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<\/a><\/p>\n\nDirected by Phil Sgriccia
\nWritten by Ben Edlund<\/i><\/p>\n
Ben Edlund’s voice quickly became an extremely important one in the Supernatural<\/i> writing staff. The writing staff bring different sensibilities to the table, one of the reasons why the show has such a good mix of tone, comedic and tragic, touchy-feely and macho, light and dark. This is the second episode Edlund wrote, the first being “Simon Said”, and both show his somewhat wacky obsessive bent, the nerd-quotient is high in this one. He doesn’t judge the nerds he writes about. He treats them with affection and respect. Yes, they are sometimes silly, but they are also smart and they mean well. <\/p>\n
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Ronald, in “Nightshifter,” is one of the most memorable characters in the history of Supernatural<\/i>, due to the writing, for sure, but also due to the performance of Chris Gauthier. There’s a reason Ron would return, seasons later, as a ghost to haunt Dean. Writing a character like Ronald, who lives and dies in the space of one episode, is difficult, and Edlund goes deep FAST. Ron feels extremely personal, somehow. It would not shock me if Ben Edlund had a similar UFO collage on his office wall, or, going back, on his childhood bedroom wall. Edlund KNOWS this world. His mind is conspiratorial, obsessively going over connections, looking beneath the surface. This is what nerds do better than most. Along with Die Hard<\/i> and Terminator 2<\/i>, “Nightshifter” is also inspired by X-Files<\/i> (well, the whole series is, but this episode in particular). <\/p>\n
“Playthings” was a psychological swamp of gender-roles. Dolls, velvet dresses, tea parties, doll houses, Granny in a rocking chair \u2026 Sam and Dean tromping through in their boots, circulating through insistent cloying female-ness. Looked down upon by the gigantic white gown on the wall. <\/p>\n
“Nightshifter” represents a swerve into reality with a capital R. Back in Season 1, Dean was wanted for murder in St. Louis. In “The Usual Suspects,” Dean again is dragged in on murder charges. Dean Winchester’s name is “out there” now. St. Louis comes to call yet again in “Nightshifter.” FBI agent Victor Henriksen (the brilliant Charles Malik Whitfield) enters the scene, and instantly takes the wheel, veering Supernatural<\/i> in the direction HE wants it to go. He’s not a vigilante. He’s good at his job. He can’t be explained away as a villain. It’s not a coincidence that both Henriksen and Ronald return in that “hunters haunted” episode. <\/p>\n
How I Moved From Outsider Status and Fandom-Watcher to Supernatural<\/i> Fan Myself in a Series of Trust-Building Moments<\/big>
\n“Nightshifter” is a crucial moment in the series as a whole, and the episode was one of those trust-building moments for me personally in my first encounter with the series. (I am slow to trust. It takes me a while.) Is this series going to condescend to me? Bore me? Will they rely on cliches? Are the characters going to grow and change? What is the story? And, most importantly, why should I give a shit? <\/p>\n
So, in looking back, I know the moments where trust was built between myself and Supernatural<\/i>, when I realized they knew what they were doing, that I was interested in what they were doing.<\/p>\n
Remember, or maybe you don’t remember, in any case, here are the facts: I only started watching Supernatural<\/i> because of the mainly-Destiel-fan-dust-up over Castiel sleeping with the reaper in Season 9, Episode 3. (After I finally saw the aforementioned episode, I mentioned it in my review of Wolf of Wall Street<\/i><\/a>.) From what I gathered, having never seen the show, was that Destiel fans appeared to be upset (and I was so naive about the show, I went to IMDB to see who played “Destiel” and was very confused when I found there was no character by that name) because Castiel lost his virginity, which, according to them, should have been saved for Dean. (These fans angrily denied the existence of Castiel’s wife, whom he was with after the Leviathan debacle: they HATED her, and pretended she – and the sex he probably had with her – didn’t exist. Listen, I’m just reporting the facts.) They felt betrayed and devastated by Castiel’s human-ness\/sex-life being initiated by a woman. Additionally, they all seemed to agree it was rape and they were very upset about that too. (See my post on Wolf of Wall Street<\/i> if you want to hear me blabber on about my feelings about all of that. The same type of conversation is going on now in the discussion around American Sniper<\/i> too, on both sides of the political fence. American Sniper<\/i> is this year’s Wolf of Wall Street<\/i>. The conversation has been appalling<\/i>.) Anyway, don’t ask me why I was reading fan writing about a show I had never seen. I thought I might like to write something about the fandom itself and how it operated. It was so passionate. I was fascinated by the fact that certain fans seemed constantly triggered and outraged by the show, making me think, “Why do these people watch the show if it upsets them? Why do they clearly seem to want the show to be something other than what it is – which I have no idea what it is, since I’ve never seen it.” There were also the wars (so-called) between Destiel fans (I finally figured out why “Destiel” would not be listed on IMDB) and the rest of the fandom, and etc. After the Castiel-reaper-virginity-blowup, I finally decided, “Well. Better watch some of this before I start pontificating about the fandom.” I realize this might sound condescending, but that was how it happened, and that was why I started watching. Very strange. In a way, you can say those Destiel fans upset about Season 9 Episode 3 led me to watch the show, so I thank them for that! <\/p>\n I watched the first episodes in a purely research frame of mind. Lemme see what everyone is shouting about on Tumblr.