Recap – “The Curious Case of Dean Winchester”
Patrick raises and goes for the same taunting that just about every single demon on this show has done to Sam. No wonder he’s immune to it by now. He gets it all the freaking time. “Here you are, right. Trying to clean up their mess. They still want to sit you at the kiddie table.” Sam says nothing and does that quiet sulking face he’s always done with Dean while he takes it all in. Interesting how when watching this we think it’s the same old Sam when really he’s using it as part of the game. We think. “You’re not the little brother anymore Sam. Then again, maybe you are.” Sam sulks more. “You’re in over your head here Sam.” No Patrick, that’s just what Sam wants you to believe. “I mean, you can keep making these moves, you know, playing it cautious, playing the percentages, but I’m still going to kick your ass into the nursing home.”
“Does this armchair psychology routine usually work for you?” Sam asks, because he hates monologuing yet gets it all the time anyway. “You tell me, you’re the one who’s losing.” They keep playing. Lia comes in, kisses Patrick, Sam stares at the toothpick and Patrick declares a break. Man, a lot of tiny plot points to cover in this one. Sam goes outside and meets up with Dean, who asks how it’s going in there. “How do you think it’s going?” An upset Sam asks. You see, this is where I’m not sure Sam is still doing his act or if he’s truly bothered. A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a taco indeed. I think he’s mad that he’s involved in this hare brained plan instead of trying to win the game on his own. Sam hands Dean the toothpick for “he-witch” DNA and tells Dean to hurry up. “Sammy, don’t lose” older Dean says with huge concern, the exact concern I’d expect younger Dean to use. Sam gives him a bitch face and goes back. I want to see and older version of Sam doing that bitch face.
Dean goes back to the van but feels that sharp pain in his left arm. You know, the kind of pain that happens to old guys before they have a heart attack. Sam and Patrick resume the game. Bobby chants the spell in the van and Dean throws the toothpick into the burning caldron. You see, it’s cool that Bobby has a nice big van he can do this in now. There are perks to this new lifestyle thing. They wait a second and Dean smiles. “Well, how to do look?” Old. It didn’t work.
Back to Sam, who’s so busted now. Patrick pulls out a toothpick and asks “Is this what you meant to give your big brother?” Sam turns a little pale. The one he gave Dean never passed Patrick’s lips. This is where Patrick shows his ill tolerance of cheating. How nice, a scheming card player with respect for the rules. He holds out his hand and starts choking Sam Darth Vader style. As we’ve known for a while now, Jared has this choking thing down pat. No one even needs to touch him anymore.
Patrick is about to do Sam in when Lia jumps in and tells him to let Sam go. Patrick justifies it since he tried to kill them, but Lia insists she’s the one that gave Sam the spell. Patrick stops and Sam gasps for air. Patrick is stunned and caresses her with disbelief. “Why?” “You know why,” she says. She holds the locket again. Patrick takes this with some devastation and then goes back to Sam. “Keep playing.” Sam looks scared shitless, and I’m not sure if he really is or not.
Okay, I’m going to be jumping around a lot from here. This is a short attention span script. Bobby and Dean are trying to figure out what went wrong. They realize the faulty item was the toothpick. Now Dean must get the DNA. Dean sarcastically harps “Oh goodie, more stairs.” Back to the cards and Sam looks worried. Back to Dean who’s in the apartment and he can’t find anything. Back to Sam who’s squirmy and a bit jumpy and bets a nice stack of chips. Patrick goes through his analysis over Sam’s hastiness. He must have a great hand, but his eager behavior has robbed him a chance to win big. He folds and guesses Sam had a pair of ladies, which are Queens, right?
Sam takes the pile of chips and shows his cards. A three and five, which is nothing. He was bluffing. Patrick is restrained but somewhat miffed. If Sam had time, he could make quite a card player out of him. “I got time,” Sam says. Get Patrick mad and this is where he must play dirty. “Maybe, but I can’t say the same for Dean. Your brother’s going to be dead soon. And when I say soon (leans forward with ominous pause) I mean minutes.” Seriously, is Sam that easy a read? Pushing the Dean button? Sam goes into full fledged panic mode and gets up, but Patrick uses his hand-o-doom to sit Sam back down. “The game’s not over until I say it is.” They throw in their bets for the next round.
