Picspam Reaction: Supernatural 8.06
Warning: Contains profanity, at times serious, in scattered showers.
(May be edited later)
Spoiler and Theory Summary
No spoilers known.
I predict yelling. Or very painful silence.
And a quick "What are time zones, duh" scroll through the f-list indicates early signs of this not at all being a good night for brotherly togetherness and reconciliation.
Oh dear.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.06 - "???" "Southern Comfort"
-Skipping, skipping, skipping...
-Wow, fastest title ever! "Southern Comfort" ...in an episode with potential brother vs brother stuff... Oh crap, it's an American Civil War ghost. Heh. If Sam's dog was in town and if I'd had a significant amount of alcohol, I'd wonder if they were about to air a version of " Old Rebel Yeller" by big_pink
-And yes, the discussion about Benny and the forgivability of monsters is being whisper-yelled over the Impala. So progress! Of a sort. I'm just going to cap in complete neutrality and not at all reveal that I did gasp out loud at one point and call one of the people on the screen who isn't Dean or a '67 Impala, a dick. They both had some points, but in the end I'm firmly on Dean's side. SURPRISE! \o/
-"Yeah, I got a vampire buddy and you turned your phone off for a year." Leaving Kevin dangling in the sulfur-scented breeze. Among other things. Anyway, as I said they both do have points, and it looks like they'll be poking each other with them or a while.
-Just look at her, glinting in the sun. Sigh.
-"You're sulking around like a eunuch in a whorehouse-" Pffft, Sam's face!
-Written by Adam Glass, familiar name, directed by Tim Andrew, not too familiar but he has done a couple previous episodes, including, uh, the wedding one. Heh.
-And Tie Report! So, Sam's is aggressively striped and sloping toward Dean but I don't think that's a supporting cooperative slope this time around, given the forced stripy aggression going on there. Sam is pointedly on the job and in Dean's face about it. Dean's tie is a neutral grey, NOT striped but crosshatched with narrow lines, with dots in the spaces. Dean is not back to normal, much as he's putting a good face on it, and he is not responding to Sam on an aggressive level. This is about the most passive and defensive tie I've seen on Dean, really, and it's a neckwear representation of the big wall of bland non-reaction he's putting up between himself and Sam regarding Benny, and likely also between his own feelings regarding Sam's turning away from hunting (and writing Dean off as a loss without looking for him) and his mouth to keep him from actually telling Sam how he really feels because that would be as painful for Dean as for Sam, if not more. There is an emotional siege going on here, in tie format.
Don't look at me like that, Dean, you picked the damn tie.
-"First a Texas Ranger, now you guys?"/"Texas Ranger?" ...*facepalm* It's Garth. It has to be Garth.
-*headdesk* Fringed leather jacket, jeans and a cowboy hat. Oh god. XD
-GARTH HUGS!!!
-Garth advising other hunters may be the scariest thing I have ever seen on this show... O.o
-"You the new Bobby?"/"You shut your mouth."/"Yes."/"You shut your mouth!" And once again I find myself drawn to Dean's view of the situation.
-*long pause*"...what?!" Hahahahaha. Oh dear. Dean's blowing his boggle check I think.
-"Bobby was gone, you two were MIA, it was a weird time. Somebody had to step in and take up the slack." Okay. I have a little bit more respect for Garth, and he's survived the year so he must have learned a few things along the way. He still needs to learn some costuming though. That fringe is not practical wear for an on-duty investigator. Too many hand-holds in case of a scuffle. But still, Garth trying to be Bobby would be a guarantee of a weird time throughout the hunting community.
-No EMF or sulfur. So maybe not an American civil war ghost, but a something that otherwise feeds off strife between brothers and other close family (husband and wife) if so, the boys are screwed.
-Okay, maybe the boys are rusty enough to not think that EMF or sulfur might have dissipated/been collected as evidence, but how did they, or hell, the CSI bunch miss that puddle of green goo? Arg. So. It uh... seeped up. Yeah. After they left, and after Sam and Dean looked there. Sure. *handwave*
-Garth: *swipes fingers in goo and tastes* Me: GULHCESHGHGEH!!! And that's saying a lot considering I've managed to drink coffee with soured dairy products in it three times in the past seven days. :-P
-And considering Dean usually is the one going around sticking his fingers in random goo and things, it's saying a lot to get the Winchesters to make these faces. XD
-"Our guy had the word 'Alcott' carved into his chest." Soooooo, he was a hardcore fan of 'Little Women'? Or his wife was trying to make some sort of point before she ran over his head.
-See, Sam, this is your tactful face. Try using it more. Particularly with your brother.
-"Bits and pieces I guess." Whereas Garth really needs to find his own tactful, not-laughing-at-the-recent-horrible-death-in-front-of-one-of-the-victims face.
-Also, Dean's tie crosshatch grid appears to have a stealth mode, as it's disappeared and looks like a subtle diamond pattern now. Besieged I tell you. All walls.
-"He took Sarah Alcott as his date instead of me." Ah. Not Louisa May Alcott then. It was a long shot.
-"Did we eat yet?" Oh dear. That's a disconcerting thing for Dean to ask, or at least it seems like it. Dean not knowing if he ate. Just seems so wrong.
-"Like in Purgatory Purgatory?"/"Naw, the one in Miami." Hee! Also, dimples!
"How'd ya get out?" Hee! Sam, along with tact, you may want to look into subtle.
-They're in Missouri, okay. Did I miss the location card, or has there not been one? It makes a sort of Garth-sense for him to be a Texas Ranger in Missouri in that jacket and still have the authorities go for it though.
