#the show hasn't really done supernatural as reality yet

[vaiyamagic]

Going through the Our Flag Means Death tag is a trip.

A good third of the posts are a detailed analysis of why Izzy's death was narratively good and meaningful and not 'bury your gays,' while another third are about how Izzy's death was pointless and cruel and a betrayal and absolutely 'bury your gays/disabled people.'

[chocobosdungeon2]

I wanna talk about the approach to the supernatural in Reservation Dogs.

I'd like to add as a disclaimer that I'm not yet familiar with most of Taika Waititi's other work. I know he has written about the supernatural before, but I haven't seen it firsthand so I don't know if what I'm about to say is unique to Rez Dogs or if its common throughout his work.

The show presents the supernatural and poses the question of whether or not it's "real" in the very first episode of the series with Big and his field of catfish (among other conspiracies). Big is often used as the POV character for these phenomena because he's presented as someone who readily accepts conspiracies, supernatural theories, and is known in his community as a Bigfoot-hunting wackjob. By doing this, the show makes the audience question if the things Big sees are real. At the same time, very "real" supernatural events happen to other characters, such as the Spirit who speaks to Bear. Some truth is shown to Big's beliefs in S1E5 Come and Get Your Love, where the Deer Lady is definitely shown to be real. This is all the Season 1 setup for the glorious romp that is S2E8 This is Where the Plot Thickens (which we'll come back to), where the line between reality and supernaturality is completely blurred, but there's a larger theme at play here I think. I would say Reservation Dogs likes to present reality-based solutions to supernatural problems, but without ever discounting those problems as "fake" or "just in your head." I feel like this is in contrast to a lot of media, which tends to do the Scooby Doo "There was a logical explanation the entire time!!!" thing. Not here.

The supernatural IS real

BUT it is always conquered by the mundane.

First, I want to pivot to Elora. There's a small scene in Stay Gold Cheesy Boy (S2E7) that illustrates what I mean really well. At the end of the previous episode (S2E6), Elora is shown sitting alone in her house. A house she is now the sole owner of. She begins to hear chanting coming from Mabel's bedroom, reminiscent of the elders who chanted as she was dying. Elora nervously investigates. The chanting gets louder as she approaches the bedroom, but it ends suddenly when she turns the light on. Elora turns the light off and walks back into the hallway, looking around her darkened house as if in a panic. There's muffled chanting and a growing soundwall that makes you feel claustrophobic, like something is coming towards you/her. The camera zooms in on her distraught face in the dark and then cuts to credits.

I don't know about the rest of ya'll, but that scared the shit out of me!!! I was like "oh fuck, what might happen to Elora???" This is Reservation Dogs! Shit can get DARK. She hasn't been in a great place mentally.

We don't see Elora at all for the beginning of Stay Gold Cheesy Boy. When Jackie goes to tell Bear and Willie Jack that Cheese was arrested, she says that Elora isn't answering her phone, spiking anxiety in the audience. You're made to wonder if she's okay.

But soon after the three of them find Elora at her house, plugged into headphones, painting the walls of her grandmother's bedroom, and there's relief. But that was quite the buildup to what turned out to be a paint job, right?

Elora is haunted by her grief, and as we saw in Mabel (S2E4), by the memories the house holds that she doesn't, by its history. Elora wanted to leave the Village, but now she's chained to it by this house she suddenly owns. I don't think the chanting and strange noises were just in Elora's head. She was being haunted. But she also didn't get attacked in the night by ghosts and the solution wasn't to hire an exorcist. When we're haunted by the past, the best thing we can do is look to the future. Elora was being haunted by the house's past so she took a step towards the house's (and her own) future. It's a very... reasonable reaction for a person to have. You can sense the urgency Elora felt to get this done after that harrowing night. What would you do if you felt like you couldn't handle living in a house with its history and memories? If you can't move, giving it a new coat of paint might be the next best thing.

