SPN Reaction: Delayed Reaction to 3.14, plus... meta???
Includes spoilers for the aired episode, hints of theory at future episodes but no spoilers, random meta and a spoiler for one Doctor Who season 2 episode.
Reaction to 3.14 with random meta - Long Distance Call
Much less spoiled for this one than I first thought, but now possibly much more spoiled for the two remaining eps due to that spoiler being carried forward...
*possible future spoiler and theory snipped*
-April something-teenth: See people exploding from squee that maybe they got Jefferey Dean Morgan to come back for an ep. Which would be awesome, and possibly mean flashbacks. I say possibly, because there's one other way I can think of John Winchester showing up again which is in Hell, his appearance being used to torment Dean, and it would be fearsomely cruel... and... yeah. It's Kripke. Oh crap.
-April 24th: Someone reacting to a 3.13 reaction post starts squeeing about how JDM might be in 3.14 based on the promo for next week. Sigh.
-April 27: Further squeeing reveals that apparently there's a phone call from John. Ooo. Also, clever workaround for JDM's schedule. Heh. Damn, I really wish I hadn't found out about that though. Hoping it'll happen in the first few minutes and not be a big built-up-to thing. Dammit. So, I'm guessing he's not calling just to say hi. Figure he's delivering the pre-finale plot bomb, so either something about Mary, or something about Sam, or knowing John, a repeat of the 'save your brother or kill him' order or another order with no explanation that's going to bake Dean's noodle like freaking whoa. Ooo. Or maybe it's something pretending to be John to mess with Dean. Ooooooo...
-April 28th: I turn the TV on to check the VCR's programming for two seconds, two bloody seconds, and there's Dean in a suit on his cellphone looking stunned. I mean, yay for advertising and all, but dammit! So, yeah. Dean gets a call from John from the glowy place. Or a reasonable facsimile.
-April 30th: And title. "Long-Distance Call" *sigh*
*more snippage which may appear in the spoiler timeline for a future ep*
John? Will be awesome, no matter how much crap he's disturbing. But I don't want to jinx it.
Onwards.
-I will say, I am very annoyed with show's budget. This one was great and all, but felt kind of choppy, scene and reveal-wise. Another 5 or 10 minutes of connective tissue to hold the bones of the episode together would have made an incredible difference, I think. 38 minutes is not enough.
-Also, anyone else having difficulties controlling stampeding herds of missing and alternate scene plot-bunnies? *widens bunny corral*
-Anyway. Hi show! *dolphin noises of glee*
-Lillith! Mention in the previouslies! Yay!
-*twitches due to theory based on spoiler carryforward*
-Rain! Yay, rain! Although it might be CGI rain, because I don't recall any downpours in early April, but my recall is shot to hell lately, so no idea really. I'm just amused by the idea that they might have had to CGI rain into a scene shot in Vancouver.
-I like the pre-dawn demon belch victim. The actor does well with his bit here, and seems very genuine. I was glad to find out the 'Linda' calling him was a girlfriend who died in high school and not my first thought which was dead and possibly murdered mistress.
-SHA33. Count down to someone using that as a login id? Whups, nevermind, someone's already got it for LJ as of 1:30 am on May 2nd. Not me. :-)
-Did not believe for one second that it was actually the ghost of Linda speaking.
-Yeah, go ahead, trash the poor phone. Kill the messenger. And of course that's not going to stop the signal. Dumbass.
-Blood spray from off-camera! YAY FOR SUBTLE GORE!!! Because the mind's eye can provide more ick than any amount of latex and CGI. Also, it's good for the budget. *pats the budget*
-*glee* Snarky Dean! Panties! Boy bands! Hee! Especially like how brittle Dean's snark has gotten as the season goes on and his timer ticks down. His armor is starting to crack.
-JDM IN THE CREDITS OMG!!! Not like it was a surprise or anything due to spoilers, but still. *more glee*
-Ooooo... And the Ruby conversation comes out! Hmm. So we started the season with Sam humoring Dean and enabling him in running wild with the girls and so forth for a bit, now we have near the end, Dean enabling Sam in running wild with the research Dean figures he knows is pointless. Did that make any sense? Anyway, I still say 'Demons lie.' *kicks Ruby in the shins and runs away*
-Still, Dean kept that from Sam for a long time, just so that Sam wouldn't lose hope, I suspect partly because he really doesn't want to crush Sam's last hope. Also partly, if not mainly because he figures if Sam has it in the pack of his mind that they can just tap Ruby for the answer, he won't do anything incredibly stupid to try and save Dean because he still figures he's got her as a hole card, or whatever. Now though, all bets are off, and Sam may pull some truly reckless and stupid maneuver in the name of saving Dean. All of which I figure was Ruby's plan from the beginning. Tell Dean there's no way to get out of it so he'll be less inclined to hope and be frustrating to Sam and eventually tell Sam this and put Sam in a position to do incredibly reckless, dangerous and stupid things to save Dean which will all work in Ruby's favour somehow. Not a spoiler, just theory but I think I know what's going to happen anyway.... *looks nervously in the general direction of the finale*
-Oooo. And the start of the fight about secrets Sam's been keeping comes out and bang. Conversation over. We're going to Ohio.
-Sam pitches Dean's empty in the trash can. Not only is he supposed to be Boy-King of the Demons, he doesn't recycle! Gasp! The fiend! Wonder if that's a subtle slam on the CW's dictate that all of its series' have a 'green' episode? :-D
-HI IMPALA! OMG YAY!
-Dead guy's wife is good too. Very realistically freaked and distraught without being over the top.
-Awesome batteries on that phone. Kind of surprising it is still there and not bagged as evidence by the other detectives just in case it's a murder made to look like a suicide or whatever, but I call lazy policework that serves to advance the plot and give it a pass. *handwaves*
-"It's a capital offense..."/*cough and bitchface*/*eyeroll*"...somewhere I'm sure" Heee!
-"I thought he was talking to a woman."/"Why?"/"Because he kept calling her 'Linda'" Well there's some truly ace deductive reasoning, wife of dead guy. What if it had been the LINDA from Doctor Who, hm? Though the thought of them having a branch office in Ohio is ludicrous, and they've almost all been eaten anyway.
-Sam's hair is... pre-emo? It's got a chunky bang tendril heading in the general direction of eye-obscurage. It looks okay, though.
-Campbell and Rainey. Okay, someone enlighten me, what's that a reference to? My Google-fu has gone phooey.
-I know my brain is tired when Sam swats at a random fly or whatever and I get this sudden mental flash of "Lord of the flies! Sam's turning into Beelzebub!" that at the time was this astounding and crystal perfect revelation, but now makes no sense whatsoever.
-Hee. Skeezy tech guy. "Uhhhhh... How did all this porn get here? I have no idea... O.O" *snerk*
-Dean with the big grr voice and Sam trying to look mean and authoritative behind him, and oddly failing because Jared looks like he's pursed lips and a hair flip away from that scene from the season 2 gag reel where he's trying to crack Jim Beaver up when he opens the door and Jared's making, I dunno, supermodel faces or something. Still, it worked on the guy, so yay!
