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Supernatural: My Heart Will Go On

Sam: "You totally butterfly-effected history."
Dean: "Dude, dude. Rule one, no Kutcher references."

My first impression? Good standalone episode that managed to combine The Butterfly Effect and Final Destination by way of Titanic. Very funny in a sick sort of way, the sort of dark comedy they do best.

But then I thought about it.

I get that there was a domino effect and that things changed, but the Ellen/Jo stuff felt shoehorned into the story just so that there would be personal stakes for the boys and Bobby. (Not that I didn't like seeing Ellen again. And Bobby and Ellen worked as a couple, didn't they? They completed each other. So sad.)


And what has happened to Castiel? Did he really just play God with the lives of 50,000 people because he wants more souls for his civil war? He lied to Dean and Sam about it, too. I will say again that I want to know what's going on in Heaven. The season is ending soon, people.

The deaths were pretty funny in a squishy ick sort of way, although for me, the best scene was "One Way or Another" with the jugglers, knives, hatchets, fire, attack dogs and malfunctioning nail guns. Laugh out loud funny. The big thingy falling on Sam and Dean was reminiscent of "Mystery Spot." It even looked like it was on the same street.

And I liked Fate. Maybe it was the librarian look. Now that the timeline has changed back, will the boys still be hunted by Fate, and/or her two bigger and scarier sisters? They're a target for everyone else, so why not?

I used to be something of a Titanic buff before the movie came out and suddenly everyone was a Titanic buff. Like the Kennedy assassination and Jack the Ripper, the Titanic was such a huge, tragic news story that it lends itself to geek obsession and science fiction stories. I bet in a few years, when it is no longer so close and fresh, 9/11 will turn up in time travel stories. And wow, I really digressed there, didn't I? Let me digress some more.

Why I don't hate Titanic
by Billie Doux

Seriously, I do like the movie, for one big reason: the accuracy and attention to detail? Phenomenal. Cameron managed to get practically everything in there; what you see on the screen (except for the two lead characters and their families) is by most accounts what actually happened. Yes, as a movie, I'll admit it's flawed; it suffers from too much plot. But I remember Cameron got flack for casting Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, and they've both got major successful acting careers going on, don't they?

Titanic bits and pieces. Why? Because I know Titanic stuff:

— This episode aired April 15, 2011, the 99th anniversary of the sinking of Titanic. Fate stopped the clock at the moment it hit the iceberg: 11:40.

— The travel agency was called "E.J. Smith Co." E.J. Smith was the captain of the Titanic and went down with the ship.

— For the record, the name of Titanic's first officer was Will Murdoch, not I.P. Freeley. :)

— I thought the story sort of needed a scene set on Titanic, too, although that would either look contrived, or it would be too much for their budget, or both. A few bars by Celine Dion (I hate that song, too) didn't quite cut it.

— What was with the weird beer bottle in the opening scene? Did it have an iceberg on it?

Bits and pieces:

— The death by photocopier was similar to the death of Isadora Duncan, who was choked by her long scarf. (Except it was a car that killed her, not a photocopier.)

— There were two fun posters in the travel agency for Cuba ("America's Holiday Destination") and Detroit ("Voted America's Top City.")

— Extreme closeups of Bobby and Ellen during the scene where they talked about the fact that she and Jo were supposed to be dead. Interesting choice for the director.

— Have we seen that Mustang before? It looked familiar.

— They recreated at least one of the freaky death scenes from Final Destination (shudder). I wish they'd mentioned the movie to give it some sideways credit.

— This week: Chester, Pennsylvania. Dean masqueraded as a genealogist. This week's motel room was interesting: it was a black and white mixed pattern sort of thing. Was it a statement about Fate being black or white, no shades of gray, maybe?

Quotes:

Bobby: "You want to stand there and therapize, or do you wanna get me some coffee? Make it Irish."
Points for creating a new verb.

Dean: "Any ties to the Nazi party?"
Russo: "Excuse me?"
Dean: "Did grandma ever piss off a gypsy?"

Travel agent: "If you like cigars, Cher or the circus, it's all about Havana."

