Supernatural: Rock and a Hard Place (That’s What She Said)

This episode had all the earmarks of being a crappy episode.  They promo’d it like it was going to be a dragon episode and in my opinion the one dragon episode was enough for forever.  It was one of my least favorite.  However, I seriously laughed, hard, numerous times during this one.  Sheriff Mills was a nice return.  I enjoyed seeing her character again as I always thought she was a down to earth dose of reality every now and then.  I did think there was something missing not having Bobby there to balance her out, but I think all of us miss having Bobby around.  Always.

OK I try to not do a play by play recap so here are the things that stuck out to me:

Why haven’t they asked Cas to read the spell yet?  They mention in the beginning of the episode that they wonder if Crowley is lying about the spell not being reversible.  How about you ask the other person that you know that can read dead languages??    If it says it’s irreversible Cas isn’t going to be any worse off than he already is and they will know for sure.  Really they don’t seem all that concerned with getting Cas’s grace back and getting the angels in heaven.  Which doesn’t make sense to me unless Zeke is purposefully distracting them.  (Don’t worry I’m coming back to our friendly parasite angel in a moment).

Also I miss Kevin. That is all.

Dean pretending to be ashamed that he wasn’t a virgin anymore was great (“I don’t think we can really unring that bell” and “So you just hit the virginity redo button and alls good with the man upstairs?”).  I thought the scene in the abstinence support group was predictable, but it was still freaking hilarious.  His enthusiasm throughout this whole episode was perfect.  I like when Dean is happy Dean instead of brooding sad Dean (don’t get me wrong, brooding is fun too).

Nothing and I mean nothing in this episode was as funny as Dean figuring out who Susie from the support group was (although the description of the engaged couple’s sex was great).  He was star struck.  His meeting her in his world was to me like me getting to meet him in the real world.  Except I wouldn’t have been so smooth.  “That scene with the tacos.”  I don’t think that even if he’d known that he was going to get locked in a dungeon he would have been able to stop himself.

They really drove home the point that Sam is still not OK.  Between the nap at the beginning, Jodi bringing up that he looked like crap and then the big bad wondering out loud how he was still alive.  Yeah I think that’s going to play a part in next week’s mid season finale.

And that brings us to Zeke (Imma call you Zeke)– he seriously freaked me out when he switched over as Dean was about to tell him what was up.  It seemed less like he was protecting Sam and more like a threat to Dean.  I can kinda see that he keeps saving people left and right and hasn’t had time to heal, but I also still worry that Zeke isn’t really healing Sam, but just being a parasite.  I won’t lie.  Next week’s preview has me thinking more and more that way.  Of course the preview for this one was misleading so maybe Zeke is holding Dean back to protect him.

Lastly, they didn’t load Jodi’s car for her or help her with the doors?  It’s not like she got stabbed by a goddess or anything.  Oh wait. . .

Over all this was a solid episode.  They moved the plot along, had a monster to defeat and still kept it funny.  Maybe next week Sam will finally figure out Zeke is in him on his own and maybe we will get to see Kevin again.  I can hope.  I do think that the feels will abound.

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Catching Fire Premier Party

Last year I did a Hunger Games premier party (a friend of mine blogged about it) and since that was so much fun I had to do another one this year.  Here are some highlights from the party:

 

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I made these name cards to go with the food.  Most of the food was just regular food with just cute (or slightly dark) names and that made the prep for the party much easier than last year.  Last year I focused on having food that was mentioned in the book, but some of the food turned out to be not so yummy so this year I opted more for food that I know would be good.  My personal favorites were Nightlock surprise and Mockingjay Wings.

I, of course dressed up and thought my costume was much better than last year.  I only got one other person to dress up, but I appreciate her support.

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We had a trivia quiz as well which evidently I made quite a bit harder this year than last year (sorry guys!) and then went to see the movie which was so very good.  I was very impressed with the adaptation and thought it was a big step up from the first movie.  Not that I thought the first movie was bad, but I just thought they didn’t convey why Katniss had to lie about her feelings.  There was no urgency with Peeta’s injury or signs of inner struggle from Katniss.  They covered all of this in Catching Fire without make Peeta out as  a weakling.  There are a ton of other sites doing movie reviews and that’s not what I’m doing here, I’m just saying, go see it.  You will thank me later.

