Bardic’s Descant: 7.03 The Girl Next Door: Nothing In Our Lives Is Simple
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Consensus Is They’re A Lot Like Shapeshifters
The Leviathans are proving to be interesting monsters. We still don’t know how many there are, but a whole group of them streaked through the water when they escaped from Castiel’s body in Hello, Cruel World, looking much like the clouds of myriad demons we saw bursting free from the Hell gate in All Hell Breaks Loose Part II, invading cities in The Magnificent Seven, attacking the police station in Jus In Bello, and flipping the Impala in The Man Who Knew Too Much. Like demons, once they invade a body through skin contact with or ingestion of black water, they can tap the knowledge and memories of their human host while running the show; the Leviathan occupying the little girl bemoaned her limited resources and took away from TV a very mistaken impression of the freedom and authority of surgeons, while the Leviathan who took the mechanic also gained his knowledge of demolitions. The fate of the human soul in the host body is something we don’t know yet.
But the Leviathans go further than demons. Like shapeshifters, they can change the form of their original host to match some other human they come in contact with, and they acquire the knowledge of the person whose form they assume; the Leviathan in the girl shapechanged into the form of Dr. Gaines and acquired his understanding of anesthesia and surgery. Unlike shifters, they eat the people whose forms they’ve taken. Also unlike shifters, they bleed black goo when injured, something we saw not only from Castiel in Hello, Cruel World, but also from Eve“ who also demonstrated shapeshifting at an even higher level, taking on the appearance of Mary without any contact at all with her human template“ at the end of Mommy Dearest.
The black goo, the shapeshifting, and the residence in Purgatory all make me wonder if Eve herself was“ and possibly still is“ one of the Leviathans, and one of the most powerful among them. According to Death in Hello, Cruel World, God made the Leviathans before angels and humans, and Eve claimed in Mommy Dearest to be far older than Castiel, saying she knew what made angels tick. I wonder if some of the Leviathans may share Eve’s ability to make and adapt other monsters, and I wonder if they too might be brought low by something they used their own essence to craft, as Eve could be burned by the ashes of a phoenix.
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Like demons and angels, the Leviathans clearly have a hierarchy, with one at the top whom we haven’t yet met giving orders to the rest through lieutenants. The girl/Gaines Leviathan and the Edgar one both mentioned reporting to another. I’m curious to know who he will turn out to be. The Leviathans predating both angels and humans makes me think they might be akin in mythological terms to the Titans, the Elder Gods in Greek mythology who preceded and were ultimately defeated by the more commonly known Olympian gods, or the Jotuns and Vanir who opposed and were defeated or subsumed by the Aesir in Norse mythology, or the gods and monsters who sided with Tiamat in Babylonian myth and were subdued by Marduk. Another possibility could be the seven princes of Hell, but since Supernatural already referenced Binsfeld’s 1589 classification of demons to link the seven princes of Hell to the demons embodying the seven deadly sins in The Magnificent Seven, I’m guessing they won’t revisit that particular mythical well to explain the Leviathans. Then again, I could easily be wrong. The show could conflate multiple mythologies into one, or spin off a partial retelling of a myth as incomplete; it’s happened before, and I’m certain (and content!) that it will happen again.
The Leviathans’ commitment to destroying the Winchesters and Bobby Singer based on what they learned of the hunters through Castiel’s eyes and memories tells me unequivocally that there <are things on Earth that could injure or kill them, or at least drive them back to Purgatory as an exorcism drives a demon back to Hell. They would have no reason to expend time and resources hunting the hunters unless they feared the ability of particularly competent and lucky humans to deduce (or fortunately stumble upon) the weapons and strategy they would need to defeat the Leviathans. They clearly gleaned from Castiel’s memories that the Winchesters and Bobby have been the most consistently deadly and successful hunters in recent memory, and thus pose the biggest threat to them.
Given the general absence of lore on the Leviathans and the vague and conflicting accounts of how various Elder God types were defeated in non-Christian mythologies, I suspect this season may see the brothers, Bobby, and other hunters employing a lot of trial-and-error approaches, similar to Crowley’s attempts to discover the weaknesses of the Alpha monsters. Witness, for example, Crowley’s announced discovery in Caged Heat that iridium could injure or kill the Alpha shapeshifter, even though it was resistant to the silver weapons that could kill its weaker offspring. Crowley went through a lot of shifters before he learned that; I think the situation with hunters and the Leviathans may be the same. I also think Crowley might be a useful source of information precisely because of his experiments on the Alphas, but I wonder and worry about how he will behave as Heaven once again enters a leadership power vacuum after Castiel’s disappearance.
