Rewatching 2-21 All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1
We are nearing the close of Season 2. Before I get into my review, I want to let you in on what I am planning after we finish this Season. As with last season, I am planning a poll on rating all of Season 2 and a week of speed answer quizzes on Season 2 episodes which may or may not include a special present for one or more of our main participants (If you have any ideas on that... a small gift from Japan, a virtualgift, an icon/gif/banner gift...let me know!). I will be continuing the rewatches into Season 3 and beyond (can't wait!!) so hope you stay with me for a long long time ;)
All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1 is the most shocking of episodes since Season 1 finale. So shocking that it is hard for some Sam girls to watch. For Dean girls as well, this is the most heartbreaking episode, and yet so worth watching for that exact reason. The last scene is possibly one of the most painful but best scenes of the whole series for me at least.
MUSIC LINKS
"Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston
(plays during "The Road So Far" recap of events and through the opening)
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" by Martyn Laight (CPM - Carlin Production Music)
(plays as Dean searches the diner for Sam)
"Opening" by Darker My Love
(plays when Ash tells Dean to come to the Roadhouse)
The first scene is of Dean and Sam stopping at a diner in the middle of a very wet neighborhood at night on their way - possibly to another hunt. For them this is nothing out of the ordinary. We have a cute bit of banter before Sam goes in to get them some dinner.
I wonder what would have happened if they had gone in together. Would Dean have been killed? Would he have been able to stop the demon? But it's possible they were in a hurry and planning to drive a bit more before eating. Dean stays behind.
I love this scene - first for the brotherly banter, but I think even more for the fact that this is the last memory that they will have of each other.
As Dean waits for Sam, his radio goes haywire. After first taping it to see if it is a "radio line" type problem, Dean looks outside and realizes that something is wrong. It is too quiet and he can no longer see anyone in the shop.
Dean dashes out of the car and into the diner to find the throats cut of everyone there and the back door laced with sulfer - no sign of Sam.
We feel the building dread within Dean - that what he had been fearing has happened. He rushes outside.
Dean:SAAAAM!
Sam wakes up on the ground in the middle of a ghost town.
As he walks down a row of rundown shops, he hears a sound. Picking up a board laying there, he quietly prepares to defend himself against.... he has no idea what (although maybe he did smell the sulfur before being abducted...we do not know)
SAM: Andy?
ANDY: Sam! What are you doing here?
SAM: I don’t know.
ANDY: What am I doing here?!
SAM: I don’t know.
ANDY: Where are we?!
SAM: Andy, look, calm down.
ANDY: I can’t calm down! I just woke up in freaking Frontierland!
Andy is blabbering - obviously from shock. He tells Sam about being in the middle of a smoke when he smelled sulfur, and asks Sam where Dean is. Sam can't say. He is worried that Dean may be dead. Then, they hear a woman shouting from inside a deserted building, which is locked from the outside. Sam breaks the lock open and they find Ava.
Ava acts surprised to see Sam. I wonder if she was actually expecting to see Sam at some point? It is interesting to think of how she must have got her pet demon to lock her in. Boy, is Ava a good actor. She could get any part she wanted with that ability to cry at will aye?! Sam doesn't suspect a thing - he may think it strange that she has been gone for so long but believes her story since this is demons they are talking about. Then they hear other voices and find two more people.
Sam introduces himself (always the leader aye?)
Jake: I'm Jake
Lily: Lily
He explains that they all have psychic powers and have been brought here for a reason. Andy tries to help but ... he's talking too much again. Asked who has brought them here, Sam reluctantly tells them that it is a demon. Naturally, both Jake and Lily - and Andy for that matter - have a hard time believing in demons(Ava also pretends that it is ludicrous). Jake ends up going off on his own, where he finds a demon lurking.
If it weren't for Sam, he probably would have been killed by it. We know on a rewatch that this demon is being controlled by Ava so it is interesting to speculate whether she called the demon after Jake went off, or it was just there on its own. Also interesting to see that girl from Benders again (it is right?) :D
SAM: Now, that thing - I’m not sure, but I think it was an Acheri. A demon that disguises itself as a little girl. That still doesn’t tell us where we are. Andy, are you with me or what?
