7.19 reaction and review (with pics...)
Apr. 21st, 2012 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ash48Ok. So that was pretty darn cool. Some of it was a little ho hum (with a few inconsistencies = *handwaves*), but mostly I really enjoyed.
Counting the ways:
1. I'm thinking my response may well be a little shallow because really, any episode that starts with the BOYS EATING ON THE NOT!IMPALA is FINE with me! \o/ (Of course heaps better if it had been the Impala but I can settle for this). Look how cosy and relaxed they are. OH BOYS! <33333333
I'm glad Dean can still get a lot of satisfaction out of food. The world's going to shit (though...um...compared to the pending apocalypse I'm thinking it's not so bad at the moment *shrugs*) but Dean knows he can rely on his taco tasting awesome.
2. Loved this little moment too:
It's curious. Dean's phone rings and Sam checks his pocket. Either they have the same ring tone (awwwwww) or Sam sometimes carries Dean's phone (awwwwww). I'm actually thinking it's something Jared thought as how many of us thinks it might be their phone that's ringing, even if it a different ring tone. Or is that just me. ;/
3. I enjoyed the look inside a ghost's existence. I'm thinking there are probably some inconsistencies there but I've decided to not look too hard at it.
4. Annie was cool. I was a little "um...what?" when Dean spoke to her as though she was a long time friend (we're only hearing about her now?!)... but their explanation satisfied me. I suppose they do know a lot of other hunters. Though it baffles me that any hunter would work alone. Having someone watch your back would be a necessity I reckon.
And OF COURSE SHE DIED!! (Sam did sleep with her after all...*snerk*). I liked the way her death was used though so it's cool. I really liked the house full of ghosts and she was a good match with Bobby. Ghost ghost hunters. Nice.
5. Ok. So. There was just something about this episode that was super HOT. I think it might have had something (A LOT!) to do with this scene:
I mean LOOK A THAT GOD OF A MAN!! JEEZEEEEEEEEEEEE KILL ME NOW! We most definitely need more wet hair Dean scenes!
Who else was hoping we'd get a shot of him actually stepping out of the shower? Seriously!! (I was thinking of that moment in Battleship I have to tell you! *swoon*). But I was equally thrilled with the extended scene with wet haired!Dean. HOT DAMN!
6. I'm sure you were all distracted by the pretty (:koff: me too) but there were some pretty cool motel details lurking in the background. So I just have to point them out:
LOOK AT THOSE SEAGULLS! There's a seaside theme in this room. Lot's of stressed white furniture and blue walls, but what fascinates me is that there is a MURAL in the room the we don't actually get to see. Boo! That kinda sucks. AND THERE ARE THOSE STONE WALLS AGAIN!! (maybe there's some underlying meaning to all the stone walls this season. Something to do with stonewalling, or running into brick walls... or something equally fanwanky *g) Ooh and lots of orange. I'm sure that's significant too. :)
If you can take your eyes of our pretty boys who can see what looks like a sea mural surround by those faux stones. Love it!
And check out that wallpaper!! Crazy!
Ok. Back to episode.
7. I was hoping we'd see the boys having a dilemma about what to do with ghost!Bobby. So I'm glad we got that. As per their characters Dean is very uneasy (even though he misses Bobby dreadfully) and Sam is more open minded to him being around. I'm sure they'll keep him around (maybe even through to next season?) but I'd say they'd have to do something sooner or later. Poor boys. To have to lose Bobby again. (I'm only assuming this will be the outcome eventually).
8. Hee. "Fancy Lady".
9. Hee. Stupid teenagers. Seriously - horror films would not exist without stupid teenagers going into place they SHOULDN'T!!
10. Hee. SAMMY FACES!
Nice to see Sam more focused and relaxed. I'm not sure if they plan to do any more with the hallucinations (hope so) but it's a good reprieve for both of the boys. Loved the banter in this scene.
11. And you know I live for the little bro moments. A touch of hurt!Sam (though I couldn't make out exactly what the ghost was doing to Sam), a shout of "Sam!" from Dean (yay) and this....
