"The righteous man who begins it is the only one who can finish it."

[llywela]

Wales-Germany last night was a much better game than Finland on Saturday. We lost, obviously, but who wasn't expecting that? It was an open, flowing game that was a lot of fun to watch. Germany's first goal was excellent - 30 yard strike! - and their second a fluked own goal. Wales held their own and had their share of goal-scoring chances, just lacked that cutting edge. We have a very young and inexperienced squad - this campaign will have been a good learning curve for them to build on for the future.

Right. Recap time.

Okay, so this recap seems to have been bubbling away in the background forever. Between lack of free time and the sheer density and complexity of the episode, it really wasn't easy to write! I'm still not happy with it. I know I've left out stuff I meant to say, repeated myself in places and not expressed myself clearly in other places. But it'll have to do! I can't spend any more time on it, and it is quite long enough already.

So, here we go: far too many pages in which I ramble on at great length about Dean's depression and Sam's emotional shut-down, Castiel's pathological inability to think outside the box, why Alistair was always in control of the torture session and how Dean was set up to fail from the start, Sam's growing superiority complex, a detailed deconstruction of why Alistair has to have been lying through his teeth about John, Sam drinking demon blood, treason in the angelic ranks, Dean's role as unwitting agent of the Apocalypse and the soul-crushing impact of this information, Sam's awesome new power and righteous rage, Castiel playing at CSI and learning to think for himself, Uriel's betrayal, growing factionalism, the meaning of free will, and much more beside.

To read the recap, click the link below:


"We raised you out of hell for our purposes."

Screencaps found at Screencap Paradise, marishna and oxoniensis


Anyone who actually makes it through the entire thing deserves virtual cookies and gold stars. Also, do tell me if I've made any horrendous mistakes anywhere.


And now we shall see how long it takes me to catch up with 4.17...

In Other News, did any of the other Brits on my flist catch the Beeb's new Tuesday night drama All The Small Things the other night? I really enjoyed the first episode - looking forward to seeing how the rest of the mini-series pans out.

Comments

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Not an episode to be recapped lightly, well done for achieving it at all!

[karenmiller.livejournal.com]

Yummy yummy meta. This is probably why last week left me a bit meh -- because this was such a feast. I'm still wrapping what little is left of my brain around it.

If the end sequence of eps is anywhere close to this in intensity and depth, the post season period is going to be hell. And littered with exploded fannish brains.

[galathea-snb.livejournal.com]

You finished the monster! YAY! *claps* Awesome work, hon. *hugs*

I know I probably shouldn't say this, because we talked about this already, but I can't help myself *g*

Perceived need prioritised above other considerations, no matter what damage it causes, and foremost in his mind even in the midst of an unrelated crisis. Hm, but the crisis isn’t completely unrelated. While I agree with your assessment that Sam uses Dean’s situation as an excuse, it’s also clear that he knows that he will probably face Alistair, if not even the angels, and that he needs to be strong enough to best the demon if necessary. I know, we discussed already that he could’ve been satisfied with only exorcising him, but I can still understand the need to be able to kill him or at least be sure that there was no way he would be able to flee the scene, like in 4.15.

He's on a high, compassion all shorted out, and task-focus absolute. And I would still argue that a) we don’t see Sam enter the room and he could have looked at Dean, reassured that he is still breathing, before he engaged Alistair, especially since the demon didn’t notice his entrance and b) Alistair escaped him once before and Sam knows that any kind of error might lose him the control over the situation and hence he can’t allow any distractions. There’s no doubt that he is completely focused as soon as he faces Alistair and doesn’t give Dean a glance, but it is possible that he reassured himself first and then shut out any further conscious thought about his brother and rode the high of killing Alistair.

This is still the only episode of SN that I actually only watched once. It's at my utmost limit for darkness in the show and the utter destruction of Dean's spirit is hard to bear, even for my angst-loving self.

[catsdownunder.livejournal.com]

Dood actually remembered where you lived and asked me if you went to the game. I was thinking of you going with small and said no ... it was a school night.

Lovely layout in your banner, btw.