Rewatch S2: Ep 13 & 14
Tonight I give you Houses of the Holy and Born Under a Bad Sign. Both excellent episodes. I actually swiped another laptop (not permanently of course) and took my notes during BUABS instead of jotting down random words on a post-it to remind myself what to talk about...so, if you see a difference in reflections between the two episodes, that's why. You probably won't notice though, I'm pretty consistent.
My own laptop has started to hang more and more when I try to watch DVDs, so it's put a little hamper in my SPN watching.
To the episodes...
Houses of the Holy
Is it bad that Divine stuff kind of creeps me out? Like the whole, holy light and everything...really makes my spine crawl. I think perhaps I am evil. Of course, I'm an atheist, so really it doesn't matter.
Ah the magic finger bed. I love Dean and the magic fingers. It's even funnier when you know that there's a Grip under the bed shaking it during that whole scene...poor dude.
Sam: "Dean, you're enjoying that way too much, it's kinda of making me uncomfortable."
And we get the awesome unicorn line a couple of seconds later:
Dean: "There's a ton of lore on unicorns too. In fact, I hear they ride on silver moonbeams and shoot rainbows out their asses."
Sam: "...there's no such thing as unicorns?" :-(
Dean: "That's cute."
Man, this episode is just full of good lines:
Dean: "Well, I think I learned a valuable lesson: Always take down your Christmas decorations after New Years or you might get filleted by a hooker from God."
Sam: "I'm laughing on the inside."
(Actually, Christmas decorations can stay up until Epiphany or even Pentecost. I may be an atheist, but I'm an educated one.)
More magic fingers:
Sam: "Dude! I'm not enabling your sick habit. You're like one of those lab rats that pushes the pleasure button instead of the food button and starves."
Dean: "What are you talking about? I eat."
I must say I LOVE the way Dean is looking longingly at the magic-finger machine right before that exhange. I wish I was that magic-finger machine....
And then we get into the great angel conversation! This is the beginnings of Kripke's take on angels. Michael - killer of demons...Luke 2:19 (or whatever it was) about the people looking on the angel and being "terrified"...awesome stuff.
Of course, I have to mention the conversation where Dean finds out (by putting his foot in his mouth) that Sam prays every day. I'm not sure what's more shocking to Dean - the fact that Sam believes in God and prays, or the fact that there was something about Sam that Dean didn't know...probably both. Still, I LOVE that juxtaposition between the two characters.
Dean breaks my heart with his speech about how there is just "random unpredictable evil that comes out of no where and rips you to shreds." About how their Mum used to tell him that there were angels, but he hasn't believed in them since she died, because obviously no one was watching out for her...and it just informs so much about Dean's character, the fact that he can USE religion against demons, yet doesn't have enough hope or faith in anything but his family to actually consider that there's a REASON that he can use religion against demons. It reminds me of John's conversation with Sam, when he said that after Mary died, all he could see was evil. I think all Dean has ever seen his whole life has been evil. So it's him, Sam, and his Dad (and/or Bobby) against the world, basically...with no one on their side but them.
This episode gives me hellava lot of problems for my timeline, because they keep saying that Fr. Gregory died 2 months ago, but his tombstone says 2007, but there is no possibly way that this episode takes place in March, and I don't think we can even say that it takes place in February...so, either the tombstone is wrong, and he died in Dec. 2006, or the "2 months ago" is wrong and he died on the first of January, 2007. In any case, it's a problematic episode.
Ah Dean's subtle tailing skills...maybe Americans don't use their rearview mirrors, but I think I would notice if an Impala was following me everything I went...especially it appears in an alley where I was trying to murder my date, I mean, you'd think even attempted murder wouldn't distract you from that huge rumbling engine and headlights...but whatever.
Sam's so disappointed that it turned out not to be an angel. Poor Sam...such an angel fanboy...yet he's possibly going to turn darkside.
I've never been able to decide if Dean is actually starting to come around to the idea that there might be a good at the end of this episode...but I do think that he recognizes that Sam needs that sort of hope, and I love him for trying to keep it alive, despite his earlier comments.
Born Under a Bad Sign
Best opening ever! I say...I still remember the first time I watched this, and all that was repeating in my head at the beginning was "oh shit oh shit oh shit..." I'm pretty sure my expression was a mirror of Dean's. It was a complete "suck you in from the first word" opening. I love Dean walking down that hallway, and immediately fussing over the blood on Sam...I have so much love for these honest Dean moments.
Sam checked into the hotel 2 days ago as Richard Sambora, and Dean's reaction is "the most disturbing thing is that you're a Bon Jovi fan." Hahaha, but Dean..."Bon Jovi rocks...on occasion"!