Awww Dean. Putting out a reassuring hand. Shame it was such a dark scene.
Overall it was an enjoyable episode. Quite a few tense moments, it answered a lot of questions about ghost!Bobby and ghosts in general. Some nice, relaxed banter between the boys, it had a cool female character somewhat reminiscent of Ellen of and a steamy shower scene. (I can't believe my first observation is that Dean is having a shower with the door open. Which...yeah...of course, but you know where my damn brain went!)
Welcome back show!
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Date: 2012-04-21 06:00 am (UTC)And good catch with Sam checking for his phone.
I really loved that they weren't all "Yay Bobby's back" but that it was so much more complex, and sad, than that.
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Date: 2012-04-21 06:05 am (UTC)They seemed so um... close... during the entire episode. They totally looked like they were on a date. :D
AND YES PLEASE! Sammy writing notes to Dean while he's in the shower!! MUST HAVE! (damn.. I'm already picturing the steamy notes.... )
xx
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Date: 2012-04-21 06:29 am (UTC)There was nice banter, a few bro moments, and Bobby rolling his eyes at his boys.. so yeah, a seriously solid 40 minutes.
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Date: 2012-04-21 07:16 am (UTC)Snagged from
(and I had to look up what "foxhole" meant. I'd never heard of that expression before. But.. hee..yeah.
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Date: 2012-04-21 07:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 09:23 am (UTC)I think Bobby will be around for a bit. I'm curious to see how Dean will react when Bobby starts helping them out...
xx
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Date: 2012-04-21 09:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 09:22 am (UTC)Hee... it isn't a terrifically strong Sam and Dean ep but it does have some rather awesome moments... ;)
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Date: 2012-04-21 09:27 am (UTC)I was going to email you to ask how much you thought I'd like it (i.e. how imperative it is that I see it ASAP), but decided to click on your link instead.
it isn't a terrifically strong Sam and Dean e
Thanks for telling me this. I won't build my hopes up too far and hopefully won't suffer any ill effects from spoiling myself!
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Date: 2012-04-21 09:32 am (UTC)It's certainly one that can wait I think (perhaps not worth 250kms *g*). But a good, solid ep nonetheless. :)
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Date: 2012-04-21 09:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 09:46 am (UTC)Good luck in getting some more time tomorrow. I absolutely know how frustrating it is.
xx
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Date: 2012-04-21 11:56 am (UTC)But, uh:
I mean LOOK A THAT GOD OF A MAN!! JEEZEEEEEEEEEEEE KILL ME NOW! We most definitely need more wet hair Dean scenes!
Yes, MTE. *gg* One of these "why's-show-not-on-HBO-moments, to be honest.
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Date: 2012-04-22 09:49 am (UTC)OH GOD! IF THIS WAS ON HBO! *thud*
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Date: 2012-04-21 12:47 pm (UTC)Aren't they adorable? I love it when they're adorable. :) Actually I think, given that it was an outside-perspective story, that it was a pretty strong Sam-and-Dean story. It had that wistful sense of Bobby looking in from the outside ... and finding that they're okay without him. It's not that they're ignoring him on purpose, or that they're not grieving or stressed - but they're getting their act together again, and they have all their important conversations with each other, and they work out what's going on by talking to each other, and they spend the whole episode wandering around together. He grouches at one point that they're slower without him, but that's not really it. It's just that if he knew something or had an idea, he used to be able to tell them, because he was part of the group. Now he has to drop these oblique hints and wait while they work things out, because they're the group. Just the two of them.
It's interesting, considering the ghost-Bobby idea, because it comes down to what Bobby really wants. There's no absolute rule that this has to end badly (except maybe the one about the writers liking to make Sam and Dean cry :) ); some ghosts at least seem to hang about for longer than a human lifetime without going mad, and some ghosts have stayed for good reasons, settled whatever they needed to settle and wandered off on their own. So it's just a matter of what Bobby is trying to achieve. He can still help them - Sam would probably be dead if he hadn't - and since the leviathans are probably about to take centre stage there's an obvious 'last job' for him there that he might be said to have a right to take part in. But eventually he has to see Sam and Dean as they are now - that they can work things through and rely on each other - or else he's just hanging on because he can't trust them to be okay, rather than because there's something he's legitimately stayed behind to do. I think that's where things could get difficult.
