Spn Rewatch #3
So last night was 7.04 Defending your Life--Osiris in judgment of Dean's self-guilt, and 7.06 Slash Fiction--the Leviathan dopplegangers...and when I started to write this I had to actually look back at the dvd to see what the episode in between was. 7.05 was Shut Up, Dr Phil. It clearly made a big impression on me...not.
The most memorable thing about 7.04 is that after the case is over, the boys actually talk by the Impala!!! Honest-to-god real feelings are shared--Dean wonders how come Osiris didn't pick on Sam for his guilt, and Sam says he doesn't feel guilty anymore because it's like his time in the Cage was his atonement. And instead of defensive or snarky, Dean genuinely wants to understand how Sam copes, and Sam gives a sincere answer.
I don't know, does this happen any other time in the show?
The other part of this episode that was really affecting was Jo's performance. She genuinely wanted Dean to understand he's not to blame for any of the things he holds himself accountable for, not just her death...and Alona Tal does a great job of showing how much she doesn't want to carry out Osiris' sentence even as she is compelled to.
Then right before she goes to light the lighter she does the 'hand to Dean's cheek' gesture that is so significant to Dean...my heart...
They gave Sam a great moment too, when he breaks into the synagogue to get the ram's horn and the rabbi turns on the light and says "I'm guessing you're not here for bar mitzvah lessons..." and then the next time we see Sam he is in the car with the horn. I would love to have heard Sam talk his way through that!
And there is the moment of Dean outside the bar giving himself a pep talk because he's about to score with the bartender, and man, how far has Dean fallen from the cocky, confident guy he used to be...It's supposed to be funny, but it's more sad...
"Shut Up, Dr. Phil" is kind of flat to me. The episode really isn't about the boys, it's about the guest stars.
Favorite line delivery: At the start, Jared comes in from running and after some banter (remember the clip of the boys playing that scene for laughs with Jared stretching his hamstrings?) and Dean says "Don't say 'yeah, okay' like that" and Jared answers "Yeah, okay"--the inflection in both their voices are so perfectly exasperated brother that I had to smile.
The denouement of the boys giving relationship advice to the Starks just doesn't feel right, it's one of those times where it feels to me like the writers had an idea that they were going to shoehorn into the show because they found it funny regardless of whether the characters would actually do it. And Jensen plays it very hammed-up while Jared is painfully earnest and it just doesn't work.
Also we are being hit over the head with the set-up for Sam finding out Dean lied about Amy with Sam asking repeatedly what is Dean hiding...and I just think the viewers are smart enough not to need to be hammered with it :/
I did like Don Stark's character at the end, when he waltzes in, takes down Leviathan Chet, and saves the boys from his wife's spell very nonchalantly--it made his character very dimensional, to me it gives him the flavor of chaotic neutral.
"Slash Fiction" has so much going on! Horror--the body count in this ep is horrendous and so cold-blooded...doppleganger Dean and Sam are funny and terrifying (it is a hoot to watch Jensen and Jared play them-not-selves)...Leviathan Chet is sooo incredibly annoying, his comeuppance is triply enjoyable...we meet Frank Devereaux, who was a great paranoid character...the sheriff who put the boys in jail coming around to their side--another great acting job, he was totally believable (and I felt so bad when he and his daughter got eaten at the end!)...and Jody and Bobby, and the extra insight into Bobby via Chet, what can I say but awww...
The big fight scenes between the Leviathan boys and the real boys are 'holy shit! worthy, and Leviathan Dean taunting real Sam, all the way to when he reveals Dean actually killed Amy...a sample of what we are going to get with demon!Dean?
And then there's the fallout from the reveal. And you can tell Dean knows he was in the wrong because he doesn't try to defend what he did. Although his general 'sorry' could just as easily be 'sorry I got caught' as 'sorry I killed her'...But the worst thing Dean did was lie to Sam's face that Dean trusted him. And that never got brought up.