-The town was half on one side half on the other. Yeah sounding more like civil war ghost issues.
-"Lemme guess. Tooth fairy." Aww, did Garth kill the tooth fairy? Aww.
-I guess if you're about to be the second corpse of the evening, you might as well have clear lungs? Has anyone on this show been killed with an inhaler before? I don't think so. Might be foreshadowing. The inhaler on the wall?
-Or, uh... it could be an inhaler full of PURE EVIL that makes green snot drip out your ear before you go a-murdering. O.o
-Hello, ghost. I see one of those weird squarish floppy American civil war type hats, so that would be a yes to a civil war ghost then?
-Okay. Nitpick moment. The signs on the windows behind them should be reversed. From the outside, that store would have blank sign backs or mirror reversed signs in all its windows. Maybe it's a gimmick. Get passers-by to go inside the store to read what the signs say, and once they're inside, they may as well buy something. Yeah, sure. Sigh. *handwave*
-Sussex. Nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes' retirement and the keeping of bees, I'm guessing. Also, beer continuity! \o/
-Garth's boots are made for walking... in ectoplasm!
-...I really hope that's not Bobby's hat. *is side-tracked, searching* I think it might be. And worse yet, I think Garth might have washed it. O.o
-"That's not how you wear it." Thank you, Dean.
-"I'll check her out, you two see what you can find out about Sussex."/"Word."/"...Awesome." I don't know if I've seen passive aggressive hunting before, but that sure looks like it.
-And for crying out loud, will one of you get Garth out of that fringed jacket and into something practical???
-...She looks familiar. Where's she from? Could be another Vancouver actor though. She does look familiar.
-"I guess in her mind I was a reminder of Chester's betrayal." Hmmm... betrayal. Interesting way of putting it. *ponders*
-Flashback time! Looks like Sam's girlfriend (and by association Sam) is a heavy drinker. Maybe I was right about the limes in the garbage disposal being from tequila shots.
-Ah, she's a widow. And not dealing with it too well. Or at least mostly not too well. I mean if she didn't get Sam's shirt off while getting him into bed, something's wrong.
-"I can't imagine." True. A partner getting killed in a war is far different than a partner getting pinned to the ceiling by a demon and roasted alive in front of you.
-Yeah, no. Garth the lightweight gets no beers while on a case that doesn't involve a booze demon.
-Did he just say-? Garth, honey, you're adorable, but you need to stop trying to be Bobby, at least in the mannerisms, or Dean will smack your fool head off. And then I'll kick it across the floor. M'kay?
-"We're fine." And this would be Dean's 'I AM SO FULL OF CRAP I MAY EXPLODE' face.
-"You're not Bobby. You're never gonna be Bobby. So stop." Thank you.
-"I'm just trying taking what he showed me and trying to do something with it, that's all." Okay, Garth's got a valid point. And a hell of a lot of intensity out of left field. Bobby was a major part of the hunting community, and the Winchesters aren't the only ones missing him. Including Garth and his surprising intensity and chin-wibbles. Aw. But please, Garth, lay off mimicking Bobby's mannerisms. It's creepy.
-*nods* Sussex, business, ran it to the ground, symbol of betrayal... this is going to get nothing but painful, is it?
-Capping Bobby's book, just because. ...Aaand also because it says "green goo = Spectre. A spectre is an avenging ghost, it possesses you and whatever betrayal you are feeling and makes you act upon them." Well. Crap. Can we just load the boys into the car and get them the hell out of there now? This is going to be Asylum all over again, isn't it?
-"This could get awkward." Um. Yeah. Just a bit.
-"Civil War re-enactments. Once a year, every year." big_pink shout out? Probably not but stranger things have happened. Garth does have a good face for historical reenactment though. *nods*
-Oh, ho. Ho ho ho. I see what you're up to, costume department! I only just noticed this. Sam and Dean may not be wearing ties right now, but look at their jackets. Blue and grey. And their suits earlier were blue and grey. I don't know much about the American Civil war, but I do know, one side was blue and the other was grey. Subtle like a subtle thing made of subtleness, Show.
-"Burn a Confederate soldier's bones in a town full of rednecks? Suuuure!" Heeee. Sam may have nailed the crux of the issue. Also, the ceremonial guard might be gone by dusk, but since the tomb was vandalized only a few days ago, the cops will be keeping a close eye on it.
-Zoom goes the Impala past the graveyard at night, uncappably. *happy sigh*
-So much for local law enforcement paying closer attention. You know, if they aren't going to lock the place up, even after a vandalism, then I don't know what the local authorities in this town are doing.
-Sam's found a *squints* ...rubber band? *shrug* Also, Sam needs to peer intently at things in half-lighting.
-"I kinda feel like we should say something, don't you?" *facepalm* Even after a year of trying to be Bobby, Garth's still new. I appreciate the sentiment, and as Garth is a historical re-enactor, he'd have an emotional investment in the history, but if something is killing people and you are in a location you may get arrested at any second, or maybe the spectre will pop out and make you all kill each other, timing could be better.
-"Sure. We won." *foom* Ahahahah. Um. If salting and burning doesn't work though, that little poke is really not going to help.
-"Write that up for me, would you Doug?" That is the look of a future spectre-target.
-So, either the inhaler or the guy's keys triggered something. At least there's a reason for the inhaler, one way or another, I guess?
-Oh crap, that's really not good. D-:
-Tie report two: Sam, Red with little four-lobed fleur-de-lis sort of things. Sam is scattered, and distracted from his siege on Dean's emotional walls by something other than the case. Dean, Navy, one narrow pale blue stripe widely-spaced. Dean is blatantly on the job, attempting to get back to status quo, and still being self-contained and not offering Sam anything but a smooth, blank, low-reactive surface. And suits, blue and grey. Subtlesubtlesubtle.
