Supernatural 3x11: Mystery Spot
Jul. 18th, 2010 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meg_tdjI loooooove this episode. Watched it twice last night just because. Back when it first aired it came second only to BUABS in my affections, but since then has been somewhat eclipsed and is now hovering around third or fourth place on my Fave Eps of All Time list. Which is still saying something, because season 4 was AWESOME.
But anyway. It just still surprises me, you know? That somehow this episode was the funniest of the season, yet the most tragic, and it was so totally random on the surface, yet one of the most foreshadowing episodes in the entire series.
I'm not going to talk too much about the comedy of the episode, because we all know how side-splittingly hilarious parts of it were. And I'm not going to talk about my initial reactions to everything that happened, because I'm sure it goes without saying when laughter was had, tears were shed, and hearts were broken. Instead, I'm going to focus on the foreshadowing, because this ep was full to the brim with it. So let's take a tally of all the hints and foreshadowing this ep brought us -
*"Mister, my name is Ed Coleman! My wife's name's Amelia, I got 2 kids, for cryin' out loud I sell ad space!" -- Jimmy Novak's wife is named Amelia, and he sold ad space for AM radio. Makes me wonder if they originally intended him to have 2 children, but they felt it was too much to deal with in the episode.
*Sam needed to "bleed a person dry" to summon the Trickster -- Sam needed to bleed a person dry to release Lucifer.
*Sam ended up killing Bobby, even after saying he wouldn't -- Samcifer killed Bobby.
*Bobby turned out not to be Bobby and vanished -- Bobby was resurrected (thank God! and Cas).
*Gabe: "This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it! Just blood and pain." -- Blood and pain... not just theirs, but everyone around them.
*Gabe: "Dean's your weakness. The bad guys know it, too." -- So true. Angels and demons alike have always tried to use the boys against each other, and offering Sam revenge on Lilith for sending Dean to Hell is what sends him over the edge into the Dark Side.
*Gabe: "It's gonna be the death of you, Sam" -- Either way, whether Sam had thrown Lucifer into the pit or not, it would have spelled the end of him.
*Gabe: "Like it or not, this is what life's gonna be like without him." -- I swear Gabe knew how the whole thing was gonna go down, and he was telling Sam himself that it was all a foretaste of things to come.
Gaaaaaabe. I love him so. :)
It makes me wonder, though - Sam got more and more traumatized and hardened as the ep progressed, not so much when he kept seeing Dean die, but when Dean died for the "final" time and he spent all those months without him. So I wonder if that was the Trickster's intention. He said he wanted to teach Sam to let Dean go, but if that was true, it seriously backfired on him. All it seemed to do was make Sam that much more desperate, break him down that little bit more, get him past the point of wanting to control the situation and just leave him in shambles, wide open to Ruby's manipulation.
I mean, when you analyze the scenes after Dean died on Wednesday, it's clear that Sam has cracked. He goes totally OCD, organizing his entire environment as though wanting to control SOMEthing, and he numbly stumbles down a pretty dark path, mindlessly killing everything he can and then going "home" to obsess about the one thing he can't. And I totally missed this on my own, but someone pointed out soon after the ep aired that there were TWO MEALS on Sam's table, and he didn't touch the second one. Dude was WACKO.
By the end of the episode, when Dean comes back, it's like Sam's lost the ability to smile or see hope in anything at all. The difference between that first Wednesday and the second is pretty drastic - in the first, Sam leaps out of bed smiling and joyful, but in the second it's like he's still in that grief-induced daze and doesn't quite believe that anything he sees will last. He clings to Dean for a while, then backs away just enough that he can watch his every move and look him over carefully as though making sure he's really there. And then the final shot of the episode, when he looks at the unmade bed with tears in his eyes, it's like he's forcing himself to let go of trying to control his surroundings. He hadn't given up trying to save Dean, but it was like he'd given up HOPING, you know?
