Elle2’s Review – “The Real Ghostbusters”
The Real Ghostbusters,by Elle2
As with all SPN episodes I will watch it again but I’ll admit my first impression regarding this episode is that it was pretty lame. I’m not one hundred percent sure about this new writer…but one time solo and one time I think working with Kripke does not give me a full glimpse. I thought the convention Q & A at the beginning went a bit long and I really wondered at Sam’s and Dean’s motivation (oh, did I use that word?) for staying as long as they did until a scream and a ghost sighting.
Having said that, there were many golden moments, yes, the view of all the shiny Impalas lined up, seeing the two geeks (or are they obsessed fans?) reciting dialogue and Dean and Sam saying, “I need a drink.” Dean telling Chuck, Good luck with the Supernatural books and screw you very much. Sam saying to Chuck, “No, not really, we have guns and we’ll find you.”
Then there were all the mirror moments,
The shot of a Sam impersonator *or is it LARPer* holding a homemade EMF and saying it’s going crazy that was mirrored later on by Sam saying the EMF is going crazy.
The shot of a shot of whiskey getting poured into Dean’s glass with Sam drinking a beer mirrored later by Damian/Dean getting a shot poured while Barnes/Sam has a beer.
Damian/Dean saying to the little boy that he’ll burn the ghost extra toasty to Dean saying he’ll burn her extra crispy.
Of course there’s the whole mirror shone on the fandom, from super-obsessed Becky, to fans dressing up, to merchandise everywhere, questions, questions and questions. The standouts to me was the ‘fan’ dressed as the Hookman. We’ve all read and heard of fans like these, the ones that profess their love but do nothing but criticize,how come they drop their weapons, how come Sam is so stupid with Ruby, creepy children again , I’m with you, Mr. Kripke, with fans like that,
There’s another interesting, and softer or gentler, mirror that gets shone on the fandom,relationships. Friendships are made, relationships are forged, the celebration of common interests and shared experiences. Even Dean saw the point in that as he went from saying their lives suck to realizing how they can inspire people to finally reconciling that he is good when Sam asks. Dean’s issues with the hunting life has been a theme that cropped up a lot last season not only in Yellow Fever but in On the Head of A Pin (brilliant episode) and It’s a Terrible Life so it was nice to see Dean at the end saying he was all right, really.
The twist on the ghost was nice, it was a straightforward salt and burn and yet it wasn’t a straightforward salt and burn. I like that the two geeks (obsessed fans, y’all) came through in true LARPing hero way. And did you notice that when they did come through they dropped their roles and their fake husky voices and became who they were, two men who were willing to help.
Dean producing cash to get the story rather than fake badges was excellent and extremely necessary as at that point who was going to believe anything else.
Using the LARPing game to give us the research/background to the story was a nice change up and of course kept the story very insular as it needed to be.
A deus ex machina (literally “god from the machine”) is a plot device in which a person or thing appears “out of the blue” to help a character to overcome a seemingly insolvable difficulty.
Herein lies my big problem with this episode,deus ex machine = Becky’s reveal of a lead to the Colt. What? How did that happen? Really? Chuck knew that and put it in the books,there’s a whole fandom out there that knows about this? I thought Castiel was a fan of Chuck’s work, how come he didn’t know this?
Sorry, folks, this is a huge blunder,at least at this point in the season because this just came out of nowhere and is now a major plot point. This one does not work for me and I’m amazed to finally be saying it but, Mr. Kripke, this one does not work. I’ll go along with it ’cause I know that it’s out there and thus the story train is chugging along. Also, since next week it looks like we deal with Crowley and said Colt so the story will move on and I’ll put my blinders on (and memory zapper) and forget all about how this happened.
Whew, glad that’s over. Have they jumped the shark? Is it really jumping the shark if you don’t come down? If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around does it make any sound? Why did the chicken cross the road? Did you hear the one about the guy who wanted personalized license plates so he changed his name to ZWR9830? (Yeah, I made up that plate number.)
