Can you tell us whet you were tense about, ita !

Most of everything I'm mad about now.

I do not like how Sam's been written at all. I'd imagine if I were a Sam girl I'd be through the roof right now. Why put him in such a lame position to be making those lame apologies to Dean? Fine, get out of hunting, break Dean's heart, but that whole "Oh, I paid attention up to the point where I left them on their own to live or die" thing sits really badly with me. I don't think he should have to be guilt tripped into saving everyone for the rest of his life, but dozens of crappy curtain fics settled one or both of them down better than this.

I'm assuming there's more to the story than this, because as far as I'm concerned, this is highly lame so far.

And from a pacing point of view--writers, you strung out the Dean tortured in hell thing for a while, and that worked, and it was earned, and shit. You strung out finding out Sam had no soul, and that was cool, although maybe a touch sooner would have been great.

If your stringing out why Sam is a douche right now, and why Dean is just acting plain weird, you're merely making me twitchy. This isn't a well earned tension. This is a "Oh, this is why everyone wanted Carver to save the show from the evil Gamble?"

Please. Make me eat my words. But I want to enjoy the show between now and then. That's my problem. For a third season to start and I don't like Sam...that's way too high a percentage, no matter how amazing the reasons are. A huge reason I watch this show is because I *like* them. Don't let me lose investment.

But wait! There's more to loathe! Just met the vet. And she guilts a man she doesn't know into adopting an animal. Without knowing if he's abusive or neglectful or has family with allergies or lives in an apartment that doesn't take pets and already knowing that he's on the road a lot. Excellent candidate to be a pet owner: a total, unvetted stranger. It's easy, everyone should do it and the animal should thank them when the get stuck in a crate all day. Hi PSA written by someone who doesn't own dogs.

Sing it! Not only that, but her off the cuff remark about maybe if he was such a nice guy he wouldn't have hit the dog really rubbed me the wrong way. Because as we all know, dogs only run out in the road in front of bad people, good ones are never involved in accidents.

My one consolation is if the vet is Amelia, Sam's Penis of Ill Omen has probably already relegated her to monster chow.

Maybe I'm looking at this strictly from a writer's POV, but last night really didn't upset me. I mean, I don't love that Sam and Dean are not simpatico right now, but that's the tension you need to compel the story forward. Lee was saying she didn't love the flashbacks, but even that makes sense to me -- most viewers aren't going to be happy with two parallel real-time storylines where Sam and Dean never interact. And this way we're feeling what they're feeling -- that they've been apart for a year and have no idea what the other has been through.

I also sympathize with Sam. His entire life has been this, with added death and torture and hell. Being at a loss and exhausted by the whole thing seems perfectly understandable to me. I don't like him less because he's human and has flaws -- I want him to be a hero, sure, but I also like that we see how hard that can be.

I'm not really mad at Dean, either. Whatever happened in purgatory gives him a bit of pass for shady deals with new buddies, even if I hate that he's keeping things from Sam (who is also clearly keeping things from Dean). I guess I also can't see how whatever he did in purgatory could possibly be worse than years as Torture Master in hell. The "pure" thing seems logical, too -- purgatory was black and white, kill or be killed, no shades of gray. For a lot of reasons, that's an easier way to live.

It seems a little like Carver is resetting the show, to me. And the black and white versus shades of gray plays right into it. This is very much like pilot!Dean coming to get Sam at Stanford, reminding him that he has an obligation to the family and to the family business, and not seeing how there's a question of agreeing for Sam.

And there's Sam, living another another life, resisting being drawn into a life he hates -- and one that by now has taken even more from him than it did in the pilot.

I can see the TV show reasons for a lot of this, even the vet. It's ... TV. Would someone do that in real life? Probably not. But people aren't hunting demons in real life. When it's not a novel, you don't always have the luxury of perfectly developing the narrative, and you have to shortcut a little bit.

I guess most of all, I simply love them. I may not be happy with them right now, but I enjoy seeing the "what ifs," and nothing going on so far seems out of character to me.

I forgot -- I'm still assuming the vet is Amelia, and I think their interaction isn't bothering me because it seems very stereotypically "meet antagonistic," which happens in romance as much as "meet cute" does.

I think apologetic Sam is a retread that does disservice to his character arc over the previous seven years. The last time he apologised, I didn't think he should have (and every time I left I was wrong...), and this time--yeah, he should have apologised, because his behaviour makes no sense. That I'm currently holding against the writers, though. How many times does he have to say he's sorry? Why can't he make it through a few months without fucking up in Dean's eyes? Why is this his tic?

Starting them both off with secrets leaves me with no sure footing, and I dislike that also. The way they teased out "Sam's drinking demon blood and oh! that's Ruby" in time with "He does remember his time in hell, and he was torturing" didn't come with the same flashing neon signs of "Secrets! Get your piping hot secrets from your brother here!" that this episode did. So I'm left feeling outside both brothers, because I don't know enough about either of their situations to even mistakenly identify with what's going on.

On the surface of it, Sam did something that included abandoning Kevin, and he hasn't explained that yet. Dean did something that resulted in hugging vampires and keeping secrets from Sam in a way that made me think he'd have kept them even if Sam were still in teh life, so for all I know he's a cannibal now, or some shit.

I don't want to be unsettled when the show comes back. I want to be relieved by the resumption of normal, and excited about the surprises yet to come.

That's not what I feel right now. I haven't had the resumption relief yet. I'm still waiting for the season to start, although it was nice to see Jensen and Jared for a bit.

I guess I don't understand why you feel Sam's behavior makes no sense. People get tired, people quit. People get depressed. Sam was trying to walk away, and that might not be admirable but it's understandable to me.

I think they must be going somewhere with it, though. Dean convincing him to take responsibility for Kevin was an echo of the vet guilting him into taking responsibility for the dog, so I sense A Theme.

I think they must be going somewhere with it, though.

I concur. Also with the "sometimes people just get tired and run out of will to do shit." I don't think that's what happened with Sam, though, and I think we'll find out more.

Dean convincing him to take responsibility for Kevin was an echo of the vet guilting him into taking responsibility for the dog, so I sense A Theme.

Good point.

Also, did I imagine it, or was there someone watching the house when Sam first left to meet Dean?

Yeah, there was! I do want to know who that was, too.

I can't draw parallels between Kevin and a dog that ran into the street, though.

There are lots of understandable actions that people on and offscreen can take. The set of actions that I enjoy watching is smaller than that, though. I don't find it a sympathetic position, with the information I've been given, and I will just assume they're piecemealing out this thing, and all will be made clear.

How is "I hit a dog" the way you explain this to Dean? Unless the dog has you under a spell, you must have a better angle than that.

Mostly I'm irritated at the writing. I don't feel they did a season opener justice. I don't feel like Supernatural is back after a hellatus. Making both leads act strange leaves me with too much unfamiliarity, and that's not what I want from episode one. I don't feel tension and suspense as a result, I feel irritated and deprived.

I'm sorry it didn't work for you.

And that phone call with toothy dude was sketchy as hell. It felt like a clandestine relationship. I can't help but feel like it was intentional. Dean lost his brother but gained a brother in arms. I don't know.

I meant to comment on this last night -- it totally felt that way! Sneaking off to talk to his dirty little secret. And losing a brother and gaining a brother-in-arms... cool insight. I think right now I am most interested in finding out about their relationship (Dean and Benny), the person watching Sam's house, and what happened with Cas (because it doesn't sound good, poor dude).