-Dean with the smug face. Hee.
-OMGWTF RENTAL??? Is that a freaking Corolla Sam's driving? With an alarm system? Whoops, nope, it's a Chevy Cobalt LT, based on the taillights since the actual car name goes by too fast and blurry to read on my tv. Chevy really needs to pay them for some serious product placement in this show. I know if I bought a new car today, it'd probably be an Impala strictly because of this show. Hear that Chevy? Send money to Kripke!
-I'm embarrassed to admit it took me far too long to realize they'd split up to cover more ground and therefore Sam had to rent a car for expedience. Still, I bet there was some epic mockage from Dean when Sam rented it. (Oh, go away bunny, I have no time :-P)
-Sammy is an insecure boy, arming the alarm system when he's only going to be about 20 feet away from the car he probably rented with a fake credit card and ID anyway, so it's not like he's out anything but a ride if it gets boosted. I say he just has way too much fun pushing the buttons and making the car go "boop-EEP" Also, control freak, so remote control for car would have Sam all over it. *nods*
-Got sidetracked by the rental and didn't notice the return of the HOMELAND SECURITY SUITS! \o/ (Well, also insurance adjuster or whatever they were in Route 666, but they were bought acquired as homeland security, there for homeland security suits. Or Blues Brothers. Heh. I still think of "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath as "The Suit Song", and didn't know it's actual name till months after Phantom Traveller aired.
-My, what a perspicacious teenager. Good for her. Yeah, the phone company doesn't usually dress like that.
-During the conversation over the roof of the car, Sam's hair is really kind of awesome. Ish.
-"I've been right where you're standing now." My tired brain: "The sidewalk? Beside the passenger door of a rented car? What does that have to do with- Oh. Right. Nevermind." *facepalm*
-Also, I love that accent slippage. He's been "raaht" where she's standing.
-The necrophilia-shocked bypasser (...totally a word... I think) is awesome too. It's nice to have someone react to part of the weird conversations these guys have in public places on cell-phones.
-Hi again Impala! *glee*
-I knew it was coming, and I knew the call from 'John' was going to come right then, just before that commercial break, but still, JDM!!!!!! \o/ And yay show for clever use of budget and scheduling.
-(AD on CityTV: Okay, I freaking up-and-down swear the voice-over on the ad in this commercial break for the Coquitlam Centre Charity Fashion show Strut was done by Samantha Ferris. Absolutely, definitely, 100%, no doubt her. Anyone else on the Vancouver feed hear it? Ellen by proxy. Hee.)
-Oh, Dean, all disturbed by the phone call and off-balance and not ready to dismiss it just in case it is John, just in case Dean's dad and biggest hero found a way back to fix everything and make it all go away, and that Dean still, (even though yeah he's got his issues with how they were raised and all that, who the hell doesn't) still believes in his father enough that he'll turn away from rationality and the case and the clues that something else is going on because on some level he believes in his dad, and since his dad is still his hero so of course dad's going to come back somehow and save him at the last minute when everything's all desperate and last hope is lost and stuff because that's what heroes do but it's all wrong and it's all a trick and Dean's going to get crushed and disillusioned all over again, dammit!
-*inhales* Holy run-on nonsense sentence, Batman. Anyway. *pats poor woobie!Dean*
-"Hello?!" Yeah. That'd be my response too. If my Dad called up from the dead and my sister said to say 'hello', I wouldn't talk to her for a month.
-And Dean's back once he's patched his beleaguered personal armor with extra snark (High-school hook-up rate of 0.0, hee) and found a way that allows it to possibly actually be John on the phone. Aw Dean.
-THOMAS EDISON'S FREAKING SPIRIT PHONE FTW!!!! \o/ That was unexpectedly awesome to have on the show, I wish they'd have had it work though. And Sam had to have known about it. I mean I knew about it. I'm taking Sam's incredulity as "But everyone thinks this thing is a piece of crap hoax." rather than "Spirit phone? Whazzat?"
-"Quotey-Fingers" the tour guide is AWESOME!!! "And we're walking! We're walking! We're not touching that, and we're walking..." Hee. All the little bit characters are just great this episode!
-EMF!!! IT'S THE EMF!!! OMG, GUYS! THE EMF!!! *flails incoherently* The Blues Brothers suits and the EMF, it's like old home week!
-I love the whole working the case thing, with the theories bouncing back and forth and leads and tracking down info and just YAY! Missed that.
-Aw. Dean waiting by the phone in the dark with coffee. Just aw. Hoping, but not wanting to give in to hope, and not wanting to dismiss something that might even be possible and desperate, and miserable, and trying to keep it all from Sam in case it is a false hope and just aw. And ow.
-Content of call to Dean. My take on it? It's what the bad guy thinks Dean thinks John would say. It's stated later on that the bad guy knows they are hunters, so he's not going to pull the standard "come to me" stuff on them, because he knows they'd be on alert for stuff like that. Setting up in a town where there's a convenient alternate possibility in place for ghosts phoning people up shows that he's ready for hunters to start sniffing around. Love that the bad guy has a brain.
-Anyway, sidetracked, sorry. Content of the call and Dean's reaction to it. I have been entirely cloistered from reactions to this episode, so here's my uninfluenced opinion. I buy it. This isn't Dean falling back into step as Daddy's little soldier, hopping to because it's John. This is Dean, in a very different situation than he's been before. He's gotten desperate, yes, but I don't think it's to save himself for the sake of himself. He's never been one to shirk responsibility, the opposite, usually, where family is concerned. I don't think he's trying to escape the consequences of the choice he made, but he has been seeing perhaps that there are more consequences to his decision than just his own death over the past year. There's the turning into a demon thing, there's the leaving Sam alone with an army of demons after him thing, and there's the Ruby still poking her nose into Sam's business and trying to make him dance her tune. Also, and regrettably mostly off-camera so far, I suspect he's noticed a few differences in Sam's demeanor since Mystery Spot, and it's bugging him the same way Sam deliberately changing to, in Sam's words in Malleus Maleficarum, 'be more like Dean', harder and colder and more willing to take a violent course of action and accept collateral damage like, say, a virgin in a besieged police station. These things are what I suspect make up a large part of what is making Dean desperate enough to take the phone call at face value as being from John, given that the boys do not know for certain that the calls are not the actual loved ones yet. Also, Dean's had prior experience (twice!) with dead parents showing up to save the day, so it's not without precedent.
-Whoa. Meta-whump. Sorry about that. Does it even make sense?
-Dean on the phone being anguished. Jensen Ackles can seriously work a phone.
