Teddy Bear: "It's a terrible world! Why am I here?"Audrey: "For tea parties."
Teddy Bear: "Tea parties? (sobs) Is that all there is?"
Absolutely marvelous interpretation of the classic "Monkey's Paw." Although it didn't go quite as dark as I thought it might. Not that I'm complaining.
I absolutely loved the suicidal bigfoot teddy bear; it was laugh out loud funny, over and over again. When it shot itself and stuffing blew out all over the wall, I actually howled. The kid hulking out was good, too, and I liked how Dean helped him resolve his problem in the end. The invisible boy in the shower was okay, although way predictable.
What was best, though, was the serious stuff. (No, okay, the teddy bear was the best part, but the serious stuff was good, too.) Wes realized that there was a dark side to getting the woman he wanted when her soul wasn't in the game. And we were hit over the head with the theme that even with good intentions, magic usually turns out dangerous and wrong. (cough Sam cough)
Uriel got what he wanted; Dean finally told Sam about Hell. I wonder if Uriel made this happen in an attempt to scare Sam straight? If so, I don't think it worked. Sam told Dean that he wouldn't go back to what he once was, the hopeful civilian who wanted to go to law school. Yes, it's cool that Sam has accepted his calling; it's obvious he's into it by now. But "Lilith's head on a plate, bloody"? What is really going on inside of Sam right now?
Gold acting stars for Jensen Ackles for that last scene. It got to me.
Bits and pieces:
— Loved the fake-out opener when you're thinking Psycho but it turned out more like some silly teenage invisible boy movie. Is there a silly teenage invisible boy movie? There must be.
— The waiter with the button-covered suspenders was a hoot. I thought maybe he'd be possessed or something, but no. He was just a wildly enthusiastic waiter with button-covered suspenders. Flair.
— A little inconsistency. Audrey remembered the Winchesters, her teddy's head was bandaged, and her parents were sunburned from being in Bali. But Hope didn't remember Wes. Then again, maybe she didn't want to remember Wes. Poor Wes.
— Concrete, Washington. Great name. It's a real place, too. And waterfront again, which is always a nice change. Extremely rustic and woodsy motel room, verging on the absurd. It even had totems and painted trees on the walls.
— The guys were FBI agents, health inspectors, florists, and teddy bear doctors. No rock names this week. Loved Dean fumbling around for the right fake badge.
Quotes: (and there were a lot of them)
Sam: "I can see you're very interested."
Dean: "Women...showers... we've got to save these people."
Candice: "So what did you say you're calling your book?"
Sam: "Well, the working title is Supernatural. I've been crossing the country gathering stories like yours."
Dean: "Got to tell you, I'm pretty disappointed."
Sam: "Well, you wanted to save naked women."
Dean: "Damn right, I wanted to save some naked women."
Dean: "Bigfoot breaks into a liquor store jonesing for some hooch? Amaretto and Irish Creme. He's a girl-drink drunk."
Sam: "Gotta be a joke. Some big ass mother in a gorilla suit?"
Dean: "Or it's a Bigfoot. Some kind of alcohol-o-porno addict. Kind of like a deep woods Duchovny."
Dean: "Shoot it? Burn it?"
Sam: "I don't know. Both."
Dean: "We don't know that's going to work. I don't want some giant pissed off flaming teddy on our hands."
Sam: "You get what you want, you go really crazy."
Dean: "Yeah. Look at Michael Jackson. Or Hasselhoff."
I think this episode deserves four out of four stars. What did you think?
Billie
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Billie Doux adores Supernatural which is a good thing since apparently, it's eternal.
omigod. That teddy had me laughing so hard I was in tears. This show is the highlite of my week.
ReplyDeleteI think it would have been cool if either Sam or Dean had made a wish, too. Other than the sandwich. But it was great episode. Loved it.
ReplyDeleteJumping Judas on a unicycle: that Teddy was the funniest thing I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteThat teddy bear was hilarious but for me, the best stuff is the last scene. That scene just breaks my heart.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the middle of a rewatch, and there was a Smallville reference. The little boy with the superstrength knocked over a car and yelled, "Kneel before Todd!" :)
ReplyDeleteFor me, that was a reference to Superman 2. Kneel before Zod! General Zod being the head villain of that movie and was one of his lines.
