Season 8 Countdown: Jeremy Carver Episode Reviews, “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”
It’s almost premiere time, and that means we’re almost done with Carver episodes to review. This is my last review for this series, and I’m ending with the zombie shoot-’em-up “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.”
- I enjoyed this teaser a lot, especially the cheeky nature documentary playing in the background that was really making fun of the trailer guy who got killed. Amusing!
- I’m with Dean on the whole nickname thing, though. If everyone gave themselves their own nickname, there would be a lot of “Queen Awesomesauce Dinosaur Riders” out there.
- JODY MILLS!!! I love her. I desperately hope she returns in season 8.
- And she sooooooo busts Sam, Dean, and Bobby. Hilarious!
- She’s also well within her rights to arrest them for impersonating federal agents, but I get the feeling from Jody that she’s more inclined to look at the situation as a whole before reacting. She uses her common sense instead of just being a hardass like some cops.
- How funny is it that a clean, soapy smell sets off Dean’s alarm bells? Which makes his Spidey sense tingle, so he stops at the cemetery and bingo! He’s right.
- I like how when Sam and Dean went to check out Clay’s house, part was filmed from Clay’s POV, and the camera ducks down to avoid being seen by Sam. Classic horror move right there.
- Dean is SOOOOO confused when Sheriff Mills doesn’t care that Clay is alive. Then they’re BOTH confused when they get arrested.
- “You’re a zombie!” “I’m a taxpayer!” Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
- “So, what, the sheriff is on the take?” “Yeah. No. What, the zombies are paying her off?”
- Sam and Dean are adorably dumbstruck by Karen.
- I find it interesting that not only does Death reanimate people, he seems to put them back together bodily, too. I mean, Clay should be pretty decomposed by now and not nearly so whole. And Karen was cremated!
- I know Karen’s a different actress than the one we first saw in Bobby’s head, but I like this Karen. She’s sweet but not annoyingly so, and you can see how much she genuinely cares for Bobby.
- “Awesome. Another horseman. Must be Thursday.”
- I always find it amusing when they talk about Sioux Falls being this tiny little place or whatever, or when Sam calls it a “podunk town.” 153,888 people live there, according to the 2010 census! That’s not “podunk” to me at all!
- Jim Beaver just kills me in this episode!
- Dean is a very attractive lounger.
- I love it when Karen sneaks up on Dean in the junkyard. Stealthy zombie! My favorite part is that she jumps when he gasps, since she didn’t mean to scare him.
- Bobby’s pie-filled kitchen=Dean’s heaven.
- The part with Sam and the gross zombie Ezra is SO DISGUSTING! And Sam’s line “yeah, I’m gonna regret this” is just perfect.
- I know Sam and Dean were just trying to look out for Bobby, but they weren’t exactly tactful in their approach to the whole “sorry, but Karen’s gonna turn and we’re gonna have to kill her” thing.
- Bobby sure loves to chase Winchesters off his property at gunpoint! First John, now Sam and Dean.
- Just when you thought the old woman zombie would be the most horrible thing in the episode, Carver gives us Jody’s son Owen playing with his father’s intestines. Well played, Mr. Carver. Well played indeed.
- Here’s why Jody Mills is so awesome: husband’s just been eviscerated by her zombie son, but she pulls it together and helps Sam get to the police station and then Bobby’s place. She’ll freak out later, but she pushes mom/wife Jody aside and goes into sheriff mode. Sam does an extremely smart thing, too, by continually calling her sheriff and making her focus on that. It’s subtle but important.
- The scene between Bobby and Karen where he has to put her down is the second-worst part of the episode, where worst=saddest.
- The zombie fight in the scrapyard is intense!
- For one brief moment when Dean and Bobby are fighting zombies in the house and they pan across the row of pies, I thought Dean might throw a pie in a zombie’s face. Anyone else think that? Man, it’s something I would have liked to see, though.
- The blood splatter on the camera is amazing!!
- “She was the love of my life. How many times do I got to kill her?” Saddest line of the episode right there.
- I did like the idea that the bad guys were trying to take out the Winchesters’ resources and not just the two of them. Strategically, it makes a lot of sense to do that.
And there we have it! Zombies, Carver style. I have to say, I liked that episode more this time around than I ever have before. Not sure why, but I did. And with that, my part in our Carver episode reviews is at an end. Up next, Alice reviews Carver’s last effort before this season, “Point of No Return.” Thanks for reading, everyone, and I look forward to seeing you all in season 8! Not literally since you’re not on the show, but in the comments area! I write a really quick review after each episode called “Let’s Speculate,” so be sure and check that out. It’s posted a few hours after the episode airs on the East Coast of the U.S.
thank you so much for all these reviews:)
Another great episode, but it so sad that like The Rapture I don’t rewatch it all that often. Although I always forget until I watch it how funny the first part is. Actually Dean and Bobby in the closet at the end is pretty funny too.
But of course the 3 scenes that always come to mind with this episode are the 2 saddest ones you mentioned. Those 2 scenes are so heartbreaking.
