Dean: "Our working theory is that we're looking for some kind of vengeful spirit."
Diana: "Excuse me?"
Dean: "You know. Casper the bloodthirsty ghost?"
Is it me, or is Linda Blair still really creepy?
Poor Diana. One day she's your average homicide detective, and the next, she's hunting for a vengeful spirit in order to salt and burn its bones. She had to choose between her boyfriend the cop and two very strange young men with criminal records, and I liked that she saw the truth staring her in the face and didn't even hesitate. I also liked the twist that Claire the spirit wasn't vengeful after all; she was just trying to save other people. Which she did.
Dean and Sam break the law constantly. It made total sense that their lifestyle would catch up with them, that the cops would finally realize that Dean wasn't dead and that they'd reopen the St. Louis murder case. I really liked the calm, determined way both of the boys kept working the case, even while they were being grilled by the cops – as if being arrested for murder just wasn't worth getting all that worked up about. Maybe for them, it wasn't.
Lots of movie references. Dean quoted The Shining twice. He used a reference to The Great Escape to tell Sam to break out of the interrogation room. And, of course, there was that final nod to The Exorcist. The title of this episode was from, okay, the Kevin Spacey movie, but also from what is probably the most quoted movie of all time: Casablanca.
Bits and pieces:
— Dean was cleared of the Baltimore murders, but is still wanted for St. Louis.
— Sam is now 23.
— Karen's lights went out, her phone stopped working, and her printer started going nuts and printing weird horror movie crap. And she just stayed in the house. I think I'd climb out the window and run through the streets screaming at the top of my lungs.
— This week, we went to Baltimore, Maryland. The motel was a hoot: psychedelic sixties wallpaper. I bet the set designers have a ball creating those weird-ass kitschy motel rooms.
— Dean and Sam were insurance agents.
— Should Jared Padalecki have even pretended to break down a brick wall with a cast on his arm?
Quotes:
Sam: "I needed some time off, to deal. So I'm taking a road trip with my brother."
Diana: "How's that going for you?"
Sam: "Great. I mean, we saw the second-largest ball of twine in the continental U.S. Awesome."
Dean: "What do you think, Scully. Check it out?"
Sam: "I'm not Scully. You're Scully."
Dean: "No, I'm Mulder. You're a redheaded woman."
Dean: "What do you think? Vengeful spirit, underline vengeful?"
Pete: "Talk directly into the camera. Start by stating your name for the record."
Dean: "My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women. And I did not kill anyone." Loved how he told the cops the exact truth, knowing they would never believe him.
Dean: "Go to the first motel listed in the yellow pages. Look for Jim Rockford. It's how we find each other when we're separated."
The boys both called their lawyer Matlock, too. Two television references along with the movie ones.
Sam: "Nice lady."
Dean: "Yeah, for a cop. Does she look familiar to you?"
Sam: "No. Why?"
Dean: "I dunno. Anyway, are you hungry?"
Sam: "No."
Dean: "For some reason, I could really go for some pea soup."
Three out of four stars,
Billie
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Billie Doux adores Supernatural which is a good thing since apparently, it's eternal.
Another great one and I totally love this episode! Loved seeing Linda Blair and the brothers were a hoot.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea who that actress was that played the detective so I was completely clueless as to what Sam and Deans last lines were in reference to but google came through and I realized she was the girl from the exprcist and vomited all that pea soup. Really great of the writers to toss that in randomly at the end, funny stuff.
ReplyDeleteLol nice
DeleteTwo other TV references:
ReplyDeleteThe first murder victim was Anthony Giles, but pronounced with a hard g. I heard an interview with Josh Whedon once who said he could always tell when 'fans' were blowing smoke because they would inevitably pronounce the name with a hard g.
The second was the allusion to 'redrum'. Famous for being 'murder' spelled backwards, it has been used many times in film and TV titles - even the 'X-Files'.
I have to agree with Billie that the next time my lights flicker, I am running screaming from the house. And the pea soup line was hilarious.
On a more personal note, I grew up equidistant between Philly (last week's locale) and Baltimore (this week's). As I can guarantee that the boys will never make it to my hometown, I am happy to have them so close to my family two weeks in a row. :-)
I'm really glad all the law-breaking is catching up with them a bit, and that it's been acknowledged that Dean being wanted for murder would probably be a problem. I'm still overly bothered by stupid things like how can credit card fraud pay for everything (I like to imagine Bobby had property somewhere and arranged for Dean to receive the rent or something) and where on earth they keep all their suits and uniforms and dog collars and equipment while driving around in that clean, empty car with a fairly small boot.
ReplyDeleteI would forgive all of that, though, if we could have some more female characters who aren't sexualised (mostly by Dean). I thought Linda Blair might count, but then her love life became part of the plot. So far I can only think of Karen the cop, Ellen and maybe Cassie's mum and Aunt Zelda from Sabrina the Teenage Witch as non-sexualised female characters in the whole series...
Another TV reference. Dean calls Pete "Ponch", which I took as a reference to Eric Estrada's character Poncharella in CHiPs. Showing my age there!!
ReplyDeleteI'm a long-time lurker, Billie. Rewatching Supernatural from the start and loving your reviews just as much this time around!
PurpleNurple, always love comments from a long time lurker. I missed the CHiPs reference -- never watched it. Too much TV, not enough time.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the comment, Billie. I'm chuffed!! CHiPs might have been before your time!
ReplyDeleteI love your site. You got me into Buffy, which I missed when it was actually airing. Thanks for all your hard work and general loveliness. X
PurpleNurple, you're so very welcome! And I love your handle. That's from the two episodes in a row that made me fall for Supernatural in the first place. :)
ReplyDelete