The Road So Far (in 1,000 words or less)

I'm posting this for Tanya, whose computer just didn't want to play nice with her.


Okay, so this post owes its inspiration to stuff like this (warning, MAJOR spoilers for the movie Serenity, and major funny if you've already seen it). But still, here we are floating in the still dead waters of summer hiatus, so I thought we could all use the recap (and, possibly, the laugh).

Sam and Dean Winchester (this far) in 1,000 words or less:

Interior, somewhat creepy nursery, enter Mommy Winchester.

Mom: WTF?

Baby Sam: Waaahhhh!

Late arrival Daddy Winchester: DEAN! Take care of your brother.

Flash to present day.

Sam: I hear a noise.

Dean: I came for a beer, LOVE the Smurfs, BTW. Come help me solve our father's disappearance.

Sam: Dude.

Conversation, Exposition, Woman in White with Creepy Kids, cut back to Jessica on the ceiling, and Grown Up Sam having a full-circle WTF moment?

Sam: Consider me back in the game til we find Dad and this yellow-eyed bastard.

Many episodes later, find Daddy Winchester. And fabled Colt. YAY!
All three Winchester men run off road. BOO!
Cut to hospital with Dean and Reaper and Daddy Winchester making deal with Yellow-Eyed Demon.

Daddy W's final words (more or less): DEAN! Take care of your brother.
Even if that means "take care of" in the mafia sense.

Dean (internal monologue): WTF?

Moving right along in season 2.

Dean: Do not mock me, airplanes crash.

Sam: And apparently clowns KILL. Hey, should we check out that roadhouse?

Dean: Uh, Sam? Could use a little help here with the pint-sized blonde.

Pint-sized blonde (aka Jo Harvelle): Take me with you! I want to hunt!

Dean: Even as I wander, I'm keeping you in sight. You're a candle in the-

Sam: WTF?

Dean: Never mind. Have you met my new buddy Gordon?

Sam: Nice to m-

Gordon (with much menace and foreshadowing): Evil things must DIE!

Dean (considerably later): Sam, are you drunk? (followed by, even later than that) He full on Obi-waned me!

Sam: Something is wrong with that boy. He is like-like me. Curse you, yellow-eyed demon and your nefarious yet still vague evil plans!

Yellow Eyed Demon: Call me Azazel. And as for my 'plan,' it's simple. You and my other "special" children are in a contest. Good luck with that.

Jake: Aw HELL no. I like ya Sam, but not enough to die for you. Take this!

Sam: Gurghk.

Dean: Yo, crossroads demon! Get me out of this. I'll trade anything to get my bro back.

Crossroads demon: Anything? You're on, foolish Winchester.

Sam: So let me get this straight, you traded your life-your SOUL-to save me?

Dean: Yep. No need to thank me.

Sam: Thank you? Are you deluded you arrogant SOB? We have to end this deal.

Dean: No can do. I try anything funny, you die.

Mysterious blonde chick with mysterious knife: Hey! I can help! Name's Ruby by the way.

Other mysterious chick with quasi-British accent: And I'm Bela. I shall be here to demonstrate what happens to naughty boys and girls when they ransom their souls to Lilith. I am also here to entertain Tanya.

Dean and Sam: Who the hell is Tanya? Strike that. The better question is Who the hell is Lilith?

Dean (in quiet aside to Ruby): Dude, can you really get me out of this?

Ruby: Um, no. Not really. Plus, you'll become a demon after.

Dean: Well, THAT sucks. I need pie.

Sam: You're in denial, bro.

Dean: I deny that accusation.

Sam: So what you-- hold up. What's that you say? We just got a phone call about Bobby being in a coma?

Bobby: Thanks boys for saving me from the mystical coma. Except, you let Bela steal the Colt, ya ijits!!!

Dean: Bela must die!

Sam: 'K

Dean: So if we're so hot on the heels of Bela (mmmm, Bela...) what are we doing in this random mystery sp-- Gurghk.

Sam: DEAN!

Dean: Don't you just love Asia? Let's go get break-- Gurghk.

Sam: DEAN!

Dean: What do you mean I died yesterday? That's cr-- Gurghk.

Sam: DEAN!

Also Sam: Whoa, I'm onto you Trickster.

Trickster (smugly): And it only took 80% of the episode for you to figure it out...

Audience: So what happens for rest of episode?

Dean: Gurghk.

Sam: My name is Sam Winchester! You killed my brother! Prepare to die!

Trickster: Dude. This co-dependence? Not healthy.

Bela: Dean, Sam? Aaaaa! Hell-hounds.

Ruby (wearily): I told you this was going to get bad.

