Supernatural 4x04: In The Beginning
Jul. 30th, 2010 05:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meg_tdjI remember there being a huge uproar over the fact that Sam was written out of this episode after the teaser. I think Kripke was right, though - it NEEDED to be about Dean finding out what was going on with Sam. I honestly don't see how Sam could have been worked into it without messing with the flow of the story and/or setting up a roadblock between Dean and the Big Reveal. Dean needed to take this journey on his own, or he would have just been in denial the whole time.
Meanwhile, Jared took the opportunity to join Sandy in Hawaii for her birthday, heh. Which, considering they'd been broken up for a few months by this point, was very sweet. And I find it hilarious that he went in the shirt Sam wore in the ep - ITB ... Hawaii. He really does raid Sam's wardrobe. ;)
Aaaaaaaanyhoo...
First of all, I love that Dean was wearing John's leather jacket through the entire episode. I thought that was cool. And seeing John buying the Impala was just... perfect. Apparently Jensen had a problem with the mind-numbing paradox it presented, but I thought it was great. Who knows, maybe John would have ended up with the Impala at some point anyway... maybe the van would have exploded in a few weeks' time or something, heh. But I kind of love that it was Dean who pointed him in the Impala's direction. Makes it all the more DEAN'S CAR. I'm surprised, though, that John didn't remember the crazy dude who stalked him that day and introduced him to the Impala, but I guess a lot happened soon after to push something seemingly insignificant to the back of his mind.
I thought Matthew Cohen got JDM's speech patterns down to a fine art. Perfect casting job, both for him as John and Amy Gumenick as Mary.
Speaking of Mary... I WAS SO FREAKING BLOWN AWAY THAT SHE WAS A HUNTER!! Oh maaaaan, I remember screaming "What? WHAT? WHAAAAAAAT????" at the screen all through that commercial break, LOL. That was AWESOME. And finally explained why she ran back to the nursery without waking her big, strong, military husband first - she knew it was a demon in that room. SHE WAS PROTECTING JOHN. Holy mind-blowing revelation, Batman!
As for her promise not to get out of bed... first of all, Dean didn't say what time of day not to get out of bed, he just gave the date. Who knows, maybe she'd stayed in bed for most of the day, but kinda had to get up to take care of her kids once John went to work. She died in the dead of night, after all. Also, she was woken up out of a deep sleep by the sound of her baby crying. You'd be running on instinct to go in and see what the problem was before you even realized you were out of bed. And also, like with John, a heck of a lot happened to her over the next few days. It would be quite understandable for her to forget this random hunter guy and his crazy talk. And she would be focused on the date 10 years from her deal, which was May 2. I'd love to know how freaked she must have been when she went into labour on that date. She probably thought that was it, you know? Six months later, she would have been feeling pretty safe.
Any which way, the scene where she makes the promise is one of the most gorgeous scenes in the entire series - and here it is on YouTube. Sam so echoed her entire "I want to get out" speech in the pilot. And poor Dean's face when she says her worst nightmare is for her children to be raised as hunters. He adores his mom so much, and to know that his life would break her heart... that's just the saddest thing I've ever seen. :(
Ma and Pa Campbell were AWESOME. I love that their names were Samuel and Deanna, LOL. Poor Dean when he figured that out. ;)
What I don't get is, John later says that Mary's dad died of a heart attack, but his stab wound was clearly visible when John came back to life. Was John really satisfied with that explanation? Or was that a cover story he and Mary came up with to tell everyone else? And how did Mary explain that her mother was dead, too? Curious.
Btw, Samuel totally bitchfaced multiple times in this episode, LOL. Mary called it his "sour lemon look." Good to know Sam came by it honestly. ;)
I wonder who Charlie's kid was? Could have been one of the kids Ava killed before Sam got to Cold Oak, or it could even have been Andy and Anson/Webber.
Seeing Daniel and the Colt was awesome, even if it didn't come to anything. You know, it's too bad they didn't think to take holy water and salt with them when hunting a demon back in the 70s, heh. Charging in with shotguns and knives was a little silly. But maybe they didn't come across many demons in those days.