So by the time Dean dies for real at the end of the season, Sam just doesn't care about anything anymore. No OCD this time - he lives in drunken squalor and doesn't even try to control himself, let alone anything else. And like I said, it leaves him wide open for Ruby to just walk right in and make herself at home, offering him some semblance of control over something he hates more than anything - demons. Was that what Gabe intended to happen? Was he, even back then, trying to get them both to "play their roles" - Dean to die and Sam to get so desperate that he'd do anything to get revenge on Lilith? Or did his plan to make Sam wise up and just let Dean go and get on with his life, thereby avoiding releasing Lucifer and starting the apocalypse, totally backfire? Guess we'll never know.
The thing I love most about this episode? That it wasn't just a quick fix afterwards. Sam was never quite the same after this whole ordeal, and I love that this show isn't afraid to do that.
Okay, I give... here's the talking in unison scene, hahaha! Because you can't talk about this ep without going there. ;)
And the many deaths of Dean Winchester, complete with crazy, angst-ridden Sam, and the gorgeously awesome final scene (as edited by snchick12).
Randomness -
*Jensen has said that he had to use real mouthwash in the gargling scenes, so after a while his mouth went totally numb, hahaha!
*I think they had to shoot all the street scenes on the same day, so the lights and shadows on the street changed as the episode went on, as did the weather. They did a pretty good job of drawing your attention away from that, though.
*It bugs me a little that no matter what they ordered or what conversation they had in the diner, they always went outside at the exact same moment and ran into people in the exact same spots. That seemed a teensy bit far-fetched for me, but that's okay. Sam's reactions made it amusing. ;)
*I do believe the outdoor scenes were shot on the same road where Sam saw Jess in Bloody Mary. I recognized that "TAVERNA" sign on the building in the background.
*So much of John was in Sam at the end there - the psycho wall, the organized trunk, the one-track-minded thirst for revenge. They really are like the same person sometimes.
*Still my fave hug of all time. :)
Quotes -
Sam: Dude, Asia?
Dean: Come on, you love this song and you know it.
Sam: Yeah. And if I ever hear it again, I'm gonna kill myself.
Dean: *turns music up* What? I'm sorry, I can't hear you.
Sam: *laughs*
Dean: *lip syncs Heat of the Moment*
Dean: Sam, you know joints like this are only tourist traps, right? I mean, you know, balls rolling uphill, furniture nailed to the ceiling... the only danger is to your wallet.
Dean: Sounds a little X-Files to me.
Dean: Do you have any idea what you're looking for?
Sam: Uh... yeah.
Dean: *raises eyebrows*
Sam: No.
Sam: Man, I had a WEIRD dream.
Dean: Yeah? Clowns or midgets?
Sam: You don't... you don't remember any of this?
Dean: Remember what?
Sam: This. Today. Like, like it's, like it's... happened before?
Dean: You mean like deja vu?
Sam: No, I mean, like it's... like it's REALLY happened before.
Dean: Yeah. Like... deja vu.
Sam: No, forget about deja vu. I'm asking you if it feels like... like we're living yesterday all over again.
Dean: *pause* Okay, how is that not de...
Sam: Don't! Don't say it.
Sam: Okay, look... yesterday was Tuesday, right? But today is Tuesday, too!
Dean: Yeah. No. Good. You're totally balanced.
Dean: Look, I'm just saying that it's crazy, you know? I mean, even-for-us crazy. Dingo-ate-my-baby crazy.
Dean: Sammy, I get all tingly when you take control like that.
Dean: It's just a little crazy. I mean, even-for-us crazy, you know, like uh...
Sam: Dingo-ate-my-baby crazy?
Dean: How'd you know I was gonna say that?
Sam: Because you've said it before, Dean. That's my whole point.
Dean: *points to car* What, did he...
Sam: Yesterday. Yeah.
Dean: And?
Sam: And what?
Dean: Did it look cool, like in the movies?
Sam: *glares* You peed yourself.
Dean: *offended* Of course I peed myself. A man gets hit by a car, you think he has full control over his bladder? Come on!
Dean: Do these tacos taste funny to you?
Sam: Hey, Doris? What I'd like is for you to log in some more hours at the archery range. You're a terrible shot.
Doris: How do you know that I...
Sam: Lucky guess.
