![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raloriaI'm done! Finally!!!!
Stuck in some caps, because we've gotta have the pretty, right? ;)
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN & THOUGHTS:
Ok, first I want to say that I really loved this episode even though I have a couple of issues with it.
Namely...WTH is with this Werther Box??? That smoke that's supposed to be the alarm system is pretty picky about who it affects. I mean, Suzi tried to open the box in 1973, yet it skipped her and decided to take out her whole family. It even killed her aunt and again didn't kill Suzi! Then when Sam tries to open it we clearly see the yellow/green smoke take over Dean and adult Suzi...seemingly again skipping the person ACTUALLY TRYING TO OPEN THE BOX! Yet after Suzi shoots herself, somehow Sam is hallucinating for most of the episode along with Dean. What. the. hell?
SUZIE
♦ Ok, I know this is WB and they got that Bugs Bunny clip for free, but I don't buy that a girl Suzi's age would be watching cartoons.
♦ I still don't get Suzi's motivation for taking a hammer to that basement wall. Doesn't that seem a little extreme over being asked to do the laundry?
♦ So where was Suzi's mom the first time Suzi came into the kitchen from the basement? Why would she have left the kitchen if she was fixing supper, even if she was having hallucinations? And why say everything's going to be just fine if the smoke is making her suicidal?
♦ What's with all the mail stuffed in the mailbox and papers on the porch? Suzi's that afraid of what the Box will do that she won't even step outside of the house? How does she get food? Take-out all the time?
♦ Hee! Love her sticking the gun out the mail slot and threatening Sam though. "You got three choices: get arrested, get your bits blown off or get back."
ROWENA
♦ Riiiiight. Rowena's going to decrypt the Book just out of the goodness of her black heart and for having Crowley killed. Anyone buying this? I'm not.
♦ I love Rowena's sleeping position...unrealistic though it is. The line about needing beauty sleep was priceless, too.
♦ Her booping Dean on the nose! Cute!
♦ Yeah, Rowena acts like she doesn't even know why Sam brought her the codex book. She's definitely up to something. She wants that book for something besides decrypting The Book Of The Damned.
♦ Smart Sam though, chaining Rowena up. ;) Her calling him a Giant though...LOL!
BENNY & PURGATORY HALLUCINATION
♦ Never thought we'd see Purgatory or Benny again, but I'm so glad show brought them back!
♦ Damn! Jensen looks amazing with that Purgatory lighting and coloring! *guh*
♦ Even though he wasn't the real deal, it kinda hurt to see Dean kill Benny again. :(
THE BOYS
♦ Dean. Dude. You're yelling in your text message to Sam (all caps). Not cool.
♦ Dean took down 6 vamps solo. Whoah. Totally badass! Color me impressed. Of course, I'm pretty sure the Mark helped out with that a bit...Dean even told Sam it took the edge off a bit.
♦ I LOVE Sam's new jacket! Long, but not too long and a nice cut, especially from the back.
♦ Phew! Sam is one lucky dude. Dean not only found the house address (easily), but he Googled the house, learning about it's suicidal past, allowing Sam to use that (along with some of the truth about the Werther Box and the MOL involvement) to explain why he's there.
♦ Heehee! Dean covering his crotch with his hands as he knocks on the front door. Him being all timid around the gun is equally amusing.
♦ Suzi's description of Sam: "Tall. White fella. Pretty hair." Yep, that's him. *g*
♦ Sammy...you've got a lock-pick or you can friggin' kick down the door! Why didn't you just go into that room to save Suzi??? Or try to anyway.
♦ I gotta say, Sam having a hallucination within a hallucination is just trippy and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it. Why wouldn't Rowena actually show up? She's always sticking her nose into things. And if Sam is hallucinating Rowena, how did he get the spell to work on the Box? Gah!!!
♦ Only ropes to tie up Dean? Wouldn't cuffs from the bunker stash have been more secure? Just sayin'.