-"Tell me what happened after you shot the Sheriff." *snerk* Sorry. Song thing, like from Jus in Bello.
-"It just seems like you and Dean are talking but nobody's listening to each other." Yep. For almost the entirety of 30+ years. WINCHESTERS.
-Somehow, Sam's girlfriend telling Sam she's messed up makes me want to say, "you have no idea who you're talking to," But then I get distracted by how tiny that bed looks compared to Sam. And she still didn't get Sam's T-shirt off during a roll in the hay. That's just not right. *eyes Sam's girlfriend*
-"I stole second?" Okay, this spectre is really reaching for reasons people might feel betrayed now. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for us, Dean Winchester is about to hove into view, shining like a billion-watt lighthouse of emotional repression.
-"So two brothers fought on opposite sides of the Civil war?" *facepalm* Sam, dear heart, I know your education was spotty growing up, but I'm from another country and I'm aware that sort of thing happened during the American Civil War. Sam's distracted. And missed class a lot. And might be trying to appear under-informed as a fishing tactic for getting info out of this person for some reason. Sure. *handwave* *pats Sam*
-Yep, there's Dean, hoving into view like a mad thing, and smelling like a brother vs brother keg party to the spectre.
-Ah, penny on a string. Not a rubber band Sam was looking at earlier then. So. Kids pull the penny, didn't activate on them, maybe not enough fodder (a lack of feeling betrayed in a group of teenagers old and strong enough to shift that casket lid? Well okay...), it gets to the spouse of the first victim, activates, her son takes it, gets him, skipped the officer that searched the son, gets the deputy, and so on from there. Hm. Seems to maybe be getting more powerful each time? Maybe?
-Ooo. Nice bass hit in the sound track when he hands the penny off. And now the severe doom starts, because it has Dean, and it's not a demon, so the anti-possession tattoo doesn't apply to it.
-I'd just like to say an this point, oh craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.
-Sam: *babbles about phones* Uh Sam? Dean's not here, man. *shivers*
-"You shoulda looked for me when I was in Purgatory." Or rather Dean is here, there's just a ghost hijacking his memories and emotions to make him want to kill you. Oh fuck this is gonna hurt so much even if no one gets shot.
-OH FUCK OFF! THERE ARE IMPORTANT THINGS GOING ON NOW AND I ALREADY KNOW HOW THE THING GOT OUT, OR IT'S NOT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT, SO SCREW THREE DAYS AGO! PRIORITIES! GAAAAAAH!!!
-Yes, see, that's exactly the same thing I said about the penny, but without the soundtrack of "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden, which we haven't heard on Supernatural since, what, season two? So okay, fine.
-Okay! Back to now! You know, considering how fast the others killed their targets, either Dean has a hell of a pile of willpower fighting against this thing, or it wants to really hurt Sam before it makes Dean kill him. I'm leaning towards Dean's willpower. With a hefty side of hurt.
-"Always blamed me for pulling you back into it." Oh god, it's going right back to the start of the series there. D-:
-*watches, too rapt to screencap*
-"Those aren't mistakes, Sam, those are choices!" One: true, and valid. Two: damn but Dean needs to get freaky evil more often because he's riveting, and Jensen is knocking this whole thing out of the park, and three: OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I mean, yay, communication and honesty, but OWWWWW.
-Oh Sam.
-"You left me to die, for a girl?" Oh owowowowow. And it's not just that he's unloading (finally, but ow) because this is a spectre that takes even the slightest perceived slight and amplifies it until it's something to kill for, so even if these are all just passing thoughts and twinges Dean's set aside or pushed down, they're being amplified and spilled out at Sam, and when this resolves (because neither of them is getting killed tonight, right?) this whole big dump of amplified ow is still going to have been said, and again, yay communication, but Sam and Dean will both feel like absolute shit after this. And then repress it, because they're Winchesters. Right, okay, where's my- ah, there it is. *cuddles up into blanket and rocks back and forth a bit before hitting play*
-Whoa, Sam just got good at hand to hand in time to- OH SHIT. THE COIN'S GOING TO SWITCH TO HIM! O.o
-Aaaand it didn't because Sam might have had a moment there, but Dean can still kick his ass blindfolded and possessed. All uncappably.
-"He won't kill me, his beef isn't with me." Garth! Dude! Well, of course he's not the target, but considering the last two outings we saw Garth on, he got KO'd early in the fight and woke up in time for the end, standing between an armed and pissed off Dean Winchester and someone he wants to shoot takes serious guts.
-"He left me to rot in Purgatory!" That Spectre thinks it has found the perfect chew toy there with the Purgatory issue and is going to pound on it until it makes Dean shoot. But Dean's been resisting all along, or Sam would already be dead, wouldn't he. If not right away, then during the fight or immediately after. There's more hesitation there than anything else, and even though Dean is verbally unloading, he's not shooting. And all along, that gun in Dean's hand - even before Garth starts trying to reach Dean - has been shaking a little, wavering, dropping. Not a whole bunch, just a bit here and there. Enough to show the fight in Dean. Very well done, Jensen. *applauds*
-"Just like you had your reasons for Benny!" OH MY GOD SAM, SHUT THE FUCK UP! TIMING! This is not going to help you in any way.... unless you're trying to get the spectre to take you instead, or you snagged the coin in the fight?
