SPN - "Slash Fiction" (Ep. 7.06)
So, yeah. My favorite part was everything. It's just a matter of degree of favorite.
(Well, okay, I'm not particularly keen on the whole mass murder serial killing aspect. That's why I've never seen Pulp Fiction or Natural Born Killers and why some eps of my crime dramas give me the heebie-jeebies. But I kinda love the way J&J played it. I'll get into that later.
Then . . . Sheriff Mills, recap on the leviathans, Cheesy Chet Leviathan finds Winchesters, witch incapacitates leviathan with spell, killing Amy is eating at Dean, Sam wants him to talk.
Now . . .
Sam and Dean in a bank in Jericho. They've got some sort of plan, and Dean makes his way to the counter. Sweet talks the teller, and . . . this doesn't feel like Dean. I mean, he's acting like Dean, but something feels . . . a little off.
I will say that Jensen is looking as fine as ever.
And the automatic machine gun could be it.
Sam and Dean (who are obviously Not!Sam and Not!Dean) shoot up the bank and herd everyone into the vault. Making sure that the security camera is on them, Not!Dean winks at the camera (evil wink #1) and they open fire on the hostages.
Ugh!
Title splat.
At Rufus's cabin, Bobby has the cheese leviathan (we'll call him Chet) in the basement trying to figure out what hurts him. Bobby injects him with some icky looking stuff.
*nomnomnom* says Chet. "Oaky. Similar finish to holy water, not as bitter as rock salt." Can we keep him? Please?
Sam and Dean join the party and debrief that nothing has worked on Chet yet. Chet also informs them that dropping a car won't work either.
How did Chet find them, Dean asks. He did some Charlie Eppes stuff with algorithms to track S&D's aliases. How did he know the aliases, Sam asks. Downloaded the info from Cas. Ooh, Dean doesn't like that at all. Bobby asks why is Chet spilling state secrets. Because Cheeseboy is not afraid of them. This always makes our hunters nervous.
But Cheesy Chet is the least of their problems, Chet informs them. He tells them to check the news.
They turn on the news and discover that per the Feds, Sam and Dean Winchester are no longer dead and are on a crime spree. (This makes the second time the Feds have had to renege on claims that Dean Winchester has been killed.)
How did they Xerox the boys, they try to figure. One of them touched 'em at the hospital?
"It was the hair!" Chet hollers up from the basement. Because he's accommodating like that. Ha! The clones lifted the DNA out of a motel shower drain.
The plan? To squeeze Sam and Dean (not like that). Make 'em the most wanted men in America (again, not like that). Have the FBI, all local law enforcement, US Marshals, everyone hunting for them.
That does it. Dean wants to take the fight to them. Bobby argues that that's a stupid idea. "They're wearing our faces," Dean says. "It's personal." Sam agrees. Chet is enjoying the conversation from the basement.
"If you're gonna be stupid, you might as well be smart about it," Bobby says. He digs into his journal and pulls out some contact information. Frank Devereaux. A jackass and a lunatic, but he owes Bobby one from back in Port Huron.
So off the boys go.
The guys pull into a gas station for a fill-up, and OH!!!! It's a new variation on Dean's guitar riff! I like!
Sam makes a supply run while Dean gasses up the car. "The usual?" Sam asks. "Rhymes with 'sing songs'," Dean says. Um . . . what?
So Sam picks up a box of Bing Bongs (the SPN version of Ding Dongs) which are most definitely NOT pie. This is not Dean, is it.
Sam (Not!Sam?) asks for protein bars. But the clerk recognizes Sam (Not!Sam?) from the news and goes into the back room to make a call. Sam sees a clip of the crime spree on the TV behind the counter, realizes he's been made, and hightails it out to the Impala, telling Dean to drive. The take off with possibly only a partial tank of gas and no supplies. (And there seems to be nothing "off" about these characters, so I'm thinking they actually are Sam and Dean.)
What we can take away from that scene is that while Dean will not eat sheet cake when he's asked for pie, he is in the habit of consuming chocolate snack cakes on the road. *makes note*
The next morning, a couple of guys in suits arrive at the crime scene at the Manitoc Bank. Agents Morris and Valente. Are the leviathans? They sound like leviathans.
After talking to the cop, they sidebar. The young one, Valente, is excited to have a serial killer case. Morris points out that crime sprees mean paperwork.
Valente receives an alert that the Winchesters were spotted about 1,000 miles away. That was fast. They flew or have a batmobile.
Okay, so, not leviathans? Unless they're roleplaying amongst themselves, which makes no sense.
Nighttime. The Impala pulls up to what looks like an abandoned house with several abandoned cars in the yard. They let themselves into the house, calling for Frank as they search room to room. The house is a mess, but also, apparently, no one is home.
Until they reach the living room, when someone clicks on a light, and the boys find themselves on the business end of an automatic weapon. The guy holding the weapon is somewhat unkempt, wearing glasses, and very please with himself for getting the drop on them.
The guy with the gun, Frank, recognizes Sam and Dean from the news. "Psycho Butch and Sundance." Sam and Dean quickly point out that that's not them on the news. "No, can't be, unless you had a teleporter," Frank laughs. Then sobers. "Do you have a teleporter?" Because this is apparently a viable option.
"No, sir, we don't," Sam says, while Dean shakes his head. Frank narrows his eyes, not quite sure he believes them.
Frank demands to know who sent them: NSA, the FEEB, March of Dimes? Oh, yes, Frank likes his privacy.
"Bobby Singer sent us," Dean says, which nearly sets Frank off as he racks his weapon. "Or not," Dean quickly amends with a shrug. "Who?"
Sam explains about Port Huron, proof that Bobby did send them, which frustrates Frank quite a bit. "Guy saves your life one time, and, what, you owe him the rest of yours?"
