Rearview Review: Supernatural 10.02 “Reichenbach”
“Reichenbach”
Written by Andrew Dabb
Directed by Thomas J. Wright
Season 10, Episode 2
First aired October 14, 2014
PLOT/CHARACTERS
(TWEET: Ryan Curtis: Hard to think that JensenAckles’ face needed improvement but we had to make him younger. Great job eh?) Yes, indeedy.
An older Cole (Travis Aaron Wade) shares this memory with a bound Sam. He’s trained his whole life for vengeance and in “two tours in Iraq. Special ops. Darfur. The Congo. I’ve seen suicide bombers and child soldiers so hopped up on speed that they could barely talk, but they could sure as hell shoot an AK.” Cole’s addiction allows him to still speak, but he speaks only of his craving to kill Dean. Sam cannot be persuaded to reveal his brother’s whereabouts and he tries to explain what he does for a living, but Cole scoffs at the foreshadowing Holy Water and pulls out an implement of torture: a ball peen hammer.
Demon Dean puts his hand on Angelz stripper (Diana Bello) dancing to “Cherry Pie.” He offers her a twenty hoping she’ll offer a little more. Nothing doing. House rules. A twenty is not worth losing your job over. Demon Dean ‘touches’ again, alerting the Bouncer (Brad Kelly).
While the Stripper beats a retreat, Demon Dean beats the Bouncer juxtaposed with Cole beating Sam.
In one of the sleaziest moves ever, Demon Dean finishes his drink and takes back the twenty.
The incongruous, lovely, chiming of Cole’s phone interrupts his brutality. While Cole answers a “Daddy’s busy; be home soon” call, Sam spies a knife on a key chain. When Cole returns for hammer time, Sam is gone.
Demon Dean steps out of the Flamingo Club and gets clipped by a teen who calls him Grandpa. Before Demon Dean can “Snick”, Crowley appears for a chat about anger management.
Meanwhile, Castiel is unable to heal his wounds. Hannah (Erica Carroll) helps because she “wants to”. Castiel chuckles, realizing she’s feeling the effects of being Human. A harried, escaped Sam pleas for help with Demon Dean. “All hands on deck!” Castiel agrees. While Sam steals a truck, Castiel drives away telling Hannah the Winchesters are “the best men I’ve ever known. And they’re my friends.” Later, his head nods and he wakens to oncoming headlights. He swerves into a ditch.
This human condition is potent stuff.
Demon Dean, blade ready, is on the job creeping Mindy’s house.
Not exaggerating.)
Lester (David Nykl) pulls up, disrupting Demon Dean who warns Lester to leave. “Snick” Demon Dean accuses Perv Lester of being the first to mess around. Lester maintains that, “it’s different when guys do it.” (Ack! Out of my way, Dean. I’ll kill him myself.) Lester calls Dean a ‘punkass demon’ and a ‘freak’. Well, if Lester likes to “watch”… (This, coming from a Peeping Tom assassin?) Dean knifes Lester in the guts.
Sam interviews the Bouncer who survived his ordeal. Sam has gum stuck to his shoe (Cole).
Castiel wakes to the “Road Runner” and Wylie Coyote’s obsession. Hannah looks at Castiel like a woman looks at a man. The rest of this scene is over the top sentimentality snot. Sometimes the less said….
Two intriguing Demons (Sean Hewlett, Aidan Dee) report with a pie chart. Demon Dean informs Crowley that his client, Lester, is dead. Crowley rages. Demon Dean doesn’t care and turns away. “Hey! don’t turn your back on me!” Demon Dean turns with eyes of flint and shoves Crowley to the floor. An insidious Demon smirks at Crowley’s disgrace. (Poor Crowley) Toe to toe, he confronts Demon Dean. “PICK A BLOODY SIDE!” Demon Dean tells Crowley what he really thinks, “Or what? Hmm? Go ahead. Make a move. See how it ends. I ain’t your friggin’ bestie, and I ain’t taking orders from you. When I need to kill, I’ll call. Until then, stay out of my way.”
Crowley wisely backs off. It’s over.
Crowley meets with Bullwinkle to negotiate. Crowley will help Sam get Dean for a finder’s fee.
Handless, in a strait jacket, he taunts her about the “white hot spark” of sex between them and her desire to be dominated by a man. In exchange for his freedom and a promise to never return to earth, he is willing to sell.
(TWEET: Erica Carroll: Take THAT #Metatron! Sorry about your tooth @curtisisbooger)
Demon Dean cuts his hand to watch it heal. “Snick” (Yup, demon.) He picks out a few notes of “Hey, Jude”, his mother’s lullaby. (Are you in there Dean, trying to send a message? Play it again, Dean.) The tense showdown between brothers begins. “I told you to let me go.” Demon Dean scolds Sam. Sam reminds Dean that there is a cure for Demons.
