Robin’s Rambles: “Unforgiven”
Nicole’s former apartment – Looking at a photo of Nicole, Dean asks a pretty blond, “So you and Nicole were roommates for a long time?” “Since college,” the woman replies, “but we’ve been best friends forever. This whole thing’s been really surreal. Are you any closer to finding her?” “We’re doing everything we can,” Dean assures her. “You were with Nicole the night she went missing–did she say anything?” “Nothing–it’s like I told the cops,” she says, “I wish there was something.” Casually flipping through a bowl of cards on a table, Dean finds one from “that FBI guy, Agent Roark, yay high” according to Dean. “One of the men who disappeared lived in our building,” she explains, “so Agent Roark was asking us all questions about it–he came by a few times.” “To speak to Nicole,” says Dean. “And how would you characterize their relationship?” asks Dean. “They weren’t having a relationship,” she says. “Just the tone and nature of their conversation,” clarifies Dean. “Well, loud,” she says, “and athletic.” She grins, and Dean finally gets it.
Sam no sooner arrives at the police station than a deputy orders, “Hold it right there!” Sam looks around, wondering who the guy is talking to. “Hold it right there, the deputy says, coming toward him, gun drawn. “HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE ‘EM!” Sam flashes back to this man ordering him into his car, and of him beating him up. “Hold on for a second, there’s been a misunderstanding,” says Sam quickly, as he’s handcuffed. “You’re as dumb as a sack of hair,” accuses the deputy, locking him in a jail cell, “coming back here, after what you did.” “There’s been a misunderstanding here,” insists Sam. “You are not a Federal agent,” says the Deputy, “the FBI never heard of you–where are the bodies? Mothers want to bury their loved ones.” “I don’t know,” says Sam. “Where’s Sheriff Dobbs?” asks the Deputy. “I don’t know,” insists Sam. “You ran out of town, soaked in blood,” says the Deputy, “oh, and you bashed my brains in to do it, and you really expect me to buy that.” “Look, would you believe that I really don’t remember anything,” says Sam. (Said so sincerely, I sure believe him.) Shaking his head, the Deputy says, “But good luck selling it to the judge. He walks away, leaving Sam sitting on his bunk, trying to think.
Later, Sam is still sitting there when he is joined by a dark-haired woman who demands, “What happened to my husband?” “I don’t know,” he says helplessly. “Don’t lie to me,” she says, “I know who you are, SAM. I know what you do.” “What?” he says, rising–“you do?” Flashback: he’s sitting at a table with Samuel, this woman and a black man, who says, “Let me get this straight–you’re not Feds, you actually hunt things.” “We know how it sounds,” says Samuel. “I’m not sure you do,” says the black man. “You saw those crime scenes, Roy,” says Sam, “you really think something human could have taken those guys?” “What you’re saying is impossible,” the woman insists. “I’m sorry,” says Sam, “I don’t understand what she’s got to do with any of this.” “She’s my wife,” says Roy, taking her hand, “she works with me at the sheriff’s station, you tell something like this to me, you tell it to her, too.” Sam nods. Roy and his wife exchange glances. “What do you need us to do?” Roy asks. Back to the present, Sam says, “Your husband, he’s the Sheriff.” “Was the sheriff,” she says, “until he vanished– and you vanished–what was I supposed to think? that THING got him?–or that YOU killed him? I just wanna know what happened.” “So do I, believe me,” says Sam, something happened to me, I have no memory of being here–ever.” “What is this, DAYS OF OUR LIVES?” she snaps–“you telling me you have some sort of amnesia?” “If I knew any of this, would I have stepped foot into this station?” he asks–“I’m sorry, I don’t even know your name. “If this is some sort of a game, you’re either incredibly clever or incredibly stupid,” she says. “I’m telling the truth,” he says, puppy dog eyes going full throttle– “look, I don’t know what happened to your husband, but I can find out–if you really know me, then you know it’s my job.” “You really don’t remember?” she asks. Shaking his head, he says, “No, I really don’t.” “I’m Brenna Dobbs,” she says. “Brenna, I’m sorry about what happened to your husband,” he says, “but I can find answers– just not from in here.” She releases him from the cell. Tears falling down her cheeks, she tells him she needs him to help her find some rope: “It’s going to look like a break-out, you’ll need to tie me up.”
Sam’s cougar lover is hitting the boxed wine in her fridge pretty hard, annoying hubby Don. After he nails her with a dirty look, she says, “The boxed stuff doesn’t get better with age, Don!” He stalks off. She kneels and finishes the last bit of wine, goes to her basement to get some more and finds the light out. (OH, NO!) On her third step down, something grabs her ankle, sending her tumbling down the steps to the bottom. Lying there in pain, something comes at her. She screams.
Editor’s comments – Mel Gibson, possessed? It’s a thought.
Dean is wary of this case from the get-go; just the way it falls into their laps is suspicious, and you sense he doesn’t want anything to do with it, but he always has had a soft spot for missing women. So into the fray they go, and no sooner do they pull up to the town’s sign than Sam has his first flashback.