-"Who?" Bwah! XD
-"The only person who hasn't let me down is Benny." You've only known him a year, mostly in Purgatory while you were his ticket out. Hate to be pessimistic, but I'd say wait for it. And I was going to protest the inclusion of Castiel, but season six did happen, so Dean is unfortunately not wrong, though the spectre is pushing all Dean's worst possible interpretation buttons right now. Making everything worse, catastrophizing, speaking in absolutes, using anything it can to get Dean to pull the trigger. But Dean's still fighting. Seriously, Garth weighs, what, 120 pounds soaking wet? If Dean wasn't resisting as hard as he is, how much effort would it take to knock Garth aside and just shoot? Not much. Hell, I could probably knock Garth over. Dean is still resisting, no matter what the spectre tries. Sam, though, needs to keep his mouth shut and not feed the spectre.
-I wonder though if it's working on both of them now, in such close proximity, no matter who has the coin, because unless he's working an angle, Sam has to know that dumping anger back at Dean is an excruciatingly stupid thing to do right now.
-Okay, so maybe Garth's harder to knock over now than he used to be. Woo!
-Still pretty breakable though.
-Okay, the coin's dropped, there is too much time left on the counter... eeeeep.
-And Garth doesn't feel like he's been betrayed by anyone, so he's immune. Must be nice. Lucky guy. Now, go get a blow torch and melt that thing down.
-Sam looks quite shattered here, which is understandable. But... seriously, Sam, the next time your brother is possessed by something that's making him want to kill you, KEEP YOUR FOOL MOUTH SHUT AND LET HIM FIGHT IT RATHER THAN FANNING THE FLAMES!
-Hm. I'm finding that at several points so far this season I feel like John Winchester must have, hollering at the boys for tactical errors and blunders. It's an... interesting feeling.
-"I let all of that stuff go with the help of my yogi, my Sega Genesis." Heeee! Garth is kind of cool, in an annoying way.
-"Stop bein' an idjit." Garth, we talked about this. Although your delivery and timing is improving, the adaptation of Bobby's mannerisms is still creepy as hell. But, it's a way of grieving or honoring him, in a Garth is sort of way, so *handwave* but don't expect me not to cringe at it, because there is and will only ever be one Bobby Singer.
-Garth hugs! I suppose something could be read into Dean's willingness to hug Benny versus his reluctance to hug Garth, but Garth hugs can be overwhelming to the chronically emotionally repressed, so it's quite understandable.
-"You and I, we're a lot of things, but we're not to be pitied." Oh, so he's going to tell her about Jess? The edited for non-hunters version at least? Good.
-Ohhhhh he's going to tell her about Dean. Because right now to Sam, Dean's dead. Well. That's not going to make the conversation where he has to go help his supposedly dead brother Dean out at the top of the season any easier to take. Explains why he didn't say goodbye, and given the way she lost her last partner, Sam's got to be really set on making sure he goes back to her in one piece so she doesn't live through that again. Hm. Okay.
-"Her name's Amelia." ABOUT FREAKING TIME. NOW TELL HIM SOMETHING THAT EXPLAINS WHY YOU'RE BEING SO- And no. Well it was a faint brief hope.
_"I told you right from the jump where I was coming from, but you, you had secrets." ...Sam. Lecturing Dean about keeping secrets. Just... wow. *headshake* I am really having a hard time with Sam this season. I really am. Surprise. I should have known not to trust the good hair. Good hair on Sam indicates bad things, always always bad things.
-My count reads one or two ultimatums from Sam, and a death threat against Dean's friend. And Sam contradicting his earlier stance on hunting to deliver that threat. ("I don't want to hunt anymore." versus "Maybe I'll be the hunter who kills Benny.") And then Sam keeps talking and I know exactly where this is going to go and ow ow ow ow.
-But it doesn't, at least on screen before the fade to black. Me, I would have left Sam in the parking lot and driven off. Maybe just to cool down a bit and pick him up later, but seriously, death threats and ultimatums? But, again, that's why Dean's a better person than I am, as well as being better at repressing. OW.
I don't trust Sam's motivations. His flashbacks are too saturated, he's contradicting himself and he has good hair. (What?) I suspect there is something going on with Sam that isn't right. Maybe Amelia is some kind of djinn variant, or maybe the dog is a skinwalker with psychic control, or maybe both, and the dog/skinwalker runs out in front of cars and gets people to come visit the vet, meet the vet, who becomes whatever will be most effective in keeping the target in line. Something, whatever.
Much as Sam's girlfriend being anything but a normal human woman would be regrettable in a way, I'm just trying to find some reason for Sam to be acting like he is. I don't want this to be just Sam talking. I want there to be something causing this. Because right now, this does not feel like Sam. Something isn't right. Whether that's an external and monstrous influence, or Sam suffering from a major recto-cranial inversion incurred while Dean was in Purgatory, I don't know. Something :-/
And then Dean, with his reinstated non-reactive adamantium walls of stoicism, under the barrage at the end, just clenching and not caving to lash out in defense and match Sam's emotional level. I really worry what's underneath Dean's walls. Nothing new there though; I've been worried about that since season one.
Right, okay, so, anyway. Bit of a downer from me at the end there, sorry, but I'm quite irritated by Sam so far this year, which I'm finding hard to repress and seeing very little reason to be other than irritated with him so far. I am hoping, through the arc of the season, that this will change, but I get the feeling whatever arc is going on there will get much darker before the dawn, one way or another.
I'm sure there will be metas on this episode, particularly in relation to Asylum and the episode with the siren, but I'll leave those to people with better, clearer, and less biased brains than me. :-P
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO UNAIRED EPISODES IN COMMENTS! Any and all promo material for unaired episodes is considered to be a spoiler in this journal. The further definition of what constitutes a spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)
(May be edited later)
Spoiler and Theory Summary
No spoilers known.