♦ In the Purgatory hallucination, Benny hands Dean an axe to kill himself with. Yet in real life, Dean picks up a bottle and breaks it. Uh...wouldn't these actions have to match? Maybe I'm thinking too much again.
♦ So my theory is that Dean broke free of the hallucination not from his own free will and determination, but because the Mark won't allow him to die. Proof that having the Mark isn't all bad.
♦ OMG Love it when Dean comes to Sam's rescue...pushing his little brother away from the Box and giving it his own blood. Also...brotherly face-touching! *loves* :)
♦ Dean states what the fandom has known from Season 1: "The universe is trying to tell us something we both should already know. We're stronger together than apart."
RANDOM THOUGHTS
♦ Ooooh! 1973! That's the year I was born, btw. :) Is that the Cinderella house from "Bedtime Stories"? Looks like it, but I'm not sure.
♦ Awesome VFX work on the yellow/green smoke! I like!
♦ This director must love profile shots. There are a ton of them in this ep! Not that I'm complaining...I love me a good profile shot...especially of Jensen. *g* Oh! Nice overhead shot of Sam doing research, too.
♦ You'd think the MOL dudes would want to bring the Werther Box back to the bunker for safe-keeping. Why leave it in a house in St. Louis, even if it was supposedly buried within the walls??? Isn't the bunker heavily warded and basically the safest place for things like that??? "Hey, it's already killed 2 of our members, but let's leave it out in the public where of course...nobody will ever find it!"
♦ NICE transition there between the old bunker and the new with Sam turning off the tape machine!
QUOTES:
Dean: I'm sorry I don't always like to wait around for ya. Especially with you looking at me like that all the time.
Sam: Like what?
Dean: Like that. Like I'm some sort of a-a diseased killer puppy.
Dean: You know what man, I'm sweaty, I'm covered in vamp juice, can we talk about this later? I'd like to get back to the Bunker and get my buzz on and pass out watching Speed 2: Cruise Control. We cool?
Sam: What are you doing here?
Dean: Well it looks like, I uh, I'm here to save your sac.
Suzie: Boo. Survived forty years in this house, keeping that thing on lock down, and one visit from a putz like you...
Sam: I'm sorry, okay I'm so sorry.
Suzie: A lot of good sorry does me, look at me. Look. At. Me. There she is, the first casualty in your misguided mission, but what's another human life to you? Anything's worth it, as long as you two make it out alive. And how's that search going? Any closer to a cure?
Sam: This isn't real. You're not real.
Suzie Hallucination: You think Dean's the wildcard, the loose canon. But don't you see; making deals with witches, opening Pandora's box down there, you're the reckless one. You'll do anything to keep clinging to that doomed brother of yours, how many more will die Sammy? You know it! You have to be stopped, and the only that can stop you is you! Do it Sammy, end this farce once and for all!
Dean: Benny, whoever you are, I need to get out of here.
Benny: Need, want. Two different things, ain't they? It's all figment right? You, me, left, right. But no matter which way you turn, you end up here. You gotta wonder, why this figment? Why this place?
Dean: What are you saying?
Benny: Nothing you don't already know. This is where you wanna be, your happy place. And you don't really want to leave.
Benny: Listen. This place, you don't have to go looking for a fight. All you have to is be still for one moment, and that fight will come to you. That's why you're here, Dean. That's the purity you crave -- killing with no consequence.
Dean: No, Benny, I don't wanna fight anymore. I'm tired of fightin'.
Benny: The Mark ain't. So... can't leave. Don't wanna stay. Bit of a bind, ain't it? Good thing there's always a third way out.
Benny: You can't say haven't been thinking about it.
Dean: That ain't gonna happen, ever.
Benny: Come on, Dean. I know you can see it. The purity, the honor.
Dean: There's no honor in that.
Benny: What, you just wanna wait for the Mark to reclaim you? Go out swinging, die topside, then what? Maybe kill a few humans? Kill Cas? Kill your brother? Yeah, that's mighty honorable!