"That's usually how it works," Dean says.
Obviously, I'm really liking the back and forth here, because I'm apparently quoting most of the scene. I'll try to stop now.
Frank gives up, gives in, and helps the guys. He knows Bobby's into all that magic hooey--Frank is not a believer--but the truth is, the government has been cloning people for years. Well he's not a believer in the supernatural. Conspiracy theories, otoh? All over that, my friend. Frank and Ronald would have gotten along nicely, I think. Though Ronald seemed a bit more openminded than Frank here. I'm not sure what that means . . .
Shred the credit cards, use cash only. Change the aliases. No more rock shout-outs. And Cuba's nice this time of year. Dean, however, refuses to run. They need to be further off the grid, but still stay on the board. (Frank turns on some music during this conversation. To thwart any bugs that might be in the room?)
They're Tom and John Smith now. Frank gives them new phones, telling them to change their phones on a very frequent non-scheduled schedule. And say away
from the 200,000,000 cameras that the government has access to.
"Two hundred million?" Dean asks.
"Big Brother, he has many eyeballs, my friend," Frank says. And that line reading sounds so familiar. I finally figured out that it seems reminiscent of a reading Richard Burgi might give the line. But I digress.
Frank also smashes Sam's laptop to smithereens, promptly replacing it with a new one, and demanding $5,000 cash. (I hope there wasn't anything irreplaceable on that hard drive.)
And finally, new IDs.
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, Bobby is trying shotgun rounds on Cheesy Chet. Chet rather enjoys it. Bobby's frustration level is increasing exponentially with Chet's taunting. Bobby's of the mindset that Chet bleeds, and if he bleeds, he can die. Chet continues with the taunting until Bobby separates Chet's head from his shoulders with a machete. Huh. Well, that's something.
Personally, I'd be interested in how effective Marcy's wood chipper is. Though if it just spreads the goo, that might not be beneficial.
Frank gives Sam a map on which he's plotted out the crime spree of the clones. There's no discernible pattern, but there's no such thing as a random series of robbery/murders by your evil twins.
Frank gives Sam and Dean a hard time about the stupidity of their chosen course of action, and snarks admonishes them to at least have the common sense to ditch the car. Dean does a double take. Turns out the evil twins are using a car just like the Impala. This just adds insult to injury for Dean. It's just all sorts of wrong.
I rather hope we get to see Frank again, but he's making me miss Rufus. Rufus, I miss you.
Looks like Bobby's been out on a supply run. As he's unpacking, there's a knock at the door, and it's Sheriff Jody! Hi, Sheriff Jody! *waves*
I do so love the chemistry between these two. Jody can take Bobby's snark and hand it right back to him. She calls him on his garbage, and is nice to him in spite of his protests.
She can cook . . . -ish, so she's gonna fix him something to eat and straighten the place up a bit. It's the least she can do, she says.
I really rather like Kim Rhodes.
Jody also makes sure that Bobby knows they're on a first name basis.
Bobby heads to the basement in time to see the leviathan head being reattached. *sigh* Bobby decapitates Chet again.
A random car driving down the road isn't so random. It's the Winchesters' new wheels. This no doubt ill-gotten car comes completely with squeaky My Little Pony pegasus hanging from the rearview. Dean is in a sulky bad mood and will have no such cheer. He pulls out his knife, cuts down the pegasus, and tosses it in the back with a dying squeak.
It's bad enough they're killing people looking like Sam and Dean, but now Dean has to drive that car while Baby's on lockdown.
"It's temporary, Dean," Sam says.
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner," Dean sulks.
"You know that's a line from--"
"Swayze movie. Swayze always gets a pass."
Hee! That tickles me so. And you know? I've been reminded that this is not the first reference Dean has made to Swayze. Reference IMToD, another excellent episode.
Sam offers some tunes and turns on the radio.
To Air Supply's "All Out of Love." Ha!
Sam reaches to find something else, but Dean says it's okay, that it's probably the only thing on.
But really, Dean is a closet Air Supply fan (or rock ballad fan). Lip syncing! Ha!!! Love it!
Sam, ooh, is a bit unnerved. About the time Dean starts headbanging to the accompaniment, Sam turns off the radio.
Now I want fic about the times Dean hunted solo and sang at the top of his lungs to Air Supply.
Sam studies the map and has discovered the pattern. He reads off the list of cities that the twins have hit, and it's the towns Sam and Dean worked cases in, in order, from the time Sam joined Dean from Stanford. Next town: St. Louis.
Where Dean killed a shapeshifter wearing his face! *flail*
I love how the music here builds, only to stop short of dramatic climax as Dean fondly mentions the burgers at Connor's Diner.
Interior, Connor's Diner. As the camera travels down the counter toward Sam and Dean, we see a man and a woman with blonde hair sitting at the counter. Word on the street is that that's Jensen's sister and her husband. That has been confirmed by S.E. Hinton, who is also an extra in this scene. Fascinating trivia, no?
But Dean starts talking about himself in the third person, and guess what. That's not Sam and Dean. That's the evil twins. And the following conversation is hilarious.
Dean has a burger everyday, an in his heart, thinks it's almost as good as sex. LeviaDean, however, finds burgers disgusting.
LeviaSam is equally put off of dead plants with creamy goo (which is now how I thought of the salad I had the other day).
LeviaDean can't stand RealDean. Hero complex, for one. And Dean doesn't have relationships, he has applications for sainthood. (I'm still chewing on that one.) He also thinks he's hilarious.
LeviaSam doesn't have it any better. RealSam's got SatanVision on the inside. (So yes, it would seem that Sam is still hallucinating, which we knew. But this could come back to haunt them later in the season.)
Best exchange of the scene:
LeviaSam: You know, I had a brother with this many issues once.