Dean: Gurghk.

Collective audience: WTF?

Dean: Dude! I'm back-from hell! How the hell did that happen? (if you'll pardon the pun)

Winged man: Allow me to introduce myself. I am Castiel. An angel. Your butt belongs to us, now.

Uriel: That is so, monkey.

Dean and Sam: We don't like you.

Uriel: We don't care.

Random Chick: Lilith is up to her old dirty tricks! Only now, she isn't just gunning for Sam and terrorizing grandfathers. She's breaking all sixty-six seals in an attempt to free Lucifer. Also, I am not random! I am an angel!

Dean: So, come here often?

Ruby: Sam, quick, while everyone else is distracted by subplot, drink some more demon blood.

Dean: Dude! WTF?

Sam: You are not the boss of me.

Entire viewing audience: Argh! We hate when our boys are on the outs.

Dean: Then don't look, it's about to get worse. Sam, if you walk out of here right now-

Sam: Who do you think you are, DAD?

Dean: Castiel? A little help here?

Cass: I really shouldn't, but okay. Who can resist Jensen Ackles?

Mmm, Jensen Ackles. Sorry.

Sam: I've stopped Lilith!

Ruby: And freed our dark lord-bwahahahahahahaha.

Sam: ...Oops.

Dean: FWIW, I still love you. Now haul ass away from the impending evil and maybe we'll figure out how to save our asses by next September's premiere.

Things That Would be Worse Than Bad Supernatural

A little while ago, we talked a little bit about the possibility of a season six without Eric Kripke. Many people would rather have no SPN than bad SPN, but I thought there are some things that could be worse:

1. Jared and Jensen in other jobs…that film in Vancouver.

2. Jared on a show like According to Jim.

3. Jensen on a generic crime drama.

4. J&J never get another real gig, just spend all their time traveling around to Supernatural conventions, becoming a better-looking but even more pathetic version of the Galaxy Quest crew.

5. Jensen joins Star Trek. I couldn't imagine Jensen in that world. Then I pictured him in uniform. At attention. And...um...yeah, never mind.

~~~~~~~~
Okay, so...I'm not very good at this. That was all I could come up with.

So then I thought, well, I'm in the minority, but I'd be okay with Kripke-less writers and half-hearted stars. I don't think the show would stray too far from what makes it so compelling for me. But what would make the show too horrible to watch?

1. They replace Sam and Dean.

2. They bring back Bela (that's a bone for the Bela-haters--I liked her).

3. The boys decide they're tired of traveling, sell the Impala, and settle down with the 90210 kids.

4. To nail ghosts in a daycare center, they pose as teachers. ... Wait, that could be funny.

5. They do an episode where the "fight" is cringing in an attic spraying fire at bees while the fastest night in history passes.

~~~~~~~~
The thing is...

First, we don't get to say "stop now, the show's on top, it can't possibly be as good next year." So that leaves us to either watch it or not. Secondly, we can't know what a season six would be like. What if Sera Gamble gets promoted to showrunner? Doesn't she do much of that already? She oversees the writing and seems to be of like mind with Kripke.

