6.22 - The Man Who Knew Too Much
6.22, The Man Who Knew Too Much
(Which I still think should have been called Jericho, FWIW.)
THEN ...
NOW ...
This is more of a picspam/recap than a review, but if I think of anything I want to say, I'll toss it in there. Basically when I watched the finale, I was blown away by how many quotes/sets/sequences were used in the scenes in Sam's head, and I wanted to see if I could list them all. So I went on a screencap hunt of Doom, and this is what came of it.
Screencaps by ina_ami and A Screencap Paradise
Enjoy, and let me know if you saw/heard/think of any I missed!
(ETA from 4 days later: I'm a chatty, chatty, CHATTY ho. This is now a review. And a season 6 overview. And a season 7 wish list thingie. I'm so sorry. )
When the episode opened, I was excited because I thought that for some reason Sam was back in New York, trying to break into John's old storage locker. This year there was a lot of stuff with the Campbells and their lair/library/lore, I really wanted something helpful to come from the Winchester side of the family, too. In actuality, it was really our first clue that we were in Sam's head. I like that all of the places mirrored in his head along the way represent places that actually meant something to him, or were important in some way.
John's storage locker
( 5.01 / 6.22 )
If you compare caps, the bar here is a cross between the Roadhouse, Bobby's library, and the actual bar this girl worked at.
(Shown at the bottom)
But the real first clue is the girl herself. She's got Dean's vocabulary.
"You're dickin' with me, right?"
"Your bats have flown the belfry, we need to get you to a Doctor."
"Maybe you're a hooker!"
That wasn't enough to cinch it for me quite yet, though.
Place number two - the Nite Owl Hotel. Sam doesn't remember letting Dean get turned into a Vampire, but this is where they were staying when it happened. If his subconscious held onto it, I can't say I'm surprised.
Nite Owl hotel
( 6.05 / 6.22 )
And then there is .... *gets lost somewhere in the next cap for a second* ...
Oh, right. And then there was the moment I went, "!!! DUDE WE ARE IN SAM'S HEAD!" It went like this -
Bartender chick: "Really. Okay, look, your eggs are scrambled -"
Me: "!!! DUDE WE ARE IN SAM'S HEAD!"
Scrambled Eggs
( 6.12 / 6.22 )
Followed immediately by,
Sam: "You gotta be nuts!"
Bartender chick: "I've been called that."
which is another Dean line that I just can't remember where from.
Then, AVA! \o/
Dude, WHO ARE YOU?
( 2.10 / 6.22 )
So then they break into the motel room and find ...
John's Salvation wall
( 1.21 / 6.22 )
She loves what he's done with the place.
Beautiful Mind / Seven References are abundant in Show, but the one I can think of without looking them up are 3.01 and 6.13. (Also Memento, but she doesn't mention that one.)
6.10
"If we try to force that mutilated thing down Sam's gullet we have no idea what will happen. We have no idea what will happen, it could be catastrophic."
"You mean he dies."
"I mean he doesn't! Paralysis. Insanity - psychic pain so profound that he's locked inside himself for the rest of his life."
...
Dear Castiel,
RUDE!
D: D: D:
And oh hai lookit - psychic pain. IT HAS BEGUN. / the ~VOICE of PROPHECY~
(I'm watching you, Show! *shakes fist* Well, I mean obviously I'm watching you, but ... oh forget it. Just don't drop the ball this time, I'm begging on my knees here. BEGGING. On my KNEES.)
Visions!Sam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
( 2.05 / 6.22 )
I do so love psychic!Sam.
Just too bad he never saw the whole Cas thing coming. Or DID he ...
(lol, I love the internet)
Exterior shots of the Nite Owl Hotel, just to prove it matches.
I love that Sam recognizes the Impala right away even though even after his vision he still doesn't remember Dean. Lol, I actually think Dean would find it highly amusing that in Sam's head, his Dean-substitute*-lookalike is his new Dean substitute**.
Or something.
(Ruby* Bartender chick**)
~Intermission from In-Sam's-Head~
This right here is something I've been waiting for for two years now.
I refuse to let the fact that if they weren't hiding from Castiel they would both be upstairs and nobody would even be in the panic room in the first place to dampen my sense of closure. Dean is in the panic room with Sam. Dean is doing things like contemplating dream root/storming right into the Hellscape to help Sam.
