Have you noticed how Maggie and Alex are almost exclusively shot in circles for their one-on-one scenes, particularly when they meet for the first time in an episode or a big scene?
Go back and check the camera work on the scenes. There are a lot of scenes where they don’t bother to cut from Maggie to Alex or vice versa, but instead choose to swing the camera around, reversing the direction so you can see the other’s face.
We also have the Maggie Leading Alex Forward into a Scene series:
My point is- there’s a lot of movement in their scenes. Across the three episodes we’ve seen, with three different directors, they have all chosen to have movement in Maggie/Alex scenes, establishing a visual vocabulary.
Even when it’s not in constant circles, there is always movement in the background of the shot, a slight motion of the camera.
Because they’re dancing around each other all the time, right?
But then you get to this final scene between Alex and Maggie. And it’s just so different than anything else we’ve seen. Sure, the scene starts out with movement, but then it slows. It gradually starts to zoom in on Alex’s face as they shoot it over Maggie’s shoulder. It’s so slow you don’t notice it at first, but then Alex’s face is all you see in the frame.
There’s a stillness in there so that by the time Chyler delivers the line about intimacy, her face takes up the entire screen – and even then the camera comes closer. So close that her forehead falls out of frame and all you can really see are her eyes. And it just cuts back and forth between the two of them, tight focus, super zoomed, their eyes framed in the shot.
It’s just a really cool thing they’ve done, because doing close ups to force intimacy in a scene, to frame it so that you have to stay with Alex and Maggie- that is a standard camera trick. Zoom in and instantly, your audience wants to lean in closer to hear her words because there is nothing else to focus on but the emotion in their eyes and the intimacy of the moment. It’s not a new thing.
It’s just that by contrast, this scene also stands out because it’s so still compared to every other Maggie/Alex scene. They’ve gradually gotten us to get used to tracking movement, that you notice it even more when the camera is still. It’s almost as though it’s underscoring the seismic shift in Alex, because she’s not dancing around it anymore. She’s admitting a truth to herself for the first time, a self revelation so big, it stops her in her tracks- and so the camera does the same thing, reflects that moment of clarity and the intimacy of their connection.
And it works so well without you realizing why. It completely underscores the entire emotion of the scene.
IDK, it’s just really cool that they managed to build the camera angles that way across three different directors, so you know it had to be deliberate. Chyler and Floriana totally delivered on the acting but nifty little camera tricks in established patterns always interest me, because of how they boost the performances in the editing room.
(all gifs were taking from alexdanversdaily posts)
She stayed as still as she could. The cold tile floor was nothing compared to the cold stone of her mother’s basement. There was blood on her chest. The red bloom of it was making her shirt sticky. Why? She kept her eyes closed and barely breathed at all.
Time slipped by like time itself was cold. She cracked open one eye and stared at the closed door to the public restroom. Someone had tried to get in, but she kept the lock in place. She was glad that she had had the good sense to slide it closed after the man shot her. Why? She kept asking the same question. She didn’t know the man, had never seen him anywhere. Was it just something random?
And yet she knew that it wasn’t. She heard his thoughts. They were not peaceful. He was a violent man. He projected images soaked in blood. His words curled around her mind. She thought that he might be the devil. She pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them. She was feeling the cold as it burrowed into her bones. She thought that she might never shed that. Perhaps it was what she deserved.
When he shot her, it was as if the world slowed down. In that instant of realization, as the man pulled the trigger, she focused on the bullet. She brought it to her chest and stopped it just as it penetrated skin. It hurt and made her bleed, but it was less painful than the quirt. It was less painful than all that she had seen and felt in the last twenty-four hours. This was just another nail in the coffin that was her death-marked life.
She rolled to her side and started to get up. She stopped on her knees. The blood on her shirt would draw attention. She decided to pull her coat tight. She held the zipper with shaking fingers and pulled it until the coat was concealing everything.
Her pocket was heavy with a cell phone that Sam had given to her. He said to call if she ever needed him. He exuded warmth and compassion. She felt his mind and the thoughts that were honest and golden with hope. She wanted that peace. He was so desperate for her to have it. She closed her eyes as she settled a hand on the door. She sent out her thoughts to the world outside. The man that shot her was gone.