-Given - okay, another bit of meta-y thought here - given that the thing on the phone is a critter that is saying what it thinks Dean thinks John would say, I kind of love and hate that it throws 'I love you' in there. Love because Dean doesn't even question it, just another part of the conversation. Of course his dad speaking from beyond the grave loves him, no need to even call that into question, it's like the air. John loves his boys. Even when John is dressing Dean down for selling his soul to save his brother, the love is still there, just like the air is still there even when there's a storm. How this differs from Devil's Trap, where John was possessed and saying things that Dean wouldn't believe his Dad would say is not that the YED was expressing any kind of love toward Dean that John wouldn't have, it was that YED was not bringing the storm of John being angry for the bullet being used when at the time the Colt didn't have infinite freaking bullets *grumbles and kicks Ruby in absentia* and the use of a bullet may have been a tactical misstep if there were any other options available. Tactics would have been discussed, loudly or not, and they would have moved on from there. At no point during the yelling would John have stopped loving Dean or Sam. Now, that said, I kind of hate it because it's another damn monster telling Dean this, and the second I heard it stated outright, I had a reflex thought of "Well, that's not John." and mentally kicked myself for that. :-P
-I also really wish there would have been a way they could have made it not blindingly obvious that the phone calls were not coming from loved ones right at the start, and left the audience in the dark about whether it was actually John or not. Because really, based strictly on what evidence the boys have, right up until Sam finds out the girl's "mom" has been encouraging suicide, it could totally be the spirit phone and actually be dead family members and John with insider info into the weak points of demons, etc. and dead guy at the start just had other contributing issues that lead him to kill himself. Because the audience knows already that the ghosts are bad news, though, it makes Dean appear unrealistic in the face of contrary evidence (which he doesn't have) and Sam kind of mentally slow for not picking up on clues (he also doesn't have). Unfortunately though, show needed to splatter someone before the demon belch, so there you go, I guess. The boys even have evidence of a ghost phone call that isn't encouraging suicide, with the elderly lady and her dead spouse, though if she has a heart problem the phone sex might do her in. Erm. Anyways.
-Yeesh, at this rate I'll still be reacting to this episode next week, and that simply will not do.
-I love an ancient evil whatsit that can adapt to the times. First phones, then the net. Awesome.
-Did she look over the wrong shoulder... no, wait it's a webcam, not a reflection. She checked the correct shoulder. *nods*
-Ooo! It's danaschulpsing! Hee.
-OMG, Dean doing actual research!!! YAY!!! \o/ I cannot express how much joy I have for researching Dean!
-Hey, that's the same hotel from Mystery Spot, isn't it? With the concrete lattice thing out front? I gotta say, that room is very turquoise. Even the stove and fridge are turquoise. And those starbursts are eating my brain. *glomphs set design*
-Ooo! Storms! Coincidence or foreshadowing... *ponders gravely and deeply upon the thorny conundrum*
-Aw, Dean with the nervous braggy brittle snark about himself that covers up a whole pile of "HOLY CRAP DEMON'S HERE!"
-I love that the monster gives Dean a 15th century exorcism and Sam and Bobby have already gone over it. Which of course means it was discussed over the phone at some point so monster-boy could get at it and throw it in to the 'convince Dean it's really John' package, and picked one that Sam and Bobby hadn't had any concrete proof about so that it could very well be John providing evidence they didn't have, so that Sam and Dean would have this exact argument and be easier to split up. Clever monster.
-Who the hell is Chris Hansen? On second thought, given the context, I probably don't want to know. Unless it's one of the Hansen brothers, in which case the sound of anteka exploding with glee should have registered on the Richter scale. And it also takes the wind out of his earlier snark about talking about boy bands with Bobby. But that's probably not it at all.
-Ow. Dean, all raw nerve endings. Even though I knew from the start it wasn't John, this was the point where I wanted it to really be John, just because of Dean and all his hope that maybe there's a way to make things right again, and his faith in his father. For a minute, I thought it might even be possible.
-And also, ow Sam. Stomping down the hope because he's had so much capacity for blind hope burned out of him. He's probably been careening between hope and despair for the past year, not to mention Mystery Spot time, following leads that went nowhere and just having had his holdout hope of Ruby quashed by Dean revealing what she said. He's not just protecting himself from another crushing disappointment, he's trying to protect Dean from getting his hopes up baselessly, just to have them crushed. Also coincidental side benefit of protecting him from the soul eater neither of them knows exists at this point. There's no evidence that it's John, but really, to them, there's no evidence it isn't John either.
-Dean's got faith. Now, this might seem like a sudden switch-up from earlier episodes, particularly "Faith" and "Houses of the Holy" but all along, Dean has had faith. In his family, and in his dad. And if Dean thinks John's figured out a way to drop him a phone call from the afterlife then by god, he's going to have faith in what his dad is telling him. Again, not a 'good little soldier' thing, just a Dean's belief in his family above everything thing. I think, anyway.
-Sam talking to the girl. "Bad things." Nice misdirect! Totally worked on me, because for a second, it made me think Dean's Soul-deed holder demon (who I am damn sure I know who it is, but whatever) might be behind things. It echoes Scott Carey's line in "Hunted" Cool. Worked on me for a split second. Just a little.
-Freaked out thinky Sammy face! \o/ Awesome. Like "OMG, what if it's telling Dean to off himself with Dad's voice, but it's not, it's giving him a bunch of stuff about demons, what if it's a trap or something, Dean could be in danger right now and I'm not there and OMG!" I think that's the first time in a long time, if maybe ever, I've seen a thought process in a facial expression from Jared, so massive glee for that! :-D
-Sam recognizing the monster from "Come to me" ... yeah, okay, sure. He knows what a crocotta says, I'll buy that. But he definitely would have heard of Edison's spirit phone. *nods*
-That is totally the same staircase from last episode and Bobby's dream house. I wonder if they rented out a house to use for house interiors and such-like, because it doesn't look very set-like, and they keep coming up with different odd camera angles to disguise that it's the same set of stairs. Regardless of what they're doing and how they're doing it, I hope it's saving budget money.
-Orange spray bombs! Jug of DIY holy water! Yay!
-Sammy saving the boy from traffic made me cheer like a mad thing. It's like delayed payback for not being in time to save Doctor thingy from getting mind-controlled in front of a bus in Simon Said. Hm. I wonder how much time he lost there from passers-by (totally a word too) rushing up going "Wow!" and "Are you okay?" and "OMG hero!" and things, because you can shoot a hundred ghosts in the face with rock salt in the dark and never once get thanked, but save one kid from getting run over by a big truck in a public street in broad daylight and they're going to want to shake your hand and plaster your face on the cover of the newspaper.
-So, a crocotta is an enemy to dog and man, eh? No wonder he ran afoul of Sammy. *pats the Puppy*
-The sandwich is probably either some variety of 'croque', kind of a toasted ham and cheese, or a croquette which isn't a sandwich but a deep-fried thing of many varieties. Chicken McNuggets are 'croquettes de poulet' according to the French on the packaging in Canada, if I recall correctly...
