Dabb and Loflin, A Closer Look
Each hellatus, I pick a writer or two, or sometimes three, and take a look at the episodes they have gifted us with; this season I chose the writing team of Dabb and Loflin. The basic gist of these articles is to take a few moments with each episode and perhaps rank the episodes by these writers or, at the very least, and is my intent here, to pick the top episodes and give them a little bit deeper of a look-see.
Each hellatus, I pick a writer or two, or sometimes three, and take a look at the episodes they have gifted us with; this season I chose the writing team of Dabb and Loflin. The basic gist of these articles is to take a few moments with each episode and perhaps rank the episodes by these writers or, at the very least, and is my intent here, to pick the top episodes and give them a little bit deeper of a look-see.
Season Four:
This pair joined up in Season 4 and gave us three episodes: “Yellow Fever,” “After School Special,” and “Jump the Shark.” Each of these episodes has a unique take: the first is a ghost story and focuses on Dean’s reaction to being infected with “ghost sickness,” which awakens fully his hell memories; “After School Special” (unfortunately abbreviated as ASS – thus I don’t abbreviate it) gives us background on Sam’s mindset during his days at one school and presents some wonderful flashbacks with Colin Ford and fleshes out some of Sam’s thought processes as he grew up; “Jump The Shark” took on the daunting task of introducing a third Winchester brother – half-brother, actually – and showed us a flip of the brothers as Dean was a bit reticent to “embrace” said half-brother while Sam was willing to “take him under his wing.” It ended with a definitive scene in which Dean’s hero worship of his father all but crumbled, the effects of which continue.
While each of these episodes are their own story, there are some elements that the writers employed each time. The first element is that Dabb and Loflin showed that they did their “Supernatural” homework; they understand the brothers’ relationship and each time gave us something to think about regarding the life they lead, from Dean’s rant in “Yellow Fever” to Sam’s dislike of always moving, Dean’s love of free ice and Magic Fingers in “After School Special,” and finally in “Jump The Shark,” having Sam become like Dean in Season 1, who told Sam that he had to give up everything outside of hunting to Dean wanting to protect Adam from the life…Dabb and Loflin understand the background of the characters.
The other thing that each episode showed was that these writers were more than willing to take Dean to some extremes, and thankfully, they had the generous actor known as Jensen Ackles, more than willing to let them have their fun; Dean’s outrageous scream at the cat in “Yellow Fever,” the “nut hugger” shorts in “After School Special,” and crawling in the confines of a tunnel – while lighting his own scenery – in “Jump the Shark.” I remember commenting that Jensen should perhaps bake them some cookies so they’d be nicer to him in the future. I also remember reading somewhere that Jensen mentioned that one of the writers actually met him and spoke with him saying that sometimes when writing he forgot that Jensen was a real, grown man. The context was that the writer was apologetic for some of what he wrote for Dean that Jensen brought to life.
I’ve gone back and read my Season 4, The Road So Far article and found that my opinions on the episodes haven’t changed – by the way, you can find the article here if you’re in need of something to read during hellatus 2011. ”Yellow Fever” is my least favorite of the Season 4 episodes by Dabb and Loflin for all the reasons I stated; “After School Special” is an excellent episode to watch when I’m jonesing for some insight into Sam. Colin Ford continues to impress as young Sam and his “homework” of watching Jared portray Sam is evident. As much as Dabb and Loflin lose points with me on their over-the-top silliness at some points, their ability to reach inside a character and find the angst is their strength. Both young Sam’s and present-day Sam’s agony over life, what lay ahead and what now lies behind, is real and deep.
“Jump the Shark” gets its own paragraph here. I truly enjoyed this episode. From the beginning when we see Sam and Dean having spent another night in the Impala in the middle of nowhere to Dean and Sam standing at another funeral pyre, this time over their lost half brother, this episode is the best of their offering in Season 4 and, frankly, remains in my top three to date for these writers.
Some might think the character of John Winchester has been battered about over the years and this was yet another nail in his coffin; I completely disagree. JTS made it clear that John was a human being, the life of being a hunter hurt him and not just physically. Is it so strange that we would think this man who had lost all of his innocence (innocence that somehow survived the Vietnam War), his wife, his home and, to some extent, his sons, certainly his dreams, would not at times seek comfort in another human being? We’ve seen both Sam and Dean in the three and over a half seasons prior to this episode seek comfort in others, be it Cassie for Dean or Jessica for Sam or the many brief encounters each has had since those two ladies. Is it any wonder John would do the same?
Also, this episode showed that John understood the terrors his life as a hunter held; to intrude upon Adam’s life any further than he already did would be disastrous, something that happened despite his best efforts. As he was already a father to two little boys who had no one to care for them but him, and he was already placing them in great danger, he did what he thought best; kept them all separate. It wasn’t perfect but neither was John; I, for one, don’t hold that against him.
What sells this episode for me is how Sam and Dean react to Adam. Dean doesn’t want to get close, wants to keep Adam out of hunting and, frankly, get as far away from him as possible. Sam, on the other hand, embraces Adam and starts mentoring him on the hows and ways of hunting. I think both brothers were jealous, they just exemplified it differently. For Dean, Adam was another crack in the armor of John Winchester, a crack that started in CSPWDT and continues to shatter; for Sam, it was a way to react to the unfair hand life had dealt him and cause another to experience the same crap he had experienced. Both brothers were driven by the emotional duress they were under; Dean’s continuing hell memories and his recent return to a torturer, and Sam as he struggled with should he or shouldn’t he continue with Ruby.
