Wednesday’s Watching: Supernatural 11.08 “Just My Imagination”
“Just My Imagination”
11.08
Writer: Jenny Klein
Director: Richard Speight, Jr.
Director of Photography C.S.C: Serge Ladouceur
Airdate: 02.12.15
Marshmallow fluff on nachos; Ninja moves in grandpa’s slippers; Glitter on blood;
Rubber ducks in a blood bath; Light and dark;
SALTY AND SWEET!
BY WEDNESDAY
What did I watch?
THE SCRIPT
There was character development! Grumpy!Dean felt resentment and jealousy when Sam’s
imaginary friend, Sully showed up. When Sam admits he was a lonely kid, Dean huffily
reminds him, “You had me.”
But Sam didn’t. Not all the time. Dean was caught in the middle trying to help
his dad and his brother and there were times when Sam was lonely. Dean’s first
response to this intrusion with his relationship with Sam was, “I’m gonna get my gun.”
Patience tested, Dean assumes a ninja stance in his “Dead Guy’s Robe.”
Then with his daddy voice and his grandpa slippers, Dean ordered Sam to a private
lecture. “You and me, library, right now!” Sam obeyed like he was nine.
Dean yelled at poor Sully to stay back.
Dean’s resentment continues and he responds with scorn and a complete lack of empathy,
spawning his Manicorn joke and smirk. Even Dean realizes he’s gone too far when
he offers to flush the mermaid.
Grumbling at Sam, “Am I burying Ariel by myself here or what?”
Dean gradually gets pulled into the imaginary world and is
won over by Weems and by Sully’s genuine caring for Sam. Dean ends up
contributing by pursuing the assailant and talking her down from killing Sully.
“Reese. Trust me. Revenge? Ain’t gonna make you feel better.
Listen, I have seen more than my share of monsters.
And I mean real monsters. Bad. These guys? These are Sesame Street mother Teresas.
But when I wasn’t there for my little brother, Sully was.
Now, look, I’m not saying that he didn’t make a mistake, but you know that there is not a
monstrous bone in his body.”
Weems thinks Sam called Sully for help. “Look, I get it. We all need a tune-up from time to time. It’s okay.”
Sam denies this, “No. He, uh, came to me. I’m helping him out.”
Still, Sully does help Sam out by reminding him that “Heroes aren’t perfect.
Sometimes, they’re scared. But that just means the thing that they’re facing, it’s super important.
And nobody else is gonna go for it because nobody else has got the balls.”
Sam knows he must confront the CAGE.
Sully also helps Sam realize he’s no longer running away. Running away is NOT the answer.
Young Sam did not want a normal family as much as he wanted to be needed and to belong to a family.
When he thinks that his brother and father want him to be a part of the Winchester family, Young Sam abandons the plan to run away.
Sadly, Young Sam would again feel that he was not needed and a burden.
His subsequent attempts to runaway are now history. But now Sam has found a place to BELONG.
He is needed and belongs to a family.
Rather than changing existing canon, Jenny Klein fleshed out the past giving it more depth.
There were some well-developed interesting minor characters.
The overprotective mother, the sweet young version of Sam, the vengeful Reese,
and the incredible imaginary zany Zanna.
Including the amazing Sully.
FUNNY AND PUNNY
Expecting to see Maddie, Manicorn is surprised by Reese, “You’re not Mad…”
At the end, Reese cries, “I’m just so mad!” Clever pun!
Funny and dark. Perfectly balanced.
CONTINUITY
Perhaps the character development was secondary to the CONTINUITY. All the new fitted
seamlessly with the old canon enhancing it rather than destroying it.
Young Sam remembers the “Batman can’t fly” experience.
Thanks to the props, set, and costume departments there were lots of authentic touches.
Young Dean wore the God finding amulet! (They probably could use it now.)
Young Sam collects his toys from the nightstand: army men and Lego. (Look out Baby!)
And, the motel room is a replica of 1.18 “Something Wicked”
(See Nightsky’s article, Threads: Supernatural 11.08 “Just My Imagination”)
(The Rubber duck has also earned a place in the Supernatural canon.)
ALLUSIONS
There were many allusions in addition to the title of the episode, Mick Jagger’s “Just My Imagination”
Can you recognize these allusions?
COLOURS AND SYMBOLS
Shout out to our readers Jenn and Allycat22 for noticing the haunting train whistle at the end and the Red
Cross….Demon crossroads and danger ahead??
