Reaction: Supernatural 4.17
(With bonus plot-bunny personification.)
Spoiler and Theorizing Timeline
-Mar 18th IMDB again. Big title bars, all over the IMDB page. "Dean drinks a latte." Lolwhut? XD Maybe some kind of weird personality shift or something, but seriously, I'm trying to think why this would be such a significant thing as to require a headline and I'm kind of stuck on "Bwah!"
-Mar 23rd Someone mentioning the promo in the middle of a review of 4.16. Crap. So, amnesia, cool. Bet it's Dean. Stress will do that to a person. Dissociative fugue state, and after the news from 4.16, the poor boy could use a nice relaxing dissociative fugue.
So, let's see, Dean's hunting rant will show up in the previouslies, he'll have either signed himself out A.M.A. from the hospital or just disappeared one day and not even taken the car (if it's a stress-induced thing, he'll be trying to get away from everything he is, and the car is part of that) gone off (at some point drunk a latte as per previous spoiler) and possibly gotten a job as a mechanic, or if that's too close, maybe something else (and I suddenly have two very long-suffering unposted plot-bunnies utterly freaked about getting Kripke'd now and glaring daggers at me, arg). There's going to be something hunting Dean in his oblivious state, probably a demon, possibly Lillith, while he's off being dissociatively amnesiac, but. Hm. Something has to be protecting his whereabouts, otherwise they'd find him really fast.
Anyway, Sam will find him and try to get him to snap out of it, and it won't work because a lot of what he's dissociating from is tied up to Sam (I'm hoping there's a moment he fangirls his own car, though), but whatever the demons are trying to do will endanger the general population, and he'll snap out of it as he realizes he can't run from this so he may as well face it. Also provides the 'Denial' stage of the grieving/call to adventure acceptance process, although seriously, Dean's had calls to adventure all through the prior 3 seasons. They're stacking up. No wonder the boy's in a fugue.
From a one word spoiler comes an entire episode summary and some meta. Yay! Whether it's what actually goes down or not remains to be seen.
-Mar 24nd After hearing 3 different days for the finale, I decide to check the listings. Arg. 4.17 title - "It's a Terrible Life" Yep.
'Scuse me, I have to go break up a plot-bunny fight; BT and SS are taunting each other about which of them is getting Kripke'd tonight. BT is teasing the hell out of SS to distract from the actuality that BT's the more likely candidate. But BT's bigger, more lethal and vastly bitchier. It's devolved into a nasty squeaking match.
...What?
Reaction to Supernatural 4.17 - "It's a Terrible Life"
And the unposted plot-bunny that got the most Kripke'd waaaas... BT! Who is now hunched into a corner of the plot-bunny corral, being emo. SS is getting BT a beer and not rubbing it in at all. *pats SS for being supportive*
So. Onward.
-That was the shortest 'Then' ever. Wow.
-Yep, there's the latte. And stripes! Hey, it's that shirt! From that photoshoot! *hunts for caps and can't find the right ones* Isn't it???
-Prius. I think. Makes sense. It's about as opposite to the Impala as you can get. Liscence OTO92C? I think? [Why is my pause function so blurry tonight?]
-Dean's a Director of Sales and Marketing! Yeah, I can see that. Scarily. o.O
-Salad! HEEEE!
-Hey, it's a 'that guy'! Arg. Where is he from? Character's name is Mr. Adler.
-Of course Dean has desk widgets. He's still Dean. I bet that Newton's cradle recently has a guest star role on Smallville...
-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! OMG! pen37! DEAN'S DOING YOUR CLEANSE!!! I wonder if he's using organic stuff! *falls over laughing*
-Hi Sam! You look like a courier. Are you going to be subtle about trying to get your brother back or... oh hey, you've got amnesia too... Hunh. Unless you've had massive subtlety implants since 4.16 because you're doing too good at the 'recognizing but not recognizing Dean' thing. [Why Sam too, though?]
-Tech support! \o/ (...so very Kripke'd. *pats BT* Hush.)
-Sam's in tech support, and named Wesson. Haha. Smith and Wesson. *snerk* Yay for the Drac bobblehead! [Ooo! I bet Ian got it for him, since Sam's been telling him about the weird dreams!!] Wonder if the show's going to make those available for sale, because I kind of want one.
-*notices credits* A.J. Buckley and Travis... Oh crap. The Ghostfacers are gonna save them?? They'll never ever live this down.
-Heh, office supply theft. (*offers BT a kleenex* Oh come on, it's an office, it had to come up. Plus it's incidental.)
-Written by Sera Gamble and directed by James Conway, whose name I don't recognize offhand. [Ah, he also did "Death Takes a Holiday" and... produced a whole lot of the series "Charmed". Huh.]
-Sam. Dude. If you have violent dreams about evil things, don't share them with your co-workers or anyone who can get you committed. The only dream of mine I've ever told my co-workers was when I dreamed we were doing a year-end tax return for Santa Claus and getting into arguments about whether the reindeer were employees, subcontractors or vehicles.
