#thematic threads

[isagrimorie]

Batwoman 1x03 | 2x13 - "You-- you have our father's eyes."

[amwritingmeta]

15x07: Sam and Eileen

The way that Eileen has come back on the board is interesting to me, because Sam and Eileen, for better or worse, have always been used as a necessary mirror for Dean and Cas. And by “always” I mean in the now five episodes (including the one where she was killed) where we’ve had Eileen. 

Just as Cas has always been the tug-tug-tugging at the back of Dean’s head for the necessity of breaking the codependency and moving on into believing he can have and deserves to have a future for himself, rather than through protecting his brother, so Eileen is now back in Sam’s life, serving that same, and highly necessary, purpose.

And how this might be used moving forward, and what it means for all four of these characters and, especially, for the progression of Sam, Cas and Dean’s individual and joint arcs, is even more interesting to me.

For now, we have the quiet glory of the scene between Sam and Eileen to take a closer look at, and to me it’s very subtly telling us a whole lot, especially about Sam. (and by extension quite possibly about Dean as well...)

So, then, Sam and Eileen are doing research in the library and the setting up for the exchange they’re about to have is classic romance stuff of eyes lingering on the other, rather than what they’re doing, and we get the sense that they’ve definitively got better things on their mind (especially Eileen, who drives the scene) than the words on the pages in front of them.

Eileen makes the excuse that her brain is melting and that they need a break. Sam agrees. Which leads us to:

Look at how innocently coy she is. I love how playful this is, because what the scene underlines to us is how different this is to the flirtations Dean is engaging in. This isn’t just about some fun. It’s much more than that, to the both of them.

Of course, Sam is still clueless.

Yeah, he’s gonna need something a bit more explicit than a playful suggestion of “something fun”. And isn’t it lovely what this says about him? Sex, or even fooling around, is the furthest thing from his mind. 

It takes this-->

--> combined with the poignancy of Eileen’s expression -->

--> to make the penny drop.

And when it does, look at how Sam’s face softens (Jared does it so beautifully!) and how Sam almost looks disbelieving and immediately the tone of the scene changes from that playfulness, to serious, because this isn’t just about sex, this is a declaration of emotions felt on Eileen’s side, and Sam’s response will be telling her whether he feels the same.

And he does.

He really does.

And Eileen, if worried for even a moment, is put at ease, and she wants this, and he leans forward, going for that kiss hanging in the air between them...

...only-->

Oh, boy, what an interruption. Like wow. (Castiel!)

Let’s break this interruption down, shall we? Yes, we shall!

Because there are two important things to make note of here:

1. Sam lets go of Eileen’s hand, like so -->

2. Sam and Eileen both look caught out, like so -->

I mean Sam literally looks like he’s thinking “Oh SHIT” while Eileen is more like “Nothing to see here...” and why are they looking like that?

Because they thought it’s Dean coming back early, right?

Sam releases Eileen’s hand, and looks alarmed at the door opening, because he thinks it’s his brother walking through it, and for Sam, Dean’s possible entrance puts a new perspective on what choices Sam was just about to make, and this new perspective is informed entirely by the pattern of the codependency. 

So to clarify, what we get, however subtle it may be, is a comment on how the codependency informs how Sam relates himself to the idea of starting a loving relationship with someone he truly cares about. 

And this highlights what to us?

That Dean is very likely doing the exact same thing. Yes? Yes, I would say so. Not because it’s stated, but because it’s the thread that’s been pulled on ever since Cas entered the narrative going on eleven years ago. And when looking at how this episode was all about Dean facing down a shadow representative so entangled in hopelessness and lack of faith that it almost stings the eyes, it’s all quite exciting to consider. 

The love and... love aspects of our narrative have always been two of the most important threads when reading the subtext of this story, because though it’s not a love story, it is very much a story about love. End of the day, I believe there’s a third aspect as well, which is loving yourself enough to trust in the love you’re receiving from others. 

Familial love has always warranted the narrative question of what truly constitutes family and what behaviour actually marks showing your family love and support. The balance here has been out of whack since S1.

Romantic love has been shown to cause anxiety, disruption and pain, not through pure unhappiness, but because of the codependency. Dean with Lisa. Sam with Amelia. The exceptions? Cas and Eileen, of course, because they’re narratively pushing for healthy behaviour and choices, while Lisa and Amelia were both narrative tools to underline how disconnected both brothers are from themselves and their very real longing for home, love, family that is always trumped by duty.

And so through it all, real self-love has been absent. Always. And it’s been heightened in the last few seasons, where Dean has stated he doesn’t matter and where Sam has said that if they die, they do that together too.

So it would be gratifying for us now, in 15x07, to get Sam put in a position where his perspective on the codependency could, out of emotional necessity through Sam’s feelings for Eileen and his desire to be with her, be brought into real flux.

Sam may very well need to grow into the understanding that if he wants to be with Eileen, he’s going to have to make a choice, and that choice has to come from the realisation of what a crutch the codependency has always been, and that he’s moved past it and is in a place where he should trust himself through and through, because he deserves to let go of the past, to move on, to look to the future, to be happy.

Here’s hoping!

[isagrimorie]

Doctor Who 12x07 Can You Hear Me? | Revolution of the Daleks

[isagrimorie]

Same Energy - Thirteenth Doctor  

Demons of the Punjab | The Haunting of Villa Diodati

[isagrimorie]

Parallels | Batwoman - Ryan and Mary to Alice

The thing about post-Coryana Alice is that almost everything she does to other people, comes back around and happens to her in almost the exact same way.

