RearView Review: Supernatural 10.22 “The Prisoner”

“The Prisoner”
10.22
Writer: Andrew Dabb
Director: Thomas J. Wright
Air Date: May 13, 2015

BY WEDNESDAY

THEME

Monster or human? Evil or good? Angel or human?
As characters struggle with their identities, the audience sees a lot of grey areas.
We end up rooting for the evil as much as the good. But, who are the real monsters?
Who is right? Who is guilty? Who is to blame?
There is a monster in everyone.

PLOT & CHARACTERS

CHERRIES

Bullies stand in wait for a victim. Cyrus Styne (Connor Price) passes them.
Jake (Quyen Bui) wants to know how much of a virgin Cyrus is.
“I mean you ain’t never got laid before, obviously. You’ve seen a boob, right? I don’t mean on Game of
Thrones, I’m talking about in the wild, you know.”
Cy doesn’t follow at first, but then gives Jake an astute summation of his character,
“You look like the kind of dude who wants people to think he’s hood. But no. See the, hundred dollar haircut, the hybrid
keys, I’d say you grew up in a white-bread wonderland. Your dad’s probably a dentist, your mom’s mostly Botox &
they both bang the pool boy. Oh, and you like rap, but you’re scared of black people. Even Will Smith.”
Jake’s friends high five each other laughing. The tables have been turned on Jake.
He pushes Cyrus down, “Hey you got a mouth on you, you little bitch!”

Eli Styne (Matt Bellefleur) gets out of a waiting car and into Jake’s face. “There a problem here?”
Jake backs down but it’s Cyrus, Eli wants to hear from. Cy says he’s fine. They leave.

Outside a convenience store, Jake sips on a slushy and turns the corner to evade a black car following him.
He walks right into Eli who tastes the spilled slushy. “Cherry berry. My favorite.”
Jake has “Got no beef with” him.
Suddenly, a plastic bag covers Jake’s face held by the Styne goon Roscoe (Josh Emerson).

ALONE

Sam and Dean build a funeral pyre for Charlie. A hunter’s burial.
While they collect wood, they each have memories of Charlie.

When Sam starts to apologize to Charlie’s little white shroud, Dean tells him to,
“Shut up. You got her killed, you don’t get to apologize.”

Sam protests. They were only trying to help him. Dean reminds Sam that he told him to leave it alone.
Sam’s not about to watch Dean die. He had a shot and he took it.
Dean’s scornful, “Yeah you had a shot. Charlie’s dead. Nice shot.” Sam says he’ll never forgive himself.
Dean drops a bomb, “I think it should be you up there, not her. This thing, with Cas, and the book, ends now. Shut
it down before somebody else gets hurt. You understand me?”
Sam’s silenced, but then asks, “And what about you?”
Dean plans on vengeance, “I’m gonna find whoever did this. And I’m gonna rip apart everything and everyone that they
ever loved. And then I’m gonna tear out their heart.”
Sam asks the question that’s on everyone’s mind, “Is that you talking or the Mark?”
Dean asks, “Does it matter?”
He walks away leaving Sam by the flames.

GAME ON

Playing a game online, Cy complains to his friend that he has considered moving but is afraid his family would kill him.
“Literally. My folks are like, weird. Scary weird.”
Eli interrupts to escort Cy to the laboratory to see his father.

Eldon, sans arm, fills Monroe in on the Men Of Letters Bunker. 
“It’s filled with folklore, artifacts, maybe even the Book of the Damned. Now you give me a few guys,
and I’ll make the biggest score this family’s ever seen.”
Monroe (Markus Flanagan) seems to agree but notes Eldon will need another arm.
Monroe greets Cy, “My boy! It’s a special day.”

Cy looks to the operating table and sees Jake strapped and gagged. Monroe informs Cy that people like Jake are trash,
“they’re only good for one thing. Spare parts. You’re gonna carve him up.”
Cy says he can’t and doesn’t want to do it. Monroe asks if it’s because he doesn’t want to “be like us.”
Cy denies this.
“Good” Monroe confirms. “Because that’s your legacy. You will not turn your back on this family. Now, you’ve always been
soft, Cyrus, you’re the baby, it’s natural. But that ends now.”
Lovely Nurse Styne puts a lab coat on Cy. Monroe continues, “See, either you’re gonna do this, or I’m gonna butcher that boy.
And then I’m gonna put you up on the table, and go to work.”