LeviaDean: Yeah?
LS: You know what I did?
LD: Hm.
LS: I ate him.
LD: Of course you did.
Just so matter of fact. I just love the way the guys played this scene. If it weren't for the mass killing spree, I'd want to keep these guys on the show. Ha!
But then, there's that killing spree thing. *shudder*
Now, apparently, if I'd ever seen Pulp Fiction, this is the scene where I'd be going, "They were watching Pulp Fiction when they wrote this." But I haven't seen PF because, well, mass killing thing. And I'm not really a Tarantino fan. So anyway, whatever.
I will reiterate again: Dean (or in this case, LeviaDean) standing on the counter in that stance is disturbingly hot. Disturbing because, dude, leviathan. Hot because, well, do I really need to explain. (Hot in the same way that 2014!Dean in a thigh holster is hot. Just saying'.)
Geo cracked up when he realized the boys are now driving a the Pontiac version of a Chevy Chevette, either a Pontiac T1000 or the Canadian equivalent, a Pontiac Acadian. Bobby is on the phone, telling the boys that decapitation won't kill the leviathans, but it will slow them down. In the background, Jody asks Bobby if he takes mayo. This is not lost on Dean, who gives Bobby a hard time about it, while Bobby denies it and tells the idjit to shut up.
The boys plan on hitting St. Louis next, but they're too late. Which makes their next stop Ankeny, Iowa (Hookman).
LeviaFeds arrive at Connor's Diner. The cop who was first at the scene shows them the video recording the kid made of the incident. Poor Sam and Dean. Between the rep Dean got the first time they passed through St. Louis, and the jail time they did in Baltimore, then the whole Milwaukee thing, and Monument, Colorado . . . Sam and Dean Winchester will never be able to show their faces in polite society. (Makes me wonder if Dean was using his Winchester name when he was with Lisa, of if he was using something else.)
And there's evil wink #2! *flail* (Which is a different, more shuddery *flail* than the *flail* that goes with mischievous wink ala "Monster Movie.")
In the basement, Bobby has decided to try electrocution. However, when he's hooking up the clamps, he brushes against Chet, giving him his DNA, and voila. LeviaBobby. And thanks to LeviaBobby, we get backstory. And now we have a specific idea of why Bobby is so fond of Dean. Bobby apparently sees some of himself in Dean.
It's a sunny day in Ankeny, Iowa, as Winchesters walk down the sidewalk and LeviaWinchesters pull up on the other side of the street in the LeviaImpala. As Dean pulls out his phone to call Bobby, he admires the wheels on the imposter 'Pala and vows to steal the rims for Baby. Heh!
Dean calls Bobby to tell him that they've got eyes on the levier!chesters. They've gotta move in, but Bobby warns 'em not to. It becomes a moot point when the local cops surround them and arrest them. The levier!chesters see what's happening and get back in the car. LeviaDean eyeballs Dean and winks (evil wink #3!) as they pull away.
LeviaBobby taunts Bobby, trying to get under his skin (so to speak). Bobby, as it turns out, isn't really a cynic. Deep down, he still has hope. He's got a crush on Sheriff Jody. LeviaBobby taunts and threatens, and Bobby gets his machete. He introduces LeviaBobby to Robert Browning, whom LeviaBobby decides he's going to look up.
Just as Bobby raises the blade for another decapitation, something drips from the ceiling, landing on the leviathan and burning him. Badly. So badly he starts shouting, "Get it off of me!" What is this strange substance dripping from the ceiling?
Bobby races upstairs to find Jody cleaning up a spill of some sort. He plants a big kiss on her, which totally takes her by surprise. Hee! Then he asks what's in her cleaning bucket.
At the Ankeny police station, Sam and Dean are in custody. Sam gets taken to the interview room, while Dean is take to a cell. The two deputies leave after they've dispatched their prisoners, but you know it's not that easy, right? LD and LS see the deputies leave, and the next thing we know, we've got levier!deputies chowing down on a third deputy.
Sheriff (not Jody) checks on Dean in his cell, and Dean demands his phone call. Eventually, Sheriff-not-Jody allows it. Dean calls Bobby and gets the low-down: Borax to slow 'em down and distract them; decapitation to stop them. And keep the heads separate. Sheriff Not Jody is disgusted. Dean warns him to gather up all the borax in the joint, but no go.
Now, I've seen a lot of complaints that Borax is too mundane. But you know? That's why I love it. It's not consecrated iron or rock salt shotgun shells or holy water or a potion (well, unless you count detergent and water a potion) or ritual or incantation. It's so incredibly mundane. And that something so indestructible could be taken down by something so mundane is just . . . wonderful. And very true to life, because how many people have been brought down by a tiny germ or virus, you know? Or lives sent into spiral by taking up a habit that seems so innocuous at first, but ends up being a very destructive thing?
Borax takes no special prep time (other than maybe mixing it with water). I kinda love the idea.
As Not Jody heads back to central booking, he sees one of his deputies eating another one of his deputies. The third deputy scolds the chowing down deputy, and they morph back into leviaSam and leviaDean.
Stunned, Not Jody heads back to Dean's cell and lets him out.
In the interrogation room, Sam gets a visit from Dean, except it's not Dean. And this is one of the most awesomely acted scenes an ep full of awesomely acted scenes. "I'm not your brother." Yipes! "But I am Dean-adjacent."
Meanwhile, Dean takes the gun off of the dead cop and crosses paths with an adjacent Sammy.
D: Sammy?
LS: *deadly stare*
D: Not Sammy.
Dean then promptly gets tossed into a display case.