Back to S2E8, this episode is a great example because it plays so much with the audience's sense of reality. A character with one of the strongest connections to the supernatural we've seen, Big, accidentally starts tripping on a huge dose of acid. He's soon followed by Kenny Boy. Complete side note, the juxtaposition of nervous and terrified Big's first time on acid, and chill Kenny Boy (hecking love Kirk Fox btw), who has probably done this a billion times, just vibing is hilarious. A lot of what Big sees can be assumed to be hallucinations, although in this show you can never be too sure. Deer Lady appears but is it really her or is it just his memory of her? Until they come upon the cultists. The Field of Catfish was a mystery presented at the start and built up a little every time Big would see or talk about it with no possible explanation. It turns out, the answer was weird cultists who fuck dead catfish. As wild as that is, it's still an answer grounded in reality so it brings your expectations back down a little bit. Then a bona-fide Supernatural Phenomenon shows up to save them. Not only is the Deer Lady confirmed to be SEEN by someone other than Big, but Kenny Boy KNOWS her, they've met before! So, there can no longer be any doubt in the audience's mind.

As a refresher, the Deer Lady is a supernatural woman with deer legs (as the name implies) who kills "bad" men (and men specifically). Figuring out what "bad" and "good" means is kind of what Big's arc is all about. She asks if Kenny Boy has been good and he replies, smiling, "No... but I've been trying real hard." Kenny Boy isn't someone Big would consider "good" in his very simplistic, child-like idea of it. Her affection toward Kenny Boy shows that being good isnt just saying No to drugs and following the law. Her targets are consistently womanizing rich men who have no regard for others or their environment. She does extend to outright criminals like murderers and robbers if the opportunity presents itself, but usually to protect or save someone. I don't think she likes to work in the open if she can avoid it. The Deer Lady is a supernatural phenomenon that punishes Bad Men. You can avoid getting killed by her by being a Good Man. By not flaunting excessive wealth, by not harming others, and by caring about people around you. The fundamentals of being a decent human being.

There's other examples of this throughout the show of course, but these are a couple that stood out to me. A kind of overlapping theme that I'd love to delve into is the reverence given to Weirdos who Just Say Shit. Junkies, homeless, random dudes in waiting rooms, etc. All spewing their strange ramblings to whoever will hear, but the show frames them as wise and worth listening to. I think I need to end this post before I get too off-topic, but I think it plays into this theme as well.

I've intentionally avoided speaking on the scenes of prayer, where there's a very obvious crossing between these boundaries. I think there's a lot to say about those scenes as well, but I am not Indigenous and I feel like I'd be trying to speak on cultural and spiritual practices I know nothing about. I already feel dangerously close to doing that. I really don't want to make assumptions about anyone's beliefs, so I've tried to stick to examining the screenwriting and how it conveys these themes. If anyone else is willing to add their input, I'd be thrilled to read it.

[ibrithir-was-here]

So I've sat down and thought out a really basic Actual Sort of Plot for my Crack Treated Seriously thing for my OC Thanastasia and the Corinthian xD

For wibbly wobbly Crack Plot reasons, Ana gets pulled into the Sandman universe in the 80s, and after she's done freaking out about it, she starts doing what she does best-- hunting monsters, both supernatural and mundane.

And the 'Collectors' soon have a killer terrorizing them.

The serial killers start to call her things "'The Angel of Death', due to how she can appear from seemingly nowhere, has superhuman strength and speed, and never fails to kill her target.

There's only a few eyewitness reports of her, from the victims she's saved, who give fuzzy reports about shining white hair and red eyes.

Ana both in her own reality and in Sandman survives by drinking the blood of the killers she takes out, making sure to slash their throats to cover up the blood loss/bite marks.

But the Corinthian gains an interest in this new and clearly supernatural player, and starts trying to seek her out.

He's originally only interested seeing just what she is and then in clearing her out of the way

But after finding her and getting the fight of his life out of it, ending in a draw, he's genuinely impressed, and more determined than ever to figure out just who Ana is, ao he invites her home for a beer.

