journalbookbinder
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Yeah; this one was kinda “meh” for me and it started the whole, or perpetuated the whole, “Let’s have the case of the week parallel something in Sam and Dean’s lives.” So someone reanimated their girlfriend, and it’s all a metaphor for Dean thinking he should have stayed dead when he was sure John brought him back. He cries at the end, admitting this to Sam. Poor Sam; wanting Dean to talk then not really knowing how to help when he finally does.
The dead girlfriend was very horror-movie-creepy. Very dramatic to have to stake her back in the coffin! Liked their ruse (letting her overhear their plan to lure her out). I also liked the misdirect with the father. Dean so angry and Sam trying to make him back off as Sam was clear-headed enough to see that the father wasn’t acting like the guilty party…Dean was just mad about it all thanks to his own guilt over his own life being saved.
The arguments WERE really raw and good.
I loved Dean catching Sam watching porn (or about to). Dean’s always made out to be the player in these early episodes, but I love that this DOES humanize Sam…he IS a guy with needs even if he doesn’t womanize like Dean. Could probably write a dissertation on Sam watching porn instead of trying to pick up women…that would be interesting.
Jared did have a broken arm in the next episodes. I didn’t know he did it on this one!
Sterling K Brown is so good in this. It’s like he’s been playing Gordon for SO MANY years! I remember Jared talking about how he and Jensen, over the years, felt like they had a clue about spotting great talent and Sterling K Brown was one they felt was going to go far. Voila; This Is Us; he DID!
But there was so much in this one! The scenes with Dean talking to Gordon, feeling like Gordon “got” him in a way Sam didn’t were brilliant and heartbreaking! He was seeking validation (Sam later accused him of looking to Gordon as a John replacement; validating his hunting lifestyle) and just watching Jensen’s face as he did that scene…reluctant, hopeful, it was just SO MASTERFUL!!!!!
The way Ellen goes from telling Sam that Gordon’s a good hunter to insisting they stay away from him was PERFECT acting on Sam Ferris’ part! SO good. I totally believed she was scared for their safety around Gordon and that she cares about them already.
Dean was hurting after John’s death. Taking his anger out on things…killing them…ugh; the look Sam gives him when he decapitates the vampire with the saw at the mill at the start is also heartbreaking. Like he’s never seen Dean like this. And Dean WANTS to feel like this out-of-the-usual-bounds behavior is okay. Gordon tells him that it is. I think Dean wanted to be reassured that this was an okay way to deal with his loss. It’s not, but Gordon was telling him that it was.
Yes! THE MOST GORGEOUS sunflare shot of Dean EVER at the end!!!! I could watch (and have watched) that on an endless loop.
I loved the subtle humor; like Dean ramming Gordon’s head into the wall with an “Oops!” when Gordon was half out of it after the fight. Also liked them just humiliating him; making him stay tied up for a few days before calling anyone.
I was glad that Dean quickly did come around to Sam’s way of thinking…that Gordon was pretty sick. You ever tell someone something you wish you hadn’t told them? I bet Dean felt a ton of that!
I also liked the scene with Sam and Lenore; where he doesn’t really believe her, but in the end, has to.
Also some cute intimate brotherly things…down to “Remind me to beat the buzzkill out of you later.”
Just all so good. Gordon felt genuinely dangerous.
It did seem like Dean just never thought there were may other hunters out there; until the Roadhouse. So meeting Gordon, I could see, might make him feel less alone.
First of all, welcome Rosethornshurt! So glad to have more people to discuss episodes with!
Oh, I totally HATE clowns too! But I love this episode. To me, it has everything that I love in Supernatural. Humor. Creep factor. A good mystery (which carnival guy is it?). Interesting creature lore. The ROADHOUSE. And the incredibly intense ending with Dean laying into the Impala. It has it all. I put in the same category as Mystery Spot. And it started with the burning of John’s body which is huge! THIS is why I love this show; these episodes with EVERYTHING in them.
I actually FORGOT that this is the episode where we first get to see the Roadhouse. It’d kind of a revelation that there is much more of a network out there past John’s colleagues (like pastor Jim and Caleb). I LOVED Ellen immediately. Ash is also perfect. I can never get enough of him explaining to what he assumes is dim-witted Sam that MIT is a school in Massachusetts!