In interrogation, Sam's getting an earful as to why the leviathan hates the Winchesters. "I just don't get it. You could be anything. You're strong, you're uninhibited. You're smart enough, believe it or not. But you're so caught up in being good and taking care of each other. . . . You're missing a perfectly good opportunity to subjugate the weak." And this appears to be the leviathan's end game. World domination. Not so different from the demons getting Lucifer out of the cage. But we'll find out later what leviathans think of demons.
Allow me to pause a moment and say again how much I love the way Jensen is playing this. He's really quite scary.
In booking, the sheriff (not Jody, of course) douses leviaSam in borax, and Dean chops its head off with a fire ax.
LeviaDean is going in for the kill. Tells Sam that Dean thinks Sam is nuts and off his game. Sam is unfazed. LeviaDean slyly lands the final blow: "I guess that's why Dean never told you that he killed Amy." Again, I love the way Jensen plays it, delivered in profile, with a sly, arrogant smile and his eyes sliding to the side to watch his handiwork.
This, Sam was not expecting. Of course not. LeviaDean is delighted.
Dean and sheriff burst into the room, do the their splash-and-slash thing, and there ya go. "Wow, that felt good," Dean says. Sheriff uncuffs Sam from the table. Dean asks if there's any way the sheriff can make Sam and Dean be "dead." Sheriff Not Jody thinks he should be able to swing that. Cool.
Dean tells Sam they need to clean the place up, but Sam is in a daze. He says he's okay, but . . . Yeah. Not so much.
Feds show up, and sheriff and ME make their report. Sheriff got the drop on them, cause of death multiple gunshot wounds. And oh, the bodies are already at the funeral home being cremated. Feds are appropriately disgruntled by this development, but Valente points out that no bodies means no paperwork. They leave.
Sheriff Jody (yes, Jody) is getting ready to leave the cabin. Bobby thanks her for her help, and she says if he needs anything else, let her know. There is one more thing, Bobby says, and the looks she gives him is all kinds of knowingly smitten.
He hands her a box and tells her not to open it, even if it starts talking. Especially if it starts talking. This begs the question: How can a head without lungs to make the vocal cords work, talk? But, given this show, it could happen. Bobby tells Jody to throw the box in the drink. Which, again, begs the question: Wouldn't that just release the leviathan into the water? Or are these things made up of goo that needs to be all in one mass to work?
Bobby sends Jody off with a gentle kiss on the cheek. Oh, yes, these two are good for each other. (Especially Jody for Bobby.)
Back at the Ankeny sheriff's station, the ME, who is Sheriff Not Jody's daughter, asks WT??? 'Cause this isn't blood. Agent Valente shows up and says that she's absolutely right. And btw, he's a leviathan and chows down on them both. (The question now is when did the Feds get replaced? I was suspicious of them the moment they appeared on screen. I guess it doesn't matter now.)
Valente makes a call to a superior to report in. The guy he reports to appears to be a corporate big wig. Is this the Big Boss Baddie? I'm not 100% convinced. I expect Cas to show up as Big Boss eventually. But for now, I'll take CEO as Big Boss.
He tells Valente they need to take another approach. Best line of the scene: "Those boys coming back from the dead again starts to strain credulity." Dude, we passed credulity strain several seasons ago. Ha!
So it's back to the drawing board, but Valente better call with a win the next time, or Big Boss will have to BIB him. Not sure what that stands for, but coming from someone who will actually eat you, I'm thinking that's exactly what it means--a bib.
Big Boss, aka Mr. Roman, settles into his limo with his newspaper. And who should appear for a vista but . . .
Crowley! \o/
Always looking to make a deal, Crowley broaches the topic of a joint venture with their adjacent holdings.
Why should they be friends, Mr. Roman (Dick) asks. "Well," Crowley says, "I brought you here. Opened the door to Purgatory."
"To steal every last soul, you mean," Mr. Roman says. And this makes me wonder . . . How do leviathans feel about other monsters? I mean, if monsters end up in Purgatory, and leviathans were the first residents there, do they feel a certain kinship? And what about Echidna Eve, Mother of All Monsters? Was she perhaps a leviathan? Or did they view other monsters as encroachers? Hm . . .
As it turns out, Big Boss thinks even less of demons than he does of humans, which is saying something. The fact that leviathans won't work with demons says something, though perhaps not what I'd say about them. Leviathans see demons as bottom feeders (thus giving actual bottom feeders a bad name), whereas humans view demons as evil. Semantics? Maybe. But this is going to get into the whole "enemy of my enemy" thing that Crowley so loves to play, isn't it?
Now, this last scene. I know a lot of people have complained about it, and I was pretty non-plussed by it myself at first, but dodger_winslow had some pretty insightful observations about it. Not saying I agree with her on everything in her meta, but she's seeing some balance and growth here, and I'm all on board with that.
Sam has just had his "stone #1" revealed as having lied to him. I get that he's upset and that he needs some space.
Otoh, Dean's initial reaction to Sam's "I can't do this. I can't talk to you. I can't be around you right now" is exactly what he feared would happen--that Sam would leave. Because that's what Sam does when he discovers Dean has done something he doesn't like. Dean wants to follow Dad's orders, Sam leaves ("Scarecrow"). Dean keeps a secret because he promised Dad, Sam leaves ("Hunted"). In "Good God, Y'All," Sam left because he wasn't fit to hunt, but he was surprised when Dean didn't try to stop him. And here, we have it again. Dean lets Sam go without saying a word to try to convince him otherwise.
So when Sam tells Dean, "I think you should just go on without me. Go," Dean nods, says, "Alright. Sorry, Sam," and gets back in the car as Sam walks down the pier (which does not dead end at the water, but turns to the left). Dean has come to expect Sam's leaving, and accept it.
Also, not a very prudent move at this juncture. Because Bad Things happen when the boys split up. (Reference "Scarecrow," "Hunted," and "Good God, Y'All"/"True to Be You and Me"/"The End.")
