SPN season 12 A collection of thoughts

SPN season 12

A collection of thoughts

As I had mentioned prior in my post of season 12 (X), I assume because of unfamiliar behavior of the Winchester brothers, their mom Mary and the turning upside down of SPN canon, that something peculiar is going on. The obvious lack of a plot this season is quite telling and than the confusing smorgasbord of stories that in the end didn't quite fit with the final, saying the usual plot build up wasn't clearly evident, makes one wonder if this season isn't actually closed as one could assume. And season 13, which was announced relatively early, is actually the highlight and revealing season, and the season that definitely shows that the show runners Singer / Dabb have created something new and got rid of the Carver ballast.

Contrary to some viewers when watching the season 12 at first I didn't like what SPN had presented, the show felt artificial, the familiar SPN flair, the famous brotherly chemistry IMO was missing, but also motive, common sense and logic. Just by presenting a Dean calling Sam 'Sammy' or a shoved in brother hug, won't satisfy me. I admit it's nice to see, but it won't change the fact that SPN had tons of opportunities for brotherly moments, but than simply deliberately ignored them. And this circumstance I find quite interesting, because this bears the question, why would SPN create such worthy scenes, but would not use them for their own benefit? Further produce a soap opera-ish season, hence lack of an obvious plot.

Sam hidden in plain sight

Season 12 already began in the final episode of season 11 in “Alpha & Omega”. I assume the moment Amara mentioned to Dean “Dean, you gave me what I needed most. I want to do the same for you.” was the pivotal moment. What if Amara gave Dean more than his mother Mary? She said, she is giving Dean what he needed most... but not what he had desired. The question we should all ask is, what was that Amara needed, that she believed Dean needed it too? Is it that she needed to comprehend the concept of family? That family is more than love and hate? Honestly I don't know.

I only know that the concept 'family is more than love and hate' is repeated. At first the pigeon lady mentioned it in season 11 episode 11x23, remember “AMARA: So you hate him. WOMAN: Well, a little bit. Sometimes. But you know family. Even when you hate them, you still love them.” And now in the season pre-finale episode 22 where Dean says to Mary “I love you, I hate you, I forgive you”. So, it seems Dean grasped the concept of family and the concept of love. Circle closed...well could be.

But than I thought that this 'mommy plot' is very odd, because it was obvious that Sam was kept out the whole “family, love, hate” theme. I mean he was the center for the Dean and mommy reunion in the pre-finale episode 22, so why keep Sam deliberately out of the discussion, when the topics are mainly concerning his past experiences and how they naturally effected Dean? I mean Sam is Dean's family and also Mary's son, so why keep him out of the mommy plot? Further the most disturbing factor is, Sam still feels guilty for things he's not responsible for, because of Mary's doing. Do you see what a great conflict this could have been, I smell drama! Why waste this opportunity? And oddly enough at the pre-finale episode 22, Dean is the one who forgives her for what she did to Sam. Um Pardon me? Do you get the strangeness of this scene?

Notice how SPN again took Sam's autonomy away, he isn't even allowed to talk about his own experiences, no matter what happened in the past or present. I find this quite odd, and scary to say the least, esp. when viewers are blindly cheering Dean's emotional outburst towards Mary and thereby totally ignore the fact that Sam is also family and he was the major victim of the past events. Dean's monolog with Mary was as if Sam in general was dead, mute, invincible and therefor Dean had to be his voice, his advocate . The used argument, namely Mary was scared to confront Sam, makes no sense in the sense of 'drama / plot', because literally the conflict is kept out of the drama. But without a conflict there is no drama, hence no plot. The result is just a pile of senseless emotional gobbledygook.

That's why at the end of the pre-final episode 22, when Sam says, when walking into the bunker, she doesn't have to be scared of him, sounds nice, but this statement is a huge farce, but it's not only a farce, the made statement is without reason, because Sam still doesn't know and isn't aware, that all his suffering and guilt tripping is mainly because of Mary's deal with the yellow eye demon. Remember the whole season over Sam was kept out of the family plot. He is still kept in the dark, kept deliberately by Dean and Mary in the unknown. So why the hell are almost everyone cheering the family hug in episode 22? That scene is just portraying Sam as a utter fool. Because no one in the would, when walking into a seemingly private talk about one self, and than only hearing a partial of what is said, than say 'everything is okay'. No in reality the person would ask WTF is going on, wotcha talking behind my back! Again a great drama aka plot, just ignored and thrown away. Why? Why is Sam's inquisitive nature being reduced to blind ignorance?

