Recap: “Faith”
The music builds, LeGrange is seen healing someone, the woman’s distress builds, and Sam and Dean’s discussion gets more intense as Dean blasts Sam for bringing him there. A guilt ridden Sam pleads that he didn’t know. Finally, Dean drops the bombshell. Only one thing can give or take life like that. They’re dealing with a reaper.
The music goes into full blazing chorus, the reaper from Dean’s healing appears and chases the woman, an older man is miraculously healed, and the woman dies at the reaper’s hand. Awesome! That’s how you bring drama to a scene!
Oh, poor Sam. All he wanted to do was save his brother. Now this episode goes full circle with “In The Beginning.” Destiny cannot be changed. All roads lead to the same destination. So, if Sam hadn’t done this, if John hadn’t traded his life in “In My Time of Dying,” would something else have intervened both times, or are we seeing the consequences of their actions? What if Dean hadn’t traded his life for Sam’s? I’m sure the demons would have found two others to break the seals. Man, this free will vs. destiny crap is mind blowing.
Sam and Dean talk reaper. There’s more than one, they stop time, and you can only see them when they’re coming at you, which is why Dean saw it. Sam isn’t sold. Dean asks how is Roy controlling the thing. Sam’s pretty sharp, he mentions the cross on the altar. He finds it on a tarot card. Tarot goes back pretty far, when priests were using black magic, necromancy and all that jazz. If Roy is using black magic to harness a reaper, Sam equates it to “putting a dog leash on a great white.” Sound dangerous.
So, how are they going to stop Roy? Dean knows how, but Sam says they can’t kill a human. If they do that, they’re no better than he is. Oh, remember the days when Sam thought like that? I’m getting sentimental again. Sam comes up with a better idea. Break the spell.
Impala pulls up in the mud, and was there a freaking monsoon in Vancouver that week or something? It obviously never stopped raining. The protester tells them Roy’s a fraud, and now he has full Winchester support. Sam searches the house after Roy and wife leave. He finds the book of spells. He also finds out the people getting swapped with the healed were openly gay, pro-abortion, democrats (just kidding!), and the protestor is in there. Sam calls Dean, warning the protestor is the next victim and he can’t let Roy heal anyone.
OF COURSE, because of the heavy handed plot, the next person chosen to be healed is Leila. Dean warns her not to go, but she does because he doesn’t give her a good reason. Meanwhile, protestor is chased by reaper outside and Sam helps. Dean yells fire in a crowded tent, which is totally illegal by the way, and the service breaks up. The reaper still comes after protestor anyway. Sam calls Dean on the phone and frantically tells him it must be someone else, and sure enough, Dean catches Sue Ann in the wings chanting with that cross around her neck. Dean stops her, she yells for help
troopers take him away. Bitch.
The reaper disappears and Sam helps the protestor, all while Dean is escorted from the tent. Sue Ann gives Dean the “she’s disappointed in him speech” after all they’ve done for him, and won’t press charges. The troopers warn him not to come back, or they’ll “put the fear of God in him.” Yeah, Dean isn’t too impressed with that threat. Leila comes to him next, and doesn’t understand why he did that. Dean won’t explain. Oh come on Dean, try the truth. She’s dying, there’s
no harm. Dean instead says Roy isn’t a healer and isn’t the answer. She wishes him luck, he sends it back, along with a little beating up on himself. “You deserve it a lot more than me.” You see how much better these Dean/Leila scenes are without mommy dearest? No suckage in sight anywhere.
Next the reverend offers Leila’s mother a private session later, promising to heal her daughter. Oops, crisis not averted. Back at the motel, Sam points out that Roy actually believes he’s helping people. Poor delusional bastard. Ah well, its not like he’s thinking he’s saving the world by killing demons with his mind. Oops, did I write that?
Sam has the book he found in the LeGrange home. It’s by a priest that went darkside. It has a binding spell for trapping a reaper. It involves building on altar with all sorts of dark stuff. “Evil,” Sam says. “Desperate,” Dean corrects. Yeah Sam, remember a few days ago when your desperation got you both into this mess? Of course they realize Sue Ann’s taken it a bit too far, trying to play God instead. “May God save us from half the people that think they’re doing God’s work.” I have a better saying Dean. “I love God, but I can’t stand his fans.” Anyway, they have to break the binding spell. They’ll either have to destroy the cross or the altar, or both. They must act fast of course, since Leila’s being healed tonight.
They arrive and Dean feels guilty that by stopping Roy, Leila will die. Sam points out that if she lives someone else will die. “You can’t play God.” Dean still hates it. Dean creates a diversion with the cops (using the same ‘fear of God’ line) so Sam can find Sue Ann and the altar. After finding an empty house, Sam sees the light coming from the storm cellar. He goes in. Back to Dean and his diversion, then to Sam who finds the altar. There’s a picture of Dean there with a big ole red X on it, likely in blood. An X? Oh come on, they couldn’t come up with an ancient sigil or something?
“I gave your brother life, and I can take it away,” Sue Ann says stepping out of the shadows. Sam knocks over the altar, but by this time Sue Ann has escaped and locks Sam in the cellar. Sam pounds on the doors while Sue Ann monologues. “Don’t you see Sam, the Lord chose me to reward the just and punish the wicked, and your brother is wicked.” Oh, he most certainly is. We love it too. She says Dean deserves to die and Leila deserves to live. By this time, though Sam’s already found his way out.
Roy does the pray with me thing and Dean suddenly sees something isn’t right. Roy does the magic hands and then Dean sees the reaper. Sue Ann is outside the tent holding the cross and reciting her spell, and the reaper touches Dean. More Sue Ann chanting, Leila healing, and Dean getting the life sucked from him.
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?