-Sam's brief conversation with monster pretending to be Dean is kind of neat, because it's obvious it isn't Dean to the audience, because Dean's busy painting symbols on the floor of some innocent guys house across town and would be way less blase about having the calls from John proven as false. So, this is what the crocotta thinks Sam thinks Dean might say. There's an obligatory reference to food, and a sudden leap of logic that explains everything and sends Sam off alone to deal with the thing. Now, the way I see it, Sam figures Dean's food-obsessed (which we've seen before in Tall Tales), and capable of sudden brilliant intuitive leaps of logic, because while the whole "Hey, the guy with the flies!" thing is totally the Crocotta feeding Sam into a trap, Sam doesn't question Dean's reasoning or sudden knowledge of crocottas. He just goes with it. Sammy thinks his big brother is am intuitive genius. Also, he doesn't question the lack of 'wait for me, we'll go in and get this thing together', because Sam figures Dean thinks Sam can handle himself now, and doesn't need Dean to back him up. Which... kind of a complex 'ow' I think on that. Sam thinks Dean's ready to let him hunt on his own, because unless they pull out some last minute rabbits from some pretty big hats, (*twitches*), Dean's not going to be around to back Sam up. Sam not questioning Dean's lack of 'wait for me' is Sam feeling like he can work without Dean, and that Dean is aware of that and has confidence in that. All of which is a part of letting Dean go. Which, OW, show.
-*whacks meta-bunny back into line* sorry, where was I? Right. Herman Munster? That was one of the few spots where I figured Sam might twig that the call wasn't getting through to Dean, because Dean always has his cell on (from "Scarecrow") and Sam's getting voicemail. Admittedly, if Dean's being sneaky he'd be wise to turn his cell off, and he can't have the damned thing on him 24/7, so... meh *handwaves*
-Heee! Sam's confused face and headshake as he's processing, "I'm holding a knife on this guy, he's supposed to be a monster, but he's not acting the way he's supposed to..." is cute as hell.
-"That's what happens when you mess with the phone company, dillweed!" Heee! I love that guy a little, I think. But seriously, CW. 'Dillweed?' It's after 9PM, surely a 'dickhead' would pass the censor boards? Unless they used all their goodwill in that regard with the Ghostfacers bleepage. Hm.
-Baseball bat and 'fugetaboudit'. I get the feeling that's a reference to some kind of gangster movie, but a drawing a total blank.
-So... two weeks in a row now, Sam has been tied up and made to watch a guy he can't save get killed right in front of him... Gnh! *twitches like whoa and refrains from meta-ing or theorizing about that at all*
-*...and does the same with the discussion about community versus connectivity...*
-*seeks distraction* Ooooh look! Teeth! So, crocotta's are known for having mouths that go from ear to ear and I think they did pretty good with the jaw unhinging thing they're doing here. Even though it reminded me of the rat-eating lizard-aliens from 'V', which I actually never watched, just saw ads and bits of.
-Crocotta mocked the Spirit Phone? Hey, kill random people and snack on their souls all you like, but you do not mock the Edison Spirit Phone! Oh, fine, mock it, whatever. Yeesh. Murderous mythological psychopathic phone-mocker. *glares*
-Set-up of Dean vs the cop with the dead little girl was very clever. I like clever villains and this guy's clever like a fox that's got a degree from the university of smart-ass. But I do like it if they're clever in a way that doesn't make Sam or Dean look like idiots for missing clues they never saw.
-Hee, the crocotta-guy is approaching the lower echelons of YED-level scenery chomping. I love it. I miss YED. *pats the relatively unchewed scenery reassuringly*
-"I might be killing your brother. Or maybe some other guy. We'll see." Awesome.
-Ooo, Dean being all lurky with a jug of freshly blessed Holy Water. Ooo.
-Hee, the cop totally failed his stealth check! But it looks like Dean blew his listen check anyways, so it's all moot. (Sorry, it's a gamer thing.)
-Fight!! Now, I suspect some people might have issues with Dean kicking the guy while he's down but it makes sense to me. Dean's still thinking this is the demon that has Dean's Soul-marker, and although the guy coming in guns blazing instead of doing the usual demonic 'slam you up against a wall' thing is a bit of a tip-off that maybe the guy's not actually a demon, however, thinking objectively is a bit of a tricky proposition when you're being shot at and your adrenaline's up, I'd think. Anyways, besides the serious repressed rage issues Dean's been demonstrating this season, kicking the guy when he's down is kind of like keeping the guy occupied so the demon inside doesn't gather its wits and start with the 'slam Dean into a wall' thing before Dean can get his exorcism on the road. Totally a baseless hope on Dean's part, but it's what's available.
-Fighting back onto the paint bomb seal under the carpet and... dammit. *finds a forlorn and dejected looking plot-bunny scenelet from an unwritten AU in the massive herd and slaps a big "REWRITE" sticker on its head* Crap.
-Hmm. Sam does seem harder-surfaced and tougher since Mystery Spot, but not out in the open intense, I think because part of the months watching Dean die and the months without Dean was not only Sam getting dangerous and stuff, it was Sam withdrawing from his own surface and becoming a dead-eyed vengeance-driven automaton. I think that Jared is still showing this in very subtle ways, and it is awesome. The effect from Mystery Spot is there, it's just not jumping up and down and shouting about it, which entirely suits.
-In the exorcism: "Nom draco." O.O In the name of the Dragon??? Ooooo, I want to see the rest of that exorcism!
-Tandem fight scenes FTW!!
-The Crocotta may be a super-clever monster but he cannot knife-fight worth beans. Attacking someone who is obviously prepared for an attack by stabbing with a (relatively) easily blocked overhead strike which leaves the attacker's entire torso exposed and unprotected for a return hit? Bad tactics. Not wise.
-Oh look! A handy spike thing on the wall right at head height! I wonder what's going to happen there!? *smacks forehead* Good grief. That's subtle.
-Dean with the defensive fighting, not wanting to hurt the guy now that he knows he's not a demon.
-Aaaand Crocotta onna spike. Now, that might count as a pithing. If one was desperate for a pithing. Again, gore, but relatively subdued and budgetarily sensitive. *nods approvingly*
-Hm, there's some CGI happening with the crocotta's eyes... *checks wikipedia* "The eyes of a slain crocotta were said to be striped gems that would give the possessor oracular powers when placed under the tongue." Oh really. Wonder if Bela knows about that... Or... hunh. How tough do you guys think Sam is after Mystery Spot? Think he might stop and scoop out the guy's eyes to use as a bargaining chip for the Colt? Or for other purposes? *ponders nervously*
-Oh poor broken Dean. Oh... "I don't know." Just oh. Although after breaking into a grieving father's house, spray painting demon-related graffiti on his floor and brawling with him, I honestly don't know what Dean could have said that would make more sense.
-(Ad: American Gladiators can bite me too.)
-Yay! Visible injuries and mutual brotherly mocking thereof! \o/
-Dean admits he's scared, which seriously, I'd be worried if he wasn't. With a realistic appraisal of just how screwed you really, fear is entirely appropriate, even if you're a major league badass.
-"Hope doesn't get you jack squat." Oh Dean. The last vague hope that dad had found a way to fix everything from the afterlife crushed. And oh Sam, hearing that from Dean, and knowing that there is apparently no hole card to play anymore. And just oh.
-Sam's 'And me' followed by defensive snark and beer and withdrawing back into their own brittle shells and it's this little brother moment right before the finale build-up and, and, oh freaking crap is the finale of this season ever going to slay everyone. Not a spoiler. The only spoiler I've seen at this point that might apply to the finale (if it isn't false) is not plot-related. Haven't even seen next episode's promo, and I intend to keep it that way. Just a dread certainty. We are so, so, so very screwed, dudes. *twitches*
Please note, no spoilers in comments for future episodes, that includes any discussion of promos or ads for upcoming episodes, or related icons.
