TV!

[rivkat]

V: Faux Ham Tyler, why are you not played by Brian Austin Green? Wouldn’t that be perfect?

Fringe: Walternate, hah! Walter, wow, you are a monster. Good explanation for why Peter wouldn’t notice the big differences between worlds, very elegantly done: his isolation would make him uncertain about what was real outside his home and what wasn’t, so childhood zeppelins could easily be written off as imagination. But I am deeply annoyed that suddenly it’s Elizabeth Bishop who’s “responsible” for Peter staying. Nonetheless, Walter is still a monster!

Supernatural: Um, I think this might be my perfect episode. If it weren’t for my TV cutting off the edges of people’s (Dean’s) faces, anyway. Daddy issues! Mommy issues! Sam’s best memories being spat into Dean’s face! Also, apparently, Heaven acknowledges that Sam and Dean are soulmates. I just ... no, like I said, this was my perfect episode. Cas on TV like Max Headroom! Pamela! The Roadhouse! “When I come back I’m gonna be pissed”! (I kind of want Dean to call first. Just to let them know he’s coming. Fandom, do my bidding and write that story. Also, please make revenge Dean’s way of saying that he does still care about Sam, despite his best efforts.) Theological debate over the value of a static Heaven!  ETA: See also minim_calibre's point about Sam denying Dean three times!

Further heartbreaking character work busting out all over the place, including some suggestion that the cupid’s work on John and Mary wasn’t sufficient to keep them happy, tying into the “angels are dicks”/“free will is a horrific experience, if it even exists” stuff they’ve got going on.

Sam, you better have fucking picked that amulet out of the trash, because you’re going to need to give that back to Dean to plight your troth reconsecrate it when you convince him that you’re in this with him to the end. Dean isn’t just throwing God away; he isn’t even mostly throwing God away, because the amulet never really meant that to him. He tried to be a grownup; he tried to give Sam over to someone else (Sam himself); and it was all for nothing, and Sam had already given him away anyhow.

Here’s how much I love this episode: I’m not even going to complain about “I wuv hugs” probably being anachronistic. Especially when the outfit involved exposed forearms.

Comments

[thelostglove]

I kind of want Dean to call first. Just to let them know he’s coming.

Ha! Aww, it's good that Dean can still have nice things.

[page_r]

Spn:

I have to agree with the fav episode status. It was SUCH a fandom episode. SOULMATES. Dean's angst getting aired so airily. It makes me really sad for Sam, that none of his best memories had Dean in them at all. (Or at least those ones.) I liked that we were able to hear him saying, 'I guess family means something different to me." Coz that's a fundamental issue right there.

But mainly your post reminded me of the whole cupid thing and how completely horrified that made me with our show because basically they just said that heaven forced people who didn't want to to have sex. Way to go with the consent issues AGAIN, show, way to go.

Yaaaaay episode, though!

[erda]

I totally agree with your Supernatural sentiments. Woobie everyone!

But what was up with the way they made such a drama out of shooting Dean while killing Sam so casually? This seemed to be written by people with some Sam issues.

Most importantly, he damn well better have that amulet.

[coffeeandink]

Walter was slightly less monstrous than I expected; I am not sure if it's because I'm too forgiving or if I expected that he'd planned to steal Peter all the time, instead of at least lying to himself about it.

I have always wondered if they were going to complicate Carla Warren's death and now it seems very likely.

I liked the entire episode but what I loved: NINA SHARP'S ARM!!! ♥ Oh, SHOW. ♥

[(Anonymous)]

Everything you said +1.

I was this close to lose hope in season 5, but this episode reminded me my love for the brothers and more. I cried through it, and I never cried because of spn or any tv show before.

Why do I love something so much only because it broke/pained me? I think there's something wrong with me.

[sorrel]

I share all your views on the SPN episode (especially the desire to write about what happens to Roy and Walt after they come back), but I will say that for Fringe, I don't think they were really putting the blame onto Elizabeth instead of Walter. She gave him a devastated look, but you never actually see her say "No, you can't take him!" Instead, it's still Walter who made that decision. And I think it says a lot about his character that I was so surprised that he actually went over there with good intentions, and only got derailed into, you know, stealing his son when things went wrong. Complex characters, doing it right.

(Also "Walternate" made me just about burst something, I laughed so hard. Oh, Walter.)

I also liked all the hints about William Bell in this episode: for an episode with him not even being in it, it sure revealed a lot more about his character than we've learned so far. The fact that he couldn't even bother to come home for the funeral of his partner's son does a lot to discredit the "kindly uncle" thing that Bell was trying to sell to Olivia. (Not that that was particularly believable, even on Spock's face, but still.) And it made for an interesting contrast between him and Walter: they are both monsters, but at least Walter was a monster with good intentions. I don't think that can be said for William Bell.

And this episode made me really need to rewatch some episodes to get the timeline straight- at what point in Peter's life did Walter go into the asylum? Are all of Peter's memories of his absent father ones from the other universe? Because it's hard to believe that this Walter could be even a little bit of an absent father after all that. A man who could do something that terrible out of such desperate love is not a man who just goes back to office when it's over. Hmm.

[tehomet]

Never seen V or Fringe, but Supernatural? Woo hoo! I totally agreed with everything you said, from Sam having better have retrieved the amulet, right down to the exposed forearms allowing the crap T-shirt to slide. :) It actually takes a guy of Jensen Ackle's appearance to get away with an outfit like that. The part where Dean recounts what the circumstances were for him of Sam's departure to Flagstaff was painful. The soulmates thing? My eyebrows were in my hairline. And I actually cheered when Ash reappeared. I love that dude. I love him even more now that he's hacking heaven. :) The theological debate doesn't end with the value of My Own Private Idaho heavens but continues onto the location of Ellen and Jo, not to mention Mary and John. The Mary who was being practically groped by Zachariah was just a memory, right? Zach explicitly said that. So where's Mary? Also, do you think that Joshua is God? The biblical God was known to hang around in gardens; it says so in Genesis IIRC.

Anyway! I'm yammering on. I was actually just popping by to wish you a happy birthday. And many happy returns. ♥

[sothcweden]

I just finished watching this ep a few hours ago. They had better fix things between Sam and Dean at some point, and the amulet really, really needs to be part of it! The show is just evil if it doesn't. (And do they really want to continue the gloom and doom through another season?)