Supernatural - 7x23 "Survival of the Fittest" Rewatch
Added 2025-01-19 06:40:52 +0000 UTC
Comments
I think the reason Sam leaves Dean and Kevin behind, like you said, isn't malicious, it is desperate. Sam never does well when he is left alone, that has been very much established. We saw that in season 4. But Sam, in this moment, in the leviathan lab, is so much worse off than he was back then. He just spent close to a year suffering horrifically with his psychosis. He lost literally his entire family this season, watching Cas die, then Bobby, then Bobby again, then Cas and Dean disappear. He had to kill his niece. He lost Frank, he got attacked by Becky. He lost both his home in Bobby's house, and in the impala, leaving him and Dean more homeless than they had ever really been before. And he watched Dean suffer horribly as well, with his depression, his alcoholism, the weight of yet another looming apocalypse. Sam is overwhelmed, he is scared, he doesn't have all that solid a grip on reality (it's been a very, very short amount of time that he has been hallucination free at this point), and honestly, I have always felt that in this moment, Sam just... breaks. He literally can not keep going, because he has lost everything. Family, home, sanity. What more is Sam supposed to give? Yes, the right thing, the hero thing to do, would be to find Kevin, but I don't think at this moment, Sam is capable of doing the right thing, not in the sense that he is evil, or dark, or even honestly wrong, but because he physically, emotionally, mentally, can not do anything, except run. And, keep in mind, the last time Sam did absolutely everything he possibly could to try and save Dean, to bring him back, to avenge him, it led to freeing Lucifer. That kind of guilt, that trauma, that pain doesn't go away. Sam is only human, and he can't do the right thing all the time, he can't be the hero all the time, and I think while leaving Kevin is a mistake, it's also the only choice Sam is actually capable of making. He is alone, traumatized, battered and beaten down and without his stone number one to ground him, without Dean, Sam fleeing from everything makes perfect sense. He takes the one thing that is still his (the impala) and he clings to it because it is all he has left. Not even taking into account that Sam never meant to meet Amelia or hit Riot (that was an accident and total chance, and/or Chuck being an asshole, take your pick), or the fact that even if Sam guessed Dean was in Purgatory, he had absolutely no way of getting to Dean or saving him that wouldn't risk putting them right back at square one with the leviathans and monsters, as unpopular an opinion as it may be, I think what Sam did was not only incredibly rational, and realistic for someone in that situation, but was also probably the best case scenario. Sam is in no condition right now to be doing anything close to hunting, especially going up against the King of Hell. He isn't physically up to it, and he for sure isnt mentally steady enough to be hunting on his own. If Sam tried, I think it would have just made things a lot worse for both himself or Kevin. Is it ideal, leaving Kevin with Crowley? Absolutely not. But it is also the only real option Sam has. At the very least, it isn't Sam's fault that he couldn't get to Kevin, in my opinion. It's the oldest rule in hunting- you can't save everyone. And considering Dean, Sam and Cas just saved the world (again) from the leviathan, it is unfair to lay the blame for Kevin's capture, or the burden of rescuing him on Sam, alone. I know I am in the minority with this, but as far as I am concerned, Sam wasn't in the wrong for, in my opinion, literally not being able to help Kevin in this moment, or down the road. Especially because a) Kevin is able to get himself away from Crowley on his own, and that learning to be self-sufficient in the world of the supernatural is critical for Kevin's development, and b) Sam at this point has either saved the world, or helped save the world 3 times (against Lucifer, against Raphael/Godstiel, and now the leviathan) and it is the tragedy of his character that he can't always save everyone in time. It is also true to his character that saving the world always means a loss for Sam. His life, his sanity, an innocent. Even when Sam wins, he loses
Elisia
2025-01-20 18:57:55 +0000 UTCShelley - I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but as someone who was in the professional (retail and wholesale) cosmetic industry for more than two decades, I can assure you that "cruelty free" usually means that the finished product is not currently being tested on animals. At some point, every ingredient on the market was tested on animals in the past. So as long as formulations remain the same, they can get away with calling it that because they already have the testing results from products/ingredients. They use loopholes and creative wording to work their marketing magic to lull us into a sense of good. #CorporateMonsters
Vel
2025-01-20 08:21:16 +0000 UTCHonestly I don't care if he is swearing or if Cas was actually on the car, both are fine to me XD "Go get dick, but don't do it because you think it will scratch an itch." - what a line
BexFangirl
2025-01-19 19:30:47 +0000 UTCIt's so telling that you can't remember the alphas subplot from season 6! It's woven throughout the season from 6.01 to 6.22 but it shows how badly that's done that we don't make the connections and forget what on earth was going on (Crowley was using the Campbells to track down alpha monsters, so he could torture them into telling him how to open the gates of purgatory, so he and Cas could raid it for souls) . I only just realised how the end of this finale leaves both Dean and Sam completely alone, which is a really good way to set up a reset for s8. What will they do? (Dean goes looking for Cas, Sam … gives up?)
Jay
2025-01-19 09:59:00 +0000 UTC