This is me, thinking things through in comment boxes again. :)
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Date: 2012-04-22 07:29 am (UTC)I don't think Bobby has to go darkside immediately- he can last for ages, like other ghosts, but eventually he will go crazy as he has no one else left to bond with and will lose connection to the real world. I think that is what his Reaper implied.
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Date: 2012-04-23 07:56 am (UTC)But yeah - it did seem like a bit of switch POV's in the episode. Though I'd like to think they were giving us the two sides of the story - both perspectives.
In the end it left me feeling a little sorry for Bobby (living life as a ghost doesn't look like a lot of fun) but I also understood the boys reaction. I was hoping to see conflict when they finally saw Bobby - greeting a ghost (no matter who it is) with open arms would seem weird at this stage I think.
I'm curious to see how they handle it in the future.
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Date: 2012-04-26 08:27 pm (UTC)I don't think you're supposed to come away from the story feeling any one thing, though. It's sort of happy that Bobby can communicate, but it's also awkward and painful. And it's hard on Sam and Dean, having to face the prospect of losing him all over again - but it's not as though Bobby is playing the villain or anything; he stayed because that seemed to him, rightly or wrongly, to be the most moral thing to do. It's a sad and conflicted ending, and I don't think the story wants us to take sides.
Poor Sam. At this point, anything that isn't a week's worth of insomnia with Lucifer yelling in his ear has to sound pretty minor. The end of the world? Pffffft. I'm taking a nap. :)
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Date: 2012-04-23 07:51 am (UTC)and finding that they're okay without him.
This is really interesting. I always enjoy outsider perspective stories and I really did like that aspect of the episode.
I haven't really considered Bobby's side in all this, in terms of how he sees his place now. He's seen the boys grieving and now, yeah.. he can see that they have moved on.
I wonder if he really thought they'd welcome him with open arms. I think he probably did, but he has to know the conflict in all that. For them to knowingly have a ghost working for them, or hanging around them does cause a dilemma. Personally I love that they are going in that direction. Bobby doesn't necessarily have to turn bad for them to have to get rid of him. Maybe Bobby will see that they really don't need him (though he has come in handy...). It's also pretty sad that even in death Bobby can't rest. I think he genuinely thinks the boy's need him.
I suppose it depends what the Show wants to do with Jim. If they want to keep him on then I suppose they'll find a way to keep Bobby around.
I look forward to seeing which direction they take with this. It makes perfect sense to me that Dean is uneasy. It's very much his character.
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Date: 2012-04-24 02:17 pm (UTC)It's not that they're ignoring him on purpose, or that they're not grieving or stressed - but they're getting their act together again, and they have all their important conversations with each other, and they work out what's going on by talking to each other, and they spend the whole episode wandering around together.
is absolutely genius and gave me a mini-epiphany. of course bobby thinks the boys needed him and in a way, they always will, but YES, they are starting to actually WORK TOGETHER, like they always should have (i'm not even sure i can say "like before" because as sam pointed out in fallen idols, "before didn't work.") and i think THAT might be the biggest GROWTH in literally seven seasons for these guys. and maybe despite bobby's grousing that's part of what the outsider perspective was for -- to show that sam and dean are actually, FINALLY on the same page.
just wow. thank you for making me think about it like that.
and this:
Now he has to drop these oblique hints and wait while they work things out, because they're the group. Just the two of them.
while it hurt my heart for bobby, further solidifies the growth and togetherness point.
again, sorry ash! but that insight was just too brilliant not to comment on.
:)
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Date: 2012-04-24 02:29 pm (UTC)And yep! I agree. I always love
But a definite plus for the boys...
