one of those cursed shippers
Not in any way cursed. Just a different POV. I don't hate because I don't share.
In addition to ita's list,
1. No fridging of Lisa and/or Ben
2. Sam being, or becoming, fully human. Not just not-evil, but all the go-juice drained and gone. Learning, maybe, to be human again.
3. More interaction and engagement with the people the brothers encounter. They saved them, let them experience the good side of why.
4. Good resolution--or establishment of contact--with Castiel, both brothers. I liked the friendship I saw beginning between him and Sam, as well as the obvious attachment to Dean.
5. Intermittent contact with Bobby
6. Contact with Rufus
7. A visit, preferrably, or a call, with Missouri
8. Increasing check-ins with other hunters, rebuilding the network and a better communications/referrals system.
9. Check-ins with Kathleen Hudak (The Benders) and Diana Ballard (The Usual suspects), clueing them in to local hunter contacts. Also a check-in (just a phone call would do in each of these cases--the character needn't even appear onscreen) with Jerry Panowski (Phantom Traveler). It would thrill me beyond belief to hear Dean on the phone with Andrea and Lucas, or Michael and Asher, or either of them talking to Kat, Charlie, Sari and her mom.
10. Depending on how it's handled, periodic check-ins with Lisa and Ben, maybe building to something more permanent.
11. Lindsay? Sarah? Rebecca? Someone for Sam to connect to, start to build a friendship that might lead to something more, when he's ready.
Hey, it's a wish list. No need to be economical! Not like I'm likely to get anything, let alone everything, on it.
Yeah. The Lucifer story needs to be friggin OVER. And I don't see how Sam comes back evil without undoing all the character growth. I'd actually be Ok with this being Not-Sam in Sam's body. Because that gives Dean an excuse for bring Sam back.
Adam? I don't care about so much. An offhand word will do just fine, since I don't need to see him again.
Right there with you on this. He's already had two more appearances than I needed to see. Show, please to be concentrating on characters about whom I mind the idea of disappearing into the void with Lucifer and Michael until the end of time.
Adam doesn't need a lot of--or any, really--screen time for me. But I want resolution for him. If Sam escapes the cage, so should Adam, even if he's Francisco Franco and we're told he's in heaven with his mom. I just don't want him forgotten about.
As you can see from my list, I'd like S6 to tie up a lot of loose ends. A single-line phone call or a throwaway line in a scene would handle most of it. But it needs handled, IMO.
Hah Beverly my list duplicates some of yours but I'll post anyway.
- I wish for streetlamp Sam to be our Sammy. I hope if they don’t have him reunite with Dean right away that there is the appropriate angst about that. I hope he goes and finds Bobby in the meantime. Someone should.
- If Sam does come back as ‘something else’, then hopefully Jared is given something meaty to work with. Jared has done some interesting things with his possessions.
- I hope Lisa is a complex and fleshed out character. I want to see her struggle with Dean and the dynamic he brings to her household. I want to see him struggle.
- I enjoy Dean’s interaction with kids. I want to see some kid stuff of a humorous ilk. Dean floundering as a parental unit would be awesome.
- I want to see Cas become disillusioned with life in heaven, perhaps ostracized and kicked out. I like the comic relief Cas brings to the table. I want more Cas interacting with humans and boggling at earthling ways. I want Ben and Cas to meet.
- I want Dean to find himself unable to ignore hunting. I want the impala to still have her trunk of deadly weapons and for her to be ready to go into action at a moment’s notice.
- I want the excessive drinking to resolve itself in some painfully angsty way. It is an issue for both boys.
- I emphatically do not want Lisa and Ben to die.
- I want our boys reunited and in a way that both of them are happy to be with the other, not in ‘the world is better off’ kind of way. If that’s not reasonable, then I still want them together. Together does not have to look the same as it has looked on and off for the last 5 years. I’m okay with show giving us a new paradigm of Sam and Dean together.
- I want the apocalypse storyline over and done.
- I would prefer for the MOW to not be demon possessions and for the killing of possessed humans to stop.
I'm over here currently killing myself with a strict top five per-season list. Oh, the pain.
#1 on my wish list--boys still dysfunctionally co-dependent. They can be happy and dysfunctional, but I want them to still have their compulsion (PLATONIC) to be together.
I find I'm okay with the drinking. It's apparent, I guess, that I don't want too much healing. These are ways in which I like them damaged.
So I'm okay with neither of the boys developing lasting relationships with anyone who can't either travel with them or be left alone a lot. Because I want them to be almost sufficient for each other.
Yeah, and please don't fridge Lisa or Ben. Ixnay on the ridge-faying for now.
Okay, here are my season top 5s, in no particular order. Because that would drive me to distraction. As if this wasn't hard enough.
S1:
- Skin: This might place just because of the look skinwalker!Dean gives the SWAT team during the Innagaddadavida sequence. It's so completely terrifyingly not Dean. Many of my initial-watch S1 memories are fuzzy, but I do remember having *no* idea what was going on here, but being deliciously titillated. But other than that, I loved Sam spotting "Dean", "Dean" telling Sam his issues, Sam being tied up, Dean killing "Dean", the revelation that Sam's a big old softie who can't break ties, and the verification that Dean has no friends. And their exposure to the law.
- Faith: What can I say? Totally Dean!Girl crack here, plus Sam's unquestioning devotion is ♥. And Dean's conviction that it wasn't worth it.