The crowning achievement of JTS is two-fold: first, Sam was so drained of blood by the ghouls that his actions in “The Rapture” and then “When the Levee Breaks” have purpose; his blood was depleted, he was desperate. Second, Dean turned a major corner regarding their father and he began to not only see but to accept that despite his hero worship of John, Sam was more like their father than he ever was. Dean needs to see himself as his own person, not the Dean who drives the car, listens to the music, wears the leather jacket of John (as we saw in “Dream a Little Dream of Me”).
My pick of Dabb and Loflin’s episodes in Season 4 is easy: Jump the Shark.
Season Five:
In Season 5, we got “I Believe the Children Are Our Future,” “Sam, Interrupted,” “Dark Side of the Moon,” and “Hammer of the Gods.” Oh, my, where did all the promise of JTS go?
To say that Season 5 offered little good by these writers is an understatement. First off, I’ll get the elephant out of the room: “Dark Side of The Moon” was outstanding, magnificent, darn close to perfection. As for the other three…oooph.
That’s not to say that each doesn’t have possibilities…I mean, mini-Cas in IBTCAOF? That’s pretty cool. Other than that there just isn’t much for me to comment on. The jokes of farts and all the hair on the palm for Dean was crass, over the top, and weak writing. It’s easy to go for the base, but to me, writers who are worth their salt are creative and find a way to give us humor without resorting to the obscene and, frankly, the disgusting. The kid was adorable; no argument there.
As for “Sam, Interrupted”…it’s a little better. Dean is carrying the weight of the world and Sam has anger issues; both of these elements get additional play in the later half of the season so the setup is helpful, but it’s a bit out of the blue, especially the Sam anger issues for he seemed to be “fine” after “Fallen Idols,” and then all of a sudden he’s angry and out of control. I’m going to give a slight pass on that, however, and blame it all on the wraith.
The winning part of this episode is clearly the opening as Dean and Sam use the truth to get themselves admitted to the mental ward. That’s a winner for all times!! The other winning part of this episode is the casting of Dean’s hallucination doctor; she not only had chemistry with Jensen, the character brought out so much from Dean that he usually keeps locked up tight. The interplay between the two as he tries to get information from her on what’s going on inside the ward and she tries to get information from him as to what’s going on inside his head is wonderful to watch.
“Dark Side of the Moon” is perfection…almost. Don’t throw rotten tomatoes at me (although, really ripe ones I understand, but rotten are just disgusing – I know ‘cause I inadvertently had some rot on me and I had to pick them up; impossible for they just oozed all over…*shudder*). Perfection is a tough sell, so I have one nitpick on this episode. It’s really small, though, but again, perfection has to be earned.
DSOTM is everything I could hope for in an episode that seems so simple; the boys get sent to another “dimension,” must find some specific place and “person,” gather intel, and then return. Simple, right? Not so much. First off, have Sam and Dean ambushed in their sleep, shoot Sam to death in front of Dean, have Dean give the classic glower right before getting gunned to death and boom…there’s your opener. Whew! With the fabulous mix of classic rock to guide the way, Dean finds himself in his beloved Impala reliving an equally beloved memory, a memory that we know he holds dear for a Siren was able to wrench it from him as it searched for the one thing that Dean truly longed for, his deepest desire; Sam to look at him with respect, with love, with true enjoyment at being his brother. That Colin Ford got to portray young Sam in the scene was pure icing on the cake – and not that sicky-sweet icing but rather that light, creamy icing that makes you want to ditch the cake and just devour the icing itself. You know what I mean.
Once again, Dabb and Loflin show that they know how to plumb the depths of the characters and pull out what’s really going on inside. This time it’s Dean. We see Dean’s fond memories of him and Sam just having fun, of him in the comfort of his home, despite the uncertainty of John’s brief separation from Mary; his resolve at such a tender age to protect mom while not denigrating his father. We see how hurt Dean was and is that Sam’s “happy memories” are of a Thanksgiving with somebody else’s family, running away to some cramped trailer of his own with a dog, of his striking out on his own for independence via Stanford. It wasn’t that Sam didn’t love Dean; he just had no basis of safety and the comfort of a mother’s arms that Dean had. He couldn’t relate because there was nothing there within Sam’s experience.
That we also got the fantastic foil of Kurt Fuller’s Zachariah to plague the brothers along their journey to find answers and a way out adds another layer of enjoyment topped only by the return, the sweet, soulful, sorrowfully brief return of Ash. I love you, man!!!
“Dark Side of the Moon” showed Sam what was truly going on inside Dean’s head, something no shapeshifter in “Skin,” confessions by the Impala in CSPWDT, HAH, “Family Remains” and any of the other such chats have done, Siren in “Sex and Violence,” no ghost sickness in “Yellow Fever”…what nothing has ever done before. Sam got to see Dean’s real, visceral reactions to his (Sam’s) actions in the past. Before anyone hops on their podium and shrieks, “she’s bashing Sam!!!” or any other such nonsense, pay attention. Sam finally gets to see how his choices (choices he had every right to make) affected Dean.