ONE OF THEM

Monroe fits a scalpel to Cy’s hand and guides it down Jake’s Chest. Jake struggles and pleads behind his gag.
Cy tries to look away but Monroe forces him to look. “This is who you are, son.”

 

Rudy fills Dean in over the phone. The black sedan was “registered to Monroe Styne out of
Shreveport, Louisiana, but there’s no street address.”
Dean takes Baby for a road trip.

Rowena stares at Castiel in the distillery. Cas tells her to stop.
Rowena finds him fascinating. “An angel that rejected Heaven.
That’s like a fish that wants to fly, or a dog that thinks he’s people.” Cas says he is a lot like people.
Rowena scoffs, “Keep telling yourself that, dear.”

CHANGE

Sam  tells them about Charlie’s death and Dean finding out.  Sam’s shutting it down.
Cas asks what to do with Rowena and Sam simply answers, “guess.”
Cas says he would be happy to kill her because she called him a fish.
Sam says they should be able to track Dean because he “low jacked” the Impala.
He pulls out his phone to use the tracking App when an incoming message from Charlie floors him.
Sam opens it: “Sam, can’t talk now. DL this file!” Attached is a document ‘FORDEAN.doc.’
Sam shows Rowena, who smiles, “Oh, that little minx. She’s cracked the code.”

Sam needs Cas to find Dean. “I owe him this. I owe him everything. Look I know he pretends he can ride the Mark
out, but you and I know the truth. We know what happens if we don’t cure him. We both know where that road ends.”
Cas knows, “Black eyes and blood.” Cas heads off to keep Dean safe.
Rowena refuses to decode the spell until Sam kills Crowley. Sam’s furious, “I don’t have time for this!”
Rowena agrees, “Your brother’s a walking’ freakin’ time bomb, and the clock, she’s a ticking. So you will kill my son,
and you will do it my way, now!”

VIOLATION

Bloody Jake lays on the table. Cy stares into his dead fish eyes.
Monroe congratulates Cy. “You know, in the old country, they’d make you eat your first heart.
But I like to think we’re a little more civilized.”
Eldon says Jake’s arm fits like a glove. Cy will be coming with him.

Dean pulls Baby over when flashing lights appear behind him.
Dean checks his fake ID, Ashley J. Williams, before asking “What’s the problem, officer?”
Dean’s told to get out of the car. “Well, I wasn’t speeding, I’m sober, mostly sober, so what’s this about?”

The Sherriff informs him that his “blinkers” out.
He nods to the second officer who uses his nightstick to club out Baby’s tail light.

(Oh! That is so wrong!)
He tells Dean it’s a “violation.” The officer smashes the other tail light.

Dean tries to grab the officer but gets slammed face down on Baby and handcuffed.
“And attempted assault of a police officer. Looks like we’re taking you down to the station, boy.”
Dean snarls, “I ain’t your boy, Cletus!”
The Sherriff tells him to settle down, or he’ll get “an ass-whipping, instead of a phone call.”

Who’s Calling?

In Phil’s diner Crowley chats up the waiter who learned to roast coffee in Ecuador and loves to travel,
“If you can fry up a decent burger you can get work anywhere. I’m dying to head to Asia. It’s just a dream, you know?”
It just so happens that Crowley is in the “business of making dreams come true.”
Crowley gets a call from ‘Dean’ needing help but is cut off. He then reads a text: MEET ME. 11979 Cedar Street, Concordia, Kansas, 66901

For Baby

Dean’s handcuffed to a chair in front of a Deputy’s desk.
The Deputy (Daniel Degtiarev) sorts through Dean’s fake I.D.’s: “Ozzy Osbourne, Lemmy Kilmister, Freddy
Mercury. Damn. I mean, THEY said you were a pro, but…” Dean quickly asks “WHO said that?”
The Deputy doesn’t answer. “You got seventeen fake I.D.’s, and a trunk full of guns, knives,
freakin’ ninja stars. I mean, who are you, man?”
Dean promises him, “I’m the guy that’s gonna get out of here in about thirty seconds.”
Dean knocks the cup full of pens off the desk.
“Real mature.” The deputy grumbles as he goes around the desk to pick them up.