Dean: Geez, aren't you grumpy.
Sam: Yeah, I am. You wanna know why?
Dean: Why?
Sam: Because this is the hundredth Tuesday in a row I've been through, and it never stops. So yeah, I'm a little grumpy. Hot sauce.
Dean: Nice reflexes.
Sam: I knew it was gonna happen, Dean. I know EVERYTHING that's gonna happen.
Dean: You don't know everything.
Sam: Yeah, I do.
Sam & Dean: Yeah, right. Nice guess.
Sam: It wasn't a guess.
Sam & Dean: Right, you're a mind reader. Cut it out, Sam. Sam! You think you're being funny, but you're being really really childish. Sam Winchester wears makeup. Sam Winchester cries his way through sex. Sam Winchester keeps a ruler by the bed, and every morning when he wakes up, okay okay, enough!
Dean: "Dexter Hassleback: Truth Warrior"? More like a pompous schmuck, you ask me.
Sam: Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, I've read everything the guy's ever written. He must have weighed a ton, he was so full of himself.
Sam: It's Wednesday!!
Dean: Yeah, which usually follows Tuesday. Turn that thing off, would you?
Sam: What, are you kidding? This isn't the most beautiful song you've ever heard??
Dean: No. Geez, how many Tuesdays did you have?
Sam: I don't know. I lost count.
Trickster: Let me tell ya, whoever said Dean was the dysfunctional one has never seen YOU with a sharp object in your hands. Ho-ho-holy Full Metal Jacket!
Trickster: You're Travis Bickle in a skirt, pal. I'm over it.
Sam: *glomps Dean*
Dean: Dude, how many Tuesdays did you have?
Sam: Enough.
Sam: Wait, you're not going anywhere alone.
Dean: It's the parking lot, Sam!
Sam: Just... just trust me.
But anyway. It just still surprises me, you know? That somehow this episode was the funniest of the season, yet the most tragic, and it was so totally random on the surface, yet one of the most foreshadowing episodes in the entire series.
I'm not going to talk too much about the comedy of the episode, because we all know how side-splittingly hilarious parts of it were. And I'm not going to talk about my initial reactions to everything that happened, because I'm sure it goes without saying when laughter was had, tears were shed, and hearts were broken. Instead, I'm going to focus on the foreshadowing, because this ep was full to the brim with it. So let's take a tally of all the hints and foreshadowing this ep brought us -
*"Mister, my name is Ed Coleman! My wife's name's Amelia, I got 2 kids, for cryin' out loud I sell ad space!" -- Jimmy Novak's wife is named Amelia, and he sold ad space for AM radio. Makes me wonder if they originally intended him to have 2 children, but they felt it was too much to deal with in the episode.
*Sam needed to "bleed a person dry" to summon the Trickster -- Sam needed to bleed a person dry to release Lucifer.
*Sam ended up killing Bobby, even after saying he wouldn't -- Samcifer killed Bobby.
*Bobby turned out not to be Bobby and vanished -- Bobby was resurrected (thank God! and Cas).
*Gabe: "This obsession to save Dean? The way you two keep sacrificing yourselves for each other? Nothing good comes out of it! Just blood and pain." -- Blood and pain... not just theirs, but everyone around them.
*Gabe: "Dean's your weakness. The bad guys know it, too." -- So true. Angels and demons alike have always tried to use the boys against each other, and offering Sam revenge on Lilith for sending Dean to Hell is what sends him over the edge into the Dark Side.
*Gabe: "It's gonna be the death of you, Sam" -- Either way, whether Sam had thrown Lucifer into the pit or not, it would have spelled the end of him.
*Gabe: "Like it or not, this is what life's gonna be like without him." -- I swear Gabe knew how the whole thing was gonna go down, and he was telling Sam himself that it was all a foretaste of things to come.
Gaaaaaabe. I love him so. :)
It makes me wonder, though - Sam got more and more traumatized and hardened as the ep progressed, not so much when he kept seeing Dean die, but when Dean died for the "final" time and he spent all those months without him. So I wonder if that was the Trickster's intention. He said he wanted to teach Sam to let Dean go, but if that was true, it seriously backfired on him. All it seemed to do was make Sam that much more desperate, break him down that little bit more, get him past the point of wanting to control the situation and just leave him in shambles, wide open to Ruby's manipulation.