Which brings me to episode 2 “Mamma Mia” where Sam says to Mary “Her being here fills out the blanks”. And this said without having even talked with her. Remember this scene happened after Sam was tortured and truly believed Dean is dead, and well Mary, hence once a dead mommy, who has than been resurrected. But nay why use such drama, lets ignore the elephant in the room, and let Sam say some emotionally senseless stupid stuff. Further let the viewers assume that Sam is now a mind reader. I mean to fill out the blanks, implies that knowledge / information has been transferred. And normally humans do this by communicating. But we viewers didn't see or hear Sam communicating with his mother. So from where did his enlightenment come from? And here IMO lies the major discrepancy or oddity of this season. It was very peculiar that Sam didn't even once articulate his emotional state and have an intimate clearing discussion with Dean or Mary. Or for crying out loud just being curious. So from where did Sam get his enlightenment to forgive Mary? We viewers had to guess and thereby interpreted Sam's presumed feelings, concerning his kidnapping, torture, believed dead brother and resurrected mother, therefor in the end we don't know nothing.

But than at the same time I'm suppose to believe, because shown in the pre-finale episode 22, that Sam had issues with being a leading figure. Really? And again viewers are cheering Sam's speech to the hunters, but I wonder why, it literally made no sense. Now since Sam didn't articulate in the season his lack of self esteem, one could than assume his insecurities could have been recognized on screen. Therefor the major question is, when during the season was his insecurity topic, hence plot, obvious? When Sam killed the monsters of the week, or when Sam saved the BMoL from the vampires and thereby killed the Alpha-Vampire? Even in the past he took the lead when necessary. So from where does his “its easier to follow than to lead” brain struck come from? There was not once an indication for such plot. So what was Sam's role in episode 22 than actually about?

This leads to the most interesting question of this season, why was Sam portrayed like a mute hero without a cause? Let's be realistic Dean had this season all major plot determining dialogs, dialogs that told us viewers in what kind of state of mind he was. We know the reason of why he was at first happy, than pissed and than forgiving with Mary. Frankly this mommy plot was utterly shoved into the viewers face. So, why was Sam placed onto the sideline? He ignorantly and nonchalantly accepted everything that was thrown at him. There was no necessity for SPN to neglect Sam's role in the family drama. Remember Dean, Sam and John and how dramatic these scenes were? How energetic they were? How Sam and Dean interacted in combination with their father? The exploding dialogs? By comparing these father scenes with the mommy scenes, one will clearly notice the difference in the trio their dynamics.

Sam the mute hero without a cause

The reason why I name Sam the “mute hero without a cause” is because a) he was kept silenced concerning his torture by the BMoL and Mary's deal. And b) what was this season his motivation to act? FYI according to Wikipedia “Motivation is a theoretical construct used to explain behavior. It gives the reason for people's actions, desires, and needs. Motivation can also be defined as one's direction to behavior, or what causes a person to want to repeat a behavior and vice versa. A motive is what prompts the person to act in a certain way, or at least develop an inclination for specific behavior.”

Therefor the question what motivated Sam this season is utterly valid. Keep in mind, Dean had Sam, Mary and the BMoL, these external factors were the cause, hence motivation for Dean to react and therefor to get heavily into action, hence attributes of a plot. But what about Sam? Every topic that could have been a cause / motive for conflict / drama and prompt him to react, like the BMoL, Dean, Mary or even Lucifer were from the beginning of the season, in a subtle manner kept away from him. It was as if Sam was floating in an invisible bubble. He was present, but nothing could or would touch / motivate him and therefor prompt him into action. Except for some heroic actions, that in contrast had nothing to do with his emotional state, his inner 'family' circle or the major story line, hence Mary, the BMoL and Lucifer. What an odd juxtaposition, on the one hand we have Dean who is obviously reacting because of obvious reasons, and Sam on the other hand who obviously doesn't react, even though obvious reasons are given.

Juxtaposition

This is in so far quite interesting, because SPN this season used in their directing mainly all kind of forms of juxtapositions. The most obvious one was episode 12 “Stuck In The Middle (with you)”. And as every film geek knows this technique (juxtaposition) is used in the 1992 film, “Reservoir Dogs” directed by Quentin Tarantino. A brutal torture scene is juxtaposed with the playing of a cheerful pop song, “Stuck in the Middle with You”, on the soundtrack. Soundtrack Dissonance is utilized to, in literary terms, pose a juxtaposition with the intent of making a thematic statement and/or widening our emotional distance to the events before us, thus allowing us to view the piece in a more removed, intellectual manner. And in the case of “Reservoir Dogs” Tarantino’s intend was to manipulate the viewers perception, namely by reacting positively to the pop song, the viewer was literally caught in the act of having 'fun' or 'enjoying' the brutal torture scene.