-Hee! D&D! Harry Potter! *glee*
-Cubicle farm! (*BT wails* It doesn't quite appl- okay it totally does, but... Sigh.)
-Micro-sleep dreams like that in an office environment, Sam? Not healthy. But they're flashbacks, so it's okay. [Again, Why Sam? So much meta lurking just out of sight, it feels like.]
-*snerk* There is no non-awkward way to bring up the topic of ghosts in an elevator with someone you technically don't know. Unless you're at a con, in which case ghosts are tame. *nods*
-"You overshare." *giggles* You know, in the context of the massive volume of stuff that Sam's currently not sharing with Dean? That's extra hilarious.
-Running an image search on vampires?? Ohhh, okay. To see if what he's seeing in his dreams is part of a movie he saw once and forgot about, and faux-googling around (what, Google wouldn't slip a few bucks for a product placement?) for images to see if something pops up. Ah. Cool. It's totally Vampire Chainsaw Massacre 5 *nods* Obviously a constructed page too, because I don't see any images from anything they might have had to pay usage fees.
-Heh, yep. Ian's next up for getting whacked by something.
-Hey, Paul's a 'that guy' too. Poor Paul, I know the feeling. But, uh, you know, Paul...? Not to be a jerk, but if you'd given up looking for the work you lost and just started doing it over again, you'd be finished it by now. I speak from the experience that comes from a workstation that crashes twice a day on average. Save often and be prepared to do-over. *nods*
-Plastic forks in the eyes? Oh god, microwave. OMG EWWW!!! Gah, gah, gah, I'm not microwaving anything for a week. Gah! (*pats BT* See? That was a totally different death than- arg. Well, BT and its 6000-odd words of disjointed and scattered scenes are now weeping into its beer. I hope you're happy Kripke, you made the plot-bunny cry.)
-Shoulders! Holy doodle! What? Sorry, sorry, I don't normally notice such things but there was this polo shirt and shoulders you could land aircraft on taking up the entire screen and I temporarily lost my train of thought. Where was I? Right. Crime scene of guy with microwaved head. (*refill's BT's beer*)
-Paul Dunbar. Oh hey! Concrete Timeline reference! [Alright, pause is really blurry but Paul Dunbar was hired on 04/11/79, his specialty was 'Engineering interface' he worked full-time day, 40 hours a week, his contact person was J. A. Dunbar (blurry area code) 555-0100, Staff ID was 2744-TS, and his manager waaaas MARY ANN LIU!!! *waves* Haven't seen her name pop up in a loooong while! *glee* Anyway, back to driving myself insane getting a concrete date on this puppy. Paul's scheduled retirement party was to be two weeks from events in this episode on 14/4/09, making this episode occur on or about April 1st (and the missed chance for both a reference to that when Sam's trying to talk to Dean in the elevator and later on, which I'll get to is lamentable)]
-Dean's office might be 2208? [Blurry pause, no dice.]
-Office meltdown. Yeah. Moving on.
-So much love for Dean following the random freaked out tech support guy to make sure he's okay. So much love.
-Never realized before how commercial hand soap looks exactly like the emo-slime from Ghostbusters 2.
-Gah, pencil in the neck! I didn't even think of the pencils as being on the wall as a source of death. Silly, silly me.
-First aid. Dean. Dude. First aid? Hellooooo? Anything? Pressure on the wound even? Oh for- Gah. Winchesters apparently do not have a subconscious knowledge of basic first aid. Which really, they should, but by past evidence of standing/sitting/dripping around in a stupor in the presence of the injured, they don't. *swats John Kripke*
-"My office. Now" Heh. And a couple seconds later, Sam's phone rings again. "Uh, it's Dean Smith, incidentally. And I'm in office 2208. I think. The number's a bit blurry." Unless Dean's just assuming Sam's stalking him and already knows his name, office number, shoe size, allergies, and favourite kind of cheese.
-They've been there three weeks! Okay add that to the concrete timeline info when I can pause.... [...Making their date of hire and presumably memory loss March 11th-ish. Now. When last we had a concrete date in the timeline it was the solstice, and "Death Takes a Holiday." So between 4.15 and three weeks before now was the end of December, January, February, and the early parts of March, which is assumably the time 4.16 happened, or not, because Dean's all better, but fairly soon after, because Zachariah seems to want him to wake up and smell the destiny sooner rather than later. But not too soon, or the CW ointment won't have had a chance to work, since much as it'd be nice if Angels could go 'poof you're healed' all day, I suspect that they can't. So that sets 4.16 lateish February? Leaving Dean a solid month and a bit to work himself into a non-Impala-driving, non-giving-a-crap-about-Sam-hanging-with-Ruby funk? I guess? Gah. Why why why to I torment myself trying to figure out a comprehensive timeline for this show??? Why? *BT offers me a beer to cry into*]
-*giggles at the cleansing again* Seriously, pen37, did you know this was coming? :-D
-Love the case-workingness in this episode! Yay for hunting instinct!