Final observation--getting into these episodes I see that this is the season of Sam's sideburns having a life of their own...I had forgotten what year that happened. Really, people?
Although Sam could say the devil made him do it...
The most memorable thing about 7.04 is that after the case is over, the boys actually talk by the Impala!!! Honest-to-god real feelings are shared--Dean wonders how come Osiris didn't pick on Sam for his guilt, and Sam says he doesn't feel guilty anymore because it's like his time in the Cage was his atonement. And instead of defensive or snarky, Dean genuinely wants to understand how Sam copes, and Sam gives a sincere answer.
I don't know, does this happen any other time in the show?
The other part of this episode that was really affecting was Jo's performance. She genuinely wanted Dean to understand he's not to blame for any of the things he holds himself accountable for, not just her death...and Alona Tal does a great job of showing how much she doesn't want to carry out Osiris' sentence even as she is compelled to.
Then right before she goes to light the lighter she does the 'hand to Dean's cheek' gesture that is so significant to Dean...my heart...
They gave Sam a great moment too, when he breaks into the synagogue to get the ram's horn and the rabbi turns on the light and says "I'm guessing you're not here for bar mitzvah lessons..." and then the next time we see Sam he is in the car with the horn. I would love to have heard Sam talk his way through that!
And there is the moment of Dean outside the bar giving himself a pep talk because he's about to score with the bartender, and man, how far has Dean fallen from the cocky, confident guy he used to be...It's supposed to be funny, but it's more sad...
"Shut Up, Dr. Phil" is kind of flat to me. The episode really isn't about the boys, it's about the guest stars.
Favorite line delivery: At the start, Jared comes in from running and after some banter (remember the clip of the boys playing that scene for laughs with Jared stretching his hamstrings?) and Dean says "Don't say 'yeah, okay' like that" and Jared answers "Yeah, okay"--the inflection in both their voices are so perfectly exasperated brother that I had to smile.
The denouement of the boys giving relationship advice to the Starks just doesn't feel right, it's one of those times where it feels to me like the writers had an idea that they were going to shoehorn into the show because they found it funny regardless of whether the characters would actually do it. And Jensen plays it very hammed-up while Jared is painfully earnest and it just doesn't work.
Also we are being hit over the head with the set-up for Sam finding out Dean lied about Amy with Sam asking repeatedly what is Dean hiding...and I just think the viewers are smart enough not to need to be hammered with it :/
I did like Don Stark's character at the end, when he waltzes in, takes down Leviathan Chet, and saves the boys from his wife's spell very nonchalantly--it made his character very dimensional, to me it gives him the flavor of chaotic neutral.
"Slash Fiction" has so much going on! Horror--the body count in this ep is horrendous and so cold-blooded...doppleganger Dean and Sam are funny and terrifying (it is a hoot to watch Jensen and Jared play them-not-selves)...Leviathan Chet is sooo incredibly annoying, his comeuppance is triply enjoyable...we meet Frank Devereaux, who was a great paranoid character...the sheriff who put the boys in jail coming around to their side--another great acting job, he was totally believable (and I felt so bad when he and his daughter got eaten at the end!)...and Jody and Bobby, and the extra insight into Bobby via Chet, what can I say but awww...
The big fight scenes between the Leviathan boys and the real boys are 'holy shit! worthy, and Leviathan Dean taunting real Sam, all the way to when he reveals Dean actually killed Amy...a sample of what we are going to get with demon!Dean?
And then there's the fallout from the reveal. And you can tell Dean knows he was in the wrong because he doesn't try to defend what he did. Although his general 'sorry' could just as easily be 'sorry I got caught' as 'sorry I killed her'...But the worst thing Dean did was lie to Sam's face that Dean trusted him. And that never got brought up.
Final observation--getting into these episodes I see that this is the season of Sam's sideburns having a life of their own...I had forgotten what year that happened. Really, people?
Although Sam could say the devil made him do it...