\\o/ !

Question that I can't answer on my own since my S2 DVDs are on loan to someone: When Ellen shows up again in AHBL2, does she say anything about being in touch with Jo or not?

When Ellen shows up again in AHBL2, does she say anything about being in touch with Jo or not?

IIRC, no. Which sent me into a frothing rage. B/c they didn't just write her off the show, that erases her existence. You're telling me the first thing out of someone's mouth wouldn't be to ask about her daughter? And Ash?

I hope I'm wrong and missed it, but I remember being pinged really hard at the time.

I suppose I should thank you for reminding me, but yeah... that's what I suspected.

Digital Spy says that season 4 premieres September 4th.

(The article was mostly about a guest cast member.)

Quick rec for a nice, short Sam and Bobby fic. It's a quiet little piece set not long after the season finale.

Sept. 4?! That's nice and ... almost soon!

That is nice. Very atmospheric, slow and careful character sketches. The way things would be if Dean had died.

Thing is, he didn't just *die*, and I don't think that's how either of them, or both of them, could be. Just me, maybe.

Good point, Bev. That didn't ping me when I was reading it, but that makes sense.

Okay, going to try this again (after this morning's post was eaten by the interbunny).

So, have just mainlined SPN Season 3. I was a little braced for crapitutde, since I'd gathered from my LJ friendslist that a number of people were disenchanted with the show this season, so I confess I was pleasantly surprised. Still enjoying it a lot, still liking my Winchesters enormously (although rather sorry that John is no longer among them).

Things I loved: Dean; Bad Day at Black Rock (one of the funniest things I've seen in AGES - that was some splendid writing and just glorious physical comedy, imho); Dean's Not!Son (Awwww! Such cuteness!); Fairy Tales coming true; The Black Pearl Ghost Ships; Groundhog Day & the return of the Trickster; "GhostFacers!"; Henrikson's revelation; Wee!Dean trying to give Sam a Christmas by stealing presents from the kid down the street; The Evil Christmas God Duo*. (Do love how very much this show continues to dovetail with Giaman's American Gods.)

Things I didn't love: The utter absence of Ellen and Jo; the increasing casualness about redshirts' deaths, and ruthlessness towards the possessed; the increase in casual, vaguely pornographic violence towards women/female monsters, and the sense that the bitches have it coming; the fact that everyone's white - and if by some miracle they aren't, then hugs and puppies are not in their immediate future.

I wondered whether some of the latter flowed inevitably from the fact that it's the two of them against the world, a boys' own adventure...but really, I think that it's just bad writing.

I missed Ellen and Jo quite a lot, and I'm sorry that there were NO other references to them - okay, so sometimes you can't cast an actor because they're not available, but it would give more depth to the 'verse if they'd maintained this awareness of a network of Hunters, and if Dean had the occasional phonecall to check things with Ellen, rather than Bobby - because, sure, her bar is burned, but that's just a place. It would have cost nothing to have that little element of continuity, even if it were just two or three references during the course of the season, but it would have been A Good Thing.

It very much felt that we were only allowed 2 recurring female characters per season, and that Ruby was supposed to be Jo version 2.0 - now with added evil. Which I didn't love. I wouldn't have minded that within a context in which we still had competent, honorable, gutsy human women - but as a substitute, I didn't love that particular change. (Tamara should have been such a one - but instead she was straddling that line between Victim Of The Week and Dumb Bitch Who Has It Coming.) There was more subtlety and meaning to the relationship that the boys had with Jo than to that they had with Ruby - even though they didn't know her well, she was one of the good guys, and they had that messy history with their respective fathers. And of course her UST for Dean, and Sam's recognition of same - and the fact that Dean DIDN'T treat her the way he treats girls. That was an interesting relationship.

With Ruby and Bella, however, we've got a hefty dose of "all women are bitches. Fuckable, but bitches". Even though Ruby didn't end up pulling a doublecross, and was actually pretty damned consistently cool and helpful, she's still an Evil Demon Bitch, so it's okay for Dean to punch her in the face, trap her and leave her to rot. (Let's recall the Bar Tender Demon, who was pretty interesting, and who indicated through her conversation with Dean and, more tellingly, her advocation of mercy when she and Not!Priest had Dean vulnerable before them that demons come in various flavours. And whom Sam shot dead.)

Bella - actually, I quite liked her character arc, and it was at least consistent, and it was nice to have someone who does know all about the magic and monsters, but who isn't philanthropic. But too often they made the boys be incompetent in order to make her look good, and that was annoying. Still, overall I (continued...)