The bottom line, however, is that the Leviathans obviously CAN be killed or banished by things we have right here on Earth; if they truly were impervious to everything, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to find and kill the Winchesters and Bobby. Clearly, however, lead, silver, salt, holy water, and the like are not going to be efficacious. Hunters will have to start thinking way outside the usual box in order to find weapons that will work, and I suspect that“ as with demons“ the higher up the chain the Leviathan is, the fewer are the weapons that will be effective against him, her, or it.
Keeping The Same Tags Makes You Easy To Track
Dean’s observation to Amy indicating how he’d found her“ because she hadn’t changed the license plates on her car“ clearly forecast yet another avenue the Leviathans will doubtless exploit in their search for the Winchesters. I think the Leviathans will take a page from Lilith’s book and sic the law on the Winchesters to help hunt them down, and I think the cops might be even more dangerous to the Winchesters than the Leviathans themselves. After all: cops are human, and the brothers even now draw the line at killing garden-variety, unpossessed people who aren’t evil witches actively doing spells to doom others.
I have a whole additional Supernatural University blog that’s been in the works but incomplete for months discussing the situation of the brothers and the law, but the essence of it is this: that because most law enforcement (like most crimes) is local in nature, the brothers never truly got on the national radar until“ as we learned in season three’s Jus In Bello“ a demon evidently possessed an FBI deputy director and assigned Victor Henriksen to Dean’s case to hunt the Winchesters down. The brothers first encountered Henriksen in Nightshifter during season two, and after they crossed paths with him again in Folsom Prison Blues, they finally took their danger seriously. We saw at the beginning of What Is And What Should Never Be that Dean had changed the license plates on the Impala after the prison episode in order to make her more anonymous. I predicted then“ wrongly, as it turned out“ that we would probably see the Impala’s plates change at least every few weeks as the brothers journeyed across the country, because local plates always attract less attention than out-of-state ones. That potential danger evaporated for the brothers after Jus In Bello because Henriksen reported them dead, so the license plates never changed again. Now, I’m thinking they won’t have any choice but to do at least that, and will probably have to do more to stay hidden, because the hunt is on again.
To understand why this wasn’t a huge issue before, you need to realize that few crimes ever garner nationwide police attention; the country is simply too big and too populous to brief every local cop about every suspect from every place, so only the worst crimes make national headlines and blotter sheets. Because of that, the brothers’ life on the road was and remains their greatest advantage. Because they travel the highways and byways by car and avoid airports, trains, and buses, they can stay more anonymous than most. They tend to frequent small towns and back roads much more than big cities, places often out of the loop when it comes to bulletins and alerts for wanted fugitives. There are far too many cars on the road for police to be watching out for many specific ones, so a single car is still the least likely thing to be spotted, especially since the boys range literally all over the country; vehicle alerts are much easier to manage within a defined area. The absurdly distinctive Impala is still their greatest weakness, but in the poorer areas where the boys tend to rent or squat, an old car stands out less than a new one, so on balance, the comfort of it was worth the risk most of the time. I still think they should have been stealing local plates on a regular basis simply because a beautifully restored classic car with local plates is just cool, while an obvious classic with plates from somewhere far away is noteworthy. Vanishingly few cars that old and well maintained are driven on long road trips in the States. Most are carried on trailers to car shows and that’s about it, so seeing one as a road cruiser would make it stick out.
Given the Leviathans’ infiltration of human activities, doubtless including law enforcement as well as the credit card company we saw in this episode, the Impala may no longer be safe. I would bet that the next time the brothers are discovered“ well, maybe the second time from now, after they figure out that their credit card aliases are blown“ it would be because of the car. I hope they figure out a countermeasure in a hurry, because Dean without the Impala would be something unnatural, and even more fodder for depression.
Production Notes
I have a few critical things to say about the script by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin (when don’t I?) but I have nothing but praise for every other aspect of this episode’s production, from the direction by second-time helmer Jensen Ackles, the stellar editing by veteran Nicole Baer, the special effects and visual effects work, and all the performances by both regulars and guests. I can’t wait to see where this episode leads.