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Date: 2012-04-24 05:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-21 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 07:58 am (UTC)Yay boys.
xx
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Date: 2012-04-21 08:52 pm (UTC)I'm right with you on the 'yay Sam&Dean!' and the 'omghot. hot. HOT.' Damn Jensen, you lookin' goooood :P The stubble was back. We haven't had stubble in a while, have we?
Also, I loved the introduction of self-aware ghosts. Aware enough to know that they're ghosts, and what their significant objects are. It was fun to watch the writers play with it, especially since I spent so much of my last big bang trying to figure out just how far that ghostly self-awareness could go :)
I wonder if they boys will have to fight Bobby over the flask, depending on what they decide to do with that. I think it could be both awesome and seriously gut-wrenching. Having to kill their only friend twice? Low blow.
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Date: 2012-04-23 08:03 am (UTC)I noticed the stubble also, so maybe it is back. I'd have to go and look. But hot damn he's looking fine.
The self aware ghosts are interesting and I imagine that because they are hunteres and know about these things it's easier to accept. Maybe it took the ghosts in the house longer to accept but after a while I suppose they figure it out.
I am very curious to see what they do now with the ghost!Bobby dilemma. Deep may feel weird drinking out of it now and if they don't want Bobby with them they could always leave it somewhere. Ack... poor bobby. He will be at the mercy of the boys I think and I'm not sure how they are going to feel about having a ghost around them all the time.
Great idea though.
xx
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Date: 2012-04-21 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-23 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 08:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 09:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-22 09:01 am (UTC)I too adored how Sam was checking his pocket when the phone rang - that's such an instinctive thing to do, even if the ring tones are different, I expect they change phones often enough not to put specific ring tones on them any longer and probably do often pick up each other's phones.
Hee - yep, now canon, boys shower without closing the door!
Am I right in thinking that was 2 different motel rooms? Annie's was the one with the pale walls, wooden floors and distressed furniture, while the guys had that cheerful wallpaper, the bright coral coloured bathroom and the intriguing wall mural that we only got a glimpse of.
I enjoyed this one, but I - *sigh* - I don't know what it is lately, maybe because every peril possible has already played out on this show, but I miss the intensity of emotions I used to get from watching them. It's absolutely in character now for nothing they come across to actually surprise or effect them strongly - it's right that now they're more on the same page that they talk about this stuff and I so like to see them working things out together and just being brothers again, but it feels flat just lately, as though their overall depression is leaking out of the screen and making everything, sort of monotone, I personally miss that connection with them because of it.
But it was an episode of lovely shots and insights, so I'm happy.
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Date: 2012-04-23 02:39 pm (UTC)If he was being sarcastic (with a touch of irony...."home cooking" is the food he gets on the road, which is his home...it's consistent the same way home cooking would be....) I would totally heart that!
I think it was the instinct nature of him checking that I loved. It just seemed so normal... and incidental.
Am I right in thinking that was 2 different motel rooms?
Yikes! I better check that... I know the boys are in a motel room with white distressed furniture but was that Annie's room? Where they were having that research??...ooh... I have to check that. (though there is a white piece of furniture under those seagulls...?)
maybe because every peril possible has already played out on this show, but I miss the intensity of emotions
I hear ya. It's perhaps lost its urgency, a goal or means to an ends but I'm still so damn hooked and wrapped up in it all. I'm actually really enjoying them just being brothers again. With any other show I would probably be totally over it but...I just can't...*clings*
I have to say I'm not feeling the depression though. I mean.. there is definitely a feeling of tiredness or weariness, which I suppose goes with the territory of everything they have been through. Hmmmm... I'll be interested to see where it goes from here. It's hard to imagine them ever being in the same mental place that they were in say....well, every damn season so far!! (which both pleases and worries me....)
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Date: 2012-04-22 11:21 pm (UTC)That was my major issue with this episode (there were many others, like why did Bobby and Annie need to find the secret candelabra to enter the head ghost's room to find the bodies? Why not just walk through the wall?)
