Supernatural Preview: Episode 7.03 – “The Girl Next Door”

For the second week in a row we finished with an open-ended episode, meaning this week we pick up the Winchester’s plight right where we left off.  Bobby and Cass are MIA (and no I don’t think Cass is dead) and the monsters, who have been trapped in Purgatory since the beginning of time, have now infested the hospital where a very vulnerable Dean and an unconscious Sam are headed.

Preview 7.03 “The Girl Next Door”

For the second week in a row we finished with an open-ended episode, meaning this week we pick up the Winchester’s plight right where we left off.  Bobby and Cass are MIA (and no I don’t think Cass is dead) and the monsters, who have been trapped in Purgatory since the beginning of time, have now infested the hospital where a very vulnerable Dean and an unconscious Sam are headed.

 

Dean has a compound fracture of the right leg and Sam seems to have a head injury, all from Mr. Leviathan!Edgar who, after being crushed under a car, was miraculously healing himself in the last scenes of the episode. 

This week’s episode will be different.  While the mythology threat will remain alive, they will also be dealing with a different MOTW whose storyline will be wrapped up by the end of the episode. That monster (Amy Pond) will be played by Jewel Staite, a very accomplished actress most noted for her roles in “Firefly’ where she played the fast-talking spaceship mechanic Kaylee, as well as appearing on “Stargate: Atlantis.’   

So what do we know about the MOTW?

Amy knew Dean and Sam as teenagers and now has a kid of her own.  Sam saved her from being bullied when they were 15 and later she saves Sam’s life, but is disappointed when he won’t leave town with her. In the present, Amy is in her late 20s and has settled down with a job, a mortgage and an 11 year old son…. and is very surprised to see Sam again.

For those of you who don’t already know, this episode is directed by series star Jensen Ackles. He will appear more in this episode that the one he directed last year, “Weekend at Bobby’s,’ but this time the writers seem to have come up with a novel way to put Dean out of commission for a while, a broken leg, received at the hands of the leviathans last week.

On Jensen’s directing Sera Gamble said, “Jensen [Ackles] directed the episode and did a fantastic job again – it was a pretty quick learning curve. We gave him a pretty complicated episode that had a lot of flashbacks and a lot of tiny pieces to tie together and he did it really creatively and really well. And he had to do it out of order, by the way. We handed him a script that had all the information you saw in last week’s episode – except he received that script before shooting that [Hello Cruel World]! [Laughs].”

She also said that we wouldn’t get to meet the Big Bad Leviathan boss yet, but would get to know the creatures a little better, as they are in several scenes with them[the boys]. The boys and Bobby will have several scenes with the leviathan!doctors and Edgar.  So nope, he didn’t die under that car last week.  BUMMER!!!

We have been given a number of promos this time and none of them explains how Sam goes from having a major head injury and seizers to walking and talking and hunting, but he does.  Sam hears about an eerie case that relates to one he investigated as a teenager.  Years ago, John and Dean left him in a motel to attend school while they went off on a hunt.  During that time he found a demon of his own to hunt and now as an adult, Sam comes across the same demon possessing Amy Pond who Sam had known as a teenager herself.  Over the objections of Dean, Sam takes off to go solve a case, which is told somewhat in flashbacks to Sam’s teen years.   Of course young Sam will be played by actor Colin Ford, a veteran to the series and a fan favorite.  We even get to see Sam’s first kiss!  

The MOTW turns out to be a nasty demon that kills low-life thugs and eats their brains for dinner.  Okay more organ eating, seems to be the theme for this season and a good one it is.  We need really creepy SPN episodes for a while!

The CW released episode stills, a trailer and a preview clip.  We also were given as clip that was shown during Comic con last July.

The official photos show lots of Dean in a cast (and I have to say he looks very HOT in his hospital jammies); and a very hot Bobby in a suit (Hats off to you Mr. Beaver, you are lookin’ mighty fine!).  We also see Bobby sneaking Sam out of the hospital (least it looks like Sam on the gurney), and driving an ambulance.  Also Bobby seems really angry in some of them, course if your house just burned down, you’d be really angry too.  

The sneak peak released at Comic Con is a 2 minute clip between Sam and Amy Pond (Jewel Staite.)  Seems she dropped a piece of paper which lead Sam to her home and her current name, Amy Pond.  

He made the comment about her not kidding about the mortgage, indicating he had talked to her previously in the episode. Sam starts to approach her and we see he has a knife in his hand.  He then notices fresh blood on her hand. 

Sam said he knows that wasn’t his (again from the previous discussion) and knew she had killed again.  Amy said she didn’t want to and Sam replied either she tells him what is going on or he would have to kill her whether he wanted too or not 

A bright flash and we are back to Sam’s teen years where he and Amy are talking in her house.  Seems Sam had just saved her from a bully, which earned Sam a black eye.  

Sam talks about his family, how they travel a lot and how it sucks because “You’re always the new kid, and everyone always thinks you’re a freak.’ She relied he is a freak, and in some way everyone is, herself included as all the coolest people are freaks.  That results in a sweet kiss between the two.

Another bright flash and were back to the present where Sam once again demands to know what is going on.  

Amy tells him she will show him if he drops the knife.  Sam relies he will drop the knife if she shows him.   Hmmmm, a Mexican standoff!  Amy inches toward a door and the clip ends.

