SPN! season 2 retrospective

[fannishliss]

:D :D :D    •    2.01 In My Time of Dying -- this has got to be one of my favorite episodes of all.  What do I love about it? Everything.  I love Dean wandering around trying to be a Hero while dead. I freaking adore Tessa.  I love John's stupid, stupid deal.  I love Sam and the ouija board and the dropped cup of coffee.  There is nothing wrong anywhere with this ep.  Pure SPN perfection at its very best.
:D    •    2.02 Everybody Loves a Clown -- Ash is the best. Dean commits domestic battery.  All the feels.
:D :D    •    2.03 Bloodlust-- LENORE!!!!!  Gosh I loved her so much.  One of the first times we really get to see a "monster" struggling to keep a grip on her humanity.  And Gordon mindf*king Dean, whoah, and Dean all splashed with blood.  whrrr.
o_o    •    2.04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things -- this one doesn't thrill me.
:D    •    2.05 Simon Said -- first Ben Edlund ep!  so many amazing moments!!!  and at the same time, it plays out sad when the good twin still has to whammy the girl.   The first of the Edlund eps that made me buy the spn DVDs and take the plunge.  :)
 :)   •    2.06 No Exit -- I always liked Jo and was annoyed back in the day about all the folks who enjoyed hating on her.  Glad times have changed. yeah maybe Jo has a little crush on Dean -- who DOESN'T.
:D    •    2.07 The Usual Suspects -- this for some reason is a favorite of mine.  I love Linda Blair as the lady cop, and I love the tension with her partner and the way Sam gets her to trust him, and I love Dean's way with the police and the scripts the boys run while held separately. Just an awesome story.  Cathryn Humphris works on Elementary now.  :)
 :D   •    2.08 Crossroad Blues -- who doesn't love this?  :)
 :D   •    2.09 Croatoan -- my favorite moment in this is actually an Impala moment -- when Dean is idling talking to the guys at the roadblock and suddenly puts her in reverse and does an amazing fishtail turn.  So hot for Baby!
 :)   •    2.10 Hunted  a good one but I don't rewatch it much.
 :)   •    2.11 Playthings -- a lot of good moments in this one made me like it.
:D  :D  :D •    2.12 Nightshifter -- a top  favorite.  Sealed the deal between me and SPN.  So much awesome everywhere. and Renegade!!!!!
:D  :D   •    2.13 Houses of the Holy -- I love the images of Michael in the church, and the way there is something more going on somehow that's never explained.  A fantastic ep.
 :D   •    2.14 Born Under a Bad Sign:  I remember how we called this BUABS. :) And everyone was hot for Evil Sam (still are).
:D  :D :D  •    2.15 Tall Tales. Super favorite.  This is the ep I use to introduce people to SPN.
  :)  •    2.16 Roadkill -- I really liked this one. First indication of a ghost with some independent will, and she goes into the light.
  :)  •    2.17 Heart -- Poor Sam and Madison.  Now Sam figures he is cursed.  ):
:D :D   •    2.18 Hollywood Babylon  -- top favorite.  I really like the funny ones.  Dean is a hell of a PA.  I love what that says about him, the skillset he has that is not 100% Hunter, but is more versatile than that.
:D :D   •    2.19 Folsom Prison Blues -- so good.  Dean adapts to Prison life way too well.  Plus Tiny!
:D :D :D :D   •    2.20 What Is and What Should Never Be -- perhaps the best ep ever from a Dean grl perspective.  right?
:D    •    2.21 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part One & 2.22 All Hell Breaks Loose: Part Two -- series finales don't do it for me like all the other eps.... idk why.  Of course Cold Oak and Sam's resurrection and Dean's deal and killing the demon.  But what really gets me is the aftermath I guess...

Comments

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Reading your summary - I think there are two I'm not quite so keen on - Children Shouldn't Play with Dead things - though I do love Sam diving into the pool, and Crossroads Blues - I'm not sure why I'm not so keen on that one but I don't rewatch it much.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Definitely Tall Tales and Nightshifter are the ones I rewatched the most.

What strikes me with SPN is how the canon is so consistently strong and so rewatchable. I guess we are all hardcore fans of Show, but what other show is this rewatchable?? (Maybe the 14 eps of Firefly?) The SPN family should be so proud.

[amberdreams.livejournal.com]

Firefly, yep. Babylon5 for me, though nowhere near as often as I've watched SPN. Star Trek.

[borgmama1of5.livejournal.com]

Season 2 is probably the most solid season IMO, I don't think there are any klunkers at all.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I was surprised to work through it and really see that evidence.

The whole season only got one Meh face, about the zombie girlfriend. And even that ep is consistent with the themes and ideas of the season: what it means to be a monster against your will.