<\/em> I was impressed by the pilot<\/a>, I liked Wendigo<\/a>, I loved Dead in the Water<\/a>, but it was Dean’s fear of flying in “Phantom Traveler”<\/a> that was the real hook, and it was a major hook. (I prefer Supernatural<\/i> when it’s goofy anyway, so humor would be my “way in.” My thought was: Oh! These guys are funny, too! Yay!) It was the introduction of broad schticky humor that made me think, “Oh. Okay. I’m down with this.” <\/p>\n “Bloody Mary”<\/a> was okay, and I was interested in Dean’s batting-eyelashes behavior, and flirting with the morgue attendant, my first real insight into the guy. Ohhh, so that’s who you are, got it.<\/p>\n “Skin”<\/a> was fascinating in its examination of Dean’s resentment which we’d never really seen before. I enjoyed that the show seemed to want to be ABOUT their relationship, the monster was actually secondary.<\/p>\n “Hook Man”<\/a> was all right but one for the books because of the gorgeous editing of that final sequence.<\/p>\n “Bugs”<\/a>? Well. You can’t win ’em all, although it contains perhaps my favorite shot of Dean in the entire series. Definitely Top 5. <\/p>\n So all in all, the show was a bit uneven for me, but I liked the acting and how it was shot. But nothing about it warranted watching nine seasons in one almost-continuous binge. And then came …<\/p>\n The boom-boom-boom-boom of “Home,”<\/a> “Asylum,”<\/a> “Scarecrow”<\/a> and “Faith”<\/a>. One after the other after the other after the other, diverse, and scary, and moving, and funny. It was unbelievable, I HAD to keep watching after that. When I get obsessed with something it is extremely time-consuming so I honestly have to decide whether or not to pursue something. Will whatever-it-is be worth the commitment? <\/p>\n Following that quadrangle of brilliance came “Route 666”<\/a> and even with its ridiculous elements (what does the devil have to do with a Racist Monster Truck? Why is pouring two cups of coffee as complicated an act as splitting the atom? Why?) I cherish it because it showed Dean in a completely different context, adding worlds of depth to him, and I also loved the teasing energy between the brothers, also a new element. Very important episode, even though they have never mentioned it again. Doesn’t matter. They’re the ones who created it, I’m not just making shit up!<\/p>\n Moving past that, moving into the final episodes of Season 1, you could feel the show growing in confidence, the introduction of John Winchester was essential, and “Something Wicked”<\/a> was crucial for me. Almost the most important episode in Season 1. I had already been hooked in, but flashbacks? Them as children? Oh hell YES. Also bowling pins.<\/p>\n A lot of people seem to write off “Provenance,”<\/a> but for me that episode was a HUGE trust-building moment, with Dean’s burlesque on full display. It’s practically screwball. The episode is not perfect, but I’m in this thing for the acting and the behavior, mainly, and the scenes between the brothers and Dean eating and dispensing advice, and Dean burlesquing his way around … I watch it if I need cheering up. Does the trick.<\/p>\n Once we started Season 2, the Beauty Factor became so omnipresent, so visceral, in both “In My Time of Dying” and “Everybody Loves a Clown,” that you would have had to pay me to stop watching the damn thing. The glitchy nature of Season 1 was gone. There were no more obvious clinkers like “Bugs”. <\/p>\n But still, at any moment, this thing could derail. <\/p>\n “The Usual Suspects”, hearkening us back to Season 1, gratified my need for both continuity and emotional-accumulation (there is possibility for growth and change and curve balls – the characters are not static), and then “Nightshifter,” admitting the reality that Sam and Dean would be Persons of Interest to law enforcement officials across the land \u2026 well. That excited me tremendously. <\/p>\n The comforting bizarre stability of Winchesters Always Right, and Everybody Else a Dumbass is hijacked. There is the final moment in “Nightshifter,” when they take off the SWAT masks, and Dean murmurs, “We are so screwed”. Talk about a trust-building moment. In a lesser show, Dean would have wisecracked, like the snarky Houdini that he is, or Sam would have said something reassuring, and the audience would be able to rest easy, knowing Our Boys got it. A moment like “We are so screwed” makes ME relax (strangely enough). I feel like people know what they hell they are doing when they allow for an ending and a plot-twist like that. Agent Henriksen’s arrival is a game-changer. <\/p>\n To quote Jessie again, from one of the comments sections: this is what the Winchesters look like to law enforcement:<\/p>\n I think every time they leave a motel their garbage bins are full of print-outs of crazy satanic woodcuts. How hilarious it would have been to watch Victor Henricksen travel behind them. \u201cSo they went to the library and photocopied twenty pictures out of a book on Appalachian folklore and looked at them for a while. Then they emptied a can of salt onto the carpet of their motel room. Then they walked around the victim\u2019s house and had a D&M with his five-year-old. Then they bought a gong from a hippie shop and went and got drunk on top of a car in a park somewhere. Then they murdered three dudes and desecrated their corpses. Then they had a Dr Sexy MD marathon on pay-per-view and the next day they drove 3000 miles to some podunk town in Florida.