YES YES, RoseT – all about assumptions; nice observation. And passed-out-on-the-pool-table barfly Ash is a genius. Love that it shows there are ALL KINDS of “genius” in this world!
Loved some “real” touches like Sam burning his hand on the hot steam as the tries to break the brass tube off the calliope.
Also loved (and could watch it on an endless loop) Dean rushing to sit in the “normal” chair in the office of the carnival runner and making Sam sit in the carved clown chair; and Sam looking so very uncomfortable doing it. Just perfect acting. I also really liked that their faces are still beaten up from the car crash and previous episode. I did not like the later episodes when Cas could magically heal them; I liked that early consistency; that reminder that they had really got through some rough physical stuff!
When they ditch Bobby’s van and start walking – 1. that’s also one of the most gorgeous sequences ever shot on the show; them walking down the road with fields on each side and the various camera angles, and 2. I love it when Dean just drops the act and gets in Sam’s face about how it’s ironic to him that suddenly Sam’s putting their dad on a pedestal and it IS too little too late. It might be harsh and I might not totally agree (I do sympathize with Sam’s touch relationship with John), but it’s a GREAT scene and I love Jensen just letting loose on him!
I do love that Jo has a shotgun trained on them the first time we see her! I didn’t like her becoming more of a “fawning over Dean” type later…in that H.H. Holmes episode…but here I liked her. I do wish they had KEPT Ellen and Jo and Bobby for the entire run – recurring like Sheriff Mills.
Sam looks better when he loses the bangs!
This was a really great one for me.
Sorry so late to comment here! I loved re-watching this one. So emotional. Acted so WELL as coma-Dean tries to figure out what it going on with him.
I’m mostly going to respond to PigNaPoke.
Good question about pathology/obstetrics, PigNaPoke!!!! That IS weird! Usually pathology is off in some dark corner somewhere.
As far as Sam hearing Dean, I think it was just that they were that in tune. I think the thoughts came into Sam’s head, PUT THERE by Dean, but Sam didn’t know that; didn’t literally “hear” his voice in my opinion.
Yes! That scene with the breaking glass does not seem like acting at all. So so good.
That Jensen scene with Tessa is totally phenomenal. He is the master at conveying so much with his expressions.
Maybe John was hoping for the best; that Sam would NOT go too far off the deep end, but he obviously feared it was a possibility and I hate that he laid that on Dean!
Not sure if it’s the first time we hear that music.
The coffee cup shot is one of the best in the 15 years. PERFECT.
I love how Sam would never give up in this one. Even if one of them is ready to give up on THEMSELVES (IF Dean was about to go with Tessa), the other one never gives up on them.
I can’t believe that John was in so few episodes. He’s such a strong presence in the show and GREAT actor. He does play this one really well as a man willing to sacrifice it all for his sons and really not feeling very sorry for himself while he does it. He really wanted to kill the YED, but he kinda used him to get what he wanted in the end; life for Dean. In a way, John “won” that one.
I love it anytime the three of them were onscreen. I wish we had had more.
I yelled out loud “BOBBY!!!” in this one. The first time we see him. I LOVE BOBBY! It was so great to see them admit they needed help here and know EXACTLY where to turn.
Also, it still unnerved me when possessed-John said that holy water doesn’t work on a demon of his caliber. It’s like “WAIT! NO! They have to have something they can depend on to find out who’s a demon and who’s not!!!” I did not like that one bit.
And seriously, JDM being John and the demon and being able to “break through” the possession as John so damn believably. Master!
I love this one for how action-filled it is. It’s great that we start to see monsters as something other than “just” monsters. They have a story – how old they are, how they have partners and a “clan”.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE how smart all the Winchesters are here. This episode did such a good job of showing how truly better and smarter they are with the three of them together. Dean’s right to side with Sam (LOVE THAT MOMENT when he defies John!) and point that out. It’s true. They don’t stick to the script (John’s plan) and it saves his life.
The scene with John and Sam discussing the college fund is SO SO SO SO SO good! Made John so much more caring and human, though he blew the money on ammo which somehow DOES manage to be funny after that whole speech. Jared there…God, tears in his eyes as he sees his dad in a different light; tears my heart out. Jensen’s such a perfect actor that I don’t give Jared enough credit sometimes. He was perfect here.
