

“Wake up, kid. Come on,” is the first thing you hear, Dean’s voice low and worried. “She’s not waking up.”

“Give her a minute. It took me a second too,” Sam replies.

You groan in response, and can almost feel the relief palpable in the room.

“What happened?”

“A fuckin’ angel of the Lord. That’s what happened.” Dean says, and underneath his posturing, you can hear the fear there.

You sit up, with his help. “He’s-- what the hell did he want?”

Dean almost smiles, probably at your choice of words. “Said he was the one who got me out of hell. He said he did it--” Dean swallows, face turning serious. “Said he did it on God’s order. That I had a job to do.”

“Dean, what the fuck.”

He pulls you to your feet, and Sam steadies you on your other side as you get your bearings.

“I-- I’m not really sure where to go from here.” Dean admits, and it shocks you, really, to see him being vulnerable like this.

“We have to find somewhere to sleep.” Sam says, always the level head. “Let’s get a room and we’ll call Bobby. We should probably head back to his place next, anyway.”

“Two rooms,” you tell Sam on the way to the Impala. He gives you a look, but you refuse to meet his eyes. You know he wishes you and Dean would just hash things out once and for all, and there’s no way he’s missed how differently Dean is acting now.

You just can’t quite face it. After everything that happened today… the prospect of finding out whatever Dean was trying to tell you earlier today… it scares the hell out of you and you’re not sure how to deal with it.

Call it fight or flight, but it is what it is. You need a break.

The neon lights of a motel are like a beacon, and Dean practically speeds into the parking lot. He’s rattled and it makes you nervous.

Sam goes into the motel office while you hang out by the car with Dean. He’s fidgeting and you find that you want to put a hand on his arm, or his shoulder… find some way to comfort him. You haven’t had that feeling in a really long time.

“You coming with us to Bobby’s?” He asks, breaking the silence. It feels like a loaded question.

You dig the tip of your boot into the dirt, creating a pattern. “Not sure yet. Need to get my car eventually.”

He nods. “Is that the only reason you’d go back there?”

It’s not the question you think he’s going to ask, and you have no idea how to answer him.

Saved by the bell, the ringing above the door signals Sam’s exit from the building, and you heave a sigh of relief when he hands one key to you, and keeps another in his fist.

“I’ll see you guys in the morning.” You say, grabbing your bag out of the backseat and slinging it over your shoulder.

You take two steps before there’s a hand gripping your elbow. Your heart practically stops when you turn around to meet Dean’s eyes. He lets go almost immediately, a blush coloring his cheeks. “Just-- don’t leave without saying something.”

You can’t place the look in his eyes and you’re not sure you want to. You’re not sure you want to deal with any of this, but somehow you should have known you were always going to get dragged back into life with the Winchesters one way or another.

You nod and tug your arm out of his grasp, smiling weakly at Sam over your shoulder as you find your room and push your way inside, the weight of the last few days obvious as your shoulders slump.

A shower is in order, and then you plan on sleeping for about fifteen hours. You know you should eat something, too, but you’re too exhausted, too freaked out, too off your game to do anything other than collapse in your bed.

A knock on your door startles you awake after what feels like hours, but only turns out to have been about fifteen minutes. You stumble to the door, rubbing the sleep from your eyes, immediately on edge.

“What?” You ask when you pull open the door, revealing the eldest Winchester on the other side, a sheepish look on his face and his fist still raised to knock one more time.

“You were asleep.”

You shrug. “Not for long. What’s going on?”

He swallows. “Nothing. I mean, nothing bad. I just-- can I come in for a second?”

The nerves start up again. You feel anxious and feel like you want to leap out of your skin and sink beneath the earth. The dread coiling in your veins is only matched by what feels like anticipation.

You shut the door behind you, and watch as Dean rubs his jaw, pacing in front of the bed.

“Are you okay?” You echo your same question from earlier, because it really looks like he’s lost it this time.

“I have to-- I need to explain something to you.”

You say nothing. You’re caught completely off guard, with nothing to go on here but the desperate look in his eyes. He takes your silence as permission to keep going.

“When we were growing up, you… you showed up one day and completely flipped our world upside down. It’s always been just me and Sam. We never knew how to handle someone else being there, but then there was you.”

You find your voice. “Is that why you were so awful to me?” It comes out harsh, more than you intended.

“I deserve that.” He looks down at his feet. “I deserve that and I deserve everything you’ve ever said about me or thought about me since that night.”

You immediately know he’s talking about when you left. You just can’t figure out why he’s doing this now, why he’s trying to explain this now. It was all so simple for you. There’s nothing to talk about, as far as you’re concerned.

“I pushed you away when we were teens because you made me feel things that I was nowhere near prepared to feel. I thought it would be easier…” He stops for a second, laughs bitterly, “thought you would be safer if you were as far away from me as you could get.”

“Dean--”

“Wait,” he says gently, “I have to get this out or I’ll never do it.” He takes a small step closer to you, meeting your eyes now. “I also thought I was protecting myself. Killing two birds with one stone, you know?”

“Protecting yourself from what? From me?” You ask, hating the way your voice cracks on the last word.

He smiles, but it’s sad. “You scare me.” Dean’s voice is raw, honest. It makes your heart rate speed up.

“Why?” Your reply is barely a whisper.

His voice cracks, “Because you could break my heart in half and walk away without a scratch.”

You have no idea what to say. You’re frozen, rooted to the spot. It’s all at once everything you’ve ever wanted to hear from Dean, and the last thing you ever expected.

“You’re so strong. I don’t think I’ve ever told you that before. You came into my life, this spitfire full of loud opinions and the hardest left hook I’ve ever seen, and I knew… I knew that if I let myself feel these things for you, I’d never recover. You would. Because you’ve always been the strongest of the three of us. But me? I’d be ruined.”

A tear splashes off the end of your nose and startles you, because you didn’t even realize you were crying. You want to scream, want to tell him he’s so stupid for not just talking to you. This entire time, all these years… wasted. Because you both were so stupid for each other you couldn’t see the other’s feelings right in front of your face.

“So I put you down and I was cold to you and I pushed you away… and you want to know the dumbest thing of all?”

He takes a step even closer so he can reach out and use his thumb to wipe away a tear slowly tracking its way down your cheek. He’s close enough you can feel the heat radiating off him and can feel the way he’s shaking ever so slightly as he touches you.

“What’s the dumbest thing?” You ask, and his shoulders seem to curl in as he finally tells you whatever it is he’s been trying to say this entire time.

“It didn’t even work.” He whispers. “You left, and I moved on, and so did you, and you show up again… and it’s like I was punched right in the chest by all the feelings I thought I got rid of,” he says, grabbing your hand and placing it on his chest so you can feel the way his heart is pounding.

“Dean,” his name is a choked breath, the things you’ve never said to him stuck inside your throat. You swallow a sob that’s threatening to burst out and he steps up even closer, hand sliding from your cheek to the back of your neck, thumb rubbing circles into your skin.

“You’ve hated me for years and I deserved it. But trust me, sweetheart. You could never hate me as much as I do for what I did to you. You never deserved to feel like you didn’t have a home there. I even blamed you for leaving. The things I said…” He shakes his head.

“Can I say something now?” You ask shakily, a burst of confidence coming over you as you watch Dean practically bare his soul to you.

“You don’t need to--”

“Yes I do.” Your hand covers his, both of you locked there in a strange but wonderful embrace. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear something like this from you. I-- Dean, I fell in love with you when I was sixteen years old.”

Dean’s eyes slide shut, a pained noise escaping his throat. You feel the exact same way - all this time wasted, all the time you both felt the same way but were too scared to say or do anything.

“If you think that I could walk away from you without a scratch… well, you don’t know me very well, Dean Winchester.” You say quietly, his fingers gripping yours almost painfully.

“We don’t, do we, though.” He says, “We don’t really know each other anymore.” He pulls back and his eyes rove over your face. “Or, at least I thought I didn’t know you. I thought you didn’t know me either. But you’ve still got that necklace. And you’re still able to look right through me, just like you always were.”

Something’s still eating at you. “Dean… why now?”

His eyes are so fucking green as he stares at you. “We went up against an angel today. I thought-- at any point, that could have gone so far South. You could have died today.” His eyes are pained. “I went to hell and came back. And still the thing that scared me today was losing you before I had a chance to make things right. I didn’t-- it made all my reasons seem pointless.”