It’s an interesting parallel. This again, doesn’t justify or means Alice gets instant forgiveness, but this is a path forward, if Alice so chooses to move and act differently. Neither Ryan and Mary should be expected to, or even pressured to forgive Alice, but I think there can be a way where Alice can choose to atone.

[isagrimorie]

I am so excited for the second half of season 2, because I think that this will be dealing with the continuing fallout from 1x15 (Off with Her Head) and 1x16 (Through the Looking Glass).

From this gifset post

I was listening to Ladies with Gumption podcast (thank you @jellyfishbreaths for the rec, I am really enjoying the podcast and their thoughts on the show!) about episode 1x16 and how the hosts didn't get why Kate tricked Alice into locking herself away in Arkham.

I've always felt like this was the reason why Kate decided to do what she did to Alice. When she confessed to Alice she felt guilty about not feeling guilty for killing Cartwright, and Alice asked if it would be so terrible if Kate was more like her?

And this was the moment Kate decided that she would betray Alice because if there is something she's terrified becoming, it's becoming Alice. Kate always thought of herself as a better person than Alice, she had a line and a standard not to be and it was becoming Alice and the twisted version of Bruce Wayne she saw in an alternate universe.

As Kate told Cartwright before the reveal about what he did to her mother, she was what Alice could've been if Beth hadn't fallen into Cartwright's hands.

Now, through no fault of her own, Kate becomes exactly who she feared. Someone like Alice.

And now, dear Alice, Kate is exactly the same as you.

It's kind of not as great as you thought, huh?

[isagrimorie]

I think... Chibnall really liked The End of Time. I’ve been scrubbing through the Doctor Who videos in my harddrive and one them is End of Time. I don’t watch EoT often because it’s not my flavor of Who but it had so many things in it -- I mean, Timothy Dalton was Rassilon FFS. 

But also, I’ve come upon the scene where Dalton!Rassilon showed themselves and we know somehow the Master knew about his monologuing when he recreated it in The Timeless Children. 

It feels watching the scenes back to back, Dhawan!Master is making Rassilon’s dreams true and his perfect revenge on Rassilon and the other Time Lords that used the Master a tool for their means. Particularly when Rassilon says: 

[id picture: Image of Earth, with Dalton!Rassilon’s voice speaking over it: “But even then the Master had no concept of his greater role in events.”]

Dalton!Rassilon: This day was the day upon which the whole of creation would change forever. This was the day the Time Lords returned. 

The Master has always been proud to be a Time Lord, to be part of the mightiest, the greatest civilization in the universe. The Master’s whole identity are built on two things: Being a Time Lord, being the Doctor’s Oldest and most intimate friend. 

And both those truths were, he thinks, taken from him. 

 Then he finds a way to mock and destroy the Time Lords and he thinks, in his way, honoring the most bastard son of Gallifrey, Rassilon. 

[id: Timothy Dalton!Rassilon on the foreground, holding a staff, two women covering their faces and two Time Lords in formal robes and collars. Text: ‘For Gallifrey!’

Second photo, Dhawan!Master on the foreground, looking up -- presumably at the Cybercarrier over the Citadel, two CyberMasters behind him. 

Dhawan!Master: “For Gallifrey!”

CyberMasters: “For Gallifrey!”]

Look at how he even positioned himself, in a parody, almost of Dalton!Rassilon. I won’t be surprised if those two CyberMasters(Lords) are the exact same Time Lords behind Dalton!Rassilon. 

[id: Dhawan!Master continues on: “For the Time Lords.” And the second screencap, tighter on Dhawan!Master’s face, an emotion in his face as the CyberMasters repeated: “For the Time Lords!”] 

 And then the Master almost spits: “For the Time Lords!” 

There’s an indescribable expression on his face, it is not lost on him what he’s doing. 

The Master flicked his eyes to the Doctor when he said “Time Lords”, all fire and misplaced anger towards the Doctor.  He really thought that this is what he wants, he really thinks it’s the Doctor he’s angry with. 

[id: From behind with Rassilon on the point of the triangle, assembling Time Lord elites with his staff raised as everyone repeated Rassilon’s words: “For the end of time itself!” 

Second photo: The Master and the CyberMasters are arranged in a similar formation with the Doctor at the center as the CyberMasters repeat the Master’s words: “For the end of the universe itself!”]

Then at the end, even how the Master ends this, the way it’s all arranged is such a callback to Rassilon’s own call ‘for the end of time’. 

Rassilon did what he did in End of Time to supposedly ‘save’ the Time Lords by making the Time Lords like Omega, beings of pure will and conscience. On the precipice but never dying. 

The Master, in a twisted and angry way actually did what Rassilon planned to do: “We will ascend to become creatures of consciousness alone. Free of these bodies, free of time, and cause and effect, while creation itself ceases to be.” Except for the part where the Time Lords ascended to become beings of pure consciousness. 

Also, now why can’t I shake the feeling that the Master was originally Rassilon’s child? Whether by blood or adoption, there’s just something that feels... like they’re related somehow, the Master’s hate for Rassilon and how this very truth seem to be his undoing. 

TLDR, I feel now there’s more of a connection to the Time Lord storyline in End of Time working its way in a circular pattern back to where the Master started from in NuWho. The Master finally getting his ultimate revenge on the Time Lords for turning him into a tool, for lying to him. For hurting him and every renegade child (including, possibly the big reason why but still very much headcanon, the foundling who became the Doctor). 

[isagrimorie]

Same dumbass software, different case.