WEDNESDAY'S WATCHING
Supernatural 11.15 "Beyond the Mat"
Writers: John Bring and Andrew Dabb
Director: Jerry Wanek
Director of Photography: C.S.C: Serge Ladouceur
Airdate: 24.02.2016
BY WEDNESDAY
Bring it on!
A BEHIND THE SCENES peek at what goes on behind the wrestling mat.
John Winchester took his sons to the Top Notch Wrestling shows for diverting entertainment.
Little did he know that behind the mat, the top wrestler fell prey to a Crossroads Demon.
Who can you cheer for amidst the DISILLUSIONMENT of fallen heroes?
WHAT DID I WATCH?
THE SCRIPT
THEMES
Dean turns on the light in the Bunker, something usually done behind the scenes.
If we could see our heroes behind the scenes, or behind the mat, would they lose their heroic appeal?
Would we be disillusioned?
DISILLUSIONMENT
Apparently, behind the scenes, the Winchesters pop painkillers from a mega sized bottle:
Behind the mat Sam flounders.
It's difficult to be disillusioned by the Winchesters when we can already read their minds.
They are flawed heroes. Demon Duke, however, is totally unimpressed by
the Winchesters and expresses his disillusionment.
Dean is disillusioned by his hero Gunner Lawless who turns out to be a complete fake.
The glove, that Dean Fanboyed for, turns out to be a
consolation gift to a boy whose father Gunner would be killing.
(As if a glove could make up for the loss of a father. It's a pathetic attempt to assuage his own guilt.)
Gunner killed the Hangman and countless others. Worse, he carved a Sumerian sigil on
their bodies that condemned these poor souls to be immediately snatched up by
the renegade Crossroads Demon Duke. We can see just how despicable he is when he
kills Shawn Harley, the true hero of this show.
Initially, Harley seemed to be the villain with his cocky arrogance and defiance of Gunner. In his last scene, Harley's
defiance is both brave and brilliant with the greatest lines ever said to a Crossroads Demon.
(Why has no one ever used this logic before?)
NEVER TOO LATE
Heroes can be flawed and humiliated. They can make bad decisions... as Castiel did.
However, they can make a comeback and do the right thing.
Crowley fell so far from his previous
position of power that it seems unlikely he could ever redeem himself.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
PERSPECTIVES/ANGLES
The slow slide up Crowley as he rises in power. We remain low.
Between the legs of Lawless Perspective:
ALLUSIONS/SHOUTOUTS
Behind The Mat, Dean re-enacts "Nature Boy" Ric Flair's strut and "Wooo!"
When Dean climbs the ropes, he impersonates "Macho Man" Randy Savage and his yell,
"Oh, yeah!"
MOTIFS
The BACK motif enhanced all the backstabbing.
Feet Motif
Foot Stomping
THE WINKS:
SYMBOLS
Crosses
The Black Rose:
COLOURS: RED AND WHITE
LIGHTING
SET
LOCATION
SFX /VFX
MAKEUP/COSTUME
BECHDEL TEST
So far in Season 11, 5 out of 14 episodes have passed this easy gender fairness Bechdel test,
or 36% of the episodes.
5 OUT OF 15!!! Only 33% have passed.
Will Supernatural finish the season with this terrible record?
Y'all have to hang around a few weeks to find out.
And while we are here:
BEST PERFORMANCE
The cast was flawless.
Show stealers, Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles gave heartwarming performance of Sam and Dean
momentarily forgetting their troubles and enjoying themselves.
The comradery and support of the brothers was evident:
Dean, showing his clown side with impressive moves:
FROM THE REAR VIEW
Paul Lazenby (Hellrazor) is one of
Supernatural's stunt/fight choreographers.
THANKS TO:
SUPERNATURAL WIKI
FOREVER DREAMING TRANSCRIPT
IMDB CAST LIST
SUPERNATURAL FANS ON LINE: SCREENCAPS
SPRINGFIELD SPRINGFIELD: SCREENCAPS
Google Images
REBLOGGY: Wednesday gif
TWEETS: Charmaine Clark, Aleks Paunovic, John Bring
Two nooses out of five.
Comments
I did a little photo and blurb on the “poot” in the above article.
People are going with it being intentional because it was included in the Closed Captioning on the screen
for the hearing impaired. “[Farts] Ah. What happened? [Sighs] Mostly Tequila.”
As far as the wound, it was not specified how it was caused, bullet or otherwise;
but, it seemed another attempt to show the audience that we are not aware of everything BEHIND THE SCENES.
“A couple years ago, a, uh, perp got the drop on me, decided to take a chunk of my leg as a keepsake.”
He was also careful to say “perp” instead of vampire, or monster. Still, additions like this to the canon kind of drive the fans crazy.
(The scar must be from after 5.22 when Castiel cleansed him.) I remember Metatron with a nasty leg wound but not Dean.
The writers for this ep. seemed intent on giving us something we did not know, or a BEHIND THE SCENES peek, at our heroes.
I enjoyed your added take on the “fans” aspect. It definitely was about being a fan.
Crowley has no fans, according to Lucifer. Poor Crowley. Waiting for the next episode is always difficult.
I metioned in other articles (Alice's) that it appeared to say "This is it Boy's if you havn't forgiven yourselves for past mistakes, or each other, if you havn't been reminded of Love, Family. Trust. and commitment. you will lose the major battle" The episodes not involving the main arch, where reminding Sam and more so Dean that you have to get up and "Keep Grinding" reminding them about why they started this 10yrs ago, and how they strayed but what helped them win as well. And "Beyond the Mat" although not the best episode, was the final chapter in "Lesson's Learnt". It reminded them of their Father who he was a what he taught them and how he died. It reminded them about their own failings but how thet fought to come back, and it also taught them that Family, love & trust wins the war