Over the top Rainbow of colours for the imaginary world.
THE ORDINARY WORLD
THE SUPERNATURAL WORLD
WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE
LIGHTING
Progressive Darkness
Like the script, the scenes become progressively darker.
(Beautiful shot BTW)
The last scenes were very dark:
Old School Supernatural Blue Flash
Cut the headlights and creep in.
ANTICIPATION
Great anticipatory “Wait for it shots” enhanced Dramatic Irony and Suspense.
Revealing the new disguise.
It’s Ernie and Bert, McGowan and Strummer, or the Sweater!Chesters.
PERSPECTIVES
Fortunately, he’s saved by his Love handles. “Fat is awesome!”
REACTION SHOTS
The director keyed on the reactions more than the actual subjects, resulting in highlighting some awesome facials
by the actors, and doubling the fun. Here are just a few notables:
Dean’s reaction to Sully:
And, there was the splendid Bloody Fingered Air guitar:
And, the reaction:
MISSING KILL SHOTS
The actual kill shots were not shown. It wasn’t needed as the aftermath was over the top grim… The broken Manicorn:
…the squelching blood:
We see the alarm, the blade, and awful incongruous blood spatter:
ENDING
Lately, the BM scenes have ended with a close up of Sam struggling;
but, this episode ends with a close up of Haunted Dean:
“Ever think…”
an episode this fun to watch was fun to make?
S.E. Hinton joins a Kaleidoscopic cast and crew.
And “THERE’S THE OTHER WAY”
(If you haven’t seen it yet.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQhw1MVu0U0
We are at 50%. Four out of Eight episodes passed the Bechdel test.
So Happy, Wednesday!
BEST PERFORMANCE
The choice was difficult with so many great guest stars with demanding roles…
FROM THE REAR-VIEW
THANKS TO:
Supernatural Wiki
IMDB: cast list
Springfield ScreenCaps
ForeverDreaming Transcript
TUMBLR GIFS:
aliona (labelled Laoih)
artemiskitsune sillybubbles
littlehobbit13 yourfavoritedirector
winterchesters dean-winchester-crush
frostedmisha sasquatchandleatherjacket
out-in-the-open deanwinchter
WEDimage: sloth unleashed
PhotoTweets (S.E. Hinton): Charmaine Clark
BTS Richard Speight photo by Bettina Strauss / The CW
Google images for allusions
If only it were that easy in life to find another way! 😉
Rainbows! We saw Baby Amara with a rainbow pillow in FaV. Also connotes over the rainbow which alludes to Wizard of Oz. Premiere alluded to Wizard of Oz,too. God/Metatron is the wizard of course. Obvious: comparison between revenge killer gal and Amara.
I mentioned you in my review of: the Bad Seed.
Thank you Wednesday a great read — The bright colours where in stark contrast to the episodes this season. Maybe there is going to be light at the end of this tunnel the Boys are in. Yes, maybe there is hope that all will be fine in the end I was so pleased you mentioned the Red Cross I went back to make sure that is what I saw, and at first I couldn’t see it, and then when I replayed it there it was it was so obvious and timed perfectly with the train I wonder if it was a reflection from the trains headlight – they seemed to marry up perfectly. Although the red & I believe the cross followed Sam into the car. It appeared through the back window. It is a very ominous warning I didn’t understand your reference to the Bechdel Test until I looked it up on Google. Now I do and we are doing very well glad to see.
Thank you again Wednesday Look forward to seeing what you think of “O Brother”
I wonder if there are other crosses in the other episodes as well? I love all these little bits floating around the episodes, it really gives us something to chew on doesn’t it? And it’s not just Sam and his impending trip to the cage. Every time Amara is featured in an episode the word “She” shows up somewhere. It’s happened twice that I know about in Form and Void and in Plush. I wonder if it happened in the first episode and in Our Little World? Was it AlyCat who noticed that trend?
Bogirle what with train whistles /red crosses /the word she /and I was reminded of rainbows by PSG above, its a wonder we even get to watch the show LOL
Nice review Wednesday, great detail! I guess I am alone in this, but I didn’t like the scene where the mother slips and slides around in Sparkle’s blood smearing it everywhere. I know it was played for laughs but I couldn’t help by think about her daughter and what she would think and how that little girl was going have to clean up the room herself because no one else could see what she was seeing. Scarred for life that poor kid. I know I am over thinking it but that’s where my mind went…..;):(
You must be someone’s mommy. So caring about possible “scarring.” Like Dean says, this girl will “need all the shrinks.”