Dean slugs him in the face with his free arm and throws him onto the floor.
He puts the officer in a scissor lock between his legs.  “Keys. Keys, now!”
The deputy hands him the handcuff keys. Dean boot stomps him in the head and unlocks the cuffs.

The Sherriff (Sean Campbell) is on the phone looking out the window when Dean enters with a gun.
“He was driving a ’67 Impala, just like you said. Sure, can do.”
Dean asks, “Who were you talking to?”
Dean throws the Sherriff on to his desk. He punches him, “That is for lying to me, and that,”
another punch, “is for my Baby. Now. Who were you talking to?”
The Sherriff talks, “Monroe Styne. He said if I saw you I was supposed to
bring you in. And then call him.”
Monroe is Eldon’s Father and the Stynes “own this town. They’re practically gods around here.”
Dean lets him know that he “kills gods.”

TRAP

In an abandoned building Crowley calls out for Dean. Sam shoots him and he falls against a pillar.
Sam steps out of the shadows, “Devil’s trap bullet.”
Crowley’s confused, “Moose! Shooting me from behind. Poor form, even for you. Where’s Dean?”
Sam lets him know about his phone trick.
(I was totally tricked by this, too)
Crowley wonders, “Does he know you’re doing this? I only ask because your brother and I, such close friends now.”
Sam blames Crowley, “You’re the reason Dean has the Mark of Cain! Everything that’s happening! All of this. It’s your fault!
So this. You’ve had this coming for a long time.”
Sam reveals Ruby’s knife and a hex bag which he puts in Crowley’s pocket.
“By the way. She said to tell you, she should have taken the three pigs.”
Crowley shouts, “Mother!” and slides down onto the floor coughing blood.

Dean plunges a knife into a Styne guard’s neck and walks towards the Styne house.
He grabs another guard in a headlock and when another guard sees him,
Dean caps them both with a gun equipped with a silencer.
Dean steps into the foyer. Old music plays.

Lights blaze. Men flank both sides of the staircase aiming their weapons at him.
Monroe strolls out onto the stair landing. “Dean Winchester. Welcome to my humble abode.”
A plastic bag goes over Dean’s head.

WHO I AM

Crowley struggles on the floor. “Working with my mother. Are you insane! You actually trust her?”
Sam says, “No, not even a little.” Crowley’s no dummy, “Then why? What has she got over you?”
Sam tells him to “die already.”
While coughing and spitting blood, Crowley maintains he’s been trying to do good.
“I thought if I did better, I might actually feel something again. That it might matter.”
Sam’s unimpressed by his attempts, “Maybe everybody else forgot about all the bad you’ve done, but I haven’t! I have
watched you kill people, Crowley. Innocent people! People I cared about, people I loved!
So yeah, you have the accent, and the suit, and the snark, but at the end of it, you are a monster!
Just like all the rest of them. And I’m gonna watch you die, screaming. Just like all the rest of them.”

Crowley admits, “You’re right. I am a monster. And I’ve done bad. I’ve done things you can’t even imagine.
Horrible, evil, messy things.”
He coughs up more blood and his eyes mist and fine mist sprays from his mouth.

Crowley pulls the bullet from his wound and rises. “So thank you Sam. For reminding me who I really am.”
Crowley flicks his hand and Sam sails through a glass partition. Crowley poofs the hex bag into flames.
Sam knows he’s in trouble and tries to lunge for Ruby’s knife. Crowley flings it away.
His fingers form the beginning of a deadly snap but he pauses, “I could kill you.
Snap my fingers, easiest thing in the world. From here on, I want you to know
that the only reason you’re alive is because I allowed it. ..
You tell that ginger whore that I gave her a chance to walk away and she spat in my face. So now, she’ll never see me coming.”
Crowley vanishes.

TURN

When Dean opens his eyes, he discovers he’s strapped to an operating table in the Styne laboratory.
Monroe leans over him. “‘Morning, Sunshine. Monroe Styne. Pleasure.”
Dean would shake his hand but it’s strapped down. Monroe says he’d buy tickets to Deans’ gunshow,
but Dean can probably guess what comes next. “Operation” is his favorite game.
Dean explains the Mark on his arm,
“The Mark on my arm means that I can’t die. I’m not bargaining. You flat line me, I will come back.
But I’ll come back with black eyes. And then you’ll all die.”