You’re both quiet for a few minutes. “What do we do now?”

He shrugs. “Haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

You pull away and sit down on the edge of the bed. “I need to sleep. It’s been a hell of a day.”

Dean nods, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I’ll let you get some rest. I just-- I needed to say that to you.” He takes a few steps backwards towards the door. “There’s no pressure here, okay? This whole thing--” he gestures between the two of you, “it’s on me. It always has been. I just had to get it off my chest.”

He frowns. “Dumping all that on you wasn’t fair.”

“Dean.” You stand, coming closer to him. “That’s enough self blame for one day, okay? I just-- I need to think. I’m not going to disappear. I’ll see you in the morning.”

A small smile is on his face, one you’re beginning to think is reserved just for you. “Okay.” He grips the doorknob with one hand. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When you shut and lock the door behind him, you finally let yourself cry all the tears you tried to hold back earlier, slumping down to the floor, the weight of everything that’s happened between you and Dean crashing down on you all at once.

A hell of a day.

What an understatement.

#dean x reader #dean winchester x reader #spn reader insert #blooming in the shadows fic

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cookiedoughmeagain · 5 years

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Haven DVD Commentaries: 4.01 - Fallout

Gabrielle Stanton Executive Producer, and Writer for this episode, and Matt McGuinness, Executive Producer

[As the ‘previously on’ section shows] Gabrielle Stanton: I just remember how many times we wrote the word ‘barn’ during the last few episodes of the last season. If it were a drinking game we never would have made it through.

[As Duke watches Audrey’s memories play out on the walls inside the barn] Matt McGuinness: What’s clever about this scene is it was a way for us to hide a bit of backstory because you got to see these various moments, but it also helped to explain what the barn was and how it is a repository for her memories and whatnot. GS: It was kind of a way for us to do flashbacks without actually doing flashbacks.

[As Duke lands in the aquarium] MMG: I have to do a big shout out right here. This idea of Duke landing in some sort of fluid and us not knowing where he was and then coming up, was Ginger McGuinness’s idea. My daughter at the age of 8 came up with this idea; ‘Daddy why don’t you have him land in a fish tank in an aquarium?’ which we thought was super cool. GS: And Balfour did too, until he realised how cold the water was going to be. MMG: Apparently that tank held lobsters or something, and Eric is a surfer - he knows cold water, but it was I think low 50s, which is bitterly cold. GS: But he was a trouper; went in again and again.

[As the detective is questionning Duke in the hospital] GS: I like this scene because it was Duke trying to talk his way out of something, and we got a chance to talk about his aliases and his fake IDs and it’s always fun when we get to do that... I actually worked worked with Balfour on a short-lived show called Veritas The Quest many years ago, and Calvin Banks, the name of one of his aliases there, was the name of his character on Veritas. MMG: Wow! Really? That is some inside arcane knowledge. GS: I thought there would be someone who got it, but I don’t think anyone did. Including Eric.

The outside of the Haven Bookshop is Lunenberg and the inside is in on location in Chester. GS: The Warp and Weft Giftstore in Chester closed down and we kinda took it over and shoot various things in there; bookstores, cafes, offices, MMG: If you ever get the chance to go to Chester, Nova Scotia, it’s a lovely little town. I might suggest the summer as opposed to the winter … GS: It’ll be raining either way, but it’s just whether it’s cold rain or cool rain. MMG: It’s a very nice spot, lots of tourists like to go there. And as you drive around Chester you will see plenty of places - and by ‘plenty’, I mean all of Chester. We’ve shot everywhere in Chester as we head into our fifth season. GS: Yeah it’s kind of amazing; I don’t think there’s anything we haven’t shot.

GS: And now we’re about to meet Jennifer. She is a great character, we’re really really happy with everything her and Eric do this coming season. MMG: Yeah we were really happy with the performance of Emma Lahana who plays Jennifer. GS: And they just had good chemistry. You hope you’re going to get good chemistry when you cast people, but you never really know until you start seeing it on screen.

MMG: Ah look, Eric’s got his pants on under that gown. I would have suggested no pants.

[As Jennifer starts talking to Duke] GS: This was the scene we used for auditions to cast Jennifer. We saw a great many actresses for this role. GS: I remember on the day there were many discussions about the hat she’s wearing. MMG: She kind of became known for her hats and scarves. There’s a hint for the fans; scarves will continue to play a part in the story of Jennifer.

GS: It’s so funny doing these commentaries because it’s always like a year later, since we shot it and edited it and everything, so it’s always looking back. I was telling someone earlier that usually about 10 minutes in, I just forget what I’m supposed to be doing and just start watching the episode.

[As Duke and Jennifer are talking about the barn etc.] GS: This was also a nice way … Every premiere episode you always want to reset the series for new audience members, and this was a nice way of telling Jennifer what was going on, but also telling new viewers; ‘hey there’s this town called Haven, people do weird things there …’. MMG: Do you know where we shot this scene? GS: I believe it was a real hospital. MMG: It looks like it. GS: I think it was outside Chester. Even though we now have a hospital set on our stages, but we came here because we wanted it to look different, so it could look like Boston. Although I think the next scene, in the parking lot, I think that is in fact Chester.

[Brief interruption as Matt leaves the room to take a phone call] GS: This is the life of an executive producer. You cannot do one thing at once, you have to do ten things at once.

[Duke and Jennifer in the parking lot] GS: Actually, I take it back - the memory is coming back to me; I believe we shot this in Halifax, to give it a big-city feel. Although I could be wrong about that because it is hard to remember.

[As Dave answers the phone to Duke] GS: OK so everyone wants to know what’s the Oprah Winfrey joke - we honestly don’t know. We just thought it would be the most hilarious thing to say, if Dave had some kind of Oprah Winfey thing. And he played it spectacularly. GS: This is the biggest time-cut I think that we’ve done in the series, this is six months since the previous events. We leave a lot of our seasons on these big cliff hangers - two people pointing a gun at each other, or ‘my name is Audrey Parker’, ‘no my name is Audrey Parker’ - and this was one of the few opportunities we had, and we said we could do something cool and do a time-cut.

[As we see Nathan with the bikers outside the diner] GS: Now for all of you Lucas fans out there - the beard. I’ll tell you a little story about the beard. He was actually supposed to have the beard through the first and second episode, and then when he realised he was going to find Audrey and he regained his sense of purpose he was going to shave it. But we ended up doing something called cross-boarding which meant that we shot episodes one and two not in order. So we would shoot some scenes of episode two during the episode one block and vice versa. So we couldn’t have him keep the beard because he couldn’t shoot one scene and have the beard and another scene and not have the beard. So this is the only scene that he has the beard, and it was devastating for Lucas Bryant because he spent all hiatus growing it. But he did a good job; it’s a good beard.

[Matt returns, saying he had to take the call because it was an emergency. Apparently related in some way to the 300 gallon salt-water aquarium he has at home. “That was my fish tank guru.”]

GS: Oh this is - did the slim jim joke stay in? MMG: Yeah, not really. We worked a lot on this slim jim bit and never quite got it where we wanted it.

[Discussing Dwight as Chief and the various names that Adam goes by] GS: We just get excited when we see him on screen because we know that some day he’s going to be a mega-super-star and we’re gonna be like ‘We cast him!’, ‘We had him on our show first!’. GS: I love the three of them together [Dwight and Vince and Dave]. We write a lot of stuff for them and they always totally nail it. MMG: Yep, Edge and the Teague brothers have an ongoing story, particularly Edge and Vince - Dwight and Vince.

[As we see Lexie in the bar] GS: We shot all these bar scenes in a block, with our fun character of Lexie. And for anyone out there who has nothing better to do with their time than thing about things I’ve written in my career; there are quite a few series I’ve worked on that I’ve gotten the name Lexie into. This was the most recent. I’m still trying to work out how many I’m getting screwed out of character payments for though. MMG: And here is season four’s suprising new male lead; Colin Ferguson. Lovely man, tons of fun. He used to do stand-up comedy nights, and when you do a comic con with him, that becomes immediately apparent. He’s very funny, and very clever and just sweet and professional.

