Forgot to put this up last night. I’m hosting a QA at MoMA this evening and have been busy preparing for that! Oh, and yesterday, just FYI: Angelina Jolie went into the recording booth with my Gena Rowlands script to record her narration for Rowlands’ Lifetime Achievement Award Oscar. So I was so distracted all day, thinking of my words in Jolie’s hands, and her beautiful voice saying my words. I’m not bragging. I have struggled in obscurity for years. This Oscars experience has been truly over-the-top, with yesterday being (almost) the capper. I wasn’t even there.
The above gif is in honor of “Folsom Prison Blues,” my next re-cap, already in the clogged pipeline.
Cheers.
//I’m not bragging// screw that, you should be shouting this from the rooftop because it is unbelievable and well deserved.
Okay, so I’ll add something. Email from the producer, asking me to invoice them, keeping me up to date on progress wrote.: “The Academy signed off on your script …”
The Academy signed off on my script. I just need everyone to be aware of that. hahahaha
Like I said, this thing has been so over the top and also happened in such a condensed period – 3 weeks start to finish – that it will seem like a dream once it is all over (the ceremony for Lifetimers is on the 14th! and yes, I asked if I could go. and yes, they basically laughed in my face. But nicely.)
So we all need to agree that Script Star out ranks Rock Star.
Go Sheila. Shake it like a Script Star.
I keep joking that I am currently “collaborating with Angie”.
//The Academy signed off on the script// if you can’t go to the event, the least they can do is get Angie to sign off on it
//Email from the producer, asking me to invoice them, keeping me up to date on progress wrote.: “The Academy signed off on your script …”//
Frame that! And congratulations again!!!
Holy Shit! Congrats! Amazeballs! Totally deserved. I am so happy for your Sheila!
Here, here!
It was a solid episode and a new writer in Nancy Won (Being Human/Jericho). Fingers crossed that she is a consistently good writer to add to Thompson/Berens/Dabb.
The mythology around soullessness inside of SPN is always interesting to me. So, most people without souls turn into raging amoral murderers usually set off by the right external circumstance? Yet Sam and now Glen show that there are exceptions, people who can fake it till you make it (or feel it) and don’t become killing machines.
Between that and the way Dean said “spent shells” or “chilly droid”, I got a really bad feeling. Dean seems off this season and now I see all of his comments this season in a different light. Sam’s constant reminders that we have to save people, Dean, not kill them, and his calm response in the Impala last week about Sam’s infection (was he more upset about keeping secrets than about Sam being in danger?).
“There may be someone else Amara got to as well…” When Sam said this, I wasn’t think about the mother but Dean.
Paula, I’m interested- no Carver on the consistent writers list? Anyone who can come up with Mystery Spot, A Very Supernatural Christmas, Sacrifice etc get a pass for me. I seem to see a lot of Tumblr derision for him, though.
On the good side, next episode is a Berens. :D
I guess that I’m pulling him out of this discussion of current writers because of his overarching role as show runner and that the only episodes he writes are season premieres and finales versus bread and butter episodes.
All the eps you mention are phenomenal with Mystery Spot being one of my top three. I love him as a writer so no wank here but now he is more of an architect to me. What do you think?
Oh, I see. Yeah- he’s got a massively tough task, actually- though probably not as tough as Sera Gamble’s. And Mystery Spot is in my top #3, too- what ARE your top #3 anyway?
Why the hell do so many people dislike him? I don’t get it. Is it because of the Gadreel thing?
In general, I really like him as both a showrunner and writer. As the former, he got off to kind of a rocky start with the first half of S8, but after that the show seems to have gotten steadily stronger.
When you hear Carver talk about the writers room, it sounds very organic, “wherever the story takes us”. Good when writing a one-off story but problematic for direction of a show so I’m ambivalent.
As to top #3, there are so many ways to look at it and we’ve talk about greatest moments before so let’s do well written episodes (story elements from beginning to end, character truth/reveals, impact on the viewer/twists). For me that’s Swan Song, Deaths Door and Mystery Spot.
Sheila, that is INCREDIBLE. The Oscars??! Insane. You go!
Thanks, Wren!!
and now, forgive me, I will avoid this thread until I see the episode – looking forward to it!! Still coming down “Baby”, however.