ANDY:Give me a minute. I’m still working through, “Demons are real”.
Jake believes Sam after that, but Lily still wants to be on her own. Maybe she just doesn't want to kill anybody or she's just too freaked out to be rational. She pretends to go with them for a while and then sneaks off. Ava sends the demon after her and this time she succeeds ... lights out for Lily. Sam actually sees Ava massaging her temple and asks her if she is alright - whether she is having a vision, but Ava brushes it off.
The others are listening to Sam and getting stuff ready to fight demons.
Sam also notices the bell and knows he has seen it before. He remembers where he is.
Andy amazingly finds two bags of salt in an abandoned town... it seems like the YED has been putting stuff in places for them to use. Sam also finds a knife later as they are salting the rooms etc.
They then realized that Lily is not there and go out to find her handing from the old windmill. Ava shows us her excellent acting skills once again.
While that's happening, (I'm going out of order a bit here) Dean has got Bobby to come and help him find Sam. He's hoping there has been demon activity somewhere to show him where Sam might be, but Bobby tells him there has been absolutely nothing.
Then he gets a phone call from Ash, whom he has also called to get info. Ash has found something, but it is so big he can't talk about it over the phone. We see him looking at his watch, which we will see again later. Dean and Bobby have no choice but to drive by the Roadhouse.
When they get to the Roadhouse, it is burned to a crisp. Obviously along with all the people inside. It must have been a sudden explosion. I wonder how the YED could have done that... Maybe one of the hunters there was possessed? Dean finds Ash's arm with his watch on it, in ashes. This is a terrible shock to Dean and to Bobby. Not only have they lost Ash, their friend and ally but a whole bunch of other hunters as well. And where is Ellen? (Thank God, we think, that she just happened not to be there at that moment.)
Jumping back to Sam, Sam is saying how he wished Dean was there showing how worried and alone he feels in all this mess. Andy suggests that maybe he can use telepathy to send Dean a vision. Sam gives him a receipt of Dean's.
SAM: Uh…I’ve got a receipt. Would that work?
ANDY: Yeah. D. Hasselhoff?
SAM: Yeah, that’s Dean’s signature. It’s hard to explain.
ANDY: All right.
Dean and Bobby are at a loss when suddenly Dean gets a blinding headache and he could have sworn he saw something. Bobby's like... "a vision? like what Sam gets?"
DEAN: Come on, I’m not some psychic.
Then it happens again. This time he sees Sam and the bell clearly.
BOBBY: Dean? Dean! Are you with me?
DEAN: Yeah, I think so. I saw Sam. I saw him, Bobby.
BOBBY: It was a vision.
DEAN: Yeah. I don’t know how, but yeah. Whew. That was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels.
Dean doesn't recognize the bell but Bobby does and they are on their way.
Back with Sam, Jake and Sam have their little talk about leaders and how they have to keep calm despite their fear in order to keep the others calm etc. Jake can see through Sam even though he is putting a good face on it all. He respects Sam.
SAM: You wanna know the truth? I got this brother, right? And he’s always telling me how he’s gonna watch out for me, how everything’s gonna be okay. You know, kind of like I’ve been telling them.
JAKE: Yeah?
SAM: I don’t know if I believe it this time. I mean, the size of what’s coming - it’s bigger than anyone has ever seen. I mean, it’s gonna get bad. And I don’t know if-
JAKE: If we’re gonna make it? It doesn’t matter if we believe it. Only matters that they do.
Sam has said something along these lines before in Houses of the Holy. That he knew Dean was looking out for him, but he wished there was something bigger and powerful on their side. Even though, here, it is a premonition of what actually happens in this episode - that Dean is too late to save him and he does not survive - but Sam (still) doesn't understand the extent of Dean's love and purpose in life.