Dean: "Why did you unsink the ship?"
Balthazar: "Because I hated the movie."
Dean: "What movie?"
Balthazar: "Exactly."
Sam: "Wait. So you saved a cruise liner because..."
Balthazar: "Because that godawful Celine Dion song made me want to smite myself."
Sam: "Who's Celine Dion?"
Balthazar: "She's a destitute lounge singer somewhere in Quebec, and let's keep it that way, please."

Balthazar: "Sorry, you have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dusty trench coat who's in love with you?"

Dean: "Too soon?"
Sam: "Yeah, Dean. I'm pretty sure six seconds is too soon."
How can you not love a personal injury lawyer getting hit by a bus that had his ad on the back?

Dean: "What's she look like?"
Sam: "Kinda like a librarian."
Dean: "Your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian?"
Sam: "Well, she was wearing clothes, if that's what you mean."

Sam: "So you killed 50,000 people for us?"
Geez.

Dean: "Titanic didn't suck that bad. (Sam looks at him) Winslet's rack."

I'd say three out of four Fates,

Billie
---
Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

20 comments:

  1. Maybe I've seen too much Supernatural or too many scary movies, but as soon as the guy opened the garage door and supported it with a piece of wood, I knew that he's going to lose his head with the help of the same door. Big scissors made me doubt for a second, but I was still right. Yuck.

    I couldn't help laughing when Sam and Dean walked down the street waiting for Fate. Wouldn't want to be them.

    I don't like that the writers are making me unlove Castiel. I don't want him to turn into manipulative angel being. He's supposed to be a good guy.

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  2. Yeah, I'm wondering what's up with Cas too...

    I didn't looove this episode, but I liked it a whole lot :-D The relationship between the boys may never be what it was, but their interactions in this episode felt like a return to earlier days. It was a welcome relief from the tension of, well, most of this season so far. And Balthazar is just hilarious.

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  3. I have a bad, bad feeling about Cas. Bad things often happen when people screw with the Fates, and he's becoming more and more human with each episode. It's both making and breaking him.

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  4. You can really believe that Balthazar would un-sink the Titanic simply because he hates the film. I hope his popularity is enough to ensure that Gabriel stays dead...getting rather fed-up with Supernatural bringing back dead characters all the time (on this occasion, for no good reason at all.)

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  5. In a show that's usually so well written, this one just felt kind of lazy to me. You always notice all the little things I don't Billie, like the time and date it aired etc. Everything about the episode was fine except for Ellen and Jo; it was like they brought her back for no reason. She was barley in it and we only saw a glimsp of what should have been a full episode devoted to her and Bobby. Plus... how does unsinking the Titanic mean she's still alive? They really didn't need to do much to explain this. Maybe Ellen's husband fell in love with a survivor descendent so never met Ellen, who never had Jo and so didn't have to die with her in the explosion.
    It was entertaining... but they really are beating around the bush with the angel thing. Still, worth it to see Cas again.

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  6. I'm with you, Anon @ 2:19 a.m. As soon as I saw the dude stick the wood under the garage door I knew he'd die under that door.

    My favorite part of this one was the revelation that Balthazar actually sank the Titanic because Cas asked for his help gaming the system. Like MichievousNinja said, it was entirely believable that he did it out of petty dislike for a Celine Dion song --- loved his line about it making him want to smite himself! --- but it was a great twist to make it something much more than that. Of course, Cas's darker turn is certainly troubling. I hope they are planning to tie the Angel Civil War thread together with the Mother-of-All-Things thread before the end of the season.

    Thanks for the Titanic facts, Billie! This review was very educational. BTW, I also enjoy Titanic. It is a long movie, but an extremely rewatchable one. Plus, Spy Daddy!

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  7. I loved TITANIC the movie, HATE Celine Dion and that horrible song. When Balthazar said it made him want to smite himself, I laughed hard and agreed. To each his own, right?

    I enjoyed this episode so much. Sure, I knew the guy at the beginning was going to be decapitated. If you have watched the show for as long as most of us have, that's predictable. Learning how and why is another matter.

    I write a column for Alice Jester's Winchester Family Business, an excellent site dedicated to all things SUPERNATURAL. Check out my review/synopsis and all the other terrific writers over there for their articles on the show.

