#salvation 2x12 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

gift-to-literature · 1 year

Text

1. Pilot : 1x1

2. Wendigo : 1x2

3. Dead in the Water : 1x3

4. Phantom Traveler : 1x4

5. Bloody Mary : 1x5

6. Skin : 1x6

7. Hook Man : 1x7

8. Bugs : 1x8

9. Home : 1x9

10. Asylum : 1x10

11. Scarecrow : 1x11

12. Faith : 1x12

13. Route 666 : 1x13

14. Nightmare : 1x14

15. The Benders : 1x15

16. Shadow : 1x16

17. Hell House : 1x17

18. Something Wicked : 1x18

19. Provenance : 1x19

20. Dead Man's Blood : 1x20

21. Salvation : 1x21

22. Devil's Trap : 1x22

23. In My Time of Dying : 2x1

24. Everybody Loves a Clown : 2x2

25. Bloodlust : 2x3

26. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things : 2x4

27. Simon Said : 2x5

28. No Exit : 2x6

29. The Usual Suspects : 2x7

30. Crossroad Blues : 2x8

31. Croatoan : 2x9

32. Hunted : 2x10

33. Playthings : 2x11

34. Nightshifter : 2x12

35. Houses of the Holy : 2x13

36. Born Under a Bad Sign : 2x14

37. Tall Tales : 2x15

38. Roadkill : 2x16

39. Heart : 2x17

40. Hollywood Babylon : 2x18

41. Folsom Prison Blues : 2x19

42. What Is and What Should Never Be : 2x20

43. All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 1 : 2x21

44. All Hell Breaks Loose: Part 2 : 2x22

45. The Magnificent Seven : 3x1

46. The Kids Are Alright : 3x2

47. Bad Day at Black Rock : 3x3

48. Sin City : 3x4

49. Bedtime Stories : 3x5

50. Red Sky at Morning : 3x6

51. Fresh Blood : 3x7

52. A Very Supernatural Christmas : 3x8

53. Malleus Maleficarum : 3x9

54. Dream a Little Dream of Me : 3x10

55. Mystery Spot : 3x11

56. Jus in Bello : 3x12

57. Ghostfacers! : 3x13

58. Long Distance Call : 3x14

59. Time Is on My Side : 3x15

60. No Rest for the Wicked : 3x16

61. Lazarus Rising : 4x1

62. Are You There, God? It's Me Dean Winchester : 4x2

63. In the Beginning : 4x3

64. Metamorphosis : 4x4

65. Monster Movie : 4x5

66. Yellow Fever : 4x6

67. It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester : 4x7

68. Whisful Thinking : 4x8

69. I Know What You Did Last Summer : 4x9

70. Heaven and Hell : 4x10

71. Family Remains : 4x11

72. Criss Angel Is a Douch Bag : 4x12

73. After School Special : 4x13

74. Sex and Violence : 4x14

75. Death Takes a Holiday : 4x15

76. On the Head of a Pin : 4x16

77. It's a Terrible Life : 4x17

78. The Monster at the End of This Book : 4x18

79. Jump the Shark : 4x19

80. The Rapture : 4x20

81. When the Levee Breaks : 4x21

82. Lucifer Rising : 4x22

83. Sympathy for the Devil : 5x1

84. Good God, Y'All : 5x2

85. Free to Be You and Me : 5x3

86. The End : 5x4

87. Fallen Idols : 5x5

88. I Believe the Children Are Our Future : 5x6

89. The Curious Case of Dean Winchester : 5x7

90. Changing Channels : 5x8

91. The Real Ghostbusters : 5x9

92. Abandon All Hope : 5x10

93. Sam, Interrupted : 5x11

94. Swap Meat : 5x12

95. The Song Remains the Same : 5x13

96. My Bloody Valentine : 5x14

97. Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid : 5x15

98. Dark Side of the Moon : 5x16

99. 99 Problems : 5x17

100. Point of No Return : 5x18

101. Hammer of the Gods : 5x19

102. The Devil You Know : 5x20

103. Two Minutes to Midnight : 5x21

104. Swan Song : 5x22

105. Exile on Main St. : 6x1

106. Two and a Half Man : 6x2

107. The Third Man : 6x3

108. Weekend at Bobby's : 6x4

109. Live Free or Twi-hard : 6x5

110. You Can't Handle the Truth : 6x6

111. Family Matters : 6x7

112. All Dogs Go to Heaven : 6x8

113. Clap Your Hands If You Believe : 6x9

114. Caged Heat : 6x10

115. Appointment in Samarra : 6x11

116. Like a Virgin : 6x12

117. Unforgiven : 6x13

118. Mannequin 3: The Reckoning : 6x14

119. The French Mistake : 6x15

120. ... And Then There Were None : 6x16

121. My Heart Will Go On : 6x17

122. Frontierland : 6x18

123. Mommy Dearest : 6x19

124. The Man Who Whould Be King : 6x20

125. Let It Bleed : 6x21

126. The Man Who Knew Too Much : 6x22

127. Meet the New Boss : 6x23

128. Hello, Cruel World : 7x1

129. The Girl Next Door : 7x2

130. Defending Your Life : 7x3

131. Shut Up, Dr. Phil : 7x4

132. Slash Fiction : 7x5

133. The Mentalists : 7x6

134. Season Seven, Time for a Wedding! : 7x7

135. Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel : 7x8

136. How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters : 7x9

137. Death's Door : 7x10

138. Adventures in Babysitting : 7x11

139. Time After Time : 7x12

140. The Slice Girls : 7x13

141. Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie : 7x14

142. Repo Man : 7x15

143. Out with the Old : 7x16

144. The Born-Again Identity : 7x17

145. Party On, Garth : 7x18

146. Of Grave Importance : 7x19

147. The Girl with the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo : 7x20

148. Reading Is Fundamental : 7x21

149. There Will Be Blood : 7x22

150. Survival of the Fittest : 7x23

151. We Need to Talk About Kevin : 8x1

152. What's Up, Tiger Mommy? : 8x2

153. Heartache : 8x3

154. Bitten : 8x4

155. Blood Brother : 8x5

156. Southern Comfort : 8x6

157. A Little Slice of Kevin : 8x7

158. Hunteri Heroici : 8x8

159. Citizen Fang : 8x9

160. Torn and Frayed : 8x10

161. LARP and the Real Girl : 8x11

162. As Time Goes By : 8x12

163. Everybody Hates Hitler : 8x13

164. Trial and Error : 8x14

165. Man's Best Friend with Benefits : 8x15

166. Remember the Titans : 8x16

167. Goodbye Stranger : 8x17

168. Freaks and Geeks : 8x18

169. Taxi Driver : 8x19

170. Pac-Man Fever : 8x20

171. The Great Escapist : 8x21

172. Clip Show : 8x22

173. Sacrifice : 8x23

174. I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here : 9x1

175. Devil May Care : 9x2

176. I'm No Angel : 9x3

177. Slumber Party : 9x4

178. Dog Dean Afternoon : 9x5

179. Heaven Can't Wait : 9x6

180. Bad Boys : 9x7

181. Rock and a Hard Place : 9x8

182. Holy Terror : 9x9

183. Road Trip : 9x10

184. First Born : 9x11

185. Sharp Teeth : 9x12

186. The Purge : 9x13

187. Captives : 9x14

188. #thinman : 9x15

189. Blade Runners : 9x16

190. Mother's Little Helper : 9x17

191. Meta Fiction : 9x18

192. Alex Annie Alexis Ann : 9x19

193. Bloodlines : 9x20

194. King of the Damned : 9x21

195. Stairway to Heaven : 9x22

196. Do You Believe in Miracles : 9x23

197. Black : 10x1

198. Reichenbach : 10x2

199. Soul Survivor : 10x3

200. Fan Fiction : 10x4

201. Paper Moon : 10x5

202. Ask Jeeves : 10x6

203. Girls, Girls, Girls : 10x7

204. Hibbing 911 : 10x8

205. The Things We Left Behind : 10x9

206. The Hunter Games : 10x10

207. There's No Place Like Home : 10x11

208. About a Boy : 10x12

209. Halt & Catch Fire : 10x13

210. The Executioner's Song : 10x14

211. The Thing They Carried : 10x15

212. Paint It Black : 10x16

213. Inside Man : 10x17

214. Book of the Damned : 10x18

215. The Werther Project : 10x19

216. Angel Heart : 10x20

217. Dark Dynasty : 10x21

218. The Prisoner : 10x22

219. Brother's Keeper : 10x23

220. Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire : 11x1

221. Form and Void : 11x2

222. The Bad Seed : 11x3

223. Baby : 11x4

224. Thin Lizzie : 11x5

225. Our Little World : 11x6

226. Plush : 11x7

227. Just My Imagination : 11x8

228. O Brother, Where Art Thou? : 11x9

229. The Devil in the Details : 11x10

230. Into the Mystic : 11x11

231. Don't You Forget About Me : 11x12

232. Love Hurts : 11x13

233. The Vessel : 11x14

234. Beyond the Mat : 11x15

235. Safe House : 11x16

236. Red Meat : 11x17

237. Hell's Angel : 11x18

238. The Chitters : 11x19

239. Don't Call Me Shurley : 11x20

240. All in the Family : 11x21

241. We Happy Few : 11x22

242. Alpha and Omega : 11x23

243. Keep Calm and Carry On : 12x1

244. Mamma Mia : 12x2

245. The Foundry : 12x3

246. American Nightmare : 12x4

247. The One You've Been Waiting For : 12x5

248. Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox : 12x6

249. Rock Never Dies : 12x7

250. LOTUS : 12x8

251. First Blood : 12x9

252. Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets : 12x10

253. Regarding Dean : 12x11

254. Stuck in the Middle (With You) : 12x12

255. Family Feud : 12x13

256. The Raid : 12x14

257. Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell : 12x15

258. Ladies Drink Free : 12x16

259. The British Invasion : 12x17

260. The Memory Remains : 12x18

261. The Future : 12x19

262. Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes : 12x20

263. There's Something About Mary : 12x21

264. Who We Are : 12x22

265. All Along the Watchtower : 12x23

266. Lost and Found : 13x1

267. The Rising Son : 13x2

268. Patience : 13x3

269. The Big Empty : 13x4

270. Advanced Thanatology : 13x5

271. Tombstone : 13x6

272. War of the Worlds : 13x7

273. The Scorpion and the Frog : 13x8

274. The Bad Place : 13x9

275. Wayward Sisters : 13x10

276. Breakdown : 13x11

277. Various & Sundry Villains : 13x12

278. Devil's Bargain : 13x13

279. Good Intentions : 13x14

280. A Most Holy Man : 13x15

281. ScoobyNatural : 13x16

282. The Thing : 13x17

283. Bring 'em Back Alive : 13x18

284. Funeralia : 13x19

285. Unfinished Business : 13x20

286. Beat the Devil : 13x21

287. Exodus : 13x22

288. Let the Good Times Roll : 13x23

289. Stranger in a Strange Land : 14x1

290. Gods and Monsters : 14x2

291. The Scar : 14x3

292. Nightmare Logic : 14x4

293. Optimism : 14x5

294. Unhuman Nature : 14x6

295. Byzantium : 14x7

296. The Spear : 14x8

297. Nihilism : 14x9

298. Damaged Goods : 14x10

299. Prophet and Loss : 14x11

300. Lebanon : 14x12

301. Mint Condition : 14x13

302. Ouroboros : 14x14

303. Peace of Mind : 14x15

304. Don't Go in the Woods : 14x16

305. Game Night : 14x17

306. Absence : 14x18

307. Jack in the Box : 14x19

308. Moriah : 14x20

309. Back and to the Future : 15x1

310. Raising Hell : 15x2

311. The Rupture : 15x3

312. Atomic Monsters : 15x4

313. Proverbs 17:3 : 15x5

314. Golden Time : 15x6

315. Last Call : 15x7

316. Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven : 15x8

317. The Trap : 15x9

318. The Heroes' Journey : 15x10

319. The Gamblers : 15x11

320. Galaxy Brain : 15x12

321. Destiny's Child : 15x13

322. Last Holiday : 15x14

323. Gimme Shelter : 15x15

324. Drag Me Away (From You) : 15x16

325. Unity : 15x17

326. Despair : 15x18

327. Inherit the Earth : 15x19

328. Carry On : 15x20

8 notes · View notes

