kate38
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Whenever I rewatch, I always look forward to this episode as a fun ride!
I love Dean schmoozing the flirtatious jewelry store witness in the beginning! LOL! People accuse young Dean of being cocky. I don’t think he’s ever been cocky. He’s confident – and for good reason! I like that he enjoys women and doesn’t have a stick up the chute like Sam does. As much as he’s suffered and sacrificed in his life, I say the guy is entitled to some women and booze 😊
The beer bottle inspired motel room for Milwaukee is adorable.
I like Ronald 😊. He did a nice job of putting the case together (except for the mandroid part) and he had no problem whatsoever believing in shapeshifters. I was genuinely disappointed when he got shot.
I LOVE the scene when Ronald is “not-robbing” the bank and Dean talks him down. Jensen was SO convincing! Well, he always is, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.
The case was fun, too. I liked the shell game – “find the freak” .
I enjoyed Victor Henricksen in this one, too! His intro gave us an excellent snapshot of him as a character – smart, resourceful, tenacious, verbally “agile” and creative – so many of the things I admire about Dean. I’ve thought, more than once, that the writers were initially trying to make Victor sort of a parallel to the Winchesters. He had a little smile on his face at the end when he realized they’d escaped – like he respected the brilliance it took to come up with that plan. I think, on some level, Victor did respect the brothers as adversaries. Victor is smart in many of the same ways they are, and they had some challenges trying to stay ahead of him once he was on their trail. Unfortunately, the writers didn’t continue to develop him in that way. In “Jus in Bello” I remember thinking that Victor would make an amazing hunter, which his law enforcement skills and tenacity. As soon as he was aware of demons, he started working the problem “Okay. Tell me how we survive this.” He didn’t need “the talk” to get on board. I know I was supposed to NOT like him, but I couldn’t help liking him anyway. I’ve always respected him as a worthy antagonist to the brothers. And I do wish he’d survived to become a hunter.
LOVE the original music when the SWAT teams and cops are assembling. I have to give another shout out to Jay Gruska and Chris Lennertz for their creativity. Speaking of music, the “Great Escape” at the end is one of my FAVORITE moments from the entire series. BRILLIANT idea! I love it when the writers show us how smart these guys are. And “Renegade” is just the cherry on top 😊
kate
I liked this one. I LOVED the creepy hotel, spooky dolls, the clear reference to “The Shining” (one of my favorite Stephen King books), and a good old-fashioned ghost story with a cool reveal near the end. I LOVED how they made us think there were two daughters until the reveal. That was fun.
I LOVE the music in this one. The blues playing in the motel room, the music when Dean and Sam roll into town – nicely done!
Sorry, Jared fans, but that scene when Sam was drunk was pretty poorly acted, IMO. When he says “Who knows what I might become?”, I just cringe. So plastic. Jensen’s acting saved that scene as much as he could, but it still sticks out to me as one where Jared missed the mark by quite a bit. By the way, Sam – nice job putting even more pressure on Dean, cause that’s exactly what he needed.
Great dive into the pool by Jared’s stunt guy! The action in that whole scene captured just the right amount of tension. In fact, the pace of this entire episode was spot on.
kate
“The whole part where Dean was tied to a chair…it’s like, wow, how many avenues for expression can they take away from Jensen and he STILL nails it!!! Can’t talk. Can’t move. Can’t even see anything but the upper half of his face really with the gag and you can STILL completely see and feel the desperation when he hears the trip wire blow; and then the second one. Incredible. Jensen is incredible.”
SO true! Jensen was so subtle, but you could see that Dean was thinking and plotting the whole time. The man is masterful 🙂
It’s always good to see Ashe and Ellen! Ashe is 100% adorable 😊
I’m annoyed with Sam for running off like that. I won’t repeat my earlier post, but that really got under my skin. Poor Dean! After trying to hard to find Sam, Dean saves Sam only to get taken hostage. Poor Dean! Sam did show a teeny amount of growth by admitting that going to California was his attempt to run away, and that he shouldn’t keep doing that. Too bad it didn’t take….