As usual, I’ll get my criticisms out of the way first. The team of Dabb and Loflin has always been problematic for me. Some of their episodes have been absolutely stellar“ Dark Side Of The Moon comes to mind“ but others have been the absolute worst of the worst: Hammer Of The Gods, anyone? My usual issues with them involve lazy writing, poor research, slapdash sophomoric humor, and going for film homage at the expense of story (Kill Bill, in this case), and because of that, this episode was a bit of a mixed bag script-wise. Some of the plot logic trouble wasn’t their fault, being an outgrowth of choices made by the overall writing team setting up the season: the biggie there was that a whole series of unexpected deaths at a hospital wouldn’t go unnoticed and couldn’t be glossed over as easily as intimated by the girl/Gaines Leviathan in this episode and in Ben Edlund’s Hello, Cruel World. The pieces that really bothered me in this episode were Bobby’s miraculous, glossed-over survival, particularly combined with his total lack of explanation for not responding to (or even seemingly being aware of) Dean’s heart-baring phone call from the last episode; the utter improbability that Dean’s badly broken leg, which the ambulance EMT described as an open compound fracture of the tibia, could have healed enough to walk on in only three weeks and a couple of days (six to eight weeks is far more realistic even for a fast healer); the preposterous idea that an ambulance crew responding to Dean’s 911 call wouldn’t have noticed a hand sticking out from under a fallen car mere feet from the fallen brothers; and the Leviathans’ awareness of all of the Winchesters’ aliases, especially given that Castiel, the only ready source for the information, had never paid attention to or understood the pop-culture references supplying them. And unless Dean’s entire reason for deciding to overnight in Spokane, Washington was based on Bobby having located Amy there after she fled from Bozeman, Montana, it wouldn’t have made any sense that he could have dropped Sam off at a motel, driven to Amy’s hiding place, waited her out, killed her, and returned to Sam within an amount of time reasonable for having made a pharmacy run to refill his prescription“ the excuse he’d given Sam.
I can devise rationales or excuses for all the pieces except the miraculous, record-time healing of Dean’s broken leg and the ambulance crew’s failure to notice Edgar’s hand under the car. My personal, preferred rationale for Bobby’s survival is simply that he wasn’t home when Edgar torched the place, probably because he was checking up on Sheriff Jody Mill’s well-being“ which could also have explained his phone being set to go straight to voicemail *cough*. That wouldn’t account for his dismissal of Dean’s amazement and relief at his survival, though, because why else would he have gone looking for the brothers at the hospital unless he’d heard Dean’s message and found them gone, with both the Impala and evidence of a fight left behind? On the other hand, Bobby not verbally acknowledging the suicidal, confessional desperation in Dean’s phone call made perfect sense just because it’s the guy thing to do. On the aliases, I could buy that one of the Leviathans, having taken a more music-savvy host, might have recognized the assorted ID names in Castiel’s memory as rock stars and set up a search for any rock star names turning up on credit card purchases, but if they track any non-rock aliases, I’d call foul. And as for explaining away to Sam the time it took to find and kill Amy, well“ I expect Dean would blame a stop at the nearest bar. Â
Enough of the nit-picking, though. On to the good stuff! I do give Dabb and Loflin credit for quietly solid character work with both Sam and Dean being their respective selves, always heartbreakingly missing each other by inches in passing. I loved the shout-out to the past in the team crashing for safety in one of Rufus’s virtually forgotten safe houses, which Bobby would have known about from the years when they hunted together. And I saw a lot of truth and practical wisdom for everyone in Bobby’s approach to dealing with the day-to-day problems of Dean and Sam:Â take each day as it comes, don’t go looking for trouble, celebrate every small victory and minor blessing, have patience, don’t waste time and effort stressing over things you can’t change, don’t dwell on expecting the worst, cherish being with those you love. And be paranoid enough to have made and stashed away copies of anything you thought important. I’m sure some folk saw that last bit as a lazy cop-out to negate the impact of the burning of Bobby’s house, but we’d already seen examples before of his paranoid forethought: just remember Bobby announcing in the beginning of Let It Bleed that Castiel’s theft of a crucial Campbell journal wasn’t the disaster it could have been because Bobby had already copied it. I had no problem accepting that he’d commonly taken out insurance against loss in the most practical fashion possible by distributing multiple backups in safe places.