Dean is holding a vigil in the panic room over Sam.
Dear Show,
THANK YOU.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO,
~T
PS - Where on Earth did you find a cot that long? O.o
I love the whole people-in-comas-can-hear-and-feel-you trope, if it is a trope. (Is it a trope?) The only definable reason I love it is that some sort of music video to the theme of that idea plays in my head every time I hear Evanescence's 'Taking over me', and now I have grand dreams of fanvids involving this episode. Heh.
Then, back into Sam's head, where we cue the Irrefutable Sam!logic.
LOLOLOL! Anyway - More Ava! \o/
All Filled Up On Crazy
( 2.10 / 6.22 )
Nighttime/Daytime!!
Click to view(I laughed and laughed. I LOVE the nighttime/daytime bird.)
Of course the Soulless Sam Vs Sam segment has the most obvious quote of all, but before we get into that, HOW HARD did Jared rock this scene, you guys? *flail* I've been hoping since Dream a Little Dream that one day we would get multiple Sams, and we DID! And IT WAS AMAZING! :D :D :D :D :D
I get that playing across from yourself is very tricky technically. That all looked great, but my favorite thing about this scene is how both Sams are Sam and neither are Sam at all - 'real' Sam doesn't have his confidence or deadliness, and 'soulless' Sam doesn't have ... well, he doesn't have any soul. (Or fear or much of a sense of self-preservation, heh.)
If I don't think too hard about what exactly went down between Cas disintegrating the wall and Dean and Bobby getting an unconscious Sam all the way back to Bobby's place and how horrific the thought of Sam's soul shattering into multiple pieces is, I can really just kick back and enjoy the hell outta this scene.
(Still, I have to giggle because I keep picturing Jared trying to figure out where to look, and they keep telling him, "Look EYE LEVEL, Jared, EYE LEVEL!", and everyone else is like "LOL FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING!")
Demmin Urban Dickshunarry
HOWDY: A greetin', or, HOW D'Yee, as in, a question.
How do you do?
How would you like to die slowly, choking on your own intestines?
How did that moose get in here?
HOWDY
( Every YED episode ever / 6.22 )
Obvious quote is obvious.
I think it is entirely plausible and fitting that soulless Sam is wearing what Sam wore the day he went into the cage - it's what he was wearing when he came back out, or essentially, the day that soulless Sam was 'born'. It does lend an eerie sense of foreboding to the scene, though, seeing such sharp similarities between Sam with no soul and the Devil himself.
Inna Graepfruitz
( 5.22 / 6.22 )
\o/ Also in gif form! \o/
(I put this gif in here just for blacklid .)
PREDATOR SHOUTOUT!!! Oh man, I love you Show.
And Terminator, of course. Can't forget Terminator.
My favorite thing to love/hate about this scene is that soulless Sam doesn't miss - we know this for a fact.
He's actually toying with Sam. He's having fun.
Did you guys know that Psychopathy is a term which, until the 1980s, formally referred to a personality disorder characterized by the inability to form human attachment and an abnormal lack of empathy, masked by an ability to appear outwardly normal?
*shivers*
Supernatural Math
A) Lucifer could never have a soul, but he felt passionately about his cause. He rebelled, using his own free will to justify his actions. It made him ruthless, deadly, and unable to discern between right and wrong.
B) Sam did not have a soul and thought of emotions as weakness. He used pure logic and reason to justify his actions. It made him ruthless, deadly, and unable to discern between right and wrong.
C) Cas never had a soul, but he was human enough for a time to experience emotions. He was granted free will as a gift. He took that gift, filtered it through pure logic, and set end goals by which he could justify his actions. It made him ruthless, deadly, and unable to discern between right and wrong.
D) Dean has a moral code that he stands by no matter what, even if it means dying, because he recognizes that if he didn't, it would render his life worthless. (This has been consistent of Dean since forever, even though the code itself has changed and matured over the years to include people outside of his immediate family circle.)
A, B, or C +D =
E) Dean requires his allies to hold to the same standards and code as himself. It does not matter what your intentions were. It does not matter what road led you to the place where you are unable to discern between right and wrong. If you can't do that, then you can't be on Dean's side. Not even if your name is Sam. Oh, he'll do everything he can to try to save you - but that part is up to you, isn't it?
