Home Featured TV Shows All TV Shows Movie Reviews Book Reviews Articles Frequently Asked Questions About Us

Supernatural: Shut Up, Dr. Phil

Dean: "Another physically impossible death. You got any ideas?"
Sam: "Cirque de Soleil?"

A tiny beating heart in the center of a cupcake. That's not something you see every day.

This one was obviously about the fact that the brothers aren't talking. Or more accurately, that Dean isn't talking to Sam about something important. Note that they didn't defeat the monsters this time, and they also didn't end the episode with a quiet talk somewhere out there while leaning against the hood of the car. No clearing the air. Air, very much not clear.

Don and Maggie Stark are doing just fine, though. Their eight-hundred-year-old marriage was saved. Don was even grateful enough to the Winchesters to save them from their own hair dryer slash brain roast. Not much the boys could have done to bring down two witches that old and powerful. Hmm... much like another unkillable nemesis that coincidentally just showed up on their tail. Good thing Don was around retrieving Romanian charm coins at the time with helpful advice about bottomless pits.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite show of all time, so of course, I got a big charge out of tonight's episode. But objectively, not taking the guest stars into consideration, I thought that it was just a fairly good dark comedy episode, not exceptional. The climax, with Dean and Sam doing their best Dr. Phil impressions as Don and Maggie were tossing them around the house, was genuinely funny. I liked the cloud of bees around Dean's head, especially the way it looked from a distance. I would not be at all upset if they brought Don and Maggie back. Or maybe Don, since he seemed a lot more reasonable and less homicidal than Maggie. (Although one wonders where he got the eyeball in Sue's martini.)

Sam is on a health kick, while Dean's alcoholism is worsening and he's having nightmares. Man, they simply cannot be on the same page at the same time, can they? If Dean has started hitting a flask while on the job, Dean desperately needs to talk about what's bothering him. But if he tells Sam what he did to Amy, it's hard to tell how Sam will take it. I expect this particular problem will come to the fore pretty soon, probably during sweeps.

Bits and pieces:

— The hair dryer death was gagworthy. I'm glad they didn't show the hot tub. The nail gun death was something that crosses my mind every time I watch a home improvement show.

— The statue of Don Stark looked like Leonardo di Caprio as J. Edgar. Really subtle product placement? (I'm kidding.)

— Maggie had established her own charity. We can assume she wasn't killing people all the time, or Prosperity, Indiana would have shown up under a search for "freaky accidents" much sooner.

— Those paintings were awful. The melted versions looked better than the originals.

— Sue, Maggie's best friend who got decapitated by the silver tray, was acting seriously weird. I thought she was behind it all. Maybe she was just bewitched by Maggie. Loose plot string?

— This week: Prosperity, Indiana. And another almost normal-looking motel room, although it was decorated in a basketball motif. I sort of miss the really weird ones. Sam was "Agent Sambora" (Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi).

Bewitched and War of the Roses were mentioned, but not Buffy. I imagine it would have been hard to work it in for an episode about really old and powerful witches.

— If you're not a fan, James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter were cast members on both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff show, Angel. Oddly enough, now that I'm thinking about it, Marsters sort of replaced Carpenter on both shows.

Quotes:

Jenny: "There were tiny beating hearts in my cupcakes. There were hearts in my cupcakes. HEARTS IN MY CUPCAKES! That's never happened before! Hearts in my cupcakes!"

Dean: "Can you take the feet?"

Maggie: "Let me guess. Chicken feet? Not chilled?"

Dean: "You want to keep that dance going. Maybe it's punishment. Maybe it's sick, messed up, erotic kinky clamps and feathers kind of love..."

Maggie: "I've had eight hundred years of this! Do not make me bring up the Renaissance!"

Don: "I told you! Nothing happened with the Medici chick."

Dean: "Something happens, I feel responsible. All right? The Lindbergh baby? That's on me. Unemployment? My bad."

So far, season seven has been a bit hit or miss, much like the beginning of season six. This one was a hit, but it didn't blow me away. Three out of four tiny, beating hearts in cupcakes,

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

16 comments:

  1. I kinda got the impression that Sue was in love with Maggie myself, actually.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sue didn't really seem to be acting weird to me. I kinda thought that she was acting like a normal, somewhat shallow, possibly fake best friend.

    I thought the episode was pretty good. I love James and Charisma, so seeing them together as husband and wife was just simply amazing. And the counseling scene was hilarious.

    I'm maintaining that Castiel is going to be the body for the Big Boss. You don't really see dead characters that much once they're gone for good. So just the fact that we saw Dean having a nightmare about him tells me that Cas is going to have something major to do some time soon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I agree with Greg that Sue seemed to be in love with Maggie.