To Dean, family and precious memories were extra crispy with dad passed out on the couch because Dean once had a mom’s loving touch and the crusts cut off of his PB&J; Dean was holding on to what he could of that “family” even if it wasn’t perfect. Sam was happy striking out on his own because he needed to find himself, find something of the elusive “perfect family” he’d heard about; so even a stranger’s Thanksgiving dinner was a dream for him. What Sam never knew, because he was either too young or too angry at being held back, was that his choices hurt his brother. I have no doubt in my mind that had Sam had any idea that his actions hurt Dean he would have taken a bit more care in carrying them out. I firmly believe Sam would have done what he did – especially Stanford – because in the end, we must be who we are. However, I doubt very much Sam would have not talked to Dean for four years had he known Dean’s pain.
The ending of this episode shows the three main characters of Season 5 having arrived at new locations in their season-long journey. Cas is completely lost; believing his heavenly Father has abandoned him, he abandons any hope of success. The next time we see him, he’s found a liquor store and drunk it. Sam has a new purpose to fuel his efforts. He’s going to prove to Dean that the two of them can take on Lucifer and succeed. They will find a way. Sam is convicted of the fight they’re in, and he’s not going to back down. He steps up into the leadership role of the duo, one that finds him in excellent form in “Point of No Return.” Dean, for his part, is ready to give up all that he’s fought for; he’s fought to protect Sam, fought his “destiny” and now he’s ready to say, “screw free will. Bring on Michael. I’ll say yes.”
“Dark Side of the Moon” has only one quibble against it. I’m sure some of you are thinking that it’s Dean tossing the amulet into the trashcan. No, that’s not it; the tossing of the amulet had to happen. It showed that Dean has nothing left to believe in or fight for. (My quibble over the amulet is that I firmly hold that it is completely out of character for Sam to have left the amulet in the trashcan, and there have been many moments since then for that amulet to have been returned; the end of PONR is one, while the brothers are driving in “Swan Song” as Sam makes Dean promise to go live the apple-pie life is another. And if you need another, it would be at the end of “Like a Virgin” as Sam has his soul and realizes what he did to Dean while he was soulless (and I still maintain not responsible for those actions.) Still, I do believe the amulet is gone forever because the logistics of the thing finally drove it away. I read somewhere that Jensen stated that not only was the object heavy but that if he forgot to switch it out for the rubber one when he went to do a fight scene it would pop him in the teeth. I’m not a fan of injury to anyone unnecessarily, although I believe simply having Jensen wear the rubber one at all times would work; we’re not likely to notice. But, I believe it’s gone, sad to say.
Wow, that was a bunny trail. Here’s my minor, minor, very minor quibble with DSOTM; two shotgun blasts in a hotel room and no one comes to check on the noise? Really? Sure you can say, “hey, the brothers were gunned down, did their thing in heaven, and popped back within seconds. Um, okay. However, both the hunters who ambushed them were clearly departed from the scene with no one the wiser, the brothers took the time to change their clothes, clean up, and pack their stuff, call and converse with Cas, and then head out the door and no one came to investigate. Yes, I’m a tough judge, but that’s a mark against the perfection of the episode…but it’s a tiny mark and does nothing to affect my complete enjoyment of this episode as one of the ten finest episodes of this series. Hmm, that sounds like an article for the future. (BTW, how I would address that oh, so minor quibble: put the boys in some abandoned house like Sam in IKWYDLS or Sam and Dean in “Red Sky;” no neighbors to worry about.)
From the heights of DSOTM to the depths of “Hammer of the Gods”…
This one had greatness written all over it: the boys trapped in a confined geographic location, hotel; Gabriel/Trickster was there, they were working together, Lucifer arrives. This should have worked, right? It just doesn’t. The journey that Sam and Dean had taken from DSOTM to PONR, Sam moving to be the leader to support the dejected and defeated Dean, Dean diving into the depths of despair, says yes to Michael only to be pulled back from the precipice by the faith of his brother, and both are ready to take on whatever might come. We see the arrival of the brothers in all their rain-soaked glory to find themselves in a luxurious hotel in the middle of nowhere, and the episode promptly goes nowhere. Sam is, all of a sudden, relegated to little brother who is so angst-ridden he’s not sleeping, and thus Dean is in full-on protective mode who over-the-top declares that”‘no one is giving in, least of all me” (blech for the cheese on that one, and I’m a full-on fan of cheese, sharp cheddar being my favorite – the sharper the better). The brothers are frightened, confused, seemingly incapable of figuring out what’s going on, so major points off for that.
Gabriel/Trickster is delightful, funny, snarky and just as brash as we’ve ever seen him, and for that, this episode is one I do pull out from time to time for I can’t get enough of Gabriel/Trickster. Even his death scene does him justice for he, like the Winchesters and Castiel, found something to fight for, something to rise above and sacrifice for. The reflection of the older brother killing the younger was devastating, for at this time, we still wondered if Dean might not have to kill Sam.
The ending gave some purpose to the next episode or two but the payoff was too little, too late in the season. There was little reason to believe Sam and Dean still had ready access to War’s ring and Famine’s, and while I can stretch a bit and believe that perhaps, just perhaps, they drove to the storage place that John kept and somehow constructed a protection box to keep those two items safe, the retrieval of both Pestilence’s and Death’s rings rang hollow, contrived, and, as I already stated, too little too late. For the episode that set up how things were to finish the season, it was a huge letdown, but then so too was “The Devil You Know” and “Two Minutes to Midnight, “but that’s for another time.
