Recap – Exile On Main Street
Dean is in a bar with a friend. His friend brings up the whole “15 years ago could you imagine being in suburbia” talk. Dean can definitely relate. He asks Dean how he traveled a lot. Yep, Dean says his whole life. Friend wants more. He has been buying Dean beer for a year and feels Dean owes some details. This is where I wanted Dean to talk about HIS DEAD BROTHER but I like his anecdote about taking crap jobs no one else wanted. Like pest control. “You have no idea what’s in some people’s walls.” That’s for sure!
“You’re practically respectable,” friend says. Dean’s amazed by that comment, as are we all. Hot waitress delivers the bill with a “thanks guys” and touches Dean. Notice this, for its important for later. Friend notices she likes him, Dean shows how she gave him her name (Brigitte? Uses heart for the dot in the i?) and a phone number on the bill. “Chicks specifically dig unavailable guys. Who knew?” To think Dean, that could have helped you score all those years. Not that you had any trouble.
Dean and friend leave the bar exchanging their “see you tomorrow.” Dean hears a scream. By pure instinct, he grabs a gun. I guess he’s keeping that around in the truck. At least he isn’t carrying it on him. Baby steps Dean. He goes toward a nearby abandoned building and there are “DJ Sam” posters on the door. Hmm, a subliminal message? Without question Dean goes in and looks around. Nothing in there but tarps, construction materials and a bird. Dean realizes how silly he’s acting, until he spots in the stairwell claw marks and some blood. Another check around though reveals nothing else.
Dean is back home on the phone pretending to be a cop and checking 911 reports online. He’s checking for missing person reports but nothing comes up. Lisa shows up wondering who he’s talking to. He lies he’s setting up a poker game with Sid. Lisa identifies the late hour and Dean covers for that too. Dean tells her he’ll be right up. She knows you’re lying Dean. She’s that smart a lady. Dean checks the perimeter some more and even makes sure his Devil’s trap under the rug is still in place. Oh trust me Dean, demons are the least of your worries! I do love the shot of him doing all this barefoot (come join me in the shallow end of the pool!).
Next day Dean is driving his truck and spots the claw marks on a telephone pole. Oh yeah, he’s investigating. He grabs the gun and checks out the nearby house. A sheet hanging on the clothes line is torn with claw marks and I wonder who the Hell dries their sheets like that anymore? The dust and the dirt in the air alone! You want to sleep on that? Okay, Sam and Dean can since they sleep on Bobby’s floor which is exponentially worse.
Sorry, I’ve strayed, because the episode is kind of poking at this point. Dean sees marks again on the door of a shed. He pulls out the gun, cautiously approaches the door, and pushes it open! It’s a beast! It’s a…Yorkie? Oh Dean, what have you done that cosmically screws you with Yorkies? Nice shout out guys to encounters past.
Next thing friend, who we know now is Sid, was running by on the sidewalk and is a little freaked out that Dean has a gun. Dean assures he has a permit. “What, to shoot the Gleekman’s dog?” Dean covers, telling Sid that was a possum. He reminds him he was in pest control and possums carry rabies. Nice cover! Good thing you’ve had a lifetime to perfect that. Dean then spots the absolute worst thing, sulfur on the floor in the shed. He’s gotta go.
Yes, at this point I’m asking “Where is this going and where the hell is Sam?” I get Dean’s paranoia, but they’re spending way too much time on it. This is the season opener! I know, patience. Dean rushes into his garage and pulls up a tarp over a vehicle. NOOOOOO!!!! Not the Impala!!! You’ve tarped it in a garage? Okay, I knew that was coming because Jensen told me at Comic-Con, inducing one heart attack in me, but it still hurts to see. He opens up the trunk, loads weapons into a bag and hears something. He puts the bag of weapons underneath the car.
Lisa is there and Dean has by this time gotten over to the tool box. He found his hammer! Good for you Dean. Lisa just ran into Sid. “Did you almost shoot a Yorkie?” Yes, but it deserved it. Nah, Dean confesses technically he did. She wants to know what’s going on. Dean says he has a spidey sense thing going. Good way of putting it! She wants to know if he’s hunting something. Dean, in a fit of honesty that I adore, tells her he thought he was, but he’s sure he got worked up over nothing. She isn’t convinced. “Are you sure?” No, he isn’t.
He brings up his OCD over this (you think?) and asks her and Ben to hit the movies, do the Cheesecake Factory, the whole thing. They must live closer to Indianapolis now because that’s the only place you’ll find a Cheesecake Factory. I love Indianapolis. When you live in Ohio, it’s a surprisingly good place to go for a getaway weekend. Anyway, she agrees and tells him to be careful. What a great woman! She’s actually not freaking out about this. “Careful is my middle name,” Dean says in a nice, cocky classic Dean sort of way. There you are Dean! I knew parts of you were around somewhere! She smiles and gives him a kiss.
