Dean is sleeping and on come the flashes from Hell. The ones we’ve already seen tons of times. I know, budget. Sam shouts at him to wake up and Dean pops up not looking so good. He reaches for the nearby whiskey bottle and takes a long drink. Sam tries again to get Dean to talk about it, for he’s noticed the nightmares and the drinking since they’re together 24/7. Interesting twist since I’ve been pulling out the Season one episodes lately. I recently re-watched”Bloody Mary”, and the same thing happened only in reverse. Give him a break Sam! You wouldn’t talk about your issues with him.
Dean won’t talk about it. I’m shocked. “œI wish you’d talk to me,” Sam says. “œBe careful what you wish for,” Dean jokes, but he does have a point. Now is not the time. Dean finds a clue in the society page, geek and hot girlfriend are now engaged and have been together for a month.

Geek’s name is Wes and his girlfriend fixes him a snack. A whole chicken with all the trimmings? Wow the wishes do turn twisted. There are signs that all is not well as Wes’ world as he asks her if she’s happy. “œI love you more than anything.” Not a happy answer. Wes wants her to do things that made her happy before. She promises to be happier and to start right away. He tries to clarify and makes her upset for she thinks he’s angry at her. She’d die if he was. Uh oh, this isn’t going well.
Sam and Dean arrive and they’re Florists! I still like Teddy Bear Doctors better, but Florists is funny too. Wes realizes they aren’t who they say they are, and Sam notices the coin collection and asks about his missing coin. Hope comes in with wedding samples and states they don’t have a lot of money because”Wes is in between jobs right now.” Ha! The trademark Ben Edlund subtle character slam. He used that constantly in”Ghostfacers”.
I love the way this part was shot. Wes and Hope are in the foreground on each side, Sam and Dean are in the background in the middle. This puts the focus on Sam and Dean’s reactions, which have been a major selling point of this episode so far. Sam and Dean feign enthusiasm over the story, especially when Hope recounts how she never knew Wes existed until one day a month ago and instantly fell for him. She mauls him with no control over her hormones and the shot of Sam and Dean’s heads leaning together to watch in amazement is priceless. They are clearly amused and know they have their man.

Wes sends Hope away to get coffee and Sam asks for the truth. Wes mentions he got the coin from his grandfather who found it in during World War II but told him never to use it. His grandfather died, leaving him all alone, so he figured why not give it a try. Sam tells him he’s going to wish it back, all while Hope listens in. Wes refuses, so Dean pulls a gun and says”we really wish you’d come with us.” Oh, that line is so bad its good.
Next is another great Impala shot, with Dean driving, Sam in the front and Wes in between them in the back. I love the daytime shots much better than the night ones, because we can see the car shine much better. It’s triple pretty! I have to admit, this entire exchange though left me depressed. It’s biting, cynical, and not comforting at all despite the slight light-hearted delivery.
Wes doesn’t see how he did anything wrong. “œI wished she would love me more than anything.” This is where Sam and Dean now go back and forth, lecturing poor Wes like he was an insolent child and they are a couple of school moms. “œSo how is that going? That seem healthy to you?” Sam asks. Wes admits it’s better than when she didn’t know he was alive. Dean goes next,”You aren’t supposed to get what you want man, not like this.” He warns the coin twists things back. “œYou heard the whole, be careful what you wish for?”
The conversation is interrupted as Impala jolts and Sam asks if Dean hit something. “œI didn’t see anything,” Dean replies. Next shot is invisible boy getting up from the middle of the road, now visible and in intense pain. Serves him right!

Wes isn’t happy with the talking to, accusing Sam and Dean of having it easy because they’re so good looking. Boy does he have that wrong. Look how many times Sam has been laid in 68 episodes. Once. Dean, well okay, he gets plenty. Still, they don’t have it easy and they make that clear. Wes rolls his eyes, not believing a word the whole time. So the lecture gets worse.
Dean: We are miserable. We never get what we want. In fact, we have to fight tooth and nail to keep whatever we got.
Sam: But you know what, maybe that’s the whole point Wes.
Dean: People are people because they’re miserable bastards that never get what they really want.
Sam: Yeah right, you get what you want, you get crazy.
Dean: Take look at Michael Jackson, or Hasslehoff.
Yikes! Can I slit my wrists now? I know they’ve had it rough, but they seem to be taking some pride here in crushing a human spirit. Wes doesn’t believe there’s any insanity in the town, but that changes were they see little puny kid on a “˜roid rage turning over an Explorer with his enemies in it. Dean jumps out to deal with the kid, Sam slides over and drives Wes to Lucky Chins. Am I the only one that loves after two seasons seeing Sam share the driving duties again? Yeah, probably.
Dean tries to talk to the kid, but clearly can’t relate what it’s like being bullied. Todd gets mad and tosses him into a pile of trash. Back to Sam, who with Wes arrives at the restaurant and Wes is truly freaked by what he saw. “œYou should have seen the Teddy Bear,” Sam replies. Good answer! Sam tells him its time to pull the coin. Wes doesn’t want to, asking Sam”Why can’t we just get what we want?” Sam’s blunt reply is,”Because that’s life Wes.” I’m actually heartbroken over that exchange. It’s another reminder, just like last week, that poor Sam never gets a break.
I don’t any time to feel for poor Sam though, because out of nowhere a strike of lightening comes from the sky and knocks him dead! Sammy! We get the comical view of just his shoes on the ground smoking just before he hits the pavement with a thud. Those are some awesome special effects, just as jarring as when Dean was hit by the car in”Mystery Spot”. Perfect timing.