Oh, boys. *cuffs upside head*
It's almost Friday!
(Well, okay, I'm not particularly keen on the whole mass murder serial killing aspect. That's why I've never seen Pulp Fiction or Natural Born Killers and why some eps of my crime dramas give me the heebie-jeebies. But I kinda love the way J&J played it. I'll get into that later.
Then . . . Sheriff Mills, recap on the leviathans, Cheesy Chet Leviathan finds Winchesters, witch incapacitates leviathan with spell, killing Amy is eating at Dean, Sam wants him to talk.
Now . . .
Sam and Dean in a bank in Jericho. They've got some sort of plan, and Dean makes his way to the counter. Sweet talks the teller, and . . . this doesn't feel like Dean. I mean, he's acting like Dean, but something feels . . . a little off.
I will say that Jensen is looking as fine as ever.
And the automatic machine gun could be it.
Sam and Dean (who are obviously Not!Sam and Not!Dean) shoot up the bank and herd everyone into the vault. Making sure that the security camera is on them, Not!Dean winks at the camera (evil wink #1) and they open fire on the hostages.
Ugh!
Title splat.
At Rufus's cabin, Bobby has the cheese leviathan (we'll call him Chet) in the basement trying to figure out what hurts him. Bobby injects him with some icky looking stuff.
*nomnomnom* says Chet. "Oaky. Similar finish to holy water, not as bitter as rock salt." Can we keep him? Please?
Sam and Dean join the party and debrief that nothing has worked on Chet yet. Chet also informs them that dropping a car won't work either.
How did Chet find them, Dean asks. He did some Charlie Eppes stuff with algorithms to track S&D's aliases. How did he know the aliases, Sam asks. Downloaded the info from Cas. Ooh, Dean doesn't like that at all. Bobby asks why is Chet spilling state secrets. Because Cheeseboy is not afraid of them. This always makes our hunters nervous.
But Cheesy Chet is the least of their problems, Chet informs them. He tells them to check the news.
They turn on the news and discover that per the Feds, Sam and Dean Winchester are no longer dead and are on a crime spree. (This makes the second time the Feds have had to renege on claims that Dean Winchester has been killed.)
How did they Xerox the boys, they try to figure. One of them touched 'em at the hospital?
"It was the hair!" Chet hollers up from the basement. Because he's accommodating like that. Ha! The clones lifted the DNA out of a motel shower drain.
The plan? To squeeze Sam and Dean (not like that). Make 'em the most wanted men in America (again, not like that). Have the FBI, all local law enforcement, US Marshals, everyone hunting for them.
That does it. Dean wants to take the fight to them. Bobby argues that that's a stupid idea. "They're wearing our faces," Dean says. "It's personal." Sam agrees. Chet is enjoying the conversation from the basement.
"If you're gonna be stupid, you might as well be smart about it," Bobby says. He digs into his journal and pulls out some contact information. Frank Devereaux. A jackass and a lunatic, but he owes Bobby one from back in Port Huron.
So off the boys go.
The guys pull into a gas station for a fill-up, and OH!!!! It's a new variation on Dean's guitar riff! I like!
Sam makes a supply run while Dean gasses up the car. "The usual?" Sam asks. "Rhymes with 'sing songs'," Dean says. Um . . . what?
So Sam picks up a box of Bing Bongs (the SPN version of Ding Dongs) which are most definitely NOT pie. This is not Dean, is it.
Sam (Not!Sam?) asks for protein bars. But the clerk recognizes Sam (Not!Sam?) from the news and goes into the back room to make a call. Sam sees a clip of the crime spree on the TV behind the counter, realizes he's been made, and hightails it out to the Impala, telling Dean to drive. The take off with possibly only a partial tank of gas and no supplies. (And there seems to be nothing "off" about these characters, so I'm thinking they actually are Sam and Dean.)
What we can take away from that scene is that while Dean will not eat sheet cake when he's asked for pie, he is in the habit of consuming chocolate snack cakes on the road. *makes note*
The next morning, a couple of guys in suits arrive at the crime scene at the Manitoc Bank. Agents Morris and Valente. Are the leviathans? They sound like leviathans.
After talking to the cop, they sidebar. The young one, Valente, is excited to have a serial killer case. Morris points out that crime sprees mean paperwork.
Valente receives an alert that the Winchesters were spotted about 1,000 miles away. That was fast. They flew or have a batmobile.
Okay, so, not leviathans? Unless they're roleplaying amongst themselves, which makes no sense.
Nighttime. The Impala pulls up to what looks like an abandoned house with several abandoned cars in the yard. They let themselves into the house, calling for Frank as they search room to room. The house is a mess, but also, apparently, no one is home.
Until they reach the living room, when someone clicks on a light, and the boys find themselves on the business end of an automatic weapon. The guy holding the weapon is somewhat unkempt, wearing glasses, and very please with himself for getting the drop on them.
The guy with the gun, Frank, recognizes Sam and Dean from the news. "Psycho Butch and Sundance." Sam and Dean quickly point out that that's not them on the news. "No, can't be, unless you had a teleporter," Frank laughs. Then sobers. "Do you have a teleporter?" Because this is apparently a viable option.
"No, sir, we don't," Sam says, while Dean shakes his head. Frank narrows his eyes, not quite sure he believes them.
Frank demands to know who sent them: NSA, the FEEB, March of Dimes? Oh, yes, Frank likes his privacy.
"Bobby Singer sent us," Dean says, which nearly sets Frank off as he racks his weapon. "Or not," Dean quickly amends with a shrug. "Who?"
Sam explains about Port Huron, proof that Bobby did send them, which frustrates Frank quite a bit. "Guy saves your life one time, and, what, you owe him the rest of yours?"
"That's usually how it works," Dean says.