I mean, when you analyze the scenes after Dean died on Wednesday, it's clear that Sam has cracked. He goes totally OCD, organizing his entire environment as though wanting to control SOMEthing, and he numbly stumbles down a pretty dark path, mindlessly killing everything he can and then going "home" to obsess about the one thing he can't. And I totally missed this on my own, but someone pointed out soon after the ep aired that there were TWO MEALS on Sam's table, and he didn't touch the second one. Dude was WACKO.
By the end of the episode, when Dean comes back, it's like Sam's lost the ability to smile or see hope in anything at all. The difference between that first Wednesday and the second is pretty drastic - in the first, Sam leaps out of bed smiling and joyful, but in the second it's like he's still in that grief-induced daze and doesn't quite believe that anything he sees will last. He clings to Dean for a while, then backs away just enough that he can watch his every move and look him over carefully as though making sure he's really there. And then the final shot of the episode, when he looks at the unmade bed with tears in his eyes, it's like he's forcing himself to let go of trying to control his surroundings. He hadn't given up trying to save Dean, but it was like he'd given up HOPING, you know?
So by the time Dean dies for real at the end of the season, Sam just doesn't care about anything anymore. No OCD this time - he lives in drunken squalor and doesn't even try to control himself, let alone anything else. And like I said, it leaves him wide open for Ruby to just walk right in and make herself at home, offering him some semblance of control over something he hates more than anything - demons. Was that what Gabe intended to happen? Was he, even back then, trying to get them both to "play their roles" - Dean to die and Sam to get so desperate that he'd do anything to get revenge on Lilith? Or did his plan to make Sam wise up and just let Dean go and get on with his life, thereby avoiding releasing Lucifer and starting the apocalypse, totally backfire? Guess we'll never know.
The thing I love most about this episode? That it wasn't just a quick fix afterwards. Sam was never quite the same after this whole ordeal, and I love that this show isn't afraid to do that.
Okay, I give... here's the talking in unison scene, hahaha! Because you can't talk about this ep without going there. ;)
And the many deaths of Dean Winchester, complete with crazy, angst-ridden Sam, and the gorgeously awesome final scene (as edited by snchick12).
Randomness -
*Jensen has said that he had to use real mouthwash in the gargling scenes, so after a while his mouth went totally numb, hahaha!
*I think they had to shoot all the street scenes on the same day, so the lights and shadows on the street changed as the episode went on, as did the weather. They did a pretty good job of drawing your attention away from that, though.
*It bugs me a little that no matter what they ordered or what conversation they had in the diner, they always went outside at the exact same moment and ran into people in the exact same spots. That seemed a teensy bit far-fetched for me, but that's okay. Sam's reactions made it amusing. ;)
*I do believe the outdoor scenes were shot on the same road where Sam saw Jess in Bloody Mary. I recognized that "TAVERNA" sign on the building in the background.
*So much of John was in Sam at the end there - the psycho wall, the organized trunk, the one-track-minded thirst for revenge. They really are like the same person sometimes.
*Still my fave hug of all time. :)
Quotes -
Sam: Dude, Asia?
Dean: Come on, you love this song and you know it.
Sam: Yeah. And if I ever hear it again, I'm gonna kill myself.
Dean: *turns music up* What? I'm sorry, I can't hear you.
Sam: *laughs*
Dean: *lip syncs Heat of the Moment*
Dean: Sam, you know joints like this are only tourist traps, right? I mean, you know, balls rolling uphill, furniture nailed to the ceiling... the only danger is to your wallet.
Dean: Sounds a little X-Files to me.
Dean: Do you have any idea what you're looking for?
Sam: Uh... yeah.
Dean: *raises eyebrows*
Sam: No.
Sam: Man, I had a WEIRD dream.
Dean: Yeah? Clowns or midgets?