I will leave you this from ArtistAbe on Deviant Art

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Supernatural: Bad Boys

OK this week’s monster was mildly interesting, but it definitely took a back seat to a few things.  One of which is the reminder of the bond between the boys.  That is the one thing that brings people back to this show.  Dean takes care of Sam.  Dean would to anything for Sam. Period. As much as Dean also loved his Dad this episode also reminded us of how big of a douche their dad was.  Yeah he was on an epic quest to kill the demon that killed his wife.  Sure it’s romantic, but that made him a crap dad.  Dragging his kids all over the place, making Dean responsible for Sam at a ridiculously young age, discouraging Sam from school, and mostly just being obsessed with this one traumatic event while ignoring the fact that he was exposing his kids to so many more.

We saw something in this episode that we have only caught glimpses of before.  The series started out with Sam wanting a normal life.  Sam ran away to school and every flashback has shown him trying to grasp onto normalcy in any way he could.  Just in season 8 he tried to pretend it was OK to ignore hunting and live a normal life again (poor Kevin Tran).  This time we get to see Dean get a chance at being normal.  He had a girl friend, he was on the wrestling team, he was about to go to a school dance and his dad showed up at the last minute and tore him away.

This– this face I just can’t handle it:

Even after all of this Dean doesn’t blame his dad for any of this.  He doesn’t blame him for a rotten childhood, or leaving him in a children’s home or putting him in danger at a young age.  He just believes that he doesn’t deserve better and I find that heartbreaking.  Dean gave up being normal, not for his dad, but for Sam.  He left a place he had found love and happiness because he knew he needed to protect Sammy.  How hard must it have been to see Sam try to leave over and over again, trying to give up Dean, so that he could be normal.  This is why I love this show.  It pulls at your feels making you see not how relationships really are, but how they should be.  Dean loves his brother.  He values Sam over anything he could ever want for himself. I believe Sam got another look at how devoted Dean has always been and was somewhat shamed by his own actions.  (*cough Purgatory cough*).

I’m not going to cover a play by play of the episode.  There was a monster and they took care of it as always, but this episode reminded me of the classic episodes.  By that I mean it was great.  I hope that this show continues back down this road.

A few things I want to mention.  Dylan Everett was an amazing young Dean.  I read that he watched 5 seasons in a week as prep for this role.  Well it paid off.  He had Dean’s mannerisms, his attitude and his confidence all down pat.  He was Dean.  Evidently he’s an actor on a bunch of other crap that I don’t watch and I just want to say, good for him.  He deserves it.  I thought he was great and I at no point was distracted with his performance as I sometimes have been with flashbacks to their childhood.

Another thing is that the scene in the diner when Dean was assuming that Robin would remember him was heart wrenching as well.  He totally wanted Robin to remember him and thought flashing that smile would get him back on the same foot.  I saw a post from someone stating that the fact he didn’t hook up with her or at least kiss her was a nod at Destiel and I’m going to vehemently disagree.  Maybe he didn’t do that because 1– there wasn’t time and 2–she truly meant something to him.  She was his first love, first kiss, first (almost) date.  That stays with a person.

Source: itsoksammy Tumblr

Last thing will be that I found it neat that they were hunting a rugaru when Dean lost the money and had to steal food for Sam.  I just liked that tie.  They were going to kill a man for being so hungry he wanted to eat a person, and Dean stole to keep Sam from being hungry.

Oh and I was wrong.  100%.  I said Sam would figure out what was up this episode and while I still think that Dean isn’t being smooth about it Sam is still cruising around with Zeke.  I am still nervous for him to find out, but I do wonder after this episode if Sam will be a little more understanding of why Dean would still do anything to protect his Sammy.

Also Rock and a Hard Place looks really good.  The smile on Dean’s face with the lady tells him he’s a virgin again is priceless.