Dean opens up a lock box next and the leather jacket is in there. How sad, especially since the brown jacket he’s wearing now is tragic in a fashion sense. Then he pulls out John’s journal and the amulet. Ha! Had you going there. Just checking to see if you’re paying attention. A recent interview left little hope we’ll ever see the amulet again. He just pulls out the journal. I’m not sure what he needed to look up in there. Also, where the hell is Sam? We’re like 12 minutes into this thing already.
Dean hears a noise. I’m sorry, but this episode is poking so bad right now! I really don’t hate this episode, but if one thing bugs me the most its the pacing. How many times can we deal with Dean hearing something? There’s only 43 minutes to tell the story. He grabs the shotgun, does the slow walk around the Impala, ball rolls, he jumps forward and…nothing. Then Dean turns around and bam! The yellow-eyed demon is behind him! It’s Fred Lehne. So good to see him again. He has that same evil smile and greets Dean.
Yellow eyes taunts Dean, who can’t believe he’s back. Yellow eyes asks why not, if Cas was brought back why not him? “Add a little spice to all that sugar.” Wow, I love how wicked that line was delivered. Dean fires the shotgun and it goes through yellow eyes without issue. What I’m wondering is where did that shotgun shell really go? By my calculations, it should have hit the Impala! I’m hoping he really didn’t fire. Yellow eyes grabs Dean by the neck and mentions his great little lady and hell of a kid. Uh-oh, he’s poking at the sore spots! “And how do you keep your lawn so green?” Hee, a cheeky demon. He was always one of the best in that regard.
Yellow eyes goes for the jugular, literally since he’s also choking Dean to death during his monologuing. “Did you really think you were going to get to keep all of this? You had to know we were coming for you sometime.” Yellow eyes slams Dean down and he’s lying against the Impala. “You can’t outrun your past.” Dean’s eyes flutter, he’s drooling and about to succumb when…Sammy!!! You’re here! It took you 15 freaking minutes to get here!! You’re late!
Wait a second, why are you here? In a great visual, Sam comes up from behind and yellow eyes disappears into thin air. All that’s left is Sammy plunging a needle with white stuff into Dean? WTF? Dean gasps and…break time! Finally, something to get the heart going.
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Great recap, Alice,
Like you, I sorely wanted to see Sam hug Dean back. They did at least two different shots, the one we saw in the episode, and the one that was previewed because in the preview clip it was a wider angle so we saw more of their upper bodies and Sam’s arm did indeed come up and hug Dean back. however, the choice here was much more questionable as to whether or not he did…I go with he didn’t for his posture seems so stiff.
I’m sure the choice was to keep the ambiguity of Sam going more and more in a disturbing way…I’m disturbed.
As for whether or not Bobby and Sam looked guilty at Dean’s rant…I’m going to go with your thoughts that they do look guilty, heads hanging down, not making eye contact.
Twas a great opener, lots of mystery and questions and very few answers…bring on the season of mystery and shadows.
🙂
Alice, I always love your recaps, this is no exception. However, I said so much about this episode already, in my comments and my article, that I’ll just leave it this time with a big Thank you and singing your praises aloud (forgive me). you do such a great job with these – it’s palpable that your heart’s in it.
Cheers! Jas
wow this recap was epic!
I totally agree this whole episode just gave me an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, which is the perfect set up for the season without punching us in the face.
This episode made me feel very off kilter like one of those dreams where everything looks the same but you know something’s not right and it’s not until you wake up that you realise what was wrong.
So much screamed “something isn’t right, somethings off, something has changed” can’t wait to see what that is and why.
Bring on Friday…..
Hey Alice,
Love, love, LOVE your recaps! I’ve watched this ep 4 times and your recap made it a 5th time for me.
I was thinking that the beauty of this show is that over the past 5 seasons the writers, cast and crew have all done such a wonderful job of creating this world of Supernatural that we have become so emotionally invested as to physically feel the pain and anguish of our boys (as well as the joy). Why else would the fans respond so passionately, both positively and negatively?
The more I watch this episode, the more I’ve come to appreciate it and love it but the end result is always the same – I’m sooo depressed at the end, just as I’m sure Sera meant for all of us to be! I am very much looking forward to seeing how the questions and mysteries presented here will be answered in future episodes.
On a purely Dean-girl note, Jensen never looked so good – love how his hair is a bit longer and not so military short. And yeah, the beginning was a bit slow but hey, I was enjoying the view every long, drawn out step of the way!