Doncha love restaurants with bathrooms called Poop Deck and eating contests? It’s so touristy!
Sam realizes right away that he had an affair with that attractive older woman who came up to him and remembered him as an FBI agent, and oh, dear, she asked that he cuff her! LMAO! Dean goes out and learns that Sam was quite the man-whore in this town; he bedded ALL the missing women! Now Dean feels real pride in Sam’s accomplishments in this area, during this year when HE was faithful to Lisa. Here we have another brother reversal; soulless Sam apparently got himself a lot of tail while Dean became a one-woman man.
Sam innocently heads to the police station, only to be arrested by the pissed-off deputy he nearly neat to death when he and Samuel high-tailed it out of town! But re-souled Sam has no memory of this evil deed, so when he’s roughly cuffed and jailed, he’s all puppy-eyed and WTF?
Weirder and weirder, Sam and Samuel told Sheriff Dobbs and his wife, Brenna, the TRUTH about themselves, that they’re hunters of supernatural creatures, and that’s what got hold of those men. (I wonder what convinced them to tell Dobbs? Soulless Sam is obvious in his contempt of Brenna and doesn’t want to let her in on their secret. Re-souled Sam is able to convince Brenna of his memory loss to the point that she helps him escape his cell. Why we never see the Deputy pursuing Sam is the only thing about this episode that perplexed me, unless he figures he quickly left town.
Notice how easily Sam talks Dean into sticking around and working the case with him. Those puppy eyes in that re-souled baby brother know how to WORK it!
Sam is hiding out somewhere, and when Dean shows up, Sam is all set, gun cocked, to blow his head off. “So how does it feel to be a fugitive again?” asks Dean–“I hate to say I told you so.” “You LOVE to say I told you so,” counters Sam. Dean admits he’s right, he loves to say it. “So I found out something about Crazy Eye McGee,” says Dean, showing Sam her picture, “turns out you two knew each other–biblically–I just spoke to her roommate–I gotta say, man, you really got around, soulless or not, I’m really impressed.” The police scanner announces another missing person. “I’ll go, you stay,” insists Dean. “Yeah, fine,” agrees Sam. “Stay here,” says Dean. “Fine, GO!” says Sam, who waits for his brother to leave and heads out as soon as he’s gone. “Thank you for your time, we’re on it,” Dean tells Don, as the Deputy walks right past him. Dean calls Sam, getting his voice mail. “Sam, answer the phone, damn it,” says Dean, “I found the connection between the missing chicks–they all banged the same dude–YOU–it’s YOU, Sam. The texts, the victims, it’s all a trap for YOU. Call me back.”
[b]1. Now that you’ve seen souled and soulless Sam in the same episode, what do you think of the two Sams? How about Jared’s acting?
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Souled v soulless Sam? So different yet so alike. I’m kind of reminded of the Samifer – Sam conversation in Swan Song whenever I think of them. Samifer and Soulless Sam are quite similar, they both have logic in abundance, one of the things that differentiates them from Sam is how they apply this logic. (Sorry, this souled v soulless thing deserves more thought than I can give you this early in the morning!)
The acting = A1. I don’t think they even needed the black and white for the flashbacks because it’s like watching two different characters; the way he carries himself, the way he talks, what he says, his manner etc. Soulless Sam’s face seems a lot more… pinched and closed whereas souled up Sams’ is like an open book (one that Dean, especially, can read very easily) Soulless Sam just had an air of imperiousness about him where souled up Sam just invites everyone in.
[b]2. Do you feel that the Winchesters should never have chased this case? Would Roy’s death have made that much of a difference, given what it’s done to the wall in Sam’s head?[/b]
As the saying goes ‘If I knew then what I know now I’d be a wiser man’. I think they were always going to chase the case, just as the wall was always going to come down. They showed a loaded gun being put into Sam’s head during the first half of the season; they wouldn’t have done that unless they planned for it to go off at some stage.
[b]3. What do you think of the morality of soulless Sam? The womanizing, beating up the lawman, sending an innocent man, a friend, right into danger? Is the soul that responsible for how good we are?[/b]
Thing is, Sam was in a no-win situation here. Had he helped the men (not shot them, brought them to the hospital or whatever), odds are they would have died, only this time over a prolonged period, probably in agony (as soulless Sam believed would happen).
In a way, Sam’s choice was rather redundant, because he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. Was what he did ruthless? Sure. Was it the right thing to do…. (Wonder what Dean and souled up Sam would have done had they been in this situation)
However, (and this is where the show deserves a serious pat on the back, they blur the lines between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ so well) Sam and Dean have used humans as bait before (Something Wicked and The Real Ghostbusters being two examples). They’ve killed monsters who were unaware of their um… ‘monsterhood’ before, they’ve beaten people up before, they’ve had random sex with strangers before (Dean might not have slept with half the female population of a town before but God knows, I’d say he’s like to give it a shot!)
