Homely Wes lies asleep on a recliner in front of the TV, watching Errol Flynn in CAPTAIN HOOK. Casey awakens him for a snack she prepared–a whole roasted chicken surrounded with potatoes and vegetables. “You didn’t have to do that,” he says, turning off the TV. “I wanted to!” she says happily. “Well, no, I HAD to, because I love you more than anything, lover!” He asks her to sit down, not looking especially happy himself. “Hope, are you happy?” he asks. “I love you more than anything,” she repeats. “I know,” he says, “and I love you, very much–that’s why I want you to start doing things that make–that MADE– you happy before.” “Yes, Wes, I’ll try to be happier,” she promises, moving toward him in a provocative manner, “I’ll start right away.” “That’s not what I mean,” he says. “Don’t be angry with me!” she pleads. “I’d die, I’d just die!” He tells her he isn’t angry. “Then let me make it up to you, Wes,” she says suggestively, moving closer. “Let me make it right.” She’s about to start unbuttoning his buttons when the doorbell rings. “I’ll get it!” she says eagerly. Wes drops his head into one hand. Casey returns with the Winchesters. “Wes, you didn’t tell me you called the florists for the wedding!” she coos, kissing the top of his balding head. “You’re the best! I’m going to go get my folders.” After she leaves, Wes asks, “Aren’t you the guys from the Health Department. “And florists on the side, plus FBI and on Thursdays, teddy bear doctors,” says Dean. “It doesn’t matter who we are, but what we know.” Sam notes Wes’ coin collection hanging on the wall behind him. “My grandfather gave it to me,” he says guiltily. “Did you lose one?” asks Dean. “And by lose I mean drop into a wishing well at Lucky Chin’s and make a wish on it?” Wes denies it. Hope returns with her folder of dreams for her wedding. She explains she has a lot of ideas but not much money; Wes is between jobs right now–“leaves more time for me,” she exults. Sam smiles. “I’m thinking a Japanesy kind of thing.” Sam and Dean agree they can see it. Sam asks how they met. “Best day of my life,” she says, “funniest thing, we both grew up here, and I never knew who he was, not by name, anyway! Until one day last month, I just SAW him for the first time, he was just glowing!” The brothers and Wes have been exchanging many meaningful looks during her explanation. “Oh, just glowing,” she whispers, rubbing his face possessively. He asks her to get them some coffee, but before she leaves, she kisses him, over and over. Sam and Dean home in on this excessive macking, from which Wes is barely able to extricate himself, muttering “OK, OK” between kisses. “Wes,” says Sam, “we know, so tell us the truth.” Casey listens from the kitchen as Wes begins, “My grandfather found the coin in North Africa, World War Two, and brought it back–he said it was a real wish-granting coin, but that nobody should ever use it. He was all I had, and when he died, I figured why not give the coin a shot?” “Now you’re gonna wish it back,” says Sam. Realizing they’re dead serious, Wes says, “Ha ha, no I’m not.” “If you don’t stop it, something bad’s going to happen,” warns Dean. “Something bad–like us,” agrees Sam. Dean takes out his gun. “We really wish you’d come with us,” he says.
Riding in the back of the Impala, Wes asks the brothers why his wish coming true has to be a bad thing. The wishes go south, explains Sam, your whole town is going crazy. Dean finds it hard to believe that Wes’ relationship with Hope it functional, what he wished for. “I wished she would love me more than anything,” says Wes, leaning forward. “How’s that going?” asks Sam. “Does that seem healthy to you?” “It was a lot better than when she didn’t know I was alive,” says Wes. “You’re not supposed to get what you want, nobody is,” says Dean. “That’s what the coin does, it takes your heart’s desires and twists it back on you–you know the whole ‘be careful what you wish for?'” The Impala hits something, but neither brother saw anything, so they go on their way. Naked pervert boy materializes; he didn’t do as Sam ordered and was struck by the Impala! “Be careful what you wish for,” mocks Wes. “You know who says that? Good-looking jerks like you guys, the ones who got it so easy because you happen to be handsome.” “Easy?” repeat the Winchesters as one. “Women look at you, notice you,” says Wes. (TRUE!) “We do not have it easy,” says Sam. “We’re miserable,” says Dean, “we don’t get what we want, we have to fight tooth and nail to keep what we have.” “Maybe that’s the whole point,” says Sam. “People are people because they’re miserable bastards,” agrees Dean, “because they never get what they really want.” “You get what you want, you get crazy,” says Sam. “Look at Michael Jackson–or Hasselhoff,” says Dean. “Hope loves me now, brags Wes, “completely, and it’s awesome. Besides, look around–where’s all this insanity you’re talkin’ about?” They come across the blond boy who made the wish. He has the three kids who’d been chasing him locked in an SUV and pushes it over! “Whoa, that should cover it!” says Dean. The kids inside the SUV scream as the child who tipped it over stands, shaking his fists, yelling, “KNEEL BEFORE TODD! KNEEL BEFORE TODD!”
