"I'm gonna die. I should have taken that job at Google."
And now for something completely different.
If we ever doubted that the Supernatural writing team has geek cred, that doubt is certainly gone now. This episode was like Mission: Impossible or 24 (complete with split screens but with monsters) and it also included references to a dozen sci-fi/fantasy movies and television shows.
Felicia Day really does light up a genre show. (Day. Light. get it?) She was absolutely adorkable as a hacker Charlie Bradbury, who rescued Frank Devereux's hard drive from Dick Roman and company. I was almost certain she would end up getting killed and eaten, since every terrific female character on this series eventually dies horribly, but no. They could even bring her back, couldn't they? Wouldn't it be great if they did?
It was sad watching Bobby watch Charlie doing what was usually his job. And even though I was biting my nails for Charlie, it was Bobby who was in real danger because he couldn't help getting his venge-on when he was anywhere near Dick Roman. Bobby did get to save Charlie and the boys with cool ghost stuff, like shattering the glass doors and throwing Dick across the room. Unfortunately, that included breaking Charlie's arm. It's really too bad that mailing the flask to RRE headquarters wasn't an option, because I thought it was a great idea. Bobby just needs to stay Zen and avoid that violent, killing anger, huh? We don't want the boys to have to burn that flask.
They're going to have to burn the flask, aren't they?
I should probably comment on the Soylent Green reveal. Even though I saw it coming several episodes ago, it was still pretty creepy. Dick Roman is creepy. He is so smarmy and jovial, and the way he uses his eyes just makes him feel like an alien. I haven't been into the Leviathan thing this season, but it looks like it'll go out with a bang. At least I'm hoping it'll go out. I'm ready for something else.
So what's in the hunk of red clay? ("What's in the box?") A secret weapon that works on Leviathans? That would be good, because there just isn't enough borax in the world.
Dean was fun with Charlie, but it was Sam who got a chance to really show off his geek cred. Should I even try to track the references? Okay, I'll give it a whirl. Please post a comment on what I missed and I'll add it to the list.
— Star Wars
— Lord of the Rings
— Harry Potter
— War Games
— Indiana Jones
— Veronica Mars
— Zero Charisma (which is about D&D)
— Soylent Green, of course, and the classic short story, To Serve Man
— Charlie and Harry drank from Wonder Woman and Batman mugs
— Star Trek (When Charlie said goodbye to the boys, she flashed them the Vulcan salute)
— "Charlie Bradbury" was a reference to the brilliant Charley in Flowers for Algernon and fantasy author Ray Bradbury
— The title of the episode was a cross between Dungeons and Dragons and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Okay, what'd I miss?
Bits and pieces:
— Points for an outstanding episode title. Seriously. They do a lot of creative episode titles, but this one was special.
— I also thought the introduction to Felicia Day's character with dancing to "Walking on Sunshine" in the elevator was a joy. And that's a sentence I never thought I'd write on a Supernatural review. Google says that was from a scene in American Psycho. Not necessarily a geek ref, but there you go.
— We got another excellent parody of a television commercial: this time, Sucrocorp. "Eat well. Live well." Maybe not as memorable as their commercial for Herpexia in "Changing Channels," which is hard to beat.
— Dick Roman kept mentioning that some people, including Charlie, were impossible to copy. Did he mean that literally?
— Bobbleheads instead of action figures. Probably because action figures are probably copyrighted.
— One of the emails had "Courtesy of Mr. Trump."
— Loved the exploding suitcase full of borax.
— The Impala was mentioned, and Dean said plaintively, "Baby?" I want the Impala back. I miss her, damn it. She's a member of the family. Can we have the Impala back in season eight, please?
— This week: Roman corporate headquarters in Chicago, and what had to be the airport in Vancouver, a place Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki know extremely well.
Quotes:
Dean: "Perfect. It's in the middle of the Death Star."
Harry: "I love you."
Charlie: "I know."
Do I even have to say where this exchange is from?
Charlie: "Is this real life?"
Charlie: "So what's the end game? Steal our resources, make us some slaves?"
Dean: "Planetwide Value Meal, and we're the meat."
Sam: "Did Hermoine run when Sirius Black was in trouble, or when Voldemort attacked Hogwarts?"
Dean: "Seriously?"
Dean: "You go, DumbleDork."
Dean: "Do you have any tattoos? Give him a little sneak peek there. All tattoos are sexy."
Charlie: "Mine is Princess Leia in a slave bikini straddling a twenty-sided die. (long pause) I was drunk. It was Comic Con."
Dean: "We've all been there."
Loved that because the actors have certainly been there.
Charlie: "I feel dirty."
Dean: "You and me both, sister."
Bobby: "Okay. Let's Yoda this."
Charlie: "I guess you can't clone me."
Dick: "Don't think that doesn't piss me off."
I rather liked that this episode was so different, and I thought it was great fun. Was it a four out of four geek references?
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
I agree whole heartedly with your review, this was an awesome episode! I kept trying to place the zero charisma reference and untill you mentioned D&D I couldn't figure it out. It was a line in ET.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely four out of four geek references! Felicia Day is wonderful, and I also loved that elevator scene. (If it is a reference to American Psycho, that's a nice nod to Dick Roman's eerie resemblance to an off-market Christian Bale.)
ReplyDeleteI thought the broken arm, and the way she was holding it, was a reference to Felicia Day's character in Buffy. "He hurt my arm."
Inspirejenny, I'm so sorry, but I had to delete your comment because it spoiled a recent event on another show.