My short response is that Amara is very intriguing. Both the character and the actress. I hope the character stays 12 for a while longer so we can watch this young lady.
And The Darkness is somehow distinct from Amara.
And it’s a good thing the baby sitter monologues like a supervillain.
Haha. What would we do if one of these villains was more like Goldfinger? “No, I expect you to die”
GETTING the bad guys to monologue seems like an important life skill for Hunters.
“I’m fascinated by your nefarious scheme. Your powers are SO overwhelming. Please tell me more before you kill me in… What spectacular method were you going to use?”
Or Dean’s method : “Explain to me why you’re so sick and twisted. Bitch.”
Hahaha
I have a horrible blind spot when it comes to villainous monologues. I literally just don’t notice them.
Could we declare a moratorium on MOTW third-act boys-get-tied-up villain monologues? When did they start in earnest? This one was pretty unobjectionable in itself (I actually thought Won did some very delicate work with the two tedious inevitable monologues, Len’s second-act flashback being the other one) but it seems increasingly like this writer’s room can no longer write a whodunnit without having the perpetrator monologue about whydunnit.
Has it been because monsters have shifted from the predictably brutal, focused, and inhuman motivations of ghosts and vamps to monsters we are supposed to understand and domesticate somewhat? Is it a budget/scheduling thing (actually it’s probably that)? Perhaps I am overemphasising the prevalence of this stuff but I dislike how it makes the boys less competent, I dislike the routine of it, I dislike the carelessness in plotting, and I dislike the way it flattens the show and removes ambiguity and mess.
Having said that if they had an episode where at the end Dean instead of the villain stood up by the fireplace, tucked his fob-watch into his vest pocket, smoothed his mustachios, and told the assembled gallery how and why Miss Ghostie shot Master Wrongdoer, at which the police burst in, I couldn’t find it in myself to complain.
//tucked his fob-watch into his vest pocket, smoothed his mustachios, //
I would watch the fuck out of that
moustacheepisode.As monologues go, these weren’t the worst, and I enjoyed the contrast between Murdering Babysitter’s ecstasy and Len’s rather poignant disquiet. And it least it wasn’t a monologue in the form of a BORING 7 MINUTE LONG FLASHBACK ABOUT WHY I BIT MY SISTER or – the absolute nadir for me – murderous Italian nuns.
I mean, you look at those three words and think ‘What’s not to love?’ And yet, and yet ….
I think it needs to happen. But lest they start looking like some cowboy Elvises Sam would have to start enforcing a mustache grooming standard.
Last season’s monologue/flashbacks — can you have two nadirs?
A Dean one-liner from last night’s show had 3 of my favorite elements to it – Sherlock Holmes reference, Dean verbing a noun, proper noun at that, and Dean enjoying his food. When Sam said they still didn’t know who had killed the couple, Dean replied, “Lets get out of here and Sherlock this over a lobster roll.” Now my first thought was a sushi roll, but pretty sure Dean doesn’t eat sushi (although that would be a point in favor of Paula’s soulless theory). In my part of the world we call em Po’Boys, but I’m hoping Dean was referring to big chunks of Lobster on a hoagie roll. Just imagine S&D “Sherlocking” the case at a local lobster joint while Dean has a near orgasm while eating his hoagie… In the immortal words of Eldon Styne, “I’ll buy a ticket to that show.”
Eating sushi rolls hints at a lack of a soul. Interesting.
Go Melanie!
To clarify, Sam eating sushi would indicate absolutely nothing about the state of his immortal soul, but DEAN eating sushi would be a clear sign that the Darkness had indeed sucked out his very essence and replaced it with the mirky, swirling void of modern pop culture.
Now you’re just being thoughtful and reasonable.
What Jessie said: http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=109790#comment-2471071
Apologies. I’m sure you would never break your mama’s heart by saying, “Mom, last time you made meatloaf I thought I was gonna throw up, so I’m just gonna run by Kroger and pick up a sushi roll on my way home from the gym.”
Baggage? I ain’t got no stinkin baggage…
Bring the bags.
Kick the bags onto the tracks when the train comes by.
Either way.