And in our case, the obvious contrast (juxtaposition) is not only Sam's internal (family) non-motivation vs his external (non-family) motivation. But this also could be seen in the episode 12 “Stuck In The Middle (with you)” at the beginning of the scene, when all where sitting at the dinner ordering their breakfast. The only one who didn't order food was Sam, and not as assumed the angel. Sam in contrast just complained about the bad WIFI connection. In retrospect it's conspicuous that Dean and the others at the table, except for Sam, were so keen, despite the comedic effect, that the angel, who hasn't the need for any food, orders himself a breakfast. Further the scene with Dean teaching the angel 'flirt' lessons appears actually fabricated. Simply because Dean knows (since Kripke era) how the angel reacts to women, and since than he never bothered to act in such 'pair off' manner with the angel. So why now and why in such obvious striking behavior?

A further oddity, namely what did Sam, by mentioning “I downloaded all the bunker’s files to a new archive,...” have to do with shown scene at the diner? Again it made no sense. The information given by Sam didn't correspond with the ongoing dialog at the table. Furthermore no one seemed to be bothered that Sam hadn't placed an order. Now (speculation) what if Sam, by saying something's wrong with the WIFI connection, it is really meant that Sam as a person, is literally not or loosely connected to his surrounding (reality)? This could in a way not only explain Sam's dissonance / contrast behavior at the diner, but also during the whole season. Saying he is stuck in the middle of, who knows, two realities, like a quasi hallucinogenic world and reality?

Brake onto the other side

What do I mean with the term hallucinogenic world. I know it's highly speculative, but just for a sec, lets get crazy. All episodes where Sam acts heroically appear peculiar, at first they are very Sam centric, than they contain Sam specific material, such as his psychic abilities, the 'yellow eye demon', his brother Dean, the death of his mom Mary and at last Lucifer. All these mentioned life events are perceived by Sam as something negative, something he until today still feels guilty about. Now what if Sam is 'hallucinating' these negative events into a positive event? Where he's not the freak, the failure anymore or something to feel guilty about, but in his mind he's the hero who saves the day, like the way he perceives his brother Dean. This could be the reason why Dean and Mary didn't react in a normal manner to Sam's heroic adventures. Simply because in reality, hence the real world they are not participating in Sam's hallucinogenic adventures, and why SPN canon is turned upside down. Or because he is still in the belief that Dean is dead, and everything we saw this season is Sam creating in his mind a world where he is able to save Dean and than thereby the day.

This thesis, namely Sam withdrawing into an imaginative heroic world, would correspond with the ending of episode 12x01 “Be Calm And Carry On”, where Sam after his mind was fractured (broken mirror), and than was defeated by his tormentor Toni Bevelle. Keep in mind, SPN didn't touch the kidnapping and torture subject after episode 12x02 had aired. It was miraculously (sleight of hand) kept out of the season's narrative.

Just so people can comprehend, according to Wikipedia a “Hallucination is a perception in the absence of external stimulus that has qualities of real perception.”

So therefor when a hallucination has the qualities of real perception, than the perceived hallucination IS perceived as reality. Now in our case interestingly enough hallucinations can also be caused by torture aka enhanced interrogation.

According to Wikipedia “"Enhanced interrogation techniques" or "enhanced interrogation" is a euphemism for the U.S. government's program of systematic torture of detainees by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and various components of the U.S. Armed Forces at black sites around the world, including Bagram, Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, authorized by officials of the George W. Bush administration. Methods used included beating, binding in contorted stress positions, hooding, subjection to deafening noise, sleep deprivation to the point of hallucination, deprivation of food, drink, and withholding medical care for wounds, as well as water-boarding, walling, sexual humiliation, subjection to extreme heat or extreme cold, confinement in small coffin-like boxes, and repeated slapping.”

Now interestingly a lot of these mentioned torture methods that can cause hallucinations, including the drug induced torture, were used by the BMoL. But oddly enough, again, Sam's kidnapping and torture were after episode 2 “Mamma Mia” never brought up again, just ignorantly glossed over. Why? Why invest screen time and money for such sensible topic and than not dramatize and exploit it for a plot? Why such obvious wast of opportunities? Or Dean and Sam being prisoners of the government, held in a secret black site...why show and invest in such drama, but than utterly ignore it. This is more than bad screen writing. This has method, or as Hamlet would put it “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.”

