Moving on!
Categories
Archives
-
-
-
-
Recent Posts
- September 2025 Snapshots
- Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Getting unstuck
- “Where am I coming from? Where am I going? A fusillade of question marks.” — Ciarán Carson
- Frankenstein coming to life …
- “I grew up believing that I was fundamentally powerless.” — Thom Yorke
- Frankenstein and Tiffany, part deux
- “I want to live, not pose!” — Carole Lombard
- “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- “If someone spends his life writing the truth without caring for the consequences, he inevitably becomes a political authority in a totalitarian regime.” — Václav Havel
Recent Comments
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Daniel V. on Getting unstuck
- sheila on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- joe franco on That’ll Learn Ya reunites
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Kristen Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- sheila on Getting unstuck
- Frances on Upcoming dates: Frankenstein
- Walter Biggins on Getting unstuck
- Amir Lauber on All That Jazz: Remembering and Loving Erzebet Foldi
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- Krsten Westergaard on “When I’m performing, that’s the real me.” — Billy Lee Riley
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- Sheila Welch on Premiere of Frankenstein official trailer!
- sheila on “I wish I had not been so reserved.” — Joseph Cornell’s final words
-
There are a couple of places where I might quibble, in particular not feeling any urgency from Dean or the show once Sam was kidnapped, and I don’t know if there was much going on that wasn’t stated outright, but it was on the whole nicely shot, made use of some great faces, clipped along, and had an actual Sam story, with acting, and fights, and Impala talks, and everything!!
I agree. Not the best, but certainly not the worse. Other than the Wayward Women premiere episode, I’m liking this season so far. I think the title is referring to Sam and his “Breakdown”. You can only be cheerful for so long before it starts to weigh on you. I think it’s telling that a few episodes ago, Sam had to be hopeful for both of them and now it’s Dean’s turn. Co-dependency writ large.
But back to the episode. While it wasn’t a standard SPN episode, it had its moments. I was unfortunately eating when they show the blood and guts scene. I had to put down my sandwich for a moment. But I thought it was creepy, suspenseful and scary. Some comments were made about Sam always being saved by Dean just in the nick of time which is valid but it also may be reflecting the title of the episode indicating Dean’s efforts to pull Sam out of his dark place. Or maybe I’m just projecting.
Donna is starting to grow on me. All that cheerful midwestern happiness was starting to get on my nerves, but those sharp edges are wearing off because of what she’s seen and done and I’m starting to enjoy the character more. I hope that Doug comes to his senses.
/ I hope that Doug comes to his senses./ Me too!
I’m still working through my feelings on Doug leaving. The guy is clearly in love with Donna and knows what a good thing he has. The cashier/vampire’s comment to him was a real poke at his “she’s too good for me” insecurity – also brought out in his conversation with Dean before going into Manny’s (a cafe where Man is on the menu, my sort of pun).
Dean and Donna save him from turning into a vampire, and he then decides to skedaddle? Thanks for saving me, now get out of my life? I’m just not sure I buy it as something he’d do. Being freaked, sure – but walking away from Donna? I wonder if the show just wanted to get rid of all the men in the lives of the Wayward Sisters – so he was a loose end to be tied up.
But I do think they made his choice sorta plausible. Anyone else have thoughts?
The ‘Y’ was burned out, so literally “Mann s”. I kept subconsciously rolling that around in my head. Thanks for spelling it out for me. I do love those little touches. Don’t ever change, Supernatural!
I think in the opening shot of Manny’s the camera was low enough that the “a” and “e” in “cafe” were blocked by the gas pumps. Mann, ClusterF…
Ha, I didn’t pick this up either! Classic SPN.
ha ha ha! I love the image of you putting down your sandwich Carolyn!
Ahem: I totally called the Sam spin-out! All Sam’s encouraging pep talks to Dean last Fall were a cover for the early stages of his own downward spiral. I love that Dean’s solution for Sam’s funk is PANCAKES, “I mean come on, it’s pancakes!” You can come to my house and make pancakes anytime, Dean. My point is that I would respond to that, but not Sam, and Dean really does know this. Dean needs to be needed and cheerful Sam taking care of him just makes him sort of grumpier. The chance to take care of Sam is what snaps him out of his own low spot. Down deep Sam craves a good therapist. Dean tries, reluctantly, to talk to Sam about “feelings”, usually when he’s trapped behind the wheel of the impala, but Dean often says the wrong thing or nothing when Sam spills. Driving does offer a semi captive partner for talking things out, but the impala is also very much Dean’s armor and the steering wheel in particular is a stable hold when everything else is spinning out of control. Can you tell that the Sam/Dean interaction was my favorite part of the episode? I’m not sure I like that I saw this coming a mile away. Is it predictability or have I watched way too much Supernatural? Or both – lol?
I love Donna and am sorry Doug was such a doody-head. I hate to say it but he was a good stepping stone for her from her old self in Ex-Doug’s shadow to a more confident Donna. I didn’t love that the changes to vamp and back to Doug were so quick and relatively painless. Compare Dean’s vamp transitions, agonizing and literally gut wrenching. Obviously he’s not the star or the actor that JA is and there’s a question of time and focus, but – too easy. Overall I enjoyed this Donna centric episode, but especially the BMs.
