kate38
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Hi, JBB!!
You make some excellent points 🙂
I like Drake a lot, too. I like his approach to John and I like how sincere and relatable they’re making him. John and Millie are still my favorite characters. That shower scene at the end was so tender and real – I loved it.
I agree with you about Maggie. I had to keep reminding myself who she was and why I should care about her death at all. I also agree with you that Lata having all the answers and always having the right book is already getting boring. And I realize that the Scooby gang needs a base of some kind, but the Men of Letters “clubhouse” (love that, by the way) is lame.
Speaking of Lata, how do you rush to the hospital, rush to find the magic vase, but then stop to admire the craftmanship before you destroy it to save your friends? That seemed odd to me.
If I recall, Millie knew about Henry being a Man of Letters (or trying to be one, anyway), which means she already knew about monsters and the supernatural. My guess is that’s why she accepted the god-dude theory so readily.
You also make a good point these characters. By episode four of Supernatural, I already CARED about Dean and Sam and I was invested in their story. So far, I care about John and Millie, but that’s it. I’m not really connecting with the rest of the characters. Maybe like you said, they’re not believable. I hope that changes soon.
kate
Hi,Stedan —
I think you hit the nail right on the head! This has been my favorite episode so far, and I think it’s because there was very little focus on Mary and on the “relationship” between John and Mary. Aside from the sparring scene in the beginning, they had very little screen time together. I enjoyed the focus on John and Carlos (even though I don’t take Carlos seriously yet). I also appreciated the main story being nudged forward a little bit, as if John’s development will be a critical factor when they face the acreta.
Hey, JBB!
I’m glad Jensen got his way this time! Although I was a bit confused by the motives in the fight scene, I thought it was well done and well choreographed. And I like that they keep reminding us about John’s military service without beating us over the head with it.
kate
Hi, Guys!!
I don’t have much to add about this one. It’s my favorite so far, which is encouraging about the rest of the season.Ahem. A surgical cap is completely worthless if 90% of your hair isn’t under it. Just sayin’…
I enjoyed the focus on John in this one, and I respect the writer’s and producers’ choice to shine light on PTSD. John Winchester is one of the strongest, most complicated, sincere and mentally solid characters I’ve ever encountered in any television show or film. If HE can have PTSD, it can affect literally anyone. My only criticism of this story line is that back in the 1970s, there was a real stigma associated with “getting help” when a soldier had problems like those depicted in this episode. I thought they handled the whole “Let’s get therapy” thing a little too lightly and eagerly. That made is less credible for me. Otherwise, I really do appreciate what they tried to do.
Interesting that Millie said John has been running toward danger since he was four. Is that how old he was when Henry left? I got the impression he was older. Or maybe that was just a heavy-handed reference to parallel Dean.
The whole fight scene kind of confused me. I thought the god-dude said John needed to draw “first blood” in order to save Carlos; but when they switched back to the fight, John was bloody, but the other guy wasn’t. And why kill all those other soldiers in all those other states if the dude’s goal was to prepare John to face the acreda? Unless I misunderstood that part, it seems like a weak connection.
Overall, this one gets a solid B+ — the best episode so far. Keep it up, Jensen!!
kate
“I don`t know why, as it was quite a different situation, but the scene where Ada put the demon into the mini tree, reminded me a bit of Rowena and the hamster.”
Good point, Stedan! Or even like Jesse turning Castiel into an action figure 🙂
“Didn’t like the fight between Millie and John. That seemed a little forced and he was so rude to her. She isn’t asking much…ONE CALL. But we need a little more back story about their relationship to judge what’s happening between them. We know already that he faked his age and signed up to the Marines without her say-so. He seems quite rebellious and bull-headed, which fits with his later self.
And I loved the conversation between John and Millie at the end. It seemed real and warm and nuanced. Both actors did really well with it. And it made the fight at the beginning more understandable to me.”I agree, PNP 🙂
I am getting better and more interesting chemistry between John and Millie than with John and Mary at this point! Like you, I really liked the conversation between John and Millie at the end. SO far, those two are my favorite characters, followed by Ada. The actress playing Millie is very convincing and sincere. She reminds me a little bit of Samantha Ferris.kate
I liked this one more than I liked the Pilot :).
I like the old-school Supernatural vibe a lot! The creepy case, the seedy motel room, the Fleetwood Mac shout out, and the era music are all wins. Unfortunately, I’m still getting a Buffy vibe that I DO NOT like (don’t get me wrong; I liked Buffy, but I don’t need to see that show again here), and I still REALLY do not like Mary. I like John, but am not getting much chemistry between him and Mary. Perhaps that will improve over time. Carlos is clearly the comedy relief, and Lata is the researcher-geek character. The ensemble reeks of being formulaic, but I expected no less from the CW. I will make an effort to look the other way.