destielshippingnews · 2 years

Text

Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 2x12 Nightshifter

Episode 2x12 Nightshifter is Ben Edlund’s second screenplay for Supernatural, and similarly to 2x05 Simon Said it is not a stand-out episode, at least in my opinion. It is one of the fan-favourites, but it generally leaves me cool: 1x06 Skin had a better shapeshifter, and it has only been a handful of episodes since Dean and Sam’s last run-in with the police in 2x07 The Usual Suspects. It is one I considered skipping, but after deciding not to I saw that there are some aspects of it which I do enjoy.

The main thing which stood out about this episode was the rapport Dean and Ron had. Ron is presented as a loon and conspiracy theorist whom people dismiss. The police called him a ‘post-traumatic case’ and Sam talked to him like he is an idiot. He is a bit of an idiot, but not because of his conviction that ‘mandroids’ exist or his wall covered in maps and pictures. We are probably supposed to think he is off his rocker, but given the context of the show taking place in a world where the supernatural (pun intended) is very much alive and hunters such as Dean, Sam, and John do exactly what Ron did in order to find and kill monsters, Ron ends up looking like he is on the right track but is lacking one of two vital bits of information. If someone were to see John’s maps in 1x01 Pilot or 1x21 Salvation without knowing that monsters exist, s/he would think him a madman. Dean himself points this out to Sam after meeting Ron.

Dean and Sam visit Ron while investigating a string of apparent thefts and suicides. Ron was a security guard at a jewellery shop which was robbed by one of his colleagues named Juan. Ron copied the security tapes before the police took the originals as evidence, and based on his seeing Juan’s eyes flash in the videos, he eventually concluded Juan was not Juan but a mandroid. Whilst sitting across from Ron in their FBI get-up, Dean and Sam’s reactions to him are quite different. For all that he claims to think there is something wrong with him, and all the times later in the show he will call himself a freak and such, Sam gives the impression of being a completely normal, average, typical guy listening to somebody whom he regards as several different kinds of deficient. His entire bearing is unsympathetic and cold.

Dean on the other hand seems almost perfectly at ease with Ron, and is capable of meeting him on his own wavelength. This is far from the only time Dean will show a kinship with people others deem ‘crazy’, 1x10 Asylum being a particularly striking example. Sam seems like a neurotypical person impatiently listening to an autistic guy talk about his hyperfixation, whereas Dean is the other autistic guy who gets it.

This is why what you show is more important than what you tell. You can tell me Sam is a ‘freak’ as much as you want, but if I see something which says the opposite, I am going to trust what I see.

Anyway, Sam decided unilaterally to essentially tell Ron he was crazy and that he was just trying to avoid accepting that his friend robbed a band and killed somebody. Dean looked completely taken aback by this, apparently convinced Sam would induct Ron into the hunters’ life. Why Sam thought it unnecessary to consult Dean in the hallway for a minute or two before telling Ron anything is beyond me, but it ended up being a very bad idea.

Sam’s idea ended up getting people killed, but this time the blame cannot be placed at his feet. Unlike all the times he refused to pull the bloody trigger, he could not have known that Ron would lock himself in the bank with a rifle and a load of hostages. I wrote earlier that Ron is a bit of an idiot, and the reason for that is his complete obliviousness regarding the consequences of his choices. He took a bank hostage with a rifle, failed to ensure that nobody contacted the outside world, and was surprised to learn that the police had shown up with SWAT teams. On top of that, he was told to stay out of the light, but what did he do? Stood in the light long enough for a sniper to ventilate him. He also sounded utterly clueless when speaking to the police on the phone. That is all his responsibility, and given his incompetence, his death was no great surprise.

That being said, it could perhaps have been avoided had Ron been furnished with a bit of knowledge about the truth behind the ‘mandroids’ before things escalated like they did. Ron’s actions were those of a desperate man driven into a corner. Had Sam done what Dean clearly wanted to do, they could perhaps have worked with Ron, or told them the truth about why they were there and what they were hunting.

youtube

The hunting life is an apt metaphor for living with any kind of serious trauma, mental illness, or neurodiversity. Hunters are inducted into the life either through a horrific event (personal trauma) or through being raised in the life by parents and carers (generational trauma), and those not inducted into the life cannot see what is hiding at the periphery. They also cannot see the hunters fighting ‘demons’ and ‘monsters’ every day of their lives, and would say they are crazy if the hunters told them what they were dealing with.

Ron had been introduced to the hunting life through witnessing a shifter in the shape of his friend rob his bank, beat him up, then apparently die by suicide afterwards. Dean wanted to extend Ron a hand of understanding and support, but Sam decided it best to keep Ron in the dark in order to keep him safe. If Ron knew about monsters etc, he would just go after them, or so Sam concluded. This might seem like wisdom were it not for the fact that monsters find people regardless of whether they know about them or not. How many people in this show have been victimised by the supernatural out of the blue through no fault of their own?

Sam’s decision is akin to telling somebody who been through a traumatic event that their flashbacks and triggers are not actual problems at all, that it is all in their head and they should ignore it, because actually understanding, acknowledging, and facing the monsters in your mind might be dangerous. Never mind the fact that forewarned is forearmed and that the monsters are there anyway. Sam really should have learnt by now that decisions he makes end up getting people hurt and killed, but Dean could and should have gainsaid him right then and there.

This seems to be a trait of Dean’s which is likely related to his tendency to abase himself and apologise for Sam’s mistakes in order to keep Sam with him. Dean does not likeactualarguments with Sam and generally avoids them if he can. He snarks and takes occasional potshots, but he generally tries to avoid head-on conflict with Sam. I wonder whether this is a trait of Jensen’s which the writers started writing into Dean’s character, since Jensen is also conflict-averse.

Returning to Ron, his hijacking of the bank is like a traumatised, mistreated person finally snapping and doing something irrevocably moronic out of anger, hopelessness, and even fear. “You don’t believe me,” he says. “Nobody believes me. How could they?” When looked at like this, Ron’s reaction to learning he is not crazy is completely understandable: he had spent weeks being told he was insane and had ended up thinking that about himself. He believed he was the problem, even while simultaneously being able to see the evidence that led to his conclusions right in front of him. Relief was his response when he finally learnt the truth. He had finally been given proof that he was not crazy, that his grasp on reality was not faulty, and that everybody else had been wrong to dismiss him. After having spent years being sneered at, mocked, and called delusional by a certain section of the Supernatural fandom, every single time Jensen and Misha say something at conventions which as good as confirms I and millions of others were right to see the subtext, I feel relieved.

Note once again that it is Dean who manages to get through to Ron in the bank. Dean is very compliant with Ron’s demands, but does not humbly submit. Rather he takes advantage of the situation to build what little rapport with him he can, then win him over by saying ‘I believe you. You’re not crazy. There really is something inside this bank.’

While Dean is busy saving the day, the purported main protagonist of this show Sam is useless. This is of course not a problem in itself, but given it is so often Dean doing the dirty work and getting beaten up while Sam gets to swoop in at the end and save the day with minimal effort, it emphasises Sam’s weakness. It is funny, then, that Sam’s response to Ron is to try shouting at him when Ron has the rifle pointed at him. Was this in the script or was it Jared’s acting choice? Either way, it emphasised Sam’s powerless in that situation. He did exactly the same in 8x06 Southern Comfort when civilwar!Dean pointed his pistol at Sam. Maybe it was a fear response.

And yes, I did notice Dean’s smug told you so look at Sam when Ron said ‘You SHUT UP! I ain’t talkin to you, I don’t like you!’ That line filled me with a warm, giddy, tingling sensation. It was almost physical, like when Sam got flung across the room in 1x09 Home. After Sam’s behaviour for the last few episodes and Kripke’s refusal to allow him face the consequences of his douchebaggery (including in this very episode), that was the least of what Sam deserved. I also noticed Sam give Dean a weird look when the guy frisking Dean found a silver blade tucked into his boot, as if it is a bad idea to be armed when investigating the bank they know a shapeshifter is targeting. What even is Sam? Why do he? And how?

Returning to Ron, It is hard for me to say Ron did not deserve understanding or sympathy after holding a bank up with a rifle because he did not intend to kill anybody and he had been driven into that state of desperation by people’s dismissal of him, including Sam. Maybe my thirty one years of experience as a neurodivergent homosexual have made it too easy for me to associate with the outsiders and rejects because somebody has to. I suppose he is a bit of a warning to people both with and without similar experiences.