-"No, that would be nuts." Welcome to your life, Sam. *pats*
-1444... so... is it a 'there is no 13th floor so the 14th is actually the 13th' thing? *ponders*
-What's with the "right?" from Dean? Short for "I know, right?"
-Random ghost-fodder guy, you're toast. And a moron. This room is obviously not HR. Human Resources usually involves Humans. Except when it doesn't... Hm.
-Door kicking! Subconscious door-kicking! Even amnesiac, Sam will kick a door! And subconscious coordinated attempts to save innocent morons! And subconscious ghost-whacking! Ghost-hunting by subconscious life-long ingrained reflex for the freaking win all over the place!!! \o/
-(Okay, so far the only things not Kripke'd about BT are the crack concept that started it and well... really, it's not that bad. two pretty major things, but the execution is totally different and, really, it's not that- *BT wails despondently* Sigh. Let me get you another beer. *SS offers BT slightly warm Doritos*)
-Heeee! Dean's place has no carbs! And fake apples! *giggles*
-"How did you know ghosts are scared of wrenches?" BWAHAHAHAH!
-'Like I don't belong, like there's something bigger and more important I should be doing'. Yep. Welcome to everyone's life, Sam. Doesn't being the demon-king of the apocalypse seem so much more interesting now?
-Oh god they aren't going to call the Ghostfacers? It's one thing to have them show up at random, it's another thing to give them ammo like that.
-Wow. Dean really does have a nice apartment. Looks like Bela's old place. Ooo! Fireplace!
-"Something in my blood." Ha ha ha. Aw. *facepalm*
-SAMMY!!! SUBCONSCIOUS REFLEX CALLING HIM SAMMY!!!!!! *GLOMPHS EVERYONE!!!*
-Dean. Research. HA! Cool! I love this episode. (Hush BT.)
-Ghostfacers website. The boys will never ever live this down. Ever. "Well Sammy, we saved the world and stopped the apocalypse, so that makes us the awesomest people ever." "Actually Dean, you remember that once when we went to the Ghostfacers website for ghost-busting tips...?" "Ah. Yeah. Sorry. We suck."
-Sandover Bridge and Iron. Those bridges look familiar.
-17 suicides on Black Friday. Wow. An economy-triggered ghost? That's as topical as this show's ever been, I think...
-Heeee. Dean has a stock portfolio. Heeeeee! And pronounces 'hara-kiri' as it's written and not the westernised 'Hari-Kari' Hunh. That's interesting... Although given that Dean's in Sales, if he had any international projects underway, a seminar on correct pronunciation of Japanese may have been included. Heck I worked at a 7-11 ages ago that Head Office sent some visiting Japanese businessmen around and us clerks got a mini-seminar in pronunciation and cultural awareness stuff before they showed up.
-DIY ghostbusting vids! (*notices another bunny queueing up for a beer to be emo with* Oh don't you start, nameless, that's entirely incidental and doesn't even involve the Ghostfacers. And you're on so much crack it's not like anyone would notice you being Kripke'd anyway once you're posted.)
-Nice attempt at branding by the Ghostfacers, with the stickers on everything. No doubt they have an online store where you can buy 'branded' merchandise for hunting ghosts.
-"Burny acid. Not LSD." Heee! I'm finding the Ghostfacers a lot more tolerable in pre-recorded format.
-No guns! They don't have a clue where to find guns! And are worried about the law and permits! *snerk*
-You know, if 1444 has been re-purposed as a store room, which is what it looks like, then that desk still being entirely as Sandover left it isn't likely. It's more likely a desk for the store room clerk now. Or a randomly stored desk with piles of crap on it.
-Ooo! Bet! While they're separated, Dean will get a memory cascade, Sam will get worker-bee-ified by the ghost, and he'll have to save him!
-Hey, this building does have an actual 13th floor. Hunh.
-Ohh great. Sam and some monster-chow trapped in an elevator. Let me guess what's gonna happen... *winces in anticipation as the guy takes foreeeeeever to crawl out of the elevator* ...No. Hunh. Well if Kripke and Sera are involved, someone's getting decapitated by that elevator, and it's not Sam.
-Yay, Dean continuing to investigate even though Sam's been busted! \o/
-That's still a really familiar bridge. It's gotta be one of the Vancouver ones.
-Oh, yeah, sure security guy, stick your head back into the elevator while Kripke a ghost is lurking around. "I don't have the rest of my life to wait for you." Ha. Moron. You go squish now. *facepalm*
-"Call ya back." Oh poor, traumatized, amnesiac Sam. Although given how calm he is later, I wonder if some of the freakage he's showing here is being freaked at not being as freaked as he figures he should be because some kind of subconscious coping mechanism for dealing with getting sprayed with random victim's fluids has kicked in. *ponders*
-(*refills BT's beer* It's really not as bad as it could have been. You don't even come close to involving amnesia!)
