Ramblings On...Episode 7x11: Adventures in Babysitting
I post my review at http://saltedandburned.com, but for quick reference, and to let everyone know I do that, I wanted to post it in my own blog!
Friday night Supernatural returned with ratings up about 14%! I am so happy ratings have stayed consistent for the seventh season. After all, Friday at nine is a tough time to sell. I remember being a teenager when the X-Files started its run. I watched Sliders at 8pm on FOX on Fridays, but was afraid of slipping even further into a social coma if I watched a 9pm show. Sure, you could watch the 8pm show and still go out after, but heading out at 10pm? Not really an option--especially if you are still dealing with a curfew...I guess college weekends were still a possibility, but suffice it to say I didn’t start watching the X-Files “live” so to speak until it moved to Sundays. But I stay home for the Winchesters. Yet another reason I refer to Dean Winchester as my t.v. boyfriend...
The holiday hiatus officially ended and we were back with a new episode. We left the Winchesters in December with the sinking feeling that Bobby wasn’t getting out of this ordeal alive. By the end, it seemed more a question of whether Bobby would remain an earthbound spirit, or follow the reaper into the light. We pick up with Sam and Dean fast forwarding through about a month of dealing with the loss of Bobby, and attempting to find out what Bobby was trying to tell them with those numbers he wrote on Sam’s hand. They pay a lot of money to Frank Devereaux (you will remember him from earlier this season’s “Slash Fiction” episode. You also will remember Kevin McNally from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies) to try to find out what they were about. But after a month, Dean thinks it is about time to look for Frank. Meanwhile, a call comes in on Bobby’s phone from a young girl who appears to need help. Dean wants to look in on Frank and Sam wants to see what is going on with the girl, so they each go their own way...
And on to the analysis... I was a little worried when I found out that Jeannot Szwarc was directing. He directed “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning”, an episode I personally felt could have been stronger. It seemed choppy. All in all, though, I thought this episode was very solid and I enjoyed it immensely. There were a couple things that I thought could have been improved upon. For example ALL THREE HUNTERS lost their knives within seconds of conflict. But “Adventures in Babysitting” really was a study in character development--with particular emphasis on where Dean is right now. With only approximately forty two minutes, one cannot waste too much time with overly choreographed fight scenes...
Adam Glass wrote the episode. He does seem to give great Dean insight (“Defending Your Life”, “All Dogs Go To Heaven”), and this episode was no exception. I was pleased with the amount of time spent on Dean’s current loss of faith issues. As often happens in the episodes that put so much into character development, the baddie development takes the back seat. Not much is done or talked about regarding the evil of the hour. Sam and Dean don’t research what is going on. Sam is able to find Lee’s information before he heads out to find him. Dean knew what he knew about vetalas from his own experience from years ago.
I actually did look up vetalas. Wikipedia indicates that vetalas are ghost like beings from Hindu mythology. They are evil spirits than generally haunt cemetaries, taking demonic possession of corpses. They are known as “hostile spirits of the dead trapped in the ‘twilight zone’ between life and the after life.” The way they are used in the episode makes them look more like a garden variety of monster, maybe a second cousin of vampires. I found it very fascinating to look up vetalas and to find out what they are in Hindu mythology--especially considering Bobby’s struggle last episode and the looming question of whether Bobby decided to stay or go.
The link to the wikipedia article is here
Which brings me to the question left unanswered regarding Bobby. Both Sam and Dean state that Bobby has in fact passed away. Sam tells Krissy at the door, and Dean tells Frank. What we don’t know is if Bobby decided to hang out and watch over the boys or if he decided to go with the reaper. I tend to lean toward Bobby deciding to stay until he was sure Sam and Dean were ok. He especially seemed worried about Dean. He had specifically talked to Dean about his attitude and how Dean could be a danger to himself. I don’t think Bobby would want to leave until Dean sees his way through the morass of crapola he feels he is buried under right now. In support of my position, I offer the drained beer. I watched a few times and the bottle was always really close to Dean, but it never went to his lips between the time we (and he) notice it is almost full and when Dean looks down and sees that it is empty. I think Bobby managed to drain it. Whether he drank it, or absorbed it or what have you I don’t know, but Dean did not drink that beer. I’d like to think that Bobby is trying to watch out for Dean...first off wanting to help Dean drink a little less...