It’s interesting that YED was appearing to the other psychic kids and telling them to do evil acts, but he wasn’t telling Sam anything. In retrospect, is anybody else wondering if Ava was evil this whole time? She put on a pretty good show about seeming innocent, but she seemed the same to me as she did in AHBL, so on rewatch this time it’s got me wondering.
I like Raelle Tucker’s writing. I miss that quality in the later seasons. Ben Edlund’s too, for that matter. I really liked using that scene between Dean and Gordon for the exposition about YED and his plans for the psychic kids. It was a creative way to tell us what was going on, and that the Roadhouse isn’t as safe as it seemed to be.
kate
“Both Sterling and Jensen are AMAZING in the scenes in the abandoned house. The all-business-psychpath-edge to Gordon and Dean’s “fighting to stay cool but completely freaked out on the inside” are very effective opposites in the scene.”
Yep! I wasn’t rooting for Gordon in this one, but Sterling did such a great job that I had a hard time not enjoying those scenes with Jensen.
kate
“I get that Sam is pissed at being kept in the dark and scared of what all that might mean, but he has to know what info like that would do to Dean, too!! Having your dad ask you to kill your little brother if need be is horrible for anyone, but triply so for the Winchesters!!! Sam really could’ve been a little more sympathetic here. And I don’t appreciate at all that he runs off that night after Dean BEGS him to give him a little time! Dean doesn’t beg – at least not often – and here he was clearly distraught….yet Sam runs off and worries him more. Dick move, sir!”
I agree!! Why couldn’t Sam just have given Dean a little more time, as he’d asked? And I TOTALLY understand why Dean didn’t tell Sam about what John had said. First of all, John asked him not to. And secondly, just LOOK what happened as soon as Sam did find out? He’d just have gotten angry and taken off sooner. Sam really annoyed me in that scene.
kate
“Although there is an inconsistency here, because in Season 8’s “The Great Escapist“ Sam says that Dean’s donkey on the Grand Canyon ride was farty but here he says that they’ve never been to the Grand Canyon!”
Right!?!? They should’ve hired us to review the scripts for those types of inconsistencies 🙂
kate
Sigh –this is all so true! And we don’t even have demons to blame for our collective behavior. It’s just wicked people being wicked.
kate
I think it’s cool that the writers used the Roanoke colony story as a springboard for this episode. It’s not exactly an urban legend, but it’s definitely one of the greatest mysteries in all of American folklore.
REALLY minor point, but I love the music that’s playing when the brothers initially roll into town. This is one of the few early season episodes (Nightshifter is the other one) when I started to love the show’s original compositions as much as I loved the classic rock that peppered so many of these episodes. Who doesn’t love “Americana”, which became Dean’s theme?! Kudos to Jay Gruska and Chris Lennertz, who both stayed with the show until the very end!
I LOVE that Dean is always so quick to start figuring out what’s going on. As soon as he realized phone lines and cell towers were down, he realized someone or some”thing” was isolating the town. I LOVE when the writers show us how smart he is!
Dean’s commitment to Sam is the one thing that has always shined for me in this episode. When Beverly Tanner changed and attacked the group, Dean wasn’t there. But when Sam confirmed that she was infected, Dean shot her without any hesitation – just based on Sam’s word alone. He also spared the kid (who was actually lying) based on Sam’s word and against his own judgement. That shows tremendous trust in Sam and his judgement. It just makes Sam’s betrayal in later seasons (like season 4) that much more heartbreaking, because Dean never doubted that he could count on Sam until those events happened. In season 5 “Sympathy for the Devil”, when Dean tells Sam that he doesn’t think they could ever be what they were before, scenes like this one from Crotoan help capture the enormous weight of that statement.
I love that Dean was willing to stay with Sam after he got infected – even if it meant they’d both die. However, did anyone else wonder if Dean was staying because he thought he might have to kill Sam per John’s warning?
