Dead Man's Blood: A Supernatural Episode Review

[sylvia_bond]

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Dead Man's Blood” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!  

An excerpt:

"Oh. My. Holy. Hell. It’s The DAD. The boys are shocked ghost white to find The Dad sneaking up on them. (The last time they were together, ages ago, they agreed that The Dad would be safer apart from his boys.) The Dad slips into the backseat of the Impala like he owns the place and takes the letter from Dean. Instantly the scene flips from two brothers floundering around to three men on a mission, one of whom is in charge of everything and everyone. The Dad doesn’t read the letter aloud, he merely scans it, mutters to himself (with those pillowy lips of his), and then starts barking out orders. There’s a vampire nest, they are going after it. There’s a gun, The Dad wants it. Follow me, The Dad says, and off they go." 

Comments

[ckll.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the wonderful review.
As for...'I want to know how it came about that the boys are asleep and The Dad is awake'. I guess this is one of the scenes we will never find out.

[sylvia-bond.livejournal.com]

You're welcome, and thank you! We won't every find out, dangit, what really happened, so I made up my own. I'm sure there's fanfic out there about this, cause it's such a great moment.

[runedgirl.livejournal.com]

Hey Sylvia, excellent review as always. In fact, I'm wanting to go back and watch this ep again, just for the way family dynamics play out in it (and of course any moments when either of the J3's grab one another by their shirts/plaids/jackets is worth another look anyway. :)

Thanks!
Lynsey

[sylvia-bond.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's all about the grabbing and the pushing and their complete lack of fear in shouting at the top of their lungs. That's the way life should be, eh?

[partaymon5.livejournal.com]

Loved that episode, most especially for the family dynamics you mentioned. Plus, I've always liked the character of John: a man thrown totally out of his normal world and left with loss, and two small children to care for. Yes, the man made mistakes, but he made them out of love and fear. One thing a lot of John haters seem to forget, is that we see John and his methods through the eyes of his boys, especially Sam. A still resentful and rebellious Sam at that. When we hear John's side, during his talk with Sam, we realize that he wasn't a monster, but a man, an ex Marine, who did the best he could to keep his remaining family alive.

Plus, on the shallow side: Papa Winchester is one smoking hot man! To me, he is so obviously the sire of these boys (and yes I use 'sire' intentionally in this vampire world). Dean looks like his dad: the large heavily lashed eyes, the face shape and of course the full lips. (I've seen a picture of a younger Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the resemblance to Jensen is astounding!). Sam on the other hand, got his Daddy's size and more of his personality, albeit with a gentler nature generally. One wonders actually, just where Sam got his 'sweetness' from, since he has no recollection of his Mother. A case of nature vs. nurture maybe? I've often wondered if one of the reasons Dean so often attributes 'female' traits to Sam, is because both John and Sam are bigger than him physically. Dean is not short, but he's the smallest in his family and smaller men often try to make up for that 'perceived' lack in other ways: notably by verbal jibes. Sam's normally more PC and moral personality might also provoke this reaction in Dean.

Also interesting that Sam rarely responds to it beyond the odd face and eyeroll, especially considering just how quick and willing he is to get right in his father's face. You compared it to the 'smack down' bit, but I see it more as much more inherently male behaviour. Smack down is just acting mostly and postering. The Winchesters are much more serious in their interactions than this, if only because of their background and their chosen (or not so chosen) profession. They're not playing here, but trying to establish a pecking order in the pack. Papa is fighting to keep his place as leader, while the 'young pup' Sam, is fighting to establish his own status. Dean is not a 'yes man', so much as a good soldier a good pack member. As we learn in another episode, he disobeyed once and Sam nearly died. Dean will never do that again. Instead he rebells against everything outside the family: authority figures, women, other males. He doesn't care about them, therefore he is free to fight with them. His family - his pack - is sacred to him, and he's learned that - for him - this means obeying his father.

Sam on the other hand, never learned that lesson, and broke away from the pack to establish his status. Sam is the intellectual, and as you say, he will always question - everyone. Sam is much more like his father, in his stubborn pursuit of what he wants, and also in his reaction to loss. Sam and John fight, and go after it, without thought of anything else. Dean is the same in his own way, though he is more likely to just step aside for the family. He's more a man who lives by his gut instinct and in the moment. Dean doesn't look forward much in his life - perhaps never expecting to live long enough. That's not his focus and he's shown that he would rather die than lose any more of his family. In some ways, when Sam and John get into it, Dean is acting much more like the 'mother': stepping between the two combatants and trying to deflect the arguments. A very interesting position for someone who tries so hard to be 'macho' to the outside world.

Whoever writes some of this, is very familiar with the actual world of men: how they fight, what they say. Men fight like this, swearing and hitting and posturing without a care of 'feelings'. Feelings and being concerned about the fallout - that's a woman's viewpoint and I love that they act so 'real' about these things. Men can have a knock down, drag 'em out, punch up one moment, and the next day, they're right back to working side by side with their friend/buddy/whatever. That's the way they

[sylvia-bond.livejournal.com]

I love your feedback and the fact that you read my review and have so much to say. Yeah, you're right in that the smack down is posturing, and the Winchesters aren't playing around here. I had a bunch of metaphors I wanted to choose from (pack leader and followers was one of them) but I didn't want to overdo those metaphors and so had to pick just one, hence the smack down, which was a lot of fun.