(Ana can eat/drink human food a little but its like junk food, it does nothing to keep her actually full or healthy)

And so begins their own weird sort of Morpheus and Hob meet up, only instead of 100 years its The Corinthian seeking her out every six months or so to see if one of them has gotten good enough to kill the other yet.

And they fight tooth and nail before getting a drink and talking a little bit more about themselves in the vaguest terms as neither is about to admit they're from basically a parallel dimension/universe, even if they can both tell the other is paranormal

Ana is incredibly weirded out by this whole thing at first. She's somehow gained a charming and murderous stalker who's an even match for her so she can't kill him

And she can't report him or the police are gonna get onto her tail for all the killing she's done/having no real IDs/living out of a car she stole

But despite herself she finds that she kinda looks forward to the fights/drinks?

All her other friends are back home and with all the traveling around she has to do to keep ahead of the police and all the criminals/monsters trying to kill her she hasn't had time to really make new ones

So The Corinthian becomes this one weird stable thing she has where she can be her full self and (mostly) not worry about it.

(And he is almost supernaturally charming)

Things hit a turning point when some of the other Collectors /or maybe some vampire hunters or both together teamed up manage to track down Ana and try to kill her

But luckily for her the Corinthian has been keeping an eye on her and shows up to help in the fight, as now in his mind he's the only one with a right to kill her---and he really doesn't want her dead yet

They manage to take out all the attackers and The Corinthian takes Ana back to his safe house/apt to patch her up cuz she did take a beating

And she's having a bit of a panic from the adrenaline and trauma of almost dying since her attackers where actually prepared to fight a vampire

So Cori starts telling her random stuff about his past in the Dreaming to help focus her mind back on the present. And she ends up finally telling him her name and some more about herself and her past and they start seeing some real parallels in each other

Cori sees a lot of his younger self in Ana, her dedication to what she feels is her calling, and the loyalty she feels to the person who inspired her, along with a lust for life mixed with anger at how she can never truly escape being a vampire even as she tries to turn her hunger to fit her views.

And Ana sees in him something of what she might have become under different circumstances, harsher, angerier, bloodier. But with those same confused mix of passion and trauma and desire to twist what you can't escape to your own will, rule it instead of letting it rule you

Ana ends up spending the night on the couch, and when Cori finds out she's been living in a car he gives her a standing invitation to drop by his place whenever she needs a safer place to crash

And this starts the phase where they stop trying to kill each other and start gravitating towards each other, both becoming enamored against their better judgment of the opportunity to have someone actually know them--and have that mean something safe and maybe even soft, instead of something to be worried about.

This is when Cori starts offering to let Ana drink his blood when she needs it as he's not human and won't die or turn if she does

(These are older pictures with their modern day designs but it still works)

And she knows this won't help the attachment issues she's trying to fight but honestly she's so tired of running and killing and he's offering…

And they're dancing around the growing fondness they have for eachother, something more than friends but less then lovers and honestly they're both happy with it like that

But they kinda just keep getting wound up tighter and closer while both knowing that eventually something will have to give. One of them will have to finally cross over to the other side if they want to stay together or they'll have to go back to trying to kill each other eventually with one of them succeeding.

And …i haven't figured out the exact ending but they're definitely 'broken up' by the time of the show--but that ring on The Corinthians wedding finger is Ana's

They've only ever literally slept together, no sex, a few kisses maybe. I can't see either of them wanting the other that way but they're something special to each other, and maybe they only got married for tax or hijinks purposes and they're for all intents and purposes divorced now-- but he keeps it still...

[dearjamesxo]

[drabble under cut]

They’re on their way to wish Bea luck when it happens.

Billy, Spike and Jessie trudge against the midafternoon crowd, Spike boasting a story from his childhood – no doubt exaggerated to the moon to impress Jessie. Billy listens with half an ear, hands stuffed in his pockets and eyes on the ground. He doesn’t react when someone bumps into him.

“He’s in a mood,” Jessie teases to Spike when Spike tries, for the fourth time, to include Billy in the conversation.