Anyway, he died about halfway through the episode. The entire situation of the bank being locked down and surrounded by police and snipers was his responsibility, and there really was no way he was going free afterwards unless it was with Dean and Sam. I still do not want to say he got what he deserved, because he was just a misguided fool with no understanding of what he was getting himself into. Still, he died a stupid death which could have been avoided had he been more conscientious about staying out of the light. He seemed to die quickly, and it was touching to see Dean insist on commiserating with and paying what respects he could to Ron’s dead body before taking his dropped rifle.

Dean was right to say Ron did a good job tracking the shapeshifter. If he had been able to enter the hunting life, he might have been a good working partner for Ash in tracking monsters and coördinating hunts. I wonder also whether Dean’s seeming affinity for Ron is based in seeing a kinship of a sort: both are ‘weirdos’ on the fringes of society fighting things nobody else even knows about or wants to acknowledge. Dean certainly seemed affected by Ron’s death, but then again Dean blames himself for every single person he is unable to save.

After just over 2,000 words and almost five pages of discussing Ron and Dean, it is time for something I really did not like in this episode: the police and the FBI. By Loki’s fuzzy navel, I do not care about law enforcement in a show like Supernatural. I like The X-Files and Hannibal, and the few occasions the police were involved in Buffy and Angel were effective, in part because it was so sparing. But if the premise of a show is a conflict on the margins of society between monsters and humans, there is very little suspense or interest in being wanted by the FBI. The show is not going to end with the brothers being locked in prison to live out their days, or being sentenced to execution in Texas, so why should I care? An ending like that would be almost as risible and insulting as a vampire wearing a clown mask impaling Dean on a conveniently placed iron spike in a barn in the final episode of the show. Can you even imagine anything that stupid happening? The only thing which would make it even stupider would be if one of the vampires from 1x20 Dead Man’s Blood came back and the audience was expected to remember who she is.

Henriksen is presented as a serious threat and challenge to Dean and Sam, as well as a ruthless commander of his forces and a total douche to the local policemen. The fact he knows a lot about Dean and Sam’s past as well as John’s is supposed unsettle the viewer, as it does Dean. However, even one year after this episode was aired, the storyline was completely redundant. Henriksen appears in perhaps one or two episodes after this, and then 3x12 Jus in Bello happens. Goodbye, Henriksen.

The effect of this is to further frustrate me: this banal intrusion in my supernatural show demands my attention and insists on itself, but ultimately leads absolutely nowhere. The heavy-handed music cue and Dean’s repeated statement ‘We are so screwed’ after he and Sam escape in SWAT uniforms is also supposed to build suspense, which would be fine if this were The X-Files. The episode set up a cat-and-mouse conflict between Dean and Henriksen which got abandoned, probably because Kripke is a big fan of introducing plots and then dropping them.

youtube

It was also a bad idea for Henriksen to tell Dean over the phone that he has one hour to hand himself over, and then to tell his men they are going into the bank in five minutes. That is a good way to get a lot of people killed.

As for the shifter, its counterpart in 1x06 Skin was a Dean mirror, made obvious by the fact it spent a large section of the episode masquerading as Dean. The shifter in that episode was used to explore middle-class, white-skinned American suburbia’s fears and anxieties surrounding poor, working-class men and heterosexuals’ (especially women’s) fears of bisexual men. The shifter in this episode does not transform into Dean or anybody Dean-adjacent, but does spend a lot of the time as women and minority men. The link between this shifter and Dean is much more tenuous than in 1x06 Skin, and to be honest far less interesting. No Hannibal-references here, unfortunately.

Paula R. Stiles’s suggestion is that maybe it reflects or exaggerates prejudices Dean has or could have towards said groups, but I do not really think it is that deep for once. Dean was raised in a homosocial environment with little opportunity for social interaction with women and girls. He is shown throughout the show to be charming enough to make women swoon, but he does not really socialise with women much. Even when he was in the god-awful, anhedonic forced performance of a relationship with Lisa in series six, he did not really seem to have anything particularly real or deep with her. There was also his neighbour who had been buying him drinks for a year, so… Dean generally treats women the same as men, but he seems more emotionally distant from women. Taken to an extreme, this could become misogyny, but what relevance does that have to bank robberies and jewellery heists? I have no idea.

Perhaps it could be interpreted as a metaphor for middle-class white-skinned Americans’ possible discomfort and apprehension of minority men who rob their banks and jewellery shops, then kill their women, but I do not care nearly enough about this episode to bother going into more depth on that subject. It ain’t that deep.

While talking to the policeman, Henriksen essentially called Dean a monster and a bigger threat to the hostages than anything else in the bank. I am not of the same opinion, but Dean does show some behaviour in this episode which is cause for concern. Let me take the scenic route before telling you what that is.

Soon after Ron takes everybody hostage, he gets most of them to hole up in the bank’s vault whilst following Dean’s advice and keeping him at hand. One of the people in the vault is a young woman named Sherri whose fawning fan-girling of Dean – ‘he is so brave – sounds exactly like me in these analyses.

The events of the episode lead Dean to eventually find Sherri’s dead body on the floor in the office (wearing only a nightie, or whatever that item of women’s clothing is called) with her throat cut. He and Sam take what they assume to be shifter!Sherri out of the vault and into the office, where she sees her dead body, screams, and faints. Dean wasted no time in preparing to stab her with the silver letter opener, and would have done so had Sam not stayed Dean’s hand and worked out that the dead body was actually the shifter pretending.

The concerning behaviour here was the ease with which Dean was about to murder a person. He justifiably thought her a shapeshifter and most people would have come to the same conclusion Dean did. Some people say Sam is the brains of the operation, but I disagree. Dean is just sometimes quicker to action and quicker to make decisions which is sometimes a good thing, sometimes a bad thing. Remember, Sam’s indecisiveness and hesitation keeps preventing him from firing the bloody gun. This time, however, Sam being slower to action worked to their advantage and prevented Dean killing an actual innocent. Dean is not a monster, but seeing how easy it would have been for him to stab something which looked like a normal human is a clear indication that he could one day become a monster.

Like I said ages ago, Dean really should have been the Big Bad at some point. Not Dean possessed by an angel, or Dean turned into a demon, just Dean. Regular, normal Dean as an antagonist.

Sam was mostly annoying when he did anything in this episode. He did prevent Dean becoming an actual murderer (The Loquacious Terminator from 1x22 Devil’s Trap does not count, he was possessed by a demon at the time and left little recourse. Beverley in 2x09 Croatoan is debatable since she was very likely still infected. Sherri would have been a murder, though). Other than saving Dean from becoming an actual murderer, Sam was unnecessarily shouty, aggressive, and pissy throughout.

As this analysis comes to a close, it is time to discuss another issue, that being Sam. Yes, Dear Reader, I am going to bitch about Sam. I have already discussed his unwise unilateral decision to keep Ron in the dark, but immediately after that Dean starts giving him a hard time, then rather quickly becomes agreeable and compliant to a point where I thought ‘That is not what Dean would say in that situation’. Sam claimed it better to be kept in the dark and be safe than know about monsters and get killed, but that is utter horse crap because the shifter kills people in this episode who presumably knew nothing about monsters, as has been happening since 1x01 Pilot. Dean knows this, but rather than saying so, agreed it probably for the best that Ron not be told the truth.

One good thing about this episode is that Sam’s choices are shown to have negative consequences and characters make sure he knows it. Dean gets irritated with Sam for making him go into the bank without weapons (though why did Dean comply? He took the colt with him in 1x22 Devil’s Trap), and Ron makes it very clearly that he does not like Sam.

If there had been more of this on the show, and if Sam had learnt from his bad behaviour, I might have been able to like him at some point, but such is alas not the case.

And the last thing before I finish: I do not it when the cold open shows us an exciting, tense, dramatic scene, and then goes back in time 24 hours or something. It makes the actual episode feel slow and less interesting.

Thus endeth this analysis. Next is another script by Sera Gamble which is seen as a spiritual successor to 1x12 Faith by many, but which falls far short of that in my estimation.

And did I forget to mention Dean’s we little outfit?

#edvard's supernatural guide #supernatural #spn meta #meta analysis #spn 2x12 #spn 2x12 nightshifter #s02e12 #2x12 nightshifter #dean winchester #victor henriksen #sam winchester #spn rewatch #Youtube

18 notes · View notes

supernovagifs · 1 month

Text

Supernatural Season Masterlist

Below are Supernatural Episodes

Season 1

1x1 - Pilot

1x2 - Wendigo

1x3 - Dead in the Water

1x4 - Phantom Traveler

1x5 - Bloody Mary

1x6 - Skin

1x7 - Hook Man

1x8 - Bugs

1x9 - Home

1x10 - Asylum

1x11 - Scarecrow

1x12 - Faith

1x13 - Route 666

1x14 - Nightmare

1x15 - The Benders

1x16 - Shadow

1x17 - Hell House

1x18 - Something Wicked

1x19 - Provenance

1x20 - Dead Man's Blood

1x21 - Salvation

1x22 - Devil's Trap

Season 2

2x1 - In My Time of Dying

2x2 - Everybody Loves a Clown

2x3 - Bloodlust

2x4 - Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

2x5 - Simon Said

2x6 - No Exit

2x7 - The Usual Suspects

2x8 - Crossroad Blues

2x9 - Croatoan

2x10 - Hunted

2x11 - Playthings

2x12 - Nightshifter

2x13 - Houses of the Holy

2x14 - Born Under a Bad Sign

2x15 - Tall Tales

2x16 - Roadkill

2x17 - Heart

2x18 - Hollywood Babylon

2x19 - Folsom Prison Blues

2x20 - What Is and What Should Never Be

2x21 - All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 1)

2x22 - All Hell Breaks Loose (Part 2)

Season 3

3x1 - The Magnificent Seven

3x2 - The Kids Are Alright

3x3 - Bad Day at Black Rock

3x4 - Sin City

3x5 - Bedtime Stories

3x6 - Red Sky at Morning

3x7 - Fresh Blood

3x8 - A Very Supernatural Christmas

3x9 - Malleus Maleficarum

3x10 - Dream a Little Dream of Me

3x11 - Mystery Spot

3x12 - Jus in Bello

3x13 - Ghostfacers!

