‘Supernatural’ season 8, episode 9 review: The Amelia debate
“Supernatural” is such an interesting show in many ways, and one of the primary subjects we want to talk about when it comes to Wednesday night’s “Citizen Fang” is pretty simple: Amelia. On most shows, it’s a relief when someone is not a dream sequence or some sort of ghost character. When it revealed on “Supernatural,” however, that Sam’s past love is actually a functioning human being with a man in Don, it’s a polarizing decision.
Perhaps it is the notion that one of these characters could ever have anything resembling a normal life that is so surprising. After all, just look at what they spend most of their time doing. But now that we know that Amelia really exists, we can say with confidence that Sam did genuinely try to make a life work that did not include being a hunter, but it just didn’t work out for him.
What the closing minutes of “Citizen Fang” also showed us was that Dean still knows how to take advantage of his brother’s weakness with that well-placed phone message at the end. He obviously was operating under the assumption that Martin was still crazy, and he was right. Rather than Benny being the one that was taken down this week, our dose of season 5 was the bloody mess at the end of the episode instead. The Winchesters were pulled apart physically at the start of the season, and we are starting to assume more and more here as time goes by that they are going to be pulled apart emotionally.
Even though some out there have criticized Jeremy Carver at times for making the brothers too unlikable at times so far in season 8, we actually applaud it for adding some new rough edges to the dynamic. These are two guys who have clearly been through a lot in their time away from each other, and not everything is going to come up roses as a result. We also have found a number of episodes this year particularly strong, especially this one in that it introduced the Amelia twist-that-was-hardly-a-twist coupled with some movement in the story for all our key characters.
Ultimately, do you think that the winter “Supernatural” finale delivered? If you want some more scoop on what lies ahead, you can do so over at the link here.
Photo: The CW
Jen
December 6, 2012 @ 10:50 pm
I’m sorry for going off topic in my previous comment.
My thoughts about the characters including Amelia would take ten pages. I’m just not articulate and succint to put all my thoughts into a short comment. However, what I loved about the characterisation in this episode has been pointed out by others already. We got to see layers and sides to the characters we haven’t seen before. And what was great here was they delivered these refreshing aspects in a logical, believable manner. A lot of the fans are crying out character assassination. Which is very wrong and simply invalid, especially regarding this episode. What some delusional fans seem to forget is that the characters Sam and Dean are not theirs. I feel awful writing this, but the fact remains is that these characters come to life through other people’s creative licence. Sure, you can hate characters because they’ve been portrayed in “unlikeable” ways, that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, which is fair because that’s their opinion and not like I can change what they like or don’t. However, my opinion on what should be judged is how believable these characters are in the context of the show within which they are written, not what sooths our whimsies. As long as I can understand them, I take what I get. I hated Sam trusting Ruby over Dean, but not like I couldn’t see why not. Sure, I wanted to wack him silly and call him a fool, but that was the intended result of the creators and they did it really well. It served to show development in a fictional character as we see his motivations and how he goes about redeeming himself. They wanted him to make that mistake. They wanted to show Sam in that light.
And what this show has always shown me, is that the brothers are two completely different characters, and so them being at odds is natural and believable, not to mention fun. But what this show also shows me, is that they also care about each other. Oh my god, how is that possible, to find someone annoying, and hate what they did, yet still care about each other?
Now it’s up to what the writers come up with. They’ve come up with the plot of brothers growing up the way they did, dean loving baby Sammy, dad leaving Sammy in Dean’s care, Dean’s longing for a family, Sam and his willfulness…But as the show make up more fictitious events for the show, we also see the characters developing. Jess’ death has Sam being reaquainted with his brother, and the character Sam is enriched as his motivations, temperaments are unveiled. We see their dynamics. We like what we see.
But just as humans are dynamic by nature, so too do we need the Sam and Dean characters to be dynamic. Some fans oppose the “character assassination” to them this episode. I see it as development, fleshing out, adding layers…all good stuff.
This episode justified Dean’s faith in Benny, added more substance to Benny’s character, and alludes to Sam’s motivations, with Amelia as key. Whether you like or hate what see at this point, that’s your problem.
I know that regarding Amelia, I am nervous. She’s the wildcard in this show. She is too well developed to dismiss, yet not enough at this point to be sorely missed by the majority, because so far they only see some random vet with problems…which is low on the scale of interesting in the show. I feel the same, believe me I do. Yet the way she was shown in this episode surprisingly didn’t go beyond my tolerance boundaries, yet at the same time begged insightful questions that would develop Sam’s character. How important was the relationship? What’s her significance? Answering these questions would help me fathom Sam and the funk he’s been in since before premier.
So those crying mediocre episode, character assassination, poor writing and, get this…bad acting??
I can only say…I pity you. I sincerely pity you. For I only saw gripping, intelligent, exciting, excellent writing with skill and insight and overall an A+ episode executed with technique and finesse that’s been absent for so long.
kim berry
December 6, 2012 @ 5:38 pm
I agree totally with you Jen. The previous episodes seemed as though someone was “checking the block” , very lack luster I couldn’t believe that I was watching the same series. Kudos to Daniel Loflin and Nick Copus(writer and director) finally a real supernatural episode. i also agree that the Sam flashback story line should wrap immediately, way too boring. where’s the passion, the love, the I”m so glad I met u moments at?
Jen
December 6, 2012 @ 2:22 am
Easily the best episode this season.
While I’ll give the previous episodes points for effort, they’ll get B+ to A- at most.
This was a genuine A+. And I’m not even exaggerating. If I let the fangirl in me talk then it’ll be A+++++++++++++++.
First off, execution. I need to go search up whoever directed this episode because I’m a new fan. The previous episodes may have some particular great moments in terms of writing and plot direction, but the majority of the time the execution failed to deliver the impact needed to keep viewers engaged. Mediocre set design, passing of bad acting, the poor editting…some people may not be affected by these things but they drove me insane. This episode gave me the chills because of the difference in quality between it and its predecessors. The pacing, the flow, the camera works, the visual effects, props, the set design…flawless. If only they hadn’t hidden this gem till episode 9.
Next, writing. This was really well done here. No overwritten lines, a clear plot, believable characterisations and dialogue, a strong grasp of what the important themes and issues are they need to be included, a pacing that worked so that all the plots fit into the episode without dragging some parts and rushing others, a depth and sophistication which was riveting and engaging and made me care and never bored or rolling my eyes and going wtf, and the necessary amount of tension needed to keep things interesting.
Acting. Good. Excellent. Period. Every single one of them.
I don’t know what more to say, except that this episode delivered exactly what I wanted from Supernatural in a very, very long time.
Let’s hope the quality continues all the way to the finale.
Mieke T
December 6, 2012 @ 1:11 am
Wish we could have seen Sam actually being in need of being saved as he claims to have been by Amelia. It would have made this passionless relationship feel like it makes sense in this journey we are supposed to be watching. I don’t object to exploring Sam finally trying on this “normal life” he had been craving for so long, but this is just not working. The Sam storyline consequently feels very fake, which is why, I believe, so many fans were speculating on all sorts of subtext (supernatural and otherwise)