Having seen the preview for once, I went into this episode with the utmost trepidation. It looked no less than the stupidest, lamest stunt Supernatural had ever pulled. And... well...Children of the Corn... making children in the corn.
Two teenagers are making out in a cornfield. "There's something out there." In the corn.
Patrick disappears into the corn.
They wander, through the corn.
And what do they find in the corn? Is it... a spaceship? It beams up
And then the credits roll and I realise:
THIS EPISODE IS GONNA BE TOTALLY AWESOME! PS The Truth is In There.
The X-Files style credits totally threw me off, and okay, I've never been a massive fan of that show but any intertextual postmodern episode such as this is enough to get my academic brain way overexcited!
A credit montage follows, with clips from old episodes (most notably hilarious 'Tall Tales' alien sequence). I was less impressed with this, it seemed choppy.
But the truth is in here, so let's find it. The town of something or other, Indiana, is ripe with excitement over the alien invasion, hoping to become the next Roswell. But one elderly lady calls bullshit on the whole UFO-nonsense: of course it's not aliens, it's fairies. Of course. Cause, spoiler alert, it was never really aliens in X-Files either. Allegedly.
By the way, it always strikes me as funny when characters in a supernatural environment refuse to believe in something supernatural they're unfamiliar with: we're vampires, but surely there can be no such thing as werewolves! We're witches and wizards and have seen all kinds of unbelievable things, but surely there is no such thing as the Deathly Hallows! We hunt demons and have previously fought fairytale creatures and GODS, but surely there is no such thing as fairies...... see what I mean?
Sam is offensive again like last week, and from all your comments I gather that some people find this amusing... I just find it annoying though. If Sam is so emotionless, why is he so damn pissed off all the time And rude? He's supposed to have no inhibitions, I get it, but being passive aggressive is emotional too. So to me, his behaviour makes his whole arc seem inconsistent. He's not possessed by something angry; the whole point is that he's possessed by NOTHING, not even himself. And based on what they said in the first few episodes, Sam should be emotionless, cold and calculating. What is calculating about screwing up investigations and making fun of the people they are investigating? It doesn't make much sense.
Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket on new adventures. Does that make Castiel Gepetto?
Dean tells him he has to care... and I can't help thinking, he must care about something if he's getting so upset about them taking this case. But whatever, Dean promises to act as Sam's conscience (now there's an interesting role reversal), which can never go well...
Meanwhile, in Brennan's Watchwork, something fairytaley seems to be going on.
Brennan acts all sad and worried when Dean and Sam are there, but as soon as they leave, he asks his clock if he did alright. Yeah, his clock. lol.
Dean warns Sam not to do anything without calling him first, but Sam is not happy about this (...). Dean goes off to check out the scene of the crime, and finds the UFO. I knew he was gonna be the Mulder.
Sam doesn't really care, which I have to admit, is a little funny.
I've got to strings, to hold me down...
Sam goes to find Dean's phone, and now he's left to figure out the mystery on his own - watch out, humankind!
He goes to the alien hippie camp to talk to the believers - and delivers the funniest line of the episode: "My brother was abducted... it's fine, I've had time to adjust." Oh Sammy. You're gonna kick your own ass when you get your soul back.
Dean is beamed back, looking shaken but intact... and finds Sam um, hanging out with the nice lady from the alien hippie camp.
"Grabby, incandescent douchebags" - way to mix up SAT words with your hunter slang there, Dean, I like it. PGOTW leaves, and Dean is upset that Sam didn't freak out - I mean, I get it, but he can't really expect anything else. We find out that Dean lost some time while abducted. He starts to talk about it, and Sam is once again hilariously inappropriate with his "safe room" and attempt at reassurance. Bless him, even soulless he really is trying. Kind of like Spike trying to be good - you can't fault the guy from being evil, he's made that way, but seeing him fight back just shows how strong his humanity is... sigh. Okay, bad example, cause this is nowhere as moving as that was. Back to the safe room.
"I had a close encounter, Sam, and I won."