And that scene between Sam and Jodi. She did pull it together showing how strong she is, but what always gets me is when she grabs Sam arm as he moves to go inside to kill her zombie son. Just for a moment she’s a mom again. Then lets him go. Love Jodi Mills. She needs to be in S8.
I really liked this Karen also. In watching the episodes, it seems to me that she has a striking resemblance to the driver of the tourist “bus” in the episode Hollywood Babylon from season 2. Did anyone else notice that?
Yeah, I thought there might be some pie throwing doing that battle but they passed on it.
The grossest, most disgusting scene was the one with the zombie turned Ezra-ugh! I still have to turn my head away. Yuck!
Very nice review of Carters work. Thought Oct 3rd would never get here and now only 2 days away!!!
I liked this episode a lot. First off, Jim Beaver and the actress playing his wife were wonderfully good, and good together. I think SPN does much better with their older female actresses, as opposed to the CW skimpily clad types.
I liked the Dean’s mano-mano scene with the guy in the cafe. Two alphas squaring off. Reminded me of the old Dean. And, yes, Dean is a very yummy lounger. That shot of him lounging and how the camera tracked up to him was very well done.
Jody put me off at first, arresting the boys, but once we found out why that was, her character turned out to be very well done. I can live with or without her in a S8 episode, but I do like her character. Just not as a mother figure to the boys, since she is obviously pretty much their age.
Didn’t like Jody doing a mirror scene of Dean’s ‘the one perfect tear’ from Heart. This was the first time we saw this character, after all.
I really liked the junkyard fight scene and wished it would have been longer. But, then, I wish there would be more good fight scenes these days. I’m kind of tired of the single knock-out punch thing going on lately.
So, Death sent the zombies back and targeted Bobby to take him out of the game. What I never understood was why Dean was a target, too. Even when Dean was alone, the zombies were after him, and he was still slated to be Michael’s vessel. Maybe zombies are just stupid.
I liked that Dean and Bobby’s relationship was explored in this one. Even though it was meant to be a mytharc episode. I don’t think it really worked as a mytharc episode, because there was too much going on.
There were two little misses in the writing of this episode, I thought. I didn’t like when Bobby threatened to shoot the boys if they didn’t leave his house. That just came out of the blue to me and something I remembered all through S6 and S7 when Bobby was turned into John 2.0 with Dean as his favorite (Sam was kind of in the background in this scene).
I also thought that Bobby telling Dean that he must have never been in love was strange, since Dean’s whole life was shaped by the loss of his mother and then his dad, and the emotional impact of Dean turning down the demon in Crossroad Blues for the chance to have his dad back for ten years was kind of diminished. And then there was Sam losing Jessica, which was just as traumatic to him as Dean losing his mother.
Overall, though, I really like this episode and I’ve watched it several times since it first aired.
Thanks for all the wonderful recaps you did for the Jeremy Carver episodes. I must say this one had to grow on me, I’m not the biggest zombie fan. But after a few rewatches I started liking it. Jodie Mills; Bobby’s wife; Dean & pies (so cute); Sam & the grossest part ever with that old woman zombie (I still can’t open my eyes); and this line “She was the love of my life. How many times do I got to kill her?â€, gets me everytime. It’s just so sad.
I absolutely loved this episode! I mean, I love every episode of Supernatural, but this one is a great one. I have been watching Supernatural since season 1 and I absolutely love it, so I finally got my coworkers at DISH to start watching it and they are enthralled by it. I am going to record every episode this season with my Hopper, so that I can re-watch them all after it airs, and not make a mistake like this year and wait for the DVD release. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s episode; I’m really excited to see what Carver can do with the Gamble left him!
Zombies for the win!!!
Again, Sam gets no love in regards to relationship with Bobby. Its all Bobby and Dean.
I adored Jody in this episode. She was ruined for me with the whole “mom voice’ in Time After Time. Sam doesn’t need a mommy. he needs a friend/ally who sees him as an equal and treats him as one.
Anyway, decent episode. It was Zombies!!!
Thanks for the Sioux Falls plug. I live there/here. I am going to miss the Sioux Falls connection with Bobby gone. Always gave me some good laughs when I saw a sign for the Sioux Falls Library or hospital. And our one sheriff. Always love the midwest connections. Come visit our great city!
This episode always sticks in my mind for two reasons: the first being it has the grossest scene ever in Supernatural history, the scene where Sam gets drooled on in the face by the old zombie lady makes me dry reach every time! The other scene, which I have been guilty of rewinding and watching again, is the Dean lurking scene, I totally agree Ardeospina, nobody reclines as gracefully and sexily as him.
I see that the ever present clock was in the diner behind Sherrif Mills, the crew always manage to get it in somewhere and we always have fun playing ‘spot the clock’.
Dean whistlening as he strolls into the graveyard to check on Clay’s grave always tickles me – just another day at the office.
Something I have always wanted to mention is that I find it interesting that when the boys break and enter, they always do it via the front door. Like its an ‘honest’ b&e as opposed to a sneaky and deceitful back door one, this just always makes me chuckle, God bless them.
I have always enjoy this episode for its humor, action scenes and touching moments. Thanks for the review Ardeospina.