Wes rushes inside to find Hope standing over the well. She was the one that wished Sam dead. She was desperate and afraid Sam would make Wes wish away their love. Back to Dean who tries to fight the kid, and gets choked in the process. It’s about time we saw Dean choked. It happens way too often with Sam. Back to Hope who pleads with Wes, telling him she loves him more than anything,”more than me, more than life.” We see in his pained eyes the guilt of what he’s done to this girl hit him hard. He’s driven her to murder. Wes kisses her tenderly and assures her everything will be okay, then sadly scoops his hand in the water and pulls the coin. Dean gets released from his chokehold by the now powerless kid and Sam is resurrected from the dead. Again. Gotta love that paranormal reset button.


Dean finally becomes the awesome guy with kids we know and love and pretends to be fearful of little Todd in front of the bigger bullies. They run away in terror and all is good in Todd’s world. Not so much for Wes though. He looks at Hope who’s dazed and after he calls her name, she doesn’t know who he is. She leaves confused and poor Wes is crushed. She walks by a similarly confused Sam outside and then Wes emerges, so dejected I’m teary for the poor guy. He hesitantly hands Sam the coin and we see Sam’s face. He’s sympathetic and understands his loss. Jared killed me with that look as did Ted Raimi with his, and now this show has pushed my emotional limits. It’s so damn good at that!
Just wait though, for this roller coaster ride isn’t over yet. The newspaper shows the man’s lottery ticket is a fake, and Audrey’s parents are back, sunburned and very sad. Audrey strolls with them happy, for teddy is back to normal, except for the blown out back of the head and a red strip of tape across it. Funny how the ones that came out of this the best were the kids. Sam announces the coin has been melted down and everything should be back to normal. Time to leave.

But wait, first Dean decides he needs to come clean with Sam. Jensen digs deep into his”tortured soul” mind set and gives a speech that blows us into that lovely lake surrounding them. Dean confesses Sam was right, he remembers everything about his time in the pit. Sam wants him to tell him about it and Dean sternly says no. “œI won’t lie anymore, but I’m not going to talk about it.” “œYou can’t just shoulder this thing alone. You’ve gotta let me help,” a concerned Sam says. Excuse me Sam? Wasn’t it only a few weeks ago that Dean wanted to talk about your demon blood thing, and he told you the EXACT same thing, that you don’t have to go through this alone? You brushed him off, saying you didn’t want to talk about it and that he wouldn’t understand.
Sooo, what does Dean say? “œDo you think a little heart to heart, some caring and sharing is going to change anything? Somehow heal me? I’m not talking about a bad day. The things that I saw, there aren’t words, there is no forgetting, there is no making it better, because it’s right here (he points to his temple), forever. You wouldn’t understand. And I could never make you understand.”

Hmm, it seems that both Winchesters are holding back on each other, and both dying inside in the process thinking the other won’t understand. Maybe Dean is right, sharing won’t make things better. But the path both are headed isn’t exactly healthy either. I say its time to drag both these brothers into some intense family therapy. They both need a good cry. Lord knows they are leaving us emotional wrecks every week.
My grade on this is an A. Perfectly acted, even from the guest characters, brilliantly written, brilliantly directed. I’m sounding like a broken record I know, but isn’t that a good thing with this show? Consistency dammit!
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
Hey Alice,
Thank you! I always am on your page, even if I am not commenting always:-) But I had a bad month, very tiring so I have problems with my time:-) Your reviews were the first I read, and because of them I gave a chance to the show and I never regretted! Once a Supernatural fan, you stay forever and my love for this show is huge! About my reviews, well is going pretty well:-) I always make time for my Supernatural day, which is friday.:-) I get the episode at 6 o’clock in the morning, see it and then write about it because the romanian fans on the blog are pretty eager and they start commenting right away:-)
I loved this episode, was bizzare but all Edlund episodes are specials:-) This two episodes, 9 and 10 will be epic indeed and I can’t wait to write about them:-) Enjoy your convention time and I’ll be right here waiting for your reports:-) Hope it’s ok to post on our blog some informations from your reports (with credit of course) because that’s the only way we can found out what’s going on at the convention:-) I’ll write for the romanian fans an article with infos from the con and just hope that one day I can attend one(the visa that’s a big problem and to be frankly, that’s for the first time in my life I really, really want to live in America – for those wonderful possibilitys you have – I mean I love my country but I don’t think I could ever have the chance to see Jared and Jensen here:-)I don’t think they even know were it is on the map…)
Thank and have a Supernatural weekend, in a good way:-)
Vichi – sorry, I’m really behind on replies. The con so far has been such a blast. Anyway, yes, feel free to mention whatever I report on your site. I’d be honored!
Fab. Just what I needed after a workplace near death experience with a giant inflatable Santa and a load of fridge magnets. It even had Xena’s rubbish sidekick, bliss!
Being a Brit and therefore a natural gloomyguts I thought the Life-is-shit-and-then-you-die exchange in the Impala was both sensible and healthy but that might just be something they put in the water in East Anglia.
The manic depressive bear was a stroke of genius but I’m always going to regret that I’m never, ever going to get a chance to bound out of a restaurant shouting
” Women! showers! we have to save these people! ”
Brilliant.