[Spoiler for Season 9 (click to open)]Thinking of Season 9, and how Sam must surely blame Dean for this very first act against nature -- bringing Sam back to life -- I can only say that the Apocalypse would have happened whether they had been a part of it or not. If Sam had died and gone to heaven, there would have been a replacement for him. If Dean had not gone to hell, again, someone else would have broken the seal and that Apocalypse may have been much worse for humankind than the one that they stopped. I hope against hope that Sam will figure this out.
Sam goes back to the salted room to find Ava. He asks her how she is, and when she tells him she just wants to go home to her fiance and watch boring tv, Sam tells her about finding him dead when she went missing.
This conversation is not all fake on Ava's part, I don't think. She maybe really does want to go back to the way things were. Maybe she really doesn't know that her fiance is dead. Maybe her whole purpose was to get out of there and go back. And for her, this means giving in to the demands of the YED.
That night, Sam gets his visit from the YED in a dream. Sam finds out that the YED had been in his bedroom not to kill his mother but to "mark" him. That his mother's death had been an accident. He had been the reason - as he suspected in Season 1 already. He also finds out that Jessica was killed to get him out of the "normal life" and into hunting again, in preparation for the future the YED had planned for him. Not as one of many soldiers in the "war" but the one. The best of the bunch.
(I love the way the YED calls him "Sammy" here. Scary and perfect.)
I mentioned in Season 1 Episode 1 that all this planning may have also included the disappearance of dad - to force Dean to go and find Sam. And how about those encounters with Meg? Also to check up on Sam? See how his powers were coming along etc.? And of course Croatoan too.
The YED gives Sam a little tour of what went on in his room that night. Sam (and we) find out that Mary knew the YED and recognized him before being killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the reason the YED had been there was to give Sam some of his blood - "Better than mother's milk."
After the "show" Sam is woken up by Jake telling him that Ava is missing. They go out to find her and while they are gone, Ava gets her pet demon to kill Andy (Poor Andy! what a gruesome death too)...
...and when Sam comes back to her screaming, she pretends she doesn't know a thing. Sam, however, notices the broken salt line then remembers how she was holding her temple when Lily died... and he realizes the truth. Ava again with her acting! Suddenly stops the charade and tells Sam everything. Just as she is calling the demon to kill Sam...
(We get a scene of Dean and Bobby coming to the edge of the forest around the town and getting out of the car to come on foot. HURRY DEAN! HURRY!! )
...Jake comes back and kills Ava.
On a first viewing, we are thinking Jake as being on Sam's side, and more so now that he has killed Ava to "save Sam's life" but in truth, I guess he is just getting rid of her while she is focused on Sam since he doesn't really have a chance otherwise. Sam, on the other hand, is maybe easier to handle with Jake's superpower. As they walk outside, Jake tells Sam about his own YED dream. How they cannot get out of there together - that the YED will not allow it. He almost seems to be reasoning with Sam to get him to agree that there is no other choice but to fight it out. Sam tries to get Jake to trust him by putting his knife down. Jake puts his bar down too, but Jake has superpowers and is pretty much a weapon himself. Punches Sam and Sam goes flying into the fence, breaking it. It is amazing how Sam can hold his own though in this fight. And he ends up knocking Jake out. As he goes for the final blow, he stops.
I can almost hear it going through his head - killing Jake would be what the YED wanted. Damned if he was going to be what the demon wanted him to be. He puts the bar down and turns around to Dean's voice. We see Jake get up, pick up the darn knife that Sam had thrown down... and stab Sam in the back.
Love...Heartbreak...
We remember way back in the pilot how Dean left Sam to his normal life despite wanting him desperately to go with him... back to sacrifice when Dean tells Sam that if killing the YED meant losing their family he hoped they never found him. Croatoan, when he'd rather die with Sam then go on without him... BUABS when he refuses to kill Sam...WIAWSNB, when he comes back from his dream for Sam, even though he so wanted to stay. We've known that Dean loves his brother. We've known that he grew up taking care of his brother and dad's last instructions to him before dying and going to hell for him were "take care of Sammy." Ever since Sam started having the visions, since they began to understand that this had something to do with the Demon, Dean has promised Sam that he would take care of him. He wouldn't let anything happen to him.