Maybe I’ll explore the whole jump the shark thing during winter hellatus,maybe not. I’ve got several articles in the works, some of which may actually appear in some sort of finished format.
As for The Real Ghostbusters,I give it a C overall, there were A moments but the ending was a real letdown, Becky knew who had the Colt? Really?
Thanks for reading,Elle2
Hi Elle2,
there is hope alright, even though we’re being instructed to abandon it with the next episode… oh well. Judging from the high quality scripts we’ve had in this show, I can’t believe they put Becky’s blatant deus ex machina gig there for no reason.
What I’ve been wondering, though, as I mentioned in another comment to that episode, with the many light/funny episodes we’ve had so far this season – are we heading to a more than dark story? I can’t shake this feeling crawling up my neck that that episode has been the last of funny we’ll see – taken from past seasons when funny allowed us to breathe before the hard stuff.
All in all, I did like this episode, there were many wonderful and sweet moments, and the feel of older episodes, when Sam and Dean did hunt urban legends… call me sentimental, but I like to be reminded of moments I first fell in love with the show.
It was kind of cruel, actually, that fanDean and fanSam quoted passages from previous episodes that were moments the brothers were somewhat at odds, of all things, the first cracks in their relationship. Gosh, I suffered through that scene in Asylum.
How the two fans grew, helping out the real hunters (and actually saving them), touched me. They became the real heroes of this episode, and they will remain unsung. How geeky and obsessed they might have seemed in the beginning, they turned out to be essentially good people – they did what they thought was necessary to do (and the Sam-and-Dean-story may have provided them with some kind of role models). Furthermore – they were the ones who pointed out to realDean and realSam (perceived as completely nutty and obsessed fans digging up graves for real) that Supernatural is fictional. That was a nice twist.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Elle2,
Jas
If we go Occam, I think they stayed mainly because they were stunned, they wanted to see what was (from their vantage point) the train wreck that was their lives and pain and misery made make-believe. That’ll jar with anyone’s sensibilities. Thus, whiskey.
As for the Colt thing, that threw me as well. It’s sort of plausible that Cas wouldn’t know (maybe he didn’t read the last couple because he was busy with the latest Dan Brown novel, ha ha) but I’m more surprised that Chuck didn’t let them know, i.e., the writers came up with this idea two months ago.
Of course, if only Sam and Dean had read them from cover-to-cover. And if Chuck can see beyond what they’re doing, what else does that sucker know?
But I’ll certainly live with it because it’s still not as much of a flub as super soldiers. Just make sure the explanation is a bit more fleshed out that I fear it might be.
And the chicken crossed the road to get away from Colonel Sanders.
Thanks for the review, elle2.
Regarding the reveal on the Colt at the end, Chuck “wrote” the book of Time Is On My Side over two years ago, in a haze of pain and alcohol. It’s not clear to me how much, and how clearly, he would remember the details: he didn’t make them up, just wrote them down in difficult circumstances. Also, writers tend not to go back and read over their past work: it stays in the past for them more than it does for their readers.
I suppose once he realises their importance, Chuck might have gone back over the early books, but presumably he’s busy with his current life. He’s likely still dealing with the pain of prophesy, and much occupied with continuing to write the current story, even if not for publication.
Presumably too, after Sympathy for the Devil Sam and Dean have passed on to Chuck the information that the prophecies he gets might be planted. How does he sort that mess out in his head? Since we first saw Chuck in The Monster at the End of This Book, he’s sobered up and tried to become a constructive part of Team Winchester. I like to think he’s doing the best he can.
Chuck can’t be getting the story much in advance, though, or he would have been clued in to Becky’s trick.
Hi Elle2!
Why did they stay so long? I’m guessing for the same reason people stop to see a car crash?
As for the story colt I think that it’s normal Chuck had forget that, because I got the impression that most of the times he’s not really “reading” what he writes, his fingers just mechanically type whatever pops in his head.
You didn’t like it that much? Don’t worry about it! Thanks for sharing your thoughts about it with us.
