Supernatural 5.02
So, yeah, I know what I said in an earlier post, that I'd not be watching the episode tonight. I kind of wish I hadn't-- I feel bad for not being out with Wild_donkey_man, but they weren't even going to get to the restaurant 'til 8pm, which is just too late for me (especially since they went into Phoenix proper) on a Thursday night-- I teach two classes tomorrow morning and Renaissance Colloquium meets at 3, which means my day isn't over 'til 5 or later. So I stayed home to finish rereading The Knight of the Burning Pestle and plan for my classes.
But since I did, I also, naturally, watched Supernatural.
Regardless, I imagine I'll rewatch it tomorrow already-- the CW sound was so distorted. It seriously sounded like everyone was speaking from a very tiled bathroom. (I caught the last 10 minutes of VD, unfortunately, and it was the same way.) The sound distortion made everything weird, including my reception of the visuals. (Seriously, I hope it's just me, but Dean's head, in the close ups in the hospital room, looked really weird.) Naturally, all the other tv channels were fine (although when I was fiddling about with the channels, I did land on CSPAN for a moment-- regardless, I'm pretty sure that Dennis Kucinich always looks that weird. I digress.)
No spoilers beyond tonight's episode, and no talk of next week's preview. (Yes, I watched it, but I haven't anything to say about it anyway.)
In order of things as they come to me. And written before I go looking at anyone else's reviews/comments/etc.
Music: I was pleased by both the uses of music in this one. I was not expecting to see another "The Road So Far" and while I'm totally blanking on what music was used, it was something I'm both familiar with and pleased by. (Mind you, last week's "Road" and music grew on me in the second viewing.) This "Road" seemed more focused and useful than last week's. (Viewers who saw last week's but didn't know the previous 4 years probably weren't much helped.) Also, I was pleased to hear music in the episode, too. Granted, "Spirit in the Sky" is always going to make me think of Apollo 13 because I spent a summer or so obsessed with that movie (and therefore had the soundtrack, as well as the book, and later the movie, etc.) Could we actually be getting more music this season? Woooo!
Overall, this episode felt a lot like a much better done "Magnificent Seven" but I can't honestly tell you why I find them similar enough to make that comment. Maybe just that there's a new kind of big bad and multiple hunters and a town under siege. Actually, that's probably exactly why. :)
I should say that I did enjoy the episode. It's not making me flail about like I saw (in passing through) it's making others (although I rather suspect the flailage has to do with the ending. My Zen of Kripke, nascent and weak though it is, trusts that the boys will get back together, so I'm not too flaily about that.)
I guess I'll go backwards, since I brought it up. Sam telling Dean he doesn't trust himself makes perfect sense. Between his yearning for blood in the convenience store and the way he looked when Jo and Rufus and War were saying things about him/to him, and the way he looked when Ellen didn't hug (or slap) him, and such... well, yeah, of course he doesn't trust himself. How can he, if Dean doesn't??
Now, that said, I figure Dean needs to see what happens without his brother before things can be rebuilt. Man, that moment in the church basement when Ellen returned sans Sam, and Dean almost went right out to find him, but checked himself and was all, "We need a plan"--? That, right there, was such a beautiful enactment of what has changed. Any time before this Dean would have flown out that door half-cocked. (It goes right along with last week when Dean didn't capitulate to Zachariah even when Sam had his legs broken and lungs removed.)
This brings me to the amulet. On one hand, there was such reluctance in Dean taking off his amulet. (We've only ever seen him take it off once-- in the Titanic car with Anna, right?) Given what we know (thank you "A Very Supernatural Christmas") about the amulet's origins, I took that as a token of the brotherly bonds, or at least a memorial of them. However, now that Dean is without Sam and without the amulet, it's like they're doubly severed. Eek.
Although, while I'm going in this direction, it's also pretty damn telling that Dean offered Sam the Impala. I mean, she's family. She's as much protection as that amulet is. Dean loves that car second only to Sam (and at the moment, maybe more.) So the offer, although Sam could never ever have said yes to it, is a major big deal which proves that things can (and will) be rebuilt.
I'm ... feeling a bit iffy on the whole Dean's amulet is a powerful talisman that glows when it's near God plot point, however. We'll see how that plays out.