So looking at it purely logically, what exactly is it, based on this episode, that makes souled up Sam so different from soulless Sam. We know he’s different but I find it hard to pinpoint exactly what it is that makes him different because most of what he’s done here, he’s already done before.
Sigh…. Show, I like you.
[b]4 Despite Dean’s insistence that they leave, Sam was easily able to talk him into staying. How have the dynamics changed between the older and younger brother? There used to be a time that what Dean said was what they did!
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I was thinking either (a) Dean stayed because Sam would just have bitched him into submission (just accept the inevitable Dean) or (b) Dean figured this case, if it wasn’t closed, would haunt Sam, thereby leading to more scratching, and therefore more of a chance of the wall collapsing. By staying around, maybe Dean hoped to have the case finished quickly enough that Sam wouldn’t need to scratch as much.
Though you’re right, Dean does seem to be maintaining a policy of appeasement towards Sam at the moment. He’s kinda treating him with kid gloves, probably because he’s concerned with the frailty of Sam’s mind. As was alluded to in Like A Virgin, Dean knows the memories of hell, he knows what they can do to a person, he doesn’t want that for Sam.
I love how this show can say ten different things with one look or one line of dialogue!
[b]5. Is this how it’s going to be for Sam, little episodes like the one we saw at the end, until he scratches so much, he punches through altogether and goes mad or dies?[/b]
I really hope not. Seeing seizures makes me uncomfortable. I guess a lot will depend on whether there’s a renewal for Season 7. Maybe there might be a few miniature flashbacks every once in a while but when and how, no idea. Plus, I don’t want Sam to go mad or die (cos I like him sane and alive….)
[b]6. What did you think of the Arachne? Creeeeepy eyes! I wonder if the mating business had anything to do with the Mother of All? [/b]
Spiders mating. Something else I could have gone a lifetime without thinking about! Those eyes were unnerving, all right. It’s hard to know if anything (everything?) ties in with Mother at the minute because what we know about her and Purgatory is still very much up in the air. (Though I really hope her plans for world domination amount to more than just ‘Go forth and fornicate’)
[b]7. The brothers seem tighter than ever. Isn’t it fantastic?[/b]
It certainly is. This was like early SPN with an added dimension. From the crappy room, to the maps (and I loved how they worked flawlessly together to set that up, like a well oiled machine), to the food (iced tea WITH LEMON!!), to Deans silent ‘How you doin’?’ everything really.
Thanks for the rambles, Robin 🙂
Loved this epi, love how the [i]early SPN episodes feel[/i] is coming through again. Yes, the brotherly bonding IS fantastic.
Yet two things bothered me in this story: after they found out Sam and Samuel were working a case here a year ago, why didn’t they just call Samuel to find out what it was all about? Would have saved them a lot of time and trouble, right? And second: Sam saw the web at Brenna’s house, a very unusual spider web, and didn’t do anything about it, just walked away? I dunno, doesn’t seem like our boys.
Those Arachne monsters were SO creepy, I get all itchy when I see monster eyes 😡 .
Jared was just AMAZING! The difference between soulless and souled up Sam – so convincing. Well done, dude 🙂 !
I love show !
Hi Robin
1. Now that you’ve seen souled and soulless Sam in the same episode, what do you think of the two Sams? How about Jared’s acting?
Jared was fantastic portraying both soulless and soulful Sam. You could really see the difference in both.
2. Do you feel that the Winchesters should never have chased this case? Would Roy’s death have made that much of a difference, given what it’s done to the wall in Sam’s head?
I think they needed to chance this case, more as a learning experience. Sam needed to learn just how fragile and dangerous this wall really is.
3. What do you think of the morality of soulless Sam? The womanizing, beating up the lawman, sending an innocent man, a friend, right into danger? Is the soul that responsible for how good we are?
Sam was pretty scary without his soul. It does make you think that if someone as sensitive and compassionate as Sam was can turn into this ‘monster’ then just how bad would I be without mine?
4. Despite Dean’s insistence that they leave, Sam was easily able to talk him into staying. How have the dynamics changed between the older and younger brother? There used to be a time that what Dean said was what they did!
I think this was showing that the dynamics are changing, that Dean was willing to let Sam learn for himself the dangers of picking at the wall.
5. Is this how it’s going to be for Sam, little episodes like the one we saw at the end, until he scratches so much, he punches through altogether and goes mad or dies?
I’m hoping that this experience will teach Sam that he has to stop scratching at the wall. But I think it will be a slow process until either the end of this season or will lead into season 7…if there is one.
6. What did you think of the Arachne? Creeeeepy eyes! I wonder if the mating business had anything to do with the Mother of All?
I hate spiders, have always been afraid of them so this was alittle easier to take, however they were still very creepy. I don’t think it had anything to do with the Mother of All.
7. The brothers seem tighter than ever. Isn’t it fantastic?
Yes I’m loving the brotherly dynamics…I have so missed it these past 2 ½ years.