3x14 - Long-Distance Call

3x15 - Time Is On My Side

3x16 - No Rest for the Wicked

Season 4

4x1 - Lazarus Rising

4x2 - Are You There God? It's Me, Dean Winchester

4x3 - In the Beginning

4x4 - Metamorphosis

4x5 - Monster Movie

4x6 - Yellow Fever

4x7 - It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Winchester

4x8 - Wishful Thinking

4x9 - I Know What You Did Last Summer

4x10 - Heaven and Hell

4x11 - Family Remains

4x12 - Criss Angel Is a Douche Bag

4x13 - After School Special

4x14 - Sex and Violence

4x15 - Death Takes a Holiday

4x16 - On the Head of a Pin

4x17 - It's a Terrible Life

4x18 - The Monster at the End of This Book

4x19 - Jump the Shark

4x20 - The Rapture

4x21 - When the Levee Breaks

4x22 - Lucifer Rising

Season 5

5x1 - Sympathy for the Devil

5x2 - Good God, Y'All!

5x3 - Free To Be You and Me

5x4 - The End

5x5 - Fallen Idols

5x6 - I Believe the Children Are Our Future

5x7 - The Curious Case of Dean Winchester

5x8 - Changing Channels

5x9 - The Real Ghostbusters

5x10 - Abandon All Hope

5x11 - Sam, Interrupted

5x12 - Swap Meat

5x13 - The Song Remains the Same

5x14 - My Bloody Valentine

5x15 - Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

5x16 - Dark Side of the Moon

5x17 - 99 Problems

5x18 - Point of No Return

5x19 - Hammer of the Gods

5x20 - The Devil You Know

5x21 - Two Minutes to Midnight

5x22 - Swan Song

Season 6

6x1 - Exile on Main St.

6x2 - Two and a Half Men

6x3 - The Third Man

6x4 - Weekend at Bobby's

6x5 - Live Free or Twihard

6x6 - You Can't Handle the Truth

6x7 - Family Matters

6x8 - All Dogs Go to Heaven

6x9 - Clap Your Hands If You Believe…

6x10 - Caged Heat

6x11 - Appointment in Samarra

6x12 - Like a Virgin

6x13 - Unforgiven

6x14 - Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

6x15 - The French Mistake

6x16 - And Then There Were None

6x17 - My Heart Will Go On

6x18 - Frontierland

6x19 - Mommy Dearest

6x20 - The Man Who Would Be King

6x21 - Let It Bleed

6x22 - The Man Who Knew Too Much

Season 7

7x1 - Meet the New Boss

7x2 - Hello, Cruel World

7x3 - The Girl Next Door

7x4 - Defending Your Life

7x5 - Shut Up, Dr. Phil

7x6 - Slash Fiction

7x7 - The Mentalists

7x8 - Season 7, Time for a Wedding!

7x9 - How to Win Friends and Influence Monsters

7x10 - Death's Door

7x11 - Adventures in Babysitting

7x12 - Time After Time

7x13 - The Slice Girls

7x14 - Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie

7x15 - Repo Man

7x16 - Out With the Old

7x17 - The Born-Again Identity

7x18 - Party On, Garth

7x19 - Of Grave Importance

7x20 - The Girl With the Dungeons and Dragons Tattoo

7x21 - Reading Is Fundamental

7x22 - There Will Be Blood

7x23 - Survival of the Fittest

Season 8

8x1 - We Need to Talk About Kevin

8x2 - What's Up, Tiger Mommy?

8x3 - Heartache

8x4 - Bitten

8x5 - Blood Brother

8x6 - Southern Comfort

8x7 - A Little Slice of Kevin

8x8 - Hunteri Heroici

8x9 - Citizen Fang

8x10 - Torn and Frayed

8x11 - LARP and the Real Girl

8x12 - As Time Goes By

8x13 - Everybody Hates Hitler

8x14 - Trial and Error

8x15 - Man's Best Friend with Benefits

8x16 - Remember the Titans

8x17 - Goodbye Stranger

8x18 - Freaks and Geeks

8x19 - Taxi Driver

8x20 - Pac-Man Fever

8x21 - The Great Escapist

8x22 - Clip Show

8x23 - Sacrifice

Season 9

9x1 - I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

9x2 - Devil May Care

9x3 - I'm No Angel

9x4 - Slumber Party

9x5 - Dog Dean Afternoon

9x6 - Heaven Can't Wait

9x7 - Bad Boys

9x8 - Rock and a Hard Place

9x9 - Holy Terror

9x10 - Road Trip

9x11 - First Born

9x12 - Sharp Teeth

9x13 - The Purge

9x14 - Captives

9x15 - #THINMAN

9x16 - Blade Runners

9x17 - Mother's Little Helper

9x18 - Meta Fiction

9x19 - Alex Annie Alexis Ann

9x20 - Bloodlines

9x21 - King of the Damned

9x22 - Stairway to Heaven

9x23 - Do You Believe in Miracles?

Season 10

10x1 - Black

10x2 - Reichenbach

10x3 - Soul Survivor

10x4 - Paper Moon

10x5 - Fan Fiction

10x6 - Ask Jeeves

10x7 - Girls, Girls, Girls

10x8 - Hibbing 911

10x9 - The Things We Left Behind

10x10 - The Hunter Games

10x11 - There's No Place Like Home

10x12 - About a Boy

10x13 - Halt & Catch Fire

10x14 - The Executioner's Song

10x15 - The Things They Carried

10x16 - Paint It Black

10x17 - Inside Man

10x18 - Book of the Damned

10x19 - The Werther Project

10x20 - Angel Heart

10x21 - Dark Dynasty

10x22 - The Prisoner

10x23 - Brother's Keeper

Season 11

11x1 - Out of the Darkness, Into the Fire

11x2 - Form and Void

11x3 - The Bad Seed

11x4 - Baby

11x5 - Thin Lizzie

11x6 - Our Little World

11x7 - Plush

11x8 - Just My Imagination

11x9 - O Brother Where Art Thou?

11x10 - The Devil in the Details

11x11 - Into the Mystic

11x12 - Don't You Forget About Me

11x13 - Love Hurts

11x14 - The Vessel

11x15 - Beyond the Mat

11x16 - Safe House

11x17 - Red Meat

11x18 - Hell's Angel

11x19 - The Chitters

11x20 - Don't Call Me Shurley

11x21 - "All in the Family

11x22 - We Happy Few

11x23 - Alpha and Omega

Season 12

12x1 - Keep Calm and Carry On

12x2 - Mamma Mia

12x3 - The Foundry

12x4 - American Nightmare

12x5 - The One You've Been Waiting For

12x6 - Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox

12x7 - Rock Never Dies

12x8 - LOTUS

12x9 - First Blood

12x10 - Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets

12x11 - Regarding Dean

12x12 - Stuck in the Middle (With You)

12x13 - Family Feud

12x14 - The Raid

12x15 - Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell

12x16 - Ladies Drink Free

12x17 - The British Invasion

12x18 - The Memory Remains

12x19 - The Future

12x20 - Twigs & Twine & Tasha Banes

12x21 - There's Something About Mary

12x22 - Who We Are

12x23 - All Along the Watchtower

Season 13

13x1 - Lost and Found

13x2 - The Rising Son

13x3 - Patience

13x4 - The Big Empty

13x5 - Advanced Thanatology

13x6 - Tombstone

13x7 - War of the Worlds

13x8 - The Scorpion and the Frog

13x9 - The Bad Place

13x10 - Wayward Sisters

13x11 - Breakdown

13x12 - Various & Sundry Villains

13x13 - Devil's Bargain

13x14 - Good Intentions

13x15 - A Most Holy Man

13x16 - Scoobynatural

13x17 - The Thing

13x18 - Bring 'em Back Alive

13x19 - Funeralia

13x20 - Unfinished Business

13x21 - Beat the Devil

13x22 - Exodus

13x23 - Let the Good Times Roll

Season 14

14x1 - Stranger in a Strange Land

14x2 - Gods and Monsters

14x3 - The Scar

14x4 - Mint Condition

14x5 - Nightmare Logic

14x6 - Optimism

14x7 - Unhuman Nature

14x8 - Byzantium

14x9 - The Spear

14x10 - Nihilism

14x11 - Damaged Goods

14x12 - Prophet and Loss

14x13 - Lebanon

14x14 - Ouroboros

14x15 - Peace of Mind

14x16 - Don't Go in the Woods

14x17 - Game Night

14x18 - Absence

14x19 - Jack in the Box

14x20 - Moriah

Season 15

15x1 - Back and to the Future

15x2 - Raising Hell

15x3 - The Rupture

15x4 - Atomic Monsters

15x5 - Proverbs 17:3

15x6 - Golden Time

15x7 - Last Call

15x8 - Our Father, Who Aren't in Heaven

15x9 - The Trap

15x10 - The Heroes' Journey

15x11 - The Gamblers

15x12 - Galaxy Brain

15x13 - Destiny's Child

15x14 - Last Holiday

15x15 - Gimme Shelter

15x16 - Drag Me Away (From You)

15x17 - Unity

15x18 - Despair

15x19 - Inherit the Earth

15x20 - Carry On

#gifs #supernatural #supernatural gifs #season masterlist

0 notes

random-fandom-whump · 3 years

Text

Salvation S02E12

By request

#salvation #whumpedit #darius tanz #santiago cabrera #blood #attacked #collapse #pain #sonic weapon #blood from the ears #ep: hail mary #salvation 2x12 #requests

189 notes · View notes

howtosingit · 3 years

Note

You have killed me, but also SPOT ON with the Carlos observations. During the fire, Carlos had TK there to pull him through, snap him into being able to breathe and calm him, and love him. and in the hospital room, you can see him startle towards TK, like he’s unintentionally gravitating towards him as a grounding source and then you can tell he’s getting increasingly erratic and panicky the minute he starts to get pushed away. Which is why I think he loses the jacket in the hallway bc he can’t breathe or calm down bc TK is the one who could do that for him.

Yeah, his eyes cut to TK a few times during the clip - they kind of shift between the doctor, who he seeks for answers and hope, and TK, who he seeks for familiarity and comfort - but how does your anchor keep you safe when your anchor is the one that's causing you to drown?

In this moment, TK is both his salvation and his destruction.

This clip is giving me total 2x12 feels, but the IMPORTANT DISTINCTION is that TK isn't actually there to center him, to calm him, to remind him that they are a team and they will get through it together. So, instead, Carlos spirals because no one is there to remind him that there's another option. He's lost in his head and TK is the one who knows how to pull him out of it.

I'm so excited to see where this scene goes because, like you, I think it was cut off before it was complete.