[As the Guard welcome Nathan and Duke back to Haven] MMG: Oh this scene was fun, we’re introducing everyone in this episode. So here comes another favourite character of ours; Jordan McKee. The last name is the name of an old girlfriend of mine. GS: This was a very elaborate scene to block and shoot. MMG: Yes, it was. Pretty much any time you have cars stopping on marks and people getting out of car doors, everything gets shockingly complicated. GS: Not to mention we have a great number of our characters here, all in one place. GS: The funny thing about this, is that the tornado is about to go off, and every other day this week that we were filming, it was rainy and cloudy and that whole thing. And the one day we’re going to have a tornado and giant rain storm - beautiful blue crystal skies. That’s the way production goes.

GS: We have realised that the downside to Dwight’s Trouble is that he is in that bulletproof vest a lot. It’s very rare to see him without it. But we’re working on it. MMG: We get him out of everything, season five.

[As the tornado arrives] GS: Our director Shawn Pillar was very excited to blow the steeple off the church here, which is a real church in Lunenberg. And all these leaves were someone from props standing there with a big hefty bag of leaves in front of a giant fan. MMG: And the tornado is the work of Chris Wood GS: Our genius FX guy. MMG: He’s great; he’s a very big part of the show.

GS: Oh yeah the other body found on the beach [that Dwight mentions] that was going to be another Troubled person that we were going to see and we never actually ended up seeing them.

MMG: Adam Copeland came to us largely as a wrestler and it became very clear to us that he had lots of talent as a thespian as well. He’s good with the jokes [His ‘usually’ reply to Jennifer’s comment about police stations being safe]. He can throw away a funny line, and that’s not an easy thing to do.

GS: It’s so funny looking at this a year later and seeing how everyone’s hair and facial hair and everything looks a little bit different. MMG: The boys look great. GS: Yeah. MMG: It’s not a surprise as it’s a television show, but there are some good looking people living up in Haven, Maine.

GS: These bar scenes were fun to shoot. Emily Rose liked it I think, getting to play someone so very different from Audrey. MMG: And one of the reasons we shaped season four the way we did was because Emily had a baby a week or two before we started shooting, so she was out of commission for around the first two months I think of shooting. So we wrote her into all the episodes but - oh this guy [who has just come into the bar with a gun in his belt] he works on the crew, but he’s great - he’s really good in this role and then you see him working on the crew. He’s a really nice guy, and I can’t remember his name right now. He’s a great guy but I’m blanking on his name because I’m old. Anyway - we had to figure out a way to get Emily into the first few episodes, but shoot all the scenes together and them cut them in in post. So we wrote all these bar scenes in the script and we didn’t shoot any of them when we were shooting the rest of the episode. And then when we got to around episode five or six, we shot what was going to be two days, and then three days, and then four, and I think it turned into six days in this bar. GS: By the way this character’s name [who is pointing a gun at Lexie] is Sinister. GS: This was a fun stunt sequence coming up, Colin rehearsed it quite a bit. MMG: I like the way he takes his glasses off there; he does a great job. Kyle! His name is Kyle [who plays Sinister] GS: Yes! Kyle. Kyle; you’re awesome. We’re just really over-worked and exhausted.

[In the station as Stan and other cop notice the return of Nathan] MMG: So the female cop there, Rebecca Rafferty, is played by the real-life spouse of Lucas Bryant. GS: Kirsty Bryant.

[About the photo of the fulgerite on the beach] MMG: That looked really cool with the hand and everything. GS: I know! It did look really good, we just didn’t have time for the full scene with it. MMG: Yeah, this is one of the whole challenges of production; we had this whole thing written … but we just had to talk about it and show the photo instead. GS: This episode was running really long because we had so much stuff going on with it. MMG: That thing you see in the background there behind Nathan is a popsicle stick lamp, which we’ve all imagined that Nathan built for his dad the Chief. I had a whole backstory for this in my head. There’ a bunch of popsicle-stick lamps in the Chief’s office, and they’re left over from when Nik Campbell was the Chief. [and then they appear to be interrupted by some kind of technical issue and we don’t get any more to this story, sadly]

GS: So as some of you may remember, Marian Caldwell was in the pilot episode, and we thought it would be cool to bring her back and see what happened to her. I think it was in Star Trek when Khan got really mad at Kirk telling him, ‘You fly around the universe, and you never check back in on people after you fix the problem.’ So here at Haven, we do: we come back to see what’s going on. GS: All this frosted breath here is special effects, but it looks really good. MMG: It looks really good. GS: And I like the way they made everything look cold and frosty. MMG: It looks great. And when Marian opens her eyes, it still makes me jump. That was really great, because it looks like she’s dead. GS: She is so good in this scene. We’ve got to bring her back. MMG: Yeah we’ve got to bring her back. Season five. She’s very talented. GS: She looks so mad there. I totally believe that she would freeze you.

MMG: There’s the Teagues and their very short-lived van. GS: Didn’t that explode in real life? Yes, it did. There was a fire in the van. MMG: The van has actually burned in real life. Which I think we used. GS: Yeah, the first thing we thought was ‘Sweet! How can we work that into a story?’

GS: I liked the way they did this reveal [with Conrad in the chair]. And I like how blue all this is. They did a really nice job. It really works with the emotion of the scene. I think when the ice moves, and the breath are CG, and the rest is pretty practical [effects there on the set]. GS: Poor Nathan, he gets beat up this whole season.

MMG: You know, I’ve noticed that Dave never wears his reporter hat any more that he used to love; that hat with the feather like an old timey news man. We need to get him back in that hat. GS: I think we should!

MMG: And there’s the Grey Gull, the world’s coldest place to shoot. GS: But also the most beautiful. MMG: I kind of want to go to a party at the Grey Gull; it looks fun. GS: I think they should open it as a real bar. I guess there’s no running water in it, but. I would totally go. GS: So this is our final introduction for this episode; Duke’s brother. This was chock full of introductions this episode. MMG: There’s a pretty strong resemblance to Mr Crocker there.

MMG: Nice nose-ring. GS: I think she keeps it for a while. MMG: She keeps it the whole time she’s Lexie. GS: That’s right - we wrote a whole scene where it comes out eventually.

#haven syfy #haven dvd commentaries #haven season four extras #4.01 - fallout

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hippychick006 · 5 years

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SPN Analysis - Season 4

SPN Analysis – Season 4

In relation to This Post, I’ve finally completed Season 4. I also made separate posts on each episode of Season 4 and it’s clear that although there are a couple of weaker episodes, there were no outright clunkers, and the majority of the individual episodes were very good. So why don’t I love the season overall?

1) For me (as you’ll see in the analysis), it was the start of the myth arc outweighing and overpowering the original MOTW concept – road tripping, investigating urban myths and legends. If I was to top 20 all Supernatural episodes, I’d be surprised if at least 90% of them weren’t MOTW format with a nod to the myth arc. Classic supernatural for me, will always be seasons 1-3 and those are my favourite seasons with season 1-3 style episodes like Baby, Regarding Dean and Red Meat joining them. Just personal preference and what drew me in to the show in the first place. This is the biggest reason why I’m struggling with Dabb, but we’ll come onto his seasons later.

2) What I struggled with more than this though, was the overall myth arc of Season 4 and where we ended up. I don’t mind brother angst, I don’t mind Sam going dark side, I don’t mind him drinking demon blood and being ultimately wrong in killing Lilith as the last seal (since Dean unknowingly broke the first seal). What I don’t like is what Season 4 led to, which is the narrative that Sam is constantly blamed by everyone for starting the apocalypse. I don’t like that Heaven’s betrayal was softened by Castiel’s last minute defection which unbalances the season (at least for me) and Sam’s character comes off even worse than it should because of it.

Any detailed notes explaining reasoning, I’ve put under the cut so as not to take up your dash.

Monster of the Week v Myth arc Episodes: 13 MOTW v 9 Myth arc.

4.01 (Lazarus Rising), 4.03 (In the Beginning), 4.09 (I know what you did last Summer), 4.10 (Heaven and Hell) 4.16 (On the head of a pin), 4.18 (Monster at the end of this book), 14.20 (The Rapture). 4.21 (When the levee breaks) and 4.22 (Lucifer rising) were Myth arc. A few were debatable including 4.17 (It’s a terrible life), but since Zachariah says that Sam and Dean were in their real world (with only their memories changed) and that it was a real case, a real haunting with real people affected, I put it under MOTW. Some of the other cases were stopping the breaking of one of the seals which relates directly to the overall myth arc but were enough of a case to put it in the MOTW category rather than myth arc – e.g. 4.02 (Are you there, God, it’s me Dean Winchester).