Shot Through the Heart
( 5.22 / 6.22 )
Bon Jovi Rocks, on occasion
We haven't yet really gotten into what souls are made of. We see that they contain massive amounts of energy, but beyond that ... clearly they are resilient, resistant, and flame retardant (lol), but what else? If they can power up an angel, can they also BE an angel's grace?
Makes you wonder what kind of things Anna was tinkering with when she fell. O.o
Or maybe it makes you wonder if they are ever going to get off their ass that Sam is actually part angel since this is now the SIXTH FRAKKING YEAR of solid clues in that frakking direction. Frak me.
Power Up
( 4.10 / 6.22 )
This is such a tiny scene, just a few seconds, but it says so much about where they are now as brothers. Bobby gave Dean some good advice - forget about Cas for a second, what would Sam want him to do? (Which, hi, 6.16, anyone? Well, we'll just have to do what Bobby would want us to do ~ Dean)
Thinking of it in those terms takes the decision out of Dean's hands - he's trusting what he knows Sam's judgment would be. He's relying on Sam to fight. He's scared to death, but Sam fought off the devil, and if they both know anything it's that apparently Sam is stubborn. ;)
I'll stop rambling now. Really there are no words anyway, are there?
What walks out of the woods IS the Sam that beat Lucifer.
He has that stillness about him, that grave confidence. You can see it even just in the way he holds his shoulders.
Dear Jared,
You two really know each other. Thanks for sharing that with us.
<3<3<3<3
Ohmylanta these chicks are SASSY.
(If the Impala ever turned into a woman, I could SO see her being the bartender.)
3.09 / 5.10 / 6.22
Crowley's address, in case anyone wanted to know. Kansas, huh. Lots of shady crap goes down in Kansas.
Here, have some angsting Dean.
This might look like a funeral setting, but to a fellow migraine sufferer, it's afternoon lighting, amirite?
I think it's an awesome subtle cue that the furniture is covered. To me it means the tortured fragment of Sam's soul has taken refuge in this house, but it feels like he's intruding. No one has lived there for a long, long time. He was born into another dimension, and he doesn't remember the concept of home or safety. He even asks how Sam knows where he is, as if he's forgotten what the smell of Old Spice and Whiskey might mean, until Sam reminds him.
Ugh. BRB G2G CRY NOW.
This is one of those scenes you need the Winchester dictionary for.
Dean isn't saying he's daring to hope for anything himself. He can't let himself hope, he's been told too many times that this is a one-way street. He may not be frantic like in 6.13/6.14, but that's because this time he knows for sure - the wall is gone. There is no going back. He's not saying he thinks everything will be okay, and he's not promising to find a way to fix this.
He's begging Sam not to give up, and he's leaving him a note behind that says, 'I need you.'
I might have totally teared up a little.
Right before I mentally facepalmed about the safety of leaving a gun near a seizing person. Or of leaving a seizing person on a cot instead of the floor. But I know that Dean isn't stupid, so the gun is totally empty. However ...
Dear Dean,
I know it's scary. My brother has seizures, too.
*hug*
~T
PS - The floor. The FLOOR, Dean.
Anyway. Then I went back to tearing up a little.
The Third Gate Piece
Sam has spent a lot of time (In his recent memory) being told he isn't strong enough. Sometimes it's true, in its own way. But your memories are part of who you are. I'm not expecting it to be pretty, and frankly, I'll be pissed if he just shrugs it off and moves on with life, but I do believe that Sam is strong enough. And I think it's important that he know what happened to him, no matter how utterly terrifying it might be.
Know Thyself
Why is this so important to you?
You know me. You know why. I'm not leaving my brother alone out there.
This tiny little nod of resignation is my favorite second of the whole episode. He doesn't even try to argue. He knows there isn't any arguing that.
<3 <3 <3 SAM <3<3<3
He takes the shot with almost no hesitation. It doesn't matter what happens, he knows what he has to do. When people ask me why Sam owns my soul so much? Because of scenes like this, that's why. Because he makes me proud. Always.
...oh god...
HANG ON TO YER ARSE!
Interesting directorial decision here.
The entire universe shifts. That's big, folks.
OK. This is the part where I pretty much skip all the rest of the episode, LOL. I'll talk about it but as this was originally a picspam of the inside of Sam's head .... I didn't feel like pulling a bunch more caps.