I’ll leave you with this (from protectedbydeanandsam on Tumblr)

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The Stars are Falling

English: Portrait of Astro Scott Carpenter. Image ID: S64-34357 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This isn’t my normal thing, but my mom wrote this and I wanted to share it. Enjoy:

The stars are falling, the heroes are dying. Last week we lost Scott Carpenter.
The space program, the cold war, the threat of a nuclear bomb, all of this was part of my childhood. Too young to really understand the true dangers, I focused on outer space, deciding that I would be an astronaut. It did not matter that I was a girl, after all, by the time I was old enough to join NASA, I reasoned that it would no longer be a boys-only club.
When John Glenn was set to be the first American to orbit the Earth, I walked in a straight line with my Oakwood Elementary classmates to the only classroom with a television set, so that we could watch him blast into space. The room was dark and crowded and the TV set was small. Our excitement was further dampened by delay after delay of the countdown, but it was space. It was new. It was exciting.
I eventually came to realize that I was drawn by the romance of space, not about how to actually get there. After reading books about Chuck Yeager and Jerrie Cobb, and about the rigorous requirements for the astronauts, I decided that the space program involved too much math and too many sit ups for me. But my giving up that that child’s dream of going to space did not make me give up my love for the adventure, and for those called to launch into the heavens. I cried when Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee died so horribly, and for other tragedies since then. And there were tears for Scott Carpenter.
Shepherd, Grissom, Glenn, Cooper, Carpenter, Schirra, Slayton, White, McDivitt, Borman, Lovell, Stafford, Young, Armstrong, Conrad….these and other names call my heart to attention.
When I heard Scott Carpenter’s name once again in the news, this song, a product of the era, came to mind. You might find it an odd choice, but listen all the way to the very end.

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Heaven Can’t Wait: In Which Castiel Pretends to be a Human and Crowley Pretends to be Evil

A good friend of mine and I had a conversation yesterday about superheros and why our favorites were are favorites.  I stated that Spiderman and Captain America were at the top of my list whereas Superman was at the top of his.  Of course the why of mine is very deep and thoughtful.  Or at least it’s more than I really like red and blue.  I love Spiderman and Captain America because they are regular guys who just happen to have super powers.  Peter Parker IS Peter Parker and when he puts on the suit he pretends to be Spiderman.  However, Superman is Superman.  He IS an alien with crazy powers pretending to be Clark Kent.  My favorites just seem more real to me.  They spend their lives trying to live while saving people in the process. (Although I will say that Tom Welling  and Henry Cavill make me love Superman too).  I was always more interested in the bad guys in the Superman and Batman universe than I was the good guys.  They were too perfect.  Too inhuman.

Well after having such an in depth conversation on superheros (as normal people do) right before watching this episode made me notice a few things more acutely about this episode.  Cas is spending his days pretending to be Steve the Human (kinda like Finn the Human but with less emotions).  He’s trying to fit in.  He’s trying to date people that aren’t trying to kill him.  He feels like he needs to cut all supernatural ties.  Of course Dean being a total douche and kicking him out of the bunker probably isn’t helping at all.  He’s not though.  He’s not human.  He’s an angel and needs to stop pretending.  He was never perfection like Superman, but he was a very powerful good force and even though he’s human now he still can be a powerful force for good. He began to stop pretending there at the end when he tried to banish the other angel before he could hurt that baby and before he could hurt him.  Then, there at the end, he seemed to embrace what he is when he stabbed hot pink angel in the chest.  Will he be able to carve out a life as a human?  Who are we kidding, they’ll find a way to fix this or he’ll die.  One or the other.  Personally I hope for the former.

I could feel Cas’ confusion at Dean’s presence throughout the episode.  I thought this still captured that.

 

I forget at times how handsome Misha Collins is.  Also Nora totally played Cas and knew what she was doing. I disapprove.

Now I’m not blaming him for pretending, I’m just saying that Castiel will never be able to pull of human as long as he remembers his angel past.  He’s continually confused by human behavior.  His discussion with the baby just reinforced the fact that even as a fallen angel he relied on his powers to get him through all situations.  The thing I believe that he’s not pretending about is being hurt by Dean.  His offer to help Dean and Sam find a fix for all of this was one last cry for help and Dean shut him down.  Again.  Dean and Sam are idiots though.  Castiel can probably read that language that they just made deals with Crowley to read.  Why didn’t they just ask Cas?  Or at least as him to verify?  Crowley lies.  He at least definitely doesn’t tell the whole truth.

Poor Kevin, as much as I love Crowley I know Kevin must be so upset that he hasn’t been killed yet.