It was kind of Dean's fault that his grandparents were killed, wasn't it? I always wonder if that was the "explanation" for Dean's eyes bleeding in Bloody Mary. Loved Samuel as YED. He really upped the creep factor, LOL. And Dean's face when he revealed himself... he was SO GLAD he got to kill him. Just too bad he couldn't have done it twice. ;)
YED's line "Or a bro, that's terrific. Means it all worked out." Makes me wonder what "it" he was referring to... just the fact that his plan to turn kids into psychics worked? Or was he thinking of the overall plan for two brothers to be the vessels? I'd like to think it's the latter.
Big Reveal - Sam has demon blood in him. Oh Dean, if you only knew how much. Of course, we the audience already knew it, so it didn't seem like much of a reveal to us, but I think his comments that it's "better than mother's milk" and "makes you big and strong" were hints.
"My endgame's a hell of a lot bigger than that, kid." Yeah, like Lucifer big. The hints were all there!
Also, he mentioned the angels on Dean's shoulder, which reminded me of his comment in Devil's Trap, "What are you and GOD gonna do?" It was probably just a throw-away line at the time, but in hindsight it seems like he said it because he knew Dean would have angels on his side one day, you know?
And then the ominous warning at the end - stop Sam, or the angels will. Problem was, Dean didn't really know WHAT he was supposed to be stopping. Neither did Cas, at that point. But I'll talk more about that when I've watched Metamorphosis.
To Be Continued. Dun dun dunnnnnnnn...
Quotes -
Castiel: Hello, Dean. What were you dreaming about?
Dean: What, do you get your freak on by watching other people sleep?
Cop: Move it, buddy. You can't sleep here.
Dean: Okay. Sleep where?
Cop: Anywhere but here.
Dean: *tinkering with cellphone* Can you tell me where I can get reception on this thing?
John: The USS Enterprise?
Dean: Nice threads. You know Sonny and Cher broke up, right? Heh.
John: Sonny and Cher broke up?
Dean: Okay, so what, angels got their hands on some Delorians?
(Cas doesn't understand that reference, Dean. :P)
Dean: What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a bitch??
Dean: I was in pretty rough shape this morning, huh?
John: No kidding.
Dean: I've been hungover before, but, hey, I was gettin' chills in that diner. You didn't feel any of those cold spots, did you?
John: Nope.
Dean: No. Swore I smelled something weird, too, you know? Like, like rotten eggs. You didn't happen to smell any sulphur, by chance?
John: No.
Dean: No. Have there been any cattle mutilations in town?
John: Okay, mister. Stop it.
Dean: Yeah. If only I knew WHAT to stop.
Dean: Sammy, wherever you are... Mom is a babe. I'm going to Hell. Again.
Dean: You can trust me. I mean, come on, we're all hunters, right? I mean, we're... we're practically family.
Mary: The thing is, my dad, he's a little um...
Dean: Oh, I gotta meet him.
Mary: You've heard of him?
Dean: Clearly not enough.
Samuel: Tell me something, Mr. Hunter, you kill vampires with wooden stakes or silver?
Dean: Neither. You cut their heads off. So, do I pass your test?
Samuel: Yep. Now get out of my house.
Deanna: John Winchester mixing it up with spirits. Can you imagine?
Samuel: *sighs*
Mary: I saw that.
Samuel: What?
Mary: That sour lemon look.
Samuel: Now, hold on. John's a really, really nice... naive civilian.
Mary: *laughs* So, what? You'd rather me be with a guy like this? *points at Dean*
Dean: What? No! No!
Dean: Did you find anything on the web?
*blank stares*
Dean: ...of information that you have assembled?
Dean: By mail?
Samuel: No, we hired a jetliner to fly them to us overnight.
Samuel: What, you'd rather be waving pompoms at a bunch of dumb jocks?
Samuel: So, you didn't notice anything unusual, ma'am?
Beth: You mean, like my husband's guts fertilizing the back 40?
Charlie: I just thought he was some Bible-thumper like you all.
Samuel: Yeah, I heard about the Colt. Used to tell it to Mary as a bedtime story.
Dean: I know you guys think I'm crazy.
Samuel: You seem like a really nice kid, Dean, but yeah, you're crazy.
Dean: It doesn't matter what your dad thinks. I like that John kid.
Mary: *laughs* You do?
Dean: Yeah. Yeah, I think you two are meant to be. Hell, I'm depending on it.
Mary: What?
Dean: Nothing.
Dean: On November 2, 1983... don't get out of bed. No matter what you hear, or what you see... promise me you won't get out of bed.