I love those scenes between Dean and the Master Sergeant! Bobby Hosea and Jensen have such great chemistry and timing. That scene in the car was a fun and light moment to break up the drama of this episode.
Plot armor moment: Even someone as amazing as Dean Winchester probably wouldn’t be able to pull a gun on Sarge like that without getting shot. Dean’s fast, but that would’ve been highly unlikely.Speaking of great guest stars, Chiton Crane (Beverly Tanner) played a woman who killed her husband in “Southern Comfort” and she was also Kelly Kline’s mother in later seasons.
Hey, when Dean tried to leave town, he came across an abandoned car with the license plate “WTF-4C7” – do y’all think the props people were having some fun with “WTF”?
kate
“I also really enjoy Dean’s cleverness in this one doubling up on the devil’s trap and luring the demon into the second one. Not just great acting on Jensen’s part, but masterfully acted by DEAN as well! HA.”
Hey, PNP and JBB!
I agree 100% on this point! I love when we get to see how much of a brilliant strategist Dean is! I also loved that Dean knew about the Robert Johnson legend, which further illustrates how diverse his knowledge is.kate
“I also really liked the guy who made the deal who DIDN’T want help; he wanted to take responsibility for his deal and ANY artist can sympathize with that guy! He only wished for talent; not fame or fortune; so he was very talented and also surrounded by his art since no one wanted to buy it (yet – I’m thinking he was one of those guys whose art would sell for millions after his death) and no one recognized his talent in his lifetime. He was great casting and a great side character. Very believable. And he introduced Sam and Dean to goofer dust. More southern/hoodoo/voodoo practices and I really liked that.”
I liked him, too!
Side note — it’s interesting that Sera Gamble (who wrote this episode) chose to show us such a variety of different Crossroad demon victims. We saw one guy (the architect) who killed himself rather than being torn apart, one woman who tried to hide in a motel only to get ripped apart anyway, one victim who didn’t want to be saved, and another victim who simply didn’t want his wife to die and didn’t regret the deal he’d made. And then, of course, Robert Johnson, who ran initially, but gave up at the last minute. I liked being shown that variety.
kate
There’s a lot to like about this episode. Crossroad demons become such a critical part of the story going forward. I really like how they established the lore in this episode. I also enjoy the real-life reference to Robert Johnson. I suspect we can thank Kripke for shining some light on his story. Robert Johnson really did die in August of 1938, which is pretty dang creepy. But in this episode, he made the deal in 1930, not 1928. Weird.
It’s interesting that between the teaser and the rest of the episode (and clearly before “No Rest for the Wicked”) the writers decided to show us hell hounds actually tearing the victims apart. Don’t get me wrong – I was FINE not seeing Robert Johnson get torn apart; all we saw was a seizure. But on rewatch I think it’s odd that they chose to change that so abruptly and within the same episode. I wonder if it was a budget thing?
LOL! MySpace 😊. These episodes are SO old 😊
Interesting trivia bit: We actually FOUND the crossroads when we were in Vancouver! It’s in the middle of a large dog park/recreation area, and there’s NOTHING there now. The trees in the distance and the horizon line are the only things that look familiar at all. The exterior of Lloyd’s bar is just a façade that the set design people built. We even looked for some of the yellow Yarrow flowers, or ANY yellow flowers. Those were apparently fake, too. Those set design people are SO talented!
I like George Darrow. That actor was SO convincing!
I like Dean’s development and turnaround in this episode. He went from thinking the people deserved to be damned and not wanting to help them, to understanding that sometimes the deals were selfless, like for Evan Hudson. Although the situation was clearly inserted into the story to show us (again) some of the guilt Dean felt over the deal John made to save him, it was important to show us that Dean still hadn’t recovered from that or finished processing his guilt and anger. To Dean’s credit, he didn’t choose to resurrect John. As much as Dean loved and worshipped John, he never tried to resurrect him at any point in the series. Correct me if I’m wrong, but (with the exception of Jack, which was more of a group decision) the only person Dean ever chose to resurrect was Sam, right? Maybe that’s a compelling and early example of Dean’s character development, too.