Kate; they sure did do a lot of sneaking around the nest undetected! Dean even slammed open that lock on the victim’s cage with the crowbar (looking gorgeous while he did it!) and they didn’t wake up which I found very unlikely!!!!
It DOES seem like there is not much time between this one and the one where John dies…and he tells Dean then that something is up with Sam. I highly doubt he figured all that out when he learned that Sam was having visions, but I never thought about how or what he might know about Sam…and if he WAS worried about what Sam could become…how was he okay having Dean out there hunting with him alone all that time post-Stanford? Unless it was John’s plan all along for Dean not to have Sam to help him, but to be there to “watch” Sam and make sure he didn’t go off the rails.
UGH; my heart breaks for Dean. The one person he loves most in the world and he’s instructed that he might have to kill him at the start of S2! Worse yet, HE’LL have to determine when/if he kills his own brother!
Oh yes, PNP; LOVED Sam cutting off John and getting in his face and Dean just sort of standing there and you could SEE him HATING it. Hating the arguing.
The double-take that Sam does when Dean first says “Sam’s right” in defiance of John is GLORIOUS – like it just renewed his faith in himself to have “good soldier son Dean” take his side. I loved that so much!
I thought John’s first firing of the Colt was PERFECT too. The ACTING! I mean, you can see how he can’t wait to try it out; to see if it works; to give him hope that maybe it can, in fact, have the power to kill the demon he’s been hunting for years. Then the smug satisfaction on his face when it WORKS. SUCH a great JDM scene!
I have still, never in all these years watched any of the BTS or the commentary aside from catching the gag reels on YouTube. I REALLY REALLY have to do that. I’d love it.
I REALLY liked how we got to see some of smart legendary hunter John Winchester is with the holy water in the factory’s cooling (?) system.
THAT SHOT!!! That shot of the rosary floating down as if it was shot from the bottom of the freakin’ tank is SO GORGEOUS. The cinematography in this show still makes me gasp sometimes.
Pretty terrifying that John left Sam and Dean to go after the demon.
And was that the last we saw of original Meg? She left such an impression on me that I could swear that wasn’t the end of her. She did that great; the whole exorcism scene. Also enjoyed Sam and Dean LEARNING – they didn’t do enough of that in later years! I loved it when they didn’t know everything and Bobby had to inform them that there is a human inside those possessed bodies and therefore you really are killing someone. Things start to get even more “gray area”.
I cannot say enough how much I love this screwed-up family dynamic between the three of them!
Dean; yes, totally beautiful here and loved him flirting with the hospital desk lady.
That raised railroad trestle is ALSO MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE SPN place!!!!!
PNP: good point on Sam seeing the clock in his vision. Maybe he didn’t want to trust it 100% or take any chances they’d miss it.
That speech in the car breaks my heart when Dean realizes what Sam’s doing! I love his total rejection of any kind of goodbye.
PNP: I also agree on John. Can’t believe we had so little of him in the overall number of episodes on the show and yet he’s this complete character that I feel I really KNOW. JDM is quite a master.
I still jumped when the truck rammed the Impala at the end.
Jared and Jensen are magic onscreen together and when you add in JDM – it’s just riveting all around. Loved JDM “as” the YED – so very good and believable. In my mind, Dean is right 99.9% of the time and I LOVE that he just knows that dad is not “dad”.
Also, incredibly brotherly connection as Sam and Dean stick together, continuing to be in defiance of John. Great great non-verbal acting when Sam looks back to the backseat to a beat-to-hell Dean who’s clearing giving him the “look” to tell him he did the right thing in not killing their father in order to take out the demon.
I remember on first watch wondering how in the world they could survive that wreck in any way when they were so beaten up already…well…I guess Dean doesn’t really survive it.
The rescue of John was nail-biting. The somewhat reckless use of a valuable Colt bullet so Dean can save Sam – it just set up so much of what is to come in the next years of the show. Nothing is more important than Sam.
We learned that Dean always wanted to be a firefighter.