Obviously, I'm really liking the back and forth here, because I'm apparently quoting most of the scene. I'll try to stop now.
Frank gives up, gives in, and helps the guys. He knows Bobby's into all that magic hooey--Frank is not a believer--but the truth is, the government has been cloning people for years. Well he's not a believer in the supernatural. Conspiracy theories, otoh? All over that, my friend. Frank and Ronald would have gotten along nicely, I think. Though Ronald seemed a bit more openminded than Frank here. I'm not sure what that means . . .
Shred the credit cards, use cash only. Change the aliases. No more rock shout-outs. And Cuba's nice this time of year. Dean, however, refuses to run. They need to be further off the grid, but still stay on the board. (Frank turns on some music during this conversation. To thwart any bugs that might be in the room?)
They're Tom and John Smith now. Frank gives them new phones, telling them to change their phones on a very frequent non-scheduled schedule. And say away
from the 200,000,000 cameras that the government has access to.
"Two hundred million?" Dean asks.
"Big Brother, he has many eyeballs, my friend," Frank says. And that line reading sounds so familiar. I finally figured out that it seems reminiscent of a reading Richard Burgi might give the line. But I digress.
Frank also smashes Sam's laptop to smithereens, promptly replacing it with a new one, and demanding $5,000 cash. (I hope there wasn't anything irreplaceable on that hard drive.)
And finally, new IDs.
Meanwhile, back at the cabin, Bobby is trying shotgun rounds on Cheesy Chet. Chet rather enjoys it. Bobby's frustration level is increasing exponentially with Chet's taunting. Bobby's of the mindset that Chet bleeds, and if he bleeds, he can die. Chet continues with the taunting until Bobby separates Chet's head from his shoulders with a machete. Huh. Well, that's something.
Personally, I'd be interested in how effective Marcy's wood chipper is. Though if it just spreads the goo, that might not be beneficial.
Frank gives Sam a map on which he's plotted out the crime spree of the clones. There's no discernible pattern, but there's no such thing as a random series of robbery/murders by your evil twins.
Frank gives Sam and Dean a hard time about the stupidity of their chosen course of action, and snarks admonishes them to at least have the common sense to ditch the car. Dean does a double take. Turns out the evil twins are using a car just like the Impala. This just adds insult to injury for Dean. It's just all sorts of wrong.
I rather hope we get to see Frank again, but he's making me miss Rufus. Rufus, I miss you.
Looks like Bobby's been out on a supply run. As he's unpacking, there's a knock at the door, and it's Sheriff Jody! Hi, Sheriff Jody! *waves*
I do so love the chemistry between these two. Jody can take Bobby's snark and hand it right back to him. She calls him on his garbage, and is nice to him in spite of his protests.
She can cook . . . -ish, so she's gonna fix him something to eat and straighten the place up a bit. It's the least she can do, she says.
I really rather like Kim Rhodes.
Jody also makes sure that Bobby knows they're on a first name basis.
Bobby heads to the basement in time to see the leviathan head being reattached. *sigh* Bobby decapitates Chet again.
A random car driving down the road isn't so random. It's the Winchesters' new wheels. This no doubt ill-gotten car comes completely with squeaky My Little Pony pegasus hanging from the rearview. Dean is in a sulky bad mood and will have no such cheer. He pulls out his knife, cuts down the pegasus, and tosses it in the back with a dying squeak.
It's bad enough they're killing people looking like Sam and Dean, but now Dean has to drive that car while Baby's on lockdown.
"It's temporary, Dean," Sam says.
"Nobody puts Baby in a corner," Dean sulks.
"You know that's a line from--"
"Swayze movie. Swayze always gets a pass."
Hee! That tickles me so. And you know? I've been reminded that this is not the first reference Dean has made to Swayze. Reference IMToD, another excellent episode.
Sam offers some tunes and turns on the radio.
To Air Supply's "All Out of Love." Ha!
Sam reaches to find something else, but Dean says it's okay, that it's probably the only thing on.
But really, Dean is a closet Air Supply fan (or rock ballad fan). Lip syncing! Ha!!! Love it!
Sam, ooh, is a bit unnerved. About the time Dean starts headbanging to the accompaniment, Sam turns off the radio.
Now I want fic about the times Dean hunted solo and sang at the top of his lungs to Air Supply.
Sam studies the map and has discovered the pattern. He reads off the list of cities that the twins have hit, and it's the towns Sam and Dean worked cases in, in order, from the time Sam joined Dean from Stanford. Next town: St. Louis.
Where Dean killed a shapeshifter wearing his face! *flail*
I love how the music here builds, only to stop short of dramatic climax as Dean fondly mentions the burgers at Connor's Diner.
Interior, Connor's Diner. As the camera travels down the counter toward Sam and Dean, we see a man and a woman with blonde hair sitting at the counter. Word on the street is that that's Jensen's sister and her husband. That has been confirmed by S.E. Hinton, who is also an extra in this scene. Fascinating trivia, no?
But Dean starts talking about himself in the third person, and guess what. That's not Sam and Dean. That's the evil twins. And the following conversation is hilarious.
Dean has a burger everyday, an in his heart, thinks it's almost as good as sex. LeviaDean, however, finds burgers disgusting.
LeviaSam is equally put off of dead plants with creamy goo (which is now how I thought of the salad I had the other day).
LeviaDean can't stand RealDean. Hero complex, for one. And Dean doesn't have relationships, he has applications for sainthood. (I'm still chewing on that one.) He also thinks he's hilarious.
LeviaSam doesn't have it any better. RealSam's got SatanVision on the inside. (So yes, it would seem that Sam is still hallucinating, which we knew. But this could come back to haunt them later in the season.)
Best exchange of the scene:
LeviaSam: You know, I had a brother with this many issues once.
LeviaDean: Yeah?
LS: You know what I did?