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Date: 2012-04-23 03:00 pm (UTC)Hmmmm... what about that girl in the mental ward with Sam? Her brother was tied to her bracelet yeah?. I can't remember what the story was with his bones though. I know they have often come across ghost who didn't have bones to burn. My feeling was that Bobby decided to stay and had to attach himself to an object and that was it.
So wouldn't Dean feel guilty for carrying it around and knowing Bobby is still attached to it?
Dean has only just found out that it was the flask that was keeping Bobby tied to this realm so I don't think he's had a chance to decide what to do with that yet. I think that will be a future dilemma.
Wouldn't he want to burn it or whatever to put Bobby to rest?
Ay. There lies the rub. I think this will be the whole point. Bobby has chosen to stay to help his boys. Will they decide that they don't need him and be rid of the flask?. Curious...
but then why is his ghost attached to the flask?
I'm thinking mostly because it's an important object to Bobby AND to Dean. It's a personal object.
My major issues were things like...how could Bobby drink Dean's beer in that really early ep and yet couldn't pick up an object in this one?? Why did Annie not face her reaper? She chose to be at rest but why did she have to tell Bobby that and not her reaper? The whole ghost thing opened up a lot of questions.
And yeah.. the whole walking through walls was weird. I suspect that was only there to build the tension - having to pull the candelabra.
I think I mostly handwaved a lot of those questions. (I often do...) I mostly latch onto the essence of what they are trying to tell us in an ep. Here I felt it was the problem of what to do with ghost!bobby. And how sad it is that Bobby decided to hang on...
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Date: 2012-04-23 07:50 pm (UTC)There were a bunch of episodes like that. But apparently they can change canon to suit their needs...at first it was a physical piece of the person left behind, and then it was something the person used, I guess. I suppose it's possible that *anything* they kept of Bobby's -- from his books to the flask -- could be used to tether him to this plane? Which doesn't make sense as far as them fighting ghosts go. If *any* personal object tethers a ghost here, then how could they possibly find it? It could be anything.
If we agree that ghosts can be kept behind either with personal objects or with things like hair or nails or whatever, wouldn't Dean already know this and thus not want to keep the flask just in case? As in, he's dealt with this stuff before and wouldn't want to take a chance Bobby might somehow be trapped here because of it? That's what I meant with him feeling guilty. He already knows this can happen.
As far as Annie not facing her Reaper, there was a bit of dialogue in which she tells Bobby no one came for her, as I recall.
I don't mind hand-waving things, but they're messing with the established way the show works (plus the beer drinking as you mentioned) as far as ghosts go. I'm still wondering if anyone told Emanuel's wife what happened to him from a few weeks ago!
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Date: 2012-04-24 01:24 pm (UTC)I find this really curious. Dean has been holding onto the flask as a connection and a reminder to Bobby. He hasn't been prepared to let him go and yet when he found out he was actually around, it became something he might not actually want. I don't think Dean actually considered the possibility of Bobby staying which is kind of ridiculous knowing the world they live in. Same way they didn't believe all those "mysteries" that were occurring around them.... They should really be attuned to that. I think also, because we knew what was happening long before they did, it showed them up as being pretty slow on the uptake. There was just too much "spelling it out" for my liking.
And yes, show often does change things to meet their story needs - which is very frustrating at times. I'm not as bothered with the ghost remaining thing as I have been with other things (Brady!).
And arghh.... I really hope they don't forget Emanuel's wife. I have no idea why Cas had to be married. A girlfriend or friend maybe but a wife complicates matters. Unless that becomes important later on. (which I would be cool with...)
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Date: 2012-04-23 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-24 01:07 pm (UTC)I wonder how many other awesome hunters they know...lurking about the place...
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Date: 2012-04-28 03:28 pm (UTC)Who else was hoping we'd get a shot of him actually stepping out of the shower?
Show is SUCH a tease!
LOOK AT THOSE SEAGULLS! There's a seaside theme in this room
I thought no one else had noticed those gulls, what with Dean being all naked in the background, so yay! And you know, I have my own theory about the presence of those gulls, what with the town they were in being named Bodega Bay and all. :D
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Date: 2012-04-28 03:35 pm (UTC)