Wannabe Hunters: 0 (See Note 1)

Ship Pandering: 0 (See Note 2)

Fan Pandering: 0 (See Note 3)

Someone is called “Family”: 2 (See Note 4)

Death having no meaning: 0 (See Note 5)

Sidekick status Updates: 0

I specifically checked on Bobby and there are no mentions of what he’s up to unless he actually appears in the episode. Castiel is not mentioned unless he’s in the episode.

Sam or Dean dumbed down: 2 (See Note 6)

Retcon

Bobby’s narrative changing over time to be that of a father figure

Mary being a hunter and making a deal

One more point I’m going to make on Season 4 is that whenever anyone complains about Season 14 being Sam and/or Dean light or that they aren’t hunting together, or that they are focusing on something that isn’t Sam or Dean (e.g. the Nick storyline), we’ve been told that the show has done this before. And I agree, to a very minor degree they have. Season 4 is an example of this, the brothers were sometimes separated, either working on their own or with other people but re-watching just hits home the difference. If you have decent writing, coupled with decent characters with backstory you get invested in, and decent actors that portray them, you don’t notice because you are completely drawn in to the story. That contrasts sharply with Dabb era where at least 2 out of the 3 (and sometimes all 3 elements) are missing.

Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3 if you missed them are here.

Note 1: Wannabe Hunters

4.17 (It’s a terrible life). The ghost facers are back and appear to have moved on from being paranormal investigators to ghost hunters. They’ve produced an instructional video which newbie hunters Dean Smith and Sam Wesson find extremely useful in their first ghost hunt. The whole dialogue (for me at least) is funny and we were never meant to take the ghost facers seriously. They are just there for comic relief and it’s very much played as two idiots that accidently stumbled into the supernatural world and are very lucky they haven’t been killed yet. They are there to show that people that don’t know what they are doing should not be anywhere near a hunt. They aren’t ever shown to be better than the Winchesters - even in the instructional video, they keep saying they learned things from the douchebag Winchesters, so still score of 0 for wannabe hunters.

Note 2 Ship Pandering

I decided to do a full re-watch specifically for the purpose of watching Cas and Dean scenes through shipper eyes and I’m not seeing or hearing anything I would call ship pandering. They aren’t even friendly with one another. There were no lines of dialogue you could call ship pandering, nor moments between them that were deliberately put in to feed shippers. I don’t see anything for any ship that’s been put in there to deliberately pander.

Note 3: Fan Pandering

There was no fan pandering of characters (e.g. Cass is pretty). It’s not clear whether there were any amendments to the original role of characters following fan reaction to them. On rewatch, I’m actually inclined to say not, but if anyone has any evidence saying otherwise, I’d love to hear it.

In terms of Castiel, he was in the first three episodes, all of which would have completed filming before the first of them aired. By the time the first episode aired, scripts for later episodes would already have been in progress, so I’m inclined to assume his next appearances in 7, 9 and 10 were already planned. Which makes sense as his role throughout the season was to act as a conduit between Dean and Heaven, a single point of contact that tells Dean about the breaking of the seals and Dean’s purpose.

Anna does not appear until 4.09 and she disappears at the end of 4.10. Both episodes would have been completed before either episode aired. So again, Anna disappearing is not anything to do with fan reaction. It was planned. Neither she nor Castiel appear again after 4.10 until 4.15. On rewatch, Anna’s purpose appears more than anything else, to be to drive Castiel’s defection.

The only thing I’m not clear on is whether Castiel was supposed to die in 4.22 and not come back in 5.01, because that would actually have been an amazing sacrifice. I’ll come back to this after Season 5.

Note 4: Someone is called “family”

There are 2 instances of the retconning of Bobby to be more than he was originally written:

4.01 (Lazarus rising). Dean to Bobby trying to convince him he’s not a demon. “You’re about the closest thing I have to a father.”

4.21 (when the levee breaks). Continues the changing of Bobby narrative when he says to Dean during Sam’s detox in the panic room, “Look, I know you hate me for suggesting it, I hate me for suggesting it. I love that boy like a son.

Note 5: Death having no meaning

In 4.02 (Are you there, God, it’s me Dean Winchester), Henriksen, Meg and Ronald Resnik all return. They appear as spirits as part of the breaking of the 66 seals, so not alive, still dead and it was a clever way to see them again without cheapening death. Particularly Ronald, because no doubt he’d be a “fan favourite” with the writers now and someone the Winchesters go to for advice on hunting.

In 4.03 (In the Beginning), Dean is sent back in time and he meets his young parents before they were married. Still dead in Dean’s timeline.

In 4.08 Sam dies briefly due to a wish, which is reversed minutes later.

In 4.21 Mary and Alastair appear, but they are all hallucinations in Sam’s mind when he’s going through blood detox. Still dead as doorknobs.

If I’ve missed any, let me know.

Note 6: Sam and Dean are dumbed down

Okay, not counting putting salt down in rooms with windows:

4:12 - They turn their back on a magician who is tied up to have a conversation and unsurprisingly, the magician escapes the ropes and disappears. I have no issue that he’s capable of slipping the ropes, given the kind of act he has. I do have an issue with Sam and Dean taking their eyes off him. In Dean’s words: “Guess we should have seen that one coming.” Also, they didn’t search the room for him.

4.20 – They should probably have tested Amelia for being a demon prior to letting her go with her daughter. I was going to let it slide, but nope.

#spn analysis #spn critical

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janiedoe · 6 years

Text

I’M ONLY 20 MINUTES INTO 4.01 AND I’M TELLING YOU, I HAVEN’T FELT THIS INTO BLINDSPOT SINCE I WAS WATCHING 1.01 THE FIRST TIME 2 YEARS AGO

THIS FUCKING SHOW

THIS FUCKING SEASON

THEY’RE FUCKING AMAZINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

#blindspot #THE WRITING #THE ACTING #THE SCENERY #THE CAMERA ANGLES #THE EVERYTHING JFC #IT'S BLOWING MY MIND #AND IT'S ONLY BEEN 20 MINUTES

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years

Text

13x04 watching notes

TBH that is my exact strategy when I am tired and want to go home.

it's 2am and I just woke up after a lengthy power nap/full REM cycle because going to bed at 9 is for cool kids so uh I'm watching the episode but also it's 2am. I didn't do it deliberately but here I aaaam.

Getting right in there with Dean telling the the truth in the recap - is he really gonna spill it all to a therapist? experts have been awaiting it ever since 1x10 so

"experts" being me, I am an independent judiciary body

*grief grief grief* *Jack angst*

Oh yeah Cas recap because Cas is back

Should I even write expectations for this episode? I'm a bit late since I already started watching :P Blah blah Glynn blah blah probably going to be fine, blah blah swear I saw someone say she's "never written Cas before" but uh we just had recaps from 12x19 so I mean who wrote that?

this guy has a weird reaction to the dead wife coming back

like, oh, okay, that happened. guess we say hello

Is this the "understated" reaction when Cas comes back

Oh we're doing regular old stabbing? Is this a shapeshifter thing or a revenge curse thing? Is it all going to be romantic couples? because lol pls don't

Also the recap did expressly list off 2 dead moms and a dead crowley along with a dead Cas who is also a brother and father to active main characters

Sam like "hey"

Dean like >.> Are you trying to be friends after I yelled at you?

