Recap – “You Can’t Handle The Truth”
Except…before Dean goes to join Sam, he thinks another drink is in order. Oh Dean, this one is going to get you in trouble. The bartender thought he was working. “I am working up to it,” Dean says, wearily rubbing his face. Hee, Ardeospina is right, he does look like he’s playing peek-a-boo. The bartender asks if he’s okay and to her he can confess he isn’t. That’s what bartenders are for. She pours a freebie and asks if there’s anything else she can get him. Extreme close up, that must mean something bad is about to happen. “I’d just like the freaking truth.” Oh no Dean, don’t go there!
“Sometimes I think I can’t be pregnant because God knows my marriage is a sham,” the bartender blurts out. Dean, you just activated the curse! Dean sees what’s happening right away, the bartender can’t believe where that came from. Then she brings up snorting oxy all day. “Why’d I say that?” She asks. “I’m pretty sure I know,” answers Dean. Yeah, that’s what you get for inviting trouble Dean!
That’s Dean’s cue to leave and next thing a woman in a revealing purple dress starts blurting about her boob job. She needs lots of attention. Dean tries to leave but then comes back, pausing for a few seconds to give them some. The woman starts to laugh. See, there’s the Dean we know and love. Whew, what a relief. Dean decides to test it on Bobby next. Huh? I know he just wants to find out if it works over the phone but Bobby? You want TMI from another hunter? Bobby is hitting the books, drinking milk and watching Tori and Dean. Really? I would have pegged him to be more of a Real Housewives type guy. Dean doesn’t understand. Bobby claims he’s a real Tori Spelling fan and she’s a real talent. Wow, the curse makes people delusional too! I’m sure he’ll use the term later “guilty pleasure.”
Dean realizes it does work over the phone. You think that he’d hang up before more happens, right? Oh no, this is a too priceless opportunity for comedy. Bobby blurts on, talking about getting a pedicure once in a while. A nice Vietnamese joint. Now Dean doesn’t want to hear more, but too late! He mentions one gal by name. “Name means velvet phoenix, tiny thing but the grip on her. She starts on my toes and I feel like I’m-” Dean cuts him off. He’s hit the TMI threshold. I love how Jim Beaver is making Bobby sound like a chatty housewife here. Great job! “Hey man, now I’m scarred for life. Thank you,” Dean says.
Bobby realizes he never told anyone that. Yeah, Dean is aware of this irony. “Why am I telling you? Maybe because you’re my favorite. Although Sam’s a better hunter, lately anyway.” Now Dean wants to strangle him over the phone. I guess he’s not too flattered over knowing he’s the favorite, even though we all pretty much know that. Their bond has always been stronger. Now Bobby really wonders why he’s saying all this. Dean lets him know he’s cursed. “How is it that half the time you clean a mess you end up dirty?” I’m not exactly sure that’s the curse talking. Bobby is always like that. Dean realizes this might be a good thing. Bobby wonders what “damned fool” thing he’s going to do. Dean cuts him off with a “no, no, no” just before Bobby tells him what his first girlfriend turned out to be. Yeah, I don’t want to know that either!
Dean instantly calls Sam, but gets his voicemail. Good thing for Sam, for Dean may have figured out right away it wasn’t going to work on him. Now we have to go through the formality of Sam doing the G-man investigating thing. The woman wants to know why there’s an investigation for a car accident. Sam tells her she committed suicide. The friend/relative/whatever thinks this is plausible. She cries and a very wooden Sam hands her a box of kleenexes, like his brain figured out that’s what he’s supposed to do. Oh, the little things are so obvious now. Ugh, this part is so slow. Things should be zipping along by now! The dead girl basically had been going through a hard time lately. School, the cat Mittens ran away, boyfriend may have been cheating on her. She couldn’t find out for sure so she became obsessed with finding out the truth. Like Dean is right now. Sorry, but the cat thing would devastate me. The rest, meh.