Hi, Pete, Jasminka, Randal, Faellie and Dany,
Great comments from you all, thanks fso much. I’m in the process of watching all of S1 again and just last night watched Asylum so that whole dialogue of Sam and Dean fracturing was fresh in my mind. I do love that this show makes a point of going back to the canon and bringing it forward to highlight the now, powerful and shows how well it has all been set up.
Pete, I do agree wholeheartedly with you that this episode showcased the brothers working as a team which is much needed as I’m sure we’re turning a corner in Season 5 and embarking on the darker and more dangerous part of the trip to the end of this arc and I suspect it will require Team Winchester to truly be Team Winchester…depsite Trickster/Gabriel’s assertions last week.
Excellent point, Jasminka, that the fan/Dean and Sam were quoting the painful material…perhaps it just shows how in tune the writers are to the fact that we fans love the angst.
Randal, First off, thanks for the answer to the chicken and the road…geez that’s been buggin’ me! As for Crowley and where do we go from here, while it’s an implausible event of Becky providing the info it doesn’t ruin anything and like you, I’m hoping for Crowley to be pretty cool to make me forget all about the how and why and the what the??? I’ll be quite fine with it.
Faellie, you make a similarly excellent point in that the writers (in this case Chuck) tend to move on after they’ve written and not obsess over every detail…good point indeed.
Dany, you join several others here with your thoughts that Chuck’s liquor soaked brain would cause him to forget some of the details so I agree, that’s quite plauisble. Thanks for letting me off the hook about not liking it that much…I’ve watched it a second time (I did before I wrote the review) and I’ll watch it again ’cause frankly all SPN episodes are worth watching again, some more than others to be sure but all get watched in the future. Heck, just last week I watched Bugs again.
🙂
Thanks for reading all.
As to why Chuck didn’t remember about the Colt before, I think his answer holds water: he’s not as big a fan as Becky.
While of course we assume writers know their own work, we tend to forget that writers are generally continually writing new things, and that fans can get seriously caught up in small details.
I’ve been writing articles for a year, but if someone hit me with a crazy specific question from one of them, I’d have to go back and reread it before remembering it well enough to answer properly.
So if you have someone like Chuck, writing a series of novels presumably over several years- no, he’s not going to remember everything he wrote over months and months and thousands of pages.
I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. Reegrding the colt, my take was that for most people it would have just been a minute detail, like giving something to a secretary, and saying that you gave it to your lawyer. We just assume that the secretary passes it on. Becky, detail obsessed fan that she is, thought maybe he didn’t pass it on to Lilith and told Sam about it.
With all this wonderful discussion about the Colt and Crowley and trina’s comments a thought has occured….
What if Crowley was supposed to have passed the Colt to Lillith and chose not to? Bela died because they thought Lillith changed the rules of Bela’s deal. But maybe she wouldn’t have gone to hell if Lillith had actually gotten the Colt????
Help folks – is anyone else having problems accessing the articles or login in? This has been going on all day, and I’m wondering – do I need to curse my server or is it a general web-problem at present? 😕
Tigershire – interesting question. I think you have a point. Lilith herself told Sam in ‘Monster At The End of This Book’ that she has to keep to her deals. ‘Those are the rules, and you know it’. Perhaps Bela would have been able to save herself from hell if Crowley had passed the Colt on. I like this idea of her lover betraying her (I hope we will hear some more of Bela’s backstory, at least the bit connected to Crowley. I’ve always thought of her to be an interesting character. I could have killed her a couple of times, but she made a compelling character… Not many characters in this show have been hated this much, I guess, as Bela has.)
Is it Friday, yet?
Randal, you bring up an important point – how many prophecies have been given to Chuck in the meantime? We will – hopefully – learn about what the guy knows… Bring it on, prophet… He’s not drinking as much as he used to – does this mean, there is hope? Has his Skandianvian deal something to do with what he might have seen in his visios? Questions, questions…
All my best, Jas
Plus it’s entirely probably that Zechariah planted some not-entirely-factual tidbits in his mind. It’s possibly they have a brilliant scheme written up for it, but Becky’s revelation seemed so ‘oh, by the way, this guy Crowley has the Colt. You guys hungry?”