The promo released last Friday, shows the episode picks up exactly where last weeks left off with the boys in the ambulance and then arriving at the hospital.  We see Dean waking up in a triage room confused, with numerous doctors hovering over him.  

He says they gave him morphine and is quite concerned about where Sam is.  No answer to that in the promo.

We also see the leviathan!doctors running up to, or after, an ambulance and we hear Sam say “Find out anything weird about missing brains?’  

We also see Amy attack Sam in a wooded area, the same clip that was in the promo for last week’s episode (Don’t Drink the Water).  Also in that promo we saw Sam attacked outside an office building.   

The last clip released shows Sam trailing Amy through a wooded area.  She thinks she hears something for a moment and then proceeds on.  

She comes upon and obviously intoxicated man trying to unlock his car.  Just as she starts to approach him, Sam swings her around knife in hand, which she is quick to notice.   

We cut to the necklace she is wearing which obviously has a special meaning for Sam and he stops his attack.  

The last words of the promo are Sam’s very chilling, “Hi Amy.’  

I’m going to guess that here is where Amy attacks Sam in the scene we saw in the other two promos.  And the promos would lead you to believe Amy wins.

CW released a second video clip today which shows the boys camped out in a woodsy cabin. Sees Sam just came back from a food run and Dean asks him how he is.  San says he’s fine,  still have some memories but he can tell them from reality now.  Satisfied Dean turns his attention to his food, only to find out there’s no pie.  Ooops! Little bro substituted cake instead.  Yeah Sam, really, you still need to remember some things!  

Susan Gittins’ has posted BTS shots of Jensen directing the episode.  And some of them were taken during the shooting of this clip.  The woods are North Vancouver’s Princess Park and a couple of the shots. To view the photos, click here.

Susan also has some nice shots of JA directing and Jewel Staite on set. 

To view all photos, click here. 

Cast (IMDb) includes: Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, Jim Beaver, Jewel Staite (Amy Pond), Colin Ford (Young Sam Winchester), and Nico Mceown

Official Synopsis: JENSEN ACKLES DIRECTS – Dean (Jensen Ackles) is furious after Sam (Jared Padalecki) disappears to follow a lead on a case with clues that are identical to a case Sam solved as a kid. The demon turns out to be Amy (guest star Jewel Staite), who has been killing low-life thugs and taking their brains for dinner – the same demon Sam found as a kid. 

The episode was directed by Jensen Ackles, his second for the series and it was written by the team of Andrew Dabb & Daniel Loflin.  These two veteran writers have also written 10 other Supernatural episodes including “Unforgiven,’ “Family Matters,’ “Hammer of the Gods’ and one of my very favorites “Yellow Fever.’   

Ackles, Dabb and Loflin also teamed up on “Weekend at Bobby’s’ which was very well received by actors and critics alike.  So, why mess with a good thing!  Round two of this dynamic trio comes up this Friday!

Supernatural Sneak peek from Comic.com of 7.03 “The Girl Next Door’ 

Trailer for 7.03

Preview clips

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgcoW_H4EIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aleb10WXolE

With this episode, Supernatural goes back to its formula of stand alone shows with MOTW whose story is closed by the end of the episode.  Not that these episodes will be devoid of all mythology, however, we’ll be seeing the leviathans and the Big Bad through out the season.  

JA talked a bit about episode 7.03 “The Girl Next Door’ during Comic con.  “It’s a bit of a slice of life from Sam’s standpoint. What we learn in Episode Two still translates into Episode Three, that Sam is battling some inner demons, to say the least. He comes across a job, and we get back to that old formula of Supernatural, where he goes and hunts, and Sam decides to go do it himself, because it’s something from his past.

We actually go back into his past, and we see Sam at age 15 which of course Colin Ford who’s played him before as a young Sam, he comes and plays him again, and does a really good job. But we get to go back in time and see Sam as a 15 year old, hunting and doing what he doesn’t really want to be doing at that age, but doing it anyway because that’s what his father and his older brother are telling him to do. It’s a slice of life from Sam’s point of view and his past.’

Ackles also mentioned that 7.03 was technically much harder than a usual episode, having 78 scenes rather than the usual “40 or 50?.  He also noted that Dean would be in the story a bit more than he was in “Weekend at Bobby.’

While the episode really centers on Sam and his past, Gamble tells us that Friday’s episode, will plant the seeds for Dean’s journey this year as well.  

“What happened with Cass takes a toll on Dean in terms of his ability to trust people and assess situations,’ Gamble tells us. “His core instincts as a hunter are called into question. He’s been rocked on a pretty deep level. You pair that with his really grave concerns about his brother’s mental health, and he’s got a long road. A situation will come up on Friday that will test him in what kind of choices that he’s going to make, given the circumstances. It’ll set the ball rolling for his story this season.’

“It’s about taking away home base and the feeling that they have of a place they can return to,’ Gamble says. “The stuff they’ve relied on they can’t rely on anymore. Now the only place they have that’s felt anything like home for most of their lives is gone. Things are getting difficult in new ways for them. It really takes a toll on the three of them.’

All I can say it, Bobby had better have had that place insured!  Get to re-building Bobby!

Until then we get to see more road trips, impala cruising and cool motel rooms.  I have really missed them.

Happy episode everyone!