DeleteI'm with Gracie. "Kneel before Todd!" had me howling.
ReplyDeleteOur boys are both in dark places, yet they can't seem to connect to each other. Dean's face when Sam told him his wish was a study. And Sam seems disturbed that Dan refuses to talk to him.
JA knocked that last scene out of the park. He is having an amazing season.
I thought Dean helping out the kid who had just tried to kill him so the kid wouldn't get beat up anymore was so sweet! It made me even more annoyed about Dean being labeled a dick a few episodes ago.
ReplyDeleteHeres a interesting fact a 44/16 is the code for treating kids with autism with legal rights.......huh
ReplyDeleteIt may not be my favorite of the funny episodes, but it definitely has a place in my heart. Funny and, per the last scene, important for the overall arc. Jensen, as always, was phenomenal with the humor and the feels.
ReplyDeleteFact: Even about to go into S13, Jensen still remembers this last scene first, whenever asked what was most difficult for him to shoot. He has stated on several occasions that when the director yelled cut, his emotions didn't. He took a walk down the road for half an hour, trying to get over it. That really says something about his commitment to Dean Winchester.
Fun fact: At a convention, Jared and Jensen were each asked who they would pick from the characters of the show to go into a cage match together. Jensen chose the Impala and Jared chose the teddy bear from this episode. Just imagining that makes me laugh.
I agree kneel before Todd was awesome
ReplyDeleteMy #1 best weird thing I've seen on TV is still the octopus scene from season 2 of the OA.
ReplyDeleteBUT my new #2 best weird thing I've seen on TV is the giant teddy bear trying to blow its brains (stuffing?) out... and failing! How do you explain that to someone that doesn't watch the show :P
I am rewatching this entire series now. I thought of saying something on some of the previous episodes, but I have stopped myself, because anything I say seems sort of irrelevant now that the show has been over for a couple of years. But I wanted to say something about this episode, because I can't decide how I feel about it.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I agree with everyone about the scenes with the teddy bear. But now that that's out of the way, I'm fairly certain that we're supposed to feel worse for Hope than for Wes, but I still have some sympathy for him. He couldn't have been sure his wish would work before it happened, but I do know what it is like to feel the crush of unrequited love. I have felt it almost my whole life, because I'm so socially awkward that I rarely go on dates, because every woman I ask says no. And after a while, it becomes soul-crushing. I'm not saying he should necessarily be forgiven, because what he did to her was completely wrong on a number of levels, and I'm not discounting that. But I still feel bad for him at the end, too. He had what he thought he wanted and he had to give it up. How hard must that have been? Part of me is glad she doesn't remember it, and I hope she goes on to live a happy life, but I also want him to find someone, too. No one should be alone and loneliness is all too common. I really wanted to jump into the TV when she asked if she knew him after he took back the coin, to tell him to say something. Not something creepy or anything, but just to introduce himself. I guess there is a part of me that wants to see some heartwarming, Disney-fied moments, such as him introducing himself to her, and her actually starting to notice him on her own, without the whole mind-controlling wish thing. On the other hand, I didn't get into Supernatural expecting to find much in the way of heartwarming or Disney-fied anything.
I guess I found the crux of the episode to be very depressing, because I identify, at least partially, with Wes. I have a lot of good in my life right now; I have a good job, I work 100% remote, I get paid well, I have a place I like in an area I like, I have an annual pass to Disney and I go almost every other weekend, and my life is generally exactly the way I would wish it, except for that one thing. And I try not to feel bad about it, because I want to just appreciate what I have instead. And sometimes it works. And sometimes, not so much.
I think loneliness is a major theme of Supernatural and this episode is no exception. So many of the things that happen to characters stem from them trying to fill what’s missing from their lives. And much of that emptiness is a lack of love and comaraderie. But it also shows the flip side. Supernatural always comes down on the side of love. Love takes many forms it’s not just about finding a significant other. The family member who would do anything for you. Or the friend who brings you comfort. Or a group of people who love the same things you do. You’ll find your people eventually even if it’s not in the way you thought. After all, family don’t end with blood.
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