I’m sure that the writers will come up with a good way to bring in Ghost!Bobby if they decide to do so, but I hope we don’t get an obi-wan full body apparition ghost thing. The boys have hunted ghosts, and all ghosts go mad eventually. I feel Bobby would want to stay as incognito as possible because he knows what he would do if he was confronted with the ghost of someone he loved--remember how he reacted to Dean’s return in “Lazarus Rising”? Now he did act differently toward his wife when she came back (“Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”), but she wasn’t a ghost--she was a zombie and he did wind up doing the right thing. If Bobby seriously wants to stay long enough to watch out for them, he will have to stay on the dl...
It was great seeing Ian Tracey as Krissy’s hunter father, Lee Chambers. I’m sure he has been in other things, but I remember him as veteran Leonard “Rappo” Trimble in the third season episode of the X-Files, “The Walk”. The characters were so different, it actually took me a couple viewings to notice it was the same guy! He is definitely a talented actor. It would be interesting to see Sam and Dean hear from him again. Dean advised him to quit, so maybe he will let them know if he hears about something to hunt in the future that they can work on because he is retired.
Madison McLaughlin was decent as Krissy, but I can’t really see a recurring character for her. I liked her in the episode, don’t get me wrong. I think her story, and seeing her strength was important. I think it brought in a lot of things for Dean to think about. As far as Krissy is concerned, she was a great character for the episode, but I don’t see her hanging around Sam and Dean. They are more than twice her age. Dean is old enough to be her father!
I wouldn’t have noticed it was her if someone else hadn’t caught it, but Meghan Ory, who played the vetala “Sally” has worked with Jensen before! She was Rachel Berrisford in the Dark Angel episode “The Berrisford Agenda”. Lucky girl had Alec all in love with her! In my opinion the best Jensen episode of Dark Angel. I loved seeing Frank Devereaux (Kevin McNally) again in this episode. I like that he isn’t being played like he is a friend. It is all business. Dean mentions that they paid Frank $15,000.00 for the information. This works for me because it makes Frank seem less like a Bobby replacement and more like an inconvenient convenience for Sam and Dean to get the information they need.
We did find out a little more about Frank in this episode. When he was 26 he came home to find his family gutted. In this way, his reason for getting into hunting/conspiracy stuff is very similar to Bobby’s and John’s reasons, as well as, we find out Lee’s as well. Here we see four different men and how they deal with great loss. Frank’s take is about “doing it right and doing it with a smile”. He feels this is “being professional”. While part of his advice rang true, the other part didn’t. One part, the decent advice, essentially mirrored the advice given to Dean by Bobby back in “How To Win Friends And Influence Monsters”. The other part about the “smile” I really don’t feel Frank was doing very well and really couldn’t (or shouldn’t anyway) speak to Dean about. Clearly Frank is not very efficient at smiling through things. If at one time he was, Dean should keep in mind that didn’t last, because now Frank, by his own admission, is “bipolar with delusional ideations”. The part close to what Bobby had been telling him was about doing it right or not doing it at all. Dean used to know this! Remember when Dean was worried about Sam not sleeping in “Phantom Traveler” ? Dean told Sam that Sam needed to get his sleep because Dean needed him sharp? Dean knows that not sleeping, living off revenge and booze, is eventually going to mean he is going to mess up and get himself killed. As crotchety as Frank is, that portion of what he was saying is true--Dean needs to take care of himself before he can be any use to other people. The problem though seemed to be that Dean instead focused on doing the job with a smile, which was painfully not the way he felt.
I do feel though that I need to comment on Dean’s pausing when Krissy came in. I don’t feel it was panic, or even freezing. I don’t really think Dean’s frame of mind has really effected his hunting yet. It could, which is why it is so important that Dean snap out of this! At this point I think he is afraid of losing anyone else. He has, admittedly even, second guessed himself because of Cas and because of the other things that have been going on. Dean is in a dark place right now, and I loved that this episode explored that. I particularly loved the Dean closeups. Szwarc did really get that. At the end, we see Dean and the smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. He is disheartened and heartbroken, not really seeing the difference they are making anymore.