She worried. Would the man go to California? Would he check her aunt’s place? If she showed up there while he was looking around, it could cause trouble. She looked down at her feet. What to do. She took a deep lungful of air and turned the handle. No one haunted the night. The bus had left without her. The rest stop was quiet and dark save only for the distant rumble of a lone 18 wheeler truck parked near the exit.
The phone was in her hand without her hardly even thinking about it. She pulled it up close to her face and brought up Sam’s contact information. She clicked it and put the phone to her ear. The ringing was loud, a roar of noise that reminded her that she should be dead. She’d had heard a strange roaring noise when she tried to communicate with Olivia. She’d heard it other times too.
“Magda?” The voice was his, and it was as warm and kind as she had needed it to be.
“Sam?” She barely whispered his name.
His tone became one of concern. “Magda, you okay?” She didn’t respond right away. She felt the shaking beginning in her feet and running heavily up to her thighs. She wondered if she’d have to sit. “Magda, where are you?” Sam sounded rougher, more forceful.
“A man shot me. I’m in Missouri and he shot me.” She grabbed a corner of the wall that was near her. She never stopped scanning the area around her, looking for anyone that might become a problem.
“Tell me more about where you are. Dean and I are on our way.” She could hear the sound of a car pouring through the line. “Magda, do you need to go to the hospital? Are you hurt?” Sam sounded worse by the second.
“No, I stopped the bullet. I pretended to be dead.” She looked around the building. Empty. “He’s gone.”
“I’m gonna trace your phone. We’ll come to you. Try to stay hidden. We’ll be there soon.”
He was scared. She could feel it. She wanted him to know that she was okay. She wanted him to sound less worried. He’d be here. She took comfort in that. “Sam.”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.” She slid down the wall and waited.
“Stay on the phone with me. I’ll talk to you ‘til we get there. You shouldn’t be alone.”
She didn’t know what to say to that. No one cared that much, yet here was Sam acting like she mattered, like she was more than some crazy killer. She felt his words as he spoke. They ran over her ear like a rare warm bath. She rocked a little as she sat. Sam was coming. “Thank you, Sam,” she said it again. It bore repeating. He should know that what he was doing mattered, would always matter.
And as they drove to her, Sam talked about anything in the world, about a dog, about a taco he shouldn’t have eaten, about his brother that was nothing but trouble. He told her that the world was a complicated place, but also that it got easier. She hoped he was right on that last one. It was hard to believe, especially when strangers were shooting at you.
When the night was heavier upon her than it had been before, Sam showed up. The long black car that had belonged to them pulled up in front of her. Sam was out of the car and at her side in an economy of steps. He scooped her up into his arms and pulled her back to the car. He ushered her into the back seat and moved into the space at her side. He put an arm around her, and she nuzzled down into the crook of his arm. “I’m here. I’m right here. You’re safe now. You’re safe.”
She closed her eyes, tired of the world, and let herself believe him as the car pulled out of the spot. Dean turned the vehicle toward the highway. The roar of the engine echoed out into the night, and Sam held her. In this moment she almost believed him. I’m safe. I’m safe. I’m safe. If she thought it often as they drove it might be true enough. Sam gave her arm a little squeeze.The night wore on, but maybe now she was in fact safe.
An episode that confirmed all our Sam feelings. Growing up a psychic in a family that believed anything supernatural was evil. Sam’s point of view on their family being right. Their family was abusive. Their family was oppressive.
Also the Dean parallel, the brainwashed “good” older kid?
Wow.
The child who thought she was evil and needed to be “cleansed”? The child who thought she was unclean?
Dean who was taken in by the rhetoric, wanted to believe the rhetoric.
Sam who saw through it.
And SAM WAS RIGHT.
I CAN’T I’M JUST. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
That was.
Did you see how ANGRY he was about the abused child, the Magda who apparently “died”? Even before he knew all the crap that was really happening, he was SO. ANGRY.
And Magda hugged him at the end.