Dean: So, what, God is my co-pilot, is that it?
Castiel: *no response*
Dean: Well, you're a regular Chatty Cathy.
Samuel: She wants to hunt, she doesn't want to hunt. Is this some female time of month thing?
Dean: Now, this is gonna sound a little... actually, it's going to sound massively, massively crazy.
YED: I need permission. I need to be invited. I know, I know, the red tape'll drive you nuts.
YED: Demon blood is better than Ovaltine. Vitamins, minerals, it makes you BIG and strong!
Dean: Endgame? What endgame?
YED: Like I'm gonna tell you. Or those angels sitting on your shoulder. No. I'm gonna cover my tracks good.
Dean: You can cover whatever the hell you want. I'm still gonna kill you.
YED: Right. Now, that I'd like to see.
Dean: Maybe not today. But you look into my eyes, you son of a bitch, 'cause I'm the one that kills you.
YED: You're Little Orphan Mary now.
Mary: You son of a bitch!
YED: Oh, sticks and stones may break my bones... and they won't bring your family back either.
Castiel: Your brother is headed down a dangerous road, Dean, and we're not sure where it leads. So stop it... or we will.
-----
I also watched Kripke and Jeremy Carver's commentary...
They'd been wanting to tell the story of hunter!Mary for a long time. Intended to do it in season 3, but couldn't because of the writers' strike. They felt it worked out better this way, though, since they'd had no idea how they could send the boys back in time until they wrote angels into the show.
Carver originally wrote everyone wearing over-the-top 70s outfits like the Sonny-and-Cher guy. They decided not to take it quite that far.
Jensen couldn't understand how Dean convinced his dad to get the Impala. Too much of a paradox. They joked about how different people had problems with different aspects of the ep, and Bob Singer had replied to them, "What, you got no problem with demons, but you've got a problem with THIS?"
Castiel's outfit is a nod to the Constantine comics. Kripke is a huge Hellblazer fan, and it's one of his main inspirations for the show.
Kripke always wanted the car to be the third main character in the show, even before he settled on making it an Impala. He got more questions about the Impala's fate than the Winchesters' after 1x22, so he knew he'd done something right.
There are 2 Impalas for the road, one for simulating night driving in the studio, and one that's in segments for when they need to shoot from inside the car.
The whole ep is a blur to Carver. His wife gave birth a few days after he completed the script.
They praised Amy Gumenick, who played Mary. She's a ballet dancer and very athletic, so she did well with the fight scenes and did a lot of her own stunts.
Kripke says most of their plots are just vague notions at first, not intricately planned well in advance like a lot of us assume. Personally, I think that just goes to show what excellent writers they are, that they managed to piece it all together without contradicting themselves.
Kripke hoped to bring the Campbells back together for more adventures, but didn't like the idea of fighting demons in bell bottoms, heh. Also, he felt that it would be too difficult to get Mitch Pileggi back, since he's such a busy actor.
Kripke's wife's name is Deanna. She'd been bugging Kripke to name a character after her. ;)
They originally wanted Mitch Pileggi to play Kubrick in Bad Day at Black Rock, but it didn't work out. Kripke was glad, because he felt like there was no better role for him than the boys' grandfather. Kripke praised him, saying he's the sweetest, sweetest man, and brings so much presence and intelligence to his roles.
Kripke also praised Carver for his sparkle and wit in the scripts he writes. He feels like he (Kripke) doesn't have that ability, so he admires that in Carver's writing.
Kripke mocked the scene where Dean and Mary walked two feet away from Charlie for their private conversation about demons, heh.
Kripke is always sad that character beats get cut when eps go long. Mary was supposed to climb out of a second-story window to meet John, doing all kinds of acrobatics to get there (that scene is in the deleted scenes thing on the DVD), and Deanna was supposed to do more with her fruit salad, being a tough hunter but a quirky housewife, too. Something about her tossing knives around while she was making it, then coming out of the kitchen saying, "It could have been a demon, a shapeshifter, any number of things..." then casually adding, "fruit salad, anyone?" Hahaha! And yes, when you watch the scene, you can see that she brought the salad into the room, the camera went off her for a second, then she was taking it back into the kitchen.