It’s fun that the crossroad demons are so cruel and seductive. I like that. That kiss with Dean lasted a pretty long time, but I can’t say I blame her 😊 – LOL!
kate
“Okay; yes, it was cool that they GOT Linda Blair (and funny Exorcist reference by Dean at the end with the pea soup reference and the “does she look familiar to you?”), BUT she was not very good here. OVERACTED from start to finish. Her only expression of shock or surprise was an open mouth which she did ALL THE TIME. My spouse, who had never seen this one, guessed the “bad guy” first time he showed up to question Dean. So Linda Blair fell VERY flat for me here.”
Hiya, JBB 🙂
I actually thought Linda Blair did a decent job here. I thought she made a convincing cop when she was interrogating Sam at the station. She had ZERO chemistry with the cop she supposedly was having an affair with, though. That part did leave me flat. Somewhere else in this thread, it’s mentioned that the writers dumbed her down to make Sam look smarter and in control. It felt that way to me, too.kate
This was fun, but Jo was annoying. She coerced Dean and Ashe into lying for her because although she was childish and defiant, she didn’t have the courage to tell her mother the truth. And Dean was right. Women can do the job, but amateurs get themselves and other people killed. It’s ironic that Jo knew she was the monster’s type, so she knew she might be bait, but when it came time to be bait, she hesitated. Being nasty to Dean after she learned how her father died was also stupid and immature. And the way she panted after Dean in the early seasons was super annoying. I get that lots of people like Jo, but I just don’t see the appeal.
Poor Ellen! So prophetic that she didn’t want to lose her daughter after losing her husband due to hunting.
I liked the creepy vibe in this one. And I grew up in Philly, so I appreciated the video clips of the downtown Philly skyline. I also really like when they incorporate real-life horror into these episodes, like basing this ghost on H.H. Holmes.
I love the anecdote about how John took Dean shooting when he was 6 or 7, and he bullseyed every target the first time. That’s our boy!Possible plot hole? Didn’t those chambers look and sound like iron? If so, the ghost shouldn’t have been able to touch them, let alone imprison someone inside, right?
kate
The main thing I liked about this episode is that it went a long way toward putting the psychic kids’ abilities into perspective. It started to feel like most of these psychics were truly dangerous and that Sam’s “gift” was an exception. Poor Dean – trying so hard to protect and reassure Sam, when he himself had so many doubts.
Ashe is adorable! “Guess I’ll need my pants.” LOL!
I don’t like Andy. I don’t like that he probably mind-controlled that attractive blonde into sleeping with him. And I don’t like that he chose to quit his job, default on all his bills and live in a dorky van. To me, he seemed like a loser who used his abilities to take advantage of people and skip out on life. He also Jedi-mind-tricked Dean into giving up the Impala. That alone is unforgivable!
Possible plot hole? Mary’s deal is what brought Azazel into Sam’s nursey 10 years later. So, the other psychic kids also had mothers who made deals, right? In this episode, the woman who burned herself alive was Andy’s mother and Anson’s mother. But the records Sam found said that Andy’s adopted “family” had a nursery fire when Andy was 6 months old, but Anson’s adopted family didn’t have a fire. They had the same mother before they were adopted to different families, so she’s the one who would’ve made the deal, right? If so, the fire shouldn’t have happened at Andy’s adopted family’s house, because that family never made a deal. Later, we meet Ava Wilson, whose mother never died and who never had a nursery fire. Maybe those mothers (Ava’s mother and Anson’s mother) didn’t interfere when Azazel showed up, so there was no fire and they didn’t die? But that still doesn’t explain Azazel showing up at Andy’s house when his adopted family never made a deal.
kate