For Season 5, the winner for me is clearly, without a doubt, “Dark Side of the Moon.” If you are in the need of a refresher on my thoughts on all of Season 5, you can find my Road So Far, Season 5 right here: www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/article-list/category9/9555-the-road-so-far-season-5.html (Editor’s note: I don’t know how to make pretty links yet as I am still learning how to post articles, so please bear with that huge link I posted for part 1 of Elle2’s Season 5 wrap-up. I hope it works. ~ Ardeospina)
Season Six:
Here Dabb and Loflin gave us another four episodes, “Weekend at Bobby’s,” “Family Matters,” “Unforgiven,” and “Frontierland.” As we’ve seen before, each of these episodes has its own tone, each explores the perspective of a character; Bobby, Dean, Sam, and Castiel, some in more depth (“Weekend at Bobby’s” and “Unforgiven”) and others to a lesser extent (“Family Matters” and “Frontierland”). Also, as has been the case in the past, these writers are given episodes that set up what is to come in the final stages of the season. “Frontierland does just that.”
I cannot say enough good things about “Weekend at Bobby’s.” Frankly, I’m not even going to try. If you want to know my thoughts on it, read my review of this episode. www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/article-list/category5/12205-elle2s-review-qweekend-at-bobbysq.html (Editor’s note: See above apology for my link-making skills. ~Ardeospina) Suffice it to say, and I’ll let the cat out of the bag early, this is my favorite episode of these writers in Season 6. At first, I thought they wrote Dean out of character for the portrayal of him hanging up on Bobby without so much as a thank you in one part and his “whining” to Bobby about Sam in another, but upon reflection, I realize that we’re to watch this episode with Bobby’s point of view first and foremost in our minds. To Bobby, at those two moments: sleep-deprived with a demon in his basement as he tries to regain his soul from Crowley; and secondly, after having endured killing a demon in his basement, burying an Okami in his yard, then having the police show up and have to hide the fact that he’s got two bodies – oops, only one ‘cause the Okami escaped and he tracks it down, kills it, and ruins any chance of a encore peach-ginger cobbler delight from his neighbor. Oh, yeah, and still is trying to track down a way to get his soul back from Crowley and – if that’s not enough – still likely hasn’t had much if any sleep, he’s got a call from Dean. For Bobby, it’s just another in a long list of problems that he’s supposed to solve and can’t; that over-the-top rant now becomes insight into Bobby and all that he endures without complaint. “Weekend at Bobby’s” is an absolute keeper.
“Family Matters” isn’t something I genuinely enjoy. Same with “Unforgiven,” but then again, there is very little in Season 6 that I enjoyed. My big problem with “Family Matters” is basically that it tries to say that it’s going to do something and then fails on all levels to achieve anything. We see a big vampire hunt that ends with someone screaming Dean’s name from a window, a moment that never goes anywhere, much like about everything with the Campbells, and then we see a vampire tortured, something else that ultimately goes nowhere, and Christian is shown to be a demon – begging the question of how did he walk into Dean’s house in “Exile on Main Street” for, based on Crowley’s comments, Christian has been “his” for a while. Basically, “Family Matters’” purpose is to show us Crowley as the big bad (another misdirect of the season), kill another Campbell – demon or not, Christian is a goner – and show us that Sam is able to untie himself from Dean’s knots simply because he has no soul.
“Unforgiven” doesn’t get much better for me, although the Sam angst is quite good. For me, I have no wish to watch this episode because it rehashes so much of what we either saw or heard about that Sam did, and I already got the point; Sam was bad, did bad things, things he can’t forgive himself for (and, apparently, neither can others) and because of him, people died. Yeah, it’s a pile on of garbage on Sam, and while I know those who love Sam to be front and center really enjoy this episode, I wish for some development in the character rather than a retread of all the bad stuff he did while he had no soul. For me, this episode simply showed Dean in the mode of “do it my way because I’m your older brother and I said so,†and Sam was in the mode of “I’m independent, I have my own mind and my own thoughts, and I’m going to push ahead despite the flashing red danger lights and do it my way.†“Unforgiven” is an episode I’ll skip. “Family Matters” is another one.
The last offering by Dabb and Loflin in Season 6 is “Frontierland.” It’s no “Weekend at Bobby’s,” no “Dark Side of the Moon,” and, frankly, it’s no “Jump the Shark” for deepening of characters’ stories. What it is is a fun romp in the milieu of the old west; for that alone I truly enjoy it. Sure, Dabb and Loflin go for the easy, make fun of Dean by putting him in a poncho that looks a lot like an afghan throw and make Sam the mature one who tolerantly puts up with Dean’s antics – then make him step in horse poo. (Which was very funny) However, Sam gets to meet up with Samuel Colt, and that is a treasure. Sam gets to meet the man who built the devil’s trap that enclosed the gate to hell which burst wide in AHBLII; Sam gets to meet the man who crafted the Colt, the gun that killed Azazel. Sam gets face to face with hunters’ history. Unfortunately, that’s about all Sam gets to do, besides ride a horse (wonderful physical comedy by Jared), step in horse poo, and then toss Dean the Colt in the nick of time to kill the Phoenix. Dean gets a little better treatment in the episode for he gets to be the hero. He looks awesome in his more authentic western gear (how and when and even why he found the time to shop I don’t care, despite the incongruity to the storyline that the boys are on a tight schedule). Dean is allowed to understand the reasoning of the Phoenix and to help fix the wrong inflicted upon the creature. As for the showdown at high noon, well, Dean didn’t get to ride a horse but he does get the shootout scene.