I can only imagine the challenge Jensen faced in constantly changing hats from actor to director and back again, but he did a superb job in both roles. On the directing front, he had fun playing with some unusual and interesting camera moves and angles that visually complemented and reinforced what was happening in scenes, including the shaky, anxiety-fueled shot from the gurney of Bobby escaping the hospital with Sam and the really low shot at the gas station looking up at Bobby“ the man Dean looked up to for advice“ talking on the phone calmly advising Dean to give Sam a couple of days. I also loved the way he shot Dean in the mirror in Amy’s motel room at the end, given that Dean saw Amy as reflecting the monster in himself. I give him props for how clearly he planned, shot, and used visuals to convey things from the script that otherwise might not have made sense“ for example, intercutting young Sam using the map and figuring out the pattern of the kitsune hunts with adult Sam doing the same thing to pick the park where he parked and waited for Amy, and establishing Sam’s hand reaching into Amy’s pocket before she knocked him out to establish how he got the receipt that let him track her. I loved his attention to detail in such things as capturing the fallen crutches on the ground as the ambulance sped away. And all the blur transitions between present Sam and young Sam were just gorgeous. Changing the color process on the scenes taking place in memory was a nice way to distinguish the timelines. I have to include veteran editor Nicole Baer in my applause for the way all the shots and scenes were cut to enhance the flow of the story and keep everything clear.Â
On the acting front, Jensen brought the funny (falling out of bed in the hospital while stoned on morphine, and becoming addicted to daytime telenovelas during enforced rest? Priceless!), the fear (Sam), and the anguish (almost everything else). Jared did a great job as Sam confronting his past, initially resolved to correct his perceived mistake in have let Amy go the first time, and then becoming convinced that letting her go was still the right thing to do. Seeing Sam’s happiness when Dean pretended to accept his decision was heartbreaking. When will these brothers finally learn that keeping secrets from each other is always a bad thing? I also loved the subtle touch of Jared always stroking the scar on Sam’s palm every single time he became aware of, talked, or thought about dealing with his hallucinations and staying in touch with reality.
All of the guest stars were spot on, especially Jim Beaver as Bobby, trying to be Sam’s advocate and the calm voice of temperance and patience to Dean; the absolutely riveting Colin Ford as young Sam, who I swear somehow gets better and more like Jared’s Sam every single time he appears in the role; Jewel Staite and Emma Grabinsky, who made Amy humanly sympathetic and likeable both as a mother and as a child; and Leslie Hopps Deschutter, who provided a sharp counterpoint to humanistic Amy in the role of Amy’s wholeheartedly monster mother, who tried“ and failed“ to get her daughter to see humans as nothing more than food. The casting directors on this show deserve every dollar they are paid, because they keep bringing in such perfect gold. I hit the rewind button when I thought I recognized a face and chuckled when I realized they’d brought back Nico McEown, who played silent, traumatized Lucas in season one’s Dead In The Water, to play one of the bullies who threatened young Amy and got beaten by young Sam. Young actors grow up!
In terms of background details, I laughed out loud at hearing the very same documentary video clip about wildebeest stalked by a predator used back in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid playing as Dean woke up alone in the cabin. They edited the narration differently, but it was still evident, and very funny. The credit card company Leviathan on the phone with a customer suggesting that a call on the man’s bill to “Mistress Magda” might have been fraudulent was another hilarious callback, this time to the prophet Chuck in Swan Song.Â
The technical team also gets high marks from me. Serge Ladouceur always does amazing things with light and this episode was no different. The look he gives to every episode of Supernatural is distinctive. I loved Ivan Hayden’s subtle visual effects“ which might or might not have been augmented by practical special effects in the form of cats-eye contact lenses on Jewel Staite“ making the kitsune’s eyes distinctly not human whenever she exerted herself to attack and as she died, and growing the kitsune’s claws just prior to attack. On the special effects front, I have to wonder if we’re all going to be playing a new game during the rest of this season called “Spot Sam’s Missing Scar.” Somehow, I can’t see Jared getting a cosmetic prosthetic scar applied to his left palm every single day he shoots, so I’m betting we’re going to have occasions when a camera incidentally catches Sam’s left palm and finds it scarless. I was frankly surprised when they established the injury and its resulting scar in such a prominent place during the first two episodes this season. Cosmetic scars and tattoos on major characters are a continuity nightmare, because the crew have to ensure they’re present any time they might be visible. Just think back to the brothers’ anti-possession tattoos; ever wonder why they were placed where they were? Yeah, near the heart is nicely symbolic, but the more practical reason is they’re hidden most of the time because of the brothers’ propensity for wearing layers of clothing. Any time either of the brothers is scheduled to be shirtless, however, someone has to remember to add the tattoo to the day’s instructions or risk the wrath of the continuity gods. Given that Jared’s hand is never gloved, that scarred palm may make for a very fun detailed viewing game as the rest of the series progresses!