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In “Nightshifter” we have <\/p>\n — Ronald’s awesomeness. <\/p>\n — Agent Henriksen’s awesomeness. <\/p>\n — Another episode that takes place almost entirely in one location. There’s a great hotel room that brings product placement and location-identification to a new level of absurdity, and then there is Ronald’s man-cave, but other than that, everything takes place in and around the bank, a big old-fashioned John-Dillinger-would-rob-it bank. And I LOVE the lighting. But I’ll get to the lighting and how important it is. <\/p>\n — A computer-generated shot that is pleasing every time I see it. It LOOKS different than anything else on the show thus far, and that’s appropriate. We’ve left Supernatural<\/i> and entered Die Hard<\/i>.<\/p>\n — Along those lines: “Nightshifter” feels extremely expensive. It feels like there is a lot of money on that screen. Crowd shots, tons of extras (SWAT teams, cops, reporters, onlookers), a big cast (all those folks in the vault), cars and trucks, and then that CGI shot that took weeks to complete. <\/p>\n — Watch how the style alters itself to fit the story. The story is an urban crime thriller and the style goes with that genre. Compare and contrast with the filming of, say, “Playthings,” just to pull out the previous episode. In “Playthings” we had a feeling of elegiac classical femininity, a formal style, long low tracking shots, beautiful shadowy set-ups, plus the homage to The Shining<\/i>. Here we have mostly darkness and a TON of hand-held camera stuff (way more than usual), and a “you are there” feeling by starting the episode with news footage, “ripped from the headlines.” I am not a fan of hand-held camera stuff mainly because it is overused by lazy directors who wouldn’t know how to set up a shot if you put a gun to their head. This versatility in production and look\/feel – from “Playthings” to “Nightshifter” as only one example – is one of the supreme pleasures of Supernatural<\/i>. <\/p>\n — The dynamic between Sam and Dean is fascinating, especially coming on the heels of the promise Sam enacted from Dean (twice) in “Playthings.” There are a lot of interesting power dynamics at work, and it’s pleasing because it has to do with masculinity and how it presents, and how there honestly isn’t “one way” it should look. (I’ve babbled on about this before<\/a>. The show is about men.) Ronald brings another type of masculinity to the table, but the show does not make the error of making fun of him, in order to underline Teh Awesome of the hot leads with good hair. I mean, yes, “mandroid” but honestly, Ronald is awesome and there’s a real sense of loss when he dies. We get to see Dean and Sam’s masculinity in a different way when Ron enters. This is what Chuck provides as well. <\/p>\n Tough Guys don’t have to look a certain way. I mean, check out this guy. <\/p>\n \n \nHe was short, balding and had a speech impediment which caused him to not only drool but lisp. Nerds with chips on their shoulders about how girls only like jocks would do well to remember that one of the biggest movie stars and romantic leads of all time was not a strapping John Wayne type. Bogart had to stand on a BOX to kiss Ingrid Bergman. And he makes women quiver with desire. To this day. So get over your resentful selves.<\/p>\n And finally:<\/p>\n — Dean’s ferocious hand to hand combat with a dame wearing a white slip. We’ll get to that. <\/p>\n A comment on the flow of the season: “Playthings” was a deep pool of dreamy associations, so deep I can’t even perceive that there IS a bottom there. “Nightshifter” zig-zags off the surface, avoiding the depths, because there is no time for that. It’s an extremely male environment. It’s also a very human progression: the pulling back after raw truth-telling, the recoiling, and it’s also realistic in terms of “Nightshifter’s” plot: when you have a SWAT team closing in on you, things get real real simple. RUN.<\/i><\/p>\n “Nightshifter” the title is obviously a play on “shapeshifter,” along with the fact that those on the front lines with the creature are security guards who work the night shift. I wondered if there might be any connections with this high watermark of American cinema:<\/p>\n \n \nI re-watched some of it (it’s been years), but didn’t find any obvious connections. I demand props for trying. I feel so sorry for Henry Winkler’s fianc\u00e9e in that, what a horrible character! So convinced she’s fat she won’t come out of the bathroom. Spending hours on her exer-cycle. Never having an orgasm and freaking out when her fianc\u00e9 even says the word. I mean, these are her character traits! That’s all I got out of it, sorry.<\/p>\n Teaser<\/big><\/p>\n Breaking News from Milwaukee. Local affiliate stations logos, “BREAKING NEWS” tickers along the bottom, frenetic “caught” shots of police cars, a bank entrance, a crowd of worried onlookers. This is the kind of footage that represents a challenge to film-makers (and editors, in particular), and Supernatural<\/i> loves those kinds of challenges. We just saw them imitate The Shining<\/i> in “Playthings.” We’ll see an entire black-and-white episode that really looks like old Warner Brothers monster movies, with a couple of shots flat-out stolen from classics such as Beauty and the Beast<\/i> and Dracula<\/i> and Frankenstein<\/i>. Re-creating these looks, on a limited budget, takes an enormous amount of research and planning, and it must be a blast. Here we have a pretty damn good representation of a frenzied and voracious local news program. It looks pretty real. I can’t “clock” any artificial cinematic give-aways. <\/p>\n \n \nThe teaser gives us the Who, What, Where, When. It doesn’t give us the Why. A reporter on the beat gives us the low-down about the hold-up and hostage situation going on inside the Bank of Milwaukee. Suddenly there is a flurry of movement over near the door of the bank, and the reporter turns to look. We see a hostage being ushered out, a man holding onto him shouting at the cops. The camera zooms in, and who do we see?