One of the many explanation I have, but the only one that in a way or other makes sense is that I assume the hallucination we saw in episode #2 is still on going. This could explain Sam, Dean's and Mary's truly not normal / familiar behavior. Lucifer's sudden disinterest for Sam, hence his deliberately designed customized metaphysical vessel. The angel Castiel truly stupid and incoherent behavior. Or the BMoL's incoherent illogical management as a secret / occult society. Seriously their actions didn't make any sense. Just think how stupid this appears, a paramilitary unite 'guarding' an occult society their HQ, hidden in a warehouse. Because, remember Magnus, the American MoL? What a contrast, he hid a whole mansion through magic, and these Brits use hand scanners. Makes you wonder. But than Mrs. Hess demands a portal to escape. Any logic there? Nope, thought so. Since this season makes absolutely no sense, further is filled up with illogical actions, one could come to the conclusion that what we have seen until now could be an on going dream, hallucination or an AU. I mean there must be a reason for the pile of such incoherent stupidity.

Further this 'hallucination' scenario could also in a way explain the use and odd cross reference to the barb wired bat (Lucy) used in the series “The Walking Dead”, which is a significant symbol used by the main antagonist Negan of the show, played by Jeffrey D. Morgan. Who once played the father figure of Dean and Sam Winchester. Does anybody get the weirdness of this scene? I know the scene appeared to be funny, but the ca 3 minute scene doesn't justify the effort and costs it took to purchase the copyrights from FOX to use this world wide known iconic prop. Furthermore Dean saying (paraphrased) “their dad would have loved the bat” makes no sense. Because John Winchester an ex-marine would have never used this blunt instrument to fight off zombies. He as a marine would have known, as Dean should have known too, that using this blunt weapon would cost far to much energy to fight off zombies than in comparison to a sharpen machete. The bat used in “The Walking Dead” is a symbol of ultimate archaic ruling man power, not more. So, what was this scene all about? Why the need to portray Dean as a silly amateur, or a Neanderthal? Which BTW is interesting, because the only ones who think hunters are Neanderthals, are the BMoL.

Though this said, on the other hand I still have to accept, that a rose is just a rose, meaning the season was just simply badly written. If so, than dear SPN crew please contact some IMO awesome fan-fiction writers, they know where the priorities lie and also astonishingly have knowledge of the supernatural realm, they could save the day, because thanks to them I'm still in love with the show.

Much ado about nothing

A further reason why I didn't like the season and both end episodes 22 & 23 is because IMO major made dramatic statements haven't at the end been solved. Not even one single hint was given. We still have absolutely no clue who the old men in London are and if they are still in the game, or why SPN mentioned to us that Toni Bevelle has a son. Now was this given information important or just wasted screen time? Nor do we know what the reaper Billie's 'cosmic consequences' are.

Of course I grasp the idea of suspense, but just by mentioning a threat or lethal consequence, and than in the end deliberately ignore these dramatic statements, can't uphold the suspense. In my case I got annoyed, because for example I wanted to know more about the BMoL. And the used BMoL protagonists Mike, Toni and Fetch didn't satisfy my curiosity. Their motive and actions made no sense. Actually I thought they were utterly boring, incoherent, their actions inconsistent and therefor confusing.

The same with the reaper Billie. Without any storyline, the reaper just appeared and than was eliminated. Just like that... oh. Than the cosmic consequences vanished into thin air, to never been seen or heard again.

As I stated at the beginning of my text, these not solved 'mysteries' could be revealed in the coming season 13. Personally I doubt it. Because it wouldn't be the first time that SPN mentioned something that would have devastating effects, but than would just ignore it.

NO sympathy for the devil

Why SPN recycled the Lucifer story, would be a good question asked at a convention or PR conference, but sadly a majority of con goers and so called journalist are mainly occupied with trivial stuff than content concerning the plot of the show. So probably we will never find out what SPN was thinking when recycling, thanks to Carver, the utterly boring and unnecessary Lucifer character. But than one has to thank SPN for the worst portrayal of the diabolical figure, because now when ever Lucifer is mentioned and shown in the series a collective yawning can be heard throughout the whole SPN audience. So, yeah SPN you've done a good job.

In retrospect SPN had portrayed over 11 years three characterizations of the devil. At first we saw Kripke's fallen angel, depicted as a truly diabolical Satan. Disguised as an understanding passionate angel of light, but than when light fell on to it, the cunning, narcissist nature of this heavenly creature broke through. Than we had Carvers humanized devil, a heavenly metaphysical entity portrayed in a human-ish manner with preadolescence daddy issues. The philosophical fallacy should be obvious. And now the show runner duo Singer & Dabb took Carver's humanized Satan and presented it having an existential midlife crisis. By demystifying the metaphysical entity, SPN turned the once intriguing heavenly being into an everyday soap opera-ish boring dude.

