SPN 12.02 thoughts

[fufaraw]

I took some time this morning and rewatched the end scene with Toni and Mr. Whosit in the car, and took down the dialog, word for word, because I have some thoughts.


Him: Your mission was to identify American hunters and gain their trust. That's what the Home Office wants.
Lady Bevel (I can't help regarding the name as a descriptor--edge, or angle): I have a dossier, and I'm just getting started.
Him: They've also had their fair share of successes.
Bevel (doesn't acknowledge what he said): If our (the MOLUK) goal is to end the supernatural threat here (in the US, as opposed to back in the UK or elsewhere?), we need to destroy every obstacle. The Winchesters, the American hunters, are no better than the monsters they fail to control. They (and until I'm shown that her prospective purge is restricted to the Winchesters, I believe she means *all* the US hunters) need to be eliminated.

Here are my thoughts about this. It's obvious our Toni is driven, and that's possibly because she's a Legacy herself, and feels she needs to live up to the family MOL standard, play with the boys, make Papa proud, etc. Perhaps her son is all she has left of her Legacy husband, lost to some mistake by a US hunter, and she's on a vendetta to avenge him. I do tend to lean toward the vendetta. She's fevered in her pursuit of her goal, almost rabid. She's also clearly unstable, as she's always been "hands off," when it came to interrogation, a lady through and through, letting thugs and lesser beings whose job it was inflict the damage, while she sat cooly on the other side of the one-way glass and sipped her tea while she did a little paperwork, perhaps.

But she's discovered through her fierce drive for vengeance that she has an affinity for torture, and obviously, the more she inflicts, the more addicted she becomes to it, not for the results but for the action itself and the response it elicits, the sense of power, and the reaction of having another human cowering in pain and fear before her. That girl just ain't right, and the more hands on she is, the wronger she gets.

I don't know if we'll get her backstory, and frankly, I don't really care. But I'm not going to dismiss her, because I think she's going to go into further meltdown if they don't put her in a happy jacket and pack her back to the UK in lockdown. And if they don't, I think she's going to do a lot of damage and make a lot of things worse.

In other news, I'm still in a maternal fog this morning. A lot of y'all know that we lost our son in August 2006, that In My Time of Dying was deja vu for a week of my life, and that the Winchester boys became a kind of avatar, yes? Probably the main reason I've never been able to quit this show.

So when the second time in Sam's 34 years that he called for his mother's attention, and this time she heard him, this time he felt his mom's arms around him. This time, after all this time, he felt her love. I've been kind of weepy all day, so 'scuse me. Sorry.

Comments

[onlythefireborn.livejournal.com]

Ah, Fu. *hugs you*

Jared did very well in that scene with Mary - Sam looked both younger and happier than he has in the last umpteen episodes.

Brilliant analysis of Lady Bevel. (The dark guy's name is Mick, I think. Jury's still out on him.) I entirely missed it, that her goal is to eliminate all American hunters. I know the British think we're couthless, and some never got over us toddling off to start our own country, but killing all the hunters?! And this 'supernatural threat' she's on about, do you think that's a generalization - or something more specific?

I'd like to know specifically what triggered this direction from the Home Office, to connect with American hunters. Pretty sure we have not yet seen all the cards. But you're right to point out that Lady B is a loose cannon, with some interesting powers. And 'the more hands on she is, the wronger she gets.' She seems to recognize this in herself, limiting her physical contact with the monsters they eliminate or interrogate. But again, you're right: This looks much like the beginning of a downward spiral. Not sure what Mick intends - it's ominous that he's already called in Mr. Ketch, who seems to be a last-resort solution. (Lovely, another psychopath in the house.) But what direction will Ketch be pointed in?

Thinking of you today. * gets out the Haagen-Dazs and two spoons*

[anniespinkhouse.livejournal.com]

Oh, weep away. That hug was incredible. Jared really did knock it out of the park with what he was given to work with. I hope that there is some catharsis in it. <3

[phoenix1966]

I agree with your takeaway of Toni and I suspect she will be the "big bad" of the season, concurrent with Lucifer.

I am curious why there was a disconnect between the divisions, since they never sent anyone to help or follow up after Abadon decimated the American contingency.

She, even more than we saw with Henry, has embraced using spell work and I wonder if she and Rowena will cross paths over the Book of the Damned at some point. And I am eager to meet Mr. Ketch and find out if he is a descendent or the actual Jack Ketch himself.

I'm happy to hear there was something meaningful for you in that episode. I also agree Jared's acting was pretty impressive throughout.

[kazluvsbooks.livejournal.com]

//hugs you tight//

I like your thoughts about Toni , I don't think she'll be gone.
The mother and son hug was beautiful, and I love the dynamic so far between Mary and Sam.

Xxx

[sylsdarkplace]

Jared was great in that scene. I can understand why it affected you on a personal level. (((hugs)))

What I'd like to know from that conversation is a threat to what? Certainly not the supernatural threat to the public in general. They've never stepped in before -- not with the apocalypse or Abbadon or when Amara was initially set free. So what is different? Wiping out American hunters won't aid the general public, but it would take away what protection American civilians have against supernatural threats -- like the MOLUK itself? Toni used powerful dark magic which makes her a de facto witch (and we know how Dean loves witches). She may think she's on the right side of the supernatural equation, but how different is she really from Rowena?

My guess at this point is that MOLUK wants to see what American hunters it can bring into the fold and use as tools and which ones are too independent and smart and need to be exterminated so MOLUK can control North America as it does Britain. Given Toni's use of black magic, I suspect that MOLUK isn't a force for good so much as a force of power and control. Ketch is apparently some kind of enforcer, perhaps even the original sadistic executionerJack Ketch -- alive by supernatural means. Probably not, but that's how I would write it. ;)

[jimbobjoe.livejournal.com]

You thoughts on Toni go a long way toward making her actions make sense to me. I just kept thinking, through all this torture craziness, that her plan makes no sense. So yeah, bent on revenge actually works for me, as opposed to Mick/Mr. Whosit's idea of gaining American hunters' trust. They dispatched her with orders to make nice (which Mick said she disobeyed), and she saw her opportunity for vengeance and ran with it.

And *HUGS* for your loss.