Dean may or may not have been heading for the probing table, but he managed to hack and slash his way out of the supposed space ship. It was all very funny, one of the more enjoyable interactions we've seen between the brothers for a while. It struck me while watching it though, that once again something is happening to Dean. I don't think anyone can argue that it's still the Sam and Dean show anymore, this is so clearly the Dean show, with Sam around only to trigger emotional reactions from Dean. Whether it will change when Sam gets his soul back, or whether we'll once again focus on how it all affects Dean, well... I'm skeptical of there being any change, frankly.
And funnily enough, in the next scene Dean says the very think I mentioned earlier in this recap, that on top of everything else they've faced, now there are aliens. What's next, hobbits? Haha, I wish.
Dean says to Sam: "Our reality is collapsing around us and you're trying to pick up our waitress?" And huh - in season 1, Sam could have said something very similar to Dean. When Dean was Hell-bound in season 3, Sam DID say something very similar to Dean. So careful with the stone throwing Mister, I know you've got some new writers backing you, but the fans are all the same and their memories are frightening.
Sam has some moral questions for Dean: "what when there are no more leads? Do you just sit there in the dark and suffer, even when there is nothing to be done?" Yeah, Dean says like it's the most natural thing in the world. But Sam, like a newborn baby unburdened by social semiotics (cha-ching!), is in a position where he can question the logic of this and make humanity seem a little weird. Ironic, in an episode supposedly about aliens.
"So you're saying that having a soul equals suffering."
Dude, did you watch Angel at all?! I can't decide if I'm excited or annoyed at how much SPN is ripping off the Buffyverse this season. I'll go with excited; some of it's unintentional after all, and some of it's just good TV.
Then OMG creepy guy in the window creeped me out! There's a homeless guy only Dean can see... but we'll get back to that.
They research aliens online... and the aliens come back to finish what they started. But instead of an alien, it's um, Tinkerbell? And Dean KILLS her with a microwave omg mean!!! But again, Sam doesn't see the splatter. I could have gone without it, too.
Sam connects the dust, and reaches a logical conclusion: smurfs fairies. And Dean KILLED one. :(
They go to the "crazy" lady - except she's not much crazier than Dean and Sam, considering they all believe in real things. She sings of a fairie dimension, where the little blighters probably skedaddle along happily, tinkering and blowing flower petals on each other... until a big ugly giant comes along and microwaves them. Sigh. Anyway, by fairy lady's logic, Dean can see fairies because he has been to their realm. And they only take first-born sons. Huh, imagine that. Honestly, I don't know why this is more plausible than aliens. To me it's like choosing whether to head down the sci-fi or the fantasy aisle in a book store. "Does make me wanna believe in UFOs again," Dean says, heading down the sci-fi aisle. No surprise there eh?
And now Dean is asking how to kill them, and at this point I'm thinking, if this turns into some giant Tinkerbell massacre I'm turning off my television. Sorry, I'm guess I'm just too girl to find fairy slaughter entertaining.
I do, I do, I do believe in fairies! And leprechauns! And Winchesters!
And now he sees them: little actual people (men, so they're dressed), busy little beavers in the clock shop. Now they believe that Brennan is using the fairies to make his clocks - but did he really trade his son for clocks? And yeah, the award for Stupid of the Year goes to... So because of Brennan, firstborn sons have been taken by the fairies and the leprechaun, supposedly to be eaten or in other ways servicing the king of fairies (it's best if we don't ask).
Dean once again sees creepy homeless man. He follows him down the obligatory dark alley, but instead attacks a poor little man and calls him a fairy. Haha, epic fail.
As Dean is taken into custody (for once I don't blame them), he calls to Sam to "fight the fairies!" And really, I thought Supernatural was more liberal than that!? In the prison, we're in for more hilariousness: "If this gentleman was a full sized homosexual, would that be okay?" the officer asks, trying to determine the nature of this hate crime. He tells Dean he'a all kinds of messed up, and well, we knew that.
Sam follows the Clockmaker into the fairies' den, but with the obvious disadvantage of not being able to see the fairies. Brennan is killed by a very visible enemy, however: the leprechaun, aka. crazy alien man. WHO SAW THAT COMING?!?!??!? I actually didn't. Too busy writing notes eh?