Dean: You! Shut up!
Benny: Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot...about your plan. You're gonna get Sam and Cas to put you down? You really think they're gonna keep that agreement? C'mon! Dean, let's say they do...do you think they will ever recover from that? It will ruin them. This little back-up plan of yours? I know you've been thinking about it for some time, but I know it's been gnawing at you. You can't leave that job to them.
Dean: You're right.
Dean: "I'd do it. If I really had to, I would. But the real Benny would never let me. ...You know what else won't let me? This thing on my arm. For better or worse, the Mark, it wants me alive."
Sam: Get away from me! No, don't! Don't! It's the only way. It needs legacy blood... Enough to take a life.
Dean: Yeah, well. It doesn't have to come from just one legacy, does it? It needs more blood, it can have mine.
Dean: That says something, doesn't it? Werther splits us up in there. Within an hour, we're both on the brink of death. Sorry about yesterday, going rogue on you like that.
Sam: You know what, Dean. Don't apologize, I... I think that makes us even.
Dean: The universe is trying to tell us something we both should already know. We're stronger together than apart.
Rowena: We had an agreement, giant.
Sam: The agreement stands. You will decrypt the Book of the Damned and find me a cure for my brother. And that is all you will get from the book. I'll burn the book, then I'll kill Crowley. But until then...
Rowena: I'm your slave? You can't -- you can't just leave me here.
Sam: You want out? Hurry up. Get to work.
VERDICT:
Like I said at the top of this review: loved the ep, but it's not without it's problems.
Sam is still narrowly managing all his lies to Dean. You've got to wonder when he'll slip up though. Dean couldn't keep the whole Gadreel possessing Sam a secret in Season 9. I can't believe Dean will remain clueless for much longer.
Sam is being fairly smart about dealing with Rowena, but I fear that in the end she's out maneuver him somehow and everything will fall apart.
Okay, I'm done...finally. Bring on the next ep!
Stuck in some caps, because we've gotta have the pretty, right? ;)
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN & THOUGHTS:
Ok, first I want to say that I really loved this episode even though I have a couple of issues with it.
Namely...WTH is with this Werther Box??? That smoke that's supposed to be the alarm system is pretty picky about who it affects. I mean, Suzi tried to open the box in 1973, yet it skipped her and decided to take out her whole family. It even killed her aunt and again didn't kill Suzi! Then when Sam tries to open it we clearly see the yellow/green smoke take over Dean and adult Suzi...seemingly again skipping the person ACTUALLY TRYING TO OPEN THE BOX! Yet after Suzi shoots herself, somehow Sam is hallucinating for most of the episode along with Dean. What. the. hell?
SUZIE
♦ Ok, I know this is WB and they got that Bugs Bunny clip for free, but I don't buy that a girl Suzi's age would be watching cartoons.
♦ I still don't get Suzi's motivation for taking a hammer to that basement wall. Doesn't that seem a little extreme over being asked to do the laundry?
♦ So where was Suzi's mom the first time Suzi came into the kitchen from the basement? Why would she have left the kitchen if she was fixing supper, even if she was having hallucinations? And why say everything's going to be just fine if the smoke is making her suicidal?
♦ What's with all the mail stuffed in the mailbox and papers on the porch? Suzi's that afraid of what the Box will do that she won't even step outside of the house? How does she get food? Take-out all the time?
♦ Hee! Love her sticking the gun out the mail slot and threatening Sam though. "You got three choices: get arrested, get your bits blown off or get back."
ROWENA
♦ Riiiiight. Rowena's going to decrypt the Book just out of the goodness of her black heart and for having Crowley killed. Anyone buying this? I'm not.
♦ I love Rowena's sleeping position...unrealistic though it is. The line about needing beauty sleep was priceless, too.
♦ Her booping Dean on the nose! Cute!