Now I have no explanation for why the show runners made the decision to portray the devil in such boring fashion. Especially putting so much time in it's vessel career. I mean the whole ensnaring of the singer Vincente was a total copy of how the fallen angel tried to lure Sam into saying 'yes'. Therefor no big surprise, nothing new. So why the need to waste screen time for an already known story? I mean SPN can't be that stupid? Or why at the mid season finale focus on the devil and his actions, that had absolutely nothing to do with the main protagonists of the show? We can assume that the show runners Singer & Dabb are utterly aware that the audience is more interested in the brothers their doing than in a side character.

The whole devil story line was IMO boring, illogical and a waste of time. Simply because it didn't involve the Winchesters, didn't correspond with canon and it was utterly predictable. Now about the devil it's spawn. This contradicts the whole SPN canon. Just think about it, if the devil can produce earthly baby devils, just by having sexual intercourse with human females, than why didn't it do that at the beginning of the show, when Sam, his anointed vessel, said no. Just imagine, 12 years later hundreds of supernaturally grown up devil juniors roaming the planet, causing havoc. This truly would have been the Armageddon.

The Finale

IMO the final of the season was utterly unnecessary and incoherent. What did the final have to do with the Winchesters? Or in any fashion with the season? Correct absolutely nothing. So why should I as a fan of the Winchesters be excited for the coming season 13? Reality is, I'm not. Sam has encountered so many supernatural entities and mastered them, so why should this devil spawn encounter make any difference? Well it would have made a difference if Sam and Dean would have been emotionally involved with the Lucifer story instead of the IMO boring angel Castiel. And sorry to say but their mom Mary wasn't the hit either. So, she suddenly got into mommy feels after Dean confronts her in her own head, and than wants to 'save' her sons. Seriously, why now?? And why in such stupid manner? Oh,... I'm gonna take those brass knuckles an gonna smack the devil it's face.... how pathetic, mini muscle without brain.

Than the demon Crowley's so called engagement and following sacrifice at the finale. Where was the story? The whole time the demon is playing preadolescence kinder-garden games with the devil, but without the involvement of the Winchester, and now the script writers are suddenly reminded that there are the Winchesters, hence THE major and only protagonists of the show, so lets let Crowley interact with them. Geez what an awful plot-less story, no wonder M. Sheppard was pissed. And than, what are they now doing, exact, namely nothing, but than, oh, oh, they 'find' (face palm) a lead and than the opportunist narcissist demon sacrifices it self to save the Winchesters. WTF! Who's writing these stories, a three year old? What happened to motivation, common sense and logic? And Crowley's ritual, how stupid can stupid get? The demon is literally dead, hence an evil spirit possessing a dead human body, so how can the ritual function when something living(!) has to be sacrificed? Sure it used the angle blade, but it only thereby destroyed it's own essence, not more.

But the highlight was the most boring, and I mean utterly boring scenes with the once interesting, but now useless angel Castiel. Really? This was suppose to be the grand finale of the season, a moronic angel playing a confused guardian of a stupid woman who can't comprehend that she's carrying the devils spawn. A creature who's life giver is a metaphysical being, who wants to annihilate humanity!

Conclusion

I deliberately didn't touch the 'Mary' story line, simply because IMO her story was unnecessary. Further destroyed the whole once known SPN concept. Her made into a über-hunter is just serving the momentary ruling ideology which lacks reason. Just try to comprehend the concept SPN is trying to sell. The female actor Samantha Smith is 47 years old, is playing a ca. 25-28 year old woman, who is a über-awsome hunter than her 37 and 34 year old sons. Now how can I, as a 49 year old woman, take her serious? I can't sorry. Every time I saw her fighting and running around like a tough gal, I had to laugh. It was so pathetic. The same with the character Jody. The feminization of SPN is truly questionable. Once SPN was balanced there where reasonable female characters like Helen and Jo but also equal male characters like Bobby and Rufus. But now we only get to see tough über-women and dumbed down men.

A long time ago SPN was about two brothers fighting against all odds and their inner conflict. Great classical story telling. Like a modern version of the Greek and Roman mythology Castor and Pollux. Drama at best. But now IMO SPN season 12 was without substance just serving some loud fanatic fans, and Hollywood / corporate media's post modernistic nihilistic ideology, that in it's core simply neglects reason. So, in the end I can only hope that the following season will at least have a plot, where BOTH major protagonists are involved.