LD: Hm.
LS: I ate him.
LD: Of course you did.
Just so matter of fact. I just love the way the guys played this scene. If it weren't for the mass killing spree, I'd want to keep these guys on the show. Ha!
But then, there's that killing spree thing. *shudder*
Now, apparently, if I'd ever seen Pulp Fiction, this is the scene where I'd be going, "They were watching Pulp Fiction when they wrote this." But I haven't seen PF because, well, mass killing thing. And I'm not really a Tarantino fan. So anyway, whatever.
I will reiterate again: Dean (or in this case, LeviaDean) standing on the counter in that stance is disturbingly hot. Disturbing because, dude, leviathan. Hot because, well, do I really need to explain. (Hot in the same way that 2014!Dean in a thigh holster is hot. Just saying'.)
Geo cracked up when he realized the boys are now driving a the Pontiac version of a Chevy Chevette, either a Pontiac T1000 or the Canadian equivalent, a Pontiac Acadian. Bobby is on the phone, telling the boys that decapitation won't kill the leviathans, but it will slow them down. In the background, Jody asks Bobby if he takes mayo. This is not lost on Dean, who gives Bobby a hard time about it, while Bobby denies it and tells the idjit to shut up.
The boys plan on hitting St. Louis next, but they're too late. Which makes their next stop Ankeny, Iowa (Hookman).
LeviaFeds arrive at Connor's Diner. The cop who was first at the scene shows them the video recording the kid made of the incident. Poor Sam and Dean. Between the rep Dean got the first time they passed through St. Louis, and the jail time they did in Baltimore, then the whole Milwaukee thing, and Monument, Colorado . . . Sam and Dean Winchester will never be able to show their faces in polite society. (Makes me wonder if Dean was using his Winchester name when he was with Lisa, of if he was using something else.)
And there's evil wink #2! *flail* (Which is a different, more shuddery *flail* than the *flail* that goes with mischievous wink ala "Monster Movie.")
In the basement, Bobby has decided to try electrocution. However, when he's hooking up the clamps, he brushes against Chet, giving him his DNA, and voila. LeviaBobby. And thanks to LeviaBobby, we get backstory. And now we have a specific idea of why Bobby is so fond of Dean. Bobby apparently sees some of himself in Dean.
It's a sunny day in Ankeny, Iowa, as Winchesters walk down the sidewalk and LeviaWinchesters pull up on the other side of the street in the LeviaImpala. As Dean pulls out his phone to call Bobby, he admires the wheels on the imposter 'Pala and vows to steal the rims for Baby. Heh!
Dean calls Bobby to tell him that they've got eyes on the levier!chesters. They've gotta move in, but Bobby warns 'em not to. It becomes a moot point when the local cops surround them and arrest them. The levier!chesters see what's happening and get back in the car. LeviaDean eyeballs Dean and winks (evil wink #3!) as they pull away.
LeviaBobby taunts Bobby, trying to get under his skin (so to speak). Bobby, as it turns out, isn't really a cynic. Deep down, he still has hope. He's got a crush on Sheriff Jody. LeviaBobby taunts and threatens, and Bobby gets his machete. He introduces LeviaBobby to Robert Browning, whom LeviaBobby decides he's going to look up.
Just as Bobby raises the blade for another decapitation, something drips from the ceiling, landing on the leviathan and burning him. Badly. So badly he starts shouting, "Get it off of me!" What is this strange substance dripping from the ceiling?
Bobby races upstairs to find Jody cleaning up a spill of some sort. He plants a big kiss on her, which totally takes her by surprise. Hee! Then he asks what's in her cleaning bucket.
At the Ankeny police station, Sam and Dean are in custody. Sam gets taken to the interview room, while Dean is take to a cell. The two deputies leave after they've dispatched their prisoners, but you know it's not that easy, right? LD and LS see the deputies leave, and the next thing we know, we've got levier!deputies chowing down on a third deputy.
Sheriff (not Jody) checks on Dean in his cell, and Dean demands his phone call. Eventually, Sheriff-not-Jody allows it. Dean calls Bobby and gets the low-down: Borax to slow 'em down and distract them; decapitation to stop them. And keep the heads separate. Sheriff Not Jody is disgusted. Dean warns him to gather up all the borax in the joint, but no go.
Now, I've seen a lot of complaints that Borax is too mundane. But you know? That's why I love it. It's not consecrated iron or rock salt shotgun shells or holy water or a potion (well, unless you count detergent and water a potion) or ritual or incantation. It's so incredibly mundane. And that something so indestructible could be taken down by something so mundane is just . . . wonderful. And very true to life, because how many people have been brought down by a tiny germ or virus, you know? Or lives sent into spiral by taking up a habit that seems so innocuous at first, but ends up being a very destructive thing?
Borax takes no special prep time (other than maybe mixing it with water). I kinda love the idea.
As Not Jody heads back to central booking, he sees one of his deputies eating another one of his deputies. The third deputy scolds the chowing down deputy, and they morph back into leviaSam and leviaDean.
Stunned, Not Jody heads back to Dean's cell and lets him out.
In the interrogation room, Sam gets a visit from Dean, except it's not Dean. And this is one of the most awesomely acted scenes an ep full of awesomely acted scenes. "I'm not your brother." Yipes! "But I am Dean-adjacent."
Meanwhile, Dean takes the gun off of the dead cop and crosses paths with an adjacent Sammy.
D: Sammy?
LS: *deadly stare*
D: Not Sammy.
Dean then promptly gets tossed into a display case.
In interrogation, Sam's getting an earful as to why the leviathan hates the Winchesters. "I just don't get it. You could be anything. You're strong, you're uninhibited. You're smart enough, believe it or not. But you're so caught up in being good and taking care of each other. . . . You're missing a perfectly good opportunity to subjugate the weak." And this appears to be the leviathan's end game. World domination. Not so different from the demons getting Lucifer out of the cage. But we'll find out later what leviathans think of demons.