The scene where Mary tells Dean that she wants to quit hunting stayed the same from the episode pitch to the final product. That rarely happens - usually scenes are added, taken away, or flipped all around to accommodate other ideas for the story, but Kripke wanted that one to stay exactly what it was. It's always given him chills.
Kripke thinks they got a solid A or A- with their "prequel," trying to bring together three seasons of mythology. They had to put together a story that ends where the pilot begins, without messing anything up. He thinks an A+ would have been impossible, but he was really pleased with how it turned out. He went back and rewatched the teaser of the pilot to make sure it worked, and he felt that it did. I would have to agree.
They pointed out that every writer contributes to each episode, that no episode is 100% written by any one writer. He said he often sees fans ranting about certain writers when an episode doesn't work for them, but it's never the fault of one person. They're on such a tight schedule that quite often they don't have time to double-check every detail in one script before moving on to the next, and sometimes errors slip past them.
John was originally supposed to be in the episode more, but with him being a civilian, it just didn't fit.
Jared and Jensen have always asked why the boys don't keep their weapons on a bungee cord, since their weapons are always being knocked out of their hands by the bad guys, LOL. That line, of course, is later worked into The Real Ghostbusters. ;)
Kripke LOVES Mitch as the YED. One of his favourite portrayals of the character.
Kripke and Ben Edlund wrote the Dean vs YED scene, because Carver was off with his wife and baby.
The studio called and said, "Are we sure the dad should be kissing the daughter?" and Kripke replied, "Yes, we're sure." Heh.
Kripke praised Misha like whoa. "What a pleasure this guy has been, both to work with and what he brings to the show. He just came in for the audition for the angel, and just was so complicated and brought this innocence to the role and all of this different dimension, and we just knew he was lightning in a bottle. And sure enough, the fans have really responded to him in a way they've responded to no other guest star on the show. We ended up snatching him up, he's gonna be a regular. We just knew what we had on our hands, and he's just been such a gentleman and a pleasure to work with."
Carver got in on the Misha love, saying he wrote the episode before he'd even seen Misha, so when he started watching the dailies he saw that he was a "brick house stud," and a "hottie with a body." Kripke agreed, saying he's a "tall drink of water."
They wanted what was going on with Sam to be what the trip was all about. They resurrected an "ancient" storyline and didn't want it to be for no reason, which was why the ep had to be Dean discovering on his own what had happened, so he would know something's going on with Sam that he has to stop.
Meanwhile, Jared took the opportunity to join Sandy in Hawaii for her birthday, heh. Which, considering they'd been broken up for a few months by this point, was very sweet. And I find it hilarious that he went in the shirt Sam wore in the ep - ITB ... Hawaii. He really does raid Sam's wardrobe. ;)
Aaaaaaaanyhoo...
First of all, I love that Dean was wearing John's leather jacket through the entire episode. I thought that was cool. And seeing John buying the Impala was just... perfect. Apparently Jensen had a problem with the mind-numbing paradox it presented, but I thought it was great. Who knows, maybe John would have ended up with the Impala at some point anyway... maybe the van would have exploded in a few weeks' time or something, heh. But I kind of love that it was Dean who pointed him in the Impala's direction. Makes it all the more DEAN'S CAR. I'm surprised, though, that John didn't remember the crazy dude who stalked him that day and introduced him to the Impala, but I guess a lot happened soon after to push something seemingly insignificant to the back of his mind.
I thought Matthew Cohen got JDM's speech patterns down to a fine art. Perfect casting job, both for him as John and Amy Gumenick as Mary.
Speaking of Mary... I WAS SO FREAKING BLOWN AWAY THAT SHE WAS A HUNTER!! Oh maaaaan, I remember screaming "What? WHAT? WHAAAAAAAT????" at the screen all through that commercial break, LOL. That was AWESOME. And finally explained why she ran back to the nursery without waking her big, strong, military husband first - she knew it was a demon in that room. SHE WAS PROTECTING JOHN. Holy mind-blowing revelation, Batman!
As for her promise not to get out of bed... first of all, Dean didn't say what time of day not to get out of bed, he just gave the date. Who knows, maybe she'd stayed in bed for most of the day, but kinda had to get up to take care of her kids once John went to work. She died in the dead of night, after all. Also, she was woken up out of a deep sleep by the sound of her baby crying. You'd be running on instinct to go in and see what the problem was before you even realized you were out of bed. And also, like with John, a heck of a lot happened to her over the next few days. It would be quite understandable for her to forget this random hunter guy and his crazy talk. And she would be focused on the date 10 years from her deal, which was May 2. I'd love to know how freaked she must have been when she went into labour on that date. She probably thought that was it, you know? Six months later, she would have been feeling pretty safe.
