Recap – “Good God Y’all”
Phil Sgriccia instantly wins director for the year for his next amazing shot. They arrive and the middle section of the bridge has collapsed. The visual of Dean, Sam, and the Impala from the POV of the fallen part of the bridge looking up is mind blowing! This WILL be my desktop wallpaper. There’s no cell phone signal, so all they can do is hike from there. The starting strains of “Spirit In the Sky” come on, and I’m screaming as I pull out my list of classic rock songs I wish they’d use on this show. Number one can now be scratched off the list, and it’s used in the most perfect way. Sam and Dean stroll into town, shotguns in hand, examining the abandoned vehicles and war like setting all to the bouncy music. Let’s sing along.
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that’s the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
Goin’ up to the spirit in the sky
That’s where I’m gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that’s the best
Prepare yourself you know it’s a must
Gotta have a friend in Jesus
So you know that when you die
He’s gonna recommend you
To the spirit in the sky… They find the car that’s playing said music on the radio and Sam turns it off. I notice that many of the abandoned cars are Fords. Oh, but now my eyes REALLY bulge out of my head with the glory shot of a really sweet 65 cherry red mustang fastback. First the picture, then the song, and then this? Kripke and company to love me!!! I love how Dean whistles in appreciation. Oh how I wish there was time for him to take it for a spin. A pretty car like that deserves a pretty boy.
The search continues and suddenly “click!” A gun is pointed right at the boys. Sam and Dean turn around and are shocked. “Ellen?” Sam asks. You all remember, season two Ellen? Her greeting is hardly warm, for she’s still suspicious. Dean asks her what’s going on, but she responds by splashing holy water on him. “We’re us,” Dean insists. She puts the gun down and starts walking, letting them follow her into the church. She crosses the salt line, Sam and Dean cross the salt line, so Ellen is now relieved. She gives Dean a huge hug then slaps him for not calling. She had to find out they were alive from Rufus. Sam watches all this behind him taking her tongue lashing like the shameful boy he is. Come on Sam, enough being a background statue already! Dean’s sorry. “Yeah, you better be! You better put me on speed dial kid.” Dean gives her a polite “yes ma’am,” and looks at her like he’ll seriously do it. Dean turns to Sam like “what the hell was that all about?” and Sam shrugs. She cares about you two you morons. That’s what.
They follow Ellen down to the basement asking her what’s going on. More than she can handle alone. How many demons are there? “Pretty much the whole town minus the dead people and these guys.” She turns and asks, “So this us it, right? End times?” “It seems like it,” Sam says. So, you can’t hug Ellen Sam, but you can deliver bad news? You need to lighten up dude.
Ellen takes them inside and there’s a small and scared band of survivors in there. Yeah, they accept demons are real now. Dean gets the story from Ellen. Rufus called her. He was in town investigating omens. All of a sudden the whole town was possessed. Her and Jo were nearby. They’re hunting together now. How sweet! Another family business takes off. Anyway, they got there and couldn’t find Rufus and her and Jo got separated. She was out looking when she found them. Sam points out that they aren’t safe there, but duh, Ellen already knows that. They tried to make a run for it once. There used to be twenty of them. If you look around the room, there’s only half that now.
Sam wants to get everyone guns so they can band together and keep demons away. Dean doesn’t like it, especially arming the pregnant lady, but he knows Sam is right. Dean comes up with the idea that they can get guns from a sporting goods store they passed by. Sam jumps in and volunteers himself and Dean to go. They leave and Dean stops Sam in the hall. He suggests Sam stays behind and gives the people “shotgun 101.” Sam, pretty eager to get going, says Ellen can do that. Dean insists again, pointing out it would go a lot faster if he stayed and helped.
Sam doesn’t understand the logic. “While you go get guns and salt and look for Jo and Rufus? That’s stupid.” Dean insists he can handle it and it all hits Sam. “You don’t want me going out there, around demons.” Dean denies it. “Fine, then let’s go.” They do. Uh oh, trouble’s coming. Sam is leading the charge and says he’ll get salt while Dean gets the guns. Dean doesn’t think they should split up. Sam tersely says, “Dean its right there. Can we at least do this like professionals?” and goes his separate way. Do you think this is a setup for a “Dean is right” scenario?
