Rewatching, and I am reminded of an initial observation that I had during the Road So Far: no mention of Amy. And the thoughts that I had was that, in the end, despite how the Amy nonsense dragged on, they didn't warrant recapping. They didn't have an impact on the big picture.
Now, I'm being mean and a minute or two long recap of a season that is mostly highlights and focusing on the mytharc excluding a character who lingered (and lingered) doesn't mean that she automatically deserves being categorized as pointless and "why did they bother to begin with".
But I'm still left with the thought of, here is a character that they made so significant, or at least the actions surrounding this character so significant that it was a mini-arc of sorts, yet in the end meant nothing in the bigger picture, why bother?
If Amy hadn't been around, and Dean hadn't had his secret about killing her, and Sam hadn't felt betrayed when he found out, would, say, how Sam dealt with Harvey been different? Would Dean dealing with Cas' loss, Bobby's death, and Sam' unraveling been different? In terms of their journies and character developement, did her presence and monkey wrench really mean anything?
Now, Amy annoyed the crap out of me, and I really don't like Jewel Staite as an actress, so my gut reaction is No. But I'm willing to be proven wrong.
And, it's perfectly okay to just be a blip on the radar, but I question her relevance because of the LINGERING and the seemingly lack of any point. Since her corpse refused to go away for so so many eps, surely she must mean more than any old speedbump, surely she must be up there with Ruby and Sam's dirty secret, to warrant so much of our attention.
I don't know, maybe if she'd been played by an unknown, tt would be more bittersweet for me, and more poignant, and the focus in my brain would be less on the person this betrayal was over, and more about Dean betraying Sam.
It's an example of what I was saying about writing episodic TV -- it's not a novel. It's not a self-contained movie. You don't have the luxury of looking at the finished season and saying, "You know what, this isn't really going where we wanted it to, so let's scrap it."
You're writing as you go, and you have to scripts ready to shoot, so at some point, the question of "Is this character a good idea?" becomes moot, and you just have to finish a script and film it. (Kristen could say way more about this than I can, since I'm doing a lot of assuming.)
Amy looked to me like a personal character conflict for the boys, since they didn't have anything else driving them apart this season -- no deal, no Ruby, no pit to throw themselves into, no soullessness. Maybe it was because the Big Bad was itself far less personal than usual, until Dick killed Bobby.
Either way, for me it was a minor misstep (and I didn't dislike the character or the storyline the way you did), but the fact that it didn't have a lasting impact on the boys or the plot is a *good* thing.
the fact that it didn't have a lasting impact on the boys or the plot is a *good* thing
I'll agree on that point, if only because it meant Amy's ghost was
gone.
And, yeah, not every beat and moment and character needs to be Signficant and have Meaning. But even as a minor arc, it bugged.
I don't know the writer process, I don't know how much time they have to break a good episode, let alone know how it fits within a season. In my brain I think at least they say "this is the season arc vagueries, we want to achieve these minor stepping stones/strokes/beats, these particular episodes achieve that". But I'm sure that's an ideal world that doesn't exist.
Still, that doesn't take away from concept that such a minor mistep took up such a huge chunk of time.
Given that they're in purgatory, it's not inconceivable that she's show up. Which would not be relevant to the finale, but might be to early next season.
Not saying "will" or "should", mind.
Now you're just trying to upset me.
I guess I don't see why you think it was such a big chunk of the season, Julie. It was one episode, with echoes for maybe two more? Three? Even then, it was usually an aside, or a single conversation, at least the way I remember it. It just didn't have the same impact for me, plus I like Jewel Staite, and I loved seeing young!Sam hunting on his own (and flirting up a girl on his own).
I want to say, without checking, that it was more like five episodes that we got Amy in the previouslies, and that she was a phantom lingering over many various Sam/Dean interactions, even if the scene itself was once and brief, I was stil bookended betwen the Then and the Amy!scene-of-the-week. I'd check but I don't have all the episodes on my iTunes. But I can't begin to verify that.
And I liked wee!Sam with wee!Amy. It's everything after that bugged. Wee!Amy rocked socks.
Julie, I'm like Loki that way.
At least Dean put an end to that foolishness with his lack of whining about Sam putting down his freaky Mayfly daughter.
I suspect we're far more likely to see Jewel again than Amber Benson, Emmanuelle Vaugier, or Sterling K. Brown.