Dean has been marked by the fairies... he's theirs now. Heh heh heh. The leprechaun notices Sam's lack of soul (again, couldn't they have encountered all these knowledgeable creatures in episode 2 when no one knew what the hell was going on? Oh the wonders of linear storytelling. He does tell Sam something interesting though, that his soul is not completely out of reach. He can even get it back for him - for a price.
But Sam doesn't take the bait and takes a shot. Sadly iron isn't enough to kill him, and he fights back. Meanwhile, Dean fights Little Red Homeless Hood in his cell, and both brothers seem to be fighting a losing battle - unless Sam makes the leprechaun count some salt lol.
He dispels the fairies, back to their own reality where they belong - what a terrible metaphor - and the episode begins to close off. And I'm left thinking, a) so the fairies were actually just there making clocks and Dean actually killed one of them horribly, and b) the choppy credits very carefully included Misha Collins and he wasn't even in the fricking episode?! Double fail for the credits!
But definitely not for the rest of the episode - it's not going into the best episode hall of fame or anything of the sort, but Supernatural hasn't had quite the same level of comedic success in a while, and as random of a story and weak of a premise it was, it had some great gags and brotherly interaction not to be scoffed at.
In the final scene, Sam and Dean once again have a let's-wrap-up-the-remaining-loose-ends car hood chat with beer. Dean asks Sam why Sam said no to the soul... suspecting that maybe he doesn't want his soul back after all. Sam tells him he still does, but I'm betting he's lying. Seriously, we're headed for the mid season in a few eps - don't you agree it's soul time already?!
Don't forget you guys, you can find past SPN recaps and interesting entertainment blogging over at The Patchwork Blog, check it out.
I agree with a lot of what you said, but personally, this was one of the worst episodes of Supernatural I've ever seen, if not the worst.
ReplyDeleteTrying to be positive is hard sometimes :) I thought the plot was weak and ultimately I think I did express a lot of my frustrations, but I do stand by that the entertainment parts actually were entertaining, most of the time. :)
ReplyDeleteI think this episode wasn't meant to develop the plot, just for some fun. It was funnier than all the ones we had in this season, but it obviously didn't beat the epicness of the trickster episodes. But still, it was a cool episode :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think that the credits included Misha Collins because he is credited as a series regular or whatever you call it. So they sorta had to put him in even though he wasn't in the episode :P
Yes, I definitely agree, it is time for Sam to get his soul back. How can someone survive without it? Sam is used to this "life" now, and even if a part of him wants it back, maybe he is not sure if he wants to be the old Sam again. I seem to be more confused after every episode, but I did enjoy this one very much. It was good to have a laugh!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like it is going to be a long winter with the hiatus schedule. Oh, well, everyone needs a break sometime and we should be grateful to have 2 new episodes in December.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for saying Sam is offensive. I thought I was the only one that felt that way! I mean I know Dean used to say some stupid things at times, but usually he did it because he was somehow emotionally affected: nervous, scared, being overprotective, suspicious, ext. It's just not the same when Sam says it.
ReplyDeleteI also didn't get what the fairies wanted with the humans and whey Dean was so quick to kill the naked fairy. I know he said she hit him, but..IDK...what did they even want with Dean!
I don't get how Dean got out of jail. I would think either brother being arrested and having their fingerprints ran through AFIS would be a major storyline, but instead it was neatly swept under the rug.
Tired of hearing about Sam having no soul already and the moral implications. Let's move the show along, this is not a soap opera.
I guess you could say this was not one of my favorite episodes. I miss Sam and Dean...if they don't come back soon I'm done!
I agree. And I for one was ready for some fun. Now we can move on with the story.
ReplyDeleteAnd apart from Misha being credited as a regular, that FBI scene was very funny - and that's at least part of the reason it was put in there. It's also another nod at X Files.
I don't find RoboSam offensive at all. Yes, he says and does a lot of completely inappropriate things, but since when has SPN been politically correct anyway?
ReplyDeleteI'm not interested in delving too deeply into how Dean managed to get out of jail without being nailed as a dead serial killer. It's just not enough of a mystery to worry me very much. I have other bigger mysteries to ponder - like who really has Sam's soul? And does he even want it back? And any number of others that take precedence over how did Dean get out of jail?