<\/p>\n \n \nAgent Henriksen gets an urgent call from the field office in Milwaukee or Chicago, and hops on a plane. <\/p>\n \n1st scene<\/big> The music comes in, eerie and minor-key, and it’s an example of how good the “incidental” music can be in Supernatural<\/i>. <\/p>\n Digression on Music<\/big> 1. The sexy “rock” chords, that lead us into the actual Supernatural<\/i> theme, and that is used when the guys are moving into action-mode, telegraphing to us: “Shit’s getting serious, let’s revel in the hot-ness of our leads jumping into the Impala” or whatever. <\/p>\n 2. The mournful elegiac theme, used when The Past is coming up in The Present. First used so gorgeously in “Dead in the Water,” it’s still in operation. <\/p>\n 3. The inspirational Winchester Family Heroic theme, involving horns, that I first clocked in the final scene in “Shadow.” It’s one of my favorites, and they don’t use it often (thank goodness: too much of it would be overkill.) It sounds like something Ron Howard would use or Steven Spielberg in one of their patriotic dramas. It’s a national anthem type sound. <\/p>\n Then, of course, there are the extant songs used to sometimes great effect. Blue Oyster Cult in “Faith”, Black Sabbath, and here, Styx’s “Renegade” which closes out the episode. THAT’S how you use a song. <\/p>\n The first scene comes in and Sam and Dean are mid-investigation. The “hey, here’s a potential case in the paper” scene does not exist in “Nightshifter.” we catch up with them later. They are in a jewelry store, interviewing people about a jewelry heist gone wrong, and the scene is introduced with this eerie almost-sad music. Just to show the effectiveness of the choice: Imagine if this scene was underlaid with the sexy rock chords of the Supernatural<\/i> theme. It would give the scene a very different feel, it would remind us that Sam and Dean are great, they are in control, they’ve got this. The music choice here allows for an uneasy feeling, a slightly not-sure feeling, especially since we know where we are going in the episode: somehow Dean is going to end up on the nightly news in the middle of a bank robbery. The music choice helps underline the feeling that Sam and Dean are vulnerable. As always, I get distracted by the production values and the behavioral stuff. I love how the jewelry store interior is a softly lit, the walls glowing a pale orange, and the streets outside are bright blue. <\/p>\n \n \nLet’s Talk About Teal and Orange<\/big> Here is a fantastic blog-post<\/a> about the complete domination of the Teal-and-Orange color scheme, and what a mess it is, how conventional and “the same” it makes everything look. Enjoy – it’s a great post! Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator<\/i> was almost entirely teal and orange. It’s the “look” of the film to an exaggerated degree. <\/p>\n \n \n \n \nEven the Columbia Pictures logo was color-corrected, to reflect the Teal-and-Orange times.<\/p>\n \n \nObviously teal and orange are pleasing together visually, there’s a reason why the colors are used together so much. But seriously, enough is enough. In this opening scene in Supernatural<\/i>, it’s a mild version of it, nothing too over-the-top – just thought I would mention the trend and how it immediately popped out at me.<\/p>\n What I get from those pale orange walls and the bright blue outside is a sense of isolation and vulnerability, warmth against coolness. That’s why that color scheme is so popular, it does so much of the work for you. The next thing I am aware of is Sam’s hair. <\/p>\n \n \nHe has a widow’s peak, which I am not sure I was fully aware of, and there’s a whimsical little “I’m an FBI guy” flip-up in the back. That is a LOT of hair.<\/p>\n But we don’t start with Sam. <\/p>\n We start with Dean chatting up a pretty jewelry store employee. He’s supposed to be interviewing her, but instead he is throwing her a self-pitying country-song of bullshit about how “lonely” it is working for the FBI, shaking his head at all the “secrets” he has to keep. She is enthralled. It’s a fun bit because although we know that Dean gets around, we don’t really see him in action all that much. Here, we get his malarkey full frontal.<\/p>\n \n \nShe’s “in” on it, somehow. It’s a little flirty-flirt game they’re playing. “What’s it like, being an FBI guy?” “It’s lonely.” “I so know just what you mean.” What are you all TALKING about? Oh. Pantsfeelings. Right. Also, she’s wearing a sexy white silk top that’s practically corset-like in its structure. She’s wearing white because all of the details in that interior are white: the gleaming jewels, the white flowers, the overhead lights.. any other color would detract from the color-scheme. But later in the episode, Dean has a fist fight with a dame in white silk. He can’t escape from white silk. Not since he was 4 years old has he been able to escape from white silk. <\/p>\n While Dean is working his social life, Sam questions the manager (Sanjay Talwar). The head buyer, a woman he’s known for years, a woman who said at the Christmas party that the jewelry store employees were the only family she’s ever had (“all the lonely people, where do they all come from \u2026” Supernatural<\/i> operates in a world of shattered families.. where you have to find your own family.) The sad sack came and cleaned out all of the display cases one night, and when the night watchman caught her in the act, she grabbed his gun and shot him. She had known the night watchman for years. