killing Dean's a line he's unwilling to cross.

Then how does he plan to survive? Self defense is okay, I wager.

Is there netiquette about dragging bits of LJ discussions (especially with some but not all Buffista participants) over to a message board?

I am so totally confused about some shared opinion, and I'm looking for as many different explanations as possible.

If it's not a locked post, I don't see an issue.

so why not just set Dean up as the second trip wire?

Antagonists being this smart would make the show end after 3 episodes.

there netiquette about dragging bits of LJ discussions (especially with some but not all Buffista participants) over to a message board?

I don't see why not (unlocked posts, anyway). At least, link to it and ask that discussion happen here rather than there. Like metafandoming, right?

link to it and ask that discussion happen here rather than there

It wasn't locked, but I don't feel comfortable dictating the location of discussion.

Well, here's the basic premise, which I'm sure to state badly...that there are a few racially insensitive components in Gordon's story, the last ep he was in and this one. The components of this episode were his stressing human racial purity, and him being taken down by an all-white group of cops--all this being all the more notable for him being one of the few black characters on the show.

Speaking of trip wires, this completely fails to set off any of mine. In fact, I'm having a hard time even seeing why they should be tripped for other people.

I've been to Lafayette, IN briefly. . . but I have not a clue how integrated or not the town or the police force is.

You know, I'm pretty sure that group of cops wasn't all white. Whether that makes a difference to the discussion is something else.

ita, that didn't set off anything in mine either. What was going off in my mind was, "Have they said that's Gordon, or am I just assuming that because he's black; I don't remember exactly what he looked like; I wish they would go ahead and confirm that it's him so I could stop feeling racist."

this completely fails to set off any of mine. In fact, I'm having a hard time even seeing why they should be tripped for other people.

I will say, seeing a black man with guns in his hand surrounded by tense cops is -- alarming. I expected him to be shot basically on sight, not arrested peacefully. Just the staging of that scene seemed to undercut its own intent: we're supposed to go "yay, caught" because we like Sam & Dean, but the tableaux that was presented me did not result in a yay. I got caught up in that moment in the social significance of it, and sudden fear for Gordon, and forgot the narrative significance.

It also bugs me whenever people speak of the human race, because, it's confusing and anyway 'species' is my word-choice, but I'm aware that I canna dictate words for all peoples, and anyway hinterlands people-of-action would probably choose that word no matter what I told them.

I could not tell you what the races of the cops were beyond about the first one or two shown. When Gordon went down on his knees, I wasn't pinged enough to check.

Now, had this been a remotely socially edgy show, and/or one created/written/produced by black folk, my pump would more likely have been primed.

Perhaps I'm too Pollyanna, but the idea of a guilty black man merely arrested by law-abiding white cops isn't remote enough to me for me to be jolted just by that.

Gordon starting to talk shit, one of the cops being depicted as overly aggressive...yeah, Supernatural could take me down that path.

But they didn't.

It was clearly the non-lethal way to take him out of the picture that I didn't give it a second thought. Five years ago...I can't say. But I have had a huge amount more exposure to cops (including white ones) and in the same way a black guy ranting about "racial" purity doesn't do me any way, neither does the idea of cops actually doing their jobs.

Nutty, your first paragraph just nailed it for me.

Then how does he plan to survive? Self defense is okay, I wager.

Escape and evade? I think he's sure enough of his own abilities to stay out of Dean's way. And I also think, in Gordon's head, giving Dean a fair shot and time to come around and see sense this time makes taking him out in self defense more acceptable, should it come to that.