I personally can't cut off my nose to spite my face and say I wouldn't watch it, at least to find out how they do.

~~~~~~~~
Now it's your turn. Tell us what you think:

a. would be worse than bad SPN

and

b. would render SPN too bad to watch.

In Defense of Bela

SPN is, deservedly, known for its masculine characters (Dean and Sam, obviously, and John, who continues to shape the boys' lives and the show far beyond the eps Jeffrey Dean Morgan actually appeared in; Bobby; Castiel). But the writers also give us recurring female roles. In Season 2, we got Jo and Ellen. In Season 3, we get the juxtaposed Ruby--a demon who, strangely enough, wants to help and has most of her scenes with Sam--and Bela Talbot, a human...an exploitative thief who has absolutely no interest in helping anyone but herself (although that doesn't stop her from asking the brothers' assistance) and has most of her scenes with Dean. For someone who only appeared in a half dozen episodes, Bela certainly got a strong fan reaction--much of it negative as far as I can tell. Several reviewers would devote whole paragraphs of their recap to snipe about her accent or what she was wearing; fans I've met at conventions turned nearly red-faced in their enthusiastic renumerations of why they didn't like her; some viewers were actually snoopy dancing in forums when Bela finally died in "Time Is On My Side." And I have to say, I don't get it. I actually liked Bela.

Okay, don't throw rotting produce at me. I know that Bela actively worked against our guys on more than one occasion and shot Sammy and snitched to Gordon on them. I mean, I'm not suggesting we nominate her for sainthood (which would be a waste of time anyway, since I think people who make deals with demons are automatically disqualified.) But I think she added a lot to the show.


A breath of fresh air




Bela was a thief ("a great thief") seemingly unencumbered with morals. And I don't know if you've noticed, but a lot of the people on Show are seriously encumbered. They're bogged down by curses, regrets, vengeance, angst. Oh dear heavens, the angst. You know I love Sam and Dean (especially Dean!) but between the two of them, they have enough baggage to put Louis Vuitton out of business. We began Season 2 with John's death and ended Season 2 with Sam's, so we came into Season 3 with a lot of heavy.* Bela's breezy unrepentance was actually kind of charming in the fun love-to-hate her way.

Maybe I was predisposed to like her because I thought that "Bad Day at Black Rock" (in which she was introduced) was a vastly entertaining episode that had good follow through with the past (Gordon in prison continuing to seek Sam's death) as well as forward momentum (setting up both Bela's and Gordon's return spots). Plus we got Bobby (calling Dean an ijit) and a slew of laugh out loud pratfalls and one-liners (Sam cracked me up as the world's tallest preschooler pouting, "I lost my shoe" but Dean's "I'm Batman" was probably my favorite.)

One criticism I've heard is that Bela's character, the "sophisticated" thief, is a bit of a cliche. And I'll admit, there was a similar character (Gwen) who guest starred a couple of times on Angel and Bela would probaly slip right into the ensemble of thieves and con artists over at TNT's "Leverage" (whose great cast includes Aldis Hodge, better known to the Winchesters as Jake Talley). Did the writers play off of a commonly established stereotype? Sure! But perhaps you've heard of the Chosen One, the Father Figure, the Trickster, the religious zealot? Kripke and Co. frequently borrow plot elements, folklore, familiar-feeling settings and archetypes. But then they weave it together and make their own show--in fact, I've argued before that their use of stuff already in our collective social psyche adds more oomph.

I also, personally, thought that the actress had good chemistry with Jensen Ackles. (I've always felt that, as a romantic, I should have been more affected by the season 1 ep where we meet Cassie, who was supposedly so much his True Love that he told her the family secret! Yet I got far more invested in his scenes with Lisa in season 3's "The Kids Are Alright" or even his brief interactions with Amy Acker's single mom in early 'sode "Dead in the Water.) When Dean breaks into Bela's loft to take back the rabbit's foot, she seems almost appreciative of that. And of him. (Some found her to be a little smirky and smug, but, um have you met Dean? Love him dearly, but argue that in this respect, Bela's a pretty well-matched opponent.) If she and Dean don't respect each other's professions (in light of Gordon's character, her comment about hunters being obsessed sociopaths wasn't completely off the mark) they seemed to respect each other's capabilities.

And Bela was capable.

I've heard people complain that there aren't strong or well-written women on the show. (Overall, I disagree, but we'll save that for another post). Bela had flaws--and, as it turned out, a relevant backstory--but she was strong, smart, sexy and occasionally got the drop on our boys. Honking her horn as she drove off with their lotto tickets and keeping the gun with the wine gave her style, and set her apart from the more frequent worlds of small town greasy spoon diners we normally see through the Winchesters' eyes. Even Bobby seemed to feel some grudging respect for her, if not affection. I wonder if people would have been more forgiving of her actions if they'd known sooner that she was a desperate woman looking for a way to break her deal with Lilith. Yes, she told Gordon where the boys were (although, he tracked her down and threatened to kill her), she shot Sam (in the shoulder. "I can aim.") and stole the Colt (not that it always worked the way it was supposed to, anyway). But she was trying to avoid a very specific and gruesome fate--the fact that she couldn't only added to the gravity and nail-biting tension of late Season 4, as we got closer and closer to Dean's own, er, expiration date.

Personally, I find it impressive that the writers crafted a character who, while bantering with Dean, could break the looming tension, then turn write around and use the same character's impending doom to heighten it! Besides, she also helped save Bobby in "Dream a Little Dream of Me" and she gave the boys info on Gordon. She wasn't all bad. She wasn't all good. She had some internal conflict, even if we weren't let in on it until late in the game, and her external conflict (scenes that pitted her against the boys) were often entertaining to watch.

Say what you will, I'll take Bela and Dean sizing each other up over watching someone get beat up/slice/tortured for ten minutes any day! (No, seriously, say what you will...I'm curious? Did you like her? Cheer when she left the show? Or was she so forgettable that you read this whole post thinking 'Bela who'? Share your opinion--and we know you have one--in the comments)





* Of course, when I watched Season 3, Season 4 did not yet exist. In retrospect, some of last year's "heavy" seems like cheeful children's programming...