SPN Reaction: Reaction to 3.08
Reactions to Episode 3.08 - A Very Supernatural Christmas
*before watching episode*
Have you ever gotten soooo excited over a new episode that you had to deliberately try and bring yourself back down to earth by going 'oh, it'll be horrible, oh it'll suck, oh they'll mess it up...' etc? That was me this afternoon at work. I'd find myself singing, tapping my feet, smiling, wiggling around in my chair like a four year old, etc. At work. Completely irrational. So I was trying to haul myself out of the stratosphere so I didn't get my hopes too incredibly high and wind up (god forbid) disappointed.
Things I've been spoiled for:
-The title. Back in September.
-That it's the Christmas Episode. From the title.
-Something about greedy kids, maybe?
And that's it. Almost nothing. I know! It's fantastic!
From that I've got such a wide range of "They're gonna / they're not gonna," that it's like I know nothing. The episode is a big, wrapped box, and I have no idea what's inside! I have a feeling they might get into some chewy stuff regarding Mary, but that's based on a vague passing inference from something said about something in a third party source that may or may not have been a Kripke interview, so I have no idea really. And even they, it could go several ways. Eee or Eek.
*watches episode*
So...
...um...
...yeah.
That was bizarre. And, well... Eek.
I hate to say it, but a lot of this episode hit some of my personal buttons on first viewing, and I spent a great portion of the episode being distracted by stuff in my own head.
But I'm gonna push past that and focus on the squee. *puts blinders on and forges ahead* This is probably a little out of order.
-Loved the fake-out opening, that almost really worked on me. I was a remote click away from panicking over to the other channel it was supposed to be on. 'Coz I am easily fooled by crappy retro graphic cuts.
-Opening sequence I missed most of because of the whole being fooled by the fake-out and worrying back and forth about changing the channel and 'is it on now or what?' thing. I remember it being rather disturbing. Oh yes, crunching noises and hauling the old guy up the chimney. Yech.
-Title card rocked. Anyone know where there's an animated icon of it yet?
-Anti-Santa and Krampus. Okay, someone just wrote that fic, less than a week ago, who was it? It had kick-ass research and links.
-Flashbacks. So. Little Sam was oblivious, but they knew Bobby back then. And they called him Uncle Bobby, which nearly blew right past my radar. Aww. Yay Bobby!
-And looks like wee!Dean's having a moment of adolescent pique. Or is he choosing to have a little freak out there to cover going and acquiring things without arousing Sammy's suspicion...?
-Okay! So. Um. Should I be worried if meadowsweet grows like a freaking weed where I live? As does mint and verbane/verbena/vervain's pretty common too.
-*is never having a wreath again* Unless it has a lot of holly in it. And not because apparently certain varieties of holly are loaded with caffeine.
-Gross lewd Santa! Eew! Get him awaaaaaaay! :-P
-What the hell is up with the giant bongs? Lewd Santa's is bigger than Andy's. And blue. :-P
-Sam and Dean carolling. As a last minute cover. Badly. Awesome.
-Anyone else see the bloody boots and weird gloves and think "Hogfather?" Just me? M'kay. Suits though, in a way.
-Cookie grab was very cute. The kid did a great job of being freaked.
-Yay for actor continuity for little Dean! So that was 12 and 8? And Sam didn't officially know what was going on before then.... hunh. Um... so... hunh. *clings nervously to fanon and looks around for some emergency retcon patching*
-Seriously, Sam had to know. Or at least knowledgably suspect something was up. Come on.
-Both the Wee!chester actors were great! Dead on choices for Sam and Dean. Little Sam might not have been a dead on physical match, but he sure acted like Sam. And was showing early signs of becoming a beanpole. Very well cast, and again, yay for continuity of casting Wee!Dean.
-What the hell with the 'pagan gods' Kripke? *drops subject and moves on*
-Bonus points for making Vancouver's mild climate a plot device. If we'd have gotten one of our freak snowstorms when this was filming, that would have been hilarious.
-TWOP shoutout: "Hardy Boys" P!WT Shoutout: Barbie doll.... Anybody catch any others? I don't know if the 'Wrapping the necklace in the comic section' counts as a shout-out to nearly every wee!chester present-giving fic ever, but what the heck.
-Sam got choked! By a sweet little lady evil-thing. Hee. I'm surprised she could reach high enough to be a genuine threat to his neck.
-What about the guy in the baaaaaaaaag! What the hell happened there? Was there a guy in the bag? I thought there was a bag that twitched and yelled when someone prodded it.
-That house is awesome. But, um, seriously. Avoid the "mincemeat" pies... :-P
-Why do torture scenes in happy cheerful surroundings done by happy cheerful people seem so much more evil? Funny how life's like that.