#asks #brian talks #ls spoilers #ls speculation #tarlos

38 notes · View notes

lonestarpost · 3 years

Text

April 26, 2021~ Masterlist ~ Issue 12

Episode Review

by @lonestarbabe

9-1-1: Lone Star’s ninth episode of season two breaks the hiatus with one of the season’s strongest episodes; in this episode, the showrunners prioritize quality storytelling (many thanks to writer Tonya Kong), and while the episode focuses heavily on past events, it creates an atmosphere that allows extensive character development moving forward. The episode shows viewers Grace and Judd’s story, and it does so in a way that highlights their bright future and how they have built a healthy, happy future together by first creating a solid foundation for themselves. “Saving Grace” stands out because of its attention to detail and the complex dynamics it beautifully fleshes out. The episode is rooted in humanity; the characters are not perfect, but through those flaws, viewers see the power of interpersonal relationships and the ability of people to save one another in a myriad of ways.

Throughout the episode, Judd is lost, but one grounding force saves him from his demons: his wife, Grace Ryder. As the episode kicks off, Judd is a young kid joyriding with his friend. As Judd sits behind the wheel, a tragic accident causes his friend to die, and Judd is left with a wealth of guilt and self-doubt. Despite Grace being in grave danger after the accident, during the entirety of the episode, it is Judd who needs saving from the complex emotions that haunt him. When Judd is in danger, Grace is there for him, even when she is a hospital bed. Judd wants to take revenge on the drunk driver who drove him and Grace off the road, but then, Grace wakes up, and Judd comments that Grace has saved the drunk driver. Before that, before Grace and Judd have met face to face, they begin correspondence when Judd calls a Christian crisis hotline that Grace works at as she finishes school. Seeing their relationship develop over the phone shows the deep connection that the couple has, and in Judd’s darkest moments, Grace was there for him, and her voice saved him from his own self-destruction.

After reciting Psalm 31, which Judd has tattooed on his hand, Grace says, “None of us are perfect. It’s by Grace that we’re saved,” and this line expertly reinforces the themes of the episode. Just before he nearly beats the drunk driver who ran him and Grace off the road, we see Judd getting the tattoo, which shows Judd’s mindset. He is thinking about Grace and how she has saved him. Judd himself was responsible, at least in part, for somebody’s death; that guilt has made it hard for him to recover mentally, but grace has gotten him through. Even so, he struggles to extend forgiveness to the man who has hurt Grace. The reminder of his own trauma is fresh, but Judd is still a flawed, emotional person who needs tempering, and with Grace unconscious, he feels untethered. He’s back to being an angry person, who still blames himself for the death of his friend.

Judd once fought to make amends with Leigh-Ann, the mother of the kid who died in the car, and these parallels show how hard it is to forgive. But the forgiveness ultimately isn’t about giving a gift to someone who has done wrong; in this story, it is shown as a way of saving yourself. Instead of getting trapped in the bitterness, forgiveness allows the characters to heal themselves. Early in the episode, Leigh-Ann is hurt on the floor of her home; this portrayal represents how her son’s death debilitated her. She holds unto her anger, but as Judd makes amends by fixing Leigh-Ann’s fence (a white picket fence that represents the ideal American home, which has become dirty and has fallen apart since Cal’s death), and he takes a devastated property and makes it a home. After watching Judd work for a while as she recovers, Leigh-Ann finally gives Judd water, and not only does Judd make amends, but Leigh-Anne has physically recovered since we last saw her. She still has a sling on her arm, but she’s on the way to healing. Likewise, when Judd goes to see the man who nearly killed Grace, he is in the process of healing himself. He’s just gotten out of bed from his own injuries. His body is still battered, but as he backs away from the man because of Grace waking up, it marks that Judd is healing too, not just physically but he’s also learning to focus on what matters rather than the anger he feels. In the end, it is love and care that brings the character happiness, and it makes them happier to focus on the things that save them rather than what hurts them. Love, from the 126 and from Grace, keep Judd from self-destructing from his guilt and rage.

The title works on a number of levels. While it seems at first glance that the episode is about “Saving Grace” from the accident that has nearly killed her, the essence of the episode is that Grace is Judd’s “Saving Grace.” Not only that, but she is thousands of people’s “Saving Grace.” In her career, she has been a voice of reason and hope. Even when she can’t save a life, as with the astronaut in the season one finale, her voice still provides comfort and a sense of salvation to people who are hurting. It’s not just Grace that saves Judd. In many ways, Judd also sparks Grace’s own decisions. As Grace falls in love with Judd, she realizes that going to graduate school far away isn’t her calling. She doesn’t stay because of Judd, but there’s no doubt that her connection with Judd helped Grace realize that saving people was her calling. She decides to become a 9-1-1 operator, and for thousands of people, she becomes a “Saving Grace” on the other end of the line.

“Saving Grace,” is one of the best episodes of the series, and arguably, it is the most artfully written. It stands out because the details add up in a way that drives the plot and character development. It excels at showing rather than just telling the viewers the vital details of the story. Grace is an angel, and one of her greatest strengths is bringing people together and comforting them in their times of need. When she saves people, she then allows them to save countless others. Through Grace, Judd is a hero in his own right, but he is the kind that gets glory, while Grace’s role is more understated but just as important. The episode mostly focuses on Judd’s history, but when you look at it closely, the role of Grace, understated but poignant, is what stands out the most.

The Edits Edit

Some of the best edits this week that deserve all the love.

Carlos Reyes, 911 Lone Star 1.01 by @reyeslonestar is an amazing piece of fan art, and as usual, Alice is an amazing talent that we should all appreciate.

This Grace and Judd gifset by @ronenrubinstein is just WOW. I love looking at it and cannot stop!

Marjan Marwani by @alwaysablossom is soooooo pretty. I love the colors and all the details more than I can say!

SIERRA MCCLAIN as GRACE RYDER by @bucktks is an amazing edit that highlights Grace. You should also check out this one, which is equally good! Finally, take a look at this Tarlos set! (They all are amazing.)

Judd & Owen in 2x09 (Pt2) by @911dawnstar is such a well-done gifset, and I love seeing Judd and Owen being a wonderful duo. Also look at Part 1!

“We’re gonna have a new little Texan running around!” by @shoenaerts makes me swoon, and my heart can barely handle it because Grace and Judd are the definition of LOVE. This one is also beautiful.

the ryders + howdy. by @laurenkmyers makes my heart beat faster... I love it so much.

This Grace and Judd moment by @chrissiewatts makes me cry every time I see it AHHH.

These gifs by @strandtk is so amazing. I am in love with this edit! This one too!

This gif by @jessie-meili showcases Grace in the perfect way!

Group Hugs by @rafasilvas is one of my fave gifsets ever and highlights wonderful parallels of the 126 family. I’m in love.

The truth is, I think I just wanted to hear your voice. by @buckleys-diaz is soooooo dreamy and beautiful.

Fic Recs

remind us where we've been by @morganaspendragonss (hollyhobbit101)

Word Count: 564

Chapters: 1/1

“This is something, ain’t it?” Judd says, nudging Owen gently. Owen looks around Judd's backyard, taking it all in - TK and Carlos with their two kids, Judd's three milling around, their whole family gathered together in a future Owen's not sure he ever imagined even in his wildest dreams. "It's something," he agrees.

Home is wherever you are by @sixringss (buckscasey)

Word Count: 1651

Chapters: 1/1

A week after the fire, Carlos goes back to his home.Speculation for 2x12/13

Get Me off the Boat, I'm Ready to be on Land by @silvarafael (tiniestmite)

Word Count: 3966

Chapters: 1/1

Five times TK’s sobriety is tested after he arrives in Austin but he keeps it to himself, and the one time it gets so bad that he tells someone.

The Way Our Horizons Meet (chapter 1) by @chicgeekgirl89 (Writeallnight)

Word Count: 1500

Chapters: 1/3 (WIP)

Carlos' perspective through the aftermath of T.K.'s shooting. Follows the events of episodes 1x08-1x10.

You Found Me (Did You Ever Doubt I Would?) (Chapter 10) by @doctornineandthreequarters (doctornineandthreequarters)

Word Count: 2736

Chapters: 10/? (standalone works)

Tarlos college au

#masterlist #911 lone star #lone star post #issue 12

13 notes · View notes

veneataur · 3 years

Text

Whumptober 24/31

prompt: self-induced injuries to escape

fandom: Salvation

words: 477

a/n: This is light on the whump. It takes place after 2x12.

In all of the time that Nick and Bass had Darius captive, Jillian only saw him attempt to escape once. On Nick’s orders, they’d lightened up on the drugs they were injecting Darius with in the hopes of making him more lucid instead of rambling about hummingbirds and other nonsense. Perhaps, Jillian thought, they simply thought Darius would give up the information. She didn’t know the extent of what Darius dealt with at the hands of the government and Harris, but she knew that he’d withstood torture to protect Grace and the Ark, she didn’t believe that Darius would give up so easily. Nick didn’t know his nephew as much as he thought.

So, in a moment of lucidity, Darius made his attempt. He waited until one of the guards came to give him food. They weren’t really guards as he would know them but they carried guns and wouldn’t talk to him. Other than that, they looked like anyone he might meet on the street. There was one, Nora, that Darius saw as a weaker one. She’d hesitate to act, to shoot before anything and that would give him the escape. He just had to convince her to come close.

“I… I need help,” he said, keeping his voice shaky and unsure when she came next.

“I have your food here.” She set the tray down just inside the doorway. That was their custom.

“Please. I… I need help. I’m bleeding.” He showed her the long cut on his arm. “I didn’t mean to do it. I was just trying to make this bed more comfortable.” That wasn’t quite the truth though the bed was quite possibly the most uncomfortable thing in existence.

“I’ll get Bass down here.”

“No. Please. If you can just help me wrap it.” He held up a strip of cloth from his shirt. “I don’t want them to know. They’ll just use it against me. Please.”

There’s a moment of hesitation and he knew that he had her. She stepped over the threshold.

“Just stay there. Hands where I can see them.” She was cautious for sure, but Darius saw that it wasn’t about him but her nervous nature.

“Okay.” He made his voice a little more unsure and kept his hands out. About a foot away, she knelt down.

“Where’s the bandage?”

He handed it over and stretched out the wounded arm when she asked. Just before she could lay a hand on him, when her eyes were looking down, he shoved her over and made for the door.

Then, he was on the ground, the familiar high-pitched whine of the sonic weapon blaring through the hallway and room. He curled up, hands over his ears as they start bleeding again. He hadn’t even made it out of the room and he never tried again. They made sure of it.

#whumptober2021 #no.24 #self induced injuries to escape #fanfiction #salvation cbs #darius tanz

2 notes · View notes

workingonmoviemaps · 3 years

Photo

Popular Locations Wednesday

Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall

Roy Thomson Hall is a 2,630 seat concert hall constructed in 1982. It features a circular glass structure designed by the architect Arthur Erickson with Mathers and Haldenby.