So what does he do now?
All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1 is the most shocking of episodes since Season 1 finale. So shocking that it is hard for some Sam girls to watch. For Dean girls as well, this is the most heartbreaking episode, and yet so worth watching for that exact reason. The last scene is possibly one of the most painful but best scenes of the whole series for me at least.
MUSIC LINKS
"Foreplay/Long Time" by Boston
(plays during "The Road So Far" recap of events and through the opening)
"Wrapped Around Your Finger" by Martyn Laight (CPM - Carlin Production Music)
(plays as Dean searches the diner for Sam)
"Opening" by Darker My Love
(plays when Ash tells Dean to come to the Roadhouse)
The first scene is of Dean and Sam stopping at a diner in the middle of a very wet neighborhood at night on their way - possibly to another hunt. For them this is nothing out of the ordinary. We have a cute bit of banter before Sam goes in to get them some dinner.
I wonder what would have happened if they had gone in together. Would Dean have been killed? Would he have been able to stop the demon? But it's possible they were in a hurry and planning to drive a bit more before eating. Dean stays behind.
I love this scene - first for the brotherly banter, but I think even more for the fact that this is the last memory that they will have of each other.
As Dean waits for Sam, his radio goes haywire. After first taping it to see if it is a "radio line" type problem, Dean looks outside and realizes that something is wrong. It is too quiet and he can no longer see anyone in the shop.
Dean dashes out of the car and into the diner to find the throats cut of everyone there and the back door laced with sulfer - no sign of Sam.
We feel the building dread within Dean - that what he had been fearing has happened. He rushes outside.
Dean:SAAAAM!
Sam wakes up on the ground in the middle of a ghost town.
As he walks down a row of rundown shops, he hears a sound. Picking up a board laying there, he quietly prepares to defend himself against.... he has no idea what (although maybe he did smell the sulfur before being abducted...we do not know)
SAM: Andy?
ANDY: Sam! What are you doing here?
SAM: I don’t know.
ANDY: What am I doing here?!
SAM: I don’t know.
ANDY: Where are we?!
SAM: Andy, look, calm down.
ANDY: I can’t calm down! I just woke up in freaking Frontierland!
Andy is blabbering - obviously from shock. He tells Sam about being in the middle of a smoke when he smelled sulfur, and asks Sam where Dean is. Sam can't say. He is worried that Dean may be dead. Then, they hear a woman shouting from inside a deserted building, which is locked from the outside. Sam breaks the lock open and they find Ava.
Ava acts surprised to see Sam. I wonder if she was actually expecting to see Sam at some point? It is interesting to think of how she must have got her pet demon to lock her in. Boy, is Ava a good actor. She could get any part she wanted with that ability to cry at will aye?! Sam doesn't suspect a thing - he may think it strange that she has been gone for so long but believes her story since this is demons they are talking about. Then they hear other voices and find two more people.
Sam introduces himself (always the leader aye?)
Jake: I'm Jake
Lily: Lily
He explains that they all have psychic powers and have been brought here for a reason. Andy tries to help but ... he's talking too much again. Asked who has brought them here, Sam reluctantly tells them that it is a demon. Naturally, both Jake and Lily - and Andy for that matter - have a hard time believing in demons(Ava also pretends that it is ludicrous). Jake ends up going off on his own, where he finds a demon lurking.
If it weren't for Sam, he probably would have been killed by it. We know on a rewatch that this demon is being controlled by Ava so it is interesting to speculate whether she called the demon after Jake went off, or it was just there on its own. Also interesting to see that girl from Benders again (it is right?) :D
SAM: Now, that thing - I’m not sure, but I think it was an Acheri. A demon that disguises itself as a little girl. That still doesn’t tell us where we are. Andy, are you with me or what?
ANDY:Give me a minute. I’m still working through, “Demons are real”.
