Tag: eileen lahey

idontneedasymbol:

This is a tangential response to @dorkilysoulless‘s post: https://idontneedasymbol.tumblr.com/post/160670608286/seven-sober-things-about-supernatural-12×21

which I’m separating out because it’s only responding to a single point:

   And at the end of the day, I’m choosing to accept [Eileen’s] death narratively, because I understand the machinery that made it happen well enough to say okay, I get why the writers made this choice

Which I’ve seen several fans express, and I don’t get it. What narrative purpose did Eileen’s death serve besides a moment of shock in the opening, and a couple scenes of grief from Sam?

Charlie’s death – which I hate, and it burns me to defend it – but it serves a plot purpose; vengeance sends Dean further down the MoC’s dark path. It’s blatant fridging, but that motivation wouldn’t have worked if it hadn’t been someone close to them.

But if Eileen had been a previously unmentioned hunter acquaintance (like Mary’s friend), who died suspiciously and then the boys learned that he or she had been paranoid about having been bugged – how would the plot have progressed any differently at all? What would the Winchesters have done differently? They would’ve looked less sad, but how would that change the story?

Sam’s grief was nicely played, but is it going to have any impact after this? Will it change his character in any way? He’s mad at the BMOL, of course, but while he says he wants to punch something, he makes no decisions driven by that grief, instead acting as rationally as if Eileen were an innocent victim that they didn’t know personally. And anything he might have felt over Eileen is overwhelmed now by what the BMOL did to Mary.

Maybe I’m wrong and it will have an effect on Sam’s character; maybe he’ll be more likely to reach for the next opportunity for connection he gets, or less likely. But I think it unlikely; Eileen wasn’t really in the show enough yet to be that significant. I doubt we’ll get a mention of her again (maybe one reference next episode?). In the end, her only point in the overall story was to make the BMOL more detestable and make Sam look briefly sorrowful. And I have a hard time accepting that limited value was worth losing a character who provided unique representation, who was generally well-liked and offered further story opportunities (putting aside her developing relationship with Sam, she was the only other American MoL legacy the boys have met).