I am so so so so so broken that she died. I want them to be friends. She could be his Claire.
DEAN SAID HE’S SORRY AND SAM IS RIGHT AND HE’S WORKING THROUGH CRAP AND HE’LL TRY AND BE LESS OF A DICK ABOUT IT
DEAN SAID HE’D TRY AND BE LESS OF A DICK
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
dean acknowledging he’s a dick
because of his emotional baggage
I CAN’T
And Sam is bitter about God. “Believe me, God doens’t give a crap what you do.” Sam is angry at the God Chuck apparently turned out to be.
finally an episode that acknowledges all that we’ve been saying
Yeah, it was incredible, wasn’t it?
And SAM WAS RIGHT. I CAN’T I’M JUST. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
My exact reaction. 🙂 He wasn’t just right, the text acknowledged that he was right– plain as day, completely, totally right; with zero gray area, zero sympathy for the perpetrator, zero textual blame laid on the victim [and therefore all those qualities are imputed to Sam’s story as well]. I’ve been waiting for that for 11 seasons.
Was Crazy Religious Nut Mom doing what she thought best? Why, yes, she certainly was. And the story clearly was structured around the theme that it was still 100% wrong, she was still an abusive, murdering scumbag. I could not be an ounce happier (well, ok, I guess I could- they could’ve not killed Magda. Sigh. But I’ll let it go on account of everything else).
And Sam is bitter about God.
I am so happy about this too. Forgiveness is all well and good if that’s what floats your boat. But anger at injustice is also a precious gift.
Her and Shitty get along eerily well, like. THEY’RE BROS. Shitty just fucking loves Caitlin. Like, real recognizes real, brah.
Her and Chowder are both from Cali, right? But Chowder is from San Jose where it’s hot + beachy, while Caitlin is a literal wild forest creature that grew up in a rural northern CA town filled with redwoods.
She fucking loves redwoods
She has a bluetick coonhound back home named Itchy. She brings him to stay one semester, and Chowder becomes obsessed with spoiling Itchy
She is a vocal, inclusive feminist and will physically fight you if you say something off
Her and Shitty used to always say “meet me in the fucking pit” jokingly, but slowly that developed into her and Chowder’s code phrase for “let’s go up to your room and be sappy/have sex” so Shitty has now forbade the phrase from being spoken in his presence
She prefers not to drink, which is good because Chowder is such a lightweight. He feels very comforted that Caitlin is always there to make sure he’s okay whenever he dips into the tub juice, and he’s so trusting that sometimes he needs a little protecting
She has two dads, and since Nursey has two moms, they bond over the struggle of what to call which parent. “Dad! No, not you, the other dad.”
One of her dads is literally the most Scottish human to ever exist, so she has the teeniest tiniest brogue, even tho she was raised in CA
Her and Bitty are both avid tweeters, but she’s the type that tweets those really intense Scottish tweets. “Am wi Chowder, he’s a ragin lil fuck ye i luv him, canny luv him moar”
Bitty has her twitter on notifications.
Chowder is really insecure about his braces, so Caitlin makes sure he knows she loves him just the way he is. She leaves little sticky notes all over his room!
Her favorite musical artists are Creedance Clearwater Revival and TLC
Caitlin is a Biology major. She wants to teach middle school biology and become Miss Frizz 2.0
Chowder is really allergic to chili powder and other spicy ingredients, so even though Caitlin really loves spicy food, she gave it up so she could kiss Chowder whenever she wants
Her and Lardo get into really heated debates about art. Lardo is a #stan for modern art, but Caitlin just feels like it’s stupid. “Warhol was a genius, Caitlin, get your head out of your ass” “He doesn’t hold a candle to Bob Motherfucking Ross”
Her alignment is Beer Dad (Chowder is totally Wine Mom)
Bitty knows Caitlin loves pumpkin pie, so he bakes them for her like weekly, and she always picks them up after visiting Chowder. Everyone is baffled as to how she isn’t dead yet.