Heart breaking, Sam sees how far gone Dean is, but he’s determined and reveals the handcuffs which seem a pathetic bravado in contrast to this powerful demon. Demon Dean mocks him, “You’re my brother, and I’m here to take you home.” Yeah, what is this, a Lifetime movie? Huh? With your puppy-dog eyes?” Fortunately, Cole lobs a tear gas canister into the bar. Sam coughs while Demon Dean checks out this new threat.
Sam douses Demon Dean with Holy Water and handily slaps on the handcuffs. He’s had a lot of practice and it’s paid off. Crowley appears to collect the finder’s fee: the First Blade. Sam makes it clear he’ll kill Crowley if he sees him again. Handcuffed in the back seat, Demon Dean’s glare makes everyone’s stomach clench. Ouch.
“It’s just a car, Sam.” Wow! Sam notes, “‘It’s just a…car?’ Wow! You really have gone dark.”
SCRIPT
Two aspects did not work: the snot scene and the title. The “Reichenbach” allusion of a standoff does work. Dean has three such encounters and Castiel has one with Metatron. But, it is the obsessive addictive qualities of each character that make a captivating theme. Sam chases the elusive dragon of his brother, while Crowley gives up finding a brother to alleviate the agony of loneliness. Castiel resigns himself to death without his Essence, while Hannah is intoxicated by human emotions. The fire of Cole’s fanatical revenge, temporarily doused, is relit with renewed fury; Metatron burns for freedom.
NICE TOUCHES
Director (Thomas J. Wright) Cinematography (Serge Ladouceur)
Point of View Shots: Dean watching the stripper & Les surprising his wife (love that shoe placement!)
Fight Perspectives: (High Angles/ Over the Shoulder)
(TWEET: Ryan Curtis: Cool editing job with the punches. I never noticed that before.)
Cool Shots: “Peeping Dean” and the long shot of “Dead Man Walking”
And the front row “Perv” shot:
Fight Choreography: Wow! Just wow!
is an art form: Crowley’s cocktail pitchfork, and the fridges to portray the characters Kim and Mindy.
Motifs/Allusions: Many allusions and motifs. (Bells?) Two notable motifs: the pics of pics (Show opens with Cole’s family photo).
Motif: CU visuals of hands/ handcuffs enhanced character motivation & plot.
Horror element: That little skid of his foot when young Cole slid in his father’s blood.
That ball peen hammer.
Those “Snicks” of black demon eyes. (I suck in my breath… every… time!)
Special FX: Smoke Canister/ “Snicks” / blood and gore
BEST PERFORMANCE: A real contest but Jared Padalecki ran the gamut of emotions here.
(Pain, Anger, Fear, Sorrow, Haggardness, Skepticism, Hate)
Great Lines:
my father. Prepare to die,” And I’d just roll over?”
COLE: “Do it!”
“You know perfectly well what she’s doing, ass-tiel.”
From The Rear View:
“Cherry Pie” was featured Season 5:13 “The Song Remains the Same”
“Cherry Pie” Warrant
Visit song:
really enjoy reading your reviews.
you know, after rewatching I was kind of wondering….Metatron said that when he got out everyone dies…now at the time I thought he was referring to cas, the Winchesters and whoever else was on his list….but now i’m starting to think that maybe Metatron is somehow responsible for the release of the darkness….I mean I know the moc was the key…..but Metatron took the tablet and he did tell cas that when he got out everyone dies…really wondering if metatron is somehow responsible for the release of the darkness…
Interesting theory if the writers remember the line was written and tie it together ;). AND (good point) Metatron does have the Demon tablet AND the darkness is connected to demons AND the release of the darkness was the result of an evil spell from the Book of the Damned and who is more damned than demons and Metatron. Hope you are on to something.
I’d love to find out that the release of THE DARKENESS!!!! isn’t entirely Sam’s fault. Because even though he doesn’t deserve it and basically had no choice, this show has a terrible track record of showing Sam’s POV and allowing the audience to feel sympathy for his impossible possition and the decisions he made because of it. Dean got all that POV and sympathy that the show could drum up when he decided to allow Sam to be possessed. Will they do the same next season when it comes to THE DARKNESS!!!! or will it be a Sam’ blame fest as it has been in the past? Is season 11 going to be a repeat of season 9? I pray not. If Metatron had something to do with it too, that could help quite a bit. Also it would be a nice tie in. I am not sure that the writers are up to that level of complexity these days but one can hope. Only 5 months till we find out!
One thing I didn’t quite like, or probably just didn’t understand, is that odd move when Dean in his struggle with Sam actually offers his hand to be cuffed. Why?
He did? I didn’t notice that. Maybe Jensen had to help Jared out a little since Jared was limited in his reach. Otherwise there would be no reason for demon Dean to help Sam out at all. I’ll have to watch that again.
Ok I just watched that scene again. You mean after the fight with Cole right? Sam grabbed Dean’s hand and put the cuff on his wrist and then Dean swung his other hand over, it looked like to me to fight Sam off. But Sam got the cuff on the other hand before he could. That is what it looked like to me anyway.
https://youtu.be/v-GufXmiaKo