Recap: “Faith”
Anyway, back to the show called Supernatural, Dean’s accepting his fate. First he complains how much daytime TV sucks, which is a great inside joke since Jensen got his start on Days Of Our Lives. Next, he vows to hunt the fabric softener teddy bear down. Can he snag Barney while he’s at it? The world would then indeed be a better place. Oh, I’m having too much fun with this.
Sam, being a bit too distraught over his brother dying thing, refuses to humor Dean. Puppy actually looks like he’s gonna cry. Dean assumes Sam’s going to leave town without him, but Sam says he won’t. “You better take care of that car, or I’m going to haunt your ass.” Oh what’s he going to do? Install an iPod jack or something? “I don’t think that’s funny,” a wet blanket Sam says. “Oh come on, it’s a little funny.” A Sera Gamble trademark line is born, one that she uses again in “Fresh Blood.”
Dean sees Sam isn’t amused and gets philosophical. “Look Sammy, what can I say man? It’s a dangerous gig. I drew the short straw, that’s it, end of story.” Oh yeah Dean, you were that accepting of death when Sam was smurf blue on a mattress. Put yourself in your brother’s shoes!
“We still have options,” Sam says. “What options?” Dean asks. “We have burial or cremation.” Oh, what a dinger! Dean is always the best when staring at the face of death. Dean declares he’s going to die, and Sam can’t stop it. “Watch me,” a defiant Sam declares. Woo hoo! He’s off to find that donor and transplant doctor!
It’s Sam’s turn for the emotional game of “talk to John Winchester’s voice mail,” and right here is where I really notice the improvement in Jared’s acting over the last couple of episodes. He’s finally starting to feel comfortable being Sam. He does his own tear-jerking one sided speech, complete with dramatic voice breaks, and now we know more than ever what a bastard John Winchester is. How can he not crumble over this and rush to his son’s side?
“Hey dad, it’s Sam, uh, you probably won’t get this but it’s Dean (pause and a whew), he’s sick and uh, the doctor says there’s nothing they can do but uh, they don’t know the things we know right, so don’t worry because I’ll do whatever it takes to get him better.” Oh cool, he’s talked to the transplant service then! I know, that’s the last you’ll hear of it. Sam closes with a defeated “Alright, I just wanted you to know,” and he throws the phone down. Then he does everything in his power to stop from busting out in tears. Too bad I don’t.
There’s a knock at the door. Sam’s curious, but he’s not jaded enough with the world yet that he’ll pull out a gun before answering. Oh, remember when Sam was like that? It’s Dean! He looks awful! Sam wants to know why he’s there. Uh, so he can spend his dying moments with his brother? “I’m not going to die in a hospital when the nurses aren’t even hot.” All the hot nurses are at the hospitals that do transplants. D’oh! I said I wouldn’t do that.
Sam is still being a whiner. “You know this whole ‘I laugh in the face of death’ thing? It’s crap, and I can see through it.” Dean says whatever, for he’s too sick to care. “Have you even slept? You look worse than me.” Sam’s been scouring the Internet for the last three days. I wonder if his Google searches came up with this wonderful new medical advancement known as a heart transplant. They’re pretty effective from what I hear. He helps Dean to his seat and tons of fans go “awwww.” We’re such suckers.
One of John’s contacts clued in Sam to a specialist in Nebraska. Oh, so he does… fine, I’ll let it go. “You’re not gonna let me die in peace, are ya?” Sam with hope declares, “I’m not going to let you die period.” They’re going.
The Impala thunders through a muddy field with a giant tent, and Nebraska is looking a lot like British Columbia. Dean, while failing to get out of the car on his own, sees the sign “Reverend Roy LeGrange, Faith Healer.” That would have killed me right there! Dean is not happy, not only because Sam tries to help him out of the car. He calls Sam a lying bastard. He thought Sam said they were going to see a doctor. Uh Dean, I believe the word he used was “specialist.” Once Sam says exactly that, he claims from what he’s heard the guy is the real deal. One passerby calls the reverend amazing, another is protesting that he’s a fraud. Dean’s just protesting that they’re seeing a guy who heals people in a tent.
I’m just going to write down the next piece of dialogue. It clearly shows Sam and Dean’s initial positions on faith and it blows the mind how much their perspectives have changed by the end of season four.
Sam: Well, when people see something they can’t explain, there’s controversy.
Dean: Oh come on Sam, a faith healer?
Sam: Maybe it’s time to have a little faith Dean.
Dean: You know what I got faith in, reality. Knowing what’s really going on.
Sam: How can you be a skeptic with the things we see everyday?
Dean: Exactly, we see them. We know they’re real.
Sam: You know evil’s out there, how can you not believe that there’s good too?
Dean: Because I’ve seen what evil does to good people.
Whoa, like Sam maybe? Now this episode has come full circle with “Lucifer Rising.”
A good looking blonde chick says that maybe God works in mysterious ways, and Dean turns on the charm and says maybe he does. Even while dying he’s trying to score. They introduce, and the chick’s name is Leila. She wants to know why Dean is there. “Apparently my brother has enough faith for the both of us.” She leaves and Dean makes a bad joke about Leila and mysterious ways and Sam makes it worse by laughing.
