Let’s all talk about Wishful Thinking (S4 E8)
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I watched this before I set up this discussion thread, so I’ll go ahead and comment.
This was never one of my favorites. I had not seen it in a long time and what struck me most on rewatch was how SLOWLY it moved. It felt like this episode was 90 minutes long! And, for me, the suicidal teddy bear thing was just weird. THAT’S how your teddy bear wish goes wrong? Seems more of a punishment for the bear, not the little girl who can’t understand – though I guess she IS disappointed that the bear doesn’t want to do what she wants to do. And then the bear is still alive after shooting itself! But anyway…not a fan of the teddy bear and it was a writer’s idea that just didn’t work for me.
I get it. Wishes go bad. If you try to control everything and get what you want, maybe that is not what you should really have. The “puzzle” of this episode (what’s going on in the town) leads to tons of confused looks between Sam and Dean; it’s pretty much their permanent expression.
The coin in the wishing well from Grandpa’s coin collection was a bit weak for me too. There were too many attempts at too many different kinds of comedy here – physical comedy trying to get the coin out of the well…Dean cracking his usual jokes (which I like) – making things unlikely like tiny bullied kid chasing bigger kids (not great acting there).
Things that don’t make sense like the little girls’ parents wishing only themselves off to Bora Bora (cute detail – when we see them walk past with her in the end they’re all sunburned; never noticed that before) – so was the girl supposed to fend for herself??? She’s living alone?
Anyway….
I do like that neither Sam nor Dean take the bait (except for Dean wanting to test it with the sandwich). The only good parts of this one to me were the places where they reveal what they’re thinking. Dean thinks Sam would wish to undo getting back into hunting and instead, Sam embraces hunting wanting to use his one wish for Lilith’s death.
I do like the end where Dean honestly talks to Sam about hell. We learn he remembers everything but there’s no way Sam could understand and talking about it would not make Dean feel better (while talk therapy is effective IRL, sometimes, this is very true. Talking about the trauma re-traumatizes and it’s not always the best thing). I like this conversation because DEAN has decided what is best for him; not talking about hell to placate Sam because Sam really wants hear about it; wants to be able to share some of that paint with Dean, but he really can’t. Dean’s honest and direct and in charge of what he needs. I like that.
I don’t love the message here that only hot guys could ever hope to get hot girls. I think it’s more of an issue that Ted Raimi’s character is “in between jobs” (meaning he has no direction or perhaps passion or drive) than what he looks like!
It’s an okay episode. Some kind of experimental stuff fell flat for me. Not my favorite.
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In a horrible sidebar, the child actor who played Todd the bullied kid was arrested recently for killing his mother. As the link states, he pled guilt to second degree murder and in Canada, that’s an automatic life sentence with no parole opportunity for 10 years. He’s 24 now.
Here it is:
Former B.C. child star pleads guilty to murdering his mother
I did not realize he later acted Riverdale; that’s pretty recent.
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I agree with everything you say! Never liked it much. There ARE funny scenes, yes, but they all seemed a little tortured and the episode had definite length!
I felt hit over the head in a heavy way with the “Careful what you wish for” moral of the story…..or was it “be careful how you WORD a wish”??
Audrey and her teddy were actually my favorite part as she struck me as lonely but reasonable in her wish for a life-sized teddy playmate AND she immediately tried to make up for the teddy’s bad behavior once she noticed it by returning booze and porn to the shop.
The other “wishes” were all selfish and dumb in my book.
Oh, well, they can’t be all winners.
PNP
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