I predict yelling. Or very painful silence.
And a quick "What are time zones, duh" scroll through the f-list indicates early signs of this not at all being a good night for brotherly togetherness and reconciliation.
Oh dear.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.06 - "???" "Southern Comfort"
-Skipping, skipping, skipping...
-Wow, fastest title ever! "Southern Comfort" ...in an episode with potential brother vs brother stuff... Oh crap, it's an American Civil War ghost. Heh. If Sam's dog was in town and if I'd had a significant amount of alcohol, I'd wonder if they were about to air a version of " Old Rebel Yeller" by big_pink
-And yes, the discussion about Benny and the forgivability of monsters is being whisper-yelled over the Impala. So progress! Of a sort. I'm just going to cap in complete neutrality and not at all reveal that I did gasp out loud at one point and call one of the people on the screen who isn't Dean or a '67 Impala, a dick. They both had some points, but in the end I'm firmly on Dean's side. SURPRISE! \o/
-"Yeah, I got a vampire buddy and you turned your phone off for a year." Leaving Kevin dangling in the sulfur-scented breeze. Among other things. Anyway, as I said they both do have points, and it looks like they'll be poking each other with them or a while.
-Just look at her, glinting in the sun. Sigh.
-"You're sulking around like a eunuch in a whorehouse-" Pffft, Sam's face!
-Written by Adam Glass, familiar name, directed by Tim Andrew, not too familiar but he has done a couple previous episodes, including, uh, the wedding one. Heh.
-And Tie Report! So, Sam's is aggressively striped and sloping toward Dean but I don't think that's a supporting cooperative slope this time around, given the forced stripy aggression going on there. Sam is pointedly on the job and in Dean's face about it. Dean's tie is a neutral grey, NOT striped but crosshatched with narrow lines, with dots in the spaces. Dean is not back to normal, much as he's putting a good face on it, and he is not responding to Sam on an aggressive level. This is about the most passive and defensive tie I've seen on Dean, really, and it's a neckwear representation of the big wall of bland non-reaction he's putting up between himself and Sam regarding Benny, and likely also between his own feelings regarding Sam's turning away from hunting (and writing Dean off as a loss without looking for him) and his mouth to keep him from actually telling Sam how he really feels because that would be as painful for Dean as for Sam, if not more. There is an emotional siege going on here, in tie format.
Don't look at me like that, Dean, you picked the damn tie.
-"First a Texas Ranger, now you guys?"/"Texas Ranger?" ...*facepalm* It's Garth. It has to be Garth.
-*headdesk* Fringed leather jacket, jeans and a cowboy hat. Oh god. XD
-GARTH HUGS!!!
-Garth advising other hunters may be the scariest thing I have ever seen on this show... O.o
-"You the new Bobby?"/"You shut your mouth."/"Yes."/"You shut your mouth!" And once again I find myself drawn to Dean's view of the situation.
-*long pause*"...what?!" Hahahahaha. Oh dear. Dean's blowing his boggle check I think.
-"Bobby was gone, you two were MIA, it was a weird time. Somebody had to step in and take up the slack." Okay. I have a little bit more respect for Garth, and he's survived the year so he must have learned a few things along the way. He still needs to learn some costuming though. That fringe is not practical wear for an on-duty investigator. Too many hand-holds in case of a scuffle. But still, Garth trying to be Bobby would be a guarantee of a weird time throughout the hunting community.
-No EMF or sulfur. So maybe not an American civil war ghost, but a something that otherwise feeds off strife between brothers and other close family (husband and wife) if so, the boys are screwed.
-Okay, maybe the boys are rusty enough to not think that EMF or sulfur might have dissipated/been collected as evidence, but how did they, or hell, the CSI bunch miss that puddle of green goo? Arg. So. It uh... seeped up. Yeah. After they left, and after Sam and Dean looked there. Sure. *handwave*
-Garth: *swipes fingers in goo and tastes* Me: GULHCESHGHGEH!!! And that's saying a lot considering I've managed to drink coffee with soured dairy products in it three times in the past seven days. :-P
-And considering Dean usually is the one going around sticking his fingers in random goo and things, it's saying a lot to get the Winchesters to make these faces. XD
-"Our guy had the word 'Alcott' carved into his chest." Soooooo, he was a hardcore fan of 'Little Women'? Or his wife was trying to make some sort of point before she ran over his head.
-See, Sam, this is your tactful face. Try using it more. Particularly with your brother.
-"Bits and pieces I guess." Whereas Garth really needs to find his own tactful, not-laughing-at-the-recent-horrible-death-in-front-of-one-of-the-victims face.
-Also, Dean's tie crosshatch grid appears to have a stealth mode, as it's disappeared and looks like a subtle diamond pattern now. Besieged I tell you. All walls.
-"He took Sarah Alcott as his date instead of me." Ah. Not Louisa May Alcott then. It was a long shot.
-"Did we eat yet?" Oh dear. That's a disconcerting thing for Dean to ask, or at least it seems like it. Dean not knowing if he ate. Just seems so wrong.
-"Like in Purgatory Purgatory?"/"Naw, the one in Miami." Hee! Also, dimples!
"How'd ya get out?" Hee! Sam, along with tact, you may want to look into subtle.
-They're in Missouri, okay. Did I miss the location card, or has there not been one? It makes a sort of Garth-sense for him to be a Texas Ranger in Missouri in that jacket and still have the authorities go for it though.
-The town was half on one side half on the other. Yeah sounding more like civil war ghost issues.
-"Lemme guess. Tooth fairy." Aww, did Garth kill the tooth fairy? Aww.