Dean also had the opportunity to get a lot of insight into his situation from those around him. Not only the bad/questionable advice, but some genuine insight. He should have been listening to was Lee, though. In the hospital, when Dean asked Lee to quit, Lee asked him if he ever knew a hunter that left the life. I got the feeling that it wasn’t so much that Lee felt that it was a horrible thing, but that he couldn’t understand why someone would leave. You learn what is out there, you have a set of skills, of course you want to fight the good fight. You want to make it safe for people to choose the life they want to lead. Dean used to feel that way, somewhere deep down, I think he still does. Remember in “Bloodlust” when he told Gordon that he knew he was going to be a hunter when he was sixteen? How about his reaction to Bela in “Bad Day at Black Rock”? He couldn’t believe that Bela would use the knowledge she had for personal gain instead of standing up and fighting. In the end it sounds like Lee was leaving hunting to protect Krissy, or at least he would try to leave.
Krissy herself was an interesting study. We see that she shares a lot in common with Dean. She kept the house/etc while Dad was out hunting. She was trained. She saw her mom die. I think Dean feels that he can save her from what happened to him by protecting her, and it seems that Lee buys into the same argument at the end. It’s questionable though. Once people know the truth and know they can make a difference can they still leave? I loved that Dean, maybe even in spite of himself, thought up another possibility. When he was trying to sell Krissy on the idea of college, he actually didn’t exclude the possibility of having a civilian job and being a hunter! He told her she could be a hunter/pediatrician. Maybe somewhere in Dean’s head he is realizing that if his father hadn’t made him feel that it had to be all or nothing, he could have been a hunter/mechanic?
With a catastrophically increasing speed we have witnessed Dean’s downward spiral. His questioning of others, of himself, who he is, what he is doing. He has been questioning if this life is really what he wants, what he chose. It is heartbreaking that he doesn’t see himself for the wonderful man he is. For example, he sees himself as a killer and not a father (“You Can’t Handle The Truth”), yet time and time again we see how great he can be with kids. He understands them and knows how to talk to them. He really was great with Krissy.
Since I’m on the topic of Dean, I must make a comment on how much do I love when Smart!Dean makes an appearance! Here Dean knew right away that Sam was wrong about the vetalas. He knew that John’s journal was wrong. Vetalas usually hunt in pairs, and John had taken out a loaner. This actually does raise an interesting point. Why do Sam and Dean still go off of John’s journal? I understand the sentimental value, but they were with John most of time John was hunting, and they have tons of experience now that really seems to trump John’s. I personally think Sam and Dean should create their own hunting journal. Of course they really haven’t had much time in which to put it together, but even jotting down notes...online hunter’s journal?
But maybe it is because even when their main goal was getting the Yellow Eyed Demon, they still seemed hell bent on killing all evil... Dean said that there would always be something to hunt. But did he really believe it? With a mission to take down all evil, it would be no surprise that they will never be able to succeed. Hunters create journals for the hunters that come after. So maybe if they planned on ridding the world of the baddies, then they wouldn’t see a need to prepare later hunters...Remember in “Defending Your Life” when Bobby found the way to put Osiris out of commission a century or so, Dean was not pleased it wasn’t a permanent fix? Bobby said at that point they should let hunters in spacesuits deal with Osiris. Bobby seemed more accepting of the fact that they are hunters who fight the good fight, but others will come after. Maybe this is one of the differences of age versus youth. When we are young we think we can change the world, and somewhere along the way we realize the world is too big to do that, but we can still be important and do what we can.
Maybe what Sam and Dean really need is a change of perspective, a maturation if you will--realizing that you don’t have to take out all the evil in the world to still be heroes...But then again, it is questionable whether Bobby saw himself as a hero. He seemed to think more along the lines that Sam and Dean were the heroes and he was just Bobby, doing what he could. That is the way it sounded in “Death’s Door” anyway. And who am I kidding? Do Sam and Dean really see themselves as heroes? Remember Dean freaking out about being singled out by God? or at least Angels?
But whatever transitions need to be made by Sam and Dean, even if it is just realizing they can’t take on the universe all by their twosies, I think they need to come to terms with themselves--who they are, where they are going. Well, Sam seems to have some grasp on that. I think Dean may need a little reminding that the fight, the journey, is what is important, and not any eventual win, or any eventual destination. I think often times we all look for that destination, that completion that gives us meaning, not seeing that we are defined by the very action of the journey. I guess that would be looking at pushing the proverbial rock up the hill like Albert Camus does in his 1942 essay. He sees the myth of Sisyphus as personifying the absurdity of human life. Camus concludes that “one must imagine Sisyphus happy ‘as the struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.’”