Eli sneers down at him, “And we’ll let you go, then what? You’ll just mosey on down the road?”
Dean says no, but maybe a few might live. “Maybe.”
Monroe plans to continue, “Because a man that doesn’t die, well now that is a perfect lab rat. Alright.
Let’s crack this piñata!”

Dean busts his hand free and head butts Monroe who reels away from the table. 
He  grabs a hatchet and slashes Eli’s throat and then catches the nurse
(Tatyana Forrest) and slams her on the table plunging her needle into her neck.

Dean throws Monroe into a steel door and puts him in a headlock.
“You took something from me. Now I’m gonna take everything from you.”
Monroe gasps, “It’s too late. Your home, your family,they will…”
Dean snaps Monroe’s neck.

Dean removes the gag rag from his own neck. He boots the door.

FINISH THE JOB

The three stooges, Eldon, Roscoe and Cy blast into the bunker.
Eldon takes charge, “Take whatever looks interesting, and burn the rest.”

Sam calls Rowena to tell her the bad news. Sam wonders how he’ll kill Crowley.
Rowena tells him to figure it out. “You’ve got a job to do, Sam, get it done!”

Cas calls Sam from the Styne Laboratory, “Dean was here….There are three bodies down
here and more than a dozen upstairs in the main house. He killed everyone. And brutally.”
Cas knows that Dean’s headed home.

BURN

In the bunker library, Cyrus finds a copy of The Practioner’s Guide to Exorcism.
Roscoe catches him, “Hey! This isn’t a damn library.” Cy responds, “Yeah, it is.”
Roscoe cuffs Cy on the back of the head telling him to “box it or burn it” and heads to the “sex dungeon.”
Cyrus mutters “douche” and finds a photo of Bobby, Dean and Sam.
Eldon enters with a box of Dean’s personal belongings.

Dean’s treasures: crappy music, hot mom, flannel. He tells Cy to light it up, but Cy hesitates, “Eldon, wait. We don’t have to.”
Eldon replies, “I know, Cy. We get to.”

He pours gas and lights a match. Roscoe stumbles to the entrance and falls over.
A knife’s in his back.

Dean enters slowly.

Eldon quips, “I hope you brought marshmallows.”
Dean says he’s been looking for Eldon.
He asks, “Why is that? Oh wait. You’re not still sore about um, what’s her name?”
Dean coldly states, “Charlie. Her name was Charlie.”
Eldon seems unafraid. “Chuckie, she got what she deserved. Wanna know how I did her? It’s a kinda funny story…”
Dean tells him to shut up.
Eldon brags about new upgrades from his old man.
Dean interrupts, “Your old man’s dead. They’re all dead. So you can save me the speech on
the three hearts, the two spleens, the seven nipples, for the ladies, or the
fellas, I don’t judge. But even with all that, you still only have one brain.”

Eldon says “So?” not getting Dean’s point.
Dean quick draws and shoots Eldon right in the middle of his head.

Dean turns the gun on Cy who pleads, “No, No, no, don’t!”
Dean asks, “Why not? You’re one of them.”
Cy tries to explain the difference, “No, I’m not! Okay, I hate my family! See,
look! No stitches! I’m not like them, I promise.”
Dean knows differently, “Oh, you are like them. There’s bad in you.
It’s in your blood. Now you can deny it and you can run from it all you want, but that bad will always win.”
Cy cries, “I’ll do anything you want. Okay, please. You don’t need to do this, Please.”

Dean pauses but  affirms, “Yeah. I do.” He shoots Cy in the head.

Sam’s on his way. Cas enters and kneels over Cy, “Dean! What have you done? You killed him.”
Dean took down a monster because that’s what he does. “And I’ll continue to do that until…”
“Until you become the monster.” Cas finishes.
Dean tells Cas to leave.

THE MISS

Cas wants to stay because he’s a friend.
Dean doubts that, “Really? Well let me ask you something. Do you screw over all your friends?”
Castiel explains they were trying to cure him and they can read the book now.
Dean’s angrily reminds him of the cost. “‘Cause magic like that does not come free. No, it comes with a price that you pay in blood.”
Castiel grabs his shoulder, “Maybe you could fight the Mark for years. Maybe centuries, like Cain did. But you cannot fight
it forever. And when you finally turn, and you will turn, Sam, and everyone you know, everyone you love, they could be long dead.
Everyone except me. I’m the one who will have to watch you murder the world.
So if there’s even a small chance that we can save you, I won’t let you walk out of this room.”
Castiel notes that the Mark is changing him. “Because the Dean Winchester I know would never have murdered that kid.”
Dean/MOC responds “That Dean’s always been kind of a dick.”
He grabs Castiel’s hand, wrenches it off of his shoulder and slugs him.

