Ok I’m gonna slide this in there just before I wax poetic about the Friday panels day 1 of ChiCon because I truly think there is a little unnecessary tone of condescension almost…or more like judgmental trend going on in fandom right now with regards to 8x04 reactions.

You know what if you loved it GREAT! That is fantastic and I am very happy for you. In fact I’m a little envious because it would obviously be more preferable to be in awe and completely in love with the episode than not.  I am glad that the fandom is divided into such polar opposites with this and that we have people who absolutely love it.

But fandom needs to can the negativity towards those who didn’t like it. I’m not changing my mind on that one. I’ve watched it twice and still not feeling a whole lot of love for it. I don’t hate it but then I have never hated a whole entire episode before.

The hand cam perspective has been done before in numerous genres including in Supernatural in Ghostfacers. And I don’t mind that it got used again – Chronicle showed me that it does work and can be enjoyed and I definitely had no issues with it and felt that the hand cam aspect was as usual done very competently. It wasn’t Sam and Dean character love that blinded me in this episode. I can very much enjoy Sam and Dean Lite episodes and have done so in previous seasons.

I just thought the story and character development was poor. The acting was adequate, the production values were, as usual with this high caliber show, impeccable. I’m sorry it did Serge’s head in with the lighting but it was very well shot. I did not connect with the characters and thought the story devices/major plot were not strong enough to carry off the absence of the main characters. That’s all. I’m not being a whiny-butthurt-all-I-ever-wanna-see-is-Sam-and-Dean-MOTW-type-stories fan. Despite what the lovers of this episode may try to accuse me of.  The story did not grab me enough and the characters did not make me invest in their outcomes enough to give a crap about what happened to them. And I’m not used to that in my show so yeah, I’m gonna talk about it. Got my hubby to watch and his unfettered average viewer response was – "It wasn’t bad, it was an okay MOTW episode." Which is pretty much my response minus the I expect more though from my show.

And on that note I’d also like to point out that James Patrick Stuart is a huge fan of the show and has been watching Season 8 closely and was also very VERY luke warm towards this episode. He wasn’t impressed by Carver’s choices on this but by the same token he does believe he’s definitely set some very intriguing and engaging story arcs up for the season and he definitely wants to see where it goes.

So moving onto Chicago Con's Friday Panels

Kim Rhodes - 5 out of 5 stars
Rachel Miner - 3 out of 5 stars
Gabriel Tigerman - 4 out of 5 stars
James Patrick Stuart - 5 out of 5 stars

You know Rachel could totally be a 4 but sadly for her she was suffering quite badly from a head cold/type of flu thing and I do think this probably effected that whole PIZAZZ factor of her panel. Also combined with it being her first time at a US Creation Spn Con and her being quite a young actress I think this probably wasn't her at her best :) But she's a very lovely person, as nice as nice can be and I really wish her well in her career just not on my show ;) LOL! Honestly her Meg portrayal has grated on me and always will because unlike Gen who I feel did a good job with the new Ruby (took me a while to warm up to it but she got me in the end) I have never felt any kind of sympathy for this Meg - she's not doing a bad job I'm sure it's just not an acting style that connects with me.





Kim was her usual bouncy awesome self, tinged with a few nerves at the beginning you could see her visibly getting more comfortable and relaxed and still ever more excitable as the panel went on, she spoke of many things....motherhood (my question), skill she would most like to have in real life that she has acquired as an actress (shotgun handling), Richard Speight giving her all of 3 days to get a Halloween costume organised, using her Mom voice, her favourite scenes, her favourite music, her clumsiness, her issues with the bucket of cleaning fluid in the scenes in Slash Fiction, Jensen's mouth etc etc Very entertaining, full of laughs, frequent curse words, having to write excuses because her blog has now been blacklisted as porn on several work/government type computers, she likes to talk orgasms and advice there's not much she can do about that. I gave her a book in the autographs - it's called Unsaid and yes it's about animals so of course she started to well up there and then! OMG! Did not wanna make her cry right then! Sheesh! I did tell her it would make her cry though but that it was a good cry - cathartic and all. I think she and I are very much on the same level of empathy when it comes to our animals.