Spike snorts, “I can see that. Which is why I’m trying to cheer ‘im up.” He sidles into Billy’s space, claps a friendly hand on Billy’s shoulder and asks, “Come on, mate, who shoved that monumental stick up your arse?”

Billy’s jaw twitches. He tucks his chin into his chest and hunches further into himself, hoping to relay how much he doesn’t want to talk about it.

“Is it the whole we’re not good enough tripe?” Spike questions, rolling a hand in the air to encompass the tripe he’s referring to. “Because the way I look at it, we got lucky. Who wants to go to a stuffy old ball anyway?” Spike’s tone suggests he does, but Billy refrains from pointing it out, “Let Bea and the good doctor go and deal with all that crap, while we—” He leans back and grins across the breadth of Billy’s shoulders, winks at Jessie, “—get to enjoy ourselves!”

Billy doesn’t respond, simply shrugs and keeps his pace, his shoulder colliding with another man’s. Again, Billy doesn’t even seem to register that the man told him to, watch where yer goin’!

Yes, Billy’s in a mood, definitely, but it doesn’t have anything to do with Bea or Watson or the ball Spike mentioned. In fact, it was Billy’s idea to go find Bea before Watson collects her at Mrs. Smith’s shoppe.

As usual, Watson’s swanning Bea off to perform for another investigation, some undercover business that apparently, “Only Beatrice has the maturity and patience to pull off,” thanks for the confidence, “the rest of you will merely serve to attract unwanted attention.” As if Bea done up like a gateau de savoie won't attract attention. Although Bea has learned to carry herself less woodenly than she did, she isn't exactly graceful when laced into a gown. Jessie's the better candidate, equipped with supernatural powers to boot, but Watson's mind was made up. Besides, Billy's noticed that he and Bea have some sort of connection; they seem to get each other in a way that leaves everyone else behind.

Howbeit, Watson’s condescending remark isn’t what gets Billy’s dander up either. That honor goes to His Royal Highness, Prince I-Have-To-Escort-Helena. Not that Billy wants to go through the trouble of pampering and primping for a ball he’s sure he’ll hate every minute of. But Leo could’ve at least had the courtesy to pretend he was regretful, since he already has so much experience pretending to be something he isn’t.

Billy scowls at his shoes, kicks a pebble harder than he means to. He ducks his head and picks up his pace when he hears a strangled yelp and sees, from the corner of his eye, a man clasp his ankle and hop on one foot.

Oops.

It’s then that the short hairs at the back of his neck rise, his scalp tingles, the sensation of being watched shivering up Billy's spine. He lifts his chin and, immediately, his gaze is drawn to the end of the street.

“Isn’t that—?” Jessie starts, tugging Billy’s wrist to get his attention. Then, much quieter, under her breath, “Oh,” as if she's figured something out.

Billy yanks his wrist out of her light grasp and squares his shoulders, ignorant of the utterly baffled Spike sends Jessie behind his back. “Wait here,” he gruffs and stalks toward the end of the street. Or more precisely, toward who lingers there.

“We’ll meet you!” Spike calls after him and wraps an arm around Jessie. She tries to resist, head craning, but Spike guides her down the cross street in the direction of Mrs. Smith’s shoppe.

Like a wolf preparing to lunge, Billy stalks toward Leo, expression hard and fists clenched. Leo returns the sentiment with a rigid, neutral set to his features, stare unwavering. Billy inwardly chastises himself for the heat of desire that rushes through him upon seeing Leo. No matter how pissed he is with the prince, Billy can never deny how attractive Leo is like this, all lofty courage and attitude, golden against the smutty backdrop of the Marylebone rookery. God, Billy wants to strip Leo of his finery, fuck him until he remembers who he really belongs to. And it isn't, Billy thinks in a possessive growl, Helena.

Theirs will never be a public romance, a reality Billy understood from the start, only it didn't feel so impossibly cruel until the moment Leo casually mentioned he would be attending the very ball Bea and Watson would with Helena on his arm. As if he wasn't lounging between Billy's legs, his back to Billy's chest, his fingers laced with Billy's. It never ceases to amaze Billy how terrible Leo is at reading a room because Jessie's discomfited expression alone should've been a clue that something wasn't right. Even so, Billy kept his mouth shut because he's supposed to be fine with it, isn't he?