I don't know about all of you, but THIS was the biggest OH MY HOLY CRAP moment of the episode.
(OH MY HOLY CRAP!)
On the one hand, this is waaaaaaaaaaaay too Devil's Trap to me. *heart palpitations*
I was legit concerned for Bobby being alive and stuff. On the other hand, I think this finale was very Devil's Trap-esque structure wise, in that the whole thing is really a lead-up to the BIG heart-wrencher that will be 7.01.
Everybody is thinking it, so I have to say it. DO THEY ALL HAVE THE JAMES BOND JET PACK?
Do Sam's Hell memories enable him to TRAVEL THROUGH THE SHADOW REALM!?
How did he drive from South Dakota to KANSAS ...
With THIS going on in his head!?
EEEEP!
I have to say, I was surprised (And maybe a little disappointed?) in 6.13 when they showed the fire after making all this fuss over the devil burning cold. Of course I am a fire and ice symbolism junkie so maybe that had something to do with it. At ANY rate ...
Sam and Dean, while experiencing Hell in vastly different ways, do have one major thing in common. They each experienced a Hell that was tailor-made for them as individuals. Dean's entire stint in Hell was designed to make him break the first seal. (Not everyone 'gets' to become Alistair's apprentice.) Sam was designed to be Lucifer's vessel. Lucifer prided himself on being able to read Sam, and he thought he knew him better than anyone. He could take him apart and put him back together again a million times over and each time would be like the first time.
Both of their experiences would be unimaginably horrific no matter how they were portrayed, but I think it is a case of Alfred Hitchcock vs Tarantino with the flashbacks. With Dean, we got this eerie, petrifying flash of the blackness, a glimpse of the screaming and the first look at the angel's light. With Sam, we are getting more of a full-on visual. I personally have always preferred they leave it to my imagination, as my imagination is pretty freaking imaginative and has an unlimited budget. The fire looks fine, but the only horror I'm getting from it is that it's SAM that is on fire and I DWN that x a billionty. It's awful and it upsets me but it's not creepy. Does that make sense? / rambling
He looks more haunted already, but the determination wins out. *flail!* Remember, people, he's stubborn.
(South Dakota to Kansas is a long drive. Dear Lord, the plot bunnies. THE PLOT BUNNIES.)
Oh, alright, let's talk about all this angel/demon stuff.
Cas has clearly gone off the rails. Just like Sam's eyes turned black when he took out Lilith, Cas has also accessed a power he shouldn't be using, and it's turned him into something he's not.
I love how Show uses visual cues to remind us of something BAD even while, technically, something GOOD is happening. Did anyone stop to think, 'Oh yhaaay, Cas keeled Raphael! \o/ ' ?
Uh ... no. I don't really think so. It was more like OMG CAS Y R U LOOZIFER!! D: D: D:
The Oh Snap
(5.22 / 6.22)
There is something here ... where is it ...
"All those years ... all that pain ... finally getting to deal some out yourself? I didn't care who they put in front of me. Because that pain I felt? It just slipped away. "
The Angelsplode
(5.22 / 6.22)
Uh - this is new. O.o
Well - kind of. Gotta love those Winchester brothers, lol. Their first reaction is nearly always 'KILL IT!' However, I have to say that in this case, I was really hoping someone would take Cas out. It sucks but the way he said he has no family and looked at Dean like that? I was like CRAP ABOUT TO GET REAL, GTFOUT! And then I was thinking about diving behind the couch.
Angel!Shankings
( 4.01 / 6.22)
Poor Dean. I don't know how much more shocked a guy can get all in 5 seconds. First SAM IS BACK YAY, but also CAS IS UNKILLABLE WHAAAAAAT.
So here is the thing. Cas is an angel. Cas has always been an angel. Cas LIKED being an angel. Only then Cas got a taste of what it is like to be a human. And once you get to feel emotion, once you get a taste of the power of free will - once you've used that free will to help save the planet, to learn the power of self-sacrifice - there is no going back.