My last comment is on the episode’s music. Anyone who’s been reading my reviews knows I’m a sucker for Jay Gruska underscores, and also that I can’t help loving the incidental music added to the soundtrack. In this episode, I chuckled for young Sam finally being exposed to music his Dad and Dean would never have listened to“ in this case, the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Two Days In February.”  Sam’s line about his Dad never listening to anything recorded after 1979 was a teasing reference to show creator Eric Kripke’s often-mentioned musical bias and made me grin. This particular song was first released in 1990 on the Goo Goo Dolls album “Hold Me Up.” It was a fitting song for Sam in 1998, and for both the brothers now:
You say you got no faith in things that you can’t see
Well I’m sorry I ain’t there with you, but you ain’t here with me
And I’m down in all my fears
But I ain’t cryin’ no tears over you
‘Cause everything’s wrong
Well it’s all right
Everything’s wrong
Well it’s all right.
And I still believe it will eventually be all right, despite being all wrong.Â
Winchesters endure. They survive. And somehow … they make it right in the end.
good points!
Wonderful article! I agree with you on all points. Poor Dean, but I’m sure glad that Sam will be there to help him.
Yes so am I that Sam will be there for poor Dean. You know I think Sam should be examined by science he has to be without doubt the most well adfusted human being on the planet . Nope nothing he goes through even 160 yrs of torture and having 3 different parts of himself put together all at once can hurt this boy.
Dean is depressed and stressed so naturally that is more important always has been so lawyer Sam well ajusted Winchester can be there for Dean which is has it should be .Sam can prove once and forall that he does love his broken brother .
I was going to make the same comment about Sam, he has really got to be the most well adjusted man on the planet (that is show planet or cannon or whatever). I can see him putting aside all the crap he’s been through and is still going through because Dean needs him to. Dean needs a rock so Sam doesnt have time for there to be something wrong with him. Also the show is written from Dean’s POV so unless it somehow affects Dean I dont expect the writers to delve in to what’s going on in Sam’s head all too much. To me it seems Sam’s story for the season is over, by mid season we wont even have references to his hallucinations yet 3 years after Dean returns from hell and we still have references to his time there and the fact that he is still suffering for things that happened long ago. I guess I can look at in a positive light and say how proud I am of Sam and his awesomeness, there isn’t anything that can keep that man down. He never gives up, always gets up dusts himself off and gets on with the job. Sam Winchester is one hell of a man (no pun intended).
I think you nailed this episode really well.
For so many years in the series, Sam has been considered the monster at the heart of everything. Dean sees himself as a monster now, and Amy is clearly the metaphor for that. It’s exactly how I took it, too.
I don’t see this being the way things end for the brothers, either. Sam must pull Dean back out of the darkness one way or another.
The Leviathan seem to know all the things they need to destroy the brothers. I think, while they have to report to some boss and meet up to talk or phone, they’re rather hive mind like and what one does all the others do in a line so to speak. They must infiltrate people. They must figure out where the brothers are. They must kill them. Any thought a Leviathan has they all have.
So far, I have been scared of them, but I haven’t really put them into perspective as to how frightening they’ll truly be. We’re just getting to know them.
I love how you brought in the production stuff—a lot of the stuff I don’t know. The lightening was really cool, and when I look back, I can see it.
Great job and I look forward to any other reviews you get done while being oh so busy.
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The Leviathan seem to know all the things they need to destroy the brothers. I think, while they have to report to some boss and meet up to talk or phone, they’re rather hive mind like and what one does all the others do in a line so to speak. .[/quote]
This is exactly my impression, too. They seem to be so impersonal, without individuality, a bit like Star Trek’s Borg. And that makes them so much more creepy and frightening.