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, back on the set of The Bachelor<\/i>, Dean has questioned White-Corset, in between country-western-song verses, and she provides the rest of the backstory. <\/p>\n “The cops said it was a suicide, they should know, right?” says White-Corset. Dean can barely hold back the scorn, and it’s an important detail, Dean’s overall feeling about law enforcement. He feels superior to them. They mess up his cases all the time. During the episode he will meet a lawman whom he cannot sweet-talk, sass-talk, or fool. <\/p>\n Dean, trying to stay on point, thanks her for her information, and she, with a glance over at her manager, says to Dean meaningfully that she has more information if he wanted to interview her \u2026 in private. Sometimes it’s Dean who makes that first leap over the boundary from flirtation into action, but more often than not it’s the woman. Women throw themselves at him, not just because of his good looks. He was the same good-looking guy in “Skin,” but when he turned on the moves as a shape-shifter, he was skeevy and blank, like a Preppy Killer. It’s the inner essence that women respond to. Of course here the “inner essence” he is throwing at her is bull shit (a lonely guy full of secrets), but the REAL essence is \u2026 Dean is up for sex. He exudes it. All you need to do is nudge him, just a tiny bit, and he’s naked. How relaxing. <\/p>\n And that’s what happens here. There is a pleasing symphony of behavior from Dean, as he understands what she’s saying, hesitates, and then \u2026 stops hesitating. He calls her a “true patriot” and then tells her to write down her phone number, with a guilty hand-swipe on his face, a glance over at Sam, the Parental Figure in this scenario. She better write down her number fast so Sam doesn’t bust him fucking around. <\/p>\n \n \nIt’s details like that that make these, frankly, boring scenes pop off the screen.<\/p>\n That and a little hint of teal and orange. <\/p>\n 2nd scene<\/big><\/p>\n As the Impala pulls up in front of Ronald’s house, Dean is still complaining about cops and their interference. It’s a rainy night, mist coming through the trees as Dean and Sam walk up to the door, a beautiful walk-and-talk moment, with Sam filling Dean in on another similar robbery, where some guy killed himself after holding up the bank. Or something. I’m too busy looking at the rays of white misty light coming down behind Sam’s head. <\/p>\n And let’s talk about Sam in “Nightshifter.” He is extremely nose-to-the-grindstone, with an exasperated edge, and very impressive later on as he tries to control the situation in the bank. Sam is overwhelming in some of those bank scenes: “Nobody’s dyin’ here!” he yells at the crowd. (Amusingly, despite Sam’s thrilling machismo throughout “Nightshifter,” it is still Dean who gets the girl, the hostage fluttering her eyelashes at Dean and gushing to Sam about his “heroic” brother. Sam’s blatantly annoyed smile of response, and drawling eye-roll to her Elvis-fangirl-libido are two of the comedic highlights of “Nightshifter”. Sam’s being awesome and take-charge, and STILL the woman is like, “OMG, your brother, tee-hee, flutter-flutter.”) Sam was somewhat incapacitated in “Playthings,” and in the next episode, he separates himself from Dean again, through spirituality and a relationship with God. Here, he’s on point. Beneath all of it, though, is John’s whisper to Dean, the fear of the dark side approaching, the fear that he doesn’t have a lot of time. Sam is a “problem.” (In every season, one or the other of the brothers is the “problem.”) In “Nightshifter,” eventually, it is DEAN who is the problem: Dean, who falls in love with Ronald, Dean, with warrants out for his arrest \u2026 Sam does his best to contain Dean, to handle the situation, to get Ronald out of the way.<\/p>\n Dean is more often than not the workaholic one (although in Season 2 that has shifted, Dean’s getting tired.) But he’s usually the one keeping them on track. In “Nightshifter” he also keeps them on track, but allows himself to appreciate Ronald, treat him with kindness and appreciation, whereas Sam has zero time for that noise. <\/p>\n The scene coming up is full of a ton of GREAT closeups of both Ackles and Padalecki, as they stare up at Ronald’s manic monologuing. <\/p>\n As they knock on the door, a light on the porch blares down at them. They are caught in it, wincing, as they will be “caught” repeatedly throughout “Nightshifter” up until the end. There will be no way out, there will no Linda Blair. That spotlight is on them now for good.<\/p>\n \n \nSuspiciously, Ronald (Chris Gauthier) peeks down the hallway at them. The rain pours down and the sound adds to the feeling of loneliness, isolation, night-time. It’s a very specific sound.<\/p>\n \n \nSam and Dean have the classic patient “we’re Top Dogs in this scenario” behavior, brought to them by their fake badges, and even when Ronald demands to see their badges (a nice change from the many folks who barely give the badges a second glance), they display the badges to him with a choreographed mixture of contempt and good-natured patience. Ya wanna see the badges? BOOM. How’s that. <\/p>\n \n \nWhile there are many good badge moments in Supernatural<\/i> (I can’t help but think of Treasure of Sierra Madre<\/i>), my favorite badge moment came in Season 9.<\/p>\n \n \nSam’s fake name is Han Solo. I love the swoopy confident signature. Sam is very Han Solo-ish in “Nightshifter,” the natural leader trying to keep all the different elements cohered, so nobody gets killed. But he’s cranky about it the whole time. Han Solo.