Cheers! Rose
Great recap Alice. Yes, the B&W photography at the beginning was very effective at denoting the past, and I love the new title card. The reflection of the SPN lettering backwards in the glass is very symbolic too. …everything in reverse. Really agreed with your last paragraph, too. Time to get the boys back together and back on the road!
As far as Dean’s feeling of protecting Sam being gone, never going to happen. Parents never stop protecting their children and Sam has always been a son to Dean. That makes the hurt of Sam’s not coming to Dean even worst. Sam is Dean’s life, and he will always feel the need to protect Sam, whether he has a second family of not! That’s the old Dean, and I was glad to see it.
The ending scene wasn’t a surprise to me. The impala is for the boys together…it’s their home. Would have preferred Dean didn’t offer it to Sam, but Sam was right not to take it. He needs his brother, not a car. But cold saying he liked his own car better. Hope the impala gets even with him for that!
And I can’t see Dean just leaving Lisa and Ben, after he put them in danger, that’s not something Dean would do. I would have been very disappointed if he had. Sam was right though, the longer Dean says with them the greater the danger they are in, but I would have like to have Sam say, “Okay Dean, how can I help? My fault you are here, I pushed you to them. What can I do to keep them safe?†Instead of “Nice seeing you again Deanâ€. Bad….very bad.
Alice, that was a wonderful recap!
Your love for this show really came through, and your despair at the broken bond of the boys right now. I was left feeling bereft too at the end of the episode. I get that that is what I’m supposed to be feeling right now. After all this is the first episode this season.
I so feel for Dean in his confusion and disbelief that his two most beloved people would deceive him so. How can he ever retrieve the trust he had in them before?
Sam is scaring me a lot right now as I can’t relate to him at all at the moment. I don’t like feeling that way. I want to be angsting after both boys as in the past, but can’t seem to dredge up any empathy for Sammy in that episode. I hope you are right in that his emotions are seething away behind that cold cold facade. I hope he breaks down and lets it all out sooner than later.
Phooey on the Campbells, Gramps included. ( love Mitch Pileggi, but geez!)
Love Lisa and her awesome understanding of her Dean. PLEASE DON’T DIE LISA !
This yellow eyed demon is my favourite demon and it was good to see him in all his glory again.
By the way, what happened to the colt that killed him? Have I forgotten, or was the last time we saw it was when Lucifer flung Dean into a tree trunk. Did Cas take the colt with them when he zapped the boys away? Must be having a memory glitch.
Anyway, Alice your recaps are top notch and I enjoy them immensely. Thank you.
One other point of interest I noticed: When the Djinn gives Dean the deadly double-dose of hallucinogenic poison, she repeats the line Dean said to Yellow Eyes’ corpse at the end of Season 2: “That was for our Mom/Dad, you son of a bitch.”
Just a short note to say that I enjoyed reading this recap. I especially liked your take on concluding scenes in 6.01 🙂
Hi Alice, Elle2, Jasminka and Robin
As always I enjoyed reading all your reviews and recaps.
I love the different perspectives.
I’m afraid my work schedule delayed me from reading and responding to all your articles so I hope its ok to just voice my thoughts on this episode in this one.
I actually liked this episode, it opened the doors to new questions and things to ponder and drive yourself nuts over. A great way to start a new season and new story line, I’m totally hooked.
I can’t wait for the flashback episodes to help explain some of the major questions.
When watching the opening montage, I didn’t get the impression that Dean was unhappy, I mean he wasn’t dancing the light fantastic but he didn’t appear to be just going through the motions. With still having dreams about Sam tells me he is still grieving but he seemed to be contented and adjusted to his new life with Lisa and Ben.
The hug didn’t have me unsettled either. To me Sam’s smile and his little head nod was like it was how he had envisioned his reunion with Dean. Almost like he had played it in his head a thousand times. I think that’s why he commented so quickly on what he expected from Dean, a hug or holy water and why he was so prepared to show him he was real.
Its like he had been waiting for that moment for so long and it was finally happening. I wonder how many times Sam may of secretly checked up on Dean to make sure he was ok.
I really felt for Dean in this episode, so much thrown on him at one time. Finding out Sam was alive and for almost a year, and that Bobby knew as well. Finding out his Grandfather was resurrected and that there was some Campbell’s still kicking. And to put the cherry on top he’s a target for revenge on some super nuked up Djinns.
Just how much can you expect one man to take in a 24hour period?
As for the proverbial question of whether Sam and Bobby should of told Dean that he was alive. It’s one of those no win situations, a two sided coin, that will never satisfy everyone.
Should anyone ever speak or make decisions for anyone else? To take away their right to make there own choice. Does anyone really know what’s best for someone else? Maybe not, but then maybe it all depends on the person and the situation.
