I think they've improved a lot on misogyny issues this year, but the racial aspect is still troublesome.

ita is undergoing medical treatment we hope will relieve some of her pain.

is she? good! i hope so too. (i don't get into Natter or Bitches like i wish i could. there's never enough time!)

"Shit, they just made another black character a Judas, and then dead" was a judgment.

Gotta say, not having seen the ep, just reading here, that was certainly what I thought. For fuck's sakes. SO needlessly fucking crap. Why must they be shit about race? Why?

Oh, show. I don't know how to quit you. You give me the doomed hot uberwoobies, and angels on the brink of falling, and cute wee death!girl, and badass demons, and, and, and you just know ALL my sweet spots. And yet you bring the squicky race issues, damn you.

From the recaplet on TWoP:

And in the end, as Dean lies broken and battered on a hospital bed after deceitful Uriel allowed the demon to escape the trap in order to beat Our Intrepid Hero to a bloody pulp, it falls to Castiel to explain that the righteous man who started it all is also the only one who can stop it, so Dean must pull himself together for the sake of humanity, and it's all very depressing indeed, what with The Stumpy Little Bow-Legged Lamb Of God all, "Let this cup pass from me!" and My Sweet Baboo all, "Sorry, dude," and not one, but two manly tears dropping from Dean's wasted eyes, and I think I'll go kill myself now.

Sorry, yes, I know Dean's man-pain is epic and all, but "The Stumpy Little Bow-Legged Lamb Of God" made me laugh.

::snickering in the corner::

Something to ponder while we wait for next week: [link]

Some promo pictures I at least have not seen before.

That part of the twop recaplet pretty much sums it up for me as well. Gah! I can't shake off the depressing.

is she? good! i hope so too. (i don't get into Natter or Bitches like i wish i could. there's never enough time!)

Me too on all counts. Much relief ~ma going to ita.

Thanks for the link 'suela! Jensen is rockin' that blue color. Actually blue works for both of them, but it's definitely his color.

What is the record of black characters on the show? I can only think of the FBI agent, who just died (okay, and then was used by Hell as one of the "witnesses"). And the Hunter Who Went Too Far And Was Poetically Turned Into What He Hated. And Dean's ex, but she just di-- wait, did she die?

Anyway, somebody illuminate me?

All I kept thinking throughout the episode was, "Shit, did they read Fay's story? How am I supposed to not go to the slashy place if you keep serving it to me on a platter?"

All I kept thinking throughout the episode was, "Shit, did they read Fay's story? How am I supposed to not go to the slashy place if you keep serving it to me on a platter?"

blinks

OK, now I really need to see the ep.

Black chicks on the show:

Missouri - made of win, in the know, hasn't been seen since Season 1.

Cassie - great character, mediocre performance, but never mind. Dean's One True Wuv. Gets saved by the Winchester boys (while her father & various other black men all die.)

Tamara - is awesome, and a hunter in a loving, functioning, ass-kicking marriage - until she's widowed, and saved by the Winchesters. (And there's a heavy 'should've listened to the Winchesters!' vibe to what happens to her & her spouse.) I'd be fine with the fate of Tamara and Isaac without the show's ongoing portrayals of characters of colour.

Black guys on the show:

Memfault - Cassie's boss. Nice bloke. Killed by a demon truck. (As was her father & assorted other people.)

Jake - soldier & YED!Baby. Kills all the rest of the YED!Kids. Stabs Sammy in the back. Dies.

Isaac (iirc) - Tamara's spouse. Kickass hunter but just not as clever/wary/whatever as the Winchesters. Dies messily. His body is possessed by a demon.

Gordon is in 3 episodes, initially as a Hunter, eventually concludes Sammy is evil, becomes vampire in Season 3, is killed by Winchesters.

Henrikson is awesome, although he's the boys' antagonist. And then he dies, when he's finally realised that the demons are real. Comes back as a ghost, and gets shot by the boys lots.

Rufus - curmudgeonly asshole hermit type hunter. Helps Dean (reluctantly). Doesn't die.

Uriel - racist evil treacherous asshole angel working for Lucifer, tries to kill everyone. Dies.

I might have forgotten some people, but...it's pretty horrendous, really. Every single episode has an array of minor characters, but they are almost ALWAYS cast as white. And, damn, Vancouver is not peopled solely by white actors. There are plenty of actor of colour they could be casting, just to reflect the fact that, no, Americans aren't all white. But the characters on the show pretty much are always white. There was that Asian guy in the Shapeshifter episode, who got arrested for supposedly torturing his wife - but I can't think of anyone else, off the top of my head. Which - really, wtf?

puts on devil's advocate hat

While I absolutely and really and truly get what everyone is saying, and do see the problems with Supernatural, and wish like hell SHOW did better on both race and gender issues, I'm not sure I see them as much with Uriel specifically.

Assuming that the casting people had at least some idea that the character was going to turn evil and die, (and lets face it, how many recurring minor characters on the show don't do one or both), isn't their option to casting a person of color saying "whites only for this role"?

Also, if they had cast a white person in the role, given that the character was racist (or maybe speciesist, given that it was mankind as a whole he hated), and this did play a part in his motivation, wouldn't it have been worse if they had cast a white actor?