That ends the philosophizing portion of this review. more information on Camus’s interpretation of the legend of Sisyphus is here
I wonder what crazy evil the leviathans have cooking up for that parcel of land in Wisconsin? Surveillance tap is in place, and Frank has nothing better to do than monitor it, so I guess we will see what fruit that bears!
Last, but certainly not least, I have to mention something about Sam specifically. He is just acting so healthy. Putting other people’s concerns in front of his own revenge, admitting he isn’t alright. He is so much better adjusted than he was in Season One. I liked that the rock “THEN” intro made sure to remind us about Hand!Sam and the flip out moment. All is not ok with Sam, and not just because Bobby died. Lucifer is still playing games with Sam in his mind, and I fear another meltdown. But since Sam had just been drugged and drained, I am letting him off for just taking Dean at his word and turning to nap in the car. Sam knows Dean isn’t ok. He also knows that Dean will talk about it when he is damn good and ready.
I hope everyone knows the 1987 Elizabeth Shue movie “Adventures in Babysitting”!
We’re half way through the season and things are really getting crazy. It looks like there is a dark road ahead for our boys...But we know they’ll do what has to be done! And I couldn't finish my review without mentioning some of the fun humor that is oh so characteristic through the pain on Supernatural!
This episode featured two classic rock songs. The opening then sequence used “Riding The Storm Out” by REO Speedwagon. The end with Sam and Dean in the car used “Dear Mr. Fantasy” by Traffic. Let me know what you thought of the episode! I thought it was a solid follow up to a heartbreaking mid season finale!
*pics courtesy of WinchesterFamilyBusiness
The holiday hiatus officially ended and we were back with a new episode. We left the Winchesters in December with the sinking feeling that Bobby wasn’t getting out of this ordeal alive. By the end, it seemed more a question of whether Bobby would remain an earthbound spirit, or follow the reaper into the light. We pick up with Sam and Dean fast forwarding through about a month of dealing with the loss of Bobby, and attempting to find out what Bobby was trying to tell them with those numbers he wrote on Sam’s hand. They pay a lot of money to Frank Devereaux (you will remember him from earlier this season’s “Slash Fiction” episode. You also will remember Kevin McNally from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies) to try to find out what they were about. But after a month, Dean thinks it is about time to look for Frank. Meanwhile, a call comes in on Bobby’s phone from a young girl who appears to need help. Dean wants to look in on Frank and Sam wants to see what is going on with the girl, so they each go their own way...
And on to the analysis... I was a little worried when I found out that Jeannot Szwarc was directing. He directed “Mannequin 3: The Reckoning”, an episode I personally felt could have been stronger. It seemed choppy. All in all, though, I thought this episode was very solid and I enjoyed it immensely. There were a couple things that I thought could have been improved upon. For example ALL THREE HUNTERS lost their knives within seconds of conflict. But “Adventures in Babysitting” really was a study in character development--with particular emphasis on where Dean is right now. With only approximately forty two minutes, one cannot waste too much time with overly choreographed fight scenes...
Adam Glass wrote the episode. He does seem to give great Dean insight (“Defending Your Life”, “All Dogs Go To Heaven”), and this episode was no exception. I was pleased with the amount of time spent on Dean’s current loss of faith issues. As often happens in the episodes that put so much into character development, the baddie development takes the back seat. Not much is done or talked about regarding the evil of the hour. Sam and Dean don’t research what is going on. Sam is able to find Lee’s information before he heads out to find him. Dean knew what he knew about vetalas from his own experience from years ago.
I actually did look up vetalas. Wikipedia indicates that vetalas are ghost like beings from Hindu mythology. They are evil spirits than generally haunt cemetaries, taking demonic possession of corpses. They are known as “hostile spirits of the dead trapped in the ‘twilight zone’ between life and the after life.” The way they are used in the episode makes them look more like a garden variety of monster, maybe a second cousin of vampires. I found it very fascinating to look up vetalas and to find out what they are in Hindu mythology--especially considering Bobby’s struggle last episode and the looming question of whether Bobby decided to stay or go.