This episode sets up to major ending points for the season; that souls have power, power to heal and energize an angel and are dangerous to handle – something I have a huge continuity problem with. Castiel showed no fear in touching the child’s soul in “The Third Man” to see who had left a mark, no fear in touching Samuel’s soul in “Family Matters,” nor in touching Sam’s newly-restored soul in “Like A Virgin.” now all of a sudden he’s afraid of the damage to himself and to Bobby by touching Bobby’s soul. Continuity is important, and here it is thrown to the wind for the sake of the plot; Cas needs to be healed and there is no known angel-healing potion so hey, souls are powerful, we’ll do this. Granted, this helps to position the upcoming plotline, but it occurs at the expense of earlier episodes when souls were touched without care other than the individual whose soul was being touched was going to feel great pain.
“Frontierland” provides the means to kill the Mother of All; and the very next episode does just that, so here’s the setup and “Mommy Dearest” provides the smackdown. Thanks. Again, there’s a logic issue. If the Mother of All created every single monster that ever was, why is she felled by the ashes of one of her creatures? It lacks sophistication and rather seems to be nothing more than a clever reason to send the brothers back to the wild west. I enjoyed the ride but the plotting has logic issues.
Thus far:
Eleven episodes from Dabb and Loflin to date. There are a few that I find so unpleasant they’ll go in my “only-to-be-watched-when-I’m dedicated-to-watching-every-episode-of-the-series file.” I place “I Believe the Children Are Our Future,” “Sam, Interrupted,” “Family Matters,” and “Unforgiven” in that file. While “Hammer of the Gods” and “Yellow Fever” are fairly low on my rewatch list, I will watch them when I’m doing a Gabriel/Trickster marathon as well as when I’m in the mood for funny, zany, nutso episodes of “Supernatural.” “Yellow Fever” has just enough nutso to go in that.
For some Sam angst, as well as some good old-fashioned western fun, “After School Special” and “Frontierland” are queued up then.
For my top three Dabb and Loflin episodes, in order from least to the absolute best of their offerings:
“Jump the Shark” – gotta love anything that deepens the mystery of John, shows the brothers dealing with their feelings towards not only their father but the life they lead, and introduces a third Winchester brother flawlessly. That they should have never returned him past “Point of No Return” is another topic, this episode is my third favorite of Dabb and Loflin.
“Weekend at Bobby’s” – any episode that gives us Bobby and Rufus as grumpy old men, shows Crowley giving a one-man monologue on how and why he’s not going to return Bobby’s soul and then in the next moment does just that, complete with Sam and Dean going international is a winner for me; that Jensen directed it so excellently is just the fudge topping. My second favorite Dabb and Loflin episode.
“Dark Side of the Moon” – shotgun blasts that do not make enough sound to wake management notwithstanding, this one is a classic. Zachariah messing with the brothers, the final revelation of how much pain one brother is in by the actions of another…a revelation long deserved for Sam immediately became a more-aware brother to Dean after that, Castiel’s devastation that he was alone from heaven, the return of Ash, Samantha Smith portraying Mary in two different types, Dean luvs hugz, Colin Ford, “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”…the list goes on. “Dark Side of the Moon” is the pinnacle thus far of Dabb and Loflin’s writing. I can only hope that it gets better from here, or at the very least matches this level. I believe they can do it.
They’re back on board for Season 7, and I’m hopeful they’ll add to their already winning repertoire of episodes.
As always, thanks for reading, Elle2
Your taste and mine vary widely as Jump the Shark is one of my least favorite episodes of all and Dark Side of the Moon isn’t very high either. I also loved Family Matters. To each their own. 🙂
However, this article taught me that I don’t like much of what Dabb and Loflin have written. Their season 4 and 5 episodes run from terrible to meh for me. In season 6 I loved Weekend at Bobby’s and Family Matters but found the ending of Frontierland to be some of the most contrived and annoying writing in SPN history. It rivaled Insta-Dawn in Bugs and that’s hard to do. I know they were trying to honor Back to the Future, but it came off horribly wrong to me. Unforgiven was forgettable filler. I hope that 7.03 is more in the lines of Weekend at Bobby’s because to me that was by far the best one they have written.
I have to agree with Daphne.
Can’t say much about season 6, but the season 4 and 5 episodes were some the worst in my opinion, with the exclusion of “After School Special”. Of course, my opinion may be colored by the fact that I hated the whole concepts of seasons 4 and 5 in general.
And I guess I’m one of the few who also didn’t like DSOTM. Another episode for Dean and his issues, while Sam is BAD, BAD, BAD. It just hammered home for me that we will never get to see Dean really have some character growth in understanding his brother at all while Sam will continue to be sorry for his whole existence for more reasons than one. IMO, Sam was already well aware that he’d made some choices in his life that hurt his brother, pre-series and during. And even if we were to buy that not one of Sam’s memories would be with his brother or family, we’re supposed to believe that he wouldn’t have chosen one memory with Jessica. The whole episode was contrived to move Dean into position for the next episodes, and it had the all the subtlety of an anvil to our heads.
And I agree with you, that line of Deans in “Hammer of the Gods” was so lame I cringed. Season 5 had some of the worst writing of the whole series.
I enjoyed reading this article – and “Dark Side of the Moon” is (in my view) one of the best episodes of Supernatural. 🙂
I agree with you, Andrea.
