Quick Reaction: 6x14 Mannequin 3: The Reckoning
Alright folks, let's just jump right in, as I'm sure we were all on the edge of our seat after last week...
The episode picks up where it left off! Yay! Dean is freaking out because Sam is unconscious...and, well it's kind of heartbreaking, because it's always heartbreaking when a Winchester DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
But Sam snaps out of it and Dean gets him the hell out of town...and they stop for snacks...and, well, I guess I thought there might be more repercussions than that...but then again, maybe there are! Because Sam is quiet. Very quiet. Dean tells him to repress and drink, and when Sam criticizes that method, Dean admits that it's what works for him. It's nice that Dean is self-aware.
Sam doesn't want to talk about it - but it appears that Sam remembered about a week of hell.
He still wants to revisit the past though, and try to make up for his soulless self. Meanwhile, Lisa is calling Dean and Dean doesn't want to pick up...and Sam thinks that he should revisit his past and get closure or something.
But before all that happens, some dude gets ganked by an anatomical dummy. I couldn't watch this part, because it's the type of horror that I can't stand...namely: suspense....and creepitude (shut-up, that's a word!)
So, Sam and Dean head off to investigate. I love all Dean's heart puns...adorable. It's nice that Dean is back to his old self now that Sam's normal (or as normal as Sam gets anyway). No leads here though, so Sam and Dean shrug.
Then a security guard gets ganked by eyeless dummies in a sewing factory. And hey, he's asian! Awesome. I've been pulling for more asian representation on TV ever since it was pointed out to me that we never see them even though they're the majority of the world. Anyway, poor Asian dude gets killed....and Sam and Dean investigate!
Sam floats the idea that it's the dummies, and Dean is suddenly creeped out...but before Sam and Dean can investigate too much Lisa calls Dean again, and Sam is like "Dude! FIX YOUR PROBLEMS!"
So...firstly, when was it about Lisa calling Dean and Dean not answering? Last time they were mentioned (All Dogs Go to Heaven) it was the other way around.
Anyway, Dean's answers and it's Ben calling - telling Dean that something is wrong with his mom and Dean should swoop in to save the day. Ok, I knew he was lying from the start, because Lisa (for all her faults that are coming up) is a BAMF (because Dean only falls for BAMFs) and she would NOT waste away in bed...she'd wear nice dresses and go out with doctors! Oh...right...
Dean drives like the devil and gets there and sure enough, Lisa's all dressed up to go out and it's all a childish ruse by Ben to get his father-figure back. And who can blame the kid, really?
So, now we come to the first sort of...weird thing...Lisa tells Dean that she can't stomach being with him because he could die at any moment and she doesn't know what he wants from them. Last time they talked, she dumped him because he pushed Ben, but she doesn't even bring that up this time. This time, it's all about her, and the fact that she didn't sign up to be an army wife, she sighed up to be a veteran wife (there's a difference). Of course, one could argue that when she TOLD Dean that he could come and go as he pleased as long as he came...(heheh, dirty mind)...she didn't actually know what she was signing up for, and now that she's lived with it for many months without word, she's decided that she CAN'T live like that...but still, sort of odd.
Anyway, they have a this-marriage-isn't-working-anymore argument and Lisa tells Dean that he keeps showing up whenever she thinks that she's over him, and yeah...I'm glad Dean is loved, it's good for his self-esteem.
Speaking of self-esteem, Dean goes to talk to Ben, and Ben tells him off. Ben echoes his mother when he tries to call Dean out on his low self-esteem, and then he echoes Bobby when he tells Dean that family isn't blood, it's people who love you even though your a dick. Nice, Ben. Then Ben pulls out the trump card, and tells Dean he's abandoning his family.
ETA: My friend, kaybee751 (who I happen to watch the show with every week) had a great comment, and I want to include it in the post (because I had meant to after she made it to me in person, but then forgot by the time I got home.) So, here's her thoughts:
"re: hunting being a crap life for Ben, didn't Dean learn anything from the LARPers - would he rather that Ben fix photocopiers or sell stereos for a living? Or poor Adam,whose father figure showed up once per year for a ball game? I'm not criticizing - I'm commending the show for setting this up for the characters. What defines a good father and a good life all seems to be a matter of perpective."
Then Dean drives back to Sam and we get a montage of every time (3?) he showed up at Lisa's door, and how he had a family and such...and my friend's husband hates montages...and I'm not sure what this means...because we never actually get to see how Dean resolved it with Ben? Did he say goodbye? Did he work out some sort of deal? What? Is this the last we'll see of the Braedons?
Anyway, while Dean was playing the part of the husband, Sam was playing the part of the Hunter. There was a missing girl, and he interviewed everyone she worked with...and then finally, interviewed a really bad liar and then saved him from the ghost and got the scoop: which is a bad practical joke and an accidental murder and a non-accidental cover-up.
The back story is not that important here, because was it just me or was Sam a little...well, more like soulless-Sam? He seemed a bit more ruthless and a bit less concerned about people's feelings...but maybe that's just me. He could have just been annoyed.
Anyway, burning the bones doesn't work, and the dude is killed by the sex-doll that he thinks is a real person...probably for the best. (I'm a horrible person.)
Eventually, Sam figured out that there are still remains inside the sister because she has her kidney. So they meet up with Dean and discuss Hoodoo...and I love how Dean gets all uppity that it's Hoodoo not Voodoo.
Not much time for discussion though, because the Impala gets possessed for the second time in the series and starts chasing after Dean! Oh noes! I love how Dean keeps calling the car "baby" and apologizes to her before making her crash into the empty store-front. I swear, one of these days Dean's anthropomorphizing of that car is going to turn it into a sentient being.
Ok, so, another quibble: I don't like the direction here. The crash is nice, but we don't get any sort of spacial reference that allows us to believe that the sister was close enough to the crash to get impaled by a stray HUGE shard of glass. So, yeah, what could have been a cool "will of God" fluke like the car crash in Houses of the Holy, turns out to be more of a bit of confusing hard-to-believe thing.
Anyway, girly dies. Her ghost sister has a very nice top on. I really like it.
And then we get the denouement by the Impala in Bobby's yard. I DO like the direction here, because the first shot of the Winchesters by the Impala mirrors the shot we saw of Dean and Ben working on the Impala...
Dean's down in the dumps because if they didn't have bad luck, they'd have no luck at all. But Sam points out that they DID defeat Lucifer, and Dean DID get Sam his soul back...and he has a point. Then he thanks Dean for getting his soul back...and part of me wonders if this is Sam thanking Dean for choosing him over Lisa and Ben...or if Dean has ever even made that choice or if it was always just made for him...or how exactly he did leave it with Ben...
All in all, questions largely left unanswered, but it was cool to see Ben again - I really did want to get Ben's opinion on everything, so that was really cool to get.
Alright, that's all she wrote! Until next week (which I'm spoiled for and REALLY REALLY can't wait to see...) don't spoil next week in comments though! Just in case others aren't spoiled yet!
Now, if you'll excuse me, I've been awake for 19 hours and need to go pass out now....(19 hours is a lot for someone who doesn't drink caffeine).