S13.E20: Unfinished Business

[BabySpinach]

In this episode, Gabriel became what Charlie was/is: taken for granted by the writers as a "fan favorite" and therefore given free license to be as self-absorbed, entitled, and unrepentant as possible without any recrimination from the narrative or other characters. Their quirky one-liners are expected to smooth over any unsympathetic behavior in the eyes of the viewers, and it seems to mostly work!

The first in his "greatest hits" for this episode is him crashing in on Sam and Dean, severely wounded, taking it for granted that they'll help him even after he ran out on them. He then leads two demigods to their doorstep because of his revenge mission, nearly getting the brothers killed. Afterwards, he's totally prepared to leave them again, without even an apology, once he finds out that there's no extra grace for him. 

His entire revenge mission was a self-indulgent waste of time that served nothing. At least when Sam and/or Dean got revenge, they were killing dangerous people who regularly hurt innocents. The Norse gods here were just minding their own business as far as we knew. Gabriel's demand that they go in order of his Kill List and that he be the one to end Loki personally was nothing but pointless crap that no one called him out on. He played like a fan-fiction self-insert, with the actual protagonists of the show trailing a couple steps behind him and bending to his every whim. 

Dean was the only one allowed to raise a reasonable complaint or objection, and even he got mowed down by the force of Gabriel's ego and writers' favoritism. He wasn't allowed the extremely obvious retort of his thirty years in Hell when Gabriel was complaining about his seven. Dean may have said that this whole thing was "so stupid," but he still had to play along. If either of the brothers in the past had demanded that their revenge fantasies be obeyed down to the letter for no tangible reason, they also would have come across as entitled jackasses. This episode as a whole felt like an irritating waste of time, especially for so late in the season. 

PS. Gabriel calling Sam a "pretty face" felt so goddamn awkward. Sam/Jared is not "pretty," as his features are neither delicate or feminine. Handsomeness is another, more subjective thing that I won't get into right now. What made it sillier was that a closer representation of "prettiness" was literally sitting right there in the room with them. It was just more Sabriel pandering, much like Sam's heartfelt speech in 13.18 that was drawn straight from fan-fiction rather than any established canon relationship. So I prefer to interpret Gabriel's comment as heavy sarcasm and condescension instead, lol. 

[Myrelle]

10 minutes ago, BabySpinach said:

Dean may have said that this whole thing was "so stupid," but he still had to play along

This, and the fact that when it came down to who would have the last word on whether they were actually going to go along with Gabriel's inane nonsense and all eyes turned to Dean, even Gabriel's, were the only two things that I really remember about this otherwise completely forgettable episode that, yes ITA, littered the tail end of the season with Charlie-like writing for a character that I could not stand excepting for how they killed him off the first time(and which they completely negated to boot-OY! what a mess!) when they could have been giving us more on Michael.

Ridiculous episode IMO, too. One of the worst of the entire series especially because of it's placement in the season. 

[gonzosgirrl]

6 hours ago, BabySpinach said:

In this episode, Gabriel became what Charlie was/is: taken for granted by the writers as a "fan favorite" and therefore given free license to be as self-absorbed, entitled, and unrepentant as possible without any recrimination from the narrative or other characters. Their quirky one-liners are expected to smooth over any unsympathetic behavior in the eyes of the viewers, and it seems to mostly work!

The first in his "greatest hits" for this episode is him crashing in on Sam and Dean, severely wounded, taking it for granted that they'll help him even after he ran out on them. He then leads two demigods to their doorstep because of his revenge mission, nearly getting the brothers killed. Afterwards, he's totally prepared to leave them again, without even an apology, once he finds out that there's no extra grace for him. 

His entire revenge mission was a self-indulgent waste of time that served nothing. At least when Sam and/or Dean got revenge, they were killing dangerous people who regularly hurt innocents. The Norse gods here were just minding their own business as far as we knew. Gabriel's demand that they go in order of his Kill List and that he be the one to end Loki personally was nothing but pointless crap that no one called him out on. He played like a fan-fiction self-insert, with the actual protagonists of the show trailing a couple steps behind him and bending to his every whim. 

Dean was the only one allowed to raise a reasonable complaint or objection, and even he got mowed down by the force of Gabriel's ego and writers' favoritism. He wasn't allowed the extremely obvious retort of his thirty years in Hell when Gabriel was complaining about his seven. Dean may have said that this whole thing was "so stupid," but he still had to play along. If either of the brothers in the past had demanded that their revenge fantasies be obeyed down to the letter for no tangible reason, they also would have come across as entitled jackasses. This episode as a whole felt like an irritating waste of time, especially for so late in the season. 

PS. Gabriel calling Sam a "pretty face" felt so goddamn awkward. Sam/Jared is not "pretty," as his features are neither delicate or feminine. Handsomeness is another, more subjective thing that I won't get into right now. What made it sillier was that a closer representation of "prettiness" was literally sitting right there in the room with them. It was just more Sabriel pandering, much like Sam's heartfelt speech in 13.18 that was drawn straight from fan-fiction rather than any established canon relationship. So I prefer to interpret Gabriel's comment as heavy sarcasm and condescension instead, lol. 