<\/p>\n Ronald takes in the spectacle of Hot G-Men on his doorstep and seems flattered, and yet afraid to really go<\/i> with that emotion. He’s been burnt. “You came to hear what I got to say?” he asks. It’s tragically vulnerable. Dean has subtly taken over the interaction, another switch-up, it’s normally Sam who handles the openers. <\/p>\n I like that right before they enter, we get a sudden point-of-view change, back up to the light on the porch staring down at them. Dean winces up in that direction right as he walks through the door. It’s brief, lasts only a second, but it’s a visual reminder of the teaser, a reminder that although Dean and Sam are hunting something, they’re the ones being hunted down. <\/p>\n As Ronald leads them into his cluttered man-cave, he begins the monologue that does not stop until the end of the scene. He has a LOT to say, and NOBODY has wanted to hear it. Guthrie plays it with a mixture of total lunacy and intense logic. His skin is slightly clammy. He is clearly a night-shift guy who sleeps in the day. He has the nervous inappropriate manner of a guy who doesn’t converse with other humans much. He probably goes into fugue-states for hours at a time arguing on message boards and forums about Area 51. Ronald is nervous, shy almost, maybe so ingratiating and self-deprecating that he makes himself invisible. The fact that the FBI – the FBI! JUST LIKE X-FILES – is actually looking at him<\/i> makes him lose his shit. He is going to talk until he can’t talk anymore. <\/p>\n Right when he says, “The cops thought I was crazy \u2026” his Vision-Board is revealed. It looks just like the walls Sam and Dean put up in their motel room, like John Winchester’s demon-tracking wall, and it seems normal because they do it, but when a regular civilian papier-maches his wall like that it looks very very different. An interesting connection\/denial of connection which will be reiterated throughout the episode: “What’s crazy anyway? Why is Ron crazy? He’s not that different from us.”<\/p>\n As always, kudos to the props department. There’s such detail, which is skipped over as the camera moves by, but then is fully revealed when you freeze-frame it. Like the big word “SAM” on some random hotel stationary in John’s serial-killer wall, only visible when you slow the film down. <\/p>\n \n \n \n \n \nI cannot get enough, people. The inclusion of “cheeseheads” is awesome, and the motel room will really land that location for us. Even without the location listed on the screen, anyone who’s been to Milwaukee will know where it’s supposed to take place. <\/p>\n When Sam interrupts Ronald’s monologue, it is with a firm and insinuating tone, a “guilty until proven innocent” tone, practically an accusation. Sam wants to do two things with Ronald:<\/p>\n 1. Get him to tell what he knows And so Sam chooses to go into the interaction in a hostile way (bringing up all sorts of interesting glances from Dean, who is swept away by Ronald’s enthusiasm). This is another low-level example of the “Yes\/and” quality of the show (as opposed to “either\/or”.) Both guys, both Sam and Dean, have separate reactions to Ronald. Neither are wrong. You could say that of the two Sam is the one keeping a cooler head: Ronald cannot be allowed to hunt this thing himself, he will get himself killed. Dean gets that, he does, but he doesn’t take such a strict line with Ronald. And, of course, Ronald DOES get killed. And seasons later he will return to try to kill Dean from the afterlife. So, you know. Layers. I love it. <\/p>\n “The thing I let into the bank wasn’t Juan,” he informs Sam and Dean. Pantomime of behavior between Sam and Dean at this revelation. It could be read a couple of different ways. They’re “acting” and their acting job requires them to be suspicious G-men. They’re going to make Ronald work for it. Sam’s reaction is practically scornful. Maybe it’s the expert’s reaction to the amateur, but it seems tactical on Sam’s part. This guy, whatever he knows, has to be protected. Let US handle this. I am going to intimidate the hell out of him.<\/i><\/p>\n \n \n \nJuan wasn’t Juan, he was too perfect – “he was like a Juan doll \u2026” says Ronald, trying to put what he saw into words. Remembering the slick Dean as shape-shifter, his licking-lips blank-ness, the usage of his sexuality so different from Dean-the-real-guy \u2026 that’s exactly it, right? It looked like Dean, but it wasn’t Dean. It was Preppy Killer Dean. But Sam, trying to both ward off Ronald’s personal investigation as well as getting him to talk, says, sarcastically, “A Juan doll?” There’s a sudden change of perspective then, off of Ronald, and onto Sam and Dean, who are placed tiltingly huge in the frame. It must be how Ronald sees them. Glowering hunks towering before him. Judgey. A wall of authority.<\/p>\n \n \nSam looks through Ronald’s material, and says in a bored unimpressed voice, “What’s that, Mr. Resnick?” He’s so official<\/i>! That’s all the push Ronald needs. Excited, he picks up a magazine, pointing at the scary-robot on the cover, and murmuring in a rat-a-tat conspiratorial whisper, “Chinese have been workin’ on ’em for years.” The headline reads: “BIRTH OF THE CYBERMEN.” The magazine is a real one<\/a>, inspired by the paranormal\/supernatural work of Charles Fort<\/a>. (Who actually wrote the book Charlie has to go track down in the most recent episode! The only reason I even recognized the name was because of the research for this re-cap, so I feel wicked smart right now.) <\/p>\n Sam remains staunchly unimpressed, but Dean catches the drift of the thing, and says, helpfully, “Like the one in T-2<\/i>” which, of course, is exactly the right reference, and Ronald almost jumps up and down in excitement.<\/p>\n Member this douchebag?<\/p>\n \n \nRonald trusts Dean from that moment on. And Dean likes Ron. You can see it in every shot, even when Dean is blurry behind Sam. He’s looking at Ron with a mixture of humor, admiration, and attraction. Not sexual, just, “I really like this guy. He’s awesome.” Dean is pleased that Ron liked his T-2<\/i> reference, he feels proud, Ronald is all right, man. This is the Geek side of Dean, the Dean that looks at LARP-ing and thinks it would be fun, the guy who has dissertation-length thoughts about the various versions of Godzilla<\/i>, the guy who jams out to a musical version of his mother burning on the ceiling. We’ve had interesting discussions here about how his Geek-self, more than anything about his sexuality, more than any other quality, is the thing that Dean is most embarrassed about. He could go full-on Geek if he didn’t have John’s brand of machismo ringing in his ears. As a way to combat his embarrassment about being a nerd, he turns Sammy into the nerd, the book-worm. It’s a weak spot for Dean, an Achilles heel: it’s thrilling when he throws off the shackles, on occasion, and embraces his Geek self. <\/p>\n Sam throws Dean a glance, and Dean immediately tries to simmer down. It’s hysterical. Sam as judgey Parent.