Todd begins shaking the shrieking kids in the overturned SUV, rocking it to and fro. Dean exits the car. “I’ll handle Todd,” he tells Sam, “you get Wes to Lucky Chin’s.” Sam moves into the driver’s seat as Wes stares over his shoulder, stunned by the mayhem. Dean tries to reason with Todd, “I know the score; they’re bullying you.” “Every day, every day!” yells Todd. “You do not know what it’s like!” Dean admits that’s true: “You’re you and I’m me, so. . .” “Can’t stop them, can’t do anything,” laments Todd angrily. “Can’t do anything.” Then Audrey told him about the wishing well, that it worked. “I get it,” says Dean, “they’re mean little jerks, but they’re not superhuman, like you. See with great power comes great respon. . .” Todd punches him, sending him flying into garbage bags and cans. Lucky Chin’s, outside – “That kid turned over that car like it was norhin’! says Wes. “You should have been the teddy bear,” says Sam, “now come on, fun’s over, time to pull the coin.” Wes balks. “Why can’t we just get what we want?” he asks pitifully. “‘Cause that’s life, Wes,” answers Sam. A lightning bolt flies from the sunny sky and strikes Sam dead, knocking him out of his shoes. Wes walks over Sam’s smoking body and into the restaurant. Hope stands before the wishing well. “I had to do it,” she says tearfully, “he was going to make you wish away our love.” It finally hits Wes how evil the coin is. Dean gets up painfully from the garbage, punches Todd’s superhuman face and recoils in agony. Todd grips Dean’s throat and squeezes. Lucky Chin’s – “You wished a man dead?” demands Wes. “I love you more than anything,” says Hope. “Stop it!” he cries. “But I do,” she wails, “more than anything–more than me, more than life! Wes, don’t hate me!” He kisses and hugs her one last time, promising, “I’ll make it OK.” He reaches into the fountain for the coin. Sam lies dead, Dean is being throttled to death by Todd. Wes lifts the coin from the water, staring at Hope. Todd releases a gasping Dean. Sam comes back to life, coughing (a little weird that no one gathered around him on a town sidewalk). Todd gazes fearfully at Dean. “OK, follow my lead and you won’t have any problem,” chokes out Dean, who backs away from Todd begging, “No more, man, no more, OK?” He turns to the boys who freed themselves from the van. “Stay back!” one petrified boy orders Todd. Todd grins and walks away, pleased. Lucky Chin’s – “Hope?” says Wes (couldn’t resist) hopefully. “Do I know you?” she asks, and leaves the restaurant. She passes Sam, looking at him as if he’s a stranger, too, then walks away. A sad-faced Wes comes out of the restaurant and hands the coin over to Dean. Sam watches him walk off, a lonely, dejected man.