Gabriel Tigerman was adorably funny and very entertaining as well...even though I have head pretty much all his stories before by now it's great being a part of the group that is hearing them for the first time. We had the Roadtrip story, he spoke of his fanboy love for Michael C Hall, his complete obsession with The Walking Dead - but death to you if you spoil him for he has only just finished S2. He was delighted to be informed about Matt Cohen's recent propensity to dress up as a transgendered cowgirl and was outraged that Matt had not informed him of such photos out there, he spoke of Hard Crime and how it might be a while before we see the fruits of that as they actually are waiting on a guy who worked on Avatar to help with the post production of it...he's filmed a Hallmark Christmas movie called Naughty or Nice and it felt like a Supernatural get together as Danneel Ackles is in it, along with a few other ex Spn guest stars and it was directed by the guy who directed Ten Inch Here, he spoke of Horse sized Ducks being terrifying but that he would rather just kill one of those rather than hundreds of tiny evil ducks - but that a Horse Sized Duck would be an excellent Patronus for someone.  All in all it was good times.



James Patrick Stuart has been in the business of acting and showbiz since he was 11 years old. The man is a veteran and looks very well indeed for it. This was only his 2nd con he'd ever been invited to in the US in 32 years he said. His first one I think was for a little show he was in at age 11 called Galactica 1980 and he attended a Con for that show so Supernatural was the first con he'd done in the US since. He came on and you could tell this was a guy with a propensity for oratory on much the same level of competency as Mark Sheppard. In fact he spoke of Mark very early on saying how he has great respect for him and spoke highly of him and yet he doesn't have a crush on him despite Sheppard's assertions to the contrary! He spoke o his first meeting with Mark, his work on All my Children, a movie he's very proud of that he's just finished called American Gandhi, his voice over work, his charaterisation of Dick Roman, his two kids, his upbringing, his political preferences, his thoughts on the show and many many other things often interpsersed with his impressions of people he has met and respected and gained a lot from as well as his Penguins of Madagascar voices. He does British accents perfectly and is quite the ham. I found him to be articulate, animated, engaging to listen to and I would LOVE to see him on stage with Mark S and Richard S. I asked a couple of questions - one about his entrance songs (both his and Dick Romans) and he put his Dick Roman teeth back in and played a couple things off his phone which I actually have no idea what songs they were so I'm hoping to sound hound them if the video quality is good enough on YouTube (not that I vidded I just photoed) also which cast members he'd like with him to win at a Quiz night - Mark S, Misha and realising he'd painted himself into a corner with the Js he went with Jim Beaver LOL! He's a great panellist and I hope he gets invited to future Cons - he doesn't pull his punches and is intrigued with the explosion of social networking (speaks of how it hurts sometimes to see instantaneous sometimes highly critical feedback of your work on Twitter!) and is an all round charismatic, pretty handsome guy (way more handsome than Dick Roman! he's also a huge fan of the Dick jokes).




Eta: Thanks to the comments below - I just clarified the Con debuts of JPS and Rachel to the USA.

Sam gave Martin a chance. Sent him to keep an eye on Benny. Sam never looked too closely at his motivations for keeping a close check on the vamp. Sam’s supposedly actively seeking a way to get out of the hunting life. Keeping tabs on a potential hunt seems a little contradictory. Sam knows why. Dean is using Benny to keep that blade sharp. That knife he keeps slicing Sam open with – how Benny’s the only person in his life who has never let him down, how Benny’s the only guy he could ever count on. Sam had that conversation with Dean. Told him to get over it, move on or he will. Dean said fine, he’ll move on. It was total bullshit obviously. Dean’s as pissed about Sam not looking for him, if not more, as he was when Sam chose Ruby over him.  Which is almost ironic when all Sam can see is the same dark road for Dean and Benny as he went down for Ruby. At least Lucifer rising is probably not on the cards for the Dean and Benny relationship.

But this was fine. Dean has no issues with it. He knows he would be doing the same were he in Sam’s shoes. He’s willing to check out if Benny has gone bad.

Sam gave Dean two hours to sort this out. Prior to this I’d like to note Sam paid no attention whatsoever to Martin’s protestations that it was definitely Benny and he needs to be taken out. Sam’s eyes were on Dean the whole time before he announced the two hours grace.  He says ‘Sometimes it’s not easy to see things for what they are” He’s been there with Ruby, he’s giving Dean this.

