"That's my good Girl'

Just recently got around to watching Supernatural's 'Abandon All Hope' episode and it left quite the impression on me.

* SPOILERS*

In the episode, Jo and Ellen Harvelle, a mother-daughter Hunter team show up and make their last stand and their finale is so heart wrenching and so tough and so amazing and perfect. They went out as heroes and as a family at the same time.

Jo, the daughter, is one of my favorite characters, I just love her independence and her sass. Even though she has the hots for Dean, and really, who doesn't? She still has enough self awareness and self esteem to not demean herself for his attention or sell herself short to be with him. I can respect a woman who would rather be a heroine than the lover, ya know?

Ellen, the mother, is just all kinds of ass kickery. She's a fierce mama bear not only to Jo but to Dean and Sam, and looks out for them all, while at the same time she doesn't cower in the corner and whimper about her babies being hurt.

In 'Abandon All Hope', Jo's mauled by a Hellhound while defending Dean and the others from these invisible monsters. She then accepts that she's going to die, tells the others to give her a way to hold the Hellhounds back, and when they try to argue with her, she shuts them down.

She's right, they need the Hellhounds to be disabled in order to reach Lucifer, and she's dying, so she might as well be the disabler.

However, Ellen is her mother, and she can't just leave her girl to do it alone. So they say their good-byes to the Winchesters and settle down to face the Hellhounds.

The following quotes that Ellen says to Jo is one of the best examples from Supernatural, if not from other media, of the love family can have and how family should be willing to sacrifice to help each other.

"Somebody's gotta let 'em in. Like you said, you're not movin'. You got me, Jo. And you're right. This is important. But I will not leave you here alone."

The men leave and Ellen's alone with her bleeding daughter. She goes on to tell her she loves her,always will.

But Jo's dead. Here we see Ellen break down. In previous appearances, she was firm, no nonsense. She would hit the men to get their attention, she didn't waste time crying or wishing things were different. She accepted it and dealt with it. To see her break down like this, seeing her realize she's outlived her only daughter, I felt so much for her. She shouldn't have lived longer than her daughter. She tells her daughter it will be ok, and sets the bombs.

She went out in a blaze, and took the Hellhounds with her.

That is how the Harvelles say good bye.

I hate that they had to die, I wish they could have made it to the end, to see all their work pay off, but if they had to go, I'm glad they went out like this. They gave the Winchesters a second chance, they gave Bobby more time. I only hope it was enough.

Seven Men, One Legend

Sol I was recently rewatching the first season of 'The Magnificent Seven' and soon I'll be watching the second season of it, but I digress.

I loved that show so so much when it was first on, even though I kept missing it, so some episodes are new to me. See, when it was on, the channel it was on kept changing the time and the night and then it wasn't on that channel, it was on a different channel, it was very frustrating and confusing, but I still loved that show so much I was willing to hunt it down and watch it.

Then it was cancelled.

So, that's the background story on the Magnificent Seven. Yes, it's a tv show based on the western movies which are in turn based on Kurosawa's Seven Samurai movie(s?) and yes, I do plan to watch them all. There's something about the theme of a group of disparate characters coming together for a common goal that appeals to me so much.

I loved that show and each character was so unique and so interesting to me, although I find that the characters I liked or disliked when I first watched it as a middle schooler have changed as a college student.

When I first watched the show, I loved loved loved Ezra, and I still do, but I liked Vin and JD next after him, and didn't care for Josiah and Buck. I still liked them, they had their moments but I was of the opinion that they were too 'weird' for me, and I hardly noticed Nathan, which is fair because they hardly seemed to give him any time at all, and Chris, well, who doesn't like Chris? When I was younger, I thought he was a jerk, but still cool, like...a bad boy with a cause, kind of thing. Wow that was the longest run on sentence ever. Vin seemed so cool back then, the casual tracker sharpshooter with a bounty on his head, that he often was my favorite character to watch but Ezra was my favorite character over all.

Now that I'm older, I still love Ezra, but I'm noticing the subtle nuances the actor put in him, the subtle eye expressions and the small smiles and frowns that I never thought of before and now Ezra, rather than the jovial devil may care con man character, is becoming the tragic but hiding it under a veneer of charm character and becoming more complex.

I don't care for JD as much, he needs to shut up and listen to the elders, and Buck and Josiah are becoming pretty cool old geezers, if you'll excuse the term. Chris is more sad than angry as I watch it more and am more familiar with people who have lost someone they cared for. Nathan still doesn't get as much screen time but Vin is becoming more of a regular guy and I find myself wondering why he doesn't just go back and fix his problems instead of running away? I guess now I just don't have patience for Vin complaining that he has a bounty but not neccessarily doing something to fix it.

So in short, I really liked that show, sure it was basic and formulaic and had some issues with the plots but come on! Cowboys! Not all of them good decent men. Even the PREACHER had issues and in a lot of ways, he was more intimidating than the whole of the rest put together.