Sam being remarkably cool about Dean's netflix and holy oil suggestion

Dean being extremely less cool about Sam's suggestion

They're sort of recapping the argument from the end of last episode for us, which is good because it wasn't in the recap unless it was but it's 2am and my brain randomly discarded that

oh my god it was

okay these are not meta notes

Sam's trying to play at grief counsellor and it's super not working because he's using it as their fight. You don't get in a snappy comeback about "oh so you want to move on"

Dean looks extremely murderously done with all this because How Dare etc

"For me"

God damn puppy dog eyes.

awww Jack's watching The Clone Wars. Because he is a wee new baby and this is his star wars generation I guess.

mittensmorgul pffft. (I have never seen Clone Wars so I have no idea what that even means)

elizabethrobertajones It's the adventures *drum roll* of Darth Vader when he was still Anakin, before he went evil Ashoka or however you spell it is his Padawan

mittensmorgul aahhh

elizabethrobertajones Jack's identifying with her and not with the pre-evil but still getting the Imperial March music layered over his bad decisions Anakin the entire show is 10000 episodes just an endless "we can't make him go evil because that happens in the movie but we can tease basically everything up to that" stuff

mittensmorgul At least he's iffy about Anakin...

elizabethrobertajones yeah good choice, basically it's also brand new he found the non-dinosaur version of Star Wars of the previous generation :P and it's less political than the prequels I think The Clone Wars is generally well-liked whereas nerd rage dictates the Prequels are the Worst and I guess it's Too Soon to get into the newer Star Wars films since we don't know how the arcs of the new kids pay off

[side note: I haven't watched it per se because there's tons of it but I've been in the same room as my brother watching it, and seen a lot of pop culture general knowledge that I've sponged up so I could be wrong about some little details as I mostly know how it's been described to me]

Also Jack's identifying with the female character, because fuck off toxic masculinity, she seems awesome and he has no idea he isn't “”supposed”” to. She also is one of the aliens with the huge tentacle things on her head so idk if it's a good idea for him to get too into this without meeting more of the general population - Sam's probably right

Uhoh, Jack kinda does a snarky eyebrow about "you're the good guys" - Did Sam fail to sell it or is Jack really just starting to have trust issues now he's watching TV with black or white morality (literally a dark side and a light side - hrm.) and given his experience of the Winchesters yelling their very shades of grey takes on him at each other

Well he hasn't learned to be cagey about overhearing that

*blink blink blink* *sigh*

"You're *using* me"

Oh no, poor Jack :(

He also implicitly trusts Dean's judgement more than Sam's bonding, despite how Sam has made all the movements towards him. As people have been meta'ing, Dean's being extremely honest and Jack's setting his markers by that, even if it's horrific to the point of deciding he has to be evil because Dean thinks so.

Sam says he, Dean and CAS closed the rift - hey, Cas got knocked out by Lucifer in round 1 of that as a distraction and Crowley helped you close it.

They probably have not explained Crowley to him at all.

At least Sam is being honest now about what happened with the rift, and that it's their mom

and Jack speaks the language of lost moms. Now HE looks at SAM with sympathy.

Probably also explains Dean...

I think Jack is defaulting back to thinking about Dean way more than Sam's opinion of him, although perhaps he may like Sam more now he was upfront and some of why "so uh yeah I was KINDA using you" is on the table

Jack was wearing a darker henley, which tbh with Dean wearing them again all of a sudden makes it blurry to me if this is not about his Dean-alignment more than colour coding his feelings on being evil (like how Amara's nail polish started off black and got right down to light grey by the end of the season). Now he's swapped to being the Cas Intern.

Ow.

and aww all the fake IDs. There's a lot to take in about these guys :P

Oh no Dean said "loony toons" on the episode which may or may not be an exact use of 8x08 for Cas, for Jack. Jack's a bit more of a trial run about wanting to BE a hunter since he is mostly just curious. Also amused Dean has to rephrase for Jack because he actually knows he's a week old or so, and he's not going to enjoy repeating himself or explaining, while he always found it kind of funny to just say a whole string of incomprehensible pop culture at Cas without slowing for a breath.

Not funny now, is it Dean?

Wait have they never actually fought a revenant aka, idk, it sounds like a naturally occurring zombie? They mention it from time to time but as far as I remember they've never actually called zombies revenants because they're one of the shows where they just embrace the horror movie tradition about zombies completely, so it always seemed like revenants were something slightly different, at least, in the sense that they get named like a different category. And they just lumped them in with ghosts here, as restless spirits but i guess this time *with* the body?

Dean tells Jack to sit, like he was a dog being kept in the car.

Unlike dogs he knows how to work the door handle.

Jack no don't touch the blood

oh good Dean stopped him

Aw no he's still wearing the dark henley under the tan jacket. That's awful :D

Pfft Dean's like immediately "it's a revenant" because they know what those are really well after a billion years hunting and we've never watched them ever name anything on screen a revenant before with that vocab, and they're really sticking with not crossing them over with zombies exactly...

I mean Dean said he wasn't a revenant after he got back from hell and I think they've chattered about them before

if I check this on superwiki it's way too early for there to be a spoilery "so it's not a revenant" line from later in this episode highlighted when I hit the search :P

Oh good, I'm glad I'm right.

A revenant is a visible ghost or animated corpse that returns to terrorize the living, usually people it knew in life. Unlike the zombie, a revenant is not under another person's control, and has returned from the grave on its own for a specific and often personal purpose. In 4.01 Lazarus Rising, Bobby accuses Dean of being a shapeshifter or a revenant. Dean proves he's neither by cutting himself with a silver knife. In 8.06 Southern Comfort Garth takes a call from a hunter asking how to deal with a revenant. Garth tells him to get a casket and some silver spikes, then nail it in and bury it. He also warns that getting bit will hurt like hell, but will not turn you into one.

I wonder if those were revenants in 4x07 and I only ask because it was like almost exactly an anniversary to it in OUR time :P It's still May or maybe June for them in-show

Okay Dean left Jack to dig but Sam chased after Dean rather than it being a synchronised Winchester ditching of Jack :P

Little on the nose about "You're starting to sound like dad!" :P

"Is that a bad thing" Oh Dean, no.

Fortunately the theme of this season is fathers so I suspect you're gonna have to deal with this at some point or another

Sam like "the drill sergent thing won't work on Jack" to the sound of Jack merrily digging in the background because Dean told him to

I really hope that wasn't an on-set hazing that they actually left him to dig :P

I love my smol gravedigger son

I love how Jack did all the digging anyway because Sam's still not actually dirty and Jack's still standing in the hole

Lol not a revenant, well there's a surprise. I'm glad I double-checked the lore anyway because I have the time to so I'm not going to spend the rest of the episode like "wait what IS the difference between them and zombies anyway and why have we never seen one?"

I mean it's not gonna be a ghost either, we're 9 minutes in and they're salting and burning because it makes more sense to Dean to do that than not to - I guess a precaution for accidentally angering her spirit for digging her up...?? :P I mean no he still thinks she's a ghost but I mean maybe it's not a total waste of salt.

OH NO Jack don't ask about if Kelly is a ghost, that's very painful.

OH NO I thought he was going to ask about Cas but instead Dean said "what gets burned, stays dead" and that hurts a lot

FORTUNATELY for me the viewer as opposed to Dean the grieving ball of angst over there, I can go check up on Cas immediately.

He doesn't seem to be doing too good but more in an existential way since he's at least up and walking about.

I like how Jack woke him up but it's probably got to be like a baby bird has to hatch itself.

He's using up all his "hellos" on the void. Save one for Dean.

You know if the MotW is imitating dead loved ones I have to say I am not exactly looking forward to this :P I didn't say earlier but the cold open gave me 11x13 vibes and honestly I don't want a repeat of the stress of waiting for Cas to show up for Dean but it not happening... Okay, belatedly 10 minutes in, there's a baseline expectation for the episode that that doesn’t happen. Then again I forgot to check the names at the bottom of the screen except for being happy to see Misha's there so they could spring anyone on us

Throw a real curveball in just like bring some random dead loved one from the first 3 seasons back :P

Or waste Jim Beaver's season 13 appearance on it and he's never even in the AU with Mary :P

Anyway Jack is waiting patiently in the car.

(or, well, not so patiently.. He's starting to get an idea of how the job works, and that Dean is usually repeatedly wrong about everything as he throws spaghetti at the wall about the case...)

Anyway, dead son, dead wife, so that's quite a neutral combination.

Asking what they had in common probably means the grief counsellor, but Dean says that and then we go back to Cas right when I've been musing on the loved ones coming back for them thing and honestly it's like Dean's words are just summoning Cas right now.

....... 8x08 used flashbacks to summon Amelia for Sam, just saying

I hope Cas finds Billie and hopefully a bar immediately and they can become drinking buddies.

I don't even think she's in this one?

I like those assertive footsteps though. "I have no clue where I am, I am just going to walk in this direction like I mean it"

Lol they're in Madison i was KIDDING about bringing back a dead loved one from like season 2 or something. Oh well, if it's her, it's her. I'm still bitter about Sarah because I only just re-watched it with my mum the other day.