<\/p>\n Ronald, hyped-up, elaborates on the “mandroids.” Sam, still in skeptical mode, repeats the word, “Mandroid?” There’s a sneer in his voice, but Dean says, “What makes you so sure about this, Ronald?” (Sam calls Ronald “Mr. Resnick,” Dean calls him “Ronald.”) And look at Dean’s face when he says that. He’s basically got stars in his eyes. <\/p>\n \n \nRonald pops a video tape into the old-school VHS he’s got going on, babbling on and on, all as Sam and Dean sit underneath the Cheesehead Wall of Paranoia. <\/p>\n \n \nI can’t get enough of the multiple angles in this scene. And watch, as Ronald keeps talking, the close-ups prioritize Dean and Ron. There are more close-ups of Dean than of Sam, which tells us something. Dean’s reaction to Ronald is one of the themes of the episode. You can do that through language, and we’ve already had some of that, and Ackles handles it gracefully and clearly. But the closeups do a better job. Sam is essentially side-lined by the camera.<\/p>\n These are the things that interest me. <\/p>\n Ronald stops the tape when Juan’s eyes flare up into the camera. Ronald screams and points: “SEE? HE’S GOT THE LASER EYES.”<\/p>\n \n \nOh, Ronald. He puts contemptuous quotation marks about “camera flare.” He galumphs around. <\/p>\n Starting with Ron’s line about how the “mandroid” “morphs itself” into another person, here is the sequence of closeups (putting my own Geek-Self on display, because I counted it out.): <\/p>\n Ron to Dean to Sam to Ron to Dean to Ron to Dean to Ron to Dean and then to Sam.<\/p>\n Sam is involved early on in the sequence, and then he vanishes, leaving just Dean and Ron, until finally Sam returns in the final closeup when he grabs control of the situation. It is a very important visual sequence, and the WAY it is put together is even more important than the look on Dean’s face (admiring, caught up in Ron). If closeups of Sam had been doled out as equally as closeups of Dean we would have a very different story, Sam’s skepticism would be shown as equally important – but here, what is important, is the relationship between Dean and Ron. <\/p>\n \n \n \n“Okay,” says Sam, interrupting the close-up fest. Ron, swept up in the accord he found with Dean, assumes he will find the same thing with Sam. Sam stands up and Dean follows, not knowing why, just doing what Sam does. It is slightly adorable. They are filmed from below so they loom up into the sky. There’s contempt in Sam, his cheeks red (I love it when he flushes). There’s a shot of Dean looking confident and almost happy, still caught up in his thing with Ron, and I wonder what HE thinks Sam is going to say. “There’s no such thing as mandroids.” says Sam. Sam is now isolated in the frame, shot from the side, darkness all around him. It’s HIS moment now.<\/p>\n \n When Sam says, “There’s nothing evil going on out there. It’s just people, you understand,” Dean looks like he wants to intervene, maybe soften the blow a little bit, but he withholds. Sam is the epitome of a Man in Black, a representative of a powerful bureaucracy whose job it is to shut nut-ball individuals like Ron out of the inquiry. When Ron realizes what has happened, he shouts, “GET OUT OF MY HOUSE.” <\/p>\n Dean has a moment, a brief moment, where he regrets how the interaction has gone down. <\/p>\n \n Like I said, “Nightshifter” has all of these interesting power shifts between Sam and Dean, power flowing from one side to the other, without much talk about it. Both of them powerful, but in different ways. <\/p>\n 3rd scene<\/big><\/p>\n While not as flashy-dashy as the disco-room in “Provenance”, the motel-room in “Nightshifter” (shown only once in the episode) wins a couple of different prizes for <\/p>\n 1. Sheer random-ness What Jerry Wanek has done is create a moody otherworldly space with a lot of different elements: a brick wall, shadows, Venetian blinds, a small black-and-white television, the painting of a steer over the bed, manly wood-paneled walls, a serial-killer collage wall, and then the one-two punch of a lit-up blue lamp declaring SCHLITZ as well as a wall-divider with lit-up Schlitz logos \u2026 all of these things become this dreamy weirdo backdrop to the conversation that follows. It’s an in-joke, Milwaukee being obsessed by its beer (which, if you’ve spent any time there, you know is true) \u2026 However, I’ve stayed in many motels in Milwaukee, and, you know, they aren’t filled with lit-up Schlitz logos. You see all of this in the beginning when Sam crosses the room. Dean is in the foreground, drinking a beer. Schlitz, I presume. <\/p>\n The overall effect is beautiful. And very strange.<\/p>\n \n \n \n \nDean expresses regret about Ronald. To lie to him, to play him, to trick him, steal his leg-work \u2026 Dean doesn’t like that. It seems unfair. “Messed up” is how Dean puts it.<\/p>\n Dean, who has been expressing exhaustion and discontent about the job, maybe remembers how “cool” it is what he does in his life, through Ron’s enthusiasm. Ron WANTS to be doing what he already is doing, so maybe he’s not doing so bad. There’s an interesting little identification there, something that rubs off on Dean throughout (until the one-two punch of Ron dying and Agent Henriksen arriving, that is.) But Sam picks up on the undercurrent, as he pops in Ron’s confiscated video tape. “Are you pissed at me?” Dean’s just maybe a little freaked at “how good a Fed” you are. Dean, you run around wielding badges too and nobody blinks an eye. You use your fake-status as a Fed in order to impress women. You, too, are very convincing as a cop. So shut it.