//Dean needs to be needed and cheerful Sam taking care of him just makes him sort of grumpier. The chance to take care of Sam is what snaps him out of his own low spot.// I was saying this earlier this year. They are on this see-saw when normal emotions kick in – grief, hopelessness. Sam wants to be supportive and solve the problem for Dean and the more Dean devloves, the more supportive Sam becomes. When Dean gets on his feet, Sam is now safe to be introspective and come down from his caregiver role, but the more Dean steps in with his type of support (and Melanie, I agree that pancakes aren’t the way to reach Sam but Dean needs to do that), the more withdrawn and less communicative Sam becomes. The dude is an emotional vault so what a miracle that he expressed those feelings at the end.
I agree about how painless Doug’s transition to and from vamp was, Melanie! Sucked a lot of the tension out — why didn’t they just keep him restrained and haul ass to Sam’s location?
It also makes vamping out a not very big deal and well — I prefer my Supernatural claustrophobic and off the grid so I’m rather harrumph about all these 100000s of monsters sitting at their office desktops in their full Buffy makeup. It thins out the mythology and atmosphere, for me.
Yup and yup.
Oh, Dean turned 39 on Wednesday. A belated Happy Birthday dude!
I really like the ep, possibly my favorite this season. Very creepy storyline and music cues. That bedroom scene with Sam was interesting. We rarely see behind his door and it was reminiscent of that scene at the end of Mamma Mia where he is staring up at the fan. You know the wheels are churning inside but can only speculate at his feelings. We inside Sam’s world but still don’t know what he’s thinking. When Sam is losing hope, it’s a sad day for the Winchesters.
And Donna. Love that we got to explore more about her and see the person behind the smiles and quips. Poor thing.
I liked this episode a lot more than I thought I would (though I also noticed and mourned the suddenly-sanitized vampire cure). Dean as Trucker was fun. And I’m with you, Paula, any time we can see past Sam’s door to his silent, private reflections, I get interested.
I was actually very glad that Doug did not jump gladly into hunting. Maybe I’m just nostalgic for the times when hunters were grizzled old misanthropes like Bobby and Rufus, or world-wise dames like Ellen, or barely-restrained psychopaths like Gordon. Now it seems like everyone and their teenage sister is getting into “the life” without a care in the world. I do really appreciate the aspect of empowerment there, and the inclusiveness. But hunting doesn’t seem to COST you anything anymore. (Kind of like the discussion about magic, and the cost of magic, that has been going on in the comments sections on earlier posts.) Ultimately I think that ends up undermining some of the conflicts that were so resonant earlier in the series. I just rewatched “Jump the Shark,” and Sam and Dean are divided on whether or not they should usher Adam into the family business, but they both agree that if they do, his life as he knows it is over (Dean’s argument being that they shouldn’t ruin his life, and Sam’s argument being, “He’s a Winchester; his life is already ruined”).
All of that to say, it doesn’t seem like hunting would (or should!) have any appeal to a normal downhome guy like Doug, especially after being swept into a monster hunt without explanation and against his will. Mutecypher, I think you’re right that they probably just wanted to get him out of the way so Donna can be a free and single lady for Wayward Sisters. I was glad that he still told Donna that he loved her, wasn’t appalled by her heroism or anything stupid like that. But this isn’t the life for him. I think that’s fair. Sam basically says as much at the end of the episode, though obviously that is tinged with the fatalism of his current emotional state.
Also, I think the fewer people that choose hunting, the more it highlights the heroism of people like Donna and Jody, who choose the life even knowing the risks. But maybe I’m an elitist. ;)
But as Jessie reminds us, there are meeellions of monsters – don’t we need more hunters?
That was like adding midichlorians to Star Wars. Just a giant needle scratch to the SPN-verse. Sam and Dean have only been killing the stupid and careless ones? Wow.
Joking aside, I agree with your point that hunters ought to be damaged and Doug isn’t that. I also agree that everything (spells, vampire-reversal, demon killing, making ends meet!) ought to be harder, grittier, costlier. And I go along with Lyrie’s point below that the how of Doug leaving is the problem, not so much the necessity of it. I’d argue that his leaving needs to be added to the list of things that ought to be harder.
Bethany, I agree with you on Doug, I feel it does make total sense. The problem I have is not with the fact that he leaves, it’s with how he leaves. Just like the de-vamping, it’s too quick and too clean. I’m sure it’s for time’s sake because he’s not meant to be a regular, but it would have made more sense to me if he had tried to wrap his head around it, first. And it would have been more painful.
//Also, I think the fewer people that choose hunting, the more it highlights the heroism of people like Donna and Jody//
Yup. Who knows, they might even manage to keep it in the subtext an not repeat once per episode at some point? *sigh*
//in their full Buffy makeup//
Ha ha, Jessie I was so sure you’d say something like that!