The link to the wikipedia article is here
Which brings me to the question left unanswered regarding Bobby. Both Sam and Dean state that Bobby has in fact passed away. Sam tells Krissy at the door, and Dean tells Frank. What we don’t know is if Bobby decided to hang out and watch over the boys or if he decided to go with the reaper. I tend to lean toward Bobby deciding to stay until he was sure Sam and Dean were ok. He especially seemed worried about Dean. He had specifically talked to Dean about his attitude and how Dean could be a danger to himself. I don’t think Bobby would want to leave until Dean sees his way through the morass of crapola he feels he is buried under right now. In support of my position, I offer the drained beer. I watched a few times and the bottle was always really close to Dean, but it never went to his lips between the time we (and he) notice it is almost full and when Dean looks down and sees that it is empty. I think Bobby managed to drain it. Whether he drank it, or absorbed it or what have you I don’t know, but Dean did not drink that beer. I’d like to think that Bobby is trying to watch out for Dean...first off wanting to help Dean drink a little less...
I’m sure that the writers will come up with a good way to bring in Ghost!Bobby if they decide to do so, but I hope we don’t get an obi-wan full body apparition ghost thing. The boys have hunted ghosts, and all ghosts go mad eventually. I feel Bobby would want to stay as incognito as possible because he knows what he would do if he was confronted with the ghost of someone he loved--remember how he reacted to Dean’s return in “Lazarus Rising”? Now he did act differently toward his wife when she came back (“Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”), but she wasn’t a ghost--she was a zombie and he did wind up doing the right thing. If Bobby seriously wants to stay long enough to watch out for them, he will have to stay on the dl...
It was great seeing Ian Tracey as Krissy’s hunter father, Lee Chambers. I’m sure he has been in other things, but I remember him as veteran Leonard “Rappo” Trimble in the third season episode of the X-Files, “The Walk”. The characters were so different, it actually took me a couple viewings to notice it was the same guy! He is definitely a talented actor. It would be interesting to see Sam and Dean hear from him again. Dean advised him to quit, so maybe he will let them know if he hears about something to hunt in the future that they can work on because he is retired.
Madison McLaughlin was decent as Krissy, but I can’t really see a recurring character for her. I liked her in the episode, don’t get me wrong. I think her story, and seeing her strength was important. I think it brought in a lot of things for Dean to think about. As far as Krissy is concerned, she was a great character for the episode, but I don’t see her hanging around Sam and Dean. They are more than twice her age. Dean is old enough to be her father!
I wouldn’t have noticed it was her if someone else hadn’t caught it, but Meghan Ory, who played the vetala “Sally” has worked with Jensen before! She was Rachel Berrisford in the Dark Angel episode “The Berrisford Agenda”. Lucky girl had Alec all in love with her! In my opinion the best Jensen episode of Dark Angel. I loved seeing Frank Devereaux (Kevin McNally) again in this episode. I like that he isn’t being played like he is a friend. It is all business. Dean mentions that they paid Frank $15,000.00 for the information. This works for me because it makes Frank seem less like a Bobby replacement and more like an inconvenient convenience for Sam and Dean to get the information they need.
We did find out a little more about Frank in this episode. When he was 26 he came home to find his family gutted. In this way, his reason for getting into hunting/conspiracy stuff is very similar to Bobby’s and John’s reasons, as well as, we find out Lee’s as well. Here we see four different men and how they deal with great loss. Frank’s take is about “doing it right and doing it with a smile”. He feels this is “being professional”. While part of his advice rang true, the other part didn’t. One part, the decent advice, essentially mirrored the advice given to Dean by Bobby back in “How To Win Friends And Influence Monsters”. The other part about the “smile” I really don’t feel Frank was doing very well and really couldn’t (or shouldn’t anyway) speak to Dean about. Clearly Frank is not very efficient at smiling through things. If at one time he was, Dean should keep in mind that didn’t last, because now Frank, by his own admission, is “bipolar with delusional ideations”. The part close to what Bobby had been telling him was about doing it right or not doing it at all. Dean used to know this! Remember when Dean was worried about Sam not sleeping in “Phantom Traveler” ? Dean told Sam that Sam needed to get his sleep because Dean needed him sharp? Dean knows that not sleeping, living off revenge and booze, is eventually going to mean he is going to mess up and get himself killed. As crotchety as Frank is, that portion of what he was saying is true--Dean needs to take care of himself before he can be any use to other people. The problem though seemed to be that Dean instead focused on doing the job with a smile, which was painfully not the way he felt.