I think it’s what makes them different from demons. Demons were, essentially, once human beings. When they possess someone, they don’t learn everything about that person. IF they had, Meg would know far far far more than she does about Sam and that just doesn’t seem to be the case. These Leviathan not only take over a person, they become the person, ala Matrix downloading the memories/perceptions/understandings and it seems to me that it makes them scarier. I’m guessing the only kill shot to take is not at a lower ranking Leviathan. You’re probably going to have to kill the Boss, whomever that turns out to be.
I really enjoyed what you had to say about this episode. I see Dean as Atlas with the weight of the world on his shoulders and he is started to flounder. He has always shouldered so much blame, whether he was right to or not, but I do think Sam will continue to be his grounding force. I think maybe this weeks episode will slap him back to reality.
Thanks so much for bringing up the production values of the episode, everyone on this show deserves kudos.
That analysis was wonderful Mary! I’m so glad you will be writing this much, so don’t worry about making it short. Goodness, this is far from short and a great analysis.
I so agree with you about Dean and his dark depression and truly hope Sam can bring him out of it and he can learn to not be so hard on himself. I hope in the next episode that Jo doesn’t give him any more reason to be even more down.
I agree with you that when Alastair told
Dean that John was the chosen Righteous Man and had absolutely withstood all the torture that he was lying in order to heap more guilt upon poor Dean. I know you didn’t say that exactly, but you left room for me to stick my theory in. Haha! I never believed what Alastair told Dean as he is a lying liar.
So happy you are back as I look forward to your analysis the most of all. 🙄
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So happy you are back as I look forward to your analysis the most of all. :roll:[/quote]
Ditto. Usually I found them the most insightful and balanced… or a least the ones I agree with most of the times. 😉
I was eagerly waiting for your reviews of “Meet the new boss” and “Hello, cruel world” and I was so happy when I opened the site this morning and saw your revieww of the 7.03! 😆
Great review as always! I’ve missed these! I am so glad mentioned the fact that Dean, Sam and Amy all happened to be in the same town at the end. How convenient! It’s been bugging me all week and you’re the first person who has brought it up. I was wondering what you thought about Dean punching Sam 3 weeks after a major head injury? It was funny and definitely something Dean would do, but the timing was off. Can’t wait until your next review!
I have read this 3 times and still more to take in!! Thank you for this great review and analysis. I, too, have missed them. I will look forward to reading whatever you find time to write. WOW, what a busy life you have right now. And still find time to write and share about our amazing TV show, and Sam and Dean. I also especially enjoy your production notes and insights. Again, thank you.
I don’t think I’ve read a better analysis of Dean and Sam’s current emotional state. You mentioned many of the things I thought but just couldn’t figure out how to articulate. Excellent, excellent article!
I have been wondering what happened to your 7.01 and 7.02. I always look forward to your analysis and this one did not disappoint. Excellent on all points. I wish everyone who watches the show would read this.
Certainly understand your decision on no more epsiode summary. No problems…it’s your analysis that I look forward to.
Thank you.
The best analysis of Supernatural (or any show really) I’ve read online. Looking forward to more articles. Thanks!
Thank you for your spot on analysis– a necessary cherry on the the icing on the pie of Supernatural. I too wish everyone would read this well thought out and articulated feedback on a controversial episode. Someone pointed out that when Dean asks Sam for pie he never gets it…
It is truly amazing! How did you read my mind? 😆 My thoughts exactly on the brothers and the episode; but you put my thoughts far more eloquently than I ever could.
I am glad Sam is in a good place now, in spite of the hell memories. Now the writers need to get Dean in a better place.
I agree that he has suffered from depression; I think throughout the entire series. He masks it well most of the time.
I agree with you and Bevie; I never bought that lie Alastair was selling. Piling the guilt on Dean was just more torture.
The Leviathan are pretty creepy even with knowing almost nothing about them. I look forward to finding out more.
Thank you for the production notes. Awesome. It always amazes me how much I don’t know about what goes into making my favorite show.
P.S.Please don’t apologize; this review totally rocked. 😀
Excellent review, as always. Very well thought-out and revealing analysis. Even though you haven’t reviewed 701 or 702, I really enjoyed how you still brought those episodes into this post, tying the thoughts and emotions of the brothers together with this episode. You have a way of bringing beautiful clarity to each post. I appreciate it so much. Thank you, Mary
I’ll read your awesome reviews whenever you have time to write them, Mary!
I love your analysis of the production values too. I hadn’t even noticed how Amy’s pupils became catlike until you mentioned it & I saw the screencap.