Despite the near-universal hatred towards Bela, I too hope they flesh out her story a bit, as long as it’s pertinent to the quest.
As for site problems, I can log in, but there’s this odd wraparound.
Hi Elle2
I have to admit I pretty much felt the same as you did on the first watch.
I found some parts funny and cute, but most of the time I was cringing through it.
However when I watched it the next day, I actually did enjoy it.
It’s funny how a different day and/or mood can affect your opinion.
I also have to agree that the sudden ‘oh by the way’ reference on the colt’s location was rather thrown in there. But I’m also willing to let it go. It’s looks like it’s the only fighting chance the brothers have to winning this without giving in to their so call destiny.
I’ve also liked the season 1 type shows with the motw.
I figured Kripke went with the back to basics, so the brother’s could find their equal ground and help them get back in sync.
This way they would be a strong team, when fighting against the apocalypse.
I do feel that this is probably the last one with the light comedy.
I have to agree with Jasminka.
I think were now heading for some serious heavy doom and gloom episodes.
Jessy, Trina, Tigershire, Randal, Jasminka and Karen,
Great comments from all of you. Jessy, you’re correct about writing and the more I see/hear people’s thoughts on that (at least on this thread) I agree that perhaps it can be either an on purpose or happy accident that the writers got some more meta over on the fans. I’ll happily go along with that.
Someone else (Randal I think) mentioned that we’re so fortunate to have the great writing on this show (A point I completely agree with) that even what I still believe to be something ‘out of left field’ can and will be (at least by me and it sounds like many of you 😛 ) forgiven because we’ve had so much goodness over the seasons.
Tigershire, once again you ring in with a really cool thought…perhaps Crowley didn’t do what he was supposed to do and that’s why Bela got bit. It’s intriguing to think about and I do like the tie in back to Bela. She may not have been the greatest character ever on the show but she did go out with a bang and the writers did ultimately do justice to her character by making all the pieces fit.
One thing that I constantly love about this show is that it does rememeber its roots and so even in episodes that haven’t been my favorites (and last season had some of those as well) they (the writers) seem to mine the first few seasons for material and the continuity is impressive.
Thanks all for the comments.
I second that, Elle2 – I’m often left with my mouth open in awe when I notice time and time again how the writers connect the dots, even when they have to go way back.
Even when they take us to weird places, back to the future, into ‘ChannelSurfingWithSamAndDean’ or to a geeky convention, they don’t forget the roots of this show.
With the early season ‘groove’, as Randal so aptly named it, they’ve gone back to the classic elements of the show. Iron, salt and fire… among other things. And – what rejoices my heart in particular – the brothers have each others backs again for the time being… which gives me sweet comfort before the possible ‘doom and gloom’ episodes that might pop up (just love your wordplay, Karen!)…. ‘Sweet comfort’, oh my… I’m being a girl again, here.
😮
Luv,Jas
I thought it was a wonderful episode ….and really didn’t think the ‘colt’ comment was that off. Chuck really never knew the boys were real at that time he wrote that novel, and after he met the boys, Zachariah really warned him about giving the boys any info. So, I can justify why he didn’t rell them.
And yes, they are doing more MOTW, and that’s fine. They are going back to earlier seasons, and that’s really what they should do. Fun supernatural facts and urban legends is why the show had so much appeal earlier…that and the strong brotherly bond.
I don’t know what the second half of the season will bring, but I don’t feel it will be all doom and gloom. And I do feel the boys, and the followers they seem to be gathering, will be very successful.
Having the brothers be brothers again is really good. I really liked at the end when both boys split the job of ‘wrapping’ things up. Dean talked to the Sam and Dean impersonators, and Sam addressed Chuck and Becky. Really shows the brothers are sharing responsibilities. Loved the smile on Dean’s face as he was leaning on the top of the impala waiting for Sam. You KNOW he really felt good about the comments from their duplicates.