I do feel though that I need to comment on Dean’s pausing when Krissy came in. I don’t feel it was panic, or even freezing. I don’t really think Dean’s frame of mind has really effected his hunting yet. It could, which is why it is so important that Dean snap out of this! At this point I think he is afraid of losing anyone else. He has, admittedly even, second guessed himself because of Cas and because of the other things that have been going on. Dean is in a dark place right now, and I loved that this episode explored that. I particularly loved the Dean closeups. Szwarc did really get that. At the end, we see Dean and the smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. He is disheartened and heartbroken, not really seeing the difference they are making anymore.
Dean also had the opportunity to get a lot of insight into his situation from those around him. Not only the bad/questionable advice, but some genuine insight. He should have been listening to was Lee, though. In the hospital, when Dean asked Lee to quit, Lee asked him if he ever knew a hunter that left the life. I got the feeling that it wasn’t so much that Lee felt that it was a horrible thing, but that he couldn’t understand why someone would leave. You learn what is out there, you have a set of skills, of course you want to fight the good fight. You want to make it safe for people to choose the life they want to lead. Dean used to feel that way, somewhere deep down, I think he still does. Remember in “Bloodlust” when he told Gordon that he knew he was going to be a hunter when he was sixteen? How about his reaction to Bela in “Bad Day at Black Rock”? He couldn’t believe that Bela would use the knowledge she had for personal gain instead of standing up and fighting. In the end it sounds like Lee was leaving hunting to protect Krissy, or at least he would try to leave.
Krissy herself was an interesting study. We see that she shares a lot in common with Dean. She kept the house/etc while Dad was out hunting. She was trained. She saw her mom die. I think Dean feels that he can save her from what happened to him by protecting her, and it seems that Lee buys into the same argument at the end. It’s questionable though. Once people know the truth and know they can make a difference can they still leave? I loved that Dean, maybe even in spite of himself, thought up another possibility. When he was trying to sell Krissy on the idea of college, he actually didn’t exclude the possibility of having a civilian job and being a hunter! He told her she could be a hunter/pediatrician. Maybe somewhere in Dean’s head he is realizing that if his father hadn’t made him feel that it had to be all or nothing, he could have been a hunter/mechanic?
With a catastrophically increasing speed we have witnessed Dean’s downward spiral. His questioning of others, of himself, who he is, what he is doing. He has been questioning if this life is really what he wants, what he chose. It is heartbreaking that he doesn’t see himself for the wonderful man he is. For example, he sees himself as a killer and not a father (“You Can’t Handle The Truth”), yet time and time again we see how great he can be with kids. He understands them and knows how to talk to them. He really was great with Krissy.
Since I’m on the topic of Dean, I must make a comment on how much do I love when Smart!Dean makes an appearance! Here Dean knew right away that Sam was wrong about the vetalas. He knew that John’s journal was wrong. Vetalas usually hunt in pairs, and John had taken out a loaner. This actually does raise an interesting point. Why do Sam and Dean still go off of John’s journal? I understand the sentimental value, but they were with John most of time John was hunting, and they have tons of experience now that really seems to trump John’s. I personally think Sam and Dean should create their own hunting journal. Of course they really haven’t had much time in which to put it together, but even jotting down notes...online hunter’s journal?
But maybe it is because even when their main goal was getting the Yellow Eyed Demon, they still seemed hell bent on killing all evil... Dean said that there would always be something to hunt. But did he really believe it? With a mission to take down all evil, it would be no surprise that they will never be able to succeed. Hunters create journals for the hunters that come after. So maybe if they planned on ridding the world of the baddies, then they wouldn’t see a need to prepare later hunters...Remember in “Defending Your Life” when Bobby found the way to put Osiris out of commission a century or so, Dean was not pleased it wasn’t a permanent fix? Bobby said at that point they should let hunters in spacesuits deal with Osiris. Bobby seemed more accepting of the fact that they are hunters who fight the good fight, but others will come after. Maybe this is one of the differences of age versus youth. When we are young we think we can change the world, and somewhere along the way we realize the world is too big to do that, but we can still be important and do what we can.
Maybe what Sam and Dean really need is a change of perspective, a maturation if you will--realizing that you don’t have to take out all the evil in the world to still be heroes...But then again, it is questionable whether Bobby saw himself as a hero. He seemed to think more along the lines that Sam and Dean were the heroes and he was just Bobby, doing what he could. That is the way it sounded in “Death’s Door” anyway. And who am I kidding? Do Sam and Dean really see themselves as heroes? Remember Dean freaking out about being singled out by God? or at least Angels?