She likes the pumpkin pies frozen, by the way
When her and Chowder graduate and want get a house together, they decide to just close their eyes and point to a map to decide where to live. They get ‘middle of the ocean’ eight times before they finally give up and settle in Minnesota
Caitlin, Chowder, and Ransom all love to knit, so they just knit shit for each other all the time and start to wear these all-knitted ensembles that look absolutely ridiculous
Caitlin and Chowder both like oversized t-shirts, so they’re constantly wearing each other’s clothes
She is such trash for lipstick, and likes to wear weird colors like green or metallic teal
She loves kids so much
Has gotten in a barfight once but only Chowder really knows the details
She comes to all of Chowder’s hockey games and he comes to all of her volleyball matches
Her and Chowder have dressed up as ‘Eleanor & Park’ and Daft Punk for halloween
Her favorite book is “The Hobbit”
Loves making fancy pasta dishes, so once, Bitty and her created a really cool dinner for the team that everyone still talks about
Has a lot of tattoos! but they’re all of really silly things, like scooby doo on her ribcage and a blueberry muffin on her wrist
Talked Chowder into getting a tattoo of a shark on his butt because “the Sharks own that ass way more than I do”
Eventually gets a tattoo of a can of clam chowder soup over her heart because she is a LITERAL SAP and then chowder gets a tattoo of a redwood tree over his heart because he is also a LITERAL SAP
Does not know how to skateboard but she tells everyone she does
GATHER ‘ROUND CHILDREN AND LET ME TELL YOU A THING OR TWO ABOUT THIS GLORIOUS BOOK.
I HAVE OWNED THIS BOOK FOR A WHILE BUT NOW I’M SHARING IT WITH TUMBLR BECAUSE WE’RE ALL DRAGON-LOVING-FUCKS.
IN THIS BOOK
IN THIS MOTHERFUCKIN MASTER PIECE OF A BOOK
THE GIRL SEEKS OUT THE DRAGON BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO ESCAPE HER BORING LIFE AS A PRINCESS.
I DON’T THINK YOU GUYS HEARD ME.
THE GIRL WANTS TO BE WITH THE DRAGON.
AND THIS AINT EVEN IN A ROMANTIC WAY. SHE JUST RESPECTS THE DRAGON SO FUCKING MUCH.
THERE IS EVEN A PART WHERE SHE REPEATEDLY TELLS A PRINCE TO STOP TRYING TO SAVE HER BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO BE THERE AND THE PRINCE JUST ISN’T GETTING IT BECAUSE HE’S NEVER HEARD OF A PRINCESS WANTING TO BE AMONG DRAGONS BEFORE.
LIKE I CAN’T EVEN RIGHT NOW JUST READ THE DAMN THING.
THIS IS THE MOST READ BOOK I OWN AND I READ A LOT OF BOOKS AND HAVE MANY FAVORITES SO Y’ALL KNOW THIS BOOK MUST BE GOOD.
i have read it a total of 39749823792837493 times.
Every once in a while a post comes around that reminds me of how important these books were to wee me, and I have to reblog it so that other people can find this very important series.
Bonus: the dragon she goes to live with, Kazul, is also female. Through various events in the book, Kazul eventually becomes King of the Dragons (yes, you read that right–in dragon culture, the titles of King and Queen are not tied to gender.
I cannot TELL YOU how much little Stele wanted to run away and become a dragon’s princess.
I LOVED this series growing up. now I want to re read it…
I was wondering when someone was going to say it. D:
THESE BOOKS ARE THE FUCKING BEST OKAY
also the books are just fucking hilarious in general like the entire series is an exercise in dry humor and litotes
OMFG THESE FUCKING BOOKS OKAY.
I was about ten when I first picked this up, so I didn’t know much about
all the nastiness that happens to fantasy ladies, but I DID know there
were way too many princes and shepherd boys and woodcutters and sailors
and such having all the fun. By the time I was done, I was like, “Mom, pack my bags, I’m going to live with a dragon and be friends with a witch.” (The spit-take was epic.)