Sushi is yummy. Just deal, Mom.
hi. congratulations sheyla! and the Oscar for best script goes to Sheyla O’Malley, signed off by the Academy. what a treat!
i like this script (ep5), there are moments that looks like it is out of the urban dictionary,which is fine by me. it is fresh and urban? hope we get so see more of the writer.
i have to watch the ep. again but feels like a deep one.
Well now I definitely enjoyed the Playthings-y vibe of that overwhelmingly feminine, haunted B&B.
THROWBACK ROLL CALL
Playthings
Ghosts
Bribes
Len as Ronald from Nightshifter
“I don’t think this is our kind of thing.”
“You know, it kind of makes sense.” (nice try)
Just the facts m’am.
Murderous cold open
Vivid supporting characters
Red herrings
Fucked-up domesticity
Soullessness
Handcuffed to the car
Spooky basements
Debrief on the car in scenic location. Don’t their burgers get cold while they’re looking for these spots?
CROOOOOOOOOOOOOOW
Yes to all of the above, especially Len=Ronald.
Things which tickled me:
‘Doily Coffin’
The single bed
The business around the toilet water squeezy bottle
Mental image of Len picking up his severed thumb
The little boy’s extraordinary cheekbones
Little boy and Sam sitting on the steps at the end – the disparity in size told its own story
Baby sitter’s blue highlights
$400 of danish pastry going to waste, and Sam’s face
Sam’s face, generally and specifically at various points
Ditto Dean’s, especially anguishedly mouthing ‘SHUT UP’
Sam flying his serial ‘killer-‘hobby’ flag
Len going on about licking body parts
Oh, and Cas watching The Wire. My hope is that he has discovered bingewatching and will not come out of the bunker all season.
I didn’t want to be the first to say it. Perhaps every episode will feature a throwaway bit: What about Cas? Oh, he’s bingewatching Oz/Cake Boss/Countdown/7000+ episodes of Neighbours, Kylie and Jason just got married, he’ll be ages yet.
The Great British Bake Off!
Yes, lovely scene with the cheekbone orphans on the steps there, and everything to do with that room and its single queen and toilet water and teeny bathroom was gold. Good to see Mr Wanek & co get a chance to go nuts again.
So many great faces this episode and some great unspoken communication!
//the cheekbone orphans on the steps// like some Dickensian stoop for potential models who come in small and extra extra large sizes
I loved the end with Amara. Sounds like someone has a crush.
hi tonya. your comment just gave me the most awful thought. if God could impregnate a human female, could the darkness get impregnated by say dean? you know, the crush thing gave me the hint…
Heads up for those on Twitter, Eric Kripke joined yesterday @therealKripke and is already tweeting about Bob Seger. Bless his little heart.
Lyrie – Sera Gamble and Eric Kripke are tweeting each other and it is glorious. My Sera crush is in full bloom.
I like to imagine the writer meetings when these two were on the show. Sera tossing her long dark hair over her shoulder, laughing indulgently at Eric being a spastic 12-year-old man child talking about full-frontal nudity, while Ben Edlund is making fantastical creature sketches on his napkin and Jeremy Carver is probably the most practical one in the room, “c’mon guys these scripts aren’t going to write themselves”.
Paula- lol! Also- has anyone seen this new show of Kripke’s, Revolution? I was wondering where Edlund ran off to…
He was there but show was cancelled last year. Edlund is now writing for Gotham.
I miss him- and Kripke and Gamble. All great nutty writers. It’s comforting that we still have many of the original directors, actually.
Revolution had so much potential in the storyline and with the actors but I could never really engage with it.
When I was a girl I used to jump rope to this:
Lizzy Borden took an axe
And gave her mother 40 whacks.
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father 41.
Then you started counting your jumps…
Today’s kids would be like:
@LzB tuk X, gav mom 40 whx, dad 41 (×/×) #GotAwayWithIt
There’s just no sense of poetry these days…
Seriously, I was really looking forward to the Lizzy connection for several reasons. 1. Blast from my past (jumprope not actual 19th c.) 2. We haven’t had any serious ghost action in awhile. I was hoping for something reminiscent of the ghost in the Supernatural convention episode or the Lilydale psychics episode. 3. You’re right, MuteCypher, the creepy, tatty B&B was promising a Playthings ambience.