(Still... Dear Show: For the moment I trust you. But I beg of you, please do not become the Dean and Castiel show. Love, Eilonwy.)
I had a feeling that Show wasn't done with Sam's addiction. I think this is a good place for them to deal with it, though. He's not physically addicted (thanks to the Airplane of Sobering Up and Rapid Descent of last episode) but he's still emotionally addicted to what it did (or what he thought it did.) And you have to admit, Sam had power last season, he could use it to protect people. And on a more altruistic note, it's got to be so hard to know that that the people you have to kill because they're possessed could have been saved if you were still hopped up on Ruby's red. (And even worse to find out that the demonically possessed people you killed weren't demons.)
Poor Bobby. His reaction makes sense, more so than last week's I think.
I'd like to know more about Castiel's return. He has some powers (like the power of carving Enochian symbols onto rib cages-- which looked rather pretty on the X-ray, didn't it?) but not others (like healing Bobby's legs.) That's ... odd. And now he's going to go find God. I want to know more about this, too. It'll come, eventually, I'm sure.
I was glad to see Rufus, but I don't think he's a character we need to see tons of.
I was glad to see Ellen and Jo, but since they were touted as a mother/daughter hunting team, I'd have liked to have seen more of them, more of how they function (or not.) I hope we see them again this season.
I wonder why Ellen didn't hug (or slap) Sam. It seems to me that if she knew that Sam had killed Lilith/released Lucifer she'd have said something (perhaps slapped him, too) and she did say she was happy to see the boys, plural. But still.
Oh hey, since this is Rufus's second episode (because I don't count a phone call we don't even get to hear in 4.21) I guess he goes on the list of potential yarn!chesters! (Speaking of which, Henricksen is coming right along. But I can't finish him because I ran out of dark blue halfway through his FBI windbreaker.)
I think I saw a spiky clock (but presumably not the spiky clock, since that was destroyed in "Yellow Fever") in the church basement. I went for my remote to rewind, but then realized that this was on broadcast tv (and I don't have DVR) so I couldn't. :P
I thought that it might be a Horseman of the Apocalypse when I saw the red mustang (although not which one, and then I forgot about it.) I like that it was played pretty naturally, though, because Dean would notice a classic car like that.
I'll have more to say, probably, after reading other people's comments but I'll make another post if I do.
Now I'll go read some of those other comments. :)
But since I did, I also, naturally, watched Supernatural.
Regardless, I imagine I'll rewatch it tomorrow already-- the CW sound was so distorted. It seriously sounded like everyone was speaking from a very tiled bathroom. (I caught the last 10 minutes of VD, unfortunately, and it was the same way.) The sound distortion made everything weird, including my reception of the visuals. (Seriously, I hope it's just me, but Dean's head, in the close ups in the hospital room, looked really weird.) Naturally, all the other tv channels were fine (although when I was fiddling about with the channels, I did land on CSPAN for a moment-- regardless, I'm pretty sure that Dennis Kucinich always looks that weird. I digress.)
No spoilers beyond tonight's episode, and no talk of next week's preview. (Yes, I watched it, but I haven't anything to say about it anyway.)
In order of things as they come to me. And written before I go looking at anyone else's reviews/comments/etc.
Music: I was pleased by both the uses of music in this one. I was not expecting to see another "The Road So Far" and while I'm totally blanking on what music was used, it was something I'm both familiar with and pleased by. (Mind you, last week's "Road" and music grew on me in the second viewing.) This "Road" seemed more focused and useful than last week's. (Viewers who saw last week's but didn't know the previous 4 years probably weren't much helped.) Also, I was pleased to hear music in the episode, too. Granted, "Spirit in the Sky" is always going to make me think of Apollo 13 because I spent a summer or so obsessed with that movie (and therefore had the soundtrack, as well as the book, and later the movie, etc.) Could we actually be getting more music this season? Woooo!
Overall, this episode felt a lot like a much better done "Magnificent Seven" but I can't honestly tell you why I find them similar enough to make that comment. Maybe just that there's a new kind of big bad and multiple hunters and a town under siege. Actually, that's probably exactly why. :)
I should say that I did enjoy the episode. It's not making me flail about like I saw (in passing through) it's making others (although I rather suspect the flailage has to do with the ending. My Zen of Kripke, nascent and weak though it is, trusts that the boys will get back together, so I'm not too flaily about that.)