Easier said than done, Billy knows now.

As much as they - Billy and Leo and Leo and Helena - have an agreement, it still cuts deep when Billy has to step aside so Leo can appease his mother by flaunting the person society deems Leo's best match.

“What’re you doing here?” Billy demands to know the instant he’s within earshot.

Leo flinches slightly, then musters the confidence to say, “I’d like to have a word.”

“With your side piece?” Billy mocks disbelief, “I’ll bet.”

“Billy, please, if you would just listen—”

Billy’s in front of Leo now, standing at the closeness he’s grown accustomed to since he and Leo became he and Leo. He didn’t mean to narrow the distance so quickly, wants to hold on to the anger because it’s easier, except that to put himself anywhere else in Leo’s orbit feels intrinsically wrong.

“Better make it quick, your highness,” Billy sneers, “I’m sure your lady doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

“For goodness’ sake,” Leo erupts through gritted teeth, though his tone maintains a respectable volume as propriety demands, “I’m not going.”

This stops Billy's mounting rage in its tracks, all at once replaced with a confusion that shows itself on Billy's face. A simple “What?” tumbles out of his mouth as he frowns at Leo as if Leo told him the sky is actually green.

“I’m not going.” Leo repeats.

Billy grabs Leo by the upper arm and drags him out of the middle of the crowded street, into a narrow lane that separates the butcher’s and an Indian-owned tearoom. Leo doesn’t resist, allows Billy to manhandle him, and stops moving altogether when Billy pushes him against the brick wall just inside the lane. Suddenly, Billy’s flooded with concern.

“What happened?” Because it has to be something awful if Leo can shirk his responsibility for the evening. “Is Helena alright?”

Leo’s brows furrow, eyes flickering between Billy’s, down to hover on Billy’s mouth before they slip to the ground where they remain. He huffs a humorless laugh, “Helena’s fine, you massive boor.” and slumps against the wall Billy has him pinned to by the shoulders, defeat obvious in his posture.

“Then what—?”

“It’s you!”

Well, that can't be right. Leo's never missed an engagement his mother's insisted upon for Billy in the weeks they've been, well, them. Billy has to make sure, “Me?”

Gesturing helplessly with one hand, Leo explains, “How can I go and act as though I care about anything my mother’s contemporaries have to say when all I can think about is you, here, upset with me?” A tiny smile curls Billy’s mouth, “I love you, you idiot.” Leo says as though he's said it a thousand times - he hasn't, this is the first and Leo doesn't appear to notice he's shared such an important declaration in the middle of a rant. Billy wants to say it back all the more for it. “Helena made a fuss when I told her, practically pushed me out the window so I would come find you.”

Floating on a wave of giddiness, assuaged by Leo's words, Billy remembers how much he likes Helena. Helena who has her Henrik in Münster and swore not to intrude on Leo's relationship with Billy as long as Leo issues her the same respect.

Billy leans in and places his forehead against Leo’s, hands sliding from Leo’s shoulders to cradle Leo’s jaw, resting the pads of his thumbs gently at the corners of Leo’s mouth. A small chuckle escapes him, unable to contain it, and Billy shuffles forward to press their bodies flush from waist to hips to knees, fondly brushes the tips of their noses, then tilts his head and captures Leo’s lips in a sweet yet hot-hungry kiss.

When he pulls back, he wonders, “Or maybe it’s Helena I should be thanking?” He hooks a thumb over his shoulder, smiling playfully, “Should I be kissing her instead?”

Eyes in grumpy, feline slits, Leo protests, “Don’t you dare.”

“Mm, you’re right, she’s really not my type.”

Abruptly, Billy untangles himself from Leo, bends enough to grab Leo by the back of the thighs and lifts. Leo cries out shrilly, startled, the action forcing his legs to wrap around Billy’s waist and his arms to lock around Billy’s neck. Cackling, Billy pins Leo with his body, his fingers kneading the sensitive flesh just below Leo’s arse, eliciting a moan that he swallows greedily.

