Reply To: Let’s all talk about Bloodlust (S2 E3)
This is a GREAT episode in my book!!! SO MUCH to unpack in this one!
FIRST OFF – AAAAAWESOME Baby driving sequence at the beginning! REALLY showing off her beautiful lines!
Love, again, the mix of lighter notes like the talk with the sheriff and the scene in the morgue against the darker tone of the Gordon story points.
I LOVED to hate Gordon – well, on first watching the show I just hated him, but now I find the inclusion of him excellent and so important!! What an awesome actor and what sadly twisted and disturbed character – more and more so as time goes by. The way it is revealed to us through the course of this episode that his first kill was his own sister is CHILLING (good job Sera Gamble!). And Gordon’s whole character arc is tragic and clearly shines a light on the fact that not all hunters are “well doing” heroes. But that rigid thinking and clinging to simplified world views is as dangerous (if not more so) as the supernatural predators you hunt. (That fact sadly is even more poignant today than when the episode first aired!)
I was always surprised at the fact that Dean trusted Gordon so fast and revealed so much after just meeting him, but at the same time it is very touching that he is desperate enough with pent up emotion to open up to this total stranger. Of course, it saddened me that he feels like he has to hide this from Sam….but he’s “big brother Dean” – I get it. I also understand that it’s a relief to Dean to “simply do” as he was taught, hunt and kill the monster, without having to think too much about it and that fighting together for the same cause makes Gordon seem like an ally and foxhole buddy quickly.
Between finding out about the Road House, the hunter community at large and now Gordon in particular I can see how Sam and Dean would find it intriguing that they aren’t all alone out there fighting evil. And it’s interesting how Dean leans into the “let’s do this together” aspect of the immediate fight when Sam is more drawn to Ellen’s behind the scenes approach.
I LOVE how this episode starts a REAL shift in Dean’s thinking about the world of “monsters” and how “in the box black and white thinking” and assumptions can really lead you down the wrong path but how trying to figure out the grey areas is HARD! He’s faced with the fact that John’s way of thinking and doing wasn’t always correct and that he’s going to have to figure out on his own now what’s right and wrong. That’s powerful stuff!
We see “Sam the Thinker” and “Dean the Doer” even more clearly in this episode and I don’t mind the difference it establishes between them because I always thought from the start that BOTH are vitally necessary qualities and make the best balance when put together!
Always LOVE Buffy/Angel actor sightings, so of course I am thrilled about Amber Benson as Lenore!
And it’s funny to me how Ty Olsson ends up playing two very different vampires over the run of the show!
Yup, a really strong episode for me AND one of THE most GORGEOUS shots of Dean there at the very end!!!!