Jake believes Sam after that, but Lily still wants to be on her own. Maybe she just doesn't want to kill anybody or she's just too freaked out to be rational. She pretends to go with them for a while and then sneaks off. Ava sends the demon after her and this time she succeeds ... lights out for Lily. Sam actually sees Ava massaging her temple and asks her if she is alright - whether she is having a vision, but Ava brushes it off.
The others are listening to Sam and getting stuff ready to fight demons.
Sam also notices the bell and knows he has seen it before. He remembers where he is.
Andy amazingly finds two bags of salt in an abandoned town... it seems like the YED has been putting stuff in places for them to use. Sam also finds a knife later as they are salting the rooms etc.
They then realized that Lily is not there and go out to find her handing from the old windmill. Ava shows us her excellent acting skills once again.
While that's happening, (I'm going out of order a bit here) Dean has got Bobby to come and help him find Sam. He's hoping there has been demon activity somewhere to show him where Sam might be, but Bobby tells him there has been absolutely nothing.
Then he gets a phone call from Ash, whom he has also called to get info. Ash has found something, but it is so big he can't talk about it over the phone. We see him looking at his watch, which we will see again later. Dean and Bobby have no choice but to drive by the Roadhouse.
When they get to the Roadhouse, it is burned to a crisp. Obviously along with all the people inside. It must have been a sudden explosion. I wonder how the YED could have done that... Maybe one of the hunters there was possessed? Dean finds Ash's arm with his watch on it, in ashes. This is a terrible shock to Dean and to Bobby. Not only have they lost Ash, their friend and ally but a whole bunch of other hunters as well. And where is Ellen? (Thank God, we think, that she just happened not to be there at that moment.)
Jumping back to Sam, Sam is saying how he wished Dean was there showing how worried and alone he feels in all this mess. Andy suggests that maybe he can use telepathy to send Dean a vision. Sam gives him a receipt of Dean's.
SAM: Uh…I’ve got a receipt. Would that work?
ANDY: Yeah. D. Hasselhoff?
SAM: Yeah, that’s Dean’s signature. It’s hard to explain.
ANDY: All right.
Dean and Bobby are at a loss when suddenly Dean gets a blinding headache and he could have sworn he saw something. Bobby's like... "a vision? like what Sam gets?"
DEAN: Come on, I’m not some psychic.
Then it happens again. This time he sees Sam and the bell clearly.
BOBBY: Dean? Dean! Are you with me?
DEAN: Yeah, I think so. I saw Sam. I saw him, Bobby.
BOBBY: It was a vision.
DEAN: Yeah. I don’t know how, but yeah. Whew. That was about as fun as getting kicked in the jewels.
Dean doesn't recognize the bell but Bobby does and they are on their way.
Back with Sam, Jake and Sam have their little talk about leaders and how they have to keep calm despite their fear in order to keep the others calm etc. Jake can see through Sam even though he is putting a good face on it all. He respects Sam.
SAM: You wanna know the truth? I got this brother, right? And he’s always telling me how he’s gonna watch out for me, how everything’s gonna be okay. You know, kind of like I’ve been telling them.
JAKE: Yeah?
SAM: I don’t know if I believe it this time. I mean, the size of what’s coming - it’s bigger than anyone has ever seen. I mean, it’s gonna get bad. And I don’t know if-
JAKE: If we’re gonna make it? It doesn’t matter if we believe it. Only matters that they do.
Sam has said something along these lines before in Houses of the Holy. That he knew Dean was looking out for him, but he wished there was something bigger and powerful on their side. Even though, here, it is a premonition of what actually happens in this episode - that Dean is too late to save him and he does not survive - but Sam (still) doesn't understand the extent of Dean's love and purpose in life.
[Spoiler for Season 9 (click to open)]Thinking of Season 9, and how Sam must surely blame Dean for this very first act against nature -- bringing Sam back to life -- I can only say that the Apocalypse would have happened whether they had been a part of it or not. If Sam had died and gone to heaven, there would have been a replacement for him. If Dean had not gone to hell, again, someone else would have broken the seal and that Apocalypse may have been much worse for humankind than the one that they stopped. I hope against hope that Sam will figure this out.