I should probably stop bringing up Sam's dead or lost girlfriends because it's just bumming me out on his behalf.

Teehee "he's not our intern"

well

"I asked you to keep an eye on him" "I can see him"

It's amazing Dean didn't volunteer just to get away from Jack

Sort of weird existing in a post That Declaration world where I can just canonically know Dean staring at Jack is making him think sad things about Cas without any fear whatsoever

Oh boy killer grief counsellor probably. "Mia is promising to provide the catharsis I've been craving for so long" and then she gets ripped to shreds by her son.

I feel a little bad reading this woman's diary, but the first line is about not "getting over" it and learning to live with it. Blah blah heal and rebuild yourself, blah blah whole again but never the same

"Shrinks... Snake oil for the mind." "Or how healthy people deal" Pfft

Jack being baffled by the issues of customer vs hot dog guy without understanding it's an ancient war fought across the world

Dean equates "catharsis" to "happy ending" - I can't tell if he's innuendo-ing or accidentally revealing too much and being mournful about it.

The house has a great fence - its parts are all misaligned. Very visually uncomfortable :D

Awww someone said "hello" to Jack and Jack was like !!!!! another person!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO! :D :D :D

how can you possibly think he's bad

Anyway I was about to type that Dean hates it because of course he feels the most vulnerable talking about his feelings all the time, either for performing Dean reasons about needing to keep up a facade of strength (LET YOURSELF CRY, MAN) or because feelings for Cas being inconvenient to him

UHoh Dean grabbed Jack's shoulder - he did it to Mick to be threatening last year in a Glynn episode, while Mick was wearing a long tan coat. And called Jack "Spock" which is not really accurate characterisation at all. Jack's pretty much nothing but a bundle of emotions, he's just not used to using them around other people. Now CAS on the other hand.....

I do like that Mia decided to see them because Jack is sweet and was upfront about losing his mother and he's just adorable.

They bluff their way in by losing a collective mother, Sam once again lining them up as family and siblings.

Play it cool, man. You’ll scare Jack off.

I'm starting to think we haven't seen Cas between scenes for a while because Dean hasn't said anything angsty enough

But idk if we trust her or not. She has a lot of alcohol stashed on that shelf.

Jack wisely doesn't sit on the sofa with them all.

"Oh well Mom was great and now she's dead so what's the deal with catharsis" Dean, no.

Sam continues with what should be the pre-arranged plan of spill closed truths like well we don't journal but our dad did

also I am so annoyed that confirms they don't keep hunter journals??? grarghgh

Google has ruined this generation

And Dean makes fun of journaling as being for little girls, even though Sam literally just said that about John. Last year in 12x04 he said he was a 13 year old girl when trying to text Mary so he's actually regressed even further backwards at losing her again >.>

"I'm good with death, closure, the whole friggin bottle of Jack"

it's a shame he would never put a bumper sticker on Baby, because that...

Oh boy we're still having this fight. "My brother's delusional..." yeah oh dear.

Is this going to be one of those things where I basically just want to transcribe the whole thing?

Dean calls out Sam for not being able to even admit that Mary's gone so he hasn't even moved past denial - which to be fair, Sam IS right she's not dead and that they DO have a means of getting her back and everything... Was thinking about how last season was a "Dean is right about everything" season and this time is clearly a Sam is right about everything one... but of course both only to a certain degree, and in this case it's much blurrier about approach and how these fights are going because of course Sam's not being a perfect Saint Sammy that Dean is being unfairly awful to in the entirety of what's going on here. Sam IS struggling and resisting confronting things in his own way and adopting Jack as a pet project is definitely a form of avoidance or at least wanting to get concrete closure on Mary's death before he will fully mourn. Which makes Sam and Dean existing in the same place terrible because they're only in the same physical location

anyway Dean's about to yell about how hard this all is for him too so I better unpause once I'm holding a stuffed toy again

"At least you had a relationship with mom" WAHEY

I mean that was awful but I'm delighted Sam yelled that because there's ALWAYS something else going on underneath Sam, and I've been waiting for more Sam and Mary angst, since I spent so much time on them last season and at least obliquely referred to this... Talked a lot about how hard Sam had it to reconnect with Mary... That Words with Friends scene from 12x07 was basically floating along waiting to come back up at some point or another, but it took Sam a long time to reach out to Mary personally, and really only in 12x14 (hi Berens, I just accept you and Glynn are brain twins these days) did he pick a side in THAT fight and picked Mary. And we said it was to get closer to Mary but he made it all about the BMoL instead of just confronting that he wanted a relationship with her, and the BMoL ended up just keeping them apart ANYWAY and tl;dr am I going to have to write the reverse version of A World Without Monsters from Sam's POV or can we just agree that my subtext in that fic was exactly what just bubbled up here? :P

I just spent the entire length of that paragraph trying to work out when I wrote the meta about how Sam felt about Mary and it took me until that last point to realise it was not a meta, it was a fic where I roundly abused poor Sam for the sake of making that point.

Dean's like hey therapy is great! *eyebrows at Jack* *snarky smile at the doc*

Sam is like *anger-drinks water*

*refuses to cry as well*

BLOOD

(CRY, DAMMIT, SAM.)

That sign was down earlier

is this the poor receptionist?

Or... ew, shifter gunk?

LOL Dean just takes a flask out of his pocket in the middle of their appointment

Mia asks him to look at Jack, which is the last thing he wants to do, but blah blah meta about 12x22 and how he needs to "see" Jack, and she's pointing out that Jack is terrified which is exactly what Dean needs to see about him

subtle

She actually points out his anger issues as well so I think Dean's getting homework whether he has to write it in a journal or not :P

*suddenly everyone is pointing guns*

Hey if she's a a shapeshifter why does she live in an all-white house when shifting makes bloody goo stains everywhere?

Or her assistant, I guess. They haven't had eyes on him :P

Ooh that explains why the guy was not surprised to see his wife. Well, kind of surprised, but not nearly horrified enough.

Sadly if she is telling the truth that means someone else is using her method to get their guard down to kill them for kicks...

Also shades of 9x13 because they had that spa where the monster would use their unique skills to help, but then of course another of their kind - a sibling - had to go and ruin it...

Oh hey, it's Cas! I guess the time ran out on a good transition from Dean, so we go over here on "I'm telling you the truth"

Lol it's another Cas... Who ever would have expected it. /Misha being the worst at spoilers

Or something with a very silly voice. "Friendly neighbourhood cosmic entity" that sounds like that and won't show its face is either someone pranking Cas or about to go very bad.

Cas is like "do I look like that" "I'm getting a new coat as soon as I'm alive again"

if this thing is The Empty itself it's probably kinda crazy after eons being nothing

Oh NO Cas's face when he says "every angel that ever died is here?" because oh boy did you put like 90% of them in here yourself. There's about 3 faces you'd be happy to see again of the entire lot. Hey, it's never too late to give Cas that guilt all over again that made him stay in Purgatory out of penance.

I mean among other things but it's probably worth mentioning there are a whole bunch of lil purgatory parallels here in the loosest sense of it being a hostile other realm, and the way Cas is basically Dean in Purgatory in here.

Cas has been back for like 5 minutes of screen time and I want to protect him and wrap him in blankets

there's no need to be mean, The Empty, just because you got woken up... I say... at nearly 4am... because I woke up when I didn't want to...

you know what, The Empty's being mean to Cas probably kind of justifiably, even if it's a dick.

pretty clever to use a shifter as the motw in this episode too

oh, poor Cas is horrified to think Sam and Dean made some sort of deal for him

he says "I don't know" which is ironically what Jack's saying all the time

like father like son

LEAVE HIM ALONE

last episode we had James keeping memories of Missouri, who he had cut out of his life, in a box. Now Mia has a box still dedicated to "Buddy" her asshole ex who hurt her, and good on her for leaving him. He's another shifter, we're halfway through the episode, so we probably need to find him now, and also have a good 10 minutes more of whatever's going on with Cas. :P

She also owns up to have done much worse things in her past with Buddy, although presumably not killing people, and probably because they were super toxic together, and she had the sense to get out and try and help people now.

Jack said "I'll come with" which is adorable. He's learning to be like them :D

Wheeeee he's riding shotgun! Guess Dean couldn't make him stay in the back without Sam around.