I also really liked the way the episode started out. 1. Dean reminded us of Sam’s serial killer fetish out of left field. It’s a treat from the “they’re more than just hunters” cookie jar. (It also takes me to my own fanfic of Sam in a sort of Xfiles/Criminal Minds crossover becoming a real FBI agent. That remains my perfect endgame for Sam.) 2. Glad they weren’t fooled by the fake haunting shenannigans for more than 5 min. 3. The desk clerk and his mom, obviously a red herring to make us think Lizzy was somehow impacting their relationship. 4. Really liked Soulless!Len superfan – definitely a Ronald type. 5. Amara digging on the whole Lizzy vibe, “Oh, no. She did it. You can see it in her eyes.”
And then they just dropped the whole Lizzy thing and never looked back. Are you kidding me? It was the freakin’, aqua blue extensions, soulless, stupid babysitter who monologues for 15 minutes. No wonder Borden boy dumped you. I hate that they were trying to make her a sympathetic character by throwing in the cigarette burns. Seriously, if Len hadn’t put that axe in your skull I was gonna jump in and do it for him. You don’t need a soul to know that needed to happen, Len. Sorry for that little rant.
The end redeemed itself by coming back around to soulless!Len and why would he turn himself in and why do people react differently to soullessness. That was more interesting. Of course I had to go back and review the ep where Sam encountered Abbadon’s soulless characters. It also evoked some of my favorite Soulless!Sam episodes – Truth and Clap your Hands.
Paula, for once I have to disagree. I don’t believe Dean could be soulless and sing Bob Seger songs. I do think his soul is damaged from Hell and Purgatory, and being a demon, and the MoC. Do you remember when Famine said he was empty inside? Or when Dean said once you touch that darkness you can never really come back? Amara seems to want to “help” these wounded creatures by filling them up with something… darkness. I think Dean knew she was there in the trees all along because of that look as they passed driving away. He talks a lot of bluster about putting her away, maybe because he thinks that’s what Sam needs to hear, but I think he doesn’t know what to make of his protective feelings about her.
I still feel cheated out of my ghost encounter! “Freakin’ humans, man.”
Sorry, Jessie. I gave your Playthings credit to MuteCypher.
Oh no worries at all Melanie!
It was an interesting comment from Len about being filled up with evil or darkness after his experience with Amara. Is she somehow balancing the scales of the universe by replacing the light of the souls she eats with darkness?
If Dean cannot be soulless and still listen to Bob Seger, it begs the question. What do soulless people listen to? Nickelback?
I don’t believe he’s soulless- Carver said the boys were going to be themselves this season and it’d cheapen Baby in retrospect. Sorry, Paula.
People without souls don’t really listen to music, they simply hear it.
People without taste, on the other hand…
//I feel cheated out of my ghost encounter!// I was looking forward to a Lizzie ghost with her high necked dress and tight hair bun, and whether she was really a psycho or just a troubled teen (I guess both based on Amara’s comment?) The Mystery Spot-style let-down when it’s just a freaking tourist trap is so funny to me.
Re Dean and soullessness, I hope that I am totally wrong about this idea. Something is wrong with Dean and I doubt it is an exact parallel to Sam’s situation but foreshadowing is so strong. Melanie’s call back to Famine and Dean having a big, dark empty hole and Amara “filling” that hole with Darkness may be more viable.
If Dean is damaged in some way, it also doesn’t invalidate all of the brotherly feelings from Baby. It puts another layer over them. Perhaps these feelings, this everyday normalcy with Sam, are the thing that keeps him tethered. It is less Jiminy Cricket/Pinocchio than it is Elsa/Anna. Yes, I went there with a Frozen comparison.
Could we go with Toulouse/Christian instead? I can imagine Baby saying ,”You may see me as only a metallic, lego-ridden, gnome-mobile, but I know about demons and brothers.”
Isn’t that a better image?
See?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuCs8ItFjwk
//You may see me as only a metallic, lego-ridden, gnome mobile, but I know about demons and brothers// so so much better
I was looking forward to a ghost, but I was leery about exploiting the Borden story, so I’m glad they didn’t use Lizzie Borden after all.
Melanie –
I was intrigued by your thoughts on Amara/The Darkness wanting to fill Dean with something. He’s a pretty tough guy to defeat. But we see with Benny that he can be befriended (“You must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror …”) and with Crowley that he can be seduced, and with Lisa that he can be loved.