    And Sam was "Agent Sambora" as in Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi. Dean would be so proud.

    Thanks for the review.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I thought they were setting Sue up to be more than a victim, that's all. It felt like they were going to do more with her.

    Thanks for the Sambora info, Deborah. I knew I'd heard the name before but couldn't place it. I'll correct my review.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sam signing in as ANON, as having issues with my Google!!!

    Is it me, or does Charisma look really old? I knoe Buffy as filmed a while ago and she was older than the other cast members from her year of school, but it shocked me.

    Anyhoo, I'm tagenting!!

    Liked the episode, but didn't love it. It was fun to see James and Charisma back on the screen, but if they were normal guest actors, I don't think I'd have cared as much.

    This was my least fave of the series so far, but it is Supernatural and a bad episode of Supernatural is still way better than a lot of garbage that gets airtime!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, I, too, thought Sue had "lesbie" friends intentions toward Maggie, but Maggie was pretty indifferent toward Sue. I kept wishing the feelings between Don and Maggie were hotter, given that they were killing each other in jealous rage, but there was little chemistry, IMHO. I found the scene in which Dean and Sam were analyzing the witches while getting the crap beaten out of them hilarious, but one of these days, Sam is going to learn the truth about Amy and their relationship is going to suffer, if not collapse altogether. Sigh! I don't want that! Love, Robin

    ReplyDelete
  7. They went to a lot of trouble to set those coins clearly in Vlad Tepes's time line. Romania. 15th Century. More specifically, Wallachia. Then nothing. He was the original "Vampire" so maybe that was a nod to Spike from Buffy. I thought it was a lot of trouble just to drop it.

    And, yes, for a while there, I thought maybe Sue was behind it all because she wanted Maggie all to herself and so much as said so.

    I thought they could have used James and Charisma much better even though it was a fun episode.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Well, I am a biased Buffy/Angel fan so I just loved this one! It was sooo much fun to see Charisma and James back together.

    Loved the Don & Maggie fight at the end. "You're the woman I would love to never grow old with." LOL!

    PS. As I think of it, I don't think that C & J had any scenes together at all on Buffy, though they both were in 10+ episodes in season 2-3. Just a couple of scenes in the Angel episodes 'In the dark' and 'You're welcome'.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I liked it but it felt like it could have been better. And I think Dean needs to come clean about Amy.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I'm another viewer who rates this episode lowest of the season so far but it's still a thumbs up. I liked what I saw but I sort of think they stretched about 25-30 minutes of material into a full episode.

    So witches have enough power to stop - or at least contain - Leviathan? Interesting. This is the second time they have walked away from a very powerful witch and felt lucky to get away with their lives. Patrick from "Curious Case of Dean Winchester" being the other one.

    I suspect we will have several more episodes of the Amy secret but I hope I'm wrong. I'm ready to get that over with. I'm also ready to get on with the Leviathan threat. They haven't really scared me that much so far.

    As always thanks for your review, Billie.

    RoseCompose

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow. Having Spike as a guest star is enough to make any sane person (= buffyholyc) stare at the screen drooling, but Cordy on top of that? Married? To each other? I can't help but think something is pretty bad if they have to push that hard.

    One other thing: I think Spike pulled this eyeball from the same hat Cordy got all this tiny hearts from.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Really disappointed that there were no Buffyverse references. In a show that makes off-hand references to other shows ALL THE TIME, it is truly surprising that there were none when you have two previous stars present. Missed opportunity for goofiness. bummer...

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great review Billie.

    I have to say though, I'm not sure that this episode is as mind-blowing as some others say it is. Don't get me wring, I really liked it, but I think some others were a little too biased given the guest cast (who were superb, there's no denying it), but as you've said it was still a good episode anyway.

    Is anyone else really missing Cas? I know this series, at it's core, is about the two brothers but he always provided a bit of relief from the two of them.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This episode felt really off. It's great to see Spike and Cordelia again, but apart from that not much got my attention.

    But nonetheless Supernatural will always be the best show with a 2 person cast on tv. :)

    Bobby was only on the phone, so he won;t be appearing in every episode this season. Can't have it all i guess.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The three J's (James, Jensen, Jared) all on the same screen at the same time. TV doesn't get much better than this -- at least potentially.

    I enjoyed it, but felt that a lot of it was weaker than it could have been. And, I agree with Dr. Alice -- there could have been at least one reference to Buffy or Angel which would have been a lot of fun.

    Dean is slipping off the edge big time. I hope something happens soon to bring him back.

    ReplyDelete
  16. This episode is what would have happened if Spike and Cordelia had got married. I swear, JM even went a tiny bit British once or twice.

    ReplyDelete

We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.