If Sam had knocked on Dean’s door, right after being resurrected, told him he didn’t know who or why he was brought back, told him he was going to continue to hunt. Would Dean have even given Lisa and the apple pie life a chance? Is there any doubt that Dean wouldn’t of gone with him, even if Sam had protested against it.
And I’m sure making that decision wasn’t an easy one for Sam. I can’t help but think of the look on Sam’s face at the end of Swan Song. To me looking sad and longing. Torn between either reuniting with his brother or letting his brother go to live his own life. I’m sure seeing Dean with a family, living the dream that he once sought to have, must of crushed him inside. How could he possibly take that away from Dean after everything he had done for him. I can’t help but wonder if that is when he went to Bobby. Needing a friendly face and reassurance he was making the right choice. As it was they both agreed to not let Dean know. But I have to agree they both looked pretty guilt ridden when Dean expressed his side of the whole situation. With both there heads looking down and not even able to look at Dean.
As for the Campbell’s I have many issues with them, but I’ll only comment on two for now. First of all they didn’t seem very bright. They have been hunting all their lives, but yet it took Dean(who is suppose to be the rusty one) to suggest the necessary plans to take down the Djinn’s. To me with there experience they should have at least been on the same level as Dean.
Second is how did Sam and Samuel meet? How did they fall into each others paths? Since they had never met each other before, for Sam to believe him and trust who he and who the others were, has me very unsettled and curious. Just how bad was Sam’s state of mind.
And the ending, wow talk about having your heartstrings being torn at.
There is so much pain and grief between these two.
Dean deciding to stay with Lisa and Ben instead of going with Sam and offering the Impala as the last gesture that he was done hunting and Sam rejecting it for that very reason.
And Sam accepting Dean’s decision in a mature and almost professional manner.
To me though, I believe it was killing him. If he didn’t behave that way, he would of fallen apart.
Uneasy is good, instant hugs would only ruin a month or so of potential angst, you crazy fangirls. 🙂
Well, at least we’ll probably have some kind of tie-in at last with the whole stupid ‘Azazel killed all of your mom’s relatives to cover stuff up ’cause nothing doesn’t attract attention like an entire family butchered, no, heaven would never notice that.” D in covert ops, man.
Alice,
I enjoy your recaps. You seem to say the same things that I am yelling at the tv.
I do not trust the Campbells, since when do the good guys take prisoners? 😕 Reminds me of the Initiative from Buffy, and we all know how well that turned out. 😈
I think Sam didn’t really think that Dean would commit to his promise to connect with Lisa and Ben. So, now he is back in Dean’s life, he thought that Dean would just come back to him no questions asked, but that is not the case. Dean wants to, but he now feels a connection to Lisa and Ben that he cannot walk away from, even for Sam. Poor Dean, his is torn between his two ‘families’. :cry::
But, we have to have faith in Sara, that the trio of Sam, Dean and Impala, will soon be on the road again soon. 😀 (with visits from a certain angel).
As usual, Alice, I really enjoyed your recap. Except for the part where you CALLED ME OUT!! The power, it goes to your head!
So instead of posting thinky-thoughts about the episode, I’ll just explain now why I am so anti-Ford and you can judge for yourself if the reasons are valid.
First, when I was growing up, we had two Chevy station wagons that I loved, loved, loved. One was silver and the other was blue with wood paneling. They lasted forever and really got the crap beat out of them. I even took the blue woody wagon to college my freshman year it was so reliable. But when the silver finally broke down, my dad got a Ford Taurus SHO. It was fun for a while because it was powerful and a manual and all that, so it was great to ride in and my dad liked driving it. That is, when he actually COULD drive it. That car broke down so often it was ridiculous. So he had to use my car instead, a Chevy at the time, because his was always in the shop, and I was left carless in high school. Not cool!
Second, my first car was a Chevy Cavalier that we got for $700. It never broke down even though my brother and I drove the hell out of that thing. I loved that car.
Third, in my high school, all the rich kids got Mustangs for their 16th birthdays, and we’re talking the late ’90s ones that are really ugly. So having a Ford Mustang was really a status symbol and a way to make the kids whose parents couldn’t afford one feel even worse about themselves. That’s high school for you.
Fourth, I personally think Chevy has way more cool muscle cars than Ford does. I don’t like the Mustang at all, for reasons mentioned above, and my favorite muscle car is a ’69 or ’70 SS Chevelle, like Bobby’s but not as junked out. Go, Chevy muscle cars!
Lastly, I’m from Cleveland, and we don’t like anything so heavily associated with the dreaded state of Michigan! Go Bucks!