Back to older Dean at Patrick’s penthouse, who spots a mostly empty glass of wine. There’s his DNA. Of course that’s right when Dean’s fatal heart attack kicks in. Figures. Back to the card game, which is moving along at a frantic pace now. Sam is positively out of his mind trying to rush things along. Patrick goes back into psychoanalyst mode and surmises that when it’s about his brother he gets so emotional Sam’s brain flies out the window. You know, that was true a few seasons ago, but now, not so much. Sam tells him to go to Hell. That’s the best you can come up with Sam? Flip to older Dean on the floor, and he’s not good.
Sam pushes all his chips to the center in a hurry. “I’m all in.” This worries Lia to no end and even Patrick’s a little thrown back. “Don’t do that Sam,” he sadly says. Sam goes to his full defiance mode. “I can’t leave until it’s over, then it’s over!” Patrick warns him there’s poker and then there’s suicide. You see, I just don’t get this Patrick guy. He seems legitimately concerned. Maybe because he likes robbing people of years fair and square. But he started the emotional blackmail. Sam tells him to play the hand. Bobby now is trying to talk to Dean on the phone and getting nothing. Dean is on the ground, slipping away. Oh boy this is exciting!
Patrick slides in his chips while Sam goes crazy. Patrick deals the final cards and then back to Bobby trying to talk to Dean on the phone. Dean gasps, Sam watches the cards with worry, Patrick watches Sam, Sam watches Patrick. Patrick watches Sam. Sam, oh come on, end this. Now it goes to Lia. Cards, Sam for a close up, Patrick for a close up, dying Dean for a close up, Bobby closer, Sam closer, Patrick closer, Sam’s eyes, Patrick’s eyes and who the hell approved this edit? It’s way too over the top!
Hi Alice
Thank-you for the recap. Once again I love your witty take on these recaps.
I really enjoyed this episode, I thought everyone was amazing in there roles. I’m anxious for tonigts, but I’ll have to watch it Friday since I’ll be at work.
Thanks again.
Hi, Alice
Great recap, hilarious as usual (I esp. liked the whole son + golf = retirement -plan *smirk*).
I liked this ep too, it was funny and sad. I loved Patrick (the accent, the looks, the ambiguity) and the guy playing him was really good. I’m glad he didn’t die and hopehope we see him again.
I thought the Chad-Jared chemistry was a lot like SamnDean. Kudos to Jared for making it feel like it was. And I loved that Sam beat Patrick fair and square and now magic involved… just plain old intuition *snerk* I love even the lying side of Sam. Heck, I love all sides of him, and Dean too 😎
I LOVED Jensens little happydance, it was just cute and adorable and happy, and did I mention happy lol.
The Cliff guy was such a dick.. I hope the guys did rat his ass to his wife…or maybe she was better off, cheating moron (the guy, not her *g*). The way the olderCliff had been visiting that nice little establishment so regularly, I would have taken his years with pleasure, and then given him the clap on top… just kidding… but maybe not *shifty eyes*
The end scene was really sweet, glad that Bobby got some recognition from Dean, I agree, he is not useless.
I had few nitpicks too…
The whole Bobby miraculously getting to town (when boys were allready there) and finding the game before them and even playing and losing -bit was kinda stupid. They could have made it so that Bobby was allready in town, ’cause it felt a little like a set-up-job at that point.
Also, the dead guy in the beginning… If the buy-in (or what’s the official term, I dunno) was 25 (years) and he allready was 25, then why was he playing? An addict or what? He might’ve be doing it for someone else but I dunno… felt shifty to me.
And Chad don’t look like 80, so that was weird… But he was so dead-on Dean that I didn’t really mind it that much.
Other than that, I really liked this ep, a lot of good dialogue and snarky comments, and the tragic romance that ended. It was all good.
Hi Alice,
Great recap…and, of course, I LOVE the screencaps. I also LOVE stand alone episodes, and this is a good one. I love Chad Everett, but I still can’t see him as Dean…Sorry. I know almost everyone did, so I guess I have my eyeballs messed up! That was the only drawback for me.