Sam goes back to the salted room to find Ava. He asks her how she is, and when she tells him she just wants to go home to her fiance and watch boring tv, Sam tells her about finding him dead when she went missing.
This conversation is not all fake on Ava's part, I don't think. She maybe really does want to go back to the way things were. Maybe she really doesn't know that her fiance is dead. Maybe her whole purpose was to get out of there and go back. And for her, this means giving in to the demands of the YED.
That night, Sam gets his visit from the YED in a dream. Sam finds out that the YED had been in his bedroom not to kill his mother but to "mark" him. That his mother's death had been an accident. He had been the reason - as he suspected in Season 1 already. He also finds out that Jessica was killed to get him out of the "normal life" and into hunting again, in preparation for the future the YED had planned for him. Not as one of many soldiers in the "war" but the one. The best of the bunch.
(I love the way the YED calls him "Sammy" here. Scary and perfect.)
I mentioned in Season 1 Episode 1 that all this planning may have also included the disappearance of dad - to force Dean to go and find Sam. And how about those encounters with Meg? Also to check up on Sam? See how his powers were coming along etc.? And of course Croatoan too.
The YED gives Sam a little tour of what went on in his room that night. Sam (and we) find out that Mary knew the YED and recognized him before being killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the reason the YED had been there was to give Sam some of his blood - "Better than mother's milk."
After the "show" Sam is woken up by Jake telling him that Ava is missing. They go out to find her and while they are gone, Ava gets her pet demon to kill Andy (Poor Andy! what a gruesome death too)...
...and when Sam comes back to her screaming, she pretends she doesn't know a thing. Sam, however, notices the broken salt line then remembers how she was holding her temple when Lily died... and he realizes the truth. Ava again with her acting! Suddenly stops the charade and tells Sam everything. Just as she is calling the demon to kill Sam...
(We get a scene of Dean and Bobby coming to the edge of the forest around the town and getting out of the car to come on foot. HURRY DEAN! HURRY!! )
...Jake comes back and kills Ava.
On a first viewing, we are thinking Jake as being on Sam's side, and more so now that he has killed Ava to "save Sam's life" but in truth, I guess he is just getting rid of her while she is focused on Sam since he doesn't really have a chance otherwise. Sam, on the other hand, is maybe easier to handle with Jake's superpower. As they walk outside, Jake tells Sam about his own YED dream. How they cannot get out of there together - that the YED will not allow it. He almost seems to be reasoning with Sam to get him to agree that there is no other choice but to fight it out. Sam tries to get Jake to trust him by putting his knife down. Jake puts his bar down too, but Jake has superpowers and is pretty much a weapon himself. Punches Sam and Sam goes flying into the fence, breaking it. It is amazing how Sam can hold his own though in this fight. And he ends up knocking Jake out. As he goes for the final blow, he stops.
I can almost hear it going through his head - killing Jake would be what the YED wanted. Damned if he was going to be what the demon wanted him to be. He puts the bar down and turns around to Dean's voice. We see Jake get up, pick up the darn knife that Sam had thrown down... and stab Sam in the back.
Love...Heartbreak...
We remember way back in the pilot how Dean left Sam to his normal life despite wanting him desperately to go with him... back to sacrifice when Dean tells Sam that if killing the YED meant losing their family he hoped they never found him. Croatoan, when he'd rather die with Sam then go on without him... BUABS when he refuses to kill Sam...WIAWSNB, when he comes back from his dream for Sam, even though he so wanted to stay. We've known that Dean loves his brother. We've known that he grew up taking care of his brother and dad's last instructions to him before dying and going to hell for him were "take care of Sammy." Ever since Sam started having the visions, since they began to understand that this had something to do with the Demon, Dean has promised Sam that he would take care of him. He wouldn't let anything happen to him.
So what does he do now?