-I guess if you're about to be the second corpse of the evening, you might as well have clear lungs? Has anyone on this show been killed with an inhaler before? I don't think so. Might be foreshadowing. The inhaler on the wall?
-Or, uh... it could be an inhaler full of PURE EVIL that makes green snot drip out your ear before you go a-murdering. O.o
-Hello, ghost. I see one of those weird squarish floppy American civil war type hats, so that would be a yes to a civil war ghost then?
-Okay. Nitpick moment. The signs on the windows behind them should be reversed. From the outside, that store would have blank sign backs or mirror reversed signs in all its windows. Maybe it's a gimmick. Get passers-by to go inside the store to read what the signs say, and once they're inside, they may as well buy something. Yeah, sure. Sigh. *handwave*
-Sussex. Nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes' retirement and the keeping of bees, I'm guessing. Also, beer continuity! \o/
-Garth's boots are made for walking... in ectoplasm!
-...I really hope that's not Bobby's hat. *is side-tracked, searching* I think it might be. And worse yet, I think Garth might have washed it. O.o
-"That's not how you wear it." Thank you, Dean.
-"I'll check her out, you two see what you can find out about Sussex."/"Word."/"...Awesome." I don't know if I've seen passive aggressive hunting before, but that sure looks like it.
-And for crying out loud, will one of you get Garth out of that fringed jacket and into something practical???
-...She looks familiar. Where's she from? Could be another Vancouver actor though. She does look familiar.
-"I guess in her mind I was a reminder of Chester's betrayal." Hmmm... betrayal. Interesting way of putting it. *ponders*
-Flashback time! Looks like Sam's girlfriend (and by association Sam) is a heavy drinker. Maybe I was right about the limes in the garbage disposal being from tequila shots.
-Ah, she's a widow. And not dealing with it too well. Or at least mostly not too well. I mean if she didn't get Sam's shirt off while getting him into bed, something's wrong.
-"I can't imagine." True. A partner getting killed in a war is far different than a partner getting pinned to the ceiling by a demon and roasted alive in front of you.
-Yeah, no. Garth the lightweight gets no beers while on a case that doesn't involve a booze demon.
-Did he just say-? Garth, honey, you're adorable, but you need to stop trying to be Bobby, at least in the mannerisms, or Dean will smack your fool head off. And then I'll kick it across the floor. M'kay?
-"We're fine." And this would be Dean's 'I AM SO FULL OF CRAP I MAY EXPLODE' face.
-"You're not Bobby. You're never gonna be Bobby. So stop." Thank you.
-"I'm just trying taking what he showed me and trying to do something with it, that's all." Okay, Garth's got a valid point. And a hell of a lot of intensity out of left field. Bobby was a major part of the hunting community, and the Winchesters aren't the only ones missing him. Including Garth and his surprising intensity and chin-wibbles. Aw. But please, Garth, lay off mimicking Bobby's mannerisms. It's creepy.
-*nods* Sussex, business, ran it to the ground, symbol of betrayal... this is going to get nothing but painful, is it?
-Capping Bobby's book, just because. ...Aaand also because it says "green goo = Spectre. A spectre is an avenging ghost, it possesses you and whatever betrayal you are feeling and makes you act upon them." Well. Crap. Can we just load the boys into the car and get them the hell out of there now? This is going to be Asylum all over again, isn't it?
-"This could get awkward." Um. Yeah. Just a bit.
-"Civil War re-enactments. Once a year, every year." big_pink shout out? Probably not but stranger things have happened. Garth does have a good face for historical reenactment though. *nods*
-Oh, ho. Ho ho ho. I see what you're up to, costume department! I only just noticed this. Sam and Dean may not be wearing ties right now, but look at their jackets. Blue and grey. And their suits earlier were blue and grey. I don't know much about the American Civil war, but I do know, one side was blue and the other was grey. Subtle like a subtle thing made of subtleness, Show.
-"Burn a Confederate soldier's bones in a town full of rednecks? Suuuure!" Heeee. Sam may have nailed the crux of the issue. Also, the ceremonial guard might be gone by dusk, but since the tomb was vandalized only a few days ago, the cops will be keeping a close eye on it.
-Zoom goes the Impala past the graveyard at night, uncappably. *happy sigh*
-So much for local law enforcement paying closer attention. You know, if they aren't going to lock the place up, even after a vandalism, then I don't know what the local authorities in this town are doing.
-Sam's found a *squints* ...rubber band? *shrug* Also, Sam needs to peer intently at things in half-lighting.
-"I kinda feel like we should say something, don't you?" *facepalm* Even after a year of trying to be Bobby, Garth's still new. I appreciate the sentiment, and as Garth is a historical re-enactor, he'd have an emotional investment in the history, but if something is killing people and you are in a location you may get arrested at any second, or maybe the spectre will pop out and make you all kill each other, timing could be better.
-"Sure. We won." *foom* Ahahahah. Um. If salting and burning doesn't work though, that little poke is really not going to help.
-"Write that up for me, would you Doug?" That is the look of a future spectre-target.
-So, either the inhaler or the guy's keys triggered something. At least there's a reason for the inhaler, one way or another, I guess?
-Oh crap, that's really not good. D-:
-Tie report two: Sam, Red with little four-lobed fleur-de-lis sort of things. Sam is scattered, and distracted from his siege on Dean's emotional walls by something other than the case. Dean, Navy, one narrow pale blue stripe widely-spaced. Dean is blatantly on the job, attempting to get back to status quo, and still being self-contained and not offering Sam anything but a smooth, blank, low-reactive surface. And suits, blue and grey. Subtlesubtlesubtle.