I just have to laugh at your review Alice.
As much as I love where I live, there are only so many placed BC can imitate. Especially for a knowledgable eye like yours. GRIN
Also, what many folks don’t realize is that this area of the world is a Sub Tropical Rain Forest. Yes, you read that right, RAIN Forest!!. So ya, it rains here a lot. Due to the mountains, Vancouver sits in a natural pocket for the clouds to get trapped in.
I would love to convince them to move the production over here to the island. We still have the mood setting greyness but it rains a whole lot less over here!
As for the episode – I agree. It’s not one of my favourites either and I probably couldn’t have told you why, but turns out I don’t have to because of your lovely review! Many of the reasons you list are why this epi clunks for me too. Good job! 🙂
Hi Alice!
Great recap! And I just loved your comments about the all transplant thing, but if they would go there this would not be a supernatural ep, would it? 🙂
I’m going tru my season 1 dvd’s and I’m finding that now, after seeing season 4, is so much easy to understand some of the things that happened there! And your recaps give a lot of help too, so I thank you Alice (and you can keep them coming 😀 )
Very entertaining recap, Alice! I snickered just about the whole way through. I like Faith okay, but I’ll admit it’s not my favourite either. It’s clearly a first season episode where they are still finding their footing as a show and getting the feel for the characters.
I read that while they were filming this episode, the rain was so bad all the cars (and people walking) kept getting stuck in really deep mud, so everyone (Jensen and Jared included) were out there pushing cars out of the mud. Ah, Canadian weather – completely unpredictable and unanticipated. At least it wasn’t snow. (That’s my motto just about every day when the last of the white stuff disappears in April/May and later, as we edge closer to winter in October).
Hi Alice, great review 🙂
I agree this wasn’t my fave either but I just have something against the Leila -character… I dunno what it is but I don’t like Julie in this, or in Buffy or in Angel… But then again, I love her in Dexter so I don’t know what is my problem…
This ep would have been a better for me if Leila had been played by someone else (and her mom would have been so less cruel…and played by someone else *g*) Leila seemed kinda old… I dunno, I can’t quite explain it…
But without those scenes I truly love this ep, it has bro-moments and action and Don’t fear the reaper (awesomeness!!) and angst… The whole Sam’s “watch me” and phonecall to Papa made my heart blead, oh boys ;(
But your recap was awesome and funny and full of wittyness and color…
So keep up the god’s work…oops, did I write that? I mean good work naturally 😉
Hi, Alice,
I agree that Faith had some uneven parts (and defintiely mom’s acting was part of it…that whole bit where she walks across the stair landing to stare off into the distance…gone with the wind melodrama (and I hate Gone With The Wind…dumb, dumb, dumb — but that’s another story)
I really like Faith, mostly because looking back there is so much to see, Sam doesn’t really learn the lesson of Faith, it sets up Dean’s lack of faith issues and Layla is a wonderful character to pair off of Dean…for all his initial come on to her he quickly looses that and geniuinly cares and in the end is burdened more by knowing that she (who he says deserves it more than he) likely dies but holds true to her faith.
I also enjoy the many plays on Faith, Sam had faith that he could find a way, anyway, to save Dean, Dean has faith in what he sees, Roy Le Grange truly does have faith, Sue Ann has none, Layla has faith, her mother has faith but needs to see as well…very multi-layered.
Sure there were plot issues (and kinda like OTHOAP, what happened to the rawhead, what happened to Alastair back in that torture chamber and how did Sam get Dean … each time … to the ER? I dunno but there’s only 40 some minutes so I’ll let it go.
🙂
Great screen caps you captured..awesome as always.
Hi Alice
Thanks for the recap, but I really agree with elle2 on this episode. I truly love it! Hope I still can. LOL! I loved the brotherly relationship in this episode and the way Sam cared and desperately tried to save his brother. Big contrast with the ending of season 4.
Loved the screen caps you got.
Really really liked Layla too. I don’t know if her mom was such a bad actress as she was supposed to be an annoying bitch, wasn’t she? And boy, was she ever!
Hope you recap one you really enjoyed next.
Thanks for keeping us entertained almost every day here.
Snigger …
A bit cheesey, right enough, but can’t be all bad with the mighty Blue Oyster Cult in there. I can’t get my head round Saintly Leila being Darla-in-disguise, I kept expecting her to sprout fangs and need staking. The Reapers were nice and spooky but the rest was a bit too heavily syruped, especially the end!
Everytime I see Julie Benz (actress who plays Leila) I have an immediate dislike stemming from Darla (a character I loved to hate) and her evilness. It’s hard to see her in the “good girl” role after watching her eat a guy while donning a Catholic school girl outfit, you know?
Good review Alice! I too enjoyed your enphasis on the lack of the transplant option. I’d like your opinion on something you didn’t touch on though. It always seemed to me that while Dean wasn’t willing to let anyone else die to save Leila, he was willing to let the reaper take his life to do so. There was the whole build up of things like “you deserve it more then me” ect and then when he sees the reaper he just stands there and lets it take him. He definetly had the option of evading and buying Sam time to break the spell, but he didn’t. What are your thoughts?