The hall can be seen above in The Expanse, Salvation, The Boys, X-Men, and Love, Rosie.

#roy thomson hall #the expanse #salvation #the boys #x men #love rosie #popular locations #toronto #ontario #canada

2 notes · View notes

radioprinz · 8 months

Text

Darius would rather die a hero than slowly withering away from Huntington's.

Who can blame him?

#darius tanz #salvation #santiago cabrera #cbs salvation #salvation cbs #salvation season 2 #tanz tuesday #gracius #grace barrows #jennifer finnigan #grace x darius #salvation 2x12 #suicide mission #huntington's disease #huntington's #hero

17 notes · View notes

stahlop · 4 years

Text

Once Upon a Time 3x07 “Dark Hollow” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06 1x07 1x08 1x09 1x10 1x11 1x12 1x13 1x14 1x15 1x16 1x17 1x18 1x19 1x20 1x21 1x22 2x01 2x02 2x03 2x04 2x05 2x06 2x07 2x08 2x09 2x10 2x11 2x12 2x13 2x14 2x15 2x16 2x17 2x18 2x19 2x20 2x21 2x22 3x01 3x02 3x03 3x04 3x05 3x06

Well, we officially have a love triangle going on, although Emma seems to want no part of it. Ariel and Belle make quite the plucky duo. And who would have guessed that Peter Pan was keeping John and Michael Darling alive for his own nefarious plan? On the plus side, Rumple now has ammo to capture Pan, thus ensuring he can come home to Belle.

Summary: Neal tells the group how he used the coconut to get off of Neverland the first time, which leads himself, Hook, and Emma into Dark Hollow to capture a shadow. Ariel and Belle search for Pandora’s Box for Ariel to bring back to Neverland, but are held up by an unlikely pair.

Opening: Clock Tower

New Characters:

John and Michael Darling: We really don’t find out too much about them. Basically, Pan has kidnapped their sister, Wendy, presumably allowed them to grow up enough to be able to do things for him, and now they need to get and destroy Pandora’s Box in order to get Wendy back. They are obviously very loyal to Wendy, and blame themselves for her predicament. Fortunately, Belle convinces them (after setting a coal cart on them), that they are the winning side and they can beat Pan with Pandora’s Box.

Character Observations:

Henry: He is convinced that Pan is hiding his family from him. Henry wants to know where Pan goes when he disappears from camp if it’s not to see his family hidden somewhere. Henry tells Pan he’s going to find out what it is. Oh, Henry. The first rule of trying to find out if someone’s hiding something, is not to tell them that you think they’re hiding something. Pan sends Felix to get ‘supplies’ and so Henry follows him, in the least stealthy way possible. He’s practically breathing down Felix’s neck he’s so close. He even does the classic step on a twig and hide move so Felix doesn’t catch him. Henry eventually finds the tree house(?) that Pan has put Wendy into (Felix drops a bag of apples in front of the ladder). He wonders why she’s so far away from camp and she tells him that she’s sick and Pan doesn’t want anyone else to catch it. Wendy also tells him she’s sick because the magic of Neverland is fading. Then she tells him how much he looks like his father, and that she knew him when he was a boy. Wendy then tells him he needs to leave so he doesn’t get sick and he promises to come back for her. He ‘runs’ into Pan on the way back to camp and confronts him about Wendy. Pan pretends he hid Wendy from him because he didn’t want Henry to know that because magic is dying, so is a young girl. Henry buys this hook, line, and sinker, and now wants to know how he can help save magic. Pan tells him it’s not how but where and leads him to Skull Rock, where the heart of the truest believer will be their salvation. Pan feeds into Henry’s wannabe hero complex by telling him saving magic will require heroism and sacrifice, and if Henry doesn’t realize that by sacrifice that means him, then I don’t know if he’s worth saving.

Belle: She’s obviously upset about Rumple leaving and going to sacrifice himself, even if it is for his grandson. Archie, the Blue Fairy, and the dwarfs see that she is upset and discover that Rumple left her with a cloaking spell to protect the spell. It’s the first spell she’s ever cast so she’s nervous. Blue Fairy tells her she needs to believe in herself (do spells not work if you don’t believe in them?), and it looks like it won’t work for a hot second, but then it does, and a huge cloaking dome encapsulates Storybrooke. Five days and four rejected cheeseburgers later, Archie is trying to psychoanalyze Belle in Granny’s (with his first question being ‘You miss him, don’t you?’ Well, duh!) Belle is upset because Rumple has gone off to his death and she feels like she can’t do anything to help him. Archie reminds her that she helped put up the cloaking spell, but pouring a potion over rocks apparently isn’t that big of a deal in her eyes. Archie tells her that she’s protecting the town from outsiders, but she thinks that was just a distraction because he doesn’t really need her. Which is when Leroy brings Ariel over with the news that Rumple needs her. Ariel hands her the sand dollar Rumple gave her and Belle is confused about what she’s supposed to do with it. She finally figures out that it holds a message from Rumple that gives clues as to how to find Pandora’s Box. Belle’s just excited that Rumple wants her help. I have to roll my eyes over this whole thing. The Belle that we saw in the Enchanted Forest knew her worth. She used books and her smarts to find the Yaoguai and figure out that he was the enchanted Prince Phillip in The Outsider. Yet here she has self-doubt because the man she loves didn’t take him with her to find his grandson? And she only gets her mojo back because he needs her? Ugh! Belle finally figures out that placing the chipped tea cup in it’s normal place in the cupboard activates a secret panel on the floor which is where he keeps Pandora’s Box. Which is, of course, when John and Michael come in with their guns, tie up Belle and Ariel , and take the box. Belle tries to convince them that they don’t know who they’re working for, but they are quite aware that Pan is their boss and that Greg and Tamara were patsies for their plan, which confuses her even more. They leave with the box. Belle laments about how every time she tries to be a hero she fails (I’m sure Prince Phillip would disagree). Belle figures out that they can get out of the ropes if Ariel gets her fins back, and somehow this words (not sure how considering they were mainly tied up around their chests, but okay). Belle figures out the men went to the mines to destroy the box with one of the dwarfs' pick axes. Belle tries to play on their sympathies by telling them that people they care about will die if they destroy the box, but they tell her they have the same issue if they don’t destroy the box. At least Belle is smart enough to send a coal cart careening their way to stop them from destroying the box. Belle finally convinces them that Rumple will be able to stop Pan, thus freeing their sister, and that’s when we find out, officially, that they are John and Michael Darling. Belle says goodbye to Ariel at the shore and is happy that Rumple will be able to defeat Pan and come home to her.

Neal/Emma/Hook: Oh look, the love triangle no one asked for. Anyway, Neal informs them that he escaped with Pan’s Shadow, but Emma doesn’t think they’ll be able to get it because they can’t get near Pan. Hook informs her his shadow is an entity unto itself, so they don’t actually need to get anywhere near Pan. Neal is actually thankful that Hook is going with them to find the shadow, since he knows the island just as well as Neal. Emma asks Mary Margaret when she’s going to forgive David since she’s still giving him the cold shoulder. Emma understands where David is coming from, not wanting to jeopardize the mission with his problems. Mary Margaret tells her to be careful with Neal and Hook since they both have feelings for her. Emma doesn’t want to deal with that. All she cares about is Henry. The trio head back to Neal’s cave to find the coconut. Emma goes to find where it’s hidden and Hook has a really awkward conversation with Neal about his and Emma’s kiss, assuming that Emma had told him. Neal tries to play it off as Emma being too focused on getting their son back (and also throwing in his face the fact that they have a son together), but you can see the hurt in his eyes that Emma kissed Hook and didn’t tell him, especially after he told her he’d fight for them. Emma brings the coconut to them and Neal says it’s not a star map but a way to trap Pan’s Shadow. Neal tells them they have to go to Dark Hollow. Hook looks frightened, Emma wonders why it couldn’t have a happier name. Hook tells her that it’s basically where the Shadows live and all light is snuffed out. They get to a particularly dense piece of jungle and Emma takes out Neal’s cutlass that Hook gave her in The Heart of the Truest Believer, almost slicing Hook who is behind her. Neal thinks she found it in the cave, but she tells him Hook gave it to her. Hook says he thought Emma might want something to remember him by, but Neal reminds him that he’s there now and goes off to hack the jungle brush. Emma wants to know what that was all about and he tells her he accidentally told Neal about their kiss. Emma wants to know why he would assume she’d told him, and Hook thought that maybe it meant something to her. Poor Hook. He’s really looking for some validation that it wasn’t a one time thing. She tells him that it meant a lot that he told them Neal was alive. He tells her it was a test from Pan, to see if he’d choose an old friend over the woman they both wanted. She’s impressed because he’s a pirate. For the first time, Hook looks upset over being called a pirate, or that Emma only sees him as one. He tells her that when he wins her heart, and he will win her heart, it won’t involve any trickery. It will be because she wants him. And I’m just going to cry in the corner now, because that is the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Emma takes a minute to catch her breath over that confession, and tells him that it’s not a contest. Hook tells her she’ll have to choose and she says she only has to choose how to save her son. Hook tells her she’ll get him back because he’s never seen her fail, and Emma is just glowing from all the faith he has in her, because, let’s face it, no one, especially Neal, has ever had this much faith in her. Neal interrupts their little moment when he’s finally found Dark Hollow. Neal explains that they’ll light the candle in the coconut and the Shadows will be drawn to it. Once in the coconut, they put the lid on and they have a trapped Shadow. Neal tries to light the candle with a Zippo, but it’s too windy. Hook gets impatient and tries to steal the lighter, and then he and Neal start fighting over it like children. Yep, that’s definitely the way to impress Emma. Even Emma calls them out over it. They lose the lighter in the scuffle and then the Shadows come and take the men and try to rip out their shadows. Emma is hunched in a corner of some logs freaking the eff out. Eventually she remembers that she has magic, and after a few false starts, manages to light the candle and catch Pan’s Shadow. She is very impressed with herself. Neal wants to know how she managed to do it and is not happy that Regina is teaching Emma magic. Emma has now gone from impressed to stunned. I find it pretty ironic that Neal left the Enchanted Forest to get away from magic, and now the girl he’s fighting for has it. Emma is pissed off at both Neal and Hook for their behavior. Hook feels the need to tell her that it wasn’t the lighter they were fighting over and she just looks at him like he’s the biggest idiot in the world. She tells them the only person she is choosing is Henry (this always reminds me of the 90210 moment where Kelly chooses herself, rather than choose between Brandon or Dylan). At least both Hook and Neal look properly chagrined. When they get to Tink’s place, Neal comes in like the conquering hero, like he did all the work when all he did was almost get himself killed. Neal and Tink have a lot of chemistry going on there. Maybe he can forget Emma and get with Tink instead. Problem solved. Anyway, Hook angrily states that they did it, and wonders if Tink will now help them (you can tell he’s angry because he’s popping all the letters when he speaks). Tink finally agrees to work with them now that they have an exit plan. Neal apologizes again to Emma and agrees that they need to put Henry first.