Sam is in the store and starts loading up on cardboard canisters labelled “rock salt.” Seriously? You can find that is a mini-mart? We’re not talking garden variety table salt. Was this town always keeping emergency supplies in case of demon attack? I’ll wipe that thought away now, because this scene gets really good. Two demons enter. Oh-nos! Sam crouches down but one guy comes his way. Sam notices his shotgun is sitting on top of some cans within reach. He goes for the shotgun, guy hears and Sam isn’t fast enough. Sam is jumped, he wrestles with the guy, starts to latinate, but its not enough. He’s forced to pull out the knife and take the guy out. Other guy attacks him next, but Sam has the knife through his throat pretty quickly. Whoa he’s got some sharp skills.
So, time for the major drama that must result in this elaborate setup. Sam stands there and watches the blood pool on the floor, then slowly holds up the knife, gazing at the blood dripping off of it. It’s calling to him. He puts a little dot on his thumb and examines it full circle, and we know it’s taking every power of his being not to start sucking it up. Sam is freaked. Dean arrives and walks over just to witness one very bothered Sam standing over two demon corpses with loads of blood everywhere. Of course anyone paying attention knows those guys didn’t spark, so they aren’t demon corpses. Dean at first is really concerned but then after looking into disturbed Sam’s eyes his gaze turns to mistrust. Oh come on Dean, quit being so judgemental. Your brother needs you!
Once again, stellar commentary, so I’ve got nothing to add, though my oldest finds it funny when dad cries like a Dean, but what the hell WAS with the Foreigner? Apocalypse, people. Really, CW, is snagging some, oh, I don’t know, BLACK SABBATH *that* expensive?
Oh Alice that was fantastic! So much ‘fun’ just reading, let alone watching 😀
Oh, um, happy to contribute to the therapy fund…do you take Aussie dollars??
*bawling on the floor, can’t take it, want it to stop*
I was screaming at the TV when the last scene played out: “Go back! What’s wrong with you! Go back and fix it!” Man, when a show gets under your skin …
Loved the review. It’s read-out-loud-able (that a word?) and you have such a clear voice. It’s pitch perfect. And I always love your car love, especially the Mustang comments here. 😀 Can’t wait to see the other horsemen.
And Castiel is tough. So glad he has a character arc this season. MC plays it so well (because angels could have been a really lame drag on this show, but In Kripke We Trust!).
Episode three … Jess comes back. Anyone else notice in the promos that she was wearing white like in Season One?
Symbolic?
To play devil’s advocate on the rock salt – There’s a river, people probably fish in it and perhaps they like to smoke their fish. To do that, most folks brine it first and so it could be that they use a lot of salt in this town.
Unlikely I know, I’m just sayin.
I was too wound up at the start to really register Foreigner, but you’re right … it was pants. Heaven and Hell would have been much better, Dio-era Sabbath are my favorite incarnation of the band. My personal top tune to end the world on would have to be Orgasmatron by Motorhead which fits the bill perfectly and would probably be pretty cheap as well as I suspect that Lemmy is far too fried nowdays to drive a hard bargain.
Loved the Mustang. I have happy memories of Mustangs … Snigger …
The ending was probably the most upsetting thing I’ve seen in the whole series and that’s really saying something!
I spent the entire day mentally rocking in a corner clutching a wad of soaked hankies and sniffing loudly. Mr. K owes us a huge wedge of feelgoodiness to make up for all this the woe … Hands up anyone who thinks we’ll get it … Anyone? … Er, Hello?
Sorry, dunno where that extra “the” came from, I was having a conversation about raspberries and trying to keep a kitten off the keyboard at the same time so my multi tasking mojo seems to have overloaded …
I successfully managed to lose my comment again 😕 Suze, I’m with you, The Krip owes us big time. At the very least, he should pay for all he kleenexes we have to use up and the comfort foods that usually follow.