Now Crowley.  He’s pretending too.  Big evil King of Hell who can now feel emotions.  I think he came to the realization that he is not the evil SOB that he thinks he is after he tried calling Abaddon. Don’t get me wrong.  He USED to be evil.  He USED to be that guy, but now, now he was almost cured and has been held captive for a while now.  He now feels his power stripped away.  His kingdom is being brought down by Abaddon, there is no end in sight of getting away from the Winchesters, and Kevin definitely wants to kill him.  I’m curious to see what happens from here.  Will he continue to pretend to be evil or will be gradually come to terms with his impending goodness?  What was up with injecting Kevin’s blood at the end?  Will that do something to Kevin or is he trying to receive some more humanity?

 

What??

Crowley and Castiel were the biggest pretenders in this episode, but really there is pretending going on all over the place.  Sam is hunter with an angel inside him pretending to not be there, Dean is a brother pretending to be on the up and up and a friend pretending to not want Castiel around, Kevin is a hunter pretending that he could become the advanced placement student that he used to be.

Favorite lines in the episode:

Dean: My dates usually end when I run out of singles.

Crowley to Kevin: What’s wrong Short Round?  Afraid of needles?

 

I feel the build up to something big.  I have said before that I think Sam will find out in the next episode, but we shall see. (I don’t like the boys fighting so I hope I’m wrong).

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Dog Dean Afternoon: Classic Supernatural?

I’m slacking again on the Supernatural posts.  This one is a little late, but I wanted to have time to really talk about this episode.  Supernatural is full of violence, suspense, and evil with some love thrown in to really hit us in the feels.  However. about once a season (twice if we’re lucky) they throw in these great episodes.  They move along the big plot lines, but mostly just show the boys having fun.  Sam always seems to almost die and you get a few really touching moments that make you want to cry.  This is one of those episodes.

In season 2 we had Tall Tales and Hollywood Babylon, season 3 there was Bad Day at Black Rock, A Very Supernatural Christmas (I’m gonna fudgin’ kill you!), Mystery Spot,and  Ghostfacers. (Holy Crap Season 3 was awesome).  Season 4 had Monster Movie and The Monster at the End of This Book,  season 5, Changing Channels and The Real Ghostbusters, and Swap Meat.  Season 6 had Weekend at Bobby’s (this one kinda counts even thought the boys aren’t in it much), Clap Your Hands If You Believe and The French Mistake (this was a pretty joyless season so these breaks were very much needed), season 7 was light on the humor with only Season 7, Time for a Wedding! and Plucky Pennywhistle’s Magical Menagerie (which I’m tempted to not count because clowns freak me out too).  And finally season 8 was the worst for comedic breaks.  I think they were going for that with Hunteri Heroici, but it fell a little short for me.  I would argue that Everybody Hates Hitler is the only one to approach a fun episode in season 8 (yes, yes I remember LARP and the Real Girl, but this one also fell flat with me since the boys were still fighting.  No amount of Felicia Day can make up for Sam and Dean not getting along).  The only reason I really like EHH is because of the scene where Sam and Dean are heating their hands over the burning corpse and Aaron states what we are always forgetting:  These guys are psychopaths.  Seriously I’m obsessed with a show about killing and desecrating remains.  I need to be reminded of this every once in a while.

OK I said all of that to point out that it has be a long time since we’ve had a legit funny episode.  The French Mistake is probably the last real, honest to goodness episode like this and it aired in Feb. 2011!  It was about time.  I had my doubts going in.  The previews looked a little odd.  Dean barking at the mail man when taken out of context looks more goofy than funny, but in the flow of the episode it was genius.

This episode had a ton of gems.  There was the cracks at hippies from Dean and then the unexpected conversation with the pigeon.  Both actors did so well with this whole “talking to animals bits” and what could have been a really cheesy, kid show type interactions were hilarious.  I may have laughed a few times randomly thinking about Dean playing fetch with Sam.  Haha.  I didn’t realize what he was doing until the gave it back to him again.  That’s totally something I would do if I was stressed out about something and not watching what I was doing.

So I’m not going to break down every little joke, every funny thing that Dean did (I will say that Dean checking out the poodle was both hilarious and creepy), but I will leave you with some clips of those funny moments.  They can remind you of how great this show is.  Also I will mention that almost all of these funny episodes were followed by heart wrenching episodes where we lose someone.  If that doesn’t make you anxious enough I will also point out that Sam now KNOWS something is up and is not going to let it go.  I may end up being right about when he will find out about Zeke.  (My prediction was not this next episode, but the next one.)  So keep that in mind while you’re laughing it up.  We’ll probably be crying soon.

 

 

 

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