Any which way, the scene where she makes the promise is one of the most gorgeous scenes in the entire series - and here it is on YouTube. Sam so echoed her entire "I want to get out" speech in the pilot. And poor Dean's face when she says her worst nightmare is for her children to be raised as hunters. He adores his mom so much, and to know that his life would break her heart... that's just the saddest thing I've ever seen. :(
Ma and Pa Campbell were AWESOME. I love that their names were Samuel and Deanna, LOL. Poor Dean when he figured that out. ;)
What I don't get is, John later says that Mary's dad died of a heart attack, but his stab wound was clearly visible when John came back to life. Was John really satisfied with that explanation? Or was that a cover story he and Mary came up with to tell everyone else? And how did Mary explain that her mother was dead, too? Curious.
Btw, Samuel totally bitchfaced multiple times in this episode, LOL. Mary called it his "sour lemon look." Good to know Sam came by it honestly. ;)
I wonder who Charlie's kid was? Could have been one of the kids Ava killed before Sam got to Cold Oak, or it could even have been Andy and Anson/Webber.
Seeing Daniel and the Colt was awesome, even if it didn't come to anything. You know, it's too bad they didn't think to take holy water and salt with them when hunting a demon back in the 70s, heh. Charging in with shotguns and knives was a little silly. But maybe they didn't come across many demons in those days.
It was kind of Dean's fault that his grandparents were killed, wasn't it? I always wonder if that was the "explanation" for Dean's eyes bleeding in Bloody Mary. Loved Samuel as YED. He really upped the creep factor, LOL. And Dean's face when he revealed himself... he was SO GLAD he got to kill him. Just too bad he couldn't have done it twice. ;)
YED's line "Or a bro, that's terrific. Means it all worked out." Makes me wonder what "it" he was referring to... just the fact that his plan to turn kids into psychics worked? Or was he thinking of the overall plan for two brothers to be the vessels? I'd like to think it's the latter.
Big Reveal - Sam has demon blood in him. Oh Dean, if you only knew how much. Of course, we the audience already knew it, so it didn't seem like much of a reveal to us, but I think his comments that it's "better than mother's milk" and "makes you big and strong" were hints.
"My endgame's a hell of a lot bigger than that, kid." Yeah, like Lucifer big. The hints were all there!
Also, he mentioned the angels on Dean's shoulder, which reminded me of his comment in Devil's Trap, "What are you and GOD gonna do?" It was probably just a throw-away line at the time, but in hindsight it seems like he said it because he knew Dean would have angels on his side one day, you know?
And then the ominous warning at the end - stop Sam, or the angels will. Problem was, Dean didn't really know WHAT he was supposed to be stopping. Neither did Cas, at that point. But I'll talk more about that when I've watched Metamorphosis.
To Be Continued. Dun dun dunnnnnnnn...
Quotes -
Castiel: Hello, Dean. What were you dreaming about?
Dean: What, do you get your freak on by watching other people sleep?
Cop: Move it, buddy. You can't sleep here.
Dean: Okay. Sleep where?
Cop: Anywhere but here.
Dean: *tinkering with cellphone* Can you tell me where I can get reception on this thing?
John: The USS Enterprise?
Dean: Nice threads. You know Sonny and Cher broke up, right? Heh.
John: Sonny and Cher broke up?
Dean: Okay, so what, angels got their hands on some Delorians?
(Cas doesn't understand that reference, Dean. :P)
Dean: What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a bitch??
Dean: I was in pretty rough shape this morning, huh?
John: No kidding.
Dean: I've been hungover before, but, hey, I was gettin' chills in that diner. You didn't feel any of those cold spots, did you?
John: Nope.
Dean: No. Swore I smelled something weird, too, you know? Like, like rotten eggs. You didn't happen to smell any sulphur, by chance?
John: No.
Dean: No. Have there been any cattle mutilations in town?
John: Okay, mister. Stop it.
Dean: Yeah. If only I knew WHAT to stop.
Dean: Sammy, wherever you are... Mom is a babe. I'm going to Hell. Again.