Dean found out the vamp doing the killing is Desmond. Instead of coming back and telling Sam and Martin about this Vamp Desmond and asking the guys to come and help him take this vamp out – to come and SEE for themselves what was going on, see Benny with his great grand daughter – he insists that it’s not Benny and yeah you’re gonna have to go on trust.  No! No you don’t Dean! You say “No we’re not going on trust we’re going on evidence! Sam come with me and see this Desmond guy at work” And then to add to that idiot move of not selling it like that he adds salt to the wound and says that Benny is the only one who has never let him down. That cuts Sam – you can see it “Well good on you Dean – it must feel great knowing you’ve finally found someone you can trust after all these years” – and when it cuts Sam it also sets his resolve against Benny.  Sam says no. But the conversation continues – they’re conversing there’s still an agreement that can be reached.

Then Martin cold cocks Dean from behind. Sam does nothing. Apart from some harsh words about who is making the calls on this job.  At this point I may have said something like well that’s just bullshit, what does that mean? Is Sam that pissed with Dean’s constant digs re his untrustworthiness, re his unreliability, that pissed with the bond Dean has formed with Benny he’s willing to let an unhinged hunter just knock his brother out? Carver really wants to make this nasty doesn’t he? Blow #1: Dean’s choice of communicating the problem Blow #2: Sam failing to stop Martin or immediately take action to take Martin out of the equation.

So long story short – Dean and Benny take out Desmond. Martin and Sam go looking for Benny but of course there’s the SOS text from “Amelia” so Sam rushes off. Martin all of a sudden becomes cold calculating white version of Gordon and the suddenly slightly kooky, a little unhinged but supposedly good guy becomes this arguably homicidal dipshit willing to put a human at risk to catch a Vamp. We no likey Martin anymore. So that whole scene turns out the only way it could.

Even though doing so now makes the Dean and Benny situation even more of a sticky pickle for Dean to get Sam to see things the way they are. But you know I’ve been harping on at these boys for years BE HONEST TO YOUR BROTHER…and this is the one time Dean, shouldn’t have lied so much, as said “I need to talk to you face to face for this” right after Sam asked if there were any casualties. You’ve just pulled the rug out from under your brother, ripped open a very loosely applied scab over his heart – left raw after Don turning up and taking the person who basically was his life raft after the meltdown of his world imploding once again. We know Amelia is not and was not ever going to be a permanent Sam fixture. But she did give our bereft Winchester a safe port for a while. Sam is still hurting from that relationship ending, he’s pissed at himself for falling for his brother’s rather sneaky, devious but “nice move”, he’s pissed at his brother for not even realizing how hurtful that ‘nice move’ was and now he’s angry cos brother just told him that Martin, the human hunter, had it coming and that Benny the Vampire brother is BFF’s with, is responsible.  That’s like piling napalm on top of the atomic explosion really.  An extra helping of sewage waste on top the steaming pile of shit he’s already dealing with. But it’s okay. Thanks to Dean pulling that nice move Amelia has now turned up in Sam’s current timeline at the bar. My mind has gone with – as much as Amelia has done her dash I believe I’m glad she’s turned up because now Sam will be able to cool off for a little while and maybe that glimpse we saw of angry, not listening, not communicating Sam (reminiscent of the anger Sam’s feeling in 4.21 When The Levee Breaks when he and Dean have that horrible, no good, heart breaking fight) will fade and we’ll have a couple of boys doing their best to avoid taking those paths they’ve taken in the past that have worked out so horribly badly for them.

Dean resents Amelia hugely. But he’s Dean so he’s all I don’t give a shit at all about this girl Sam hooked up with. Dean likes to think Amelia doesn’t even rate on his person of interest radar. Likes to think that Sam just had a fling, clearly brought on by physical needs, he’s been known to seek therapy burying himself in female (or multiples of when he was soulless) company and this was just one of his ways of dealing with Dean being gone. Dean doesn’t actually have an inkling of what Amelia means to Sam because all Dean sees right now is that she’s the one who stopped his little brother from looking for him. Not intentionally maybe but still it is what it is. Hence his lack of hesitation in pulling the cell phone move on Sam.

There are some irrefutable facts this far into the season:

#1: Dean is definitely NOT moving on when it comes to Sam not looking for him.

#2:  Sam has no real understanding of what Benny means to Dean.

#3: Dean has no real understanding of what Amelia means to Sam.

#4: Carver likes the brothers in very serious, dramatic angsty conflict with each other.

#5: Supernatural has a record of going into mid season hiatus upping the brother angst levels.

#6: Final and most happy fact for me: The heavier the conflict the greater the reunion/reconciliation.