And I agree, the song for the opening sequence was way off, but they did use Spirit in the Sky beautifully. Generally I’m just glad that we seem to be getting more of the music back.
As for muscle cars, I am completely uneducated about them, but the Mustang certainly looked great. I wonder what the other three horsemen drive, I hope they won’t all be Mustangs though..some variety would be nice.
As a whole, this ep was definitely more together than the last, except for the sudden reintroduction of so many characters – that was a teeensy bit too rocky for me. But hey, it’s still great to see Rufus, Ellen, and Jo all back. Also, Ellen splashed, hugged, and whoop-assed Dean, but barely looked at Sam….I wonder why…
Oh and the scene in the hospital was pure awe. Cas is truly refining his badassery, and I approve 😎 . I’m still curious about the amulet though. Bobby gave it to Sam to give to John, but he didn’t know what it was for? If he thought it was just any other old charm, why go through the trouble? What did he think it was?
Sam and all his man pain and all his Sam issues, Dean and his man pain and his trust issues, as well as that final scene…I can’t say anything *sniff sniff*
Great recap, as usual, Alice!
I’ve spend the all weekend playing that final scene in my head and feeling miserably (letting a tv show to get that way under your skin?! Freud would love us all in his couch 😉 ), so the best way I found to stop that was become really shallow….. let’s see… Sam tied up to a chair, Sam shirtless, Dean shirtless …… major drooling on my keyboard now!
It works! Guaranteed :-), well at least until next episode when Kripke will most likely do it again!
It’s episode tree for you there so hope you enjoy and I’ll be back tomorrow night after I see it (nop! this year I’m not reading anything before I see it first!)
Oh, Alice those crying smiles are great! Can’t you put those for us to use to on the comments?
Great recap Alice. Your recap of the last scene was right on. I know the storyline needed to have the brothers split for effect, but I always hoped they would work it out together. That was also a very viable option.
Good point about Sam not having told Dean about Ruby’s last comments. Had Dean known, he would have viewed the situation different. Sam was not addicted, at least not to the blood. And this ‘lust for power’ they are bringing in is not uncommon, just ask any politician, just much more of an issue for someone with Sam’s abilities.
I am also wondering if, on camera, Dean ever told Sam he broke the first seal. Is that a secret Dean is keeping? Maybe I missed it.
I think one of your poll options of locking the boys in a room until they work things out, might have some merit.
Loved the comment about a pretty car deserving a pretty boy. It FITS! 😀
Ooops…I meant to put a 😀 behind ‘politician’. Don’t want to upset anyone. Sorry
Alice, the fact that you nailed every single microsecond of this episode is just amazing, but did more than JUST that, you made us realize how sexy and gorgeous 😮 those two guys are under any and/or every circumstance.
Tks for remind me why I love SPN so much, and to made almost pee in my pants with your 😀 so funny comments..
Loved, and gonna just read it again, so
That’s that!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks so much for your recap. It was uplifting to read your light humour comments,on such a very heavy episode. Kripke and Co. are really outdoing themselves so far (I wonder if they have shares in Kleenex). I don’t know if my heart is going to be able to take any more heart wrenching moments before totally disintegrating.
Thanks for your great recap Alice.
My heart is sore and broken from the last scene even though I understand the why of it. Poor boys! I hope that Sam finds a way to make Dean trust him again. Poor Dean is so broken and hurt right now and he has lost the most precious thing he has ever loved.
Can’t help hoping that before this series ends, I really really want to see a happy Dean again. A laughing Dean enjoying his life, his food and his flirting and teasing. And an indulgent Sam fondly smiling at his brother’s antics again. Want to feel the love between them again before it is all finished.
Please Mr. Kripke! If you do this, I will be able to survive the angst and the sorrow. A huge mutual hug with tears sometime in the future is a must! I must have these things to heal my broken heart!