Back to Chuck, who’s having one of his terrifying yet deadly accurate dreams. This time it’s Sam and a woman in a motel room. Her white eyes flash, telling us it’s Lilith. She and Sam are getting cozy on a bed. Interesting. Chuck awakes in horror. It should be noted that many scenes are started with a shot of drawings from the books. I read somewhere these drawings where from the actual Supernatural Origins comics. Next scene one is shown on Chuck’s wall before panning to Sam, Dean and Chuck in his living room. Chuck reveals his latest chapter, but is still too weirded out about Sam and Dean being real. Dean tells him they can take it. “You especially are not going to like this,” Chuck tells Dean. “I didn’t like Hell,” Dean replies. Yeah, it can’t be that bad.
The gist is Lilith is coming for Sam. Tonight. Yeah, that got their attention. Sam is freaked out while Chuck reads from the pages. “Lilith patted the bed seductively. Unable to deny his desires, Sam succumbed and they sank into the throws of fiery demonic passion.” Sam laughs, Dean takes this very seriously. “Come on,” Sam says, “fiery demonic passion?” Chuck admits, “It’s just a first draft.” Oh, I love writer’s humor! Dean mentions Lilith is a little girl, but Chuck reveals this time she’s a “comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana.” Dean wants to know what happens after the “fiery demonic whatever.” Chuck doesn’t know.
Dean asks Chuck how this whole psychic thing works. “My process?” Chuck asks. Yes, writers call their inspiration a “process.” My process is to pace back and forth a ton of times until my floor shows signs of wear, get some coffee, let the dogs in and out a few times, get a load of laundry started, and then sit all the computer all day tearing my hair out, stopping to yell at the kids every ten minutes, stopping to do the next load of laundry, then letting the dogs out, then going back to write more until I break out some wine to calm my nerves. Yeah, I’m not sure why I do it either.
Chuck’s process starts with a really bad headache in which aspirin doesn’t work, and then he drinks until he falls asleep. The first time he thought it was a crazy dream, but since then it just keeps flowing and won’t stop. I want my process to involve constantly dreaming about Sam and Dean, Sam still won’t believe any of this (“Lilith and me in bed?”), while Dean believes every bit of it. Before he even asks Chuck for the pages, Chuck hands them to Dean. “Knew you were going to ask for that, yeah.” I love this character.
Now for an Impala scene! Yay! Man have I missed the girl the last few weeks. Dean’s driving, while Sam reads from the pages. Something about a minivan accident and Dean seeing stars while scratching at the pink flower band-aids on his face. Dean doesn’t see what’s wrong. “I’ve seen you gushing blood, you’d use duct tape and bar rags before you put on a pink flower band-aid.”
Dean wants the point. Sam believes all of it is totally implausible. Dean reminds Sam Chuck has been right about everything so far. “You think he’s just going to ground out at first now?” Sam reads about a plastic tarp over the rear window of the Impala, and how Dean doesn’t drive the car like described. Dean admits Chuck might be wrong about the details, but not the end result. Sam doesn’t like the idea of running, but Dean doesn’t think they’re ready for a showdown with Lilith. Sam stays silent, like he knows something Dean doesn’t. Uh, sort of Sam.
They come up to a roadblock. The bridge is out and they can’t leave town since it’s the only way out. Didn’t they pull that stunt once already in “Croatoan?” You know, I could rip on this, questioning if they’re on an island, but I remember the big flood in Central Ohio here a few years ago where some folks living by a populated reservoir were cut off when the main road flooded out. They had to take boats out. So I guess I’ll give them a pass this time.
They’re in a diner, “Kripke’s Hollow Diner.” So that’s the name of the town! Makes sense since everyone else’s name has been brought into this. Dean thinks the manuscript is a good thing. If Chuck predicts one thing, they’ll do the opposite. It says they get into a fight, so no fighting. No research for Sam. “No bacon cheeseburger for you,” Sam tells Dean, delighted by this opposite thing. Of course the waitress praises the bacon cheeseburger, using an Oprah’s girlfriend reference. Must be because of that whole Oprah mad cow thing. Sam gets the salad (wuss!) and Dean, eager to prove a point, gets the veggie tofu burger. Oh Dean, how awful.