But whatever transitions need to be made by Sam and Dean, even if it is just realizing they can’t take on the universe all by their twosies, I think they need to come to terms with themselves--who they are, where they are going. Well, Sam seems to have some grasp on that. I think Dean may need a little reminding that the fight, the journey, is what is important, and not any eventual win, or any eventual destination. I think often times we all look for that destination, that completion that gives us meaning, not seeing that we are defined by the very action of the journey. I guess that would be looking at pushing the proverbial rock up the hill like Albert Camus does in his 1942 essay. He sees the myth of Sisyphus as personifying the absurdity of human life. Camus concludes that “one must imagine Sisyphus happy ‘as the struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart.’”
That ends the philosophizing portion of this review. more information on Camus’s interpretation of the legend of Sisyphus is here
I wonder what crazy evil the leviathans have cooking up for that parcel of land in Wisconsin? Surveillance tap is in place, and Frank has nothing better to do than monitor it, so I guess we will see what fruit that bears!
Last, but certainly not least, I have to mention something about Sam specifically. He is just acting so healthy. Putting other people’s concerns in front of his own revenge, admitting he isn’t alright. He is so much better adjusted than he was in Season One. I liked that the rock “THEN” intro made sure to remind us about Hand!Sam and the flip out moment. All is not ok with Sam, and not just because Bobby died. Lucifer is still playing games with Sam in his mind, and I fear another meltdown. But since Sam had just been drugged and drained, I am letting him off for just taking Dean at his word and turning to nap in the car. Sam knows Dean isn’t ok. He also knows that Dean will talk about it when he is damn good and ready.
I hope everyone knows the 1987 Elizabeth Shue movie “Adventures in Babysitting”!
We’re half way through the season and things are really getting crazy. It looks like there is a dark road ahead for our boys...But we know they’ll do what has to be done! And I couldn't finish my review without mentioning some of the fun humor that is oh so characteristic through the pain on Supernatural!
This episode featured two classic rock songs. The opening then sequence used “Riding The Storm Out” by REO Speedwagon. The end with Sam and Dean in the car used “Dear Mr. Fantasy” by Traffic. Let me know what you thought of the episode! I thought it was a solid follow up to a heartbreaking mid season finale!
*pics courtesy of WinchesterFamilyBusiness
Ah Sliders, good times. One show I was addicted to and one of the few when I know the exact moment it jumped the shark. Sigh. Thankfully Supernatural isn't anywhere near that. I really liked the week 1, 2, 3 montage. I thought it was a great way to show the brothers' grief without having the show be them staring at the walls. Since the whole story was really about how the brothers deal with their grief, I didn't mind that the vetalas were pretty lame. Still thanks for the background - essentially demon zombies. Good to know. And I definitely agree that the empty bottle is Bobby's doing. Since Sera really wants him back, I'd expect to see more on this. For me Krissy was annoying, but I love the fact that Sally was in The Berrisford Agenda. That was by far the best episode of Dark Angel to me. Funny to see both of them that young.
ReplyDeleteI love how you too saw shades of season 1 in this episode. It seemed like everything lead me back there especially after rewatching. However, I think Dean paused when Krissy was taken because he didn't want to get her killed. He had just spent a year with another teen and he saw himself in Krissy too. Regardless though, he wouldn't have done anything to jeopardize her no matter and I find that absolutely in character. My feeling on Lee was that he was more questioning if it was possible to get out, not why someone would. I thought that resonated with Dean who hinted that he wanted out with Frank. I think Dean is beyond tired of hunting but doesn't see a way for a regular life to work for him, especially since everyone keeps telling him he can't have it. That Dean is running on revenge is not surprising because hunting itself no longer motivates him and he's sticking around to make sure Sam is safe. I think both brothers realize that they can never win the war on evil; it's too big. However, the fact that they rarely get an unqualified win has to drag them down just as much as the death of those they love. My biggest hurrah for this episode is that they did win. No question about it. The PiP's are alive, the monsters are dead, and there is nothing to haunt them in the future from that hunt. If the Winchesters (and me as a fan) are going to survive the bleak times without Bobby, they are going to have to rack up more wins quickly.