Sam’s comment to Chuck regarding the ‘guns’ was great. That seemed to me like a comment Dean would have made, not something coming from Sam. And it’s good that Sam is sharing those responsibilities. To me, in the past, when a ‘draw the lines in the sand’ issue came up, it was always Dean who had to verbalize it. That should be a shared family job.
Also liked when Sam said he would tell Dean about the colt in the impala. Very reminiscent of all the discussions that the boys would have at end of many epis in the impala in the earlier seasons. Foe me, very nice to see again.
I think the brothers had to come full circle, to go through that trial by figurative fire (well, literal in Dean’s case) in order to face this last run on the Death Star.
Sablegreen, good catch, completely forgot about Zechariah’s no-no to Chuck! I still wonder about Cas, but perhaps he’s still got a bit of that heavenly do-gooder about him, the internal struggle between being a full parter with the humans or not, not even being sneaky, just unsure of himself and his place in the world. The dude HAS been an angel for thousands of years, hard to, um, chuck that to the side.
Darkness is coming, but the internal dynamic seems to have gotten back the halcyon days. Which means, someone is obviously going to die. 😎
I think Cas will have some crucial role to play, Randal, as he still serves as some kind of intermediary – in the sense that he might be able to translate the angels’ plans and/or language (well, the dudes like to speak in riddles) to our dear Winchesters.
His inner turmoil must be horrific – after all, he turned his back on his brothers in arms, got dragged to Bible camp for that (poor guy, do angels torture, too?), and now he’s searching for God without any help from his peers (will Dean’s necklace really help him find the flatbread God might be taking vacation on? And God help him, should he lose it), and – bottom line – he is not accustomed yet to the ways of humans. But – he is brave. And he seems to genuinely like the brothers, in particular Dean, which must be also a new experience for him. He should channel his memoirs to Chuck some day, might be an interesting read.
😉
Apropos Death Star… what happened to Sam’s Jedi mind tricks? I can’t forget Ruby’s remark at the end of ‘Lucifer Rising’ – ‘You didn’t need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time, Dumbo’… Will Sam find his powers again? Before he started drinking demon blood, visions came to him, and then lying dormant after YellowEyes was gone… There’s more to the man than meets the eye…
According to Alice’s first impressions of the Jared and Jensen panel and their vague statement that the show would go on as long as the fans wanted it, okay… what else was he supposed to say?… but – if the CW should announce in early spring (or during the winter hiatus) that the show will be picked up for a sixth season (which will of course be decided on whether the show is making money, not so much on the fans’ desires), we might not entirely come full circle with this season’s storyline… but that’s for the writers to decide…
All this is suspenseful. Thirteen episodes to go… It’s been said that God would make an appearance… okay, there are images spinning in my head right now, most of all deadpan remarks from Dean… I think both brothers might have something to say to Him. Gosh, the hiatus has not even kicked in and I’m already all apprehensive about having to wait till January… Okay, I need to switch to zen mode…
😀
Take care, Jas
Ah, yes, the necklace. I just hope that it’s not explicitly revealed that this God Magnet® was simply hanging around Bobby’s place. I see horns and I think of Mithras, not JC. 😎 I still like the idea of its power coming from a selfless act of love and how much it means to Dean.
Didn’t Sam get thrown around by the demon in 5.6? I’m thinking if, since he’s really trying to stay on the wagon, he let his skills diminish, like how foreign language skills do if you don’t keep up with them, I know that’s true!
Great point about the storyline *if* CW picks up another season. I know the story is supposed to wrap up this year, but until it’s in writing, don’t believe the hype, ha ha. Part of me wants them to stop so the show doesn’t peter out like so many others. As long as we’re promised a series of movies.
I wonder if the big cheese does appear, whether they’ll go the George Burns route. Time for ‘ohm ohm ohm.’ 😀
Jas and Randal, you two have hit on my biggest irks with s5…..Dean’s necklace and Sam’s powers.