Reaction to 3.14 with random meta - Long Distance Call
Much less spoiled for this one than I first thought, but now possibly much more spoiled for the two remaining eps due to that spoiler being carried forward...
*possible future spoiler and theory snipped*
-April something-teenth: See people exploding from squee that maybe they got Jefferey Dean Morgan to come back for an ep. Which would be awesome, and possibly mean flashbacks. I say possibly, because there's one other way I can think of John Winchester showing up again which is in Hell, his appearance being used to torment Dean, and it would be fearsomely cruel... and... yeah. It's Kripke. Oh crap.
-April 24th: Someone reacting to a 3.13 reaction post starts squeeing about how JDM might be in 3.14 based on the promo for next week. Sigh.
-April 27: Further squeeing reveals that apparently there's a phone call from John. Ooo. Also, clever workaround for JDM's schedule. Heh. Damn, I really wish I hadn't found out about that though. Hoping it'll happen in the first few minutes and not be a big built-up-to thing. Dammit. So, I'm guessing he's not calling just to say hi. Figure he's delivering the pre-finale plot bomb, so either something about Mary, or something about Sam, or knowing John, a repeat of the 'save your brother or kill him' order or another order with no explanation that's going to bake Dean's noodle like freaking whoa. Ooo. Or maybe it's something pretending to be John to mess with Dean. Ooooooo...
-April 28th: I turn the TV on to check the VCR's programming for two seconds, two bloody seconds, and there's Dean in a suit on his cellphone looking stunned. I mean, yay for advertising and all, but dammit! So, yeah. Dean gets a call from John from the glowy place. Or a reasonable facsimile.
-April 30th: And title. "Long-Distance Call" *sigh*
*more snippage which may appear in the spoiler timeline for a future ep*
John? Will be awesome, no matter how much crap he's disturbing. But I don't want to jinx it.
Onwards.
-I will say, I am very annoyed with show's budget. This one was great and all, but felt kind of choppy, scene and reveal-wise. Another 5 or 10 minutes of connective tissue to hold the bones of the episode together would have made an incredible difference, I think. 38 minutes is not enough.
-Also, anyone else having difficulties controlling stampeding herds of missing and alternate scene plot-bunnies? *widens bunny corral*
-Anyway. Hi show! *dolphin noises of glee*
-Lillith! Mention in the previouslies! Yay!
-*twitches due to theory based on spoiler carryforward*
-Rain! Yay, rain! Although it might be CGI rain, because I don't recall any downpours in early April, but my recall is shot to hell lately, so no idea really. I'm just amused by the idea that they might have had to CGI rain into a scene shot in Vancouver.
-I like the pre-dawn demon belch victim. The actor does well with his bit here, and seems very genuine. I was glad to find out the 'Linda' calling him was a girlfriend who died in high school and not my first thought which was dead and possibly murdered mistress.
-SHA33. Count down to someone using that as a login id? Whups, nevermind, someone's already got it for LJ as of 1:30 am on May 2nd. Not me. :-)
-Did not believe for one second that it was actually the ghost of Linda speaking.
-Yeah, go ahead, trash the poor phone. Kill the messenger. And of course that's not going to stop the signal. Dumbass.
-Blood spray from off-camera! YAY FOR SUBTLE GORE!!! Because the mind's eye can provide more ick than any amount of latex and CGI. Also, it's good for the budget. *pats the budget*
-*glee* Snarky Dean! Panties! Boy bands! Hee! Especially like how brittle Dean's snark has gotten as the season goes on and his timer ticks down. His armor is starting to crack.
-JDM IN THE CREDITS OMG!!! Not like it was a surprise or anything due to spoilers, but still. *more glee*
-Ooooo... And the Ruby conversation comes out! Hmm. So we started the season with Sam humoring Dean and enabling him in running wild with the girls and so forth for a bit, now we have near the end, Dean enabling Sam in running wild with the research Dean figures he knows is pointless. Did that make any sense? Anyway, I still say 'Demons lie.' *kicks Ruby in the shins and runs away*
-Still, Dean kept that from Sam for a long time, just so that Sam wouldn't lose hope, I suspect partly because he really doesn't want to crush Sam's last hope. Also partly, if not mainly because he figures if Sam has it in the pack of his mind that they can just tap Ruby for the answer, he won't do anything incredibly stupid to try and save Dean because he still figures he's got her as a hole card, or whatever. Now though, all bets are off, and Sam may pull some truly reckless and stupid maneuver in the name of saving Dean. All of which I figure was Ruby's plan from the beginning. Tell Dean there's no way to get out of it so he'll be less inclined to hope and be frustrating to Sam and eventually tell Sam this and put Sam in a position to do incredibly reckless, dangerous and stupid things to save Dean which will all work in Ruby's favour somehow. Not a spoiler, just theory but I think I know what's going to happen anyway.... *looks nervously in the general direction of the finale*
-Oooo. And the start of the fight about secrets Sam's been keeping comes out and bang. Conversation over. We're going to Ohio.
-Sam pitches Dean's empty in the trash can. Not only is he supposed to be Boy-King of the Demons, he doesn't recycle! Gasp! The fiend! Wonder if that's a subtle slam on the CW's dictate that all of its series' have a 'green' episode? :-D
-HI IMPALA! OMG YAY!
-Dead guy's wife is good too. Very realistically freaked and distraught without being over the top.
-Awesome batteries on that phone. Kind of surprising it is still there and not bagged as evidence by the other detectives just in case it's a murder made to look like a suicide or whatever, but I call lazy policework that serves to advance the plot and give it a pass. *handwaves*
-"It's a capital offense..."/*cough and bitchface*/*eyeroll*"...somewhere I'm sure" Heee!
-"I thought he was talking to a woman."/"Why?"/"Because he kept calling her 'Linda'" Well there's some truly ace deductive reasoning, wife of dead guy. What if it had been the LINDA from Doctor Who, hm? Though the thought of them having a branch office in Ohio is ludicrous, and they've almost all been eaten anyway.
-Sam's hair is... pre-emo? It's got a chunky bang tendril heading in the general direction of eye-obscurage. It looks okay, though.
-Campbell and Rainey. Okay, someone enlighten me, what's that a reference to? My Google-fu has gone phooey.
-I know my brain is tired when Sam swats at a random fly or whatever and I get this sudden mental flash of "Lord of the flies! Sam's turning into Beelzebub!" that at the time was this astounding and crystal perfect revelation, but now makes no sense whatsoever.
-Hee. Skeezy tech guy. "Uhhhhh... How did all this porn get here? I have no idea... O.O" *snerk*
-Dean with the big grr voice and Sam trying to look mean and authoritative behind him, and oddly failing because Jared looks like he's pursed lips and a hair flip away from that scene from the season 2 gag reel where he's trying to crack Jim Beaver up when he opens the door and Jared's making, I dunno, supermodel faces or something. Still, it worked on the guy, so yay!
-Dean with the smug face. Hee.