Mary Margaret/David: Mary Margaret is not speaking to David and he’s not happy about it, but he knows he’s in the dog house, so he doesn’t push it. While the love triangle goes off to find Pan’s Shadow, Mary Margaret and David head to Tink’s tree house to let her know about the plan. David tried to get her to talk to him, but she’s not ready. He tries to defend his decision not to tell her, but she just keeps heading to Tink’s. David changes tactics by pointing out the nice places in the jungle that he could build a hut. Mary Margaret just gets annoyed by that. She just continues on. David actually calls her Snow to get her attention, and eventually tells her that she needs to say something, anything. That gets Mary Margaret going. She wants to know why she needs to say something when he didn’t say a word to her about his being poisoned. He wanted to find a cure and then he wouldn’t have to say anything and worry anyone. Mary Margaret points out that he was cured and he still didn’t say anything. David finally tells her he was scared. Mary Margaret thinks he was scared that she wouldn’t stay with him, but David was actually scared that she would. He didn’t want to force her to stay with him. Mary Margaret says love means staying together, but David says it also means sacrifice. Mary Margaret says she’ll happily stay and dodge poison arrows and Lost Boys with him, as long as they’re together. She tells him he didn’t believe in them, and he needs to believe. David apologizes. And this is a really sweet scene between these two. It’s no wonder they’re married in real life. They pull off being a married couple so well. It seems these two lovebirds have finally made up.

Regina/Rumple: Rumple has drawn some kind of map to get Ariel to Storybrooke. She says she would have to cross several realms, but she can do it. He enchants a sand dollar for her to give to Belle with instructions. Ariel asks Regina where she’ll find Eric, but Regina tells her she needs to bring the box first, and then she’ll tell her that information. She tells Ariel incentives are important. Ugh! She’s a grown mermaid, not a kid Henry’s age. That was very condescending. Ariel wonders how she’ll know Regina will uphold her end of the bargain, and Regina says she’ll just have to trust her. Considering what Regina did to her last time, I’m surprised Ariel took the deal. Regina and Rumple discuss whether Rumple truly believes Belle will come through for them. Regina realizes Rumple truly loves Belle. She seems shocked that he could love someone. Rumple takes her tone to mean she’s jealous. Regina scoffs at being jealous of Belle, but Rumple accuses her of being jealous that he has someone and she doesn’t. Luckily, Ariel arrives before Regina can either ruminate on her feelings or send a fireball at him. Rumple seems shocked that they actually managed to get the box to him. Regina magicks Ariel’s bracelet so she can have legs whenever she wants. Ariel tells them about Wendy and the Darlings and that Belle wants them to try and rescue Wendy. Regina doesn’t want to stray from the mission to save Henry, but Ariel reminds her that without her and Belle, they wouldn’t have the box to save Henry. Rumple says they’ll do their best and Regina isn’t happy about another side mission interfering with her trying to save her son. Rumple tells Ariel to tell Belle he loves her and will see her again. Regina looks like she isn’t too sure about that last part.

Pan/Wendy: Pan basically manipulates Henry into believing magic is dying and he’s the only one who can save it by making Wendy lie about being sick because of magic dying. Wendy doesn’t like lying to Henry (especially since he’s Bae’s son). Pan finally has Henry right where he wants him.

Questions:

Did Rumple give Belle a spell or a potion? Or was it instructions as to what to do with the potion? Because a spell usually involves some chanting or saying of instructions, and all Belle did was pour the potion into the vein of fairy dust.

Is Rumple drawing a portal map to Storybrooke? How would he know how the mermaid portals work?

Does Ariel normally live in Neverland waters? How does Pan know when she leaves? Is it because she was sitting on the rock?

Ok, seriously, how does Pan communicate with people not in Neverland?

When did Rumple ‘record’ the sand dollar message for Belle? Or is it just a magic message?

When did Rumple have time to set up the hiding of Pandora’s Box and the teacup to activate it? Did he think that Belle would be the only person to have access to it, or was it just a sweet reminder for himself?

Why is it so light in Dark Hollow? When the lanterns went out it didn’t change the lighting level at all.

Why is the Shadow attracted to light? In Second Star to the Right Bae used a match to scare the Shadow into dropping him in the water.

What are the holes for in the coconut? To let the shadow breathe?

How the hell does Belle walk in the mines in 6 inch stiletto heels? I get that they didn’t have a lot of time, but she couldn’t have found a pair of flats or some boots?

Why is Belle always so confused when villains have personal stakes in the game? She had no idea about Milah’s true death in The Outsider with Hook, and now she’s completely stunned that Pan is forcing the Darlings to help him because he has their sister.

How has Pan kept the Darling boys alive all this time? Were they in Neverland until the time was right for them to ‘grow up’?

Why did Pan take Wendy? What purpose does she serve him? He obviously doesn’t care for her like in the books and movies.

Does Wendy really think Henry looks like Bae, or did she just tell him that to help believe?

Observations:

It has been five days since Emma and crew went to Neverland.

I don’t know why, but Belle’s blue nailpolish bugs me. It doesn’t seem in character for her to have blue nailpoilsh.

There’s a teddy bear keychain hanging from the dash of the Darling’s car.

What luck that the Darlings just happened to be trying to get into Storybrooke at the exact time that Belle was casting the cloaking spell.

The Darling’s license plate is from Minnesota.

Ariel’s bracelet is only enchanted for 24 hours.

Pan senses when Ariel leaves Neverland.

There’s a No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service policy at Granny’s.

Emma and crew rescued Neal from the Echo Caves the day before according to David.

Pandora’s Box contains the World’s Greatest Evil.

Emma only yells Hook’s name when the Shadows take him and Neal.

I’m going to assume that it took longer to rip Hook and Neal’s shadows from their bodies because they’re from the Enchanted Forest, whereas when they just ripped Greg’s from his body in a few seconds, it was because he was from The Land Without Magic.

John uses Happy’s axe when he attempts to destroy Pandora’s Box.

Wendy looks pretty good considering she’s been in a box for over a century.

It looks like Pan finally has his plan moving into place, now that he has Henry believing, Emma is not playing into the love triangle at the moment, and both David and Mary Margaret will be staying in Neverland once this is all over. Rumple now has Pandora’s Box, so let’s hope he is able to use it and actually defeat Pan.

Please leave comments and reblog! Let me know if you’d like to be tagged in future reviews.

@searchingwardrobes @thisonesatellite @justbecauseyoubelievesomething @laschatzi @profdanglaisstuff @mariakov81 @lfh1226-linda

#once upon a time #once upon a time review #once upon a time rewatch #once upon a time 3x07 #once upon a time dark hollow

9 notes · View notes

austencello · 5 years

Text

Crisis on Infinite Earths, Parts 1,2,3 - Arrow Music Notes

While many events and cameos took place during the first bunch of episodes, this review will focus primarily on Oliver’s journey and sacrifice…with a little detour about Smallville and Superman Returns near the end. (After all, John Williams themes were used. How can I not talk about that?)

Oliver Queen and Sacrifice

The whole of Season 8 has been leading up to Oliver Queen’s death. In fact, the biggest surprise to fans (including myself) was that it happened in the first episode. While many people had expectations for Crisis and the end of Arrow, one of mine was that the music “Sacrifice” would be used for Oliver’s death which we all knew would be a noble sacrifice to save many. I was quite pleased to hear that theme being used in that way. However, I was also correct in mu guess that his Arrow theme would be used as he died. But before we jump into that, I want to go through why “Sacrifice” was used for crucial moment but also in two other moments in Crisis.

Sometimes the titles of themes are just as important as the events they hearken back to but in this case, they are connected. This theme has been the journey of loss and becoming a hero for Oliver. The loss that made him a hero and overcoming guilt and grief. It intertwines saying goodbye to Tommy, his mother, Laurel, Sara, William and Felicity as well as the call to keep fighting, to choose good, and show the best parts of himself.

“Sacrifice”/“Not Going to Make it” was first heard in 1x23 (in strings) as everything came to a head with the Undertaking. Quentin said goodbye to Laurel telling that he loved her, about to sacrifice himself to save the city in trying to stop the earthquake machine, Roy and Thea saved people in the bus, and Tommy saved Laurel only to die himself. Oliver’s mission was to save the city not expecting to live but he failed. Not only that but he lost his best friend who had hated him and his vigilante life. This was not the sacrifice Oliver expected to happen and it rocked him to the core, staying with him and influencing him to no longer kill, to do things a new way.

Part of the theme within “Sacrifice” is “Just Listen” (1x08) where he showed Sara’s grave to Helena, recognizing that he hadn’t been a good person and how that affected those around him, including Sara’s death. This bit is also used in “I who Failed” (1x09), “Salvation” (1x18, when he saves Roy: “Give him a second chance”), “Killing Count” (2x07 - rescuing Felicity but breaking his vow to kill after Tommy’s death), “Reveal to Roy” (2x12 - revealing his identity to Roy to break him out of the Mirakiru haze), “Taking a Hand” (4x13 - defeating Malcolm for good, bringing things full circle from his fight in 1x23), and in 6x13 when Oliver saved William and the city from a bomb attack by Cayden James. This part of the theme is a theme of both failures and second chances, saving those he loved and providing justice as well. It is the actions of a man becoming a hero, believing in others, providing protection and safety, getting up from failures and trying again.

The inner part of “Just Listen” and his guilt over Sara’s death spills over into the future, alternate earth Oliver. “Sacrifice” plays both in Legends 1x06 when Sara meets the angrier bitter version and in the first Crisis episode as she speaks to a shaken, older, emptier Oliver who feels a great deal of guilt for bringing her on the Gambit. She tells him that it was destiny and her decision but also that they both became the best versions of themselves. Her (and our) Oliver became a hero, a father, and a husband while she is loving adventures through time and space. She reminds him that he is a good man on every earth (we are going to ignore the Nazi version for now).