Dean pulls up outside and gets a call, but it is so not the one he wants, especially knowing he’s cursed. He really fights whether he wants to answer or not but he gets out, sucks it up and answers. Oh no, it’s Lisa. Bad timing Lis, bad timing. I guess Dean has just decided he can handle the brutal honest truth. Lisa starts with Ben won’t even talk about it. No, he’s probably figured out its water under the bridge. Dean confesses, this is the worst time in the universe to talk. He wants to do this later. No dice, for she’s under the brutal truth spell. Oh Dean, you don’t deserve to hear this.
“You shoved my kid Dean, how about we do this now.” Yep, same biting tone and everything as everyone else. She’s never been this way before so I do blame the spell on her harshness in this conversation. Dean isn’t sure what to say. “It wasn’t like that.” She wants an explanation, but Dean answers “I can’t really explain.” No, you aren’t the one that has to tell the truth. I’m not sure why he won’t explain, but something tells me he doesn’t want to use the turning into a vampire for a excuse. If its not that, it’ll be something else. “You want to know the truth,” Lisa tells Dean. No, probably not but he’s getting it anyway.
“You’ve got so much buried in there, and you push it down and you push it down. Do you honestly think you can go life like that and not freak out? Just what, drink half a fifth a night and you’re good?” Wow, now there’s the heart of the issue. He doesn’t know how to deal with all that pain. Kind of continuation of “Sam, Interrupted,” wouldn’t you say? Dean reminds her she knew what she was signing up for but Lisa brings up the elephant in the room (literally!), Sam. “Yeah, but I didn’t expect Sam to come back.” She’s glad he’s okay but the minute he walked through the door she knew it was over.
So, why did she know? This gets better (For us anyway. It crushes Dean). “You two have the most unhealthy, crazy, tangled up thing I have ever seen. And as long as he’s in your life, you’re never going to be happy.” Don’t give yourself that much credit Lis, he’s never going to be happy period. Dean takes all this knowing Lisa is not acting like herself, but it’s still killing him inside. Lisa stops herself, realizing what she said came out so much harsher than she meant. Dean tells her it’s not her fault, for even if there wasn’t a spell she has a right to be that angry. “I’m not saying don’t be close to Sam, I’m close to my sister.” Dean just closes his eyes, as if this is a bad dream. “But if she got killed, I wouldn’t bring her back from the dead.”
Dean stops her there, for now she’s getting to water under the bridge. “Lis, I’m not gonna lie, me and Sam, we’ve got issues, no doubt. But you and Ben-” She cuts him off right there. “Me and Ben can’t be in this with you.” It’s right about there that we see Dean’s heart ripped into two. Man, it’s a good thing I was warned ahead of time there would be kleenex moments. This scene helped me burn through a couple. Lisa says she’s sorry and hangs up. Dean is left stunned, asking himself what the hell just happened. Poor Dean. First Sam pushes him toward Lisa and Ben and now he’s managed to help rip them apart. The guy can’t win. Remember this, for if that went through my mind, it’s got to be going through Dean’s. It explains the ending that much better.
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.
Alice,
Great recap as usual.
So much about this episode has already been said, so I won’t reiterate.
The thing about Cas finding the boys. He doesn’t show up unless they call (pray) to him. Maybe they are invisible to angel eyes unless they go shouting angel names.
Dean has shown like for animals (rabbits!) but not Yorkies. And Sam did have that dog during his run away time. Equal like maybe? Well, not now Sam, but Sammy Sam.
Thank you ever so much for referring to Sam’s shirt as skimpy! Though I believe it unfair that in this show, that is what we get to call skimpy. *shallow sigh*. And I agree that the tub should have been full of hot, steamy water….*more shallow sighing* The pic you put up to mention Sam’s hair? Great, but I couldn’t stop looking at Dean! The expression on his face…heh.
Thanks again for the recap!
Hey Alice,
I am pretty sure our lovely Goddess is driving a 1960’s Jaguar XKE otherwise known as an E-Type (possibly a 1962 in specific). 😀
Also, I was thinking. If Sam’s logic chip was working, he would have realized playing the sympathy card (especially with no soul/emotion) would not work on Dean. Not this time.
A more honest answer from Sam would have been more along the lines of “I probably need help, but since I’m such a good hunter I don’t know if I want help.” I think Dean would have believed that over the unconvincing “I need help.”