The problem is Cas never meant to become a leader. He never thought he was going back to angel. Not only did he find himself thrust into a war, but he found himself right back to square one as far as being a soldier goes - he went from taking orders from the chain of command (who turned out to be Alistair/Uriel) to taking direction from Dean (who had earned his right to be done with war for good) and now everyone wants him to give orders. Anyone would have a tough time knowing what to do with that. The thing is, Cas was an angel again. Angels operate on logic and strategy. He may have learned while he was a human that some things are worth dying for, but those lessons got twisted and jumbled up in his mind once he was an angel again. Nearly human!Cas never would have worked with Crowley, but angel!Cas ... get this ... doesn't have a soul.
Anything he do this season remind you guys of soulless Sam?
Something to ponder.
As for Cas being the new God ... I don't know. The old God is still out there. He saved both the Winchesters AND Cas multiple times. He made sure they had everything they needed to stop Lucifer. He watched over them right up until their task was complete. I don't know where He is now, but I don't think He would just stand by and let someone take over His job. Whatever is in store for Cas now, I don't think being God is it.
For one thing; having all of that power available may make him FEEL like God right now ... but the reason they always need more souls is that those souls are an expendable resource. He's going to use all that power up eventually, and then what will he be? (In deep crap, that's what.) He feels like God. He's on a massive high/power trip. But I honestly don't think he's God.
That would be too easy.
~end official recap~
I originally had a lot of things I wanted to say about s6 as a whole. There were so many unanswered questions, so much unnecessary pain, so many dropped plot threads (Like hey, remember that one time Cas got all the weapons and that was supposed to be what ended the civil war? Anyone else remember that? Anyone at all?), I just ... gah. How I feel about it now saddens me a little when I look back on how excited I was at the start of it. The two things I really wanted to explore the most - the origins of all monsters and the truth about Mary's family - got turned into red herrings and dumped off to the wayside in a manner that really didn't sit well with me. I felt like those two elements have been tightly woven into the mythology of the show since the Pilot and they were where the story was demanding to go. I felt that bringing Sam back soulless was not only completely unnecessary but also almost cruel from a writing standpoint after everything else that had already happened. I do think the Braeden's story line was handled very well, an appropriate tragedy for a Winchester - but overall the whole year felt like the teeny tiny intro to what I was expecting the season to be from the start: Sam back from Hell and damaged, but firmly on the same side as Dean, ready to take on the world.
Suffice it to say that I accept it as a transitional season, appreciating very much indeed how hard it must be to follow up the Apocalypse, but with the hopes that for next year ...
Dear Writers of Show,
I'm not sure I've ever written to you before. Oh, little notes now and then to say good job, or OMG!, or something along those lines, sure. But not like this. I'm writing to you now because I have something really important to ask you.
Do you remember the moment that you saw Sam and Dean for the first time? I don't mean a specific episode or script or photograph. I mean there you were, sitting at your laptop, staring at that blank page in front of you not knowing where to go next, and then suddenly there they were, right there next to you. They leaned down and whispered in your ear, and you listened. You started to tell their story just the way they told it to you. You watched the words spill out across the laptop screen and you knew they weren't really yours at all - they were their words, and it gave you this sense of importance, like if you didn't get it down fast enough it might vanish into the mist of forgetfulness, and then no one would know what they'd been through. Do you remember that? The first time you let them tell you how it goes?
Surely you do. They made you take beer breaks. They argued over dialogue. (Sam wants to talk more, did you know that? Being so quiet all the time makes him feel disconnected.) That one time you wanted to bring somebody back from the dead, Dean was adamant that you let them rest, even though it hurt you. (Dean wants to rest now, too, more than anything. Did he tell you?) You remember. You must remember, because if that never happened, then I never would have come back to sit in front of my television week after week for the past 6 years. Because characters without their own life force don't draw people in the way they do.
Somewhere along the line, something else got in the way of that connection. I don't know what it was, exactly. I do know it wasn't intentional, and that nobody wanted it to happen, but it happened just the same. For season 7, I'm asking you, please - don't write it. Don't try to drive it. Don't try to tell them what to do. Instead, relax. Trust them. Ask them how it goes. Believe me, they'll tell you. And they'll frustrate the crap out of you getting there, but they will take their story to a place you never would have been able to imagine, if only you'll listen to them. Don't be afraid of the epic scale of the story they want to tell. They can handle it. I promise.
Please just listen. It's that simple. And I'm sure you wouldn't trade that for anything in the world. I know I wouldn't. :)
Much love and thanks,
~Tahiri.