While Sara gives hope to these broken future Olivers, it was Felicity who helped our Oliver grow in his hero journey, giving hope when he had about given up: “Oliver Gives Up”/The Essence of Heroism.” The electronic background is different for this version of the “Sacrifice” theme and a little slower in the strings but it still reflects Oliver’s despair mixed with light and hope, redeeming the theme of loss. Oliver sees no way to beat Slade, having lost his mother, seeing the city over run with Mirakiru soldiers, seeing no way other than his own death to save those he loves by giving up and over to Slade. Felicity reminds him that he is not done fighting, he is not alone, and then tells him that she believes in him. Tommy had hated him for being a vigilante but Felicity tells him that he is a hero, giving him strength with her faith in him. This theme of faith in the darkness returns in “One hand tied” in 2x23, where once again Oliver feels stuck in a corner seeing only one way for things to end and Felicity suggests a different way of making Slade outthink him. It is through this suggestion and belief that they defeat Slade together.

The theme returns in 4x18 during Laurel’s death “Canary flies away,” a reversal from 1x23 when Quentin was saying goodbye and now instead, it is Laurel who died. It also harkened back to the loss of Tommy in flashbacks to his funeral in 4x19 (in the piano) as Laurel spoke about how both she and Oliver loved him, the theme connecting Tommy’s death with how he saved Laurel and also how much Tommy’s death affected Oliver to the point where he couldn’t even fully attend the funeral. (Which also happened with his mother.) The loss of Laurel affected the whole team, this time leaving Quentin and Diggle with guilt, and Oliver with grief over losing someone close to him. He had grown enough to know that it was not his fault however and helped to recognize her as a hero to the city during her funeral.

A bit of “Sacrifice” plays at the end of “Leaving the Hallucination” (5x08) when Oliver leaves the alien hallucination, hearing the words and voices of all those that he lost and loved spurring him on to be the hero that he is, including Felicity’s words from 2x22. He could have stayed in a world where his parents were alive but he chose reality because his journey as a hero was not over yet.

Oliver becomes confronted with another kind of sacrifice as he faces trial and jail in 6x21 and 6x23. In 6x21, he doesn’t want to admit to being the Green Arrow and face prison because he was hoping for a life with Felicity and William at some point “Never a Normal Life.” Felicity reminds him that they fight for each other (harkening back to 2x22…you are not alone) but he cannot handle the idea of putting a target on them. The idea of losing her and William is intolerable. While he was acquitted for that moment, this comes back in 6x23: “What a cost.” He gives himself up to protect his family and the team, sacrificing himself to protect them as he says goodbye to William with Felicity in the background. Not quite sacrificing his life the way he expected to in 1x23 or 2x22 but still offering his life to protect those he loved most. It is an Oliver who fights to live for his family, who has been giving second chances in love and family. This is a man who has grown in accepting life and fighting for the good parts instead of just fighting the bad. This is emphasized in 7x21 as a dream/hallucination version of Tommy gives a speech of hope. While Tommy never came back from the grave, he has heard Tommy forgive him through dreams and the like. Here the theme “Sacrifice” returns again as Tommy tells Oliver to show the best parts of himself: loyalty, courage, selflessness, compassion.

These are the essences of being a hero and the core of who Oliver is and has become. The journey of loss and guilt turned his despairing guilt of sacrifice into selflessness, having courage to choose and put others first, having loyalty towards his friends like Barry and Kara, having compassion to save all earths. He had been confronted with the fact that his death could help save numerous earths including his wife and children. He knew that a sacrifice was necessary to help them survive, even more pressing now that he has his adult Mia in front of him. That is why Oliver didn’t hesitate to fight the time/space demons to help as many people survive the earth 38 evacuation. He had no idea that that was not the way the Monitor had foreseen his death. He took his future into his own hands, stoping the Monitor long enough to help a billion people survive even to his own demise. Which is why “Sacrifice” plays as Oliver fights even without arrows and facing them without a bow. It is the heart of a hero, fighting to give everything he has to protect others, sacrificing himself so that others might live. (Side note: this wasn’t my favorite musical version of this theme. I do realize the drum kit and electric bass gave it a cool badass aspect, harkening back to the pilot sound, but it didn’t carry the emotional weight that I would have liked. I did like that the melody was played in the heroic sound of the horns as well as the strings though. That was quite fitting).

Oliver’s actual death with Mia and the other heroes around him was a mixture of new and old music. A little bit of “Sacrifice” returns as the Monitor tells them that Oliver saved 1 billion people. A theme based on an upward scale in the violas and cellos played throughout. changing after the scale each time, matching his goodbyes to Barry and Kara versus goodbye to Mia. This natural minor scale (a minor scale that doesn’t change notes from the key signature) fits with the core sound and harmonic nature of Arrow since its inception. There are melodies throughout Arrow based on a scale in strings like “Honor Memory” (1x02) or “I forgot who I was” (1x05) and many of the repeating aspects of the fighting Arrow music include 4 notes of a scale since the pilot “Five Years”. So while using almost all of the scale is unusual, it still fits with the musical landscape especially as it is accompanied by horns (heroism) and toms (percussion) giving it a weight and gravitas. As he closes his eyes, the horn holds on to a major chord for a little bit giving Oliver a little peace in saying goodbye. What brings more pathos is changing the scale to a melodic minor scale after he dies. It’s almost jarring because it doesn’t fit with what we are used to, signifying that things aren’t right. The Arrow theme plays over it as the Monitor tells them it wasn’t supposed to be like that. It highlights the tragedy of losing our beloved hero too soon, both for the team but also for us as an audience. A bell also tolls at the beginning of that scale after Oliver’s death. The horn plays Oliver’s hero theme as it pans away looking at Oliver.

As tragic as this was, it turned out not to be the end of Oliver’s journey. Mia, Sara, Barry, Constantine, and Diggle all work on bringing back Oliver (more on that in a bit). After they find Oliver’s soul in purgatory and bring him back to himself, they meet the Spectre (Jim Corrigan) who tells Oliver that it is his destiny to become Spectre to save everyone. As this happens, the version of “Sacrifice”/“Never a Normal Life” plays as Oliver tells Diggle and Mia that it is ok. He chooses to sacrifice coming back with his closest friend/brother and his daughter to once again save them all. Mia begins to say “I love you” but is cut off as they disappear back to the ship, telling Sara that he chose to stay behind. Each time, it is a choice that Oliver has to make and he does so willingly because Oliver loves deeply and will do what is right to save others no matter the cost.

Oliver, Sara, and Mia

Near the beginning of Crisis, Sara and Oliver have a brief moment together on Earth 38 where Sara comments on parent Oliver and while it is a little weird, it looks good on him. The theme “The Real Me” (2x01) plays in the horn which first played when Oliver started to fit into his cooperate job, bringing in Walter against Isabel, having family to help him. She comments that he isn’t what he seemed to be and he answers that most people fail to see the real him. Many people had an idea of what Oliver seemed to be but Sara is one of the few who has known Oliver the longest in all his forms: playboy, vigilante, now a parent. Sara and Oliver genuinely care about each other and have been through the good, the bad, and the ugly. She is happy to see this new side of her friend.

Oliver also has a brief moment with Mia, giving her own Green Arrow suit as a variation of Oliver’s hero horn theme (no 2 - the descending one) plays. Drum-kit and strings play, giving a sound of new beginnings (drum-kit was used in the pilot as we see Oliver in the suit for the first time) and then Mia’s Blackstar theme plays in electric guitar as she is left looking at the suit when Oliver leaves.

Mia and Barry take Oliver’s death the hardest, determined to find a way to bring him back. They enlist the help of Sara and Constantine to find a Lazarus Pit, who both have their reservations considering they have been down this road before with Sara. Once they find a Lazarus Pit and put Oliver into it, the music hearkens back to Nanda Parbat when Sara and Thea had been put into the Lazarus pit. The female vocal and choir sings as crazy Oliver leaps out with a repeated electric bass note to add to the tension and adrenaline.

Cameos - primarily Superman

One of the fun parts about the Crossovers is all the musical themes that return and get woven together, like Supergirl and Batwoman’s themes interweaving as they face off each other in the 3rd episode. Not only were a lot of characters brought in for small or longer cameos but most of their musical themes were as well (which is quite impressive from a copyright side). While I needed help identifying the Batman characters, thanks to @jorahtheandal, I did recognize their themes from the various shows and movies. However, the ones that made me excited were the Smallville cameos and Superman Returns. My first introduction into the world of DC were through those two and “Lois and Clark.” I loved hearing the sounds of Smalliville again especially in the clarinet. There weren’t a lot of winds in this Crisis (the orchestra was made up of strings and brass) but that made moments like this even more special. Smallville had two composers and the second, Louis Febre, used a lot of solo winds, especially clarinet for the Clois theme and the feeling of home during seasons 7-10. It felt like truly returning home to the Kent farm and you could feel the warmth of the love Clark and Lois had for each other and the farm. (“The Proposal” is a good example of the solo winds used on the Smallville soundtrack)

Even more impressive was the fact that Blake Neely and team got permission to use John Williams’ themes for Superman. While the main Superman theme was used throughout Superman Returns, the love theme was not used much. (Superman Returns was written by John Ottman since John Williams was busy with Star Wars). However, in the second episode of Crisis, both the love theme for Lois and Superman and Superman’s main brass theme by John Williams appeared, definitely cementing that Brandon Routh’s Superman was a continuation of Christopher Reeve’s Superman. It was a lot of fun to hear those themes as he interacted with Earth 38’s Superman and Lois, especially when Clark switches into the Superman suit and his iconic brass theme is heard.

Other notable themes heard included Danny Elfman’s Batman theme at the beginning as well as his Flash theme for the ‘90s Flash TV show when Barry from earth 90 died. Black Lightning made an appearance in the 3rd episode along with his theme which was cool. The Crisis had its own theme of doom in the brass as well as the heroes banding together to fight against the Crisis (heard in trumpets) throughout the episodes. While Crisis on Earth-X is still my favorite both story-wise and musically, this definitely had some cool moments.

@dust2dust34 @academyofshipping @smoakmonster @ah-maa-zing @herskirtsarentthatshort @dmichellewrites @almondblossomme @withgraceandlight99 @jorahandal

#crisis on infinite earths #oliver queen #sacrifice #smallville #superman returns #sara lance #blake neely #olicity #felicity smoak #mia smoak #tommy merlyn #clark kent

31 notes · View notes