Dean: You can trust me. I mean, come on, we're all hunters, right? I mean, we're... we're practically family.
Mary: The thing is, my dad, he's a little um...
Dean: Oh, I gotta meet him.
Mary: You've heard of him?
Dean: Clearly not enough.
Samuel: Tell me something, Mr. Hunter, you kill vampires with wooden stakes or silver?
Dean: Neither. You cut their heads off. So, do I pass your test?
Samuel: Yep. Now get out of my house.
Deanna: John Winchester mixing it up with spirits. Can you imagine?
Samuel: *sighs*
Mary: I saw that.
Samuel: What?
Mary: That sour lemon look.
Samuel: Now, hold on. John's a really, really nice... naive civilian.
Mary: *laughs* So, what? You'd rather me be with a guy like this? *points at Dean*
Dean: What? No! No!
Dean: Did you find anything on the web?
*blank stares*
Dean: ...of information that you have assembled?
Dean: By mail?
Samuel: No, we hired a jetliner to fly them to us overnight.
Samuel: What, you'd rather be waving pompoms at a bunch of dumb jocks?
Samuel: So, you didn't notice anything unusual, ma'am?
Beth: You mean, like my husband's guts fertilizing the back 40?
Charlie: I just thought he was some Bible-thumper like you all.
Samuel: Yeah, I heard about the Colt. Used to tell it to Mary as a bedtime story.
Dean: I know you guys think I'm crazy.
Samuel: You seem like a really nice kid, Dean, but yeah, you're crazy.
Dean: It doesn't matter what your dad thinks. I like that John kid.
Mary: *laughs* You do?
Dean: Yeah. Yeah, I think you two are meant to be. Hell, I'm depending on it.
Mary: What?
Dean: Nothing.
Dean: On November 2, 1983... don't get out of bed. No matter what you hear, or what you see... promise me you won't get out of bed.
Dean: So, what, God is my co-pilot, is that it?
Castiel: *no response*
Dean: Well, you're a regular Chatty Cathy.
Samuel: She wants to hunt, she doesn't want to hunt. Is this some female time of month thing?
Dean: Now, this is gonna sound a little... actually, it's going to sound massively, massively crazy.
YED: I need permission. I need to be invited. I know, I know, the red tape'll drive you nuts.
YED: Demon blood is better than Ovaltine. Vitamins, minerals, it makes you BIG and strong!
Dean: Endgame? What endgame?
YED: Like I'm gonna tell you. Or those angels sitting on your shoulder. No. I'm gonna cover my tracks good.
Dean: You can cover whatever the hell you want. I'm still gonna kill you.
YED: Right. Now, that I'd like to see.
Dean: Maybe not today. But you look into my eyes, you son of a bitch, 'cause I'm the one that kills you.
YED: You're Little Orphan Mary now.
Mary: You son of a bitch!
YED: Oh, sticks and stones may break my bones... and they won't bring your family back either.
Castiel: Your brother is headed down a dangerous road, Dean, and we're not sure where it leads. So stop it... or we will.
-----
I also watched Kripke and Jeremy Carver's commentary...
They'd been wanting to tell the story of hunter!Mary for a long time. Intended to do it in season 3, but couldn't because of the writers' strike. They felt it worked out better this way, though, since they'd had no idea how they could send the boys back in time until they wrote angels into the show.
Carver originally wrote everyone wearing over-the-top 70s outfits like the Sonny-and-Cher guy. They decided not to take it quite that far.
Jensen couldn't understand how Dean convinced his dad to get the Impala. Too much of a paradox. They joked about how different people had problems with different aspects of the ep, and Bob Singer had replied to them, "What, you got no problem with demons, but you've got a problem with THIS?"
Castiel's outfit is a nod to the Constantine comics. Kripke is a huge Hellblazer fan, and it's one of his main inspirations for the show.
Kripke always wanted the car to be the third main character in the show, even before he settled on making it an Impala. He got more questions about the Impala's fate than the Winchesters' after 1x22, so he knew he'd done something right.
There are 2 Impalas for the road, one for simulating night driving in the studio, and one that's in segments for when they need to shoot from inside the car.
The whole ep is a blur to Carver. His wife gave birth a few days after he completed the script.
They praised Amy Gumenick, who played Mary. She's a ballet dancer and very athletic, so she did well with the fight scenes and did a lot of her own stunts.
