raloria

Sorry this is so late (still sick, afterall), but I figure the number of caps and all the quotes will make up for it. Ha! Happy reading!

After the laughs from last week's episode it was good to get back to a story more serious in nature. Of course, with Dean being Dean, there was still plenty of humor to go around. But the scary (or in my case, creepy) aspect of the show was back in full force, preparing us for the impending season finale.

Before I go any further, I'd like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Folsom Prison Blues. The pace and story were excellent, as was the direction and acting (for the most part, more on this later). I remember reaching the half hour thinking "Wow! So much has happened already!" By that time I'd already decided this was going to be added to the list as one of my favorite episodes of the series.

Btw, I went kind of cap crazy again and there's 182 caps in this review. Most are small, clickable thumbnails, but there are a few full sized ones added to the mix. At the end there is also a set of caps from the preview for the next episode, so if you're so spoiler free that you're avoiding previews of any kind - stay away from the end of this review! You have been warned!

On with the review:

* Why does the captioning on my TV say "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash is supposed to be playing in the opening scenes? I sadly don't hear it. Would've been perfect with the song being the title of the ep and all. Guess they couldn't get the rights to it. Bummer. :(

* And is it just me, or does the outside of the prison look a lot like the Manitcore building, or some building seen in DA? I know I've seen it before.

* Another actor I recognize, but can't name. I've seen this guy in countless TV shows over the years. Hey! I just remembered. He was in the X-Files episode about the werewolf!

* They did a great job of hiding the identity of the spirit even in the opening attack. And I didn't see that whole trapping the guard's arm in the door thing coming at all. Very nice!

* Oh geez! It's Anthropology coming back to haunt me! Long story....

Sam: "I hate this plan, Dean."
Dean: "Yeah, I got that the first ten times I heard it."

* Love the little glare Sam gives to Dean as they're arrested and handcuffed. It's those little brotherly moments that I love the most about this show. It gives it a special depth that other shows don't have.

Dean: "I call this one the Blue Steel."
Guard: "Yeah, that's great. To the right. Okay, back to the lineup."
Dean: "Wait. Who looks better? Me or Nick Nolte?"
Guard: "Shut up."
Heehee! Dean is just so unfazed by being in prison.

* Ok, come on. Couldn't they have at least tried to make this room look a little different than the one in The Usual Suspects? Even the chairs are the same, aren't they? No wonder Dean seems to be thinking to himself "well, here I am again."

* Hendrickson! I really like this guy. I like him for the great character and bad guy he is. The actor does an excellent job, too. He really seems like the only person that intimidates Dean somewhat. In my book, that can only be a good thing. Besides the supernatural threats every week the boys need an outside bad guy to be on their trail and this FBI agent is a great addition to the show. He seems to have made hunting the Winchester brothers his singular purpose in life. Yet he respects and even appears to admire their talents. Sam & Dean will elude him once again by the end of the hour, but Hendrickson is not one to back down from a challenge. So I hope we see a lot more of him in season 3.

* SnarkyDean! Bet Jensen had a lot of fun with all the humor in this ep. It was sure fun just waiting to hear what smart-alec remark would come out of his mouth next.

Hendrickson: "You think you're funny."
Dean: "I think I'm adorable."
He is, too...he really is! :)

* I liked Mara at first. She came in all powerful and you're-not-going-to-push-me-around at Hendrickson. Sadly, her scene with him later on undermined her confindent attitude. More on that when we get to that scene.

* Great music choice of "Green Onions" as they enter the county prison.

Dean: "Don't worry Sam. I promise I won't trade you for smokes."

* Poor Sammy gets put in a cell with a guy who's even taller than he is. Yikes! You can just see him go *gulp* when that guy stands up.

Sam: "Dean, this is without a doubt, the dumbest, craziest thing we've ever done. And that's in a long, storied career of dumb and crazy."

* Interesting how things have changed with Dean since Crossroad Blues and him not wanting to help the people who summoned the demon (Dean: "Great! So we gotta clean up these people's mess for them? I mean they're not exactly squeaky clean. Nobody put a gun to their head and forced them to play Let's Make A Deal." Sam: "So what? We should just leave them to die?" Dean: "Somebody goes over Niagra in a barrel, you gonna jump in to to try and save them?"). Now it's Dean trying to convince Sam that the victims in the prison didn't deserve to die...

