SPN thoughts

[schmevil]

So what was Sam intended to get out of the office life fantasy? He seemed to 'learn' that:

1) He would be woefully underused and bored in a real-world setting.

2) Dean is awesome, and Sam wants to be with him.

The very next week he's back on the Dean-is-weak thing, and the 'lesson' he seems to have retained is the one about how not-normal, and definitely special he is. And this week we get a Sam who's utterly rejected the possibility of ever again having a normal life, and has even begun to think of civilians as being weak and vulnerable. Not the lucky ones, but the ones that hunters, that Sam, needs to save.

Though no sign of demon powers.

Was there another lesson Sam was supposed to learn that I've missed? What do you guys think he took away from the experience? I'm wondering if he wouldn't see it as a punishment - Dean gets to play at being an executive; Sam gets to be tech support. He's already suspicious of the angels...

Also, a question for you longtime watchers, about Thursday's ep. Sam says, "You're ghouls! The fresh kills threw me off." Implying that ghouls usually eat the dead pretty exclusively, and only move to live bodies in unusual circumstances. What are those unusual circumstances? Has SPN done anything with ghouls before?

My blind speculation is that there are two reasons ghouls would move to fresh kills:

1) Lack of their preferred food. Not enough people are dying, they have to kill some. :)

2) Lack of socialization. The ghouls said that their father was killed by John, and consequently they had to fend for themselves. They started killing because they wanted revenge, and because they didn't see a reason not to. They weren't raised in ghoul society? Is there a ghoul society?

Comments

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I thought it was fairly obvious that they killed those people out of revenge. They seemed to like the taste, so perhaps had they lived they would have continued killing people rather than feeding off the dead, but they started it to get revenge for their father.

There haven't been ghouls on the show before.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

It was something in the way their explanation was written. OUR FATHER IS DEAD. WE HAD TO FEND FOR OURSELVES. NOW WE KILL. That got me thinking there might be more going on.

Edits again (don't kill me - it's 3am here and I just got home from work O.o): ok, so a little clearer, I was wondering about circumstances under which ghouls in general might move to killing people. I don't think it was said that ghouls never kill, just that they don't usually. So there's that. And I think it would be cool to have a ghoul society. ;)

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

I was just like Dean on this week's ep, ghouls lept to mind when the groundskeeper said the bodies had been taken from the crypt but dammit there were fresh kills so it couldn't be ghouls...

Not only is it unusual for a ghoul to kill someone living but to FEED on someone when they are alive? That's unheard of. (At least, from the lore I've read.) Ghouls are scavengers, not hunters.

I think the ghouls were there to illustrate the brothers current situation. Like the ghouls, they were raised apart from their (Hunter) society. Yes, John taught them a lot about the monsters but he kept them away from other Hunters and after having read John Winchester's Journal this week I see that John also kept himself apart and didn't trust other hunters AT ALL. (And he has killed other Hunters.)

The brothers are isolated, like the ghoul children, and they have no role model other than their father to compare themselves to. John was pretty crazy and would go to incredible lengths for revenge; that is their norm. The ghouls were there to mirror the brothers.

--
I was a little thrown by Sam being a tech support worker. His ambition had been to be a lawyer and not only did he get a full scholarship to Standford but he was about to enter Law school when the series started. I don't trust Z-angel. As much as the set up seemed to be for Dean's benefit (jar him out of the absolute bottom he had hit the episode before) it also seemed to be set up so Sam would rededicate himself to hunting and let go of his previously held beliefs regarding normality. It seems to me he was being handled towards his demonic destiny. I'm pretty sure there are more angels in the ranks who want the apocalypse to happen and are Lucifer supporters; maybe they had a part in Sam's AU.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

We seem to have read it the same way. The ep implied a larger ghoul society, in order to make a point about Sam and Dean's outsider status in (general) human and hunter societies. I enjoyed the ep, and was happy to get this hint of... creature culture in the bargain. :)

How did you react to Adam? I thought they did a great job with it. It was fun to see Sam taking on a big brother role, and to have it reiterated that he and John are very much alike. I liked that unlike Dean, he was able to relate to Adam without jealousy - even before he decides to bring him into the family business, he's able to have a much more comfortable relationship with the new brother. A great ep for showing the brothers' strengths, weaknesses and hangups.

I'm pretty sure there are more angels in the ranks who want the apocalypse to happen and are Lucifer supporters; maybe they had a part in Sam's AU.

I've been wondering about that too. It's interesting how much of Sam's storyline this year is happening offscreen, or kind of between the lines. There's so much going on with him, but most of the time we just hints of it. Until it explodes, as in the siren ep. Whereas Dean's drama is front and center. I can't wait for the season finale, to see how this all turns out. :)

I'm thinking of doing a post-AU Sam vignette, when I have the time. Sam feeling all conflicted: happy, slighted, suspicious. Remembering life without Dean, and life before Dean went to hell, and comparing to to what's going on now.