I guess I'll go backwards, since I brought it up. Sam telling Dean he doesn't trust himself makes perfect sense. Between his yearning for blood in the convenience store and the way he looked when Jo and Rufus and War were saying things about him/to him, and the way he looked when Ellen didn't hug (or slap) him, and such... well, yeah, of course he doesn't trust himself. How can he, if Dean doesn't??
Now, that said, I figure Dean needs to see what happens without his brother before things can be rebuilt. Man, that moment in the church basement when Ellen returned sans Sam, and Dean almost went right out to find him, but checked himself and was all, "We need a plan"--? That, right there, was such a beautiful enactment of what has changed. Any time before this Dean would have flown out that door half-cocked. (It goes right along with last week when Dean didn't capitulate to Zachariah even when Sam had his legs broken and lungs removed.)
This brings me to the amulet. On one hand, there was such reluctance in Dean taking off his amulet. (We've only ever seen him take it off once-- in the Titanic car with Anna, right?) Given what we know (thank you "A Very Supernatural Christmas") about the amulet's origins, I took that as a token of the brotherly bonds, or at least a memorial of them. However, now that Dean is without Sam and without the amulet, it's like they're doubly severed. Eek.
Although, while I'm going in this direction, it's also pretty damn telling that Dean offered Sam the Impala. I mean, she's family. She's as much protection as that amulet is. Dean loves that car second only to Sam (and at the moment, maybe more.) So the offer, although Sam could never ever have said yes to it, is a major big deal which proves that things can (and will) be rebuilt.
I'm ... feeling a bit iffy on the whole Dean's amulet is a powerful talisman that glows when it's near God plot point, however. We'll see how that plays out.
(Still... Dear Show: For the moment I trust you. But I beg of you, please do not become the Dean and Castiel show. Love, Eilonwy.)
I had a feeling that Show wasn't done with Sam's addiction. I think this is a good place for them to deal with it, though. He's not physically addicted (thanks to the Airplane of Sobering Up and Rapid Descent of last episode) but he's still emotionally addicted to what it did (or what he thought it did.) And you have to admit, Sam had power last season, he could use it to protect people. And on a more altruistic note, it's got to be so hard to know that that the people you have to kill because they're possessed could have been saved if you were still hopped up on Ruby's red. (And even worse to find out that the demonically possessed people you killed weren't demons.)
Poor Bobby. His reaction makes sense, more so than last week's I think.
I'd like to know more about Castiel's return. He has some powers (like the power of carving Enochian symbols onto rib cages-- which looked rather pretty on the X-ray, didn't it?) but not others (like healing Bobby's legs.) That's ... odd. And now he's going to go find God. I want to know more about this, too. It'll come, eventually, I'm sure.
I was glad to see Rufus, but I don't think he's a character we need to see tons of.
I was glad to see Ellen and Jo, but since they were touted as a mother/daughter hunting team, I'd have liked to have seen more of them, more of how they function (or not.) I hope we see them again this season.
I wonder why Ellen didn't hug (or slap) Sam. It seems to me that if she knew that Sam had killed Lilith/released Lucifer she'd have said something (perhaps slapped him, too) and she did say she was happy to see the boys, plural. But still.
Oh hey, since this is Rufus's second episode (because I don't count a phone call we don't even get to hear in 4.21) I guess he goes on the list of potential yarn!chesters! (Speaking of which, Henricksen is coming right along. But I can't finish him because I ran out of dark blue halfway through his FBI windbreaker.)
I think I saw a spiky clock (but presumably not the spiky clock, since that was destroyed in "Yellow Fever") in the church basement. I went for my remote to rewind, but then realized that this was on broadcast tv (and I don't have DVR) so I couldn't. :P
I thought that it might be a Horseman of the Apocalypse when I saw the red mustang (although not which one, and then I forgot about it.) I like that it was played pretty naturally, though, because Dean would notice a classic car like that.
I'll have more to say, probably, after reading other people's comments but I'll make another post if I do.
Now I'll go read some of those other comments. :)