My spouse also said there was no way Dean could see that symbol pattern in those few blood dots!!!!
Ugh;that scene with Sam and Dean where Sam smashed Dean’s hopes for a complete family again totally kills me. Jensen’s reactions are so heartbreaking. He is the master of subtle acting.
Yes on the bloodly makeup! Loved that they stayed in it for awhile; made it more believable.
So good when they all get together and do the messed-up-family-dynamic things. One time when the show it at its best.
I still use “tupla” as kind of a verb. “We’re going to tupla that ______ into existence.”
I am amused by the Ghostfacers as comedic characters. And they do make Sam and Dean look that much cooler (like they need that!).
So much mud!!!!
Kathleen was a great guest actor. I loved that she had such a major role and compelling story. It’s one of those cases where I end up feeling like she MUST have been in more than one episode as that character because we learned so much about her in only one hour!
I did like that Dean really swayed Kathleen on emotions here; not so much by playing up his sex appeal…he got her with the family connection and Dean is super-smart that way.
The creepy kid was Dean’s daughter Emma????? Or was it someone else.
The house was super-creepy and gross. Couldn’t rehab that one! The kid was slightly OVERLY-creepy to be believed, but she did well.
The father was probably the best of the hillbilly bunch. He was just twisted and cruel. Love that Kathleen just went ahead and shot him.
Sam was so smart in this one. Figuring out that freeing the first prisoner was a trap for him…and what did he end up doing with the bracket? Did he use it as a weapon? I missed that.
Funny that Dean took the time to check out the jar full of teeth while he was looking for the key to let Sam out.
Yes, I felt as indignant as Dean when the father changed the rules of the hunt on him and told the sons to shoot Sam in the cage! Dean’s panic at having just chosen Sam’s death was really palpable. Jensen was so incredibly good right from the start.
This one had some fun elements. I used to watch those real ghost hunting shows so skewering them is easy and fun. Ghostfacers was much a much better episode in that vein…funny and so sad…but we haven’t gotten there yet.
This is where we meet Harry and Ed. They are hilarious. Harry so reluctant and timid. Ed with all these illusions of grandeur. Ed is such a douchebag! And it’s fun to watch Sam and Dean “play dumb” with them about ghosts.
The main idea behind this one is a great one…the tulpa in the internet age with the aggregated power of all the people online thinking something into existence…then changing the lore with new posts that they believe and it actually changes the lore. A cautionary tale of messing with things you don’t understand…like painting an ancient symbol that might actually summon something or start something in motion.
There was a lot of “filler” here with people creeping around the basement of the house, looking at the canning jars, etc…but overall, I did like it. I forgot that the prank war between Sam and Dean was also part of this one! The final prank being the one they both played on Harry and Ed as they drove off to stardom based on a call from a producer that was actually Sam.
After all of that research…the idea of changing the story so that iron rounds WOULD kill the ghost was a great idea! But then it didn’t work when Harry and Ed failed to post the changes and Dean ended up burning the house down which seemed overly-simple after all the trouble they went to to try to change the lore and kill the thing with iron rounds.
But I guess Dean was working off the cuff there. True; if the thing is tied to the house and the house no longer exists, I guess it will work, but I agreed with Sam – what if someone posts in the lore that it CAN leave the house??? Dean didn’t really have an answer for that.
This was a strong episode. Any time an episode largely deals with the Winchester family dynamic, I tend to love it. We get that heartbreaking speech from Dean about how he wants him and Sam and John to be a family again; after the hunt for the thing that killed mom is over. And Sam just kills his hopes by telling him he’s not going to do this forever AND he doesn’t want things to go back to the way they were like Dean does. The acting in that scene, especially Jensen’s is exquisite.
Later, when John shows up, the meeting between him and Sam…how it starts out tentative and how JARED just kills it there; showing us just how badly Sam craves John’s love and approval, but is reluctant to be the one to make the first move towards a hug. It really hit home to me on re-watch just how LONG it had been since their fight before Sam left for Stanford and that was the last time they saw each other.
Also very effective to have the shadow entities attack right at the most emotional (and, as said in the show, moment when John had his guard down the most) moment. It was shocking to have them thrown around and attacked so violently after that touching scene with John.