-OMGWTF RENTAL??? Is that a freaking Corolla Sam's driving? With an alarm system? Whoops, nope, it's a Chevy Cobalt LT, based on the taillights since the actual car name goes by too fast and blurry to read on my tv. Chevy really needs to pay them for some serious product placement in this show. I know if I bought a new car today, it'd probably be an Impala strictly because of this show. Hear that Chevy? Send money to Kripke!
-I'm embarrassed to admit it took me far too long to realize they'd split up to cover more ground and therefore Sam had to rent a car for expedience. Still, I bet there was some epic mockage from Dean when Sam rented it. (Oh, go away bunny, I have no time :-P)
-Sammy is an insecure boy, arming the alarm system when he's only going to be about 20 feet away from the car he probably rented with a fake credit card and ID anyway, so it's not like he's out anything but a ride if it gets boosted. I say he just has way too much fun pushing the buttons and making the car go "boop-EEP" Also, control freak, so remote control for car would have Sam all over it. *nods*
-Got sidetracked by the rental and didn't notice the return of the HOMELAND SECURITY SUITS! \o/ (Well, also insurance adjuster or whatever they were in Route 666, but they were bought acquired as homeland security, there for homeland security suits. Or Blues Brothers. Heh. I still think of "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath as "The Suit Song", and didn't know it's actual name till months after Phantom Traveller aired.
-My, what a perspicacious teenager. Good for her. Yeah, the phone company doesn't usually dress like that.
-During the conversation over the roof of the car, Sam's hair is really kind of awesome. Ish.
-"I've been right where you're standing now." My tired brain: "The sidewalk? Beside the passenger door of a rented car? What does that have to do with- Oh. Right. Nevermind." *facepalm*
-Also, I love that accent slippage. He's been "raaht" where she's standing.
-The necrophilia-shocked bypasser (...totally a word... I think) is awesome too. It's nice to have someone react to part of the weird conversations these guys have in public places on cell-phones.
-Hi again Impala! *glee*
-I knew it was coming, and I knew the call from 'John' was going to come right then, just before that commercial break, but still, JDM!!!!!! \o/ And yay show for clever use of budget and scheduling.
-(AD on CityTV: Okay, I freaking up-and-down swear the voice-over on the ad in this commercial break for the Coquitlam Centre Charity Fashion show Strut was done by Samantha Ferris. Absolutely, definitely, 100%, no doubt her. Anyone else on the Vancouver feed hear it? Ellen by proxy. Hee.)
-Oh, Dean, all disturbed by the phone call and off-balance and not ready to dismiss it just in case it is John, just in case Dean's dad and biggest hero found a way back to fix everything and make it all go away, and that Dean still, (even though yeah he's got his issues with how they were raised and all that, who the hell doesn't) still believes in his father enough that he'll turn away from rationality and the case and the clues that something else is going on because on some level he believes in his dad, and since his dad is still his hero so of course dad's going to come back somehow and save him at the last minute when everything's all desperate and last hope is lost and stuff because that's what heroes do but it's all wrong and it's all a trick and Dean's going to get crushed and disillusioned all over again, dammit!
-*inhales* Holy run-on nonsense sentence, Batman. Anyway. *pats poor woobie!Dean*
-"Hello?!" Yeah. That'd be my response too. If my Dad called up from the dead and my sister said to say 'hello', I wouldn't talk to her for a month.
-And Dean's back once he's patched his beleaguered personal armor with extra snark (High-school hook-up rate of 0.0, hee) and found a way that allows it to possibly actually be John on the phone. Aw Dean.
-THOMAS EDISON'S FREAKING SPIRIT PHONE FTW!!!! \o/ That was unexpectedly awesome to have on the show, I wish they'd have had it work though. And Sam had to have known about it. I mean I knew about it. I'm taking Sam's incredulity as "But everyone thinks this thing is a piece of crap hoax." rather than "Spirit phone? Whazzat?"
-"Quotey-Fingers" the tour guide is AWESOME!!! "And we're walking! We're walking! We're not touching that, and we're walking..." Hee. All the little bit characters are just great this episode!
-EMF!!! IT'S THE EMF!!! OMG, GUYS! THE EMF!!! *flails incoherently* The Blues Brothers suits and the EMF, it's like old home week!
-I love the whole working the case thing, with the theories bouncing back and forth and leads and tracking down info and just YAY! Missed that.
-Aw. Dean waiting by the phone in the dark with coffee. Just aw. Hoping, but not wanting to give in to hope, and not wanting to dismiss something that might even be possible and desperate, and miserable, and trying to keep it all from Sam in case it is a false hope and just aw. And ow.
-Content of call to Dean. My take on it? It's what the bad guy thinks Dean thinks John would say. It's stated later on that the bad guy knows they are hunters, so he's not going to pull the standard "come to me" stuff on them, because he knows they'd be on alert for stuff like that. Setting up in a town where there's a convenient alternate possibility in place for ghosts phoning people up shows that he's ready for hunters to start sniffing around. Love that the bad guy has a brain.
-Anyway, sidetracked, sorry. Content of the call and Dean's reaction to it. I have been entirely cloistered from reactions to this episode, so here's my uninfluenced opinion. I buy it. This isn't Dean falling back into step as Daddy's little soldier, hopping to because it's John. This is Dean, in a very different situation than he's been before. He's gotten desperate, yes, but I don't think it's to save himself for the sake of himself. He's never been one to shirk responsibility, the opposite, usually, where family is concerned. I don't think he's trying to escape the consequences of the choice he made, but he has been seeing perhaps that there are more consequences to his decision than just his own death over the past year. There's the turning into a demon thing, there's the leaving Sam alone with an army of demons after him thing, and there's the Ruby still poking her nose into Sam's business and trying to make him dance her tune. Also, and regrettably mostly off-camera so far, I suspect he's noticed a few differences in Sam's demeanor since Mystery Spot, and it's bugging him the same way Sam deliberately changing to, in Sam's words in Malleus Maleficarum, 'be more like Dean', harder and colder and more willing to take a violent course of action and accept collateral damage like, say, a virgin in a besieged police station. These things are what I suspect make up a large part of what is making Dean desperate enough to take the phone call at face value as being from John, given that the boys do not know for certain that the calls are not the actual loved ones yet. Also, Dean's had prior experience (twice!) with dead parents showing up to save the day, so it's not without precedent.
-Whoa. Meta-whump. Sorry about that. Does it even make sense?
-Dean on the phone being anguished. Jensen Ackles can seriously work a phone.