And it all becomes worse when you add in the fact that Richard directed it.

Edited August 29, 2018 by gonzosgirrl
ugh

[Res]

2 hours ago, gonzosgirrl said:

And it all becomes worst when you add in the fact that Richard directed it.

Which is one of the reasons that I personally do not have a lot of respect for him. He's definitely not "my cup of tea".

Edited August 28, 2018 by Res

[DeeDee79]

57 minutes ago, Res said:

Which is one of the reasons that I personally do not have a lot of respect for him. He's definitely not "my cup of tea".

I second this.

[devlin]

4 hours ago, DeeDee79 said:

I second this.

I third this

[Pondlass1]

Richard's career really profited from that appearance on Supernatural all those years ago.  (Unless he was well known beforehand. I don't really know his previous career).  But the Trickster caught the attention of fans and it was a funny episode.

[Res]

On 8/29/2018 at 9:40 AM, Pondlass1 said:

Richard's career really profited from that appearance on Supernatural all those years ago.  (Unless he was well known beforehand. I don't really know his previous career).  But the Trickster caught the attention of fans and it was a funny episode.

That's one thing that's really kind of grating me right now is how many people are IMO exploiting the show to further their own careers without really doing anything for it, like Cliff and his "movie", Fangasm, the Hilly-whatevers, Kings of the Con, etc., then they talk negatively about one of the main characters or actors. I just don't respect people like that or that appear to be like that to me. 

Edited September 3, 2018 by Res

[DeeDee79]

24 minutes ago, Res said:

That's one thing that's really kind of grating me right now is how many people are IMO exploiting the show to further their own careers without really doing anything for it, like Cliff and his "movie", Fangasm, the Hilly-whatevers, Kings of the Con, etc., then they talk negatively about one of the main characters or actors. I just don't respect people like that or that appear to be like that to me. 

Especially since the primary stars are the reason why the show is still going which gives the others a platform for their projects.

[The Companion]

I didn't hate this episode as much as a lot of people. I didn't love the placement and it felt repetitive give the vast library of things to pull inspiration from other than Tarantino, but I found it mildly entertaining. 

The brother angst was clunky, but I blame the writers. I hated Dean's decision to go alone, particularly because he pulled out a full, thoughtful justification that made it look like he was ambushing Sam/planning it. I also hate the way they had Sam articulate his concern. Ugh.

I actually DID like the continued fallout from torture for Gabriel. This show glosses over trauma. I also find what they are trying to with Sam interesting but poorly done. It is really late to explore Sam's trauma from the cage. It's clearly a plot driven decision. This could have been an interesting plotline seasons ago.

 

 

 

[gonzosgirrl]

24 minutes ago, The Companion said:

The brother angst was clunky, but I blame the writers. I hated Dean's decision to go alone, particularly because he pulled out a full, thoughtful justification that made it look like he was ambushing Sam/planning it.

Given Sam's pissy reaction to most things Dean suggests, it's the only to get things done without the drama. And the 'we die together' speech at the end just doesn't ring quite true for me any more.

The whole Gabriel/Loki thing was utter nonsense and more ret-con (IMO) for the sake of fan-service. I won't even repeat how much I hated everything about the AU scenes, except to say (again and some more) how frustrating it is to watch Mary's despair and motherly concern for Jack and the AU people when she could barely work up a tear for her own children just because they were 'strangers' to her.

[Aeryn13]

27 minutes ago, The Companion said:

I actually DID like the continued fallout from torture for Gabriel. This show glosses over trauma. 

Your second point is actually why I didn`t like it at all. After several digs on Dean about being a whiny cry-baby about hell and how weak he, how it was actually an easy lollipop world compared to Sam`s hell and how he should rather be glad for it because his life is cool and awesome, hell and all (in the convention episode in Season 5), I just can not abide by the "aww, poor little archangel was so hurt so badly". But the human, we can laugh at.

Either they treat trauma respectfully or they do not. And if they do have priority treatment, then the leads should get it, not side characters. 

[The Companion]

4 hours ago, Aeryn13 said:

Your second point is actually why I didn`t like it at all. After several digs on Dean about being a whiny cry-baby about hell and how weak he, how it was actually an easy lollipop world compared to Sam`s hell and how he should rather be glad for it because his life is cool and awesome, hell and all (in the convention episode in Season 5), I just can not abide by the "aww, poor little archangel was so hurt so badly". But the human, we can laugh at.

Either they treat trauma respectfully or they do not. And if they do have priority treatment, then the leads should get it, not side characters. 

Perhaps what I should have said was I have been frustrated by the way the show treats trauma, so I was happy to have some fallout but wish it had come sooner and with the main characters. Totally agree that they have not done so.