Ok, we run into more timeline problems because Sam disappeared from WEST TEXAS "OVER a week ago"...and since the last time we saw the boys they were in RHODE ISLAND, that means that there was time lost between episodes too...so yeah, there is no way in hell Houses of the Holy takes place in February, since this episode eats up nearly 20 days (only 3 of which we see, the rest is estimated between-episode-time and Sam's-missing-over-a-week-time), and Roadkill takes place February 22nd AND we still have Tall Tales to watch before we even get to it...so yeah, Houses of the Holy must be in January, and this one is in early February. Anyway, I should post my timeline one of these days.
Meg is a good actor with Dean...she's got all Sam's looks down. She doesn't slip up. It's heartbreaking.
Ah the video footage...that nose is unmistakably Sam's.
Dean's first instinct is to cover their tracks. Love the smashing the computer and the finality of "wipe your prints then we go". Dean's the best kind of friend...a "help you bury the body" type of friend. I'm blessed to have a few of those myself, and my love for them is unending.
Dean: "You know I've tried so hard to keep you safe
Not!Sam: "I know"
Dean: "I can't. I'd rather die."
Not!Sam: "No. You'll live...you'll live to regret this"
-I hope not.
Dean: "What? uh...yeah, Justin is quite the triple threat"
-Even in this episode they manage to slip in the humour...love this show.
One thing Meg doesn't seem to know is how Sam acts with the ladies...if I were Jo alarm bells would have been going off the minute Sam walked in and wanted to talk to me without it being about a hunt. Sam's never paid her any mind at all before.
Man, what's with the bitterness about Jo liking Dean? So out of character for Sam. Meg's not a such a good actor anymore, mind you, she does sort of catch it and put on the puppy face briefly again.
HUGE HANDS! They keep putting Jared with such little ladies and they make him look like COLOSSUS! Man, he IS Colossus...boys are so pretty...sigh.
Jared's good at acting like a girl in a boys body. I'm not sure if that's a compliment to him or not, haha...but damn.
Of COURSE he was possessed...geez Jo..
When Sam shoots Dean at the harbour (which I must say, makes my heart skip a beat even though I know he's alright), you can hear a loon crying. Loons break my heart, seriously, they are so mournful and beautiful and they are ingrained in so many of my favorite childhood memories...the ones where I feel most at peace. It's such an odd effect to have the tension of the episode, the horror of Not!Sam shooting Dean...and then the loon. It really plays with my moods more so than I think the show intended.
You know Jo...you should really take off his shirt to dress that wound.
Closest hunter Dean knows is in South Dakota...BOBBY!
For some reason I love the exchange:
Dean: "I'll call you later, ok?" *leaves*
Jo: "No, you won't"
It always stuck in my mind from this episode. It's the last we ever see of Jo, and she's right...as far as we know, Dean never does call her.
Bobby so calm at Not!Sam's reaction to holy water...he knew from the beginning. Only man that knows the brothers almost as well as they know each other. I've seen the argument made that Bobby must spike all his beer with holy water...but I think he did it special for Sam, I think he really did know the second Sam showed up without Dean, or he caught the way Sam kept glancing at the ceilings...or something.
Not!Sam (Meg): "Dean, back from the dead, getting to be a regular thing for you...like a cockroach"
Ok...the whole time I was watching this, I was thinking "Wait, is this another Croatoan, where the demons "tests" don't make any sense...because it really doesn't suit is purposes to have Dean kill Sam. But then Meg explained that she's just doing it for vengance, so yay, question answered.
Hey, it's the only time we see Sam hitting Dean! (As far as I know) and it's not even Sam! Seriously, does Sam EVER hit Dean? I find that an extremely compelling fact about the characters...I have not been able to put words to why yet.
Meg: "But whatever I do to you, it's nothing like what you do to yourself is it?..." It's true...all of Dean's self-worth issues, they are far worse than any sort of torture they can lay on him, and I think the demons know this, and I think *SPOILER FOR 4x10* that's why they did what they did to him in between the third and fourth season. *SPOILER END*
Hey...Meg escapes...interesting...I always thought she died, but no..she's still out there. Does she come back? I don't think so.
Sam: "...but no matter what I did, you wouldn't shoot"
Dean: "It was the right move, Sam. It wasn't you"
Sam: "Yeah, this time, but what about next time?"
Dean: "Sam, when Dad told me that I had to kill you, it was only if I couldn't save you. Now if it's the last thing I do, I'm going to save you."
Dean: "Dude, you full on had a girl inside you for a week. That's pretty naughty."
I can see why Jared always talks about how much fun he had filming this episode. He got to be something other than serious and sulky! Seriously though, he did a great job. I still don't want Sam to turn evil though, no matter how much fun Jared had...plus, I'm pretty sure if Sam DID turn evil, he wouldn't be as much of a fun-evil...after all, Jared got to play an evil GIRL, he wasn't playing a completely screwed up Sam...and I really don't ever see Sam going FUN-evil if he were to go evil. But that's just my opinion, obviously, it's all up to Kripke really.
Still, I never quite know what to hope for with this show.
PS: I must say, LOVE my moodtheme animation tonight....