“Is this really the appropriate time?” Leo pants, throwing his head back when Billy grinds their hips together, making them both groan.

“Not even a little bit.”

As Billy leans in for another kiss, Leo interrupts by putting two fingers to Billy's lips. “Perhaps,” He says, voice pitched suggestively, “We should take this elsewhere,” Here, Leo kitten licks Billy’s parted lips, darts his tongue into Billy's mouth quickly, moves on to dot Billy’s jaw with a trail of dry kisses. He reaches Billy's ear and continues in a whisper, “Somewhere you can spread me open,” A nip to Billy’s earlobe, “And show me what happens when I upset you?”

Billy's cock twitches in interest. He takes in Leo’s pink cheeks and glassy, blown eyes, decides, “Sounds like a marvelous idea.”

In a swift sequence of motions, Billy drops Leo to his feet, carefully repositions him, crouches, and then hoists Leo over his shoulder. Spike was right, Billy grins, patting the swell of one of Leo's arse cheeks in victory, who wants to go to a stuffy old ball, anyway?

[the-trashy-phoenix]

Supernatural season 2 review (part 2)

Link to part 1:

Irene and I have finished watching Supernatural season 2 (we're already on season 3), so here it comes my review on it. I like this season more than the first one: we already know this supernatural world and have learnt to love the brothers, and since the big bad guy isn't dead yet we want to see what happens next. The plot evolves from the first season, we understand many things we didn't before and it is all suddenly way more interesting (meanwhile I feel like the most interesting thing in the first season were the single episodes). Sam's psychics abilities have a purpose and we learn there's sort of a pattern involving other people, the same age as Sam, who have all the same destiny: to become warriors for an upcoming war. In this season we have the chance to see more of Azazel (the yellow-eyed demon), what he's capable of and what he has done to Sam (and the consequences of it, including how Dean has to deal with all of this, meanwhile being in a terrible position). At the end of the season, even if he's been defeated by John himself, we know Sam is not back to normal (and we also know the truth about Azazel is not totally revealed, since we now know Mary had already met the demon before the night she died).

Season 1 ends with the car accident, so the first thing we see in the first episode of the second season is the brothers and John in the hospital. Dean is almost dead and has no chance of surviving, but John makes a deal with Azazel and dies instead of Dean (sacrificing the colt too). I understand why John would do that (one of the not-many-things I understand about his behaviour), but I also think this is one of the many things he has done that leads to Dean suffering and blaming it all over himself. No wonder why this boy behaves the way he behaves: he has all of this emotional pain he carries with him since he was basically four years old. Of course Dean doesn't talk about his father's death and acts like it's not affecting him, although it does, a lot. Sam's reaction is different, but I think it was very appropriate: the thing is most upset about is the fact that he and his father had never actually gotten along very well and that they had a fight right before John's death. I also think that both brothers haven't had quite the opportunity to grief from their father's death (just be sad for his absence and think about their true feelings for him), because they were to focus on bigger events involving John's last moments with them. Another thing that keeps them occupied is the main problem in this season, Azazel and all that he causes.

There's a thing I forgot about and that, as I rewatched the season, surprised me: Dean already wants to quit hunting. The fact that he is even more fed up than Sam shows us that in reality, as much as he wanted to be like his father and behave like John told him to, he doesn't want to live the life he is supposed to live (and we can also see it in episode 02x20, in which Dean sees what his life could have been without the death of his mother and demonstrates lots of courage by choosing to return to his normal life anyway). Knowing both what Dean wants and all that things that happen later in the other seasons, this makes me very sad.

Since we're speaking of Dean, I was left a bit shocked by his lack of hesitance on killing the people with the Croatoan virus (02x09). I get that he wanted to stop the virus, but they remained people, and of course when Sam gets the virus he doesn't kill him, which is more than understandable, but it also means that he could've at least waited a bit more before killing the others.