When Cas again grips his shoulder Dean throws him on the floor.

Cas gets back up. Dean returns, slamming Cas into a desk.
When he falls to the floor Dean straddles him, grabs the Angel Blade and raises it high while grabbing his tie.
His hand shakes. Cas begs, “No, Dean. Please.”
Dean drives the blade down inches from his head into a book.

“You and Sam stay the hell away from me. Next time I won’t miss.”

THE SCRIPT

Theme

Characters like Monroe Styne, Eli and Eldon are easy to spot as monsters in human form.
Dean’s clearly losing to the Mark of Cain and becoming more monster than human.
Crowley is a monster who tried to be more humane but remembers and gains
strength from his monster identity. Sam puts on a red shirt and attempts the
monstrous deed of killing Crowley.

But, there are some monsters who go almost unnoticed and they are the most monstrous of all. Not Jake the bully, but his followers.
Those who tolerate bullying for fear of becoming a target themselves. Those people who do not speak up for, or
defend the victims because of their own cowardice. They are not “innocent” bystanders but “guilty” ones.
The Sherriff, the Deputy and countless members of the community allowed the Styne monsters to bully and kill.
These people who are afraid to stand up to the monster, or form an alliance to work against them,
are monsters, too. But, they escape the consequences.

Not so with Cy.
He had the opportunity to run away but waited too long, perhaps
taking too much comfort in an easy life of school and gaming.
He knew what was coming. Given a choice, kill or be the next on the table, he chose to kill.
Would his own father have killed him if he refused? We will never know because Cyrus gave in and became a killer.
How many Styne’s were created in exactly the same way?

Cy also looted the bunker. Although it pains him to destroy books, he still cooperates with the Styne monsters.
He tried to argue the point with Roscoe and Eli, but ineffectually. He pleads far more convincingly for his own life.
He could have refused.
It would have helped especially since the Mark of Cain heard part of the conversation. 
When the Mark of Cain kills him, it’s because Cyrus is guilty.
He is guilty of letting others be killed and benefitting from their demise. He participated in a murder rather than refuse to do it.
The Mark sees things in black or white. Cyrus’ youth is not a factor. Cy made a choice. Cy is a killer. Cy is guilty. Cy is a monster.
It’s in his blood. As it is in all our blood. CyrUS is US.
We have a long history of standing by and doing nothing, of cowardly looking the other way when atrocities,
large and small, are committed by bullies and monsters.
This episode’s events are reminiscent of the WWII book burnings and the Holocaust.
Many knew and did not nothing to intervene. It is the Cyruses of the world who are guilty of monstrous behaviour.
WOW!

FLAWS

The travel timeline between Lebanon and Shreveport, Louisiana was imprecise.
(A 10+ hour trip)
Was Monroe Styne going to cut through Dean’s T shirt?
Why was Jake fully prepped and naked on the table but Dean wasn’t?
Isn’t the Bunker impenetrable?

Director/Cinematography

Thomas J. Wright/Serge Ladouceur

OPEN DOORS & THRESHOLDS

COLOURS

COLOUR PALETTE GREEN & RED / BLACK & WHITE

Caged

PERSPECTIVES

Peeking over the corpse to see Cy.

MATCH CUT

FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHY

See the comparison gif of the Reverse Scene Crypt fight
Check out Mrs-notmoose here:

RELATABLE MOMENT:
After school Cyrus Styne comments while gaming, “My folks are like weird.”

HORROR ELEMENT:
Suffocation by plastic bag. (À LA ROBERT LEE YATES, JR. A psycho killer who
actually used plastic bags on his victims.)

FROM THE REARVIEW

THANKS TO:

Supernatural Wiki
KissThemGoodbye Screencaps
IMDB cast list
Behind the Scenes with Jerry Wanek
TUMBLR GIFS:
clairvoyantsam
Highfunctioningnerd
savingpeoplegiff
extremeviki54
Bradbury
drawshit
Aliona
shamelessangel
Wickedcastiel