-"Tell me what happened after you shot the Sheriff." *snerk* Sorry. Song thing, like from Jus in Bello.
-"It just seems like you and Dean are talking but nobody's listening to each other." Yep. For almost the entirety of 30+ years. WINCHESTERS.
-Somehow, Sam's girlfriend telling Sam she's messed up makes me want to say, "you have no idea who you're talking to," But then I get distracted by how tiny that bed looks compared to Sam. And she still didn't get Sam's T-shirt off during a roll in the hay. That's just not right. *eyes Sam's girlfriend*
-"I stole second?" Okay, this spectre is really reaching for reasons people might feel betrayed now. Fortunately for him, and unfortunately for us, Dean Winchester is about to hove into view, shining like a billion-watt lighthouse of emotional repression.
-"So two brothers fought on opposite sides of the Civil war?" *facepalm* Sam, dear heart, I know your education was spotty growing up, but I'm from another country and I'm aware that sort of thing happened during the American Civil War. Sam's distracted. And missed class a lot. And might be trying to appear under-informed as a fishing tactic for getting info out of this person for some reason. Sure. *handwave* *pats Sam*
-Yep, there's Dean, hoving into view like a mad thing, and smelling like a brother vs brother keg party to the spectre.
-Ah, penny on a string. Not a rubber band Sam was looking at earlier then. So. Kids pull the penny, didn't activate on them, maybe not enough fodder (a lack of feeling betrayed in a group of teenagers old and strong enough to shift that casket lid? Well okay...), it gets to the spouse of the first victim, activates, her son takes it, gets him, skipped the officer that searched the son, gets the deputy, and so on from there. Hm. Seems to maybe be getting more powerful each time? Maybe?
-Ooo. Nice bass hit in the sound track when he hands the penny off. And now the severe doom starts, because it has Dean, and it's not a demon, so the anti-possession tattoo doesn't apply to it.
-I'd just like to say an this point, oh craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.
-Sam: *babbles about phones* Uh Sam? Dean's not here, man. *shivers*
-"You shoulda looked for me when I was in Purgatory." Or rather Dean is here, there's just a ghost hijacking his memories and emotions to make him want to kill you. Oh fuck this is gonna hurt so much even if no one gets shot.
-OH FUCK OFF! THERE ARE IMPORTANT THINGS GOING ON NOW AND I ALREADY KNOW HOW THE THING GOT OUT, OR IT'S NOT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT, SO SCREW THREE DAYS AGO! PRIORITIES! GAAAAAAH!!!
-Yes, see, that's exactly the same thing I said about the penny, but without the soundtrack of "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden, which we haven't heard on Supernatural since, what, season two? So okay, fine.
-Okay! Back to now! You know, considering how fast the others killed their targets, either Dean has a hell of a pile of willpower fighting against this thing, or it wants to really hurt Sam before it makes Dean kill him. I'm leaning towards Dean's willpower. With a hefty side of hurt.
-"Always blamed me for pulling you back into it." Oh god, it's going right back to the start of the series there. D-:
-*watches, too rapt to screencap*
-"Those aren't mistakes, Sam, those are choices!" One: true, and valid. Two: damn but Dean needs to get freaky evil more often because he's riveting, and Jensen is knocking this whole thing out of the park, and three: OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I mean, yay, communication and honesty, but OWWWWW.
-Oh Sam.
-"You left me to die, for a girl?" Oh owowowowow. And it's not just that he's unloading (finally, but ow) because this is a spectre that takes even the slightest perceived slight and amplifies it until it's something to kill for, so even if these are all just passing thoughts and twinges Dean's set aside or pushed down, they're being amplified and spilled out at Sam, and when this resolves (because neither of them is getting killed tonight, right?) this whole big dump of amplified ow is still going to have been said, and again, yay communication, but Sam and Dean will both feel like absolute shit after this. And then repress it, because they're Winchesters. Right, okay, where's my- ah, there it is. *cuddles up into blanket and rocks back and forth a bit before hitting play*
-Whoa, Sam just got good at hand to hand in time to- OH SHIT. THE COIN'S GOING TO SWITCH TO HIM! O.o
-Aaaand it didn't because Sam might have had a moment there, but Dean can still kick his ass blindfolded and possessed. All uncappably.
-"He won't kill me, his beef isn't with me." Garth! Dude! Well, of course he's not the target, but considering the last two outings we saw Garth on, he got KO'd early in the fight and woke up in time for the end, standing between an armed and pissed off Dean Winchester and someone he wants to shoot takes serious guts.
-"He left me to rot in Purgatory!" That Spectre thinks it has found the perfect chew toy there with the Purgatory issue and is going to pound on it until it makes Dean shoot. But Dean's been resisting all along, or Sam would already be dead, wouldn't he. If not right away, then during the fight or immediately after. There's more hesitation there than anything else, and even though Dean is verbally unloading, he's not shooting. And all along, that gun in Dean's hand - even before Garth starts trying to reach Dean - has been shaking a little, wavering, dropping. Not a whole bunch, just a bit here and there. Enough to show the fight in Dean. Very well done, Jensen. *applauds*
-"Just like you had your reasons for Benny!" OH MY GOD SAM, SHUT THE FUCK UP! TIMING! This is not going to help you in any way.... unless you're trying to get the spectre to take you instead, or you snagged the coin in the fight?