    Love,
    Robin

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  9. I quite enjoyed the Titanic part of this episode but couldn't get past the randomness of Ellen and Jo being alive. In one scene they told us only the small details got changed - how does that mesh with the Winchesters lives being drastically different due to Ellen and Jo? I don't see how their lives are a small detail when they are great hunters who would have positively impacted the boys' lives in many ways had Ellen married Bobby. Seems like a bit of a waste of a guest star for a character we cared about a lot.

    Another gripe I had was that we keep hearing tidbits about this Angel War but not enough to understand Cas' decisions nor enough to really care about its outcome. Sure, we want Cas to win, but other than that there are no stakes, it's just an annoyance not to have it centre stage.

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  10. Harry,

    Ellen marrying Bobby did have a positive impact on the boys lives. Didn't you notice how different Sam and Dean were?

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  11. I liked the tiny differences they showed with the Dean and Sam at the beginning, before Balthazar revealed how unsinking the Titanic affected small details as well as the obvious extra 50,000 people. Like the Impala (Mustang?!?) having the old Kansas plates. My favorite though was Dean beating Sam at rock-paper-scissors. I kept thinking "but he beat Sam with scissors. And Sam knows he ALWAYS throws scissors." And then the Balthazar reveal...

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  12. Another one I really liked. Ellen was a joy to watch again but it´s sad, they lost her again.

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  13. That lawyer's ad on the bus that ran him over made me think "Better Call Saul".

    Another ahow that came to mind is Doctor Who and the Time Lord Victorious, even an angel can;t be one. Can't change a fixed point in time or bad things(tm) will happen.

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  14. Took me a while to catch on, but I enjoyed the ride. Very sad to see Ellen for such a short stay.

    I love Balthazar. His reasons for not sinking the boat had me laughing, and I am a fan of the film. He is the comic replacement for Gabriel, so I wish we could have had one scene with the two of them pulling a prank together.

    The scene with the boys walking down the street was hilarious. They both do physical comedy so, so well. Add in their facial expressions and we get comedic gold.

    Thought the bit at the end where Dean tucks up Bobby was very sweet. We seldom get to see a tender side to any of these characters.

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  15. Poor Zob, I assume he/she is sharing spoilers in almost every post. Maybe they'll get it soon ;)

    The comedic parts of this episode were great. The look on Dean's face when he beat Sam at Rock, Paper, Scissors...excellent.

    The rest of the episode was just meh. I love the characters new and old but the story was majorly lacking.

    It was a nice introduction to Fate. I loved how she was a type A personality and a major ocd control freak about her details, how they turned out and the keeping of her very detailed log. I hope we do get to meet her sisters later on.

    As always you had all of my favorite quotes Billie - excellent review.

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  16. Thanks, Meesh! Zob got mad at us for objecting to his occasional trolling and in a fit of pique, removed every comment he'd ever made. Oh, well.

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  17. I love Balthazar, though he is an obvious replacement for Gabriel. I also love how incredibly obvious it is whenever Castiel lies - I'm surprised the boys haven't cottoned on to that yet.

    I hope Sam and Dean's relationship eventually works its way back to something resembling the early series, because it was so great to see them working together easily again.

    I love Titanic. I also love the song. I was also fascinated by the real ship before the 1997 movie, because I was obsessed with A Night to Remember (plus my family is from near Belfast), so I also have lots of random Titanic knowledge which I occasionally dredge up in lectures on other things. Someday everyone will get over the backlash and realise what a great movie that is.

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  18. Alot of people didn't recognize the bus that hit the lawyer had the number 666

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  19. I absolutely loved this episode, too! Especially the "One Way or Another" scary yet hilarious stroll through tempting fate the brothers Winchester did! And Cass coming in to save them in the very last second was just amazing! I cracked up through most of the references, like Balthazar calling Celine a washed-up lounge singer, and Dean saying "Winslet's rack" made the movie watchable for him! I think it's these positive little touches of reality that give the show such a great balance to all the gore and make us believe in Sam and Dean Winchester as two "regular guys" we'd all like to hang out with (as well as have them save us from monsters, of course!)

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