♦ Yeah, Rowena acts like she doesn't even know why Sam brought her the codex book. She's definitely up to something. She wants that book for something besides decrypting The Book Of The Damned.
♦ Smart Sam though, chaining Rowena up. ;) Her calling him a Giant though...LOL!
BENNY & PURGATORY HALLUCINATION
♦ Never thought we'd see Purgatory or Benny again, but I'm so glad show brought them back!
♦ Damn! Jensen looks amazing with that Purgatory lighting and coloring! *guh*
♦ Even though he wasn't the real deal, it kinda hurt to see Dean kill Benny again. :(
THE BOYS
♦ Dean. Dude. You're yelling in your text message to Sam (all caps). Not cool.
♦ Dean took down 6 vamps solo. Whoah. Totally badass! Color me impressed. Of course, I'm pretty sure the Mark helped out with that a bit...Dean even told Sam it took the edge off a bit.
♦ I LOVE Sam's new jacket! Long, but not too long and a nice cut, especially from the back.
♦ Phew! Sam is one lucky dude. Dean not only found the house address (easily), but he Googled the house, learning about it's suicidal past, allowing Sam to use that (along with some of the truth about the Werther Box and the MOL involvement) to explain why he's there.
♦ Heehee! Dean covering his crotch with his hands as he knocks on the front door. Him being all timid around the gun is equally amusing.
♦ Suzi's description of Sam: "Tall. White fella. Pretty hair." Yep, that's him. *g*
♦ Sammy...you've got a lock-pick or you can friggin' kick down the door! Why didn't you just go into that room to save Suzi??? Or try to anyway.
♦ I gotta say, Sam having a hallucination within a hallucination is just trippy and I'm still trying to wrap my brain around it. Why wouldn't Rowena actually show up? She's always sticking her nose into things. And if Sam is hallucinating Rowena, how did he get the spell to work on the Box? Gah!!!
♦ Only ropes to tie up Dean? Wouldn't cuffs from the bunker stash have been more secure? Just sayin'.
♦ In the Purgatory hallucination, Benny hands Dean an axe to kill himself with. Yet in real life, Dean picks up a bottle and breaks it. Uh...wouldn't these actions have to match? Maybe I'm thinking too much again.
♦ So my theory is that Dean broke free of the hallucination not from his own free will and determination, but because the Mark won't allow him to die. Proof that having the Mark isn't all bad.
♦ OMG Love it when Dean comes to Sam's rescue...pushing his little brother away from the Box and giving it his own blood. Also...brotherly face-touching! *loves* :)
♦ Dean states what the fandom has known from Season 1: "The universe is trying to tell us something we both should already know. We're stronger together than apart."
RANDOM THOUGHTS
♦ Ooooh! 1973! That's the year I was born, btw. :) Is that the Cinderella house from "Bedtime Stories"? Looks like it, but I'm not sure.
♦ Awesome VFX work on the yellow/green smoke! I like!
♦ This director must love profile shots. There are a ton of them in this ep! Not that I'm complaining...I love me a good profile shot...especially of Jensen. *g* Oh! Nice overhead shot of Sam doing research, too.
♦ You'd think the MOL dudes would want to bring the Werther Box back to the bunker for safe-keeping. Why leave it in a house in St. Louis, even if it was supposedly buried within the walls??? Isn't the bunker heavily warded and basically the safest place for things like that??? "Hey, it's already killed 2 of our members, but let's leave it out in the public where of course...nobody will ever find it!"
♦ NICE transition there between the old bunker and the new with Sam turning off the tape machine!
QUOTES:
Dean: I'm sorry I don't always like to wait around for ya. Especially with you looking at me like that all the time.
Sam: Like what?
Dean: Like that. Like I'm some sort of a-a diseased killer puppy.
Dean: You know what man, I'm sweaty, I'm covered in vamp juice, can we talk about this later? I'd like to get back to the Bunker and get my buzz on and pass out watching Speed 2: Cruise Control. We cool?