In my mind I assumed that Sully and his Management Team would take care of most of the cleanup, or at least disable the kids from seeing it.
It really wasn’t a sticking point for me.
I did wonder about the lack of character development for Zoe’s mom.
Maddie’s mother was obviously way over indulgent. Willing to wait for their daughter’s imaginary tea party instead of getting to dinner reservations?
They even had a giant portrait of their daughter in the front room which is usually the place for family portraits or ancestors.
Fortunately, Manicorn was able steer Maddie in the right direction.
The little boy in Weem’s care was a bed wetter and had an alcoholic mom.
An imaginary friend was Definitely needed in that home!
Zoe’s mom was sitting by the pool and reading instead of playing with her daughter.
It just sort of didn’t have an explanation. Of course, something might have been cut from the script….
I know…. worrying about the fictional future of a fictional child side character. Heh. 😉
PS All those rainbows on the brekky table Rainbow lollipops, rainbow cake, rainbow windy things OHHHHH my lots of rainbows (headache happening) LOL
I just wanna say that I got the impression that the main reason Dean wasn’t too lovey-dovey or accepting of the Zanna, specifically Sam’s imaginary friend, Sully, is because of jealousy. Dean is the big brother and Sully was there for Sam when Dean couldn’t be, or wouldn’t be. I think Dean regrets that and somehow resents Sully for that. So for me, he’s reactions made sense, on that level. I just feel bad for both of them. LOL. Such rough lives. But truly, I did love this episode! Great review! 🙂
You know it occurred to me that possibly Dean didn’t even realize until recently that Sam was a lonely kid. I was thinking about that…. when we are kids we aren’t very good at seeing another person’s POV even if we love them more than anything. Dean was always with someone; when Dad was away he was with and caring for Sam. When he was hunting with Dad, it was his job to have his Dad’s back. So Dean himself was in fact never alone as a child and probably didn’t feel loneliness the way Sam did, so maybe couldn’t for a long time comprehend that Sam was left alone a lot and was indeed lonely. Hopefully that aspect of Sam’s childhood is more clear to Dean now.
Agreed. It definitely should have been an eye opener for Dean, at the very least. Dean feels an incredible amount of responsibility towards Sam. He’s been his ‘brother’s keeper’ for as long as he can remember. So, I think the thought of him failing at doing that, even just failing a little part of it, really has an impact on Dean and takes him out of his comfort zone. Knowing that someone else had to be there for Sam because he wasn’t goes against his sense of duty, in a manner of speaking. That’s how I see it.
Thanks for the compliments on my review. More food for thought is that the [b]Rainbow[/b] makes me think of three goddesses:
1. Chinese sea goddess, [b]Mazu[/b] (Ma-tsu) [b]a young lady in a red dress,[/b] who would forever roam over the seas
2. Greek goddess, [b]Iris[/b] a goddess of the sea and the sky. [b]Twin[/b] sister is Arke.
A rainbow would appear when Iris delivered messages from heaven to earth.
She could also travel under the sea and in the underworld of Hades.
3. Mayan moon goddess, [b]Ix-Chel[/b] was an ancient fertility goddess sent rain to nourish the crops. “Lady Rainbow.”
Sometimes called [b]goddess of catastrophe,[/b] many of her myths show her as a goddess who refused to become a victim of oppression.
Both her grandfather and her mate were determined to keep her in her “place”, i.e. a woman’s place. They tried to control her.
But this was a woman who, when faced with adversity, took charge of her life and turned it around!
She became a [b]midwife[/b], nurturing women during childbirth.
SOURCE ([url]”http://www.goddess-gift.com/goddess_gift_book/Oct-05.htm”[/url])
Also, very interesting was the costume for Weems. Weems’ T-shirt had the words: “Your Time is Gonna Come” (Led Zeppelin).
The t-shirt also featured Master of the Dead, Baron Samedi, a popular figure on Día de Muertos, Day of the Dead.
Remember the season finale at Juanita’s with Death? The same skeleton figures were there. Trés cool.
COOL. It seems like there is not one single thing that is random this season….even clothing is containing messages and subtext. How awesome!