The Bottom Line: "Good"
Why are good characters so much harder to write than evil characters? That is, if they are either truly good or truly evil: by this point in Season 4, Kripke has so befuddled the absolutes of black and white, not to mention shifted the color grey into shades somewhere beyond chartreuse and magenta, that viewers are in a constant state of confusion about whether the angels are devils or the demons have hearts of gold. It has been a wild ride, and sitting back to savor the angst develop has been fun, much more fun than trying to pick apart every clue and come up with a new theory about the possible outcome every week- I gave up on that long ago. The unfolding story of the coming apocalypse has been fascinating, but this week - the last show before an eight week hiatus - was quite a disappointment.
These two episodes - "I Know What you Did Last Summer" and "Heaven and Hell," - were obviously meant to be two pieces to the puzzle, or two sides of the coin if you prefer. Ruby's story v. Anna's story. Sam's pain v. Dean's pain. How the demon is good v. how the angel is bad. Unfortunately, the soda machine won't be accepting this coin because one side far outweighs the other.
No matter how you feel about the new actress who plays Ruby, no matter which brother is your all-time-favorite, you must admit that the plot, characterizations, pacing, writing, and feel of the first episode was far better than the second. Both episodes suffered from frame story-itis, that is, there were long moments where one person was relating back-story to the other characters and the viewers. Difficult to pull off in the best of times. Sam's back-story about the events of the summer from his perspective? Brilliant. Why? Because the writers allowed us to actually see what happened to Sam, to feel the breakdown in his spirit, and to groan at his desperate descent into solace in the arms of a demon. We know him and we've traveled with him along this dark road every step. We know Ruby, and we've wondered about and suspected her since day one. It was beautiful and disturbing. A+. We were also introduced to Anna, a supposedly troubled girl who can hear angels and who is in horrible danger from both sides because of it. She is immediately conflicted enough to fit right in with our problematic brothers. The demon Alastair bursts on the scene, all blazing power and frightening snarkiness, and hints at just enough about Dean's time in hell to have us itching for more. A+ again.
Unfortunately, everything that made IKWYDLS amazing, made H&H disappointing. Frame story about the angels' fall - both the heavenly angel Anna, and the earthly angel Dean, were attempted with absolutely no images to back them up. Words, words, words were all that the viewers got - a complex story of losing "grace," disobedience, the pleasures of being human, temptation, and the worst explanation of "God" that I've ever heard in any fictional genre was supposed to be communicated to the viewers through a few cryptic sentences from a character who we do not know, was literally dropped from heaven into our laps just a moment ago, and - oh, by the way - has suddenly woken up and remembered she's an angel. What? C-, and I'm grading on the curve here. And the story we've waited so long to hear, the final denouement of suffering Dean and his utter loss of self that he experienced in hell was handed to us in one tearful (albeit wonderfully acted) conversation. D+. Not enough. Not nearly enough.
Let's talk about sex. The brothers' trauma is supposed to be punctuated by their individual groping after human feeling. Talk is cheap and I could go on for hours, but bottom line: Sam's worked. Dean's just felt...awkward. Sam's coupling with Ruby was dark, violent, and had nothing whatsoever to do with love. It was the definition of desperation. Dean's roll in the backseat of the Impala with Anna - probably written to epitomize his needs and fears about his own emotions - was simply missing something. Props to the actress for big eyes and soulful looks, but it just didn't work. Anna, fallen angel, wanted one more roll in the hay before heading back to virgin-town? That might have been funny if Dean got to be the Dean we all remember. This scene had no passion to sustain it, and, if that was the point, to show love rather than passion, well it didn't work, either.
So we end up with a rather good fight scene - Demons -1, Angels -3, and, if the angels are the good guys of this piece, well woo-hoo and Praise the Lord, but that is yet to be determined. Anna is a casualty - back to heaven with her, a place that, apparently, none of us should ever wish to go. What exactly are we fighting for, again?
Great dramatic build up, disappointing result. Why couldn't Anna's story have spanned more than a two-episode arc? Was it really necessary to dash off a hasty angel story and convoluted explanation of her fall and shove it in between sex scenes? This was not the story to get fans over an eight week lull. You.can.do.better.
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Lastly, I watched the latest two episodes of Gary Unmarried which were 'Gary and Allison Brookes' and 'Gary Gives Thanks' which were good. The first was much better than the second although seeing both of their fathers getting bribed into going to the other's house was pretty funny.