- Shadow: John. The reunion with John gets me every time. Dean's going straight to him, and Sam holding back, but still getting the hug in the end. Plus great Meg action.
- Salvation: Sam and his visions and Dean standing up to John. John being crafty. Dean saving Sam and telling him about the costs he's not willing to pay.
- Devil's Trap: Stab me in the heart, why don't you, Kripke? But before you do that, have that amazing scene in the cabin, where Dean knows his Dad wouldn't be nice to him about saving Sam. And have the moment where Sam gets Dean's point and won't kill his father, and tells John that to boot.
S2 (god, this is nigh impossible):
- In My Time of Dying: Sam's devotion to Dean. Dean almost giving up. John's devotion to Dean. That wonderful, wonderful moment JA gives where John is telling Dean the secret at the end of the ep. JP's marvellous moment where Sam discovers John.
- Crossroad Blues: Great story of the week, plus everything it set up for the series' ongoing mythology.
- Croatoan: Dean's devotion to Sam. Dean almost giving up. The sense of impending doom with the late demon reveal, and finding out that Dean should have shot his ass in the first place. Great performance by guest stars.
- What Is and What Should Never Be: I don't even know what to say. Full on heartbreak. I forget to cite this when I talk about scenes that make me cry--Dean seeing his mother breaks me hard.
- All Hell Breaks Loose: Okay, cheating here. But they gave them the same title, so I'm calling them the same episode.
I'm trying to be good and not list my almost-made-its, because what's the point if I do? But it did hurt to cut them--all five of them I also rated a 5 for the season. You probably know which ones they are--they're probably on your lists instead.
S3:
- Bad Day at Black Rock: This is funny and painful altogether. "I'm Batman." "I lost my shoe." AND SHE SHOOTS SAM.
- Fresh Blood: Damn, Gordon. Damn, Sam. Damn, Sam killing Gordon. And more devoted brother action.
- A Very Supernatural Christmas: Boys! Weechesters! Samulet! Dubious parenting!John!
- Mystery Spot: Oh, the pain. I'm not one of those people that really thought Dean's deaths were funny, because Sam didn't, ever. I totally felt for him every time. And the Wednesday? One of the more chilling things a chilling series has ever done. I can so easily replay him stitching himself up and him killing Bobby. And, of course, the hug. God, man.
- Jus In Bello: Oh, Victor. That we had to lose you. But you went out so well. Rocking exorcism trick, scary Sam wanting to kill the virgin.
This was harder than I'd thought! I guess I really like what I like in this season--I had 6 rated 5 stars, and picking one to lose felt really like lying.
(continued...)
S4:
- Lazarus Rising: Chocolate covered Dean? Okay, deeper than that. The reunion alone, with Sam, makes this for me. And the throwaway Ruby, that we didn't yet know was the bollixing up of everything...
- In the Beginning: Mary! Woobie!John! Ah, Dean, learning these things about your family. More heartbreak, and I can't get enough of it.
- It's a Terrible Life: AU gold. I'm a bit dissatisfied with the end, because we never get to see Sam learning the truth, but everything else was magical. Up to and including hair and wardrobe. Just hysterical and lovely.
- The Monster at the End of This Book: And now that we know the payoff to this little thread...but so freaking funny, the meta, it burns. I adore the idea, and I adore the execution. Slash fans, indeed. I only wish they could have read Dean/Castiel at some point.
- Jump the Shark: Boys! Three boys! They couldn't have tempted fate and done better. The revelation of Adam showed so much about John and revealed more about Sam and Dean without ruining a thing.
This was a hard season too. I didn't have as much rated 5 stars for it, but about half the season I had rated 4. I won't say which is the four star pick, but picking it? Rough.
S5:
- The End: So fucking depressing, so fucking funny, and JA on total fire.
- Changing Channels: Makes me weep with laughter, as well as having the big retcon reveal that actually started to make sense.
- My Bloody Valentine: SAMMY! So strong. Dean--so gutted. Also, gross and hysterical at the same time.
- Dark Side of the Moon: Oh, god, the pain. And the devastation on Dean's face at Sam's death, and the repeat devastation at Sam's memories, and the tossing of the Samulet. Plus, Sam coming to understand so much more, and Cas cursing his Father.
- Swan Song: Love letter to love. Great farewell from Kripke. I hadn't thought to read the title as Kripke's swan song until just right now. Don't know how it took me this long. But I think he let them go with such affection. In tears multiple times, and still feel the warmth of the whole thing. And the nervousness. It has more flaws than the rest of the five stars on this whole list, but the emotional high points were so damned high it needs to be here for me. Plus amazing performance from JP, and standard greatness from JA.
God fucking damn, S5 was almost as hard as S2. Fewer five star eps to cut, but I think I liked the ones I liked much more.
I have to think about my lists of season top fives. For a good little while.
Oddly, I don't think I have a wish list for S6, mostly because some of it is going to happen no matter what. I really can't see Sera helming a show where the brothers are separate for a whole season, or there's no resolution to their story in the end. If anyone is about the Epic Love Story of Sam and Dean, it's Sera Gamble.
Plus, meta reasons always get in the way for me. Both boys are signed, both boys are going to want a certain amount of screentime. They're the stars, they're the draw.
I also ... just want to see what story they choose to tell us. Sometimes at the end of season I've wondered how they would resolve something (like Dean's get-out-of-hell card, for instance, or after the car crash), but I've never really speculated about what I want to have happen. I can do that in fic, and I think (for me only) wishing for something specific to happen on the show would set me up for disappointment.