-"Right?" Seriously, what's with Dean saying "Right?" Is that a regionalism, or a replacement for dude, or just a random thing to emphasize the lack of "awesome's" or what?
-I love that Dean is relatively unfazed by lots of unexplained blood on Sam. Sam kind of shrugs it off, seems okay, so Dean continues on with the case, not fazed because Sam's not fazed or injured and his subconscious has issued the 'stand down' signal regarding masses of blood on Sam. That's my read on it at the moment anyway. *hugs Dean*
-Throwing things! Co-ordinated throwing things! *gleeeeeeee and flailing* That's been rare lately. *randomly misses season one's tossingness*
-Sam saves Dean and the ghost goes foom! Also missing ghosts going foom. (*pats BT again* See? The resolution of the bad guy is totally different.)
-Heh. Ow. Dean running down exactly how they do live, only as mockery. Aw. Ow.
-"More like brothers, really". *FLAIL* I can't speak sensibly about how awesome that is. And how painful it is that when Sam says in his dreams they're like brothers, and that's what he wants, Dean distances himself physically and takes refuge in the false memories. Oh, oh, oh, boyyyyyys, dammit!
-DEAN SMITH'S BACKSTORY@!!!! He went to Stanford! His dad is BOBBY! His mom is ELLEN!!! HIS SISTER IS JO!!!! *flails* Hee! Dean's subconscious or whatever ships Bobby/Ellen!!!
-HAHAHA AND!!! Sam Wesson broke up with his girlfriend Madison and all he gets when he calls her is an animal hospital! *falls over laughing and misses about a minute of subsequent dialog* [You know, when Sam gets his memory back, he's going to feel like crap. And who's idea was it to give him that as a backstory? And who amnesiafied Sam anyway? *ponders*]
-"We're supposed to be something else." and "You don't know me." Yeah. The fake memory is a mixed mercy right now.
-Sam vs the phone. Any day a person walks in to work with a fireplace poker? Bad things are afoot. Although I guess he might have just left it there the night before rather than try to take it out with him while covered in security guard blood. Speaking of which, Sam knows Security is short-staffed right now, and so will have a slower response time to a freak-out in the Tech Support call-centre. *nods* [Plus, Sam walks away from the false memory too, and there's meta there and possibly a plot-bunny, but they'll have to wait or find another brain.]
-"Here, have a bonus." Hee. Yeah. That's a fantasy world alright.
-'Carving his own way.' Har har har, especially given the episode just past.
-TRICKSTER?!?! [And if this episode is set April first? What better day than April Fool's Day to have the Trickster mess with their brains again. Still wonder where he fits into everything.] No! It's an Angel! Ooo! Zachariah, Castiel's supervisor. Ooooo. So, is he the one faking orders? And do Dean or Sam know about the mole in the angel network? *bounces*
-Also, methinks Zachariah stuck his thumb on the scale a wee bit to get Dean to step back into himself with the seven-day-desk-lunch-8-to-10-years business. And I find it very interesting that if that's the case, he did so after Sam hit the 'eject' button on the fake life.... *ponders*
-Also, also? I utterly love that when Zachariah hits Dean with the finger poke? The whole damn world de-saturates back to normal Supernatural coloration. Truly a sign that supersaturated colorful worlds are not places you want to be in the SPN-verse. That's three now, isn't it? *glee*
-"I am not one of your ducks!" OMG YAY! And given TWoP Recappers have been referring to Dean in ways connected to ducks since day one, I do believe that's a shout-out. *nods*
-Heh. Well, yeah it's a test. Get used to it, fate-boy. *smirks*
-Decoupage. Hee! I don't know either Dean. I think it involves paper and glue. Although given that an angel's gas bladder grace is a removable item that appears on earth as a holy glowstick, perhaps an angel's decoupage is something else entirely. Wing-cleavage or something. *shrugs*
-Hunting's in Dean's blood, he'll find his way to it in the dark. *GLOMPHS SHOW SO DAMN HARD!!!* Because SO DOES SAM. Even if Castiel's supervisor isn't giving him a pep talk about it, Sam also found his way back to hunting things and saving people. *squeezes show until it squeaks*
-Dean will stop it. Will do everything he's meant to do. And has Daddy issues! Hee! *flails a lot*
-"Angel or not, I will stab you in your face." There's Dean! \o/
-"Classic car and fornicating with women." Dean's head bobble of 'Okay, yeah, point.' *glee*
-There are worse fates. Like working yourself to death in a cube farm. Yeah, thanks, Zack *flips Castiel's supervisor the finger*
-STAND UP AND BE WHO YOU REALLY ARE!!! OOOOO, now there's a frigging call to adventure. Goddamn that rocked! \o/
*gleeee* Now if you'll excuse me I have a drunken emo plot-bunny to placate. *checks time* And work to get to. Craaaaap.