Allow me to pause a moment and say again how much I love the way Jensen is playing this. He's really quite scary.
In booking, the sheriff (not Jody, of course) douses leviaSam in borax, and Dean chops its head off with a fire ax.
LeviaDean is going in for the kill. Tells Sam that Dean thinks Sam is nuts and off his game. Sam is unfazed. LeviaDean slyly lands the final blow: "I guess that's why Dean never told you that he killed Amy." Again, I love the way Jensen plays it, delivered in profile, with a sly, arrogant smile and his eyes sliding to the side to watch his handiwork.
This, Sam was not expecting. Of course not. LeviaDean is delighted.
Dean and sheriff burst into the room, do the their splash-and-slash thing, and there ya go. "Wow, that felt good," Dean says. Sheriff uncuffs Sam from the table. Dean asks if there's any way the sheriff can make Sam and Dean be "dead." Sheriff Not Jody thinks he should be able to swing that. Cool.
Dean tells Sam they need to clean the place up, but Sam is in a daze. He says he's okay, but . . . Yeah. Not so much.
Feds show up, and sheriff and ME make their report. Sheriff got the drop on them, cause of death multiple gunshot wounds. And oh, the bodies are already at the funeral home being cremated. Feds are appropriately disgruntled by this development, but Valente points out that no bodies means no paperwork. They leave.
Sheriff Jody (yes, Jody) is getting ready to leave the cabin. Bobby thanks her for her help, and she says if he needs anything else, let her know. There is one more thing, Bobby says, and the looks she gives him is all kinds of knowingly smitten.
He hands her a box and tells her not to open it, even if it starts talking. Especially if it starts talking. This begs the question: How can a head without lungs to make the vocal cords work, talk? But, given this show, it could happen. Bobby tells Jody to throw the box in the drink. Which, again, begs the question: Wouldn't that just release the leviathan into the water? Or are these things made up of goo that needs to be all in one mass to work?
Bobby sends Jody off with a gentle kiss on the cheek. Oh, yes, these two are good for each other. (Especially Jody for Bobby.)
Back at the Ankeny sheriff's station, the ME, who is Sheriff Not Jody's daughter, asks WT??? 'Cause this isn't blood. Agent Valente shows up and says that she's absolutely right. And btw, he's a leviathan and chows down on them both. (The question now is when did the Feds get replaced? I was suspicious of them the moment they appeared on screen. I guess it doesn't matter now.)
Valente makes a call to a superior to report in. The guy he reports to appears to be a corporate big wig. Is this the Big Boss Baddie? I'm not 100% convinced. I expect Cas to show up as Big Boss eventually. But for now, I'll take CEO as Big Boss.
He tells Valente they need to take another approach. Best line of the scene: "Those boys coming back from the dead again starts to strain credulity." Dude, we passed credulity strain several seasons ago. Ha!
So it's back to the drawing board, but Valente better call with a win the next time, or Big Boss will have to BIB him. Not sure what that stands for, but coming from someone who will actually eat you, I'm thinking that's exactly what it means--a bib.
Big Boss, aka Mr. Roman, settles into his limo with his newspaper. And who should appear for a vista but . . .
Crowley! \o/
Always looking to make a deal, Crowley broaches the topic of a joint venture with their adjacent holdings.
Why should they be friends, Mr. Roman (Dick) asks. "Well," Crowley says, "I brought you here. Opened the door to Purgatory."
"To steal every last soul, you mean," Mr. Roman says. And this makes me wonder . . . How do leviathans feel about other monsters? I mean, if monsters end up in Purgatory, and leviathans were the first residents there, do they feel a certain kinship? And what about Echidna Eve, Mother of All Monsters? Was she perhaps a leviathan? Or did they view other monsters as encroachers? Hm . . .
As it turns out, Big Boss thinks even less of demons than he does of humans, which is saying something. The fact that leviathans won't work with demons says something, though perhaps not what I'd say about them. Leviathans see demons as bottom feeders (thus giving actual bottom feeders a bad name), whereas humans view demons as evil. Semantics? Maybe. But this is going to get into the whole "enemy of my enemy" thing that Crowley so loves to play, isn't it?
Now, this last scene. I know a lot of people have complained about it, and I was pretty non-plussed by it myself at first, but dodger_winslow had some pretty insightful observations about it. Not saying I agree with her on everything in her meta, but she's seeing some balance and growth here, and I'm all on board with that.
Sam has just had his "stone #1" revealed as having lied to him. I get that he's upset and that he needs some space.
Otoh, Dean's initial reaction to Sam's "I can't do this. I can't talk to you. I can't be around you right now" is exactly what he feared would happen--that Sam would leave. Because that's what Sam does when he discovers Dean has done something he doesn't like. Dean wants to follow Dad's orders, Sam leaves ("Scarecrow"). Dean keeps a secret because he promised Dad, Sam leaves ("Hunted"). In "Good God, Y'All," Sam left because he wasn't fit to hunt, but he was surprised when Dean didn't try to stop him. And here, we have it again. Dean lets Sam go without saying a word to try to convince him otherwise.
So when Sam tells Dean, "I think you should just go on without me. Go," Dean nods, says, "Alright. Sorry, Sam," and gets back in the car as Sam walks down the pier (which does not dead end at the water, but turns to the left). Dean has come to expect Sam's leaving, and accept it.
Also, not a very prudent move at this juncture. Because Bad Things happen when the boys split up. (Reference "Scarecrow," "Hunted," and "Good God, Y'All"/"True to Be You and Me"/"The End.")
Oh, boys. *cuffs upside head*
It's almost Friday!