If Amara can find a way to create gratitude in Dean, and give him pleasure, and NOT thwart his life’s purpose – saving people, hunting things – then she would be a potent… not adversary. Being beautiful and saying thank you to him, that was a good start. She needs to cut back on the soul-sucking, though. I don’t know if she’s already filled him with something – I don’t think it’s happened. I suspect it is a process, if it’s part of the story. The Darkness is coming, so it’s not here yet.
I liked your speculations!
she needs to cut back on the soul-sucking, thoug// amara! be aware of mutecypher-father-in-law-ish conditions to engage on any “girlie intentions” with “our dean”.
/he can be befriended/ /he can be seduced/ /he can be loved/ just beautiful, mutecypher. what a way to describe our dean.
Just like Toulouse, he longs for it with every fiber of his being.
And as many have commented, also thinks he does not deserve those things.
Freakin’ human, man.
what does dean want? he doesn’t even dare to think about it and that’s his self-punishment.
//perfect endgame for Sam// TXF-CM-SPN crossover? I’m in for this. Sam as an FBI consultant in a suit and tie at his laptop in a basement office.
//I still feel cheated out of my ghost encounter! “Freakin’ humans, man.”//
I felt the same way Melanie! I miss ghosts and was quite bummed when it became clear that we weren’t going to get one.
I did love the B&B/Museum though. That room!! Sam telling Dean that he was going to have to get his own room because he wasn’t going to give that one up absolutely cracked me up.
Len’s portrayal of soullessness was fascinating and I definitely did not suspect him of being soulless when he was first encountered. He was so normal, so rational, still so perfectly capable of the brain knowledge of right and wrong. He did not immediately become a killing machine but was heading that way because he was curious. Physical pain does not bother him or stop him nor any previous engrained tendencies towards revulsion. I’m starting to wonder if the “darkness” is going to be more all encompassing then just Amara alone. As she grows her appetite seems to be ever increasing. Will she always just feed on one soul at a time or will her power increase and she start multiple feeding? Will there eventually be entire towns of empty, soulless people wandering about trying to fill intellectual curiosity because they can no longer fill emotional ones? Others could be like the baby sitter and finding freedom in her darkness and relieved at no longer having to feel. Either type of soulless person is downright scary and both seem to go down a path to killing…one just gets there a little faster.
Paula I think your speculations are extremely interesting! I don’t think that Dean is soulless now but the connection to the darkness is a very real thing and you could easily see some foreshadowing to this happening. Dean is very much a damaged soul. I truly think that deep down…..not that he would ever admit it even to himself…..being soulless would be an utter relief to him. Soulless Sam was somewhat like Len…not mild mannered in any way….but he was very intellectual and curious and was a self proclaimed better hunter because he didn’t have pesky feelings to weigh him down. Hostage? Shoot her and problem solved. I think Dean would be more like the baby sitter. He would find freedom in not having to care anymore and to not have to feel the pain and guilt that he carries every second. He was pretty close to that when he was a demon and he fought as hard as he could to not become human again.
Usually anytime I think the show is heading down a certain path though, they end up not doing anything like what I expect. So who knows!! All I know is I really, really, really want this seeming foreshadowing of Lucifer and or Michael coming back to be a reality!!
Sheila, congrats on your writing being read by AJ for the tribute.
People who ‘labored for years in obscurity’ like you did can appreciate the joy of this success and understand your down-t0-earth happiness (no ego trip).
I hope you can enjoy each step as it comes and savor it. You know you earned it!
And you know the process must be the best reward and we must remain independent of how others respond — enjoy it, yes, but not letting it determine our happiness, right? Keep on keeping on. Congrats and well done.
For the Jeffrey Dean Morgan fans… he’s been signed on the play bad guy Negan on upcoming episodes of The Walking Dead. I saw it on the Entertainment Weekly webpage.
wait, does this mean he’s not going to be The Walking Sex on The Good Wife any more? First they took my TV husband Josh Charles. Then they took my TV boyfriend Matthew Goode. And now they’re taking JDM, who is killing it, away too? What are they going to do next, just come into my house and punch me in the libido?
Although perhaps with JDM they’ll finally be able to write a good villain for The Daryl and Carol Power Hour (aka during the Christmas season Carols by Darryllight).