I never saw Sam’s bid for independence as “bad”, and way back when, I don’t think the show did either. Somehow we got from Dean calling Sam and telling him he was proud of him for standing up to their father in “Scarecrow”, to Sam walking out on their family and it being all his fault in later episodes. And when Dean accused him of being the one to leave all the time in PONR, and Sam saying he was wrong everytime, I was like “WTH”?
The earlier seasons seemed to really balance out the differences between the two of them and give them equal weight. Sam was more independent, but empathetic, and Dean was all about Family and caretaking and neither one was a bad thing. They balanced each other and seemed to respect each other’s differences even when it irritated the hell out of them. They [b]BOTH[/b] made bad decisions and they [b]BOTH[/b] did things that hurt the other, and the show acknowledged that about them. Then somehow Sam became the bad son and the bad brother and Dean became the martyr.
I know it sounds like I don’t like the show and that’s not true. I love it. I really like both brothers for their own unique personalities. I just find myself wishing for some acknowledgement from the writers that they get it too and sometimes I don’t see it. It’s a disservice to the great work that Jared and Jensen have done throughout the years.
[quote]’They BOTH made bad decisions and they BOTH did things that hurt the other, and the show acknowledged that about them. Then somehow Sam became the bad son and the bad brother and Dean became the martyr.’
I couldn’t agree with you more, Sylvia37, and I always wonder what happened with the Dean who declared himself proud of Sam in Scarecrow. Like I said in other posts, but I miss the earlier seasons in several aspects. Balance is one of them.[/quote]
I’m answering here instead of at the original thread. My problems with DSOTM mirror Sylvia’s and yours. I didn’t mind Sam seeing how his actions hurt Dean, but I did mind that the audience was never shown that Sam had happy memories that included Dean. There was never a fireworks moment for Sam and that contributed to the Sam is a BAD, unloving, selfish brother attitude that Supernatural was pushing for seasons four, five and half of six.
I too hated YF, partly because it is not well written, but also because BOTH Sam and Bobby were so OOC about Dean possibly dying. Neither one seemed terribly interested other than the intellectual problem of how to get rid of this odd ghost. Plus terrorizing a ghost by forcing him to relive his horrific and completely undeserved death was repulsive.
HOTG, was insulting to every religion that is not Christian. If they had stuck to the Norse Gods or other religions that have died out, I could have accepted it. But bringing in Kali and the other Asian deities that are still worshiped really, really bothered me.
They certainly wrote a good young Sam in After School Special and for a moment, I thought they were actually going to start to show that Sam was not evil, but the next week it was back to the same old, same old Sam can’t be trusted although I can’t blame Dabb and Laughlin for that.
My main issue is that although for most of their episodes D&L have had a good grip on Dean’s character, we have not seen the same grasp on Sam’s. I was deeply disappointed that an episode entitled Sam, Interrupted, had DEAN having lengthy monologues on his emotional state while Sam becomes violent due to the wraith. Then three minutes before the end of the episode, Sam experiences an emotional breakthrough only to be told BY DEAN to shut up about it and not discuss ANY of SAMS’S issues. I really know if I can attribute that to D&L, since most of seasons four and five were about Dean the martyr and Sam the brother who is always wrong, unless he is 1) doing whatever Dean wants or 2)committing suicide AND succeeding in suicide, not messages I enjoy. Also, in season five ALL the writers were trying to come up with reasons for viewers to believe Sam would say yes, and not really succeeding. They had used pride and arrogance in season four (unsuccessfully IMHO) but after his massive failure, any pride or even self-confidence Sam had developed was pretty well destroyed. As I said, I can’t totally blame D&L for the premise of the season, but at the very least they could have called the episode Dean, Interrupted and not gotten my hopes up that Sam would actually get some exploration.
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Thanks for the the reviews of the D&L episodes. They are not my favorite writers, they are a little like the little girl with the little curl right in the middle of her forehead. When they are good they are very good and when they are bad they are horrid (or to be more fair, simply miss the mark by a lot.
I completely agree with you about all of this. It wasn’t just these particular writers, but they certainly contributed.
And I particularly agree about “Sam Interrupted”. What a waste of a decent premise. Once more, Dean has the whole world on his shoulders, Dean has issues and Sam is…angry. As Elle said, it was out of the blue and I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
When Dean told Sam in PONR that he was self righteous and angry, I thought, are you kidding? What has Sam had to be self righteous about? And as you said, they needed a reason for Sam to say yes and they wrote him so OOC it was ridiculous. The characters were written to make the episodes work, when it should have been the other way around. The whole end of the season was so contrived that I wanted to scream. By the time Swan Song came around, it was too late to save it. Even Jared and Jensen’s great performances couldn’t make up for what came before.
I had such hopes at the beginning right up until Fallen Idols, and then it went straight down hill. Before that, the guys were actually in character and talking openly about their issues and making progress. Then, IBTCAOF blew it all to hell, pun intended.
Elle, you did a great job. You’ve certainly got us talking.
[quote]I’m one of the very few people who can’t see why it was so ‘bad’ of Sam wanting to have a life of his own. Like he said to Dean, he never knew a mother’s love – no memories. Dad was hardly home. Besides, he never wanted to be a hunter. Many people argued that Dean wouldn’t love Sam less if he wanted to stay with Lisa. The same is true for Sam – he wanting a different life does’t mean that he loved Dean less. And it’s not like he did it on purpose to hurt Dean. He seemed to be truly surprised with Dean’s reaction on the dog scene particularly.