-Okay. I was a leeeetle bit concerned Sam was going to suddenly rediscover some psychic-kid powers in a moment of crisis there. Not concerned really, more like actively rooting for it out loud...
-Okay! Which fingernail was it, and how long should it take to heal? We can keep track of elapsed time with it if they're accurate.
-Fudge. Heh. That was cute. Around the office, we say 'fish'. I think I started that. Not sure how.
-Blood rituals and fingernail removals and yipes, not the frigging teeth again!! Yay! Saved by a fruitcake! And her baked goods! ;-D
-What a soft, squashy fruitcake that was. Not brick-like at all. No wonder the gruesome twosome turned the offering down.
-Sam gave Dean the pendant. Cool. I wonder where Sam got it... or who gave it to him... and for what purpo- Ooo. Frag. It was Bobby, wasn't it. Ooo. Okay. Good. I had half an evil origin meta for Dean's necklace there for a second. I am way too paranoid. Yay Bobby! Again, some more! Still no clue what it's supposed to do or what it's a symbol of, but Bobby originally wanted John to have it, so it can't be bad, right? Hmm. Hmmmmm.
-Also... I got Kripke'd. Thoroughly. Not just on a bunch of stories, but on something that isn't even freaking fanfic, or posted yet. But you'll see eventually. Or not, now. *sigh*
-And lights shining off the Impala as the snow filters down and the boys are snug inside the hotel room. Aw. *twitches and waits for screencaps*
All that said... I'm gonna have to wait a few days and take a fresh run at watching this episode, I think. I missed a lot of detail and lines. With my internal distractions, I didn't get really connected to this episode emotionally, and... *sigh* I hate my brain. :-/ I need to rewatch this when I'm in a better headspace. I may change my mind on any or all of the above.
In the meantime, I have to go mark some fics "Kripke'd". :-P
Dec 16, 11:14 PST. ETA:
On re-watch, it fared much better.
Also... Um. The 'vegetables' lil!Dean threw at lil!Sam? Were quite obviously and deliberately Funyons. There was a half second pause after the catch and the bag was directly label facing the camera, so unless that was a 'Funyons' product placement... I kinda think that might be a shout-out to the TWoP Text-Me thread. Which freaks me out beyond belief. But I could be wrong on that. Which is why I'm not making a new post about it. Because coincidences do happen...
*gleep*
*before watching episode*
Have you ever gotten soooo excited over a new episode that you had to deliberately try and bring yourself back down to earth by going 'oh, it'll be horrible, oh it'll suck, oh they'll mess it up...' etc? That was me this afternoon at work. I'd find myself singing, tapping my feet, smiling, wiggling around in my chair like a four year old, etc. At work. Completely irrational. So I was trying to haul myself out of the stratosphere so I didn't get my hopes too incredibly high and wind up (god forbid) disappointed.
Things I've been spoiled for:
-The title. Back in September.
-That it's the Christmas Episode. From the title.
-Something about greedy kids, maybe?
And that's it. Almost nothing. I know! It's fantastic!
From that I've got such a wide range of "They're gonna / they're not gonna," that it's like I know nothing. The episode is a big, wrapped box, and I have no idea what's inside! I have a feeling they might get into some chewy stuff regarding Mary, but that's based on a vague passing inference from something said about something in a third party source that may or may not have been a Kripke interview, so I have no idea really. And even they, it could go several ways. Eee or Eek.
*watches episode*
So...
...um...
...yeah.
That was bizarre. And, well... Eek.
I hate to say it, but a lot of this episode hit some of my personal buttons on first viewing, and I spent a great portion of the episode being distracted by stuff in my own head.
But I'm gonna push past that and focus on the squee. *puts blinders on and forges ahead* This is probably a little out of order.
-Loved the fake-out opening, that almost really worked on me. I was a remote click away from panicking over to the other channel it was supposed to be on. 'Coz I am easily fooled by crappy retro graphic cuts.
-Opening sequence I missed most of because of the whole being fooled by the fake-out and worrying back and forth about changing the channel and 'is it on now or what?' thing. I remember it being rather disturbing. Oh yes, crunching noises and hauling the old guy up the chimney. Yech.
-Title card rocked. Anyone know where there's an animated icon of it yet?
-Anti-Santa and Krampus. Okay, someone just wrote that fic, less than a week ago, who was it? It had kick-ass research and links.
-Flashbacks. So. Little Sam was oblivious, but they knew Bobby back then. And they called him Uncle Bobby, which nearly blew right past my radar. Aww. Yay Bobby!