Sam's plan's don't always work out :< Oh no, Dean, you still don't have much faith in Sam's ability to handle himself.

Fortunately this does seem to be a mostly Sam is right season, and I think of all the overwhelming reasons why you don't trust Jack, not trusting Sam to trust Jack is probably relatively low on the list underneath the Cas stuff or you'd have just yelled that at Sam the other day instead.

Uh, why do I feel like the shifter just phoned Sam and somewhere between here and there something went really wrong?

Oh god I'm going to have to watch the face peeling scene with my own two eyes at 4 in the morning, aren't I?

Meanwhile Mia explains why her catharsis works to Sam - I hope he doesn't sneak back at the end of the episode for a chat with "Mary" because that would be AWFUL.

Oh it was that other guy - wait, also, Sam was already doing this before Dean phoned? Seems like he doesn't trust Dean's methods either :P

CAAAAAAAAAS

I love how Cas is so practical like, "will you pay me $200 to stop annoying you and go away?"

UHOH guess we're getting right into it. "You don't want to go back" "Sam and Dean need me" You don't want to be needed, you want to be wanted!

Wheeee text on that and also wheee over on the other side of the story last week Dean finally made the i/we distinction about Cas. Now we just need to get them alive and well and actually dealing with crap

oh boy I shouldn't have paused there except that i suppose for the sake of meta-ing remotely clearly it was probably a good idea not to watch straight through from that into the empty accusing Cas of having feeeeelings and "I know *what* you hate, I know *who* you love, what you fear." especially since Cas hates being needed but not wanted and uh Dean made the i/we distinction at long last over on the other side of the story so um does Cas fear something related to all that?

I mean to be fair Cas has been through this exact thing before with "he's in love... with humanity" / "all of it for one man" which was an "i/we" distinction of planetary proportions :P Of course he just mutely responded to it there because he was sad Dean was dead, and had no idea Metatron had accused him of being in love in any form, so that was Metatron's private joke to himself.

The Empty telling Cas there's "nothing for him back there" also makes like next to no sense if you take season 12's family read at surface value and has the bonus of being, I'm pretty sure, a line Elrond tells Arwen in the movie when he's trying to make her leave Aragorn and go across the waters to the undying lands.

I know they're just starting with it in a long selection of terrible things that happened to Cas but starting with his grace being stolen really sucks :P

Especially when I am still daily haunted by his season 9 arc.

See above: Metatron and "in love with humanity"

More miscommunication of the "didn't bother to call you" variety (I hope this doesn't blow up in Sam's face, although of course trying to nurture Jack is slow mo doing that, especially if he and Dean are meant to swap stances on the kid >.>)

The intern pulls Mia aside for a chat.

OH NO Jack wants to see his mom. OH NO OH NO

I will be so upset if that happens...

Oh nooooooo

he's crying.

Who can say no?

This is extremely awful.

I guess Glynn didn't want to let Kelly go like that. I'm glad if Mia was going to do this for anyone it would be for Jack and not Sam and Dean's cycles of nonsense.

I REALLY hope the bad shifter doesn't burst in here and try to/actually kill Mia right now. Jack doesn't need that in his life.

In the mean time, Mia better friggin HUG Jack even if it's technically hollow and he would know it.

Also did she do the whole disgusting skin thing or can she transform on the spot?

HUGS FOR THE NOUGAT BOY

They look so much alike :')

Oh no Jack you probably don't feel anything because they made you horribly depressed within 2 days. Also you have angel grace. Historically not good for helping you feel things. You're sweet and cry about your mom and feel bad about stuff in other ways so I think you have a heart no matter what, like Cas does.

Mia gets some catharsis from getting to hug Jack and reassure him that even if he's a monster and what makes him in-human isn't letting him emote how he's supposed to, he can still be good. She's got a monster soul, after all. There's a lot of good monsters out there.

I was about to say lol is this now Sam not on the phone because he actually is a shifter now mostly to tease past!Me but then they panned down and Dean's unconscious, which makes sense because they probably still want to show us Dean tearing his own face off at some point and honestly I'd rather just get it over and done with because if it's still to come after this D:

"that was too friggin easy" though - Dean getting overwhelmed in another fight. He's really not had a great rate of success... He only beat the wraith last episode with Patience's warnings, and other than that it's been a terrible track record even if he fights back as hard as he can when he gets jumped

shifter!Dean2 better not go in and try and kill Jack

Not gonna have much luck, I just don't want to watch it :P

MORE HUGS FOR JACK

WAIT NO YOU CAN'T HUG HIM AND THEN HAVE HIM KNOCKED OUT IN THE SAME SCENE

I TYPE NOT LOOKING AT THE SCREEN BECAUSE DEAN'S RIPPING HIS FACE OFF

Shifters are gross

Oh no don't call Cas a disappointment, The Empty, we're so proud of him!

He just told him to "save yourself" which is probably going to have the direct opposite result to what he wants while I'd hope Cas goes and does exactly that

"I'm already saved" blah blah Cas insults The Empty and I love him, "because somehow I'm awake, and I'll stay awake" - exactly how many times can I use "i love him" as punctuation in one sentence?

Where is that gif of the woman banging the pots and pans about not getting any sleep so they're not getting any sleep

that's something I ought to have saved :P

Someone almost certainly has made a post already.

Cas is the literal embodiment of "fight me"

This Buddy guy is a total douche. He says in this world everyone uses everyone. Which is a theme of the season I guess - Cas feeling used, Jack feeling used... He's the villain with the most negative version of the theme in his mouth right now

Dean's got to pep talk Jack if he wants to save the day or Jack goes and saves the daaay - I'd prefer Jack does it

Look, Mia's getting hurt and she was kind to you and in the most literal use of character mirroring in 1000 miles is an actual stand in for your mom!

Ooh is Jack gonna save Sam instead? Dean just pep-talked him specifically about how Sam believed in him which was having to start to admit that Sam, well, believes in Jack. Which Dean couldn't even accept last episode when he was saying that he was just using Jack

Yay thanks Jack, kinda figured Sam wouldn't get shot :P Jack's powers are fascinating - he's definitely bending time... from Sam and Dean's perspectives last time they were caught in it they were at least sort of aware of things, but Jack pretty much works in bullet time.

I also like how he kind of had a ridiculous "NooooO" because he's been watching Star Wars. I don't know if there's a "Nooooo" in the Clone Wars but I mean have you met a Star Wars

Anyway good riddance douchey ex with extra douchey powers.

I love the shot of them all standing together and Jack has that benign :3 face on again. He's really insufferably cute.

Ewww the Bunker sink is gross. I assume that's from decades of lying in disrepair and that those are stains Dean could not get out.

I guess Jack's getting a glass of water and Dean's midnight snacking. I have no other explanation for this encounter despite the fact it could theoretically happen at literally any point of the clock :P

Oh gosh, is he going to give Jack a beer

Yay, actions helped

Aw, the other beer is for Sam. Guess this doesn't have to be midnight after all. I thought he might have a longer chat with Jack

oops is this the beginning of the slide in the other direction? Sam's been undermined and even though he was proven right to Dean's eyes and Dean's had to grudgingly hand Jack the win in the case and admit it to Sam, Sam's like, "I guess"

And they don't know what Jack asked for from Mia because patient confidentiality! Argh!

Oh no Sam don't start wondering if Dean is right.

AAAH they're actually talking about things really well. Dean's like "don't say that" - even if he can't believe it he doesn't want to HURT Sam and rob him of his hope... Sometimes yelling about things does make them get better in the long run once you get it out there >.>

And Dean deputises to Sam for the feelings. And admits how HE has been feeling, because he believes in nothing, because all his faith has been taken away because there was only one thing he ever ended up believing in no i didn't see the next scene transition before i hit pause what are you talking about

Again, though, if this is Cas back in the mortal plane after annoying his way back to life (worrisome, since he's 2 episodes out of reuniting with them and where's Billie? Oh gosh is Billie back for reals too if he IS back? Whaaaat.) then that's another awfully convenient moment to transition scenes from. Dean finally using "i" instead of "we" about Cas and making it abundantly clear that he and sam didn't feel the same about that, was, whether the direct reason or just narrative karma they chose to bestow on Dean, what made Jack reach out to Cas. Now he admits out loud that he doesn't believe in anything with the implication when you look at Dean vs belief that this is about Cas, and we go over to Cas definitely at least in an improved situation.