Cimorene was the fucking REASON I got into reading fantasy novels. It was so refreshing to see a strong female lead who didn’t get dumbed down or “humbled” (we all know what it means, fuck you GRRM) somewhere along the way. Cimorene was strong, she was sassy, she was smart, she was independent, and she was still GIRLY. And she didn’t need to fiddle-fart around with special powers or magical ancestral relics to kick wizard ass, oh no. CLEANING SUPPLIES.
And don’t even get me started on Morwen and how much that influenced my interest in magic.
Dealing With Dragons led to The Ruins of Ambrai, which led to The Dragonstar books, which led to The Abhorsen Chronicles, which led to The Black Jewels series…
STRONG FEMALE FANTASY LEADS ARE IMPORTANT.
*gasp* no one has posted the absolutely AMAZING Trina Schart Hyman cover for this book, though!
look at her amazing eyebrows, her sword, her attitude! I checked this book and its sequels out of the library so many times I might have set a record.
Ah, god, these books are the best. And they were something of a bonding experience for myself and my mom when I was 16; I read through the entire series out loud to her over the course of a couple months. (We didn’t intend to start; I was rereading the series yet again and wanted to share the great opening lines, and just didn’t stop!)
These books are the fantasy series both of us wanted when we were kids, with characters that felt infinitely more real and relatable than yet another farmer’s son inevitably thrown into a hero role. It turns all the princess tropes on their ear and laughs at them for being so shallow (it does not laugh at shallow PRINCESSES however, and that distinction is SO important). The female characters support and help each other in their own way – even the ones the tropes suggest would be a hinderance or antagonistic – and this is the one series I recommend to all my friends who have kids.
It’s so nice to see these pristine cover images, because all of mine look like this:
OH MAAAN. I loved these books. I got them out of the library. I think I actually accidentally read the last one (about Cimorene’s son) first and then went back and read her books. The last one is actually still my favorite but they’re all so great.
THESE BOOKS ARE AMAZING and also hilariously your reading order was actually the order they were written in – Talking To Dragons was published first in like 1980 something and then the other three were written later in the 90s. I absolutely loved them too; Cimorene always struck me as the kind of hero that you’d actually want to be, rather than the hero that the book tells you is good or admirable. She’s smart and she likes cooking and she finds satisfaction in organizing things and she loves to learn and she’s brave and she fights against cruelty and cares for people and ugh, Cimorene is just great.
And where the FUCK is my $100 million blockbuster adaptation of this btw???
That is so weird, I actually have three of these in my pile of ‘books I bought in middle school because I was a hoarder of books’ but it’s been so long, I’d forgotten what they were about. Going on the re-read list now!
THE DEALING WITH DRAGONS SERIES IS SO GOOD OH MAN
TINY ME WAS SO IN LOVE WITH PRINCESS CIMORENE AND I HAD NO IDEA
Why is Cosette the face of the musical, rather than Jean Valjean?
Reasonable question! The musical, even more than the book, is very About Jean Valjean, his journey and his plotline. But the musical isn’t JUST about Valjean; it’s also about Fantine, about Marius, about an uprising, about the Thenardier Family, and so on.
And Cosette is the thread that ties it all together.
Without Cosette, the story (of the musical) is :
Valjean redeems himself through his behavior at M-sur-M and (possibly!) his act of sacrifice at the Champmathieu trial.
Fantine stays in Paris; Valjean never meets her.
Javert either never tells Valjean about Champmathieu (because he’s not pressing suspicions due to Fantine’s arrest), and Valjean stays as mayor, end of story, Javert either goes on with his life in the service of the now-exonerated (in his mind) Mayor Madeleine,
OR: Valjean goes to jail (and stays there, without duty to Cosette driving him to find another way) and Javert goes on his way with the satisfaction of a job rightly done. Neither of them ever has to confront the choices and character growth that come their way in the existing story.
Marius never even considers not being part of the barricade fight; and he dies with everyone else there. *Including* Eponine and Gavroche, who are there for their own reasons.
And all of these are complete stories! Every one of these characters serves as the hub of an entire plot, with other characters affected by them and their choices!