If they keep this up for too long, then yes, I might become a little irritated, but this Sam is just so different it's still a surprise to me every time he does/says something outrageous.
I loved this episode. I needed a good laugh after the intensity of the past few weeks, and it came at the right time. Now I'm ready to take whatever they give us in the rest of the season.
i dont think sam is pissed off all the time, he soulless (no moral) ppl with no moral said anything what in his mind, n of course there nothing good came out from immoral ppl mouth, only ppl with moral/soul will said anything good to avoid ppl get hurt, he dont know or dont care with ppl around him or what they think, i dont see he pissed i just see he confuse for everything.., when he talk even u said like pissed off/rude but i see his face is deadpan so he just no filter in his mouth O_o
ReplyDeletei love this epi, funny n they work on case together, dean back to be big brother who take care his ltl brother n sam even though soulless he try to find his brother when dean missing, although he dont know diff sit in the dark n feeling the lost or sit in the dark n feeling the chick...,:P
this is the funnier epi i ever see in spn....., i love this epi...., ^_^
Okay GUYS! C'Mon you need to stop with the "misha was in the credit but not in the show" If I say thats cause he is a regular one more time I'm gonna explodes. Dont you watch any thing else then this show.... Thats how it works. (sorry lol, but cmon detail, not even a mistake stop stop stop....) and imo I'll take all the misha I can get hahaha.
ReplyDeleteOkay lol any way. So you didnt like the first scene and the rest was okay. I'm confused about your review. What you say sounds like you liked it but then at the end it seems like you dont hahaha.
Any way. Good review I agree with a lot not all. Loved the first scene, I believe someone without a soul with be a son of a bitch so yeah you tell them sammy hahaha.
The fairies capture the first born child to "serve" the fairie master or some thing like that hahaha. It's the discussion with the crazy tea lady.
ReplyDeleteAs for Dean and the jail thing and fingerprint I think if it had repercotion it would be like in season 3? (no season 2?) any way, they already done the runnning away from police and dean being "wanted". Though I really wouldnt mind them going there again I LOVED IT! but yeah, we can think that he got out before they took his prints...
soap opera.. well HAAHA okay I'll shut it cause I feel people will not like me any more ahhaha
He'll have more episodes in the second part of the season, the writers gave him less episodes in the first half cause his wife was pregnant
ReplyDeleteCourse we'll like you Chanelle. You just carry on being you :)
ReplyDeleteOh yeah that's right - I remember reading about that. It was a boy right?
ReplyDelete:DDD okay fine .... get ready... IT IS A SOAP at times ahahaha. *RUNS*
ReplyDeleteyup, born on Sept. 23rd, his first name is West
ReplyDeleteYeah but thankfully only sometimes.
ReplyDeleteMy theory is that when Cas carved the Enochian sigils into their ribs it hid them from the AFIS database as well as the angels ;P
I think I'll go with that one ehehhehe! CASTIEL POWER!!!
ReplyDeleteI don't think Sam is angry either. I think he just doesn't have patience with people who are wasting his time. He is on a job; he wants to finish that job quickly. Fairy lady was keeping him from doing it. He responded accordingly.
ReplyDeleteOf course Misha had to be in the credits (though even though his wife was pregnant I think it's appalling to call him a main character at this point, how small his role has been both this season and last), but the fact that they made an entire FBI-style montage of him - which was specific to this episode only - and then have him not appear in any fashion, screamed inconsistency.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm not sure what I feel about the episode either hehe. I thought the humour was GREAT, but it's not an episode I'll ever want to watch again. The storyline was simply too weak, the plot holes too big to overlook, and its entire premise too ridiculous. :) Sort of a once-off enjoyment, I guess.
Well to bad for you. I already watched it 3 times and once after watching pinocchio hehehe.
ReplyDeleteAnd you dont need to be a big role to be a regular (not main character .. regular) you only need to appear in about 13-15 ep of the season. he will probably be in like 9 of the last 11 eps.