*running out the door, will fix errors later*
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO SPOILERY MATERIAL IN COMMENTS! The definition of spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)
Spoiler and Theorizing Timeline
-Mar 18th IMDB again. Big title bars, all over the IMDB page. "Dean drinks a latte." Lolwhut? XD Maybe some kind of weird personality shift or something, but seriously, I'm trying to think why this would be such a significant thing as to require a headline and I'm kind of stuck on "Bwah!"
-Mar 23rd Someone mentioning the promo in the middle of a review of 4.16. Crap. So, amnesia, cool. Bet it's Dean. Stress will do that to a person. Dissociative fugue state, and after the news from 4.16, the poor boy could use a nice relaxing dissociative fugue.
So, let's see, Dean's hunting rant will show up in the previouslies, he'll have either signed himself out A.M.A. from the hospital or just disappeared one day and not even taken the car (if it's a stress-induced thing, he'll be trying to get away from everything he is, and the car is part of that) gone off (at some point drunk a latte as per previous spoiler) and possibly gotten a job as a mechanic, or if that's too close, maybe something else (and I suddenly have two very long-suffering unposted plot-bunnies utterly freaked about getting Kripke'd now and glaring daggers at me, arg). There's going to be something hunting Dean in his oblivious state, probably a demon, possibly Lillith, while he's off being dissociatively amnesiac, but. Hm. Something has to be protecting his whereabouts, otherwise they'd find him really fast.
Anyway, Sam will find him and try to get him to snap out of it, and it won't work because a lot of what he's dissociating from is tied up to Sam (I'm hoping there's a moment he fangirls his own car, though), but whatever the demons are trying to do will endanger the general population, and he'll snap out of it as he realizes he can't run from this so he may as well face it. Also provides the 'Denial' stage of the grieving/call to adventure acceptance process, although seriously, Dean's had calls to adventure all through the prior 3 seasons. They're stacking up. No wonder the boy's in a fugue.
From a one word spoiler comes an entire episode summary and some meta. Yay! Whether it's what actually goes down or not remains to be seen.
-Mar 24nd After hearing 3 different days for the finale, I decide to check the listings. Arg. 4.17 title - "It's a Terrible Life" Yep.
'Scuse me, I have to go break up a plot-bunny fight; BT and SS are taunting each other about which of them is getting Kripke'd tonight. BT is teasing the hell out of SS to distract from the actuality that BT's the more likely candidate. But BT's bigger, more lethal and vastly bitchier. It's devolved into a nasty squeaking match.
...What?
Reaction to Supernatural 4.17 - "It's a Terrible Life"
And the unposted plot-bunny that got the most Kripke'd waaaas... BT! Who is now hunched into a corner of the plot-bunny corral, being emo. SS is getting BT a beer and not rubbing it in at all. *pats SS for being supportive*
So. Onward.
-That was the shortest 'Then' ever. Wow.
-Yep, there's the latte. And stripes! Hey, it's that shirt! From that photoshoot! *hunts for caps and can't find the right ones* Isn't it???
-Prius. I think. Makes sense. It's about as opposite to the Impala as you can get. Liscence OTO92C? I think? [Why is my pause function so blurry tonight?]
-Dean's a Director of Sales and Marketing! Yeah, I can see that. Scarily. o.O
-Salad! HEEEE!
-Hey, it's a 'that guy'! Arg. Where is he from? Character's name is Mr. Adler.
-Of course Dean has desk widgets. He's still Dean. I bet that Newton's cradle recently has a guest star role on Smallville...
-HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! OMG! pen37! DEAN'S DOING YOUR CLEANSE!!! I wonder if he's using organic stuff! *falls over laughing*
-Hi Sam! You look like a courier. Are you going to be subtle about trying to get your brother back or... oh hey, you've got amnesia too... Hunh. Unless you've had massive subtlety implants since 4.16 because you're doing too good at the 'recognizing but not recognizing Dean' thing. [Why Sam too, though?]
-Tech support! \o/ (...so very Kripke'd. *pats BT* Hush.)
-Sam's in tech support, and named Wesson. Haha. Smith and Wesson. *snerk* Yay for the Drac bobblehead! [Ooo! I bet Ian got it for him, since Sam's been telling him about the weird dreams!!] Wonder if the show's going to make those available for sale, because I kind of want one.
-*notices credits* A.J. Buckley and Travis... Oh crap. The Ghostfacers are gonna save them?? They'll never ever live this down.
-Heh, office supply theft. (*offers BT a kleenex* Oh come on, it's an office, it had to come up. Plus it's incidental.)
-Written by Sera Gamble and directed by James Conway, whose name I don't recognize offhand. [Ah, he also did "Death Takes a Holiday" and... produced a whole lot of the series "Charmed". Huh.]
-Sam. Dude. If you have violent dreams about evil things, don't share them with your co-workers or anyone who can get you committed. The only dream of mine I've ever told my co-workers was when I dreamed we were doing a year-end tax return for Santa Claus and getting into arguments about whether the reindeer were employees, subcontractors or vehicles.