Since I've seen all of the other seasons rewatching 02x13 has been pretty funny, especially because of Dean. He keeps telling he doesn't believe in the angels’ crap and, well, we all know he's gonna change his mind. I also like that Sam is still faithful after all he's been through and especially since he's in this position of supernatural-slightly-demonic powers.

Speaking of which, John leaves a message to Dean before dying: if he can't save Sam from his powers he has to kill him instead of letting him become evil. This leads Dean to have two big thoughts hunting him, his supposed duty to kill his brother and his guilt for his father's death. I always feel like all the responsibilities grow on him and I would love it if he could have a way to release these feelings in some ways, but of course he never does it properly. It turns out Sam agrees with his father and tells Dean to kill him, but Dean has no intention of doing it (reasonably). In this season we can see how much Sam is scared of his psychic abilities, almost as if he's scared of turning in a monster (and we can see it clearly in what I think is the saddest episode of the season, 02x17, in which Sam has to kill the girl who turned out to be a werewolf).

I like how the writers have developed the jail theme, having episodes 02x07, 02x12, 02x19, in which the brothers have to face justice for what they've apparently done. The thing I like the most about these episodes is the fact that we know the Winchester have been in trouble with the law for good reasons, it is frustrating (but in a good way) to see the other people mistaking them for the bad guys (till a point they're even called monsters) and we can't even be mad at the cops, because they don't know the truth.

In this season there are introduced some new characters. First of all, I have to mention the trickster, not just because he provides the most senseless episode of the season (02x15, which I love), but also because I know his time on Supernatural is not over yet, fortunately. We also meet Ellen and Jo Harvelle, a mother and her daughter who own and manage the Roadhouse, a bar attended mostly by hunters, in which we find another character, Ash. I like all three of them for different reasons. Ash, the one with less screen time, is not as important as the other two, but he gives some funny moments and he's a smart guy (and I like the scene where Dean compliments his hairstyle). Ellen is a sweet and strong woman hurt by the death of her husband and a caring mother who doesn't want her daughter to have the same faith as her father. Jo, my favourite, is a passionate young girl who wants to follow her father's footprints and become a hunter. I honestly like her character a lot and the dynamic she has with dean in season two (end especially how they don't make out the second Dean enter the bar), they care about each other (Jo probably more than Dean does for now) and I love the fact that he has a girl in his life he doesn't just want to fuck (or viceversa), but who he can also kinda rely on. The only thing I don’t really get is the way she treats him after she finds out her father was with John when he died during a hunt (and that John was probably a part of what caused his death). I understand that she probably thinks (like her mother) that Dean would do the same thing with her, but it’s not like he has already done it, and he actually doesn’t know anything about what happened to her father.

There is also another character who's introduced in the first seasons but who has much more screen time in this one: Bobby Singer. He's one of my favourite characters on Supernatural ever and, I mean, who doesn't think it the same way? He's a loving, but also grumpy, old man who can perfectly sostituite John in his father role, indeed he's much better than him. He doesn't treat Sam and Dean as soldiers, but as his children first, and he cares about what troubles them and what inner thoughts they're facing. And that leads us at the end of the season, when Dean has already made the deal with a demon to bring his brother back to life (a thing Dean has condemned before, especially because his father did the same for him, which demonstrated a bit of hypocrisy, even if it's comprehensible). Bobby is mad at him and for good reasons: he understands Dean wanting Sam back and doesn't blame him for it, but what worries Bobby the most is the little (almost non-existent) care Dean reserves for himself. His self esteem (which is talked about more in the third season) seems so low he doesn't even care if he ends up in hell (and that he will in about a year). All he's been good at is being a good soldier and keeping his brother safe, protecting him, so when he faces the fact he hasn't saved Sam he can't live without bringing him back to life, even if that means sacrificing himself in the most terrible way. Sam now has to live with the weight of his brother's death and trip to hell (beside worrying about the upcoming war with the demons who escaped hell), but these are the main themes of season 3.

- Carly 💚