Reply To: Let’s all talk about Bloody Mary (S1 E5)
One of the things I miss about the early seasons is the heavy urban legend mythology. Even I knew about Bloody Mary when I was an adolescent. I’d never EVER say her name (of course), but I recall hearing about the urban legend. I think in the version I heard as a kid, she drags you to hell. But I guess for young Catholics, everything pretty much drags your soul to hell – LOL! I love seeing the show’s spin on legends like Hookman and Bloody Mary.
I‘m probably showing my evil side, but this is one of the episodes when I didn’t really feel sorry for the stupid kids, because they kinda asked for what they got. Yes, it’s a shame the dad died, but the stupid blonde got what was coming to her. Sorry, not sorry.
I loved Dean being so protective of Sam – trying to help Sam deal with his nightmares, trying to convince Sam that Jessica’s death wasn’t his fault (although it probably was, because he didn’t warn her; probably wouldn’t have helped, but still…), and smashing the mirror and all. It’s also cool how he helped schmooze the assistant coroner, and that he won all that money gambling. I wonder if this is the episode when I started falling in love with Dean Winchester.
I love the location cameos in this one. The hospital staircase from “In My Time of Dying”, and the hospital building front have been used a few times. I guess it’s not a cameo if this is the first time we see it, though. Is there a word for that?
I think the actor who played the retired cop did an amazing job! The show really did a good job casting some of these guest stars: Constance Welch’s husband in “Pilot”, the wendigo attack survivor in “Wendigo”, the retired cop in this episode – they were all very convincing and haunting. To me, their scenes helped set the tone for the whole episode. I get that this show catered to a mostly 18 to 25 male target audience, so we needed a healthy dose of stupid young girls; but they didn’t add much to these early season episodes at all for me. The guest stars who added gravitas and credibility were the heroes for me — aside from the Winchesters, of course.
Gisa, you asked for plot armor alerts: Dean being able to single-handedly knock out TWO security guards who have night sticks and GUNS DRAWN is highly unlikely and would be considered plot armor. ?
Question: at the end of the episode, Dean and Sam are both bleeding from the eyes. I get why the curse worked on Sam, but why did it work on Dean? He didn’t kill anybody and didn’t have secrets like that. I wonder if the curse is based on whether you FEEL guilty about someone else’s death. Dean feels guilty about a metric ton of things that aren’t his fault, so that would make sense. Theories?
Speaking of secrets and guilt: Okay, Sam. It’s fine to be a priss and keep your secret. But that makes it REALLY hard on the guy who’s with you 24-7 when you keep having nightmares and having OVBIOUS signs of a problem. There was no good reason for keeping this secret. In season 2, Dean didn’t tell Sam about John’s last words because John had told him not to. And in season 7, when Dean didn’t tell Sam about killing Amy, it was because Sam was in the middle of a nervous breakdown, and Dean didn’t know if he could handle the truth. I know as the show progresses, both brothers keep secrets from time to time. But Dean (as far as I can remember) always has a good reason for keeping something secret from Sam. There was no reason for Sam to keep this secret from Dean. Sigh…