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Supernatural: The Memory Remains

You might say these two photograph well.
"The next time you hear me say that our family is messed up, remind me that we could be psycho goat people."

An interesting episode. It made me laugh a lot, so I don't think I took it too seriously.

So here we had a twisted version of the Winchesters, with two brothers who had a particularly ugly legacy: their father ran a meat packing plant and sacrificed innocent people to "Black Bill," a satyr that enjoys snacking down on human blood. One brother, Sheriff Bishop, chose to devote his life to taxidermy, beard-growing and fighting crime, while the other decided it was time to restart the "family business" and kill people again.

Despite the snarky introduction to Sheriff Bishop, I knew the minute they introduced him that Pete Garfinkle had to be the monster, so – not exactly subtle, guys. Plus, the name of the meat packing plant was "Billhook Meats," another obvious clue as to where the evil was happening.


While the boys were searching the "Addams family" estate and exploring the kill room in the basement, Mr. Ketch was searching every inch of the Men of Letters bunker for the Colt and finding only a collection of Busty Asian Beauties and Dean's treasured tiny photo of himself and Mary. Come on, Ketch, with the small amount of photos Dean has, don't you think he'll miss that one in particular? I kept hoping the boys would have been prepared for a bunker invasion or that they would stumble onto the bug Ketch left, but why should they? They're hunters, not spies.

The best thing about this episode was some truly lovely brother moments. The big one was the scene at the end where the two of them were talking about their own legacy. Sam said he was okay with being forgotten because the people they've saved are the Winchester legacy; they left the world better than they found it. They carved their initials into the table, a little call back to a much earlier episode, and talked about another hunter possibly moving in and continuing the work after the two of them are gone.

I also really enjoyed the bit with the egg white omelet (especially Dean's face when he took a bite), the exchange about Dean picking up the waitress, Dean walking into the meat packing plant and saying he was hungry, followed by the squirting of a great deal of ketchup on his burger. Dean being restrained by plastic wrap made me laugh, too.

Plus, we learned that the Colt can kill a mythological god. For what it's worth. And again, that Dean should never leave Sam behind in a basement.

Bits:

— The opening death and the second death, Jarrod and Daryn, both quite sad. As usual, there were solid bits of characterization that made me care about them. At least a little.

— Moloch the satyr was also a big bad on Sleepy Hollow. I'm pretty sure Moloch was mentioned in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, too.

— Dean had a nice liaison with a waitress named Carmen, and nothing bad happened to her.

— Mick has "gone back to London." Dean and Sam will probably never know that he's dead.

— I assume that was real snow. Very pretty.

— Again, no Castiel. What's going on with him?

— This week: Tomahawk, Wisconsin, and both MoL bunkers. The Winchesters were agents Stark and Martell. Not rock music this time.

— There will be a brief hiatus. The next new episode airs April 27.

Quotes:

Sam: "I stayed up all night going through every book we have on demons, and it turns out we have a lot of books on demons."

Sam: "Oh, don't do the hot coffee thing."
Dean: (to the waitress) "Boy, this coffee is hot. Kind of like... hi, what's your name?"

Dean: "We've got a goat dude with a name like a pirate, which is a little insane even for us. And that bar is super high."

Sam: "It's a satyr. Half man, half goat, from Greek mythology."
Dean: "Oh, come on. This guy's adorable. He plays a freaking flute."

Ketch: "Dr. Hess wants to know everything about our friends the Winchesters. Their allies, their habits, how does Sam get his hair so shiny, how many ratty flannels does Dean own."

Dean: "Why is it always the rich ones? I mean, what are they, like, 'Croquet's all right, but do you know what would be great? Murder.'"

Pete: "I'm a Bishop! That's what we do, right? Hunting people. Killing them. The family business."

Sam: "How are you feeling?"
Dean: "Like I just went twelve rounds with a god, so, you know, normal."

Dean: "So now we're reporting to low rent Christian Bale?"

Sam: "The people we saved, they're our legacy. And they'll remember us and then I guess, we'll eventually fade away, too. That's fine, because we left the world better than we found it, you know."

A reasonably good episode. Two and a half out of four ratty flannels,

Billie
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Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

11 comments:

  1. I especially loved this episode because of the sweet brotherly moments, Billie. Those scenes where they were carving their initials into the table in the bunker interspersed with scenes of them doing the same as kids in the Impala brought tears to my eyes. Their legacy WILL be the people they have saved. The brothers must never doubt that. As for Mick, I really hope they somehow find out his fate. Perhaps Cas will tell them? Or Crowley? I want vengeance for him. Maybe Mary will be the one to get that, because I suspect she will do away with Ketch in the end--perhaps sacrificing herself in the process. So many feels, past, present and future! And now we have another hellatus? Boooooo! Love, Robin

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  2. I really liked the twisted version of the Winchester motto from season one.

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  3. As much as I loved the brother scene at the end it made me uneasy, as if they're foreshadowing something. Like maybe their days in the MOL bunker are numbered

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  4. i realy loved the brother moment, but I felt the oppisite from B666.
    It realy got me emotinal like the MolB is another emotinly encor, a home.

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  5. Sometimes I wish I didn't read your reviews because they make me notice something completely trivial that just ends up bugging me... In this episode it was the mention of Dean's "ratty flannels". I only realised they were talking about his shirts when reading the review where my brain was more tuned into American English. As a Brit, and hearing a British accent, I had automatically interpreted Ketch to mean 'hand towels'. It makes no difference to the plot at all but I'm now annoyed at the writers for having Ketch say something that is simply not how a Brit would say it - especially to other Brits!

    p.s. I love reading these reviews - thank you for writing them.

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  6. You're very welcome, Lizzy. And thanks to Supernatural and J squared for being awesome enough to write about.

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  7. Yes, Moloch was the monster in one of the worst Buffy episodes: I Robot, You Jane.

    Did Ketch steal the photo? Or just study it? He seems to have some feelings for Mary. But don't spoil me!

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  8. I should really wait until watching the end of an episode before commenting.

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  9. I too cried at the brothers' quiet moment at the end... They have been through so much, and they could have turned evil by now but their brotherly bond keeps them alive and moving forward. Yes, they have stared into the Abyss but thankfully they have been pulled back from the edge. They deserve rest and peace until then Thankfully they have each other and their "family" to keep them strong.

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