I never believed that Meg didn’t know Sam was watching her from the elevator shaft…Sam thought so…but of course she knew he was there.
I also thought it was a very effective and creepy use of sexuality on Meg’s part. DEFINITELY the creepy demon thing – not caring if she’s ultimately going to kill them or use them…she’s still up for a little fun with Sam. Bravo to Sam for figuring out that something was off right away because it was just too weird to run into her again in the middle of the case.
And the fact that the victims whose case they were trying to solve came from Lawrence…it was just done by Meg to throw them. I thought this was a good, complicated, emotional episode.
Nice dive that Meg took out the window too.
I feel SO BAD for Max in this one. To me, he is one of the most sympathetic and sad characters SPN has ever created. I have been close to people who were abused as children. It makes you want to kill the abuser yourself. I was cheering for Max. Kate, I didn’t see Max as out for revenge at all costs. I saw him as desperate to stop his own pain at all costs and to me, that is more like a matter of personal survival than a quest for revenge. The feelings of anger towards those who stood by and did nothing to stop the abuse are almost as strong with me as those towards the abusers. So I understood Max wanting to kill his stepmother. The betrayal some victims feel as children over not being protected by someone who should have protected them is lifelong and deep. I can totally condone Max’s (fictional) actions. They made complete sense to me.
I feel like this episode turns so much of what’s expected on its head. Those who died aren’t innocent victims. The killer is not a spirit. This is ANOTHER real-life hush-hush issue that they tackled and I love that. I STILL felt the hair on the back of my neck rise up when Sam realizes that Max’s mom died the same way Mary did. The first time he ever found someone else with his story.
Also, to me, it’s unexpected that Max dies. They can’t save him. Sam lays on the puppy dog eyes and the sincerity and it still doesn’t work. On first watch years ago, I was shocked when Max died.
It’s a huge jump ahead for Sam’s growing abilities; moving the huge piece of furniture.
The most masterful thing in this episode though, is Dean. His outward carefree and confident attitude towards Sam’s growing psychic issues, but ALL THE LOOKS we see that Sam doesn’t see that let us know he thinks this is serious and he IS really worried about it. But for Sam, he’s all there for him…trying to make sure Sam doesn’t worry. His comment about how Sam has him…where Max didn’t have a “Dean” to look out for him carries through the entire series.
Yes, it WAS interesting to show that Sam and Dean’s life could have been way WORSE. It’s kind of a lovely moment when Sam realizes that.
Yeah, what was with that weird laser thing?! We never saw it other than in this episode, did we? My first thought was about how HUGE it was and Dean was supposed to be hiding it completely in his Priest jacket??? I bet someone on the show just thought the lasers looked cool on film because they spent a long time on that scene with no payoff. (Nothing appearing on the screen, etc.)
I thought the actor who played Max did an INCREDIBLE job. He had to act on the edge of a breakdown…so fragile…ALL THE TIME and he made it believable to me!
I guess the idea that Sam had John instead of Max’s horrible childhood at the end kind of fits with Sam realizing that John didn’t do that bad compared to Mr. Miller. But yes, you’d think he’d have figured out Dean meant DEAN because of the tense relationship between Sam and John and, as Sam said, “Dad’s not here”…but Dean is!
The premonition of Dean dying STILL shocked me. I liked that the premonitions were so close to the actual event. Made it totally frustrating that they didn’t happen sooner so they had more time to save someone. That provided so much tension; you never knew how long they had.
Love that Sam’s love for Dean caused him to move the furniture. The only thing powerful enough to elicit that reaction.
Really? They didn’t continue with Sam’s psychic thing? I thought he still had psychic connections to the other “special” children in later episodes…some of them? I guess I’ll find out I was remembering wrong as we watch.
For the technology they had at the time, and the actor’s ability to act around something that wasn’t there…it made the floating knives and gun very believable. Loved the knife point to the eyeball. LOVED the sort of absentminded spinning of the letter opener as Max talked to Sam and the way Sam kept an eye on it as an indication of Max’s mental state.
This episode also reminded me (way back when) that Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith exists…and it’s one of my all-time if not THE all-time favorite song of mine. It’s a crime that the Netflix season 1 didn’t have it. It’s essential to that episode.