Sam: What are you doing here?
Dean: Well it looks like, I uh, I'm here to save your sac.
Suzie: Boo. Survived forty years in this house, keeping that thing on lock down, and one visit from a putz like you...
Sam: I'm sorry, okay I'm so sorry.
Suzie: A lot of good sorry does me, look at me. Look. At. Me. There she is, the first casualty in your misguided mission, but what's another human life to you? Anything's worth it, as long as you two make it out alive. And how's that search going? Any closer to a cure?
Sam: This isn't real. You're not real.
Suzie Hallucination: You think Dean's the wildcard, the loose canon. But don't you see; making deals with witches, opening Pandora's box down there, you're the reckless one. You'll do anything to keep clinging to that doomed brother of yours, how many more will die Sammy? You know it! You have to be stopped, and the only that can stop you is you! Do it Sammy, end this farce once and for all!
Dean: Benny, whoever you are, I need to get out of here.
Benny: Need, want. Two different things, ain't they? It's all figment right? You, me, left, right. But no matter which way you turn, you end up here. You gotta wonder, why this figment? Why this place?
Dean: What are you saying?
Benny: Nothing you don't already know. This is where you wanna be, your happy place. And you don't really want to leave.
Benny: Listen. This place, you don't have to go looking for a fight. All you have to is be still for one moment, and that fight will come to you. That's why you're here, Dean. That's the purity you crave -- killing with no consequence.
Dean: No, Benny, I don't wanna fight anymore. I'm tired of fightin'.
Benny: The Mark ain't. So... can't leave. Don't wanna stay. Bit of a bind, ain't it? Good thing there's always a third way out.
Benny: You can't say haven't been thinking about it.
Dean: That ain't gonna happen, ever.
Benny: Come on, Dean. I know you can see it. The purity, the honor.
Dean: There's no honor in that.
Benny: What, you just wanna wait for the Mark to reclaim you? Go out swinging, die topside, then what? Maybe kill a few humans? Kill Cas? Kill your brother? Yeah, that's mighty honorable!
Dean: You! Shut up!
Benny: Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot...about your plan. You're gonna get Sam and Cas to put you down? You really think they're gonna keep that agreement? C'mon! Dean, let's say they do...do you think they will ever recover from that? It will ruin them. This little back-up plan of yours? I know you've been thinking about it for some time, but I know it's been gnawing at you. You can't leave that job to them.
Dean: You're right.
Dean: "I'd do it. If I really had to, I would. But the real Benny would never let me. ...You know what else won't let me? This thing on my arm. For better or worse, the Mark, it wants me alive."
Sam: Get away from me! No, don't! Don't! It's the only way. It needs legacy blood... Enough to take a life.
Dean: Yeah, well. It doesn't have to come from just one legacy, does it? It needs more blood, it can have mine.
Dean: That says something, doesn't it? Werther splits us up in there. Within an hour, we're both on the brink of death. Sorry about yesterday, going rogue on you like that.
Sam: You know what, Dean. Don't apologize, I... I think that makes us even.
Dean: The universe is trying to tell us something we both should already know. We're stronger together than apart.
Rowena: We had an agreement, giant.
Sam: The agreement stands. You will decrypt the Book of the Damned and find me a cure for my brother. And that is all you will get from the book. I'll burn the book, then I'll kill Crowley. But until then...
Rowena: I'm your slave? You can't -- you can't just leave me here.
Sam: You want out? Hurry up. Get to work.
VERDICT:
Like I said at the top of this review: loved the ep, but it's not without it's problems.
Sam is still narrowly managing all his lies to Dean. You've got to wonder when he'll slip up though. Dean couldn't keep the whole Gadreel possessing Sam a secret in Season 9. I can't believe Dean will remain clueless for much longer.
Sam is being fairly smart about dealing with Rowena, but I fear that in the end she's out maneuver him somehow and everything will fall apart.
Okay, I'm done...finally. Bring on the next ep!