-And looks like wee!Dean's having a moment of adolescent pique. Or is he choosing to have a little freak out there to cover going and acquiring things without arousing Sammy's suspicion...?
-Okay! So. Um. Should I be worried if meadowsweet grows like a freaking weed where I live? As does mint and verbane/verbena/vervain's pretty common too.
-*is never having a wreath again* Unless it has a lot of holly in it. And not because apparently certain varieties of holly are loaded with caffeine.
-Gross lewd Santa! Eew! Get him awaaaaaaay! :-P
-What the hell is up with the giant bongs? Lewd Santa's is bigger than Andy's. And blue. :-P
-Sam and Dean carolling. As a last minute cover. Badly. Awesome.
-Anyone else see the bloody boots and weird gloves and think "Hogfather?" Just me? M'kay. Suits though, in a way.
-Cookie grab was very cute. The kid did a great job of being freaked.
-Yay for actor continuity for little Dean! So that was 12 and 8? And Sam didn't officially know what was going on before then.... hunh. Um... so... hunh. *clings nervously to fanon and looks around for some emergency retcon patching*
-Seriously, Sam had to know. Or at least knowledgably suspect something was up. Come on.
-Both the Wee!chester actors were great! Dead on choices for Sam and Dean. Little Sam might not have been a dead on physical match, but he sure acted like Sam. And was showing early signs of becoming a beanpole. Very well cast, and again, yay for continuity of casting Wee!Dean.
-What the hell with the 'pagan gods' Kripke? *drops subject and moves on*
-Bonus points for making Vancouver's mild climate a plot device. If we'd have gotten one of our freak snowstorms when this was filming, that would have been hilarious.
-TWOP shoutout: "Hardy Boys" P!WT Shoutout: Barbie doll.... Anybody catch any others? I don't know if the 'Wrapping the necklace in the comic section' counts as a shout-out to nearly every wee!chester present-giving fic ever, but what the heck.
-Sam got choked! By a sweet little lady evil-thing. Hee. I'm surprised she could reach high enough to be a genuine threat to his neck.
-What about the guy in the baaaaaaaaag! What the hell happened there? Was there a guy in the bag? I thought there was a bag that twitched and yelled when someone prodded it.
-That house is awesome. But, um, seriously. Avoid the "mincemeat" pies... :-P
-Why do torture scenes in happy cheerful surroundings done by happy cheerful people seem so much more evil? Funny how life's like that.
-Okay. I was a leeeetle bit concerned Sam was going to suddenly rediscover some psychic-kid powers in a moment of crisis there. Not concerned really, more like actively rooting for it out loud...
-Okay! Which fingernail was it, and how long should it take to heal? We can keep track of elapsed time with it if they're accurate.
-Fudge. Heh. That was cute. Around the office, we say 'fish'. I think I started that. Not sure how.
-Blood rituals and fingernail removals and yipes, not the frigging teeth again!! Yay! Saved by a fruitcake! And her baked goods! ;-D
-What a soft, squashy fruitcake that was. Not brick-like at all. No wonder the gruesome twosome turned the offering down.
-Sam gave Dean the pendant. Cool. I wonder where Sam got it... or who gave it to him... and for what purpo- Ooo. Frag. It was Bobby, wasn't it. Ooo. Okay. Good. I had half an evil origin meta for Dean's necklace there for a second. I am way too paranoid. Yay Bobby! Again, some more! Still no clue what it's supposed to do or what it's a symbol of, but Bobby originally wanted John to have it, so it can't be bad, right? Hmm. Hmmmmm.
-Also... I got Kripke'd. Thoroughly. Not just on a bunch of stories, but on something that isn't even freaking fanfic, or posted yet. But you'll see eventually. Or not, now. *sigh*
-And lights shining off the Impala as the snow filters down and the boys are snug inside the hotel room. Aw. *twitches and waits for screencaps*
All that said... I'm gonna have to wait a few days and take a fresh run at watching this episode, I think. I missed a lot of detail and lines. With my internal distractions, I didn't get really connected to this episode emotionally, and... *sigh* I hate my brain. :-/ I need to rewatch this when I'm in a better headspace. I may change my mind on any or all of the above.
In the meantime, I have to go mark some fics "Kripke'd". :-P
Dec 16, 11:14 PST. ETA:
On re-watch, it fared much better.
Also... Um. The 'vegetables' lil!Dean threw at lil!Sam? Were quite obviously and deliberately Funyons. There was a half second pause after the catch and the bag was directly label facing the camera, so unless that was a 'Funyons' product placement... I kinda think that might be a shout-out to the TWoP Text-Me thread. Which freaks me out beyond belief. But I could be wrong on that. Which is why I'm not making a new post about it. Because coincidences do happen...
*gleep*