-Hee! D&D! Harry Potter! *glee*
-Cubicle farm! (*BT wails* It doesn't quite appl- okay it totally does, but... Sigh.)
-Micro-sleep dreams like that in an office environment, Sam? Not healthy. But they're flashbacks, so it's okay. [Again, Why Sam? So much meta lurking just out of sight, it feels like.]
-*snerk* There is no non-awkward way to bring up the topic of ghosts in an elevator with someone you technically don't know. Unless you're at a con, in which case ghosts are tame. *nods*
-"You overshare." *giggles* You know, in the context of the massive volume of stuff that Sam's currently not sharing with Dean? That's extra hilarious.
-Running an image search on vampires?? Ohhh, okay. To see if what he's seeing in his dreams is part of a movie he saw once and forgot about, and faux-googling around (what, Google wouldn't slip a few bucks for a product placement?) for images to see if something pops up. Ah. Cool. It's totally Vampire Chainsaw Massacre 5 *nods* Obviously a constructed page too, because I don't see any images from anything they might have had to pay usage fees.
-Heh, yep. Ian's next up for getting whacked by something.
-Hey, Paul's a 'that guy' too. Poor Paul, I know the feeling. But, uh, you know, Paul...? Not to be a jerk, but if you'd given up looking for the work you lost and just started doing it over again, you'd be finished it by now. I speak from the experience that comes from a workstation that crashes twice a day on average. Save often and be prepared to do-over. *nods*
-Plastic forks in the eyes? Oh god, microwave. OMG EWWW!!! Gah, gah, gah, I'm not microwaving anything for a week. Gah! (*pats BT* See? That was a totally different death than- arg. Well, BT and its 6000-odd words of disjointed and scattered scenes are now weeping into its beer. I hope you're happy Kripke, you made the plot-bunny cry.)
-Shoulders! Holy doodle! What? Sorry, sorry, I don't normally notice such things but there was this polo shirt and shoulders you could land aircraft on taking up the entire screen and I temporarily lost my train of thought. Where was I? Right. Crime scene of guy with microwaved head. (*refill's BT's beer*)
-Paul Dunbar. Oh hey! Concrete Timeline reference! [Alright, pause is really blurry but Paul Dunbar was hired on 04/11/79, his specialty was 'Engineering interface' he worked full-time day, 40 hours a week, his contact person was J. A. Dunbar (blurry area code) 555-0100, Staff ID was 2744-TS, and his manager waaaas MARY ANN LIU!!! *waves* Haven't seen her name pop up in a loooong while! *glee* Anyway, back to driving myself insane getting a concrete date on this puppy. Paul's scheduled retirement party was to be two weeks from events in this episode on 14/4/09, making this episode occur on or about April 1st (and the missed chance for both a reference to that when Sam's trying to talk to Dean in the elevator and later on, which I'll get to is lamentable)]
-Dean's office might be 2208? [Blurry pause, no dice.]
-Office meltdown. Yeah. Moving on.
-So much love for Dean following the random freaked out tech support guy to make sure he's okay. So much love.
-Never realized before how commercial hand soap looks exactly like the emo-slime from Ghostbusters 2.
-Gah, pencil in the neck! I didn't even think of the pencils as being on the wall as a source of death. Silly, silly me.
-First aid. Dean. Dude. First aid? Hellooooo? Anything? Pressure on the wound even? Oh for- Gah. Winchesters apparently do not have a subconscious knowledge of basic first aid. Which really, they should, but by past evidence of standing/sitting/dripping around in a stupor in the presence of the injured, they don't. *swats John Kripke*
-"My office. Now" Heh. And a couple seconds later, Sam's phone rings again. "Uh, it's Dean Smith, incidentally. And I'm in office 2208. I think. The number's a bit blurry." Unless Dean's just assuming Sam's stalking him and already knows his name, office number, shoe size, allergies, and favourite kind of cheese.
-They've been there three weeks! Okay add that to the concrete timeline info when I can pause.... [...Making their date of hire and presumably memory loss March 11th-ish. Now. When last we had a concrete date in the timeline it was the solstice, and "Death Takes a Holiday." So between 4.15 and three weeks before now was the end of December, January, February, and the early parts of March, which is assumably the time 4.16 happened, or not, because Dean's all better, but fairly soon after, because Zachariah seems to want him to wake up and smell the destiny sooner rather than later. But not too soon, or the CW ointment won't have had a chance to work, since much as it'd be nice if Angels could go 'poof you're healed' all day, I suspect that they can't. So that sets 4.16 lateish February? Leaving Dean a solid month and a bit to work himself into a non-Impala-driving, non-giving-a-crap-about-Sam-hanging-with-Ruby funk? I guess? Gah. Why why why to I torment myself trying to figure out a comprehensive timeline for this show??? Why? *BT offers me a beer to cry into*]
-*giggles at the cleansing again* Seriously, pen37, did you know this was coming? :-D
-Love the case-workingness in this episode! Yay for hunting instinct!