I agree with the comments of Sam not be offensive and not having patience. To me Sam just wants to get cases solved. He works non stop 24/7 and never sleeps. He has no time for anyone/anything interfering with the job. I think when he makes his comments he is just speaking his mind not thinking that what he says will bother someone. This due in part because he has no soul. I have enjoyed the season so far. I find it interesting to watch Sam and Dean in a different way. Sometimes, it is good to see something different at least for me it is. Jared and Jensen do an excellent job in each episode. I liked Jared's performance last week. I think he rocked in that particular episode and pulled his lines and scenes off beautifully. He had me laughing. The old Sammy will be back soon which I do love but I have enjoyed Soul-less Sam too. I plan on hanging with the boys until the end.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have picked the word offensive, but I think I know what you mean. The word that popped into my mind during one of these episodes was repulsive. The writers are trying intentionally trying to make him repulsive. They're struggling a little because they have Jared playing him, though. ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust when you start thinking that he may be harmless, and Dean's little brother Sammy - just without a soul, you get a flash of something that's more unsettling and creepier than whatever the monster of the week is. There was the look on his face when Castiel was cavity-searching the kid back in Third Man - like he was getting off on the kid's torture. In TwiHard it was the look that was much more disturbing than the vampires. In Truth you had the look on his face when he was interrogating the witness. In Family Matter, the audience is brought around to start trusting him, and then he's suddenly backing Crowley at the end it kind of a spine chilling reversal. I know some people believed his motives in that scene, but if you didn't, you were left that he's playing Dean and Dean's feeling for Sam to get Dean to work for Crowley. In dogs, the skinwalker is more sympathetic, and Dean has to tell him "enough" after Sam doesn't know to back off. In Dogs, he's supposedly being honest with Dean, but the delivery was chilling. I thought the character of Dean was supposed to be speaking for the audience when he said something like, "can you just cut to the punchline?" I was feeling it too, Dean. Finally, in the fairies show, he's the anti-Sam. Every quality about Sam that was endearing was turned around.
It hit me during Dogs that the writers weren't backing off from this and continuing to make Sam a little more repulsive with each episode. Now I'm thinking that they're slowing evolving him into a monster that needs to be killed. There was a scene in TwiHard in which Sam can't stop asking Dean what it feels like to turn into a monster, and I'm betting that was supposed to be foreshadowing of what's to come. I'm hanging on because I have hope that they'll bring back the real Sam as a different person and not try to merge him with this monster. Sam never wanted to be a monster, and that would just be wrong to make him have to take on what this creature is doing. RoboSam needs to be killed and Sam needs to be brought back untainted by all of this.
Whew, long post. Happy Thanksgiving for those who celebrate it. Got to go turkey shopping now.
The anti-Sam, I like it :D And I agree with you - and it fits what I was trying to say about Sam not having a soul not just meaning that he's emotionless - it means he's devoid of a conscience, which rather than leading to apathy leads to something a lot more sinister and involves an agenda and a desire for SOMETHING.
ReplyDeleteI've got a million theories as to what's going on with the big picture, but we really don't have enough information yet, so I keep changing my theories every week. But one thing seems clear - to me anyway - and that is that this anti-Sam wants Dean doing Crowley's bidding. He doesn't seem to want his soul back. His rational for wanting it was always sketchy, and he turned down the leprechaun before even hearing the terms. But he gets all passionate about wanting it back whenever Dean starts saying he's done working with Crowley. He's playing on Dean's emotions. I guess we're supposed to believe that Sam would perceive a deal with a leprechaun as a bigger threat than one with the King of Hell. So I'm wondering what Crowley really wants with Dean. Is it help in finding the alpha's? Does he want to trap Dean's soul too? Or maybe Crowley is threatened by the real Sam (who I'm betting is not in Lucifer's cage) and Sam's power to control demons. Crowley made a comment earlier in the season hinting that he was having trouble with the demons. Maybe Crowley wants Dean to locate Sam's soul so that Crowley can destroy it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, frustration about the Sam situation aside, I am enjoying this season. I thought setting up the bigger theme of wartime chaos in Heaven, Hell, monster-land, and even Purgatory, was very clever and has promise of some great episodes to come. I just hope they wrap up this Sam part soon and get moving with the next phase.