Dean reads in the paper that the lottery win was fraudulent. Audrey and her badly sunburned parents walk down the pier, passing Dean, who sits on a bench. Teddy Bear, in Audrey’s arms, has a bright bandage preventing the stuffing falling out of his head. Audrey smiles and waves at Dean, who waves back. Dean stands when Sam walks up. “The coin’s melted down, shouldn’t cause anymore problems,” says Sam. “Audrey’s parents are back from Bali,” says Dean, “looks like all the wishes are gone–and so are we.” They start walking, but stop when Dean says, “Hang on a second. “You were right; I shouldn’t have lied to you. I DO remember everything that happened to me in the pit–everything.” “So tell me about it,” says Sam. “No,” says Dean, to Sam’s astonishment. “I won’t lie anymore, but I’m not gonna talk about it.” “You can’t shoulder this thing alone,” insists Sam, “you’ve got to let me help.” “How?” asks Dean. “Do you really think that some heart to heart, caring and sharing is going to change anything, somehow heal me? I’m not talkin’ about a bad day–the things that I saw. . .there are no words. There’s no forgetting. There’s no making it better. Because it is right here”–he taps his head–” forever. You wouldn’t understand and I could never make you understand. I am sorry.” Sam swallows a lump in his throat. The camera pans back over the beautiful mountain town by the water as Sam and Dean walk silently on.
1. This episode was very funny. What made you laugh hardest? The fey waiter? Dean’s insistence that they go save the naked gals in the showers? For me, it was the oversized teddy bear shooting himself in a vain attempt at suicide. Funny, yet also very disturbing. I also found the nude peeper hilarious but creepy, with his erection invisible as he watched women HE KNEW getting undressed. Edlund has a very sick mind, and I’m so glad no one has stolen him from us yet!
2. Bigfoot, bullies, a plain man winning the love of a gorgeous woman””what DOESN’T get covered in this amazing episode? The wishing well gave ordinary people the opportunity to make not their wildest dreams come true, just to get something in their lives that they yearned for””the biggest hunting score EVER, freedom from being teased all the time because you are smaller and weaker, the love of someone who would otherwise never look at you because you weren’t handsome. Audrey wants her bear to be big””to take the place of her missing parents, perhaps?–but he turns out to have all the problems REAL parents do, including serious depression! Poor Audrey! So all the wishes go bad, some in very dark ways. Knowing that Sam and Dean want Wes to to away with their love, Hope wishes Sam dead””and he dies, again!
3. Wes’ Hope loves him more than anything, which means she makes him snacks big enough to feed a family of four. Nice. But even he realizes her love is stifling, overwhelming, and will never be anything resembling normalcy. Plus, it causes her to kill a man! When he sees this, he agrees to pull the coin from the fountain and have it destroyed, but didn’t you feel sorry for him as he left, all alone, Hope not even knowing who he was? Didn’t you wish, for just a second, that she had showed a tiny bit of interest in him?
4. Dean finally admits to Sam that he DOES remember what happened in hell – but he’s not going to tell him about it. Even though he knows damn well that he went to hell to bring Sam back to life and that Sam is more than willing to help shoulder the burden, Dean won’t share. Of course, we know this changes with time, and Dean eventually tells Sam everything. Here, however, even though Sam admits HIS wish would be to have Lilith’s head bloody on a platter because of what she did to Dean, there is no reciprocation on Dean’s part. Why? Is Dean protecting Sam, himself or both?
I loved this episode. When I heard Edlund had come up with a show involving an eight-foot teddy bear, I rolled my eyes, wondering WTF. I should have known better. I kneel before you, Edlund, now and always. You are and always will be the master of teddy bear doctors!
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Hi Robin
I really enjoyed this one too. I loved so many parts in this. Dean casually pocking the bottle of booze, both brothers sitting on the little bench looking totally confused. Every scene with the Teddy Bear.
I to am glad no one has stolen Ben Edlund yet.
Thanks for the review.
Robin, I am so sorry to be this late to your article!
I loved it and am keen to answer your questions, let’s see.
1. I think I laughed hardest when the ‘teddybear doctors’ introduced themselves and – at ‘Tea parties? Is there all there is?’ I am a fan of the teddy, I confess…
2.When I was a child I was dreaming of something like this wishing well, and now being grown up, I know that it would lead to tragedy. But, I have to admit, that I am not entirely free of wondering… what if I could wish for something…?
3.Yes, I felt a bit sorry for him, sentimental soul that I am. He probably didn’t even know what he asked for…
4.I think at this point it’s still a PTSD reaction – avoid what hurts you the most… to protect himself of the memories, and probably to protect his brother, but I think that is only secondary at this moment.
Thanks for this exercise, dear, and please continue to give us your rambles…
Love Jas