-"No, that would be nuts." Welcome to your life, Sam. *pats*
-1444... so... is it a 'there is no 13th floor so the 14th is actually the 13th' thing? *ponders*
-What's with the "right?" from Dean? Short for "I know, right?"
-Random ghost-fodder guy, you're toast. And a moron. This room is obviously not HR. Human Resources usually involves Humans. Except when it doesn't... Hm.
-Door kicking! Subconscious door-kicking! Even amnesiac, Sam will kick a door! And subconscious coordinated attempts to save innocent morons! And subconscious ghost-whacking! Ghost-hunting by subconscious life-long ingrained reflex for the freaking win all over the place!!! \o/
-(Okay, so far the only things not Kripke'd about BT are the crack concept that started it and well... really, it's not that bad. two pretty major things, but the execution is totally different and, really, it's not that- *BT wails despondently* Sigh. Let me get you another beer. *SS offers BT slightly warm Doritos*)
-Heeee! Dean's place has no carbs! And fake apples! *giggles*
-"How did you know ghosts are scared of wrenches?" BWAHAHAHAH!
-'Like I don't belong, like there's something bigger and more important I should be doing'. Yep. Welcome to everyone's life, Sam. Doesn't being the demon-king of the apocalypse seem so much more interesting now?
-Oh god they aren't going to call the Ghostfacers? It's one thing to have them show up at random, it's another thing to give them ammo like that.
-Wow. Dean really does have a nice apartment. Looks like Bela's old place. Ooo! Fireplace!
-"Something in my blood." Ha ha ha. Aw. *facepalm*
-SAMMY!!! SUBCONSCIOUS REFLEX CALLING HIM SAMMY!!!!!! *GLOMPHS EVERYONE!!!*
-Dean. Research. HA! Cool! I love this episode. (Hush BT.)
-Ghostfacers website. The boys will never ever live this down. Ever. "Well Sammy, we saved the world and stopped the apocalypse, so that makes us the awesomest people ever." "Actually Dean, you remember that once when we went to the Ghostfacers website for ghost-busting tips...?" "Ah. Yeah. Sorry. We suck."
-Sandover Bridge and Iron. Those bridges look familiar.
-17 suicides on Black Friday. Wow. An economy-triggered ghost? That's as topical as this show's ever been, I think...
-Heeee. Dean has a stock portfolio. Heeeeee! And pronounces 'hara-kiri' as it's written and not the westernised 'Hari-Kari' Hunh. That's interesting... Although given that Dean's in Sales, if he had any international projects underway, a seminar on correct pronunciation of Japanese may have been included. Heck I worked at a 7-11 ages ago that Head Office sent some visiting Japanese businessmen around and us clerks got a mini-seminar in pronunciation and cultural awareness stuff before they showed up.
-DIY ghostbusting vids! (*notices another bunny queueing up for a beer to be emo with* Oh don't you start, nameless, that's entirely incidental and doesn't even involve the Ghostfacers. And you're on so much crack it's not like anyone would notice you being Kripke'd anyway once you're posted.)
-Nice attempt at branding by the Ghostfacers, with the stickers on everything. No doubt they have an online store where you can buy 'branded' merchandise for hunting ghosts.
-"Burny acid. Not LSD." Heee! I'm finding the Ghostfacers a lot more tolerable in pre-recorded format.
-No guns! They don't have a clue where to find guns! And are worried about the law and permits! *snerk*
-You know, if 1444 has been re-purposed as a store room, which is what it looks like, then that desk still being entirely as Sandover left it isn't likely. It's more likely a desk for the store room clerk now. Or a randomly stored desk with piles of crap on it.
-Ooo! Bet! While they're separated, Dean will get a memory cascade, Sam will get worker-bee-ified by the ghost, and he'll have to save him!
-Hey, this building does have an actual 13th floor. Hunh.
-Ohh great. Sam and some monster-chow trapped in an elevator. Let me guess what's gonna happen... *winces in anticipation as the guy takes foreeeeeever to crawl out of the elevator* ...No. Hunh. Well if Kripke and Sera are involved, someone's getting decapitated by that elevator, and it's not Sam.
-Yay, Dean continuing to investigate even though Sam's been busted! \o/
-That's still a really familiar bridge. It's gotta be one of the Vancouver ones.
-Oh, yeah, sure security guy, stick your head back into the elevator while Kripke a ghost is lurking around. "I don't have the rest of my life to wait for you." Ha. Moron. You go squish now. *facepalm*
-"Call ya back." Oh poor, traumatized, amnesiac Sam. Although given how calm he is later, I wonder if some of the freakage he's showing here is being freaked at not being as freaked as he figures he should be because some kind of subconscious coping mechanism for dealing with getting sprayed with random victim's fluids has kicked in. *ponders*
-(*refills BT's beer* It's really not as bad as it could have been. You don't even come close to involving amnesia!)