Besides, this is a two-way road – if it’s selfish of Sam wanting to leave, isn’t it selfish of Dean wanting him to stay?[/quote]
I totally agree with this, as did the show, once upon a time. Sadly, the decision was made that if Dean wanted something it was RIGHT and if Sam wanted something it was WRONG. Jump the Shark annoyed me to no end. For 3 seasons Dean rags on Sam for not respecting and appreciating John. Sam learns to accept that John was human and appreciate what John did for them. Dean then announces that John was a total JERK, unworthy of love and respect and Sam is just like him and suddenly Sam is in the wrong AGAIN, because Dean changed his mind and Dean is always RIGHT. Yeah, that bugged me a lot.
Why did this develop into a Sam vs Dean diatribe? My very least favourite of topics. 😡
Anyways, I do agree with your favourite picks from these writers, but not at all with your least favourites. We are two different people with different ways of looking at things. Also, I do enjoy a little bit of crass and obscene few and far between of course. Isn’t that what guys do?
I thoroughly enjoyed “Hammer of the Gods” believe it or not, and the only bummer about that one is that my favourite angel was killed.
Loved Colin Ford in “After School” but was discombobulated when watching “Dean”.
Juat didn’t accept that Dean.
Loved “Yellow Fever”, “Sam Interrupted”, “Frontierland”, “Weekend at Bobby’s”, “Dark Side of the Moon”, “Family Affairs”(great vampire), not so fond of “Unforgiven”.
I did enjoy your article Elle2. 🙂
Yes thank you, I’m glad I’m not the only one who actually likes these two writers. Sure, not every episode was up to par, but I enjoyed them all. “Yellow Fever” is a hoot, but it also gives us some good insight into Dean’s fears about Sam turning darkside. Even at the end, he sees yellow flash in Sam’s eyes…yikes!
By the way, anyone know if Jeremy Carver will ever be back on the show? I miss him tremendously.
I definitely did not mean this as a Sam versus Dean debate [b]AT ALL[/b]. I just really didn’t like how EITHER of them were written by these writers and some of the others, but I felt that Sam really got the short end of the stick between the two of them.
Cheers
Thanks for the insight into these two writers, Elle2. I do have to admit I thoroughly enjoy the foolishness of Yellow Fever.
I thoroughly enjoyed Frontierland. I also loved Dean in his real Western outfit as he drew down on the not -so-bad bad guy. Be still my heart. Sam was great in the scene where he confronted Colt; he really laid it on the line.
I agree the psychiatrist in Sam, Interrupted was great; so great, I didn’t realize Dean was hallucinating her the whole time.
While I agree Dark Side of the Moon was great: it had Pamela and Ash, showed us Supernatural’s idea of heaven, gave us a glimpse of Dean’s relationship with Mom, and another dose of the awesomely wicked Zachariah. However, I can’t believe that Dean was not in even one of Sam’s three greatest hits memories.Back in season 3, I think it was in Fresh Blood, Sam tells Dean he has been looking up to him (Dean) and trying to be just like his big brother since he was 4 years old. Surely, Dean was important enough to rate a place in Sam’s heaven. In trying to drive a wedge between Sam and Dean in this way,I believe the writers did both characters a disservice.
I love Weekend at Bobby’s; it gave us such insight into the lighter and darker sides of Bobby Singer as well as being a wonderful showcase for Jim Beaver’s acting skills.
I thought Family Matters really moved the plot forward, but felt like too much was crammed into one episode.
I didn’t like The Unforgiven at all. I hated seeing Soulless Sam actually doing evil things; I preferred him in Clap Your Hands where he was hilariously clueless.
However, I saw Dean as recognizing his brother as an equal in The Unforgiven and giving in to Sam’s wishes at least three times over his own instincts. Dean reluctantly agreed to take the case in the first place, he acquiesced to them staying on the case after they found Sam had already been in the town with Samuel, and he acceded to Sam’s anguished need to finish the case and Dean agreed to back him up.
One thing I really like about Season 6 is that both brothers seem like equal partners now, not oldest calling the shots and younger fighting against big brother’s control. That worked really well in Season 1, but the guys have been through so much, their relationship has to change somewhat to remain credible.
Great article, Elle. Dark Side of the Moon is one of my all-time favorite episodes for the reason you state: it is the first time we see Sam realizing how his actions affected Dean…not to mention the fact that the Kurt Fuller/JA scenes was brilliant in this episode.
Dabb and Loflin are two of my favorite writers now that Raelle Tucker, Jeremy Carver and John Sibon (sp??) have left. That said, I hated JTS, because I hated the introduction of the third brother and have no appreciation for Jake Abel’s acting. Perhaps he’s just too young for my tastes. And, I think that episode did finally trash John as a character. I was hoping that S6 would give us some insight into how Dean feels about his John now, but that appears another Dean story that will not be explored further. The fact is, if Jake Abel is in an episode, I won’t watch it. Adding the third brother took something very structural away from the show and it’s something that can never be given back. I hated the whole concept and this feeling was validated by Swan Song’s negating Dean’s S4 and S5 story (not to mention that S6 negated both S4 and S5, because there was apparently no reason whatsoever for the 66 seals story if Cas could just go get Sam from the cage in Hell).
I also liked Hammer of the Gods, despite it’s many flaws. Hated Yellow Fever — and why did Sam and Bobby not even care that Dean had only a few minutes left to live? No concern on their part at all.
I liked After School Special for the Sam insight, but it is an episode I have never watched a second time and have no intention of ever doing so. I couldn’t get into Brock as young Dean.