But the only reason they’re part of the SAME story is because of Cosette. Because of Cosette, Fantine goes to Valjean’s factory. Because of Cosette, Valjean finds a way to keep moving ahead after the trial, and eventually goes to Paris. Javert’s suicide, Marius’ survival at the barricade–they happen because Valjean loves Cosette enough to be there (and because Marius loved Cosette enough to consider NOT being there, and send Eponine off with a note–and in the world of the musical, this may be why Eponine’s at the barricade too, but that’s a consideration for another time.)
Valjean’s line– “It’s the story of those who always loved you”– could stand for the whole musical. I’ve seen that post saying Marius is only there because Valjean loves Cosette, but really you can track that back–VALJEAN only connects with any of these people because Fantine loved Cosette. It’s the story of people who love Cosette, and how that transforms them and the people they meet.
No, none of this is intentional on Cosette’s part, but hey, that’s part of the point of this story– no one knows what they’re doing, no one’s got a Master Plan, everyone’s just moving forward the best they know how. What brings people together, through all the confusion, across classes and war and all kinds of social prejudice, is love, and that’s what Cosette does, and what she represents.
And that’s why Cosette is the face of the musical.
This! Cosette is SUCH an important, strong character and I hate that she often ends up being the least favorite among fans. I think the book does a better job than the musical does of fleshing out her character and making her importance to the story clear, but that’s likely only because the musical is trying to do so many things at one time. I think because her part seems small in the musical and because she gets her happy ending when almost no one else in the story does, people tend to be a bit bitter toward her. But…like…if that’s how you feel, then you’re missing the point! Cosette is born out of wedlock to a very poor mother, is orphaned, spends something like five years of her early life living in an abusive situation and yet…she becomes this beacon of love and hope DESPITE all of that. Cosette’s happy ending is exactly what the Amis were fighting for…not for her, specifically, but for “the people.” And Cosette is one of those people. She is Fantine’s pride and joy; Valjean’s redeeming act of love; Eponine, Azelma, and Gavroche’s “what might have been” if circumstances had been different for them. Even Javert is tangentially affected by her story because she (in addition to Valjean) is the living embodiment of proving his mindset wrong because if Valjean is a bad person, then she SHOULD be a bad person too…especially considering her origins. But she isn’t. Valjean pours all this love into her, and she becomes this sweet, wonderful, kind, generous person. When Cosette gets her happy ending, she carries everyone else’s happy endings with her. Perhaps the others die before being able to see it fulfilled, but she embodies the hope for a future where things are different… A future where people like Valjean and Fantine are not constantly condemned for their mistakes; a future where children like the Thenardiers’ kids actually have a chance of being adopted by wonderful parents like Valjean adopted her and escaping poverty; a future where the Amis’ deaths are not in vain; a future where people are no longer obligated by society to feel as though they have to make the choice Javert felt he had to make of either letting his parents’ bad choices or the law define him. Hugo didn’t want us to be bitter toward Cosette’s happiness. He wanted us to be happy FOR her…because when she gets her happy ending, they ALL do.
**applauds**
The bit about her representing a future where people don’t have to be defined by past generations is SUCH a big deal. Cosette’s life breaks the cycle of class and social stigma–but she also helps Marius find a way to reconcile political divides in his life that people were still killing each other about. She’s proof of Valjean’s redemption, like you say, (and it’s too bad Valjean doesn’t accept that more fully) and in that she’s also a challenge to Marius’ internalized prejudice, his dissonant belief in the condemnation of the law on other people.
Cosette is a living refutation of the social prejudices of her time.. And her happy future is totally a promise that the future the Amis fought for isn’t impossible or foolish, it’s right and it’s going to happen, as long as people keep loving each other. And not in some vague way, but because love demands people challenge their prejudices and their accepted limits and categories.
And now I am being Emotional About This Book Before noon again. ;__;
I know I’ve talked about this before, but I’m really sick of seeing writers who should know better say things like, “Tragedy is more compelling than stories where characters have a nice day and nothing bad happens!” without understanding why.
Tragedy is an effective story element when it’s a deviation from the norm. A character’s peaceful existence is disrupted by a catastrophic event that throws everything into chaos. The character now has to either develop so they can cope with the new status quo, or find a way to put things back the way they were. There’s a good story in that.