I like the boys being on the same page again. That’s what makes the brothers so good for me. Just seems they are more like the earlier years, but more experienced. I also like Sam being more practical…he was always too serious. Now, he seems to have decided to just accept what comes along and meet it head on. I always felt, this was what Dean had to do as an older brother. The dinner thing is a fate of little brothers. I can’t remember when Dean brought Sam food either, but if they are taking turns, I guess we are to assume he does.
I have to say, I’m not a fan of Manwitch (LOVE Deans labels this epi). Maybe he’s not malicious, but he doesn’t seem to care about the years he takes and those he kills. And yes, both Dean and Bobby broke their own rules about how to play poker. You don’t go in with emotional baggage! Dean was just so intent on saving Bobby and Bobby getting his legs back.
I really was taken aback at how Dean lectured Bobby. Don’t know why, just seems he lost a little respect for him, but like he said in the end, him and Sam don’t have many people left and he just can’t lose Bobby. That is VERY understandable.
Sam and his poker! The bluff was great. And yes, he kept his wits about him and didn’t lose it emotionally…at least not until he knew Dean was dying. Can’t help thinking that was NOT all bluff. At that point, Sam reminded me more of demon!Sam.
Anyone play poker? I don’t, but my brother says, the chips Sam cashed it were WAY more than 50 years worth. Course, that all flies out the window with Lucifer and Michael!
Highlights for me…Sam’s one-liners…glad he gets some occasionally, and Dean’s happy dance. Really need to find a video of that!
Alice, that was a great and hilarious recap. I was giggling and laughing all the way through it. Thanks so much for brightening my day.
Sam is a great pool shark, isn’t he? And he did learn it from the best. John. I suppose he was able to use everything he had learned from his dad, while Dean was so very upset with Bobby, that he got way too confident and lost spectacularly. And that gave us the awesome oldDean! Chad Everett was excellent in that role.
Loved the Grumpy Old Men exchanges. Yes, I really enjoyed this episode and am not apologizing for that.
Woe-is-me-Sam: after all the crap that he(they) have gone through in such a short period of time, I would fully expect a little doom-n-gloom coursing through the veins, mutilating the optimist along the way. 😎
The over-the-top edit: if used sparingly, why not? I think melodrama and its permutations often gets, er, dealt an undeserved bad hand.
I was glad to get some truly sympathetic villains and Bobby/Dean at all points was spectacular, grumpy old men or growing lady parts.
I seem to remember Dean bringing in the food one time when Sam was having a psychic episode. I’ll have to watch all the episodes again to make sure I’m not dreaming. What a chore! LOL
Giggle … Bad, wicked Alice … Counting screen minutes, as if!
Actually that made me think … You could install a Bro-ometer at the top of the page ( like that spiffy Hellatus countdown clock ) and help the excessivly-invested amoungst us stoke their grievences as to who’s sneaking more screen time … Or perhaps not, on second thoughts …
I really liked this one. Sam doing sneaky stuff for the home team was great, even if I was totally convinced he was going to lose the farm ( just colour me stupid ) and the grizzeling old geezers were priceless right up to Dean’s bit with Bobby at the end which left me sniffling into my keyboard ( for a change. In fact, that’s probably what’s been up with the computer lately … The poor thing’s water-logged )
I don’t know what to think about the Manwitch, he looks and sounds so tasty one wants him to have a soft side to match but I can’t help thinking that the letting the old chaps win thing is just a ruse to lure the young chaps in to be fleeced …
Hi Alice,
was this episode really that polarizing? If so, I’m at the pole of ‘I like it’. And I love your review, great work, indeed. I find your mix of text and those great screencaps irresistible, you always find them to suit your words dead on. Great fun to read and relish.
You bring up some interesting issues, and, like you indicate, the change in Sam that has become evident throughout the story moves me. I don’t mean to fuss, but I sometimes miss the ever hopeful young man he used to be. He has been through some significant changes in his attitude, but he’s returned to a mind-set that looks for redemption, not revenge, which is in its essence a hopeful stance.
I like to call him an optimist in the sense Peter Ustinov once described as: ‘In order not to be a fool an optimist must know how sad a place the world can be. It is only the pessimist who finds out anew every day.’
Sam knows how hopeless everything can appear, and he faces it. I think he’s trying to do whatever he can to be delivered from his own demons… I’m very curious about what the writers will have in store for him. Okay, I’m done having my I-love-Sam-moment. ..