I agree with everything you’ve said about how Sam & Dean see themselves & each other. It can be really hard to find light & hope in all the darkness that the boys have faced, & that’s what I yearn for them to have right now. I think Sam is getting there, but he’s got a challenge to help Dean get there too. After seeing last night’s episode, I’m feeling a little better about those odds.
I wish you well in your part time business. You brought up some great points about this episode and made me see Dean’s actions in a different light. I really have missed your thought provoking review. Welcome back!
I adore your reviews. You have such a sane, balanced, generous minded approach, able to see flaws but willing to give a little slack when justified and happier still to celebrate the good stuff. I agree with your points here, especially about Dean’s gradual sinking into a Miltonesque morass. Without spoiling you, if you haven’t seen ep 4, your deconstruction of both his character and Sam’s is utterly supported by that!
Thank heaven you’re back! Too much sputtering elsewhere.
Your review was extremely insightful. I think you’re absolutely right about Dean’s lack of hope right now (and his belief that maybe he shouldn’t be redeemed.)
It seems like the loss of Lisa and Ben, the stability of Sam, almost losing Bobby…all of this is weighing him down. The other piece that the writers added to this phenomenal episode is the burning down of Singer Salvage–quite a statement in itself. After all, this place became their salvation after the death of their father.
We can only hope that Sam and Bobby can help Dean see his own goodness as they continue their fight against true evil.
Hi Hi…. First i appreciate your review…really appreciate it. I just want to add my thoughts. Hope you don’t mind my grammar.
The correlation of Amy and …(shock) Ruby
yea, i feel squeamish when Dean stab Amy. Why??? Amy is a good mother and she’s not an Evil monster…. but then i remember… i REMEMBER what i feel when i saw ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer. I was screaming to Sam that Ruby is an evil demon. Why you trust her.!!? When i saw ‘Heaven and Hell’ i lamented the scene when Dean accept her. I screamed to TV screen ‘you should have stabbed her, Dean. Demons are evil, period! Even when she helped your brother that’s manipulation’.
I never trust Ruby from begining. I personally think Ruby was Evil. Blond Ruby, brunette Ruby all evil, but all of you guys commented was ‘oh, at least the Winchester has one ally from the Demon, ‘oh thank god we have Ruby’. So i shut my mouth up because i knew nobody will listen to me and i wish that my instinct was wrong. But it turned out i was right. I was so sad because of it.
So yes i get Dean… and reading to most comment on Internet, i read Mo Ryans’s too, makes me sad. Am i the only one who get Dean? In my humble opinion i think Dean wished he stabbed Ruby then and there in that Bar in ‘Heaven and Hell’ or in that warehouse in ‘Metamosphosis’. I wish i stabbed Ruby myself and save all my heartache of watching S5 angsts but alas m just a fan.
What Dean did to Amy is bad… i know Amy is not Ruby … but Dean is not one to let go a grunge. He kept at it in his heart. He begrudged Sam of leaving to Stanford, of leaving him in fact like in ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ Even when he knows that they had come a long way from that. Dean is the one who never bury old sin. He blamed himself for not killing Ruby outright so he was terrified of the repercussion when Sam let Amy life. Yet, he is also doubting himself whether killing Amy is the right move to protect Sam. He never forgive himself for letting Ruby drags Sam to demon blood addiction. So when he killed Amy his eyes is blinded of his guilt. He carries massive guilt and it’s a beacon to Osiris. So then we get to the next epi. IMHO it’s great to follow up this Epi with the next Epi
I can really see Dean wished that he can say ‘No Matter How Hard You Try, You Are What You Are’ to Ruby. No matter how nice, how kind you are to help my brother, you’re still a demon.
but that’s just my thought 🙂 IMHO it’s great to follow up this Epi with the next Epi. Who says Supernatural has lost it’s brilliance? Has it’s writing goes bad? I shout SUPERNATURAL YOU ROCKS!!! because to me killing Amy makes sense. Disturbing and fucked up in the head but still makes sense. You’re right bardicvoice, Dean is unraveling. He is a time bomb. I am surprised that Dean has not gone crazy this time. Quoting Sam, ‘like really crazy’
Wow!!! I have never read a more eloquent, insightful and wonderful analysis (emotional and mental aspect) of Supernatural than this! Thank God I found this site (through a commentator in a different review page). Now I know where to go for my review/analysis after watching every episode. Kudos to you!