For me, Dean’s necklace is not a relic, some magically god-finder. It is a very special gift from Sam to Dean on a very special Christmas day. The way both boys respect it and treat it-Dean never takes it off and feels naked without it, and even when he died, Sam wore it and would have forever. That in itself, has all the magic it needs. To have it be anything else would really cheapen the concept.
And Sam’s powers have been ignored this whole first part. Sam’s powers are very much there. He can’t dump them even if he wanted too. We all know he has them from Ruby’s comment, and quite powerful they are indeed…based on what he did to Lilith. Yet throughout the first half, we see Sam being thrown into walls, choked, not feeling demons presence etc. That is a big lack of continuity for me. I really hope they don’t have Sam come out one epi with, “well yes Dean I have powers, but I know you didn’t approve so I didn’t tell you, and just ignored themâ€. I will be so disappointed with Kripke!
Hi Sablegreen. I agree with you on the Dean’s amulet – after the revelation about its powers, shouldn’t there have been some discussion between Bobby, Dean and Sam about where it came from in the first place and why Bobby gave it to Sam? The relevation came out of nowhere and seems to have gone the same way. I suppose we just have to hang on anmd hope for an explanation at some point in the future.
As to Sam’s powers, do we know whether he still has them? Did the “supernatural methadone” which cured him of the physical addiction to blood also remove the original infestation and the powers that went with it? I suppose that unless Sam tries to use his powers, we may never know.
Don’t lose hope, Sablegreen, I don’t think the writers have forgotten or neglected the amulet-issue. It’s been too big a deal to simply let it slip. I’m sure we’ll find out about it, soon. Or at least in the course of the upcoming thirteen episodes… I agree that it is of huge emotional value to the brothers. Dean gave it to Castiel at a point when he was still at odds with Sam, I wonder how he would have reacted to Cas’s request now… interesting imagination-exercise… I suppose he still would have loaned him the necklace, but not without another of those deadpan remarks we love him for (among other things, of course). 😀
I love Randal’s point about its power coming from a ‘selfless act of love’ – we’ve seen so many of those acts of love with the brothers. I’m a sucker for those, and when I happen upon them in real life, I’m in awe.
As for Sam’s powers… taken from how terrified he was of them (when he realized in Good God, Y’all how much he desired to take a taste of demon blood), he might shy away from even thinking about getting back in Ali-form via any paranormal powers. I’d like to see them come back, though. The visions in particular. I loved those.
Faellie, you have a fascinating point – what if the ‘methadone’ stripped Sam of his powers? Anything is possible on planet Supernatural, I don’t believe it, though. Somehow I don’t think the writers would establish such an important storyline and then lose it in one single episode… I’d like to see Sam try – but he would risk more trouble with Dean, would he not? After all, I believe, he stills feels the burden of guilt on his shoulders (and DemonBobby’s words might still be burned into his cortex, a most devastating blow at the time), so he might have difficulties to even think about trying to use them.
After all, he was a demon blood junkie. Ruby lured him into that. He barely got out of that vicious circle alive and keeping his sanity. Maybe he’ll find the ‘feather’ he has inside, and, perhaps, if he takes control (as opposed to being controlled by his need for power/for blood), it might become a completely different matter. Dean wouldn’t take it smoothly, I’m sure.
Anyone here with magic powers to turn me into a fly in the writers’ room, please? Come on, are there no sorcerers among the fans? No mojo flying around??? Where is Gandalf when you need him! Ooops, different genre…
😆 😆
Best always, Jas
Hi Jasminka
Never mind the writers room, if I had any such powers I would be a fly, or a bird, a cat, a blade of grass, any thing to be at every shoot that Jensen and Jared were at. I would even settle at being the Impala or should I say the KARENPALA.
I’d like to reserve a seat in the Karenpala… Karen, dear, I’ll try to find some mojo… ‘When shall we three meet again..’ I’ll settle for the witches later. It’s going to rain… Who knows. Maybe you’ll wake up as a car and I as Jareds gun (which is beautifully crafted, a great gimmick)… or I’ll better leave dark magic to those who know how to actually do it… I’m rambling… 🙂
Best wishes, Jas