Though he has some great scenes, really. I totally agree with you – giving Sam the clap without the fun of getting laid, was a mean move of endearing bastard Patrick. Come on, when was it the last time the man had sex? And the poker game he puts up was a wonderful study of bluff and serious care.
I don’t think that Sam didn’t panic at all when he heard that Dean would have but a few minutes left (and old Dean’s only word, as he gets that heart attack, is Sam… that really got to me. In his moment of imminent death, Sam is all Dean thinks about).
And Patrick confronts him with issues Sam himself voiced in an episode not so long ago – that he needed Dean to allow him to grow up. That he’s done sitting at the ‘kiddie table’. I think the Irish bloke touched a soft spot, and perhaps he is indeed psychic to some extent…
Jensen moved me to the core in his scenes with Jim Beaver. It’s pretty clear how scared Dean is to perhaps lose this second father, after Bobby gambles away those years. He hasn’t many to spare anymore, as Bobby already is middle aged.
You ask whether they had not had that talk, yet, you know the stick-a-gun-in-my-mouth talk. I don’t think they have. To actually admit that the idea of suicide is whirling around in your head takes a lot of guts and an amount of despair that needs time to build. In the beginning Bobby probably still hoped that some angel or the boys would lay some mojo on him and change his situation. It must have dawned on him by now that he might die in that wheelchair.
I agree that this is not an episode that contributed a whole lot to the myth-arc here, but I liked it nonetheless. Jensen got a few days off (and I hope he enjoyed them), we were given a fine performance by Chad Everett, and some sweet and strange jokes, and – this time – a Gaelic ritual.
I haven’t found an episode in this season so far that I would file under ‘I don’t like it’. To me it seems as if the show is gathering momentum… which is exiting… ‘oh, goodie’
Bye, take care, Jas
Sablegreen,
hi, I don’t think that Dean lost any respect regarding Bobby. Judging from my personal point of view – when someone tells me to consider suicide, I think it calls for a lot of respect, because it shows a huge amount of trust – to reveal such a shadow about oneself…
I think Bobby trusts the boys immensely, else he surely would not have let those words slip from his mouth… Dean is doing the right thing here – take it seriously and thereby entrusting Bobby with his own fear of losing him…
What a moving scene that was…
Love, Jas
oh, sablegreen, grammar-trap got me – I meant of course ‘when someone tells me that he would consider suicide’ not the other way around…
It’s the middle of the night, and my brain is pretty much dead… 😕
Bye, good night, everyone, sweet dreams, Jas
Jas, I read your reply, and realized my paragraph about Bobby and Dean was confusing. Sorry…I’m at work, and didn’t make sure I had my head on straight.
I didn’t mean the lecture at the end of the show. That one was VERY respectable and moving and totally appropriate. I meant when Dean first saw Bobby leaving the game. I really was startled when Dean called Bobby an idiot. Just seemed disrespectful given Bobby’s age. …just my old fashioned ways.
Alice,
Great recap as always. I do love your wicked, wicked ways with the recap commentary. This was fun and touching and all that is great about SPN…without too much scary either.
Great job at the recap…
Another wonderful recap, Alice! I always think it would be such fun to watch an episode with you because of your witty commentary.
Great recap Alice! I’m still giggling about your comments. I would love to be watching an episode and earing your comments on voice off, something tells me it would be fun 🙂
Loved Chad Everet as old Dean and is interaction with Jim (definitely Grumpy Old Men) and Jared was great. The old chick in Titanic? Seriously Dean? You actually saw Titanic? I prefer Sam’s Emperor Palpatine (yes I’m a Star Wars fan). And after all the laugh I end up in tears with that talk between Dean and Bobby, but it’s ok, in fact I think that Bobby needed that.
Loved the screencaps too, Sam as very beautiful smile doesn’t he? And Dean too, loved that happy dance and that smile!
I can confess with every bit of shame I never even realised Sam was faking panic and all that. Ah. I guess I was too into the episode to even look at it thoroughly, but everyone caught on, which makes me feel like an ‘idjit’. Then again, I saw it once. But is that really an excuse? :roll::
Patrick is one of the best guest stars. Seductive, I would gave played all my years for him! Handsome, intelligent, and empathizing when need be. What’s not to love?