I could go on, but will end by saying that most of the episodes offered by Dabb and Loflin have been some of the ones I enjoyed the most when compared to others. Dark Side of the Moon, I thought, was exceptionally good.
Great article, as usual though at this site it turns into Dean bashing in the comments. Its not really Sam versus Dean, rather its how bad Dean is and how badly poor misunderstood Sam is treated. This sort of thing seems to florish here unfortunately.
Sam is an awesome character and so is Dean!
I did enjoy this and other articles however. So thanks to the author.
Okay, it appears that I started something that I REALLY was not trying to start. Just for the record, I love Dean. I think the show is great because there are two GREAT characters leading it, not just one. I apparently did not get it across that I felt that both characters were shortchanged by some of the writing.
Guess I need to watch it in the future.
Thanks again Elle. I look forward to your other articles.
We try to keep the Sam vs Dean debates at bay here. But you can’t control every single comment as long as they are within our rules.
In defense of our site – I’ve seen bashing of both characters on other sites in far more vicious and vitriolic manner. It seems you can’t avoid this kind of debate (and I, personally, can’t abide them) completely.
:sigh: , Jas
Hello Elle2, it took me a while to read this properly… sorry for that.
I like the scripts Dabb and Loflin come up with. They are witty, scary, and sometimes hard to watch, just as hard as they are on the characters. On the other hand, when I think what Sera Gamble has done to Sam so far, this duo has remained somewhat ‘humane’. Not that that can’t change in the future. What you call their ‘over-the-top silliness’ I call a necessary breather. These moments often come quite handy to my mind, when I feel the emotional suspense building up is trying to kill me.
There have been minor moments in their episodes I disagreed with or thought them too ‘off’, but I don’t dwell on that. I used to think about some of the storylines established and then never re-visited again. Sometimes I was sad about that, but I decided to go on with the show and follow their path and not lose sleep on a question like ‘where did the amulet go?’. Frankly, I’d be frightfully grateful if we were able to let that one rest in peace. I just can’t hear it anymore. But that’s just me. I know there are fans out there desperately holding on to that trinket.
I understand your little nitpicks about how perfection needs to be earned. I don’t entirely agree here. My personal understanding of perfection is: there is a thing/person/episode or whatever with a few flaws. I’m a big fan of flaws and imperfections.
You’ve made it perfectly clear here and in other articles you wrote about the last season that you were not exactly fond of that. However, again, I disagree. I can’t agree with your assessment of Unforgiven, an episode I think was necessary for Sam (not for us) to understand what had been going on. But, well, we don’t have to agree…
I’m looking forward to future episodes written by this writing duo. I’m curious where they will go and how they will evolve. It could get interesting.
Cheers. Jas
Thank you to everyone who has read the article and a thank you to everyone who has commented on the article.
I see there has been a lively discussion going on…the whole point of these articles anyway (not just mine but all the articles).
For those of you who like what I like, good for you; for those of you who don’t like what I like; good for you. My purpose isn’t to ‘bend’ anyone’s thoughts to mine but rather to simply comment on things I see and let you know how I see them. These articles also are a tool for me to find new, deeper and perhaps more enjoyable aspects to an episode, a writer, a season or whatever I’m inspired to write about.
When I’m reading another’s review, I’ve often found hidden gems that completely passed by me. My hope is to write and perhaps on occasion do that for someone else.
(Plus, writing an article now and again helps pass the hellatus, I mean, let’s be honest here. 8)
Anyway, thank you again for all who read the article and thank you again for all who read and commented on the article.
We got Comic Con updates on the very near horizon which will likely keep us very busy for the next week and then there’s ‘only’ eight weeks after that until September 23.
In the meantime, I’m cooking up another article to post sometimes in August.
Have fun, all.
Elle2
Elle 2,
I haven’t sat down to read this one, yet. I’m still getting into the swing of things from being back from vaca.
I agree with you. Every article is to foster thought, and since this show comes with such thought provoking story lines I love to see how each of us view it. I look forward to what you’ve said here when I can read it.
I’m also finishing up my review of the NJ Con, so I hope that will foster some debate and discussion, too. So much happened, and I’ll be happy to have a record of it for my scrap book—as well as sharing it with my WFB Family.
Far Away Eyes
I think I am the only fan in SPN who says “good riddance” to that darn amulet! It represented a really sick love of the brothers, almost chaining Dean to Sam as his protector. When that went in the trash I cheered, because love shouldn’t be a burden, and both brothers need to learn that. Free will ought to apply between tem too – death to the past and have them hunting because they want it.
Good article which have me alot to think about these 2 writers who I am very conflicted about. I loved DSOTM, WEAB as well, and much of Frontierland, but I scratch my head at the others. Lately, Supernatural sucks at maintaining continuity of character. From outright OOCness, to person as plot device, to rewriting the same issues over and over, even after they have been resolved… Please make this a cleaner season, or hire continuity folks for the writers.
Unfortunately, in real life, we tend to return to issues that have been a part of our lives. It’s a very human trait. We stick to the familiar, even if that brings us more pain than joy. And, furthermore, when those issues are a part of our identity (e.g. the will to sacrifice oneself for those one loves), it’s very hard to let go of those. Some people never achieve that.
You don’t name the issues you ‘take issue with’ 😉 , but from where I’m standing, the writers (not only these two) have kept (mostly) to the psychological continuity of the characters.
Best, Jas