-Given - okay, another bit of meta-y thought here - given that the thing on the phone is a critter that is saying what it thinks Dean thinks John would say, I kind of love and hate that it throws 'I love you' in there. Love because Dean doesn't even question it, just another part of the conversation. Of course his dad speaking from beyond the grave loves him, no need to even call that into question, it's like the air. John loves his boys. Even when John is dressing Dean down for selling his soul to save his brother, the love is still there, just like the air is still there even when there's a storm. How this differs from Devil's Trap, where John was possessed and saying things that Dean wouldn't believe his Dad would say is not that the YED was expressing any kind of love toward Dean that John wouldn't have, it was that YED was not bringing the storm of John being angry for the bullet being used when at the time the Colt didn't have infinite freaking bullets *grumbles and kicks Ruby in absentia* and the use of a bullet may have been a tactical misstep if there were any other options available. Tactics would have been discussed, loudly or not, and they would have moved on from there. At no point during the yelling would John have stopped loving Dean or Sam. Now, that said, I kind of hate it because it's another damn monster telling Dean this, and the second I heard it stated outright, I had a reflex thought of "Well, that's not John." and mentally kicked myself for that. :-P
-I also really wish there would have been a way they could have made it not blindingly obvious that the phone calls were not coming from loved ones right at the start, and left the audience in the dark about whether it was actually John or not. Because really, based strictly on what evidence the boys have, right up until Sam finds out the girl's "mom" has been encouraging suicide, it could totally be the spirit phone and actually be dead family members and John with insider info into the weak points of demons, etc. and dead guy at the start just had other contributing issues that lead him to kill himself. Because the audience knows already that the ghosts are bad news, though, it makes Dean appear unrealistic in the face of contrary evidence (which he doesn't have) and Sam kind of mentally slow for not picking up on clues (he also doesn't have). Unfortunately though, show needed to splatter someone before the demon belch, so there you go, I guess. The boys even have evidence of a ghost phone call that isn't encouraging suicide, with the elderly lady and her dead spouse, though if she has a heart problem the phone sex might do her in. Erm. Anyways.
-Yeesh, at this rate I'll still be reacting to this episode next week, and that simply will not do.
-I love an ancient evil whatsit that can adapt to the times. First phones, then the net. Awesome.
-Did she look over the wrong shoulder... no, wait it's a webcam, not a reflection. She checked the correct shoulder. *nods*
-Ooo! It's danaschulpsing! Hee.
-OMG, Dean doing actual research!!! YAY!!! \o/ I cannot express how much joy I have for researching Dean!
-Hey, that's the same hotel from Mystery Spot, isn't it? With the concrete lattice thing out front? I gotta say, that room is very turquoise. Even the stove and fridge are turquoise. And those starbursts are eating my brain. *glomphs set design*
-Ooo! Storms! Coincidence or foreshadowing... *ponders gravely and deeply upon the thorny conundrum*
-Aw, Dean with the nervous braggy brittle snark about himself that covers up a whole pile of "HOLY CRAP DEMON'S HERE!"
-I love that the monster gives Dean a 15th century exorcism and Sam and Bobby have already gone over it. Which of course means it was discussed over the phone at some point so monster-boy could get at it and throw it in to the 'convince Dean it's really John' package, and picked one that Sam and Bobby hadn't had any concrete proof about so that it could very well be John providing evidence they didn't have, so that Sam and Dean would have this exact argument and be easier to split up. Clever monster.
-Who the hell is Chris Hansen? On second thought, given the context, I probably don't want to know. Unless it's one of the Hansen brothers, in which case the sound of anteka exploding with glee should have registered on the Richter scale. And it also takes the wind out of his earlier snark about talking about boy bands with Bobby. But that's probably not it at all.
-Ow. Dean, all raw nerve endings. Even though I knew from the start it wasn't John, this was the point where I wanted it to really be John, just because of Dean and all his hope that maybe there's a way to make things right again, and his faith in his father. For a minute, I thought it might even be possible.
-And also, ow Sam. Stomping down the hope because he's had so much capacity for blind hope burned out of him. He's probably been careening between hope and despair for the past year, not to mention Mystery Spot time, following leads that went nowhere and just having had his holdout hope of Ruby quashed by Dean revealing what she said. He's not just protecting himself from another crushing disappointment, he's trying to protect Dean from getting his hopes up baselessly, just to have them crushed. Also coincidental side benefit of protecting him from the soul eater neither of them knows exists at this point. There's no evidence that it's John, but really, to them, there's no evidence it isn't John either.
-Dean's got faith. Now, this might seem like a sudden switch-up from earlier episodes, particularly "Faith" and "Houses of the Holy" but all along, Dean has had faith. In his family, and in his dad. And if Dean thinks John's figured out a way to drop him a phone call from the afterlife then by god, he's going to have faith in what his dad is telling him. Again, not a 'good little soldier' thing, just a Dean's belief in his family above everything thing. I think, anyway.
-Sam talking to the girl. "Bad things." Nice misdirect! Totally worked on me, because for a second, it made me think Dean's Soul-deed holder demon (who I am damn sure I know who it is, but whatever) might be behind things. It echoes Scott Carey's line in "Hunted" Cool. Worked on me for a split second. Just a little.
-Freaked out thinky Sammy face! \o/ Awesome. Like "OMG, what if it's telling Dean to off himself with Dad's voice, but it's not, it's giving him a bunch of stuff about demons, what if it's a trap or something, Dean could be in danger right now and I'm not there and OMG!" I think that's the first time in a long time, if maybe ever, I've seen a thought process in a facial expression from Jared, so massive glee for that! :-D
-Sam recognizing the monster from "Come to me" ... yeah, okay, sure. He knows what a crocotta says, I'll buy that. But he definitely would have heard of Edison's spirit phone. *nods*
-That is totally the same staircase from last episode and Bobby's dream house. I wonder if they rented out a house to use for house interiors and such-like, because it doesn't look very set-like, and they keep coming up with different odd camera angles to disguise that it's the same set of stairs. Regardless of what they're doing and how they're doing it, I hope it's saving budget money.
-Orange spray bombs! Jug of DIY holy water! Yay!
-Sammy saving the boy from traffic made me cheer like a mad thing. It's like delayed payback for not being in time to save Doctor thingy from getting mind-controlled in front of a bus in Simon Said. Hm. I wonder how much time he lost there from passers-by (totally a word too) rushing up going "Wow!" and "Are you okay?" and "OMG hero!" and things, because you can shoot a hundred ghosts in the face with rock salt in the dark and never once get thanked, but save one kid from getting run over by a big truck in a public street in broad daylight and they're going to want to shake your hand and plaster your face on the cover of the newspaper.
-So, a crocotta is an enemy to dog and man, eh? No wonder he ran afoul of Sammy. *pats the Puppy*
-The sandwich is probably either some variety of 'croque', kind of a toasted ham and cheese, or a croquette which isn't a sandwich but a deep-fried thing of many varieties. Chicken McNuggets are 'croquettes de poulet' according to the French on the packaging in Canada, if I recall correctly...