Sam: You don't... you don't remember any of this?
Dean: Remember what?
Sam: This. Today. Like, like it's, like it's... happened before?
Dean: You mean like deja vu?
Sam: No, I mean, like it's... like it's REALLY happened before.
Dean: Yeah. Like... deja vu.
Sam: No, forget about deja vu. I'm asking you if it feels like... like we're living yesterday all over again.
Dean: *pause* Okay, how is that not de...
Sam: Don't! Don't say it.
Sam: Okay, look... yesterday was Tuesday, right? But today is Tuesday, too!
Dean: Yeah. No. Good. You're totally balanced.
Dean: Look, I'm just saying that it's crazy, you know? I mean, even-for-us crazy. Dingo-ate-my-baby crazy.
Dean: Sammy, I get all tingly when you take control like that.
Dean: It's just a little crazy. I mean, even-for-us crazy, you know, like uh...
Sam: Dingo-ate-my-baby crazy?
Dean: How'd you know I was gonna say that?
Sam: Because you've said it before, Dean. That's my whole point.
Dean: *points to car* What, did he...
Sam: Yesterday. Yeah.
Dean: And?
Sam: And what?
Dean: Did it look cool, like in the movies?
Sam: *glares* You peed yourself.
Dean: *offended* Of course I peed myself. A man gets hit by a car, you think he has full control over his bladder? Come on!
Dean: Do these tacos taste funny to you?
Sam: Hey, Doris? What I'd like is for you to log in some more hours at the archery range. You're a terrible shot.
Doris: How do you know that I...
Sam: Lucky guess.
Dean: Geez, aren't you grumpy.
Sam: Yeah, I am. You wanna know why?
Dean: Why?
Sam: Because this is the hundredth Tuesday in a row I've been through, and it never stops. So yeah, I'm a little grumpy. Hot sauce.
Dean: Nice reflexes.
Sam: I knew it was gonna happen, Dean. I know EVERYTHING that's gonna happen.
Dean: You don't know everything.
Sam: Yeah, I do.
Sam & Dean: Yeah, right. Nice guess.
Sam: It wasn't a guess.
Sam & Dean: Right, you're a mind reader. Cut it out, Sam. Sam! You think you're being funny, but you're being really really childish. Sam Winchester wears makeup. Sam Winchester cries his way through sex. Sam Winchester keeps a ruler by the bed, and every morning when he wakes up, okay okay, enough!
Dean: "Dexter Hassleback: Truth Warrior"? More like a pompous schmuck, you ask me.
Sam: Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, I've read everything the guy's ever written. He must have weighed a ton, he was so full of himself.
Sam: It's Wednesday!!
Dean: Yeah, which usually follows Tuesday. Turn that thing off, would you?
Sam: What, are you kidding? This isn't the most beautiful song you've ever heard??
Dean: No. Geez, how many Tuesdays did you have?
Sam: I don't know. I lost count.
Trickster: Let me tell ya, whoever said Dean was the dysfunctional one has never seen YOU with a sharp object in your hands. Ho-ho-holy Full Metal Jacket!
Trickster: You're Travis Bickle in a skirt, pal. I'm over it.
Sam: *glomps Dean*
Dean: Dude, how many Tuesdays did you have?
Sam: Enough.
Sam: Wait, you're not going anywhere alone.
Dean: It's the parking lot, Sam!
Sam: Just... just trust me.
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-19 06:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 07:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 02:59 am (UTC)It is so true. Sam is such an amazingly complicated and well-written/acted character, and the fact that the writers continued to let him grow organically is wonderful. Because, really? That isn't something he would be the same after. The brothers are each other's everything, and to have Dean die over and over - then finally die in his arms - and be left alone like that... ugh, it would be devastating. It's part of what makes the episode itself so heartbreaking.
And, really, all of the foreshadowing is amazing. Again, score for the writers. And, Loki/Gabriel is awesome.
I also love that this show managed to make parts of this episode laughable. It's ludicrous in places, bittersweet in others, and out and out heart-wrenching in others. Love this episode, and love this show.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-20 07:27 pm (UTC)