ReplyDeleteFelicia Day definitely brings a wonderful energy to a show when she's in "geek girl chic" mode. I really enjoyed this episode, and found myself getting genuinely tense anticipating something awful happening to Charlie. I'm glad a fun, cool female character got to survive for once, even though she left explicit instructions to never, ever contact her again. The boys aren't always the best about following directions or respecting boundaries, so perhaps there's a chance we could see her again.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad they are continuing to take this Bobby thing down a dark path. Okay, "glad" isn't the right word. But if they had to bring him back, I'm pleased it wasn't in a "and now he's just our friendly ghost dad that helps us the same way he always did" capacity. Because then why kill him off in the first place? It would have felt like a terrible cheat. This feels like they are actually trying to do something interesting with it. So, "yea"?
That Sucrocorp ad totally reminded me of the fake Veridian Dynamics ads they used to do for Better Off Ted. Hilarious! It actually wouldn't surprise me if Veridian Dynamics was run by monsters from purgatory.
"Because then why kill him off in the first place?"
DeleteUm, to show us his sense of duty to his boys is unaffected by his death and supernatural permission to "move on?" It's such a beautiful notion... I get that him just sticking around and remaining an aid comes across as a failure to commit to a character death, but this is freaking Supernatural where all the past allies and found-family members actually stayed dead! They don't need to prove their hardness! Why not zig instead of zag? Why not just keep Bobby, in the reduced capacity they keep Castiel around? My only defense is that as much as I love this show I don't trust the writers, not even Kripke in his prime, to properly challenge the notion of it being socially acceptable to abandon the living. The psychics and the echoes or whatever they hear and relay was the closest we ever got (with I think Ellen chastising Dean) to that area and probably ever will. It's just too deep for this show, I think. So I hate it but it makes sense that everyone's encouraged to leave because their imprints will spoil and become their rage.
Why did they even choose this direction of stripping the boys of everything they counted on while adding new fixtures in the form of recurring hunter "temps?" and such? Why do that without knowing for sure it's the end of the show? I don't know. But it's a really bad call.
Definitely the best episode of the season.
ReplyDeleteAnd god I love Felicia Day, but she should try to diversify a bit. I'm sure she's capable of doing very different roles, and that won't take a bit from her being Queen of the Nerds.
To Serve Man was also an episode of the Twilight Zone in which an alien race comes to Earth to cure all our diseases and fatten us up to use us as a source of food. To Serve Man was the name of a cookbook the aliens left behind. Love the double meaning of the word serve.
ReplyDeleteIt'd been a long time since Dean mocked Sam's geekiness, hadn't it? And again, he mocked it when it essencially saved the day.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon. I love Felicia Day, but she should play something outside her comfort zone.
Despite this minor quibbles, all around enjoyable episode, which added to the story. 4 out of 4, indeed.
I'm glad to see that everyone here seems to have enjoyed this one as much as I did. Charlie was a lot of fun and I hope she comes back (although I'm a little concerned about her chances of surviving TWO episodes. The one is surprising enough.) Security guard flirting Dean and Harry Potter referencing Sam were great too. I did find the proceedings a little light on S&D. But if this was the Jared having a baby episode (as I've read elsewhere) they covered it really well. I'm worried about Bobby. S&D seem to be working toward a self fulfilling prophecy. I hope that he somehow avoids becoming vengeful. So far he is helping and holding it together (barely.) Please resolve this without breaking my heart!
ReplyDeleteI haven't really cared much about the Leviathans so far this season. I t seems the powers that be decided to make this a mostly MOTW season and leave the big bad in the background kind of like the early seasons. To my mind that's worked pretty well because the MOTW stuff has held my interest. But like I said last week, I don't want them to wrap up the big bad in the next three episodes. I want that red clay thing to be a big twist that will take us into next year on an adventure that will blow our minds!
Well anyway, I give this one a 9. I'm having fun this year so far and I'm really excited to see how they are going to bring it home in the next several weeks.
RoseCompose
"and leave the big bad in the background kind of like the early seasons."
DeleteThey did this in the later seasons too lol. Well, season 5 I mean. Even that first time I was surprised at how it didn't feel like the final season at all
Oh, and another thing - Billie, I was feeling really proud of my geek cred for getting all the references... until I read your review and realized what I missed! I don't know my D&D so Zero Charisma and 12 sided die went right by me :/
ReplyDeleteRoseCompose
Josie, ouch... i did not think.. sorry for the spoiler foul... thanks for taking it down...
ReplyDeleteI totally loved this. This season has been very, very uneven but episodes like this show that the writers are still creative. And I loved Felicia Day and all the references.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant episode, best of the season. It wasn't just Felicia, they really made the most of her too.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved this one, but I especially liked Dean's face when Charlie told him that the male guard was not her type. Flummoxed Dean always makes me laugh out loud.
ReplyDeleteDoes it bother anyone else that affirmed Trekkie Dean gives Sam such a hard time over having read Harry Potter?
ReplyDeleteIs there a serious overlap? I love Harry Potter but only have a respectful interest in Star Trek
Deletesunbunny (I'm only a year late with a reply!) - yes, it bothers me! Dean is the huge film buff and the Trekkie, not Sam. Sam is an academic and computers nerd, but Dean is the pop culture nerd. Geek. Whatever.
ReplyDeleteThis might be my favorite Supernatural episode ever! (Sorry Weekend at Bobby's.) I was in nerd heaven!
ReplyDelete