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

s2 was a good season. i didn't love everything and the season was kind of heavy-handed with throwing opponents at the boys - like, suddenly everyone was chasing them - and they started to beat us over the head with sam's is-he-isn't-he-evil, but especially with s1, it was round and firm and fully-packed. also, "my daddy shot your daddy in the head". and "you're bossy. and short." (playthings scared the crap out of me, which i actually liked, because it reminded me of the shining, but case-wise i remember it being kind of eh.) and nightmare, which has one of the very best uses of music EVER. and i just really liked roadkill.

i don't think the ptb ever had a clear idea what to do with jo, and it showed, but her very first appearance - dean grabs her rifle so she punches him in the nose - was pretty fabulous.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

It's so funny that Supernatural doesn't scare me in that way. The moments that scare me are when I am sure someone I love (Bobby) is about to die. I was weaned on tv horror, so the only scary show that has ever scared me is XFiles, which I had to watch with a blanket over my head. :D

We are watching VMars, where Alona Tal was a character in s2. It's interesting (sad) to watch TV try to work with female characters. Jo is a great character, and she could totally have been an ally for the boys... but they just didn't play it that way. One thing I will say though, is that Supernatural likes Older Women as allies, women like Ellen, Missouri, Jodi, Bobby's friend who was some type of monster, cop women like Hudak or Linda Blair's character, and they don't necessarily have to be mothers, which I really appreciate, altho they can be, like Lisa. I think with Jo, the issue was how young she was, not necessarily that she was a girl. Show is pretty consistent trying to keep young people from choosing the life, which is a good thing. Charlie is a good exception of a woman, approx the same age as Sam and Dean, who becomes an ally, and is not considered "too young."

Also it is fun to think of Meg and how she changed and grew over the seasons -- by the end she was really different, and it's even hard to remember that she was the one who uttered some of those iconic s1 and s2 lines. Azazel was a pretty bad influence on her I guess!

I like in Roadkill that the woman is really ... a Cylon! no, a ghost! :)

[tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com]

i always thought part of the problem with jo was that the ptb tried to introduce her as a potential love interest, and when it didn't work (the boys weren't emotionally up to it and a lot of fans FLIPPED THEIR SHIT) they didn't know what else to do with her. so every episode she was in, she seemed like a slightly different person. potential love interest. dean's mini-me. wannabe hunter. and she had great potential as a character - she was probably the closest analogue the show had to sam and dean, in that she was someone in her twenties who'd grown up in the life, but because the harvelles were very much a part of the hunter community, and because her dad hadn't become a hunter in response to her mom's death, her attitude towards it was different. she wanted to be a hunter, and because she'd been to college she knew there were other options. she chose to stay in the life, whereas the boys weren't ever given a choice. and even tho sam left, he got sucked back in against his will. in a way she was a great contrast. but i think the ptb have always had a hard time writing younger women as anything other than potential love interests, and they didn't know what to do with her if she WASN'T going to be dean's possible roll in the hay, if her storylines had nothing to do with her sexual attractiveness.

>>I like in Roadkill that the woman is really ... a Cylon! no, a ghost! :) <<

hee! i may or may not have gone "OH MY GOD IT'S SIX" the first time i saw it. spn might have been the first non-bsg show i saw tricia helfer in (either that or csi: original flavor) and i was so impressed that she was so un-six-like. i really liked molly. i liked that the boys thought she was alive for a big chunk of the episode, partly because i twigged to the fact that she wasn't before they did. :D

[matchboximpala.livejournal.com]

I so agree about Jo. Maybe she wouldn't have worked out as a love interest for Dean, but I would have liked to have seen her in more episodes.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

I think a spin off series should be about a woman Hunter, someone they've encountered on their travels who has now taken up the life. I think a Woman Hunter would have a very different experience than Sam and Dean have had. The Chicago idea was too different of a show, and it avoided the "road trip through Spooky America" theme that made the show iconic.

[matchboximpala.livejournal.com]

Agree! That is a great idea.

[runedgirl.livejournal.com]

I'm really enjoying your looks back on the seasons. This one is one of my favorites - it feels iconic now.

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

thanks very much for braving my block of text!!

It really is a stellar season by any measure.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

:D :D • 2.19 Folsom Prison Blues -- so good. Dean adapts to Prison life way too well. Plus Tiny!

AGREED!

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Dean is kind of Too Adaptable.... it shows how rough he's had it that he kind of likes prison.

[milly-gal.livejournal.com]

Which is worrying but makes for a really great character ;)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Season 2 is such a consistently strong season! There always seems to be a few clunkers every season that you skip, but season 2 (and 4 as well IMO) really didn't have any bad episodes

[fannishliss.livejournal.com]

Yup, I was surprised too at the lack of any real clunkers.

[hugemind.livejournal.com]

Season 2 is super-solid. I loved to see all those smiley faces in your list. :D

2x01 actually made me realize what it is that directors do, and it is directed with such intelligence. Kim. ♥