-"Who?" Bwah! XD
-"The only person who hasn't let me down is Benny." You've only known him a year, mostly in Purgatory while you were his ticket out. Hate to be pessimistic, but I'd say wait for it. And I was going to protest the inclusion of Castiel, but season six did happen, so Dean is unfortunately not wrong, though the spectre is pushing all Dean's worst possible interpretation buttons right now. Making everything worse, catastrophizing, speaking in absolutes, using anything it can to get Dean to pull the trigger. But Dean's still fighting. Seriously, Garth weighs, what, 120 pounds soaking wet? If Dean wasn't resisting as hard as he is, how much effort would it take to knock Garth aside and just shoot? Not much. Hell, I could probably knock Garth over. Dean is still resisting, no matter what the spectre tries. Sam, though, needs to keep his mouth shut and not feed the spectre.
-I wonder though if it's working on both of them now, in such close proximity, no matter who has the coin, because unless he's working an angle, Sam has to know that dumping anger back at Dean is an excruciatingly stupid thing to do right now.
-Okay, so maybe Garth's harder to knock over now than he used to be. Woo!
-Still pretty breakable though.
-Okay, the coin's dropped, there is too much time left on the counter... eeeeep.
-And Garth doesn't feel like he's been betrayed by anyone, so he's immune. Must be nice. Lucky guy. Now, go get a blow torch and melt that thing down.
-Sam looks quite shattered here, which is understandable. But... seriously, Sam, the next time your brother is possessed by something that's making him want to kill you, KEEP YOUR FOOL MOUTH SHUT AND LET HIM FIGHT IT RATHER THAN FANNING THE FLAMES!
-Hm. I'm finding that at several points so far this season I feel like John Winchester must have, hollering at the boys for tactical errors and blunders. It's an... interesting feeling.
-"I let all of that stuff go with the help of my yogi, my Sega Genesis." Heeee! Garth is kind of cool, in an annoying way.
-"Stop bein' an idjit." Garth, we talked about this. Although your delivery and timing is improving, the adaptation of Bobby's mannerisms is still creepy as hell. But, it's a way of grieving or honoring him, in a Garth is sort of way, so *handwave* but don't expect me not to cringe at it, because there is and will only ever be one Bobby Singer.
-Garth hugs! I suppose something could be read into Dean's willingness to hug Benny versus his reluctance to hug Garth, but Garth hugs can be overwhelming to the chronically emotionally repressed, so it's quite understandable.
-"You and I, we're a lot of things, but we're not to be pitied." Oh, so he's going to tell her about Jess? The edited for non-hunters version at least? Good.
-Ohhhhh he's going to tell her about Dean. Because right now to Sam, Dean's dead. Well. That's not going to make the conversation where he has to go help his supposedly dead brother Dean out at the top of the season any easier to take. Explains why he didn't say goodbye, and given the way she lost her last partner, Sam's got to be really set on making sure he goes back to her in one piece so she doesn't live through that again. Hm. Okay.
-"Her name's Amelia." ABOUT FREAKING TIME. NOW TELL HIM SOMETHING THAT EXPLAINS WHY YOU'RE BEING SO- And no. Well it was a faint brief hope.
_"I told you right from the jump where I was coming from, but you, you had secrets." ...Sam. Lecturing Dean about keeping secrets. Just... wow. *headshake* I am really having a hard time with Sam this season. I really am. Surprise. I should have known not to trust the good hair. Good hair on Sam indicates bad things, always always bad things.
-My count reads one or two ultimatums from Sam, and a death threat against Dean's friend. And Sam contradicting his earlier stance on hunting to deliver that threat. ("I don't want to hunt anymore." versus "Maybe I'll be the hunter who kills Benny.") And then Sam keeps talking and I know exactly where this is going to go and ow ow ow ow.
-But it doesn't, at least on screen before the fade to black. Me, I would have left Sam in the parking lot and driven off. Maybe just to cool down a bit and pick him up later, but seriously, death threats and ultimatums? But, again, that's why Dean's a better person than I am, as well as being better at repressing. OW.
I don't trust Sam's motivations. His flashbacks are too saturated, he's contradicting himself and he has good hair. (What?) I suspect there is something going on with Sam that isn't right. Maybe Amelia is some kind of djinn variant, or maybe the dog is a skinwalker with psychic control, or maybe both, and the dog/skinwalker runs out in front of cars and gets people to come visit the vet, meet the vet, who becomes whatever will be most effective in keeping the target in line. Something, whatever.
Much as Sam's girlfriend being anything but a normal human woman would be regrettable in a way, I'm just trying to find some reason for Sam to be acting like he is. I don't want this to be just Sam talking. I want there to be something causing this. Because right now, this does not feel like Sam. Something isn't right. Whether that's an external and monstrous influence, or Sam suffering from a major recto-cranial inversion incurred while Dean was in Purgatory, I don't know. Something :-/
And then Dean, with his reinstated non-reactive adamantium walls of stoicism, under the barrage at the end, just clenching and not caving to lash out in defense and match Sam's emotional level. I really worry what's underneath Dean's walls. Nothing new there though; I've been worried about that since season one.
Right, okay, so, anyway. Bit of a downer from me at the end there, sorry, but I'm quite irritated by Sam so far this year, which I'm finding hard to repress and seeing very little reason to be other than irritated with him so far. I am hoping, through the arc of the season, that this will change, but I get the feeling whatever arc is going on there will get much darker before the dawn, one way or another.
I'm sure there will be metas on this episode, particularly in relation to Asylum and the episode with the siren, but I'll leave those to people with better, clearer, and less biased brains than me. :-P
(PLEASE, NO SPOILERS OR REFERENCES TO UNAIRED EPISODES IN COMMENTS! Any and all promo material for unaired episodes is considered to be a spoiler in this journal. The further definition of what constitutes a spoiler for this journal is located in left hand sidebar. Theory and speculation based on aired episodes only.)