Dean: "Innocent people are dead. Four so far."
Sam: *Scoffs* "Yeah, innocent."
Dean: "What, are you from Texas all of a sudden? Just because these people are in jail didn't mean they deserved to die. And if we don't stop this thing people are gonna continue to die. We do the job wherever it takes us."

Dean: "We may not be saints, but we're loyal and we pay our debts. Now, that means something to me, and it ought to to you too."
Oooo! I love Dean in BigBrotherAuthoratative Mode! I can just hear John's voice saying that to his sons.

* Sam sniffing his food made me think of MASH. Why? Because Hawkeye always smelled his food before eating it. Doesn't Sammy ever eat? We always see Dean eating and he quickly snatches up Sam's chicken!

Sam: "You sure it's him?"
Dean: "Pretty sure."
Sam: "Dean, considering our circumstances, I'm gonna need a little bit better than 'pretty sure'."
Dean: "Really pretty sure."

* I'm sorry, but every time someone said "old cellblock" in this ep I started hearing Elvis's "Jailhouse Rock" in my head! You know..."Everybody in the whole cellblock, was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock!" Heehee! Why couldn't they have used that song in the episode somewhere?

* Love it how Dean gets all protective over Sam when that big guy, Lucas bumps into him. The reference to "Taxi Driver" was great, too. 'Course, I always love it when Dean is kickin' someone's ass! Whoohoo! Go Dean! The guard was scary, too. So glad they kept his identity a secret for so long. And you gotta love Dean's whole devil-may-care attitude here..."Are we havin' fun yet? Huh?"

* You get the feeling that Steven McQueen is kind of an idol for Dean? Especially him as Hicks in "The Great Escape". It's like Dean is living out one of his childhood dreams here, playing the part of Hicks. He's in his element and strangely at home in jail. And damn! But I wish he had a baseball in there myself. It would've been cool watching him toss a ball at the wall just like Hicks.

* That cold breath coming from Dean was soooo creepy! Great effect! And omg, those eyes! Really scary!

* Okay, here's the scene where I lost all respect for Mara, or I should say, for the actress playing her. I don't know...maybe she's just not a very good actress, but I found her reading of the lines weak. Her reading of "It's just...strange." Puleeeze! Where's the confidence she was exuding before? She seems so wishy washy here. No wonder Hendrickson told her to get out and let the grownups get back to work.

* The scene with Sam and Randall is cute, just because Sam's eyebrows keep getting higher and higher as he realizes he's got a lead on the case. Heehee!

Randall: "Why are you inside, kid?"
Sam: "'Cause I got an idiot for a brother."
Randall: "That'll do it."

* It's great to finally see Dean playing poker. Now if we can just see him playing pool in an episode, I'd be one happy fangirl. And the fact that he's so in tune with prison life is also cool ("the currency of the realm"), even though it clearly makes Sam uncomfortable.

Sam: "Look. I got a good lead on Moody."
Dean: "Me too. His spirit paid a little visit last night."
Sam: "What?"
Dean: "Clock stopped - flickering lights, cold spot - I mean, he did everything but yell boo."
Heehee! I love Dean's sense of humor.

Jared needs a haircut again. I kept getting distracted by how many times he kept shaking his head to keep his bangs out of his eyes in this scene.

Dean: "How we gonna get in?"
Sam: "I got a plan."
Dean: "That's the Sammy I know. Come on you're like Clint Eastwood in "Escape From Alcatraz"."
Sam: "The problem is even if we do find something, how are we gonna burn it? We don't have any accelerant."
Dean: "It's a good thing I'm like James Garner from "The Great Escape". Hey fellas! Who's ready to deal?"
It's been brought up in a few comms that you can see Jared actually say Jensen's line here at the end (Hey fellas). I noticed that you can see him smile and kind of giggle too, just before he says the line with Jensen. They must have done a lot of takes of that scene. Too cute!

Dean: "You sure about this?"
Sam: "Pretty sure."
Dean: "Yeah, well, considering our circumstances, I'd like a little better than 'pretty sure'."
Sam: "Okay. Really pretty sure."
I like how they reused this dialog. Not an easy thing to get away with, but it works here.

Dean: "I'd like mine al dente."

* It's nice how they actually build a little relationship between Tiny and Dean. Dean knows these guys are criminals, but points out that they don't deserve to die like this.