Goddammit that's the new coat which means he didn't come back naked but wait! Lizzy's hope wasn't the same as everyone else's at all! Although that was a shallow moment of defeat :P Mwa ha ha, I was hoping Cas would come back and be gifted a whole new Cas get up and lo and behold unless he chose to manifest these clothes onto himself and there's noooo ulterior motive at all going on here (uh... probably not going to get more than 1 per show and we used it up on Mary :P) but he's confused and waking up and the last time we saw him he was in the clothes he died in... So of course if he's being sent back to earth then someone else chose the battle armour he'd be returned in. One Cas, fit for purpose.

Also, realising once he sat up more it was the new coat makes me pretty sure he is back on Earth.

Also he looks happy to be here and I think he can tell :P

Same, Cas. Same.

#13x04 #my stuff #season 13 spoilers #in which I am awake at 5:30am and the Empty is probably pissed at me

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mittensmorgul · 5 years

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anarchiana replied to your post “I rewatched S14 this week. In 14x19 there's that harsh line from Dean...”

@mittensmorgul Hi Mittens! Thank you so much for answering, I should have checked your previous posts first before asking my question, I’m sorry! I read the posts you linked now, thank you for linking and for your insights. <3 I really should know by now to read your posts before I watch an episode. This show is such a minefield of mindfucks, my brain blue screens me when I think about all the spirals and mirrors and layers and whatnots... ��

@mittensmorgul One thing after reading your posts. Do you think that we are supposed to think that Dean and Cas don’t talk about the harsh words between them; that they don’t need words to get over their shit; or that they somehow talk about it and we simply don’t get to witness those scenes? Or it doesn’t matter because that’s not the focus of the show? Thank you ��

Hi there, and no worries! It’s probably an excellent time for me to have gone back through all of that anyway. :D

I think we absolutely are being told that they DO talk offscreen. And that they do it frequently. That was a major theme of the last few seasons, going back to at least 12.19 with the Mixtape Revelation.We learned at at some point, Cas and Dean had at least one (1) offscreen conversation that we never knew about before, and not only that, but the implications of the nature of that conversation based on the fact that it culminated with Dean gifting Cas a freaking mixtape, well... that’s a personal conversation, you know?

Then 14.18 doubled down on that with all the flashbacks of Mary’s life since her resurrection, which began with Cas’s recollections of her from a time shortly after the events of 12.03. So this “things have happened that you didn’t know about” has been applied to everything, not just Dean and Cas’s interpersonal stuff. But Dean and Cas’s interpersonal stuff has still been at the core of this particular theme, and most of these “we talked about this while the cameras were off” situations ARE about Dean and Cas’s personal interactions. Mixtape, they casually watch movies together, they casually spent several weeks holding down the fort at the bunker together while Sam took off to avoid dealing with the grief of 14.14, etc. These are such TINY moments sometimes, we don’t really stop to think about what they’re actually telling us, repeatedly.

The hard truth is that while we LOVE these sorts of acknowledgements, they constitute the C plot of Supernatural, you know? The A Plot is the mytharc, the B Plot is the MotW and larger individual character arcs, and the C plot is... their relationships. So on the playing field of the story, this is just never gonna take center stage you know? Not that it’s not important, or doesn’t have a significant impact on the larger story. Like I said above, the themes these plotlines are being defined with are also defining the larger story as a whole. By nature, that MAKES them important.

It’s just that they will never (or at least not until right near the very end of the road) supersede the A Plot, and the B Plot. At that point, after the series-long A Plot has been resolved, we will be able to measure the true import of the C plot, you know?

But in some ways, the fact the show is repeatedly reminding us that these offscreen conversations are happening makes them more and more important. We’re being repeatedly badgered to just KNOW they’re happening, because the show has spent several years instructing us to make those logical jumps from what we saw last and what we’re seeing now, you know?

I remember the OUTRAGE from early s11 that Dean and Cas never talked onscreen. We felt we’d been PROMISED this conversation from the PR. Things such as “Dean and Cas resolve their differences,” and “they’re on the same page again” were dropped during the filming of 11.06, and many of us believed we were owed an onscreen conversation where they apologized to one another (Dean for 10.22, Cas for 11.03). And then the feeling of letdown was so powerful, for WEEKS some folks thought there was a conspiracy involving a cut scene that we never got. BUT WE DID GET THE DEAN AND CAS VERSION OF AN APOLOGY.

First off, Cas was trying to save Dean in 10.22, and got hurt because he refused to hurt Dean when he was so obviously going off the rails and not in control of himself. Dean was trying to save Cas in 11.03, and got hurt because he refused to hurt Cas when he was so obviously going off the rails and not in control of himself. PARALLELS! HOW THE TURNTABLES! wait I have that gif...

This is how the show deals with this sort of interpersonal drama... turnabout is fair play and all that. It was an eye for an eye, and they both knew they didn’t need to apologize, because they’d each experienced this painful walk in each other’s shoes, as it were. Neither of these incidents were “he was mean to me wah wah wah” that NEEDED an apology. Call it instant karma. Whatever. In the language of Dean and Cas, THEY understood and forgave each other, because neither had ever blamed the other in the first place.

But the show has expanded that language in very deliberate ways since then. Of course there are things they haven’t yet clarified for each other, but at this point, so close to the end, they’re standing right on the precipice. They’re at a point where ~actually having that conversation on screen~ will knock the whole wall down, you know?

Whatever is standing between them in early s15, I’m betting it’s something that will be clarified in 15.01. It’s probably built on the foundation of that conversation in 14.18, because that wasn’t just Dean telling Cas he was dead to him if Mary was dead... because Cas clearly isn’t dead to him. Dean didn’t even cold shoulder him for the rest of the season, you know? But the REAL foundation of any potential rift between them will be from Cas’s side, and the fear he described in that conversation:

Castiel: I was scared. I believed in Jack for so long, I... I believed that he was -- he was good. I -- I knew that he would be good for the world. And he was good for us. My faith in him, it -- it never wavered, and then I-I saw what he did. It wasn't malice. It wasn't evil. It was like Jack saw a problem, and in his mind, he just solved it with that snake. Dean: The snake?! Castiel: What he did wasn't bad. It was the absence of good. And I saw that in him. But we were a family, and I didn't want to lose that, so I thought I could... fix it on my own. Felt like it was my responsibility. So I left. And I didn't tell you. If I could go back and just -- just talk to him right then and there, I would. But I can't, Dean. I failed you.

THIS IS WHAT CAS FEARS MOST. That as much as he talks the talk that he’s part of the Winchester family, he is terrified that he really isn’t. He’s not “useful,” he’s not really family. He doesn’t understand that yet, and seriously, at this point, all it would take is a five minute conversation with Dean to resolve that... so obviously the show is gonna avoid resolving that for a while to drag out the drama, because that is literally the core character issue Cas has been dealing with since 4.01. That’s his entire character arc, and they won’t let him find peace until they’re done, you know?

So... instead, they have given us these important reminders that even though these character interactions between Dean and Cas aren’t crucial to their overall character development, at least not like That Big Conversation would be, or in a “we should take up precious screen time showing them kicking back and watching movies and having casual human interaction” sorts of ways, that they are important enough to tell us about, repeatedly. It’s important for us to know that their relationship is so much deeper and broader than what we see onscreen, you know? Like, they’re actually friends offscreen, who hang out and talk and do fun stuff for fun. THAT is all we really need to understand about them. Because that’s what adds that huge weight of depth to their relationship, you know? And all they have to do to maintain that is to keep surprising us with these little casual mentions of Things We Don’t See. What I like to call “The Other 364 1/2 Days.” Because our window into their lives is only open 42 minutes a week, 20 weeks a year (now, we used to get 23 weeks a year). That’s 840 minutes a year. There’s over 525,000 minutes a year we DON’T see. And the fact they repeatedly tell us how Dean and Cas spend their free time together seems significant within that tiny sliver of their lives, you know?

So it’s not really a matter of “important vs not important,” but priorities within an incredibly limited constraint on storytelling time.

#anarchiana #spn 14.18 #spn s15 speculation #i forget what i tag my series of 'it happened offscreen!' posts with...#the other 8746 hours #stuff happens offscreen

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