Reply To: Let’s all talk about Scarecrow (S1 E11)
I too LOVE this episode. The norse lore, the super creepy monster and awesome shooting locations. It is truly terrifying and makes me never want to wander through an orchard!! So many good lines in this scirpt one as you both already said.
This episode is also a prime example of the perfect mix of humor, horror and real drama! THAT is what drew me to SPN most (aside from the music and the vibe) and has never seized to engage me.
I always loved the scenes through the years when Sam and/or Dean go to a university or retired professor to find out about lore that the questioned individual KNOWS is just folk tales but for the Winchesters is life-or-death information. Somehow these scenes are really funny to me because they rub the real world and the Winchester universe up against each other in a special way. One would think that some of these professors worth their weight might have actually done enough research to come to believe that these things are real….but NO, they don’t. They just happily “waste” their life’s work by researching fantasy.
I found and still find the brother dynamic regarding fight, flight, reunion in this one really well done and realistic. I know I just argued that I hated the fight in ASYLUM and it’s true, but THIS one here felt like a real brotherly disagreement and blow out to me. I remember when I watched it the first time never thinking that they would never get back together. I thought that it must be hard to sit on top of each other ALL THE TIME and never having much space or time to kinda work out some of your own stuff, so Sam walking off and Dean letting him seemed logical to me at the time. And I also remember being as surprised as Sam was when Dean seemingly turns him loose and says good bye. That was a shock to me.
It all still holds up for me know, although, I see the dynamic a little more nuanced after 15 years! At first sight it’s just two young alpha males butting heads. After years of a deeper look in each of their psyches it’s layers and layers of guilt and fear of abandonment and need to be heard and jealousy and longing for a normal life and loyalty and resentment etc etc. IT IS FASCINATING.
In either case, though, it’s very well written and BEAUTIFULLY acted.
AGREED with both of you that THIS Meg was the best Meg! Just as blonde Ruby was the best Ruby. Both of these actresses have the edgy snark and quiet strength and an believable air of danger and deviousness that Rachel and Gen were lacking for me. I did love Rachel as an actress, I just wish they would have made her a DIFFERENT demon so there wasn’t the direct comparison.
Yup, this was a real gem!