You've got some interesting insights about how men fight, I hadn't quite thought about it like that before. That they don't concern themselves with the fallout as much as women do. Because women tend to be more oriented towards the community and bonding within it and fighting with no care as to who gets hurt is not usually how we do it, is it. This is new for me, which is strange, seeing as I've been a woman all my life!

JDM is the living end and about the hottest thing going, all of which he brings to Papa Winchester with a smoky intensity that unsettles me. I would love to see more eps with him in it and see things from his point of view, to see it through his eyes, why he made the choices he did and how he really really feels about them. The stories we get (or the attitudes we see) towards John from each of his boys is different, I like the way you put it, Dean as the soldier (he's not really a yes man, never was) and Sam as the intellectual. Of course they're going to see The Dad through their own filter, and I'm sure we've not heard the last of the John stories they have to tell, like what about those secret weapons caches? And what other things has he not told the boys? Only KRIPKE knows! And he's not telling. Yet.

[apgeeksout.livejournal.com]

blood from a dead man, or presumably, a dead woman
:D Cracking! me! up! tonight!

description in addition to “boys,” “darlings,” and “my own true loves.”

I'm also pretty fond of "los bros. Winchester", or if they're trying to break my heart again, "oh, babies...". But when I don't refer to Sam & Dean by name, I do usually find myself saying "[the/my/our] boys". I generally self-identify as a feminist & I do, depending on context, get peeved when people refer to adult women as "girls", so I'm trying to decide how much cognitive dissonance I ought to be having over this.

I think I will definitely have to start referring to John as "The Dad", though, at least when I'm not being angry toward him. Talking of which, though I don't have anything related to the missing scene you wondered about, I do think you will like this fic, set just after the ep, which has one of those characterizations of John that I can sympathize with & even ♥.

Chide me if you will for not delving with any depth into scenes that involved the vampires, but with three gods stalking around, I was a tad preoccupied.

Oh, right. There are vampires in this episode. Has anyone in the history of this fandom ever complained about the boys crowding out the MotW? I think you're safe.

[sylvia-bond.livejournal.com]

blood from a dead man, or presumably, a dead woman
:D Cracking! me! up! tonight!

GOOD!! I am well satisfied then.


description in addition to “boys,” “darlings,” and “my own true loves.”

I'm also pretty fond of "los bros. Winchester", or if they're trying to break my heart again, "oh, babies...". But when I don't refer to Sam & Dean by name, I do usually find myself saying "[the/my/our] boys". I generally self-identify as a feminist & I do, depending on context, get peeved when people refer to adult women as "girls", so I'm trying to decide how much cognitive dissonance I ought to be having over this.

No. It's not the same. "The boys" are an entity here. It's not a diminutive like "the girls" are. You're okay. Just keep saying it, you're okay.


I think I will definitely have to start referring to John as "The Dad", though, at least when I'm not being angry toward him. Talking of which, though I don't have anything related to the missing scene you wondered about, I do think you will like this fic, set just after the ep, which has one of those characterizations of John that I can sympathize with & even ♥.


Now that was sweet! All the love and caring you could ever want that you never see on the screen! Thank you. : D

Chide me if you will for not delving with any depth into scenes that involved the vampires, but with three gods stalking around, I was a tad preoccupied.

Oh, right. There are vampires in this episode. Has anyone in the history of this fandom ever complained about the boys crowding out the MotW? I think you're safe.

Yeah. Vampires, and they were pretty cool. By the end of the review, I realized I hadn't barely mentioned them! And I actually liked Luther.

[apgeeksout.livejournal.com]

No. It's not the same. "The boys" are an entity here. It's not a diminutive like "the girls" are. You're okay. Just keep saying it, you're okay.

Ah, you're right! That's the context thing. It's okay to say "going out with the girls", but dismissive to say "this girl wants to sue her husband" (it's mostly a prof who's been driving me buggy with this lately). I am okay! ;)

All the love and caring you could ever want that you never see on the screen!

That kind of characterization of John, as a man who recognizes & regrets his mistakes, even as he's paralyzed to fix or stop perpetuating the damage they've caused, is powerful stuff that I could eat up with a spoon. I like JDM an awful lot, but I never feel that way about the John he plays. I don't doubt that he loves the boys fiercely, but I'm not sure he recognizes a lot of the ways that he's hurt them over the last couple of decades.

It could be a POV/framing kind of issue... maybe if we stuck close to him for an episode instead of seeing him from the outside or as the boys do, that would come through for me a little more.

[sylvia-bond.livejournal.com]

Hey, girl. You're right. John needs his own episode, he really does. We need to see what he thinks about what he's done, and maybe even some angst over it!! Cause I'm with you, the fallout from every single one of John's decisions have created two beautifull but broken boys. Not that I mind the fanfic, but there's so much of it, I'll never catch up. A single ep would go a long way here.