-Sam's brief conversation with monster pretending to be Dean is kind of neat, because it's obvious it isn't Dean to the audience, because Dean's busy painting symbols on the floor of some innocent guys house across town and would be way less blase about having the calls from John proven as false. So, this is what the crocotta thinks Sam thinks Dean might say. There's an obligatory reference to food, and a sudden leap of logic that explains everything and sends Sam off alone to deal with the thing. Now, the way I see it, Sam figures Dean's food-obsessed (which we've seen before in Tall Tales), and capable of sudden brilliant intuitive leaps of logic, because while the whole "Hey, the guy with the flies!" thing is totally the Crocotta feeding Sam into a trap, Sam doesn't question Dean's reasoning or sudden knowledge of crocottas. He just goes with it. Sammy thinks his big brother is am intuitive genius. Also, he doesn't question the lack of 'wait for me, we'll go in and get this thing together', because Sam figures Dean thinks Sam can handle himself now, and doesn't need Dean to back him up. Which... kind of a complex 'ow' I think on that. Sam thinks Dean's ready to let him hunt on his own, because unless they pull out some last minute rabbits from some pretty big hats, (*twitches*), Dean's not going to be around to back Sam up. Sam not questioning Dean's lack of 'wait for me' is Sam feeling like he can work without Dean, and that Dean is aware of that and has confidence in that. All of which is a part of letting Dean go. Which, OW, show.
-*whacks meta-bunny back into line* sorry, where was I? Right. Herman Munster? That was one of the few spots where I figured Sam might twig that the call wasn't getting through to Dean, because Dean always has his cell on (from "Scarecrow") and Sam's getting voicemail. Admittedly, if Dean's being sneaky he'd be wise to turn his cell off, and he can't have the damned thing on him 24/7, so... meh *handwaves*
-Heee! Sam's confused face and headshake as he's processing, "I'm holding a knife on this guy, he's supposed to be a monster, but he's not acting the way he's supposed to..." is cute as hell.
-"That's what happens when you mess with the phone company, dillweed!" Heee! I love that guy a little, I think. But seriously, CW. 'Dillweed?' It's after 9PM, surely a 'dickhead' would pass the censor boards? Unless they used all their goodwill in that regard with the Ghostfacers bleepage. Hm.
-Baseball bat and 'fugetaboudit'. I get the feeling that's a reference to some kind of gangster movie, but a drawing a total blank.
-So... two weeks in a row now, Sam has been tied up and made to watch a guy he can't save get killed right in front of him... Gnh! *twitches like whoa and refrains from meta-ing or theorizing about that at all*
-*...and does the same with the discussion about community versus connectivity...*
-*seeks distraction* Ooooh look! Teeth! So, crocotta's are known for having mouths that go from ear to ear and I think they did pretty good with the jaw unhinging thing they're doing here. Even though it reminded me of the rat-eating lizard-aliens from 'V', which I actually never watched, just saw ads and bits of.
-Crocotta mocked the Spirit Phone? Hey, kill random people and snack on their souls all you like, but you do not mock the Edison Spirit Phone! Oh, fine, mock it, whatever. Yeesh. Murderous mythological psychopathic phone-mocker. *glares*
-Set-up of Dean vs the cop with the dead little girl was very clever. I like clever villains and this guy's clever like a fox that's got a degree from the university of smart-ass. But I do like it if they're clever in a way that doesn't make Sam or Dean look like idiots for missing clues they never saw.
-Hee, the crocotta-guy is approaching the lower echelons of YED-level scenery chomping. I love it. I miss YED. *pats the relatively unchewed scenery reassuringly*
-"I might be killing your brother. Or maybe some other guy. We'll see." Awesome.
-Ooo, Dean being all lurky with a jug of freshly blessed Holy Water. Ooo.
-Hee, the cop totally failed his stealth check! But it looks like Dean blew his listen check anyways, so it's all moot. (Sorry, it's a gamer thing.)
-Fight!! Now, I suspect some people might have issues with Dean kicking the guy while he's down but it makes sense to me. Dean's still thinking this is the demon that has Dean's Soul-marker, and although the guy coming in guns blazing instead of doing the usual demonic 'slam you up against a wall' thing is a bit of a tip-off that maybe the guy's not actually a demon, however, thinking objectively is a bit of a tricky proposition when you're being shot at and your adrenaline's up, I'd think. Anyways, besides the serious repressed rage issues Dean's been demonstrating this season, kicking the guy when he's down is kind of like keeping the guy occupied so the demon inside doesn't gather its wits and start with the 'slam Dean into a wall' thing before Dean can get his exorcism on the road. Totally a baseless hope on Dean's part, but it's what's available.
-Fighting back onto the paint bomb seal under the carpet and... dammit. *finds a forlorn and dejected looking plot-bunny scenelet from an unwritten AU in the massive herd and slaps a big "REWRITE" sticker on its head* Crap.
-Hmm. Sam does seem harder-surfaced and tougher since Mystery Spot, but not out in the open intense, I think because part of the months watching Dean die and the months without Dean was not only Sam getting dangerous and stuff, it was Sam withdrawing from his own surface and becoming a dead-eyed vengeance-driven automaton. I think that Jared is still showing this in very subtle ways, and it is awesome. The effect from Mystery Spot is there, it's just not jumping up and down and shouting about it, which entirely suits.
-In the exorcism: "Nom draco." O.O In the name of the Dragon??? Ooooo, I want to see the rest of that exorcism!
-Tandem fight scenes FTW!!
-The Crocotta may be a super-clever monster but he cannot knife-fight worth beans. Attacking someone who is obviously prepared for an attack by stabbing with a (relatively) easily blocked overhead strike which leaves the attacker's entire torso exposed and unprotected for a return hit? Bad tactics. Not wise.
-Oh look! A handy spike thing on the wall right at head height! I wonder what's going to happen there!? *smacks forehead* Good grief. That's subtle.
-Dean with the defensive fighting, not wanting to hurt the guy now that he knows he's not a demon.
-Aaaand Crocotta onna spike. Now, that might count as a pithing. If one was desperate for a pithing. Again, gore, but relatively subdued and budgetarily sensitive. *nods approvingly*
-Hm, there's some CGI happening with the crocotta's eyes... *checks wikipedia* "The eyes of a slain crocotta were said to be striped gems that would give the possessor oracular powers when placed under the tongue." Oh really. Wonder if Bela knows about that... Or... hunh. How tough do you guys think Sam is after Mystery Spot? Think he might stop and scoop out the guy's eyes to use as a bargaining chip for the Colt? Or for other purposes? *ponders nervously*
-Oh poor broken Dean. Oh... "I don't know." Just oh. Although after breaking into a grieving father's house, spray painting demon-related graffiti on his floor and brawling with him, I honestly don't know what Dean could have said that would make more sense.
-(Ad: American Gladiators can bite me too.)
-Yay! Visible injuries and mutual brotherly mocking thereof! \o/
-Dean admits he's scared, which seriously, I'd be worried if he wasn't. With a realistic appraisal of just how screwed you really, fear is entirely appropriate, even if you're a major league badass.
-"Hope doesn't get you jack squat." Oh Dean. The last vague hope that dad had found a way to fix everything from the afterlife crushed. And oh Sam, hearing that from Dean, and knowing that there is apparently no hole card to play anymore. And just oh.
-Sam's 'And me' followed by defensive snark and beer and withdrawing back into their own brittle shells and it's this little brother moment right before the finale build-up and, and, oh freaking crap is the finale of this season ever going to slay everyone. Not a spoiler. The only spoiler I've seen at this point that might apply to the finale (if it isn't false) is not plot-related. Haven't even seen next episode's promo, and I intend to keep it that way. Just a dread certainty. We are so, so, so very screwed, dudes. *twitches*
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