Side note – John tried – presumably for hours – to break the vines holding him; but suddenly when the monster started killing someone else, he broke them in a few seconds and escaped? Okay, looking the other way on that, too.
I like Millie a lot and completely understand her position. Her son JUST came back from freaking Viet Nam, and now there’s a chance that she’ll still lose him the same way they lost Henry. I completely understand that. I like Ada, too. She understands both sides and is adult and reasonable enough to help bridge the gap. Considering where John is headed, her role will likely be critically important. If the entire cast was just the kids, I think I’d get bored. But characters like Millie and Ava, and eventually Samuel (and maybe Deanna?) should add enough adult balance to keep my attention.
I love that Henry planted a jasmine vine for “protection”, as if he knew something was going to happen to him.
I like that we’re meeting new monsters. I wish the original series had spent more time on urban legends and various monsters instead of visiting the same ones over and over again. Maybe we’ll see more variety in this show.
Nice teaser at the end, too. At first, I thought the hooded person might have been Samuel, but it’s clearly someone else. Anyway, it’s compelling enough to keep me watching 🙂
The Pilot was a C-minus for me, but this episode was a solid C-plus.
kate
Hi, Stedan 🙂
Welcome to the fan wiki 🙂
Like you, I also hope someday for a “real” reboot, movie, or miniseries. In the meantime, I’d like this show to do very well and last for several seasons, EVEN IF I end up not personally liking it. I have tons of respect for Jensen and look forward to seeing what he can do when given the reins to tell the stories HE wants to tell in the Supernatural universe. I like Robbie Thompson, too, but I trust him less. He wrote some of my all-time favorite episodes, like “Baby”, “Don’t Call Me Shurley”, and “Safe House”; but he also wrote 2 episodes that I dislike so much (“Fan Fiction” and “Bitten”) that I skip them on rewatches. So, although I respect his writing, he’s more hit-or-miss for me.
I don’t need to see Sam in this show, but I definitely want more information about Dean’s appearance at the end. When I first saw him there by the car, I thought it was another commercial or a trailer — it was so disconnected from the rest of the episode that I couldn’t tell where it was supposed to fit. Like you and many others, I’m hoping that they won’t string us along too far before telling us what’s going on there.
kate
Hey, PNP!!
I was wondering about the trap, too! Why would the MOLs have a loup-garou guard an EMPTY trap? There MUST have already been something in there that they didn’t want escaping, right? And my first thoughts were “How many monsters does that thing hold?” “What happens when the door is opened (ala, All Hell Breaks Loose)?” and “What could the MOLs have been so terrified of that they’d create a trap and a prison guard just for that thing?”
It also occurred to me that the MOLs are normally not hands-on. They observe, but they rarely go as far as creating a monster prison and hiring an eternal prison guard. There are exceptions, like the Werther Box, but something like that doesn’t happen often.kate
Hey, Nikcon7!!!
Can’t wait to hear what you think about the premiere!
OXOX!
Hi, Tigerlili!
Welcome to the wiki 🙂
“I do have to say, though, that I found John a little TOO accepting of the fact that Mary tells him about demons, monsters, suflur, vampires etc and later Carlos tells him about a ghoul. John never even bats an eye or is the least bit suspicious??!! I wish they had to put a little more skepticism into that! Or a montage of him reading some of Henry’s paperwork and finding out more? SOMETHING to make him a little more disbelieving. I mean we KNOW he has seen evil in Vietnam….but it’s not the same. The Supernatural still needs to stand out from that.”
I agree! Maybe that’s part of why the exposition felt so clunky and in-organic to me? “What was THAT thing?” “That was a demon from hell”. “Oh. Okay then. Have some coffee and let’s find our dads…” Huh??? LOL!
Awww! Love you back, Sis!
OXOX
k
Question: Why did John enlist in the Marines to find his father who had been missing for over 10 years? How did that help? At the risk of sounding like a smartass, did John think Henry was in Southeast Asia?
kate
“Dean. We did not learn WHERE Dean is narrating from yet. Heaven? I kind of hoped for that as he waits for Sam. But maybe it’s from the years post-Chuck but before he died. I guess maybe we’ll find out eventually. I was surprised that hearing and then seeing Dean so suddenly; as he was not part of this story, was very jarring to me. He didn’t have time to be very “Dean” at all.”
I AGREE, JBB! I LOVED seeing Jensen again as “our Dean”, but that scene seemed to come out of nowhere. Why is Dean suddenly looking for historical information about his family? And where is he driving off to? Like you, I hope they answer some questions about that pretty quickly.
kate