But when a character’s life is an unrelenting cavalcade of misery, another heaping dose of shit isn’t all that interesting. At that point, a compelling deviation from the norm would be said character having a nice day where nothing bad happens. And modern fiction is chock-full of misery porn, so by this logic, it’s no wonder the coffee shop AU is such a popular fanfiction trope.
Derek Hale getting a dog and putting his life back together is way more interesting than Derek Hale’s life getting worse for the 26th consecutive episode.
Creators like to hold up “everything is fine and nobody dies” as a sign that fanfic is bland and badly written, but if anything, it’s an indicator that mainstream fiction is bland and badly written.
But when a character’s life is an unrelenting cavalcade of misery, another heaping dose of shit isn’t all that interesting
Oh gosh, yeah. Toni had all the freshest information! She wanted info on Ruby (who has been dead for 8 years). She wanted info on Benny (who went back to Purgatory more than 3 years ago). She thinks there’s some sort of military-like structure and hierarchy to the American hunter’s network, she referred to Sam’s “soldiers,” like he’s got an army… Like, are these people from some sort of alternate reality where hunting has EVER worked this way in this country? At least since Abaddon tore down the MoL in the 50′s?
What I want to know is what she suspects is actually going on. Mick (the dude in Black) insinuated that they had reason to suspect that there was some sort of ~shady dealings~ going on with American hunters, and Toni’s questions to Sam made it seem like she believed they had a turncoat in their organization. But they don’t have an organization.
The disconnect seems to start there, from her insistence that they absolutely DO have an organization. With all the other weird random facts she seems to have, like the fact that Dean rescued Benny from Purgatory because ??? how would she know that? And yet not have realized the American hunters do not have an actual organization? The collection of facts she does have are so wildly incongruent that they can’t possibly have come from a single source, but it makes me wonder if someone’s been deliberately feeding her (or even the entire British MoL) some heavily biased string of lies and partial truths for their own purposes, and if so… whom? Maybe our mysterious Mr. Ketch?
We also have yet to see any of the “old men” Toni mentioned. I’ll be fascinated to know where all their facts are coming from.
But yeah, I’d love to have her mention Cassiel, and have Cas correct her that Cassiel is actually the angel of Saturday, and calmly inform her she’s got the wrong guy. Pffft.
I like the idea that the hunting community as a whole just blames the Winchesters for everything so whatever nonsense rumours she’s getting are stuff that they’ve been complaining about.
For example, Sam set Martin to track Benny, so Martin could easily have blabbed to someone else about what the Winchesters were up to right now. In the start of season 5 a lot of hunters were out for Sam, as 5×03 showed, and rumours about how Sam let Lucifer out had to eventually include Ruby somehow or other – they also hunted alone together for months while Dean was in Hell, even if we didn’t see them bump into hunters together as far as I recall. (Plus demons told the hunters everything about what Sam did in 5×03 I think?) so again, tons of rumours about Sam and Ruby there…
Actually I’m most amused at the idea there is a solid hunter network and they keep the Winchesters purposefully at arm’s length because John kept them isolated for their safety or something while they were growing up, and Sam and Dean only started bumping into it by season 2 at a distance, and by the time they may have made a name for themselves in a good way as hunters, rumours about Sam in season 2 were already going around and by season 3 Gordon had clearly spread the idea Sam was the antichrist here and there, and even if most hunters didn’t believe it and come after him, damage done on other fronts like the hellgate thing… Anyway, Ellen kept Gordon at arms length like, good hunter, don’t work with him though…
(Actually, Jesse or Cesar said they’d heard of the Winchesters but that they were dead, so clearly rumours about them do circulate but again, very arms length :P)
Anyway I just wanna have a moment in that episode coming up with all the hunters, where Dean’s like “haha they were trying to find about about the suuuper seeecret hunter network hahahaha” and all the hunters are just shifting awkwardly like “do we tell them” “why is this our problem now” “oh my god it was THEM who nearly killed the sun – wait why am I even asking”
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