Dean: "Cause you know, they're just doughnuts - they're not love."

At first, I thought this fight was pretty cool. However, during my capping I could see how poorly filmed the scene is. For a fight, it's just awful. You can clearly see that none of the punches even come close to hitting. That last punch that Tiny makes at Dean after he launches the guard over the table? So bad. Jensen clearly moves away before the punch, which doesn't even come near him. This happened because the angles they used were not the best. Now, even on repeat viewings I can see the mistakes.

* Okay, seriously. What kind of a prison has air vents that are so easy to get into? And how on earth did Jared fit himself inside there? And why send Dean and Tiny to the infirmary for just a few cuts from their fight?

* Randall described cleaning up quite a bit of blood from Moody's death. How come there's a relatively small blood stain on an old mattress? I expected a much bigger stain. Moreover, why would they have even left the mattress in the first place? It is nice to see Sam do a salt and burn for once, though.

* Aw man! I love BeatUpDean! All those lovely bruises and cuts. Poor baby! *pets him* He wears them so well.

* What a rotten place to be trapped in with a ghost attacking you. Poor Dean! No! Not the heart again! Hasn't the poor boy been through enough? Love how they used the heartbeat sound effect to further emphasize the point. Plus, Jensen did his usual great job of really making you feel Dean's physical pain. *rubs Dean's chest* Poor baby! *squishes him* And then poor Tiny gets it. "Poor Tiny, man. Poor giant Tiny."

Sam: "Give it to him."
Dean: "I earned these."
Sam: "Dean."
Nice call back to a similar exchange in Bloody Mary.

Sam: "You heard in the yard?"
Dean: "Yeah."
Sam: *Scoffs* "Dean, does it bother you at all how easily you seem to fit in here?"
Dean: "No, not really."

Sam: "No, no. Don't give me that look. Don't give me that 'we got to see this thing through' look. We are leaving tonight. No matter what."
Dean: "I just don't want to let Deacon down, that's all. I mean we do owe him."
Sam: "Yeah, but we don't owe him our lives, Dean."
I like how they're so close that they can read each other's looks.

* Mara? Honey? Ditch the black nail polish. It just looks....wrong. It is black? Isn't it? Looks black on my TV. Even a nice red would've been better. Jensen does another nice job with this scene. His sincere look had me sold. "We're not the bad guys."

* I really thought the brothers were in major trouble here. On my repeat viewing I loved catching Deacon call Dean a "hard case" and Sam "sweetheart". Heehee! And how cute is Deacon's amused reaction as they both respond with "what?" when he breaks up their little arguement about about getting out of the prison? Even Deacon is caught by the charm of the Winchester brothers!

Dean: "Man, I am freaking velvety smooth."
Heehee! Oh yeah!

* Aw! Look how Sam looks down after Deacon says that their daddy raised them right. And what's with a near stranger hugging the brothers, yet they don't hug each other? It's an outrage! Grrrrrrrr! I want a hug, Kripke!

* Again, this prison is so easy to get out of. An easily accessible panel in the bathroom that leads outside? Come on! And then what's with the Impala being parked right outside???? They should've at least had to walk to find it in some nearby woods or something. A distinctive car like that surely would've caused some kind of inquiry. Wouldn't Hendrickson have at least noticed it? This is one area where I think the writing kind of slipped up. Their escape is just far too easy. What was Sam worried about? They practically just walked out the front door!

* The SPN comic book looks sooo cool! I wasn't too interested in it before, but now that I've seen some of it, I'm kind of eager to get my hands on it. Too cool that Jensen did the voice over, too.

Here's some nice caps from the comic ad:

* What's with Sam doing the digging and torching for once? This is a sudden change. Maybe Dean's a better lookout? Heh. I was surprised that Glockner came after Deacon, but then he did help the boys escape. It was a nice way to add to the tension of the scene. Heh. Hendrickson's been foiled again. But like I said, I don't think we've seen the last of this guy. He's not going to give up hunting the Winchesters down so easily.

So a fun episode, even with it's few problems. I can overlook them though, just for seeing the boys in their prison garb, getting into fights, and Dean's snarkiness. Plus, the ghost was pretty darned creepy.

Can't wait for the next episode! For once, the preview almost made me cry! I totally wibbled for Dean. And Kripke directed this one, too. Should be a great hour!

Some caps from the next episode...