-"Right?" Seriously, what's with Dean saying "Right?" Is that a regionalism, or a replacement for dude, or just a random thing to emphasize the lack of "awesome's" or what?
-I love that Dean is relatively unfazed by lots of unexplained blood on Sam. Sam kind of shrugs it off, seems okay, so Dean continues on with the case, not fazed because Sam's not fazed or injured and his subconscious has issued the 'stand down' signal regarding masses of blood on Sam. That's my read on it at the moment anyway. *hugs Dean*
-Throwing things! Co-ordinated throwing things! *gleeeeeeee and flailing* That's been rare lately. *randomly misses season one's tossingness*
-Sam saves Dean and the ghost goes foom! Also missing ghosts going foom. (*pats BT again* See? The resolution of the bad guy is totally different.)
-Heh. Ow. Dean running down exactly how they do live, only as mockery. Aw. Ow.
-"More like brothers, really". *FLAIL* I can't speak sensibly about how awesome that is. And how painful it is that when Sam says in his dreams they're like brothers, and that's what he wants, Dean distances himself physically and takes refuge in the false memories. Oh, oh, oh, boyyyyyys, dammit!
-DEAN SMITH'S BACKSTORY@!!!! He went to Stanford! His dad is BOBBY! His mom is ELLEN!!! HIS SISTER IS JO!!!! *flails* Hee! Dean's subconscious or whatever ships Bobby/Ellen!!!
-HAHAHA AND!!! Sam Wesson broke up with his girlfriend Madison and all he gets when he calls her is an animal hospital! *falls over laughing and misses about a minute of subsequent dialog* [You know, when Sam gets his memory back, he's going to feel like crap. And who's idea was it to give him that as a backstory? And who amnesiafied Sam anyway? *ponders*]
-"We're supposed to be something else." and "You don't know me." Yeah. The fake memory is a mixed mercy right now.
-Sam vs the phone. Any day a person walks in to work with a fireplace poker? Bad things are afoot. Although I guess he might have just left it there the night before rather than try to take it out with him while covered in security guard blood. Speaking of which, Sam knows Security is short-staffed right now, and so will have a slower response time to a freak-out in the Tech Support call-centre. *nods* [Plus, Sam walks away from the false memory too, and there's meta there and possibly a plot-bunny, but they'll have to wait or find another brain.]
-"Here, have a bonus." Hee. Yeah. That's a fantasy world alright.
-'Carving his own way.' Har har har, especially given the episode just past.
-TRICKSTER?!?! [And if this episode is set April first? What better day than April Fool's Day to have the Trickster mess with their brains again. Still wonder where he fits into everything.] No! It's an Angel! Ooo! Zachariah, Castiel's supervisor. Ooooo. So, is he the one faking orders? And do Dean or Sam know about the mole in the angel network? *bounces*
-Also, methinks Zachariah stuck his thumb on the scale a wee bit to get Dean to step back into himself with the seven-day-desk-lunch-8-to-10-years business. And I find it very interesting that if that's the case, he did so after Sam hit the 'eject' button on the fake life.... *ponders*
-Also, also? I utterly love that when Zachariah hits Dean with the finger poke? The whole damn world de-saturates back to normal Supernatural coloration. Truly a sign that supersaturated colorful worlds are not places you want to be in the SPN-verse. That's three now, isn't it? *glee*
-"I am not one of your ducks!" OMG YAY! And given TWoP Recappers have been referring to Dean in ways connected to ducks since day one, I do believe that's a shout-out. *nods*
-Heh. Well, yeah it's a test. Get used to it, fate-boy. *smirks*
-Decoupage. Hee! I don't know either Dean. I think it involves paper and glue. Although given that an angel's gas bladder grace is a removable item that appears on earth as a holy glowstick, perhaps an angel's decoupage is something else entirely. Wing-cleavage or something. *shrugs*
-Hunting's in Dean's blood, he'll find his way to it in the dark. *GLOMPHS SHOW SO DAMN HARD!!!* Because SO DOES SAM. Even if Castiel's supervisor isn't giving him a pep talk about it, Sam also found his way back to hunting things and saving people. *squeezes show until it squeaks*
-Dean will stop it. Will do everything he's meant to do. And has Daddy issues! Hee! *flails a lot*
-"Angel or not, I will stab you in your face." There's Dean! \o/
-"Classic car and fornicating with women." Dean's head bobble of 'Okay, yeah, point.' *glee*
-There are worse fates. Like working yourself to death in a cube farm. Yeah, thanks, Zack *flips Castiel's supervisor the finger*
-STAND UP AND BE WHO YOU REALLY ARE!!! OOOOO, now there's a frigging call to adventure. Goddamn that rocked! \o/
*gleeee* Now if you'll excuse me I have a drunken emo plot-bunny to placate. *checks time* And work to get to. Craaaaap.
*running out the door, will fix errors later*
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO SPOILERY MATERIAL IN COMMENTS! The definition of spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)