Kripke says most of their plots are just vague notions at first, not intricately planned well in advance like a lot of us assume. Personally, I think that just goes to show what excellent writers they are, that they managed to piece it all together without contradicting themselves.
Kripke hoped to bring the Campbells back together for more adventures, but didn't like the idea of fighting demons in bell bottoms, heh. Also, he felt that it would be too difficult to get Mitch Pileggi back, since he's such a busy actor.
Kripke's wife's name is Deanna. She'd been bugging Kripke to name a character after her. ;)
They originally wanted Mitch Pileggi to play Kubrick in Bad Day at Black Rock, but it didn't work out. Kripke was glad, because he felt like there was no better role for him than the boys' grandfather. Kripke praised him, saying he's the sweetest, sweetest man, and brings so much presence and intelligence to his roles.
Kripke also praised Carver for his sparkle and wit in the scripts he writes. He feels like he (Kripke) doesn't have that ability, so he admires that in Carver's writing.
Kripke mocked the scene where Dean and Mary walked two feet away from Charlie for their private conversation about demons, heh.
Kripke is always sad that character beats get cut when eps go long. Mary was supposed to climb out of a second-story window to meet John, doing all kinds of acrobatics to get there (that scene is in the deleted scenes thing on the DVD), and Deanna was supposed to do more with her fruit salad, being a tough hunter but a quirky housewife, too. Something about her tossing knives around while she was making it, then coming out of the kitchen saying, "It could have been a demon, a shapeshifter, any number of things..." then casually adding, "fruit salad, anyone?" Hahaha! And yes, when you watch the scene, you can see that she brought the salad into the room, the camera went off her for a second, then she was taking it back into the kitchen.
The scene where Mary tells Dean that she wants to quit hunting stayed the same from the episode pitch to the final product. That rarely happens - usually scenes are added, taken away, or flipped all around to accommodate other ideas for the story, but Kripke wanted that one to stay exactly what it was. It's always given him chills.
Kripke thinks they got a solid A or A- with their "prequel," trying to bring together three seasons of mythology. They had to put together a story that ends where the pilot begins, without messing anything up. He thinks an A+ would have been impossible, but he was really pleased with how it turned out. He went back and rewatched the teaser of the pilot to make sure it worked, and he felt that it did. I would have to agree.
They pointed out that every writer contributes to each episode, that no episode is 100% written by any one writer. He said he often sees fans ranting about certain writers when an episode doesn't work for them, but it's never the fault of one person. They're on such a tight schedule that quite often they don't have time to double-check every detail in one script before moving on to the next, and sometimes errors slip past them.
John was originally supposed to be in the episode more, but with him being a civilian, it just didn't fit.
Jared and Jensen have always asked why the boys don't keep their weapons on a bungee cord, since their weapons are always being knocked out of their hands by the bad guys, LOL. That line, of course, is later worked into The Real Ghostbusters. ;)
Kripke LOVES Mitch as the YED. One of his favourite portrayals of the character.
Kripke and Ben Edlund wrote the Dean vs YED scene, because Carver was off with his wife and baby.
The studio called and said, "Are we sure the dad should be kissing the daughter?" and Kripke replied, "Yes, we're sure." Heh.
Kripke praised Misha like whoa. "What a pleasure this guy has been, both to work with and what he brings to the show. He just came in for the audition for the angel, and just was so complicated and brought this innocence to the role and all of this different dimension, and we just knew he was lightning in a bottle. And sure enough, the fans have really responded to him in a way they've responded to no other guest star on the show. We ended up snatching him up, he's gonna be a regular. We just knew what we had on our hands, and he's just been such a gentleman and a pleasure to work with."
Carver got in on the Misha love, saying he wrote the episode before he'd even seen Misha, so when he started watching the dailies he saw that he was a "brick house stud," and a "hottie with a body." Kripke agreed, saying he's a "tall drink of water."
They wanted what was going on with Sam to be what the trip was all about. They resurrected an "ancient" storyline and didn't want it to be for no reason, which was why the ep had to be Dean discovering on his own what had happened, so he would know something's going on with Sam that he has to stop.
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Date: 2010-08-01 09:27 pm (UTC)And I love Sam, but you're right - it needed to be about Dean finding everything out.
This episode was incredible.
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Date: 2010-08-01 09:41 pm (UTC)