I loved the story, kept me guessing, had me calling bullshit, had me feeling reluctantly proud of Dean’s sneakiness because that clearly also indicates exactly how lethal and efficient a hunter he believes his brother to be, which you know, brother pride. I hated seeing the boys not communicating, at loggerheads, being stubborn ass idjits but that was exactly what I expected for a mid season finale. Had me hurting massively for Sammy - but I've reconciled this now, show only gives us enough glimpses of happy, bromance moments, zen peaceful Sam, contented Dean to keep us coming back for more. It's a very carefully cultivated addiction on the writers' parts. Also – Don turned out to be an uncomplicated nice guy. And finally those flashbacks – less glowy and even MORE Sam pretty. Never gonna hate flashbacks with such a pretty Sam in them. I can be shallow like that.

Not my favourite out of the nine episodes so far – I don’t think I will ever call an episode with the brothers at such odds my favourite – but definitely in my PLUS column. 

I think in terms of my favourite to least favourite this is my order:

What’s Up Tiger Mommy?

Hunteri Heroici

Citizen Fang

Southern Comfort

Blood Brother

A Little Slice of Kevin

We Need to Talk About Kevin

Heartache

Bitten

I love you boys. Please come back on January 16th and make everything rainbow slinkies and favourite pie and gold class seating tickets to the Hobbit bought by Dean for Sam. And give us our goddamn angst free brother love filled hug. Aspirations for 2013 - you gotta have them.

Words seem trite, patronising and inconsequential. But walking down
the road tonight on our way back from downtown Boston I was struck so
hard by the immense feeling of sadness that came over me at the loss of
life today.  A man walked into an Elementary school and shot up a room
of 5 to 10 year olds, and the teachers who tried to save them. Twenty
children are dead. The gunman’s mother, a kindergarten teacher at the
school, found dead in her home.  Words seem so profoundly inadequate but
I only have words. And I felt the need to write them down.

I wished in that moment that humans were hardwired/programmed/evolved
to follow one immutable law, one irrevocable law only. Be kind to each
other. Like Asimov’s Law of Robotics in i robot  the first one being: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Let’s just swap the word robot out for human. Would that we could right?

Both sides of the gun control argument are so emotive and volatile
and so vehement in their beliefs, there seem to be so many invested
groups in the gun control issue. You have those who are passionate gun
owners, NRA members, gun lobbyists and completely responsible gun
owners, there are those who are stridently anti-gun, anti-NRA and
passionately against the current gun laws, there are those who are for
guns but even more for gun law reform.

Using highly emotive and incendiary words in your speeches and your
articles and your editorials is not going to change the minds of those
already made up. Referring to the gun lobby as the child killing lobby
is only going to receive the applause of those who already despise the
gun lobby (unproductive) and the vitriolic response from those who are
pro-guns (also unproductive and some might say, inflammatory). Referring
to the gun control lobby as unconstitutional, anti-American, knee jerk
over reactionary, extreme civil libertarians who have no grasp on
reality is not going to have any productive outcomes. Trotting out that
worn out, tired and no longer relevant ‘Guns don’t kill people. People
do’ does not hold the strength it did back when these shootings were
rare and unheard of. None of these things will get a rational debate
progressing. Perhaps I assume too much. I would like to imagine that
those who are responsible gun owners/users would like to sit down and
talk about how they can help lessen the number of shooting massacres in
the US.  I would like to imagine that those who are anti-gun and
passionately against the NRA would like to sit down and talk about what
can be done in productive discussion with responsible gun-owners/users. I
would like to think that money is not a part of this equation. I would
like to think a lot of things as it turns out.

People can still own guns and not have multiple mass shootings happen
in a year. Many countries have proven this is possible. America is not
many countries. The United States will always look inwards for their
solutions to their social issues. The rest of the world can only sit,
watch and present the approaches they have implemented for US
consideration. They can also hope, as I do, that productive, progressive
gun law reform can take place. Americans should not have to wonder when
they go to the movies, or to the mall, or when they send their kids off
to school if this is going to be one of those days or moments that ends
in tragedy. It’s reached the point now where the words ‘I never thought it could happen here, to me, my family, my friends’
are no longer heard in the stories of survivors, families of victims
because it’s no longer true. For the sake of my many present and future
American friends, I hope the Administration, congress and the lobbyists
can work together to staunch this flow of devastating violence.

One last thing,

Be kind to each other. Why can’t we just be kind to each other?