Sam again mentions how the whole thing is ridiculous, him and Lilith hooking up. “Right. I guess something like that can never happen.” Dean says. Oh! Get him where it hurts Dean. If only you knew what he and Ruby were doing now. Sam gets a little mad, telling Dean they’ve got the jump on Lilith, and this is an opportunity. Dean flies off the handle and then stops himself, remembering the no fight rule. “It frustrates me when you say such reckless things,” he says restrained. Sam, a little less restrained replies, “Well it frustrates me when you’d rather hide than fight.” They throw angry glances off one another but luckily the food arrives.
Wow, Alice, this is one wicked recap. I love it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a book, tv show or movie poke fun at itself (and us) better than this. It’s the bomb (if you will).
I notice that Kim Manners was listed as Exec Prod on this one – I suspect this is the last episode he worked on. 🙁 Kind of nice that it was such a fantastic episode.
I wonder if anyone else had the same reaction to Zachariah that I did. I just wanted him to bugger off and leave Chuck free to contact Sam and Dean. GRIN
Sigh, X’ing off the days until April 23rd.
Great recap Alice!
As far as I’m concerned, the longer your recaps, the better I like it.
I don’t think Zachariah is a bad angel. Just one of the more detached ones. At least I hope he’s not the monster at the end. And Cas, I just about cheered when he helped Dean in his sneaky way. He’s learning.
Everyone was wonderful in this episode and I’d give it an A+ for writing and acting.
Am a little scared about what Kripke will leave us with to suffer over the summer.
Hope you find lots of stuff to write about our show when the summer hiatus begins.
Hi, Alice,
Fantastic recap, thank you for all the effort it takes to put those screen caps in there, love that sometimes you get the fade.
I was checking the titles of the eppies at first as well planning to include that in my comments until I realized Red Sky was mentioned but not included…decided to pass it by but they do get high marks for referring back to shown episodes (esp. high marks for JIB and the tats…show those tats anytime please.)
I thought the actress playing the ‘comely dental hygienist’ did a good job of channeling some of what Katie did when she showed Lilith as ‘all grown up and pretty’. Some of the facial expressions and turns of the head are similar and added to the continuity.
Julie Siege is an excellent addition to the writing staff, hope she stays for next season ’cause she’s got three good to great episodes under her typewriting fingers from this season.
Yes, it will be a long, long, long summer…sheesh.
We’ve been away so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do!
I was expecting to hate this episode. Normally it makes me cringe when fiction gets all smug and knowing and self-referential. It sort of bursts the bubble … I know it’s not real but there’s some little bit of my subconcious that thinks it is and doesn’t like to be reminded that the whole thing’s a construct.
Anyway, I got as far as the publisher showing them the tattoo on her bum before dissolving into hysterics. Love it. So many in-jokes and Castiel is just getting better and better.
I think the monster at the end was poor ol’ Chuck. He goes from creator to helpless by-stander. He knows there’s something hideous coming down the line but he can’t warn the boys and he can’t help, he just writes it down and it happens, which makes him feel it’s all his fault.
For my money the best Zep ever was Immigrant Song or Battle for Evermore 😀
Ah the show amuses me with its normal male double standard here. For all Dean and Sam cringe at slash, Dean has no problem with incest when it is too his benefit. For example Magnificent Seven at the very start, Dean is about to have sex with twins (and does) while Sam researches deals in the car. Now really, two women, one man, sex? Even I am not so naive as not to know that those girls would be touching each other as well as Dean
I think it is interesting that though the first song is a famous Zep tune the second song may actually be referring to the original Robert Johnson song and not the Zepplin cover. Yup Robert Johnson of Crossroad Demon fame. The first version of the lyrics fit Dean’s travelin’ woman in every port life style, the second could either be a reminder of Cassie or a creepy reference to Dean’s deal
Oh and I forgot to mention the “get a life” is actually a pop culture reference to Shatner’s Saturday Night live appearance where he ticked off Star Trek fandom.