<\/p>\n Dean has settled in at the table, with blueprints and tracing paper and a Sharpie (what you up to, nerd?), and the Schlitz light-show behind him, and he’s pleading Ron’s case. What would it hurt to at least throw him a bone? <\/p>\n \n \n“Mandroid,” is all that Sam needs to say. Dean’s got to give him that: “Except for the mandroid part.” The exchange is pleasing: neither are too set in their own opinion to not give a little in whatever exchange goes down. It’s a conversation, not life-or-death. <\/p>\n “I liked him,” Dean declares. “He’s not that different from you and me.” <\/p>\n Sam watches the security footage (and there’s something tragic about Ron stalking by in his security guard uniform) and Dean does a little connect-the-dots grid over the blueprint, and they talk about shape shifters, connecting them to the St. Louis experience. Sam is so butch in “Nightshifter”, I’m in love with it. And not to “overcompensate” for something. It’s because someone has to steer this ship. <\/p>\n \n Even exposition feels real with these actors. They put a lot of “sub” into that “text.”<\/p>\n 4th scene<\/big><\/p>\n The environment of the City Bank of Milwaukee is introduced in a series of shots that show tellers and customers going about their business. It introduces us to the cast of characters who will eventually be hostages. We get a brief glimpse of each one. It’s a good way to start. Orientation all around.<\/p>\n Dean and Sam, in their security-tech coveralls stroll through the bank, led by the main security guard, who tells them there have been no problems, and Dean says it’s just a routine check. Their walk through the bank happens “in one,” the camera following them along, giving us a feel of that main space – necessary for later. It’s an establishing shot. We’re going to be here for a while. <\/p>\n Led into the office with the wall of security monitors, the security guard leaves Sam and Dean with a friendly, “Okie-dokey!” – so sincere and Midwestern. <\/p>\n Dean is used to living in a much more hostile world, he laughs in delight. He’s not put off by it. Unlike, say, his father, he does not hold innocence in contempt. Yes, he wants to protect the innocent, but he doesn’t see the innocent as stupid sheep: he sees them as precious reminders of his mission statement. <\/p>\n All of that in his reaction to “Okie-dokey?” You betcha! <\/p>\n As they sit down at the monitors, he can’t let it go: “Okie-dokey. I like him. He says okie-dokey.” Of course he also admits he will kill him without thinking about it if dude turns out to be a shapeshifter. But still, he likes the guy. He likes Ronald. He likes White-Corset. Life isn’t half bad. <\/p>\n They give us a little dissolve, from the wall of monitors, to Dean’s hand switching the cameras around. Supernatural<\/i> doesn’t use dissolves much (showing the passage of time). It’s probably happened only twice before. Usually they keep scenes self-contained. But here, they need it. Sam and Dean have been staring at the monitors for a while now. Boredom sets in. Dean zooms in on the security guard, and says to himself, to Sam, “Looks like Mr. Okie-dokey is \u2026 okie-dokey.” There’s a little bit of an “attitude” in how he says it, like he’s “acting” it, and enjoying the feeling of the words in his mouth. It’s minor-burlesque as opposed to major. <\/p>\n \n \nLook at that frame. The darkness encroaches upon them, shadowing their faces, their eyes are hooded, their coveralls are dark \u2026 it’s the look that the stupid network people, who are not artists, who have never been artists, balked at. It is why we were subjected to the primary-color Desperate Housewives<\/i> palette of Season 7. They’re back on track now, although Supernatural<\/i> will never be this dark and monochromatic again. <\/p>\n And what’s happening in this scene? Nothing. Sam and Dean are passive, sitting in chairs, staring at screens. Dean gets distracted by a woman leaning over, and zooms the camera in on her ass with an appreciative gleam in his eye, Sam tries to get him back on track. Dean’s like, Come on, man, this’ll take 2 seconds, relax, I’m just looking. Dean is “befriending” her ass, basically, all part of his general vibe in the episode. This is part of investigation process, part of any buddy-cop movie, the stakeout: boredom, riffing, improvising, having to wait something out. Supernatural<\/i> is confident enough to give us the time to get that. They didn’t have the dissolve, for example, leading us right in to Dean and Sam seeing the shapeshifter on the screen. They gave us this restless nothing-ness beforehand. It’s so much a part of the texture of the show and I am grateful for it.<\/p>\n Look how stunning.<\/p>\n \n \nFinally, they find what they are looking for, the bank manager’s eyes gleaming like the mandroid that he is. <\/p>\n Sam is already out of his chair. Before Dean can join Sam, though, he stops cold. There is Ronald on the monitor, machine gun slung over his shoulder, hustling around at the front doors of the bank, chaining them shut. Dean knew this was coming, somehow, as did Sam, but Dean’s reaction sets the tone for all that will follow. Almost admiring<\/i>, he looks up at Crazy Ron, and says, “Hello, Ronald.” Annoyed, maybe, but the way you get annoyed at a lovable child who misbehaves even after a scolding. <\/p>\n Thank you, Jensen Ackles, for the 10 layers you put into 2 words. <\/p>\n \n
\nTrust-Building Moments Over<\/big><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nMilwaukee, Wisconsin
\nOne day ago<\/i><\/p>\n
\nSometimes the incidental music is so grating, telegraphing to us “wackadoo goofball boys doing something cuh-ray-zee” or “Lifetime Television emo-stuff”. There are a couple of musical “themes” that they use repeatedly (still!) and they are powerfully Pavlovian. They are:<\/p>