Friday is almost here! I have my fingers crossed for more answers cause Sam really does need help.
Don’t hot dogs come with onions and tomato sauce … That’s two of your five-a-day right there! Also mustard is sort of plant based, at least in theory …
I think it’s cunning the way Souless Sam has inverted all the little things that used to define the character. His hair is perfect, he eats proper Man Food, he has actual sex, he’s altogether free from the ravages of guilt … He has become James Bond. Yuk. Bring back the old shaggy, finnicky, embarressed one that we know and love! ( but lets have a bit more angst and bondage first, because we’re worth it … ) 😉
Good recap Alice. Loved the calendar as 2010 too. Don’t need to be reminded that they kept the boys apart for a year.
Dean did resist his first impulse, which was to kill Sam. That was evident when he put the knife down. But there was no way Sammy would get off scot free. Sam’s plea for Dean to feel sorry for him saved Sam. Maybe Dean still has some brotherly bond with Sam, although after what Sam did, it can’t be much. As to the severity, you don’t poke a hornet’s nest with a stick and expect not to get stung! How Sam could have thought his brother was not going to unload on him I don’t know. Sam lost his feelings not his intelligence. Sam really should have really spent more time in having that beer with Dean!
Maybe after a year of lying to people and getting away with it, he thought it would work here too. It was a while before I believed Sammy was really telling the truth this time. And I have to wonder why he waited until he actually was caught red-handed before he told Dean the truth. Sam is lucky Dean didn’t kill him.
Chuckle, Alice, I too am an American made…or, well, Canadian made, American made…..OH you know what I mean, gal. I grew up in a 66 Cutlass Supreme.
However, I had a number of friends who were European car nuts so I learned my exotics too. 🙂
And hey, guessing is good – think of it this way, you were right that it was a European car!!
One of the things that bothers me the most about that episode was Bobby’s reveal that Dean is his favourite. I’d always have thought that Sam and Bobby had more in common, and Bobby seems to understand Sam, so I was kinda hoping….
Seriously though, is Sam anyones favourite? Makes me sad.
Also, the eating tongue thing? Wrong, on so many fecking levels. The dentist thing…. wrong. Anything to do with teeth, wrong….
Out of interest, what questions would people have asked Sam and Dean had they been in that situation?
Well, I’m glad that I’m not the only one to notice that Sam is no one’s favorite. Bobby, Castiel, Ellen, Jo, everyone prefers Dean. And as if it wasn’t obvious enough, now they have the characters say it aloud. I didn’t think Bobby’s words were funny. I was sad to hear them. I wish Samuel was “good” so he could make a connection with Sam rather than Dean, for a change.
In this case, don’t forget that Bobby’s words were inspired by a Goddess out to have folks committ suicide so she could eat them. Do NOT take Bobby’s words as TRUTH. He may have spoken the truth in that moment, but moments change.
To me, even what Dean said under the curse of truth was not!truth. There was an element of truth to it but it was truth pulled by Veritas with one goal in mind – to hurt someone else.
And if it makes anyone feel any better, BOTH boys are my favourite. 😀
Great recap Alice,
I think this episode should have been called ‘Somebody give Dean a Hug, He needs One’. 🙂
Goddess spells should have a declaimer on them:’side effects include suicide and becoming lunch’. 😆
You are right, when you side with the MOTW and not one of the starring characters there is a problem. 😆
Remember in ‘Time is on my side’, Sam told Dean that they were already on a case ‘Dean’s deal’, This episode Bobby tells Dean, that the case he is on is ‘Sam’.
I think that Sam (in the form of Colin Ford) is standing in the cage with Lucifer and Micheal/Adam, and he is holding on to Dean’s amulet, waiting for his big brother to come and get him. But that is just me. 😀
I just thought of something, when did Lisa ever see Sam and Dean together? In ‘the kids are alright’, she never saw Sam, in ’99 problems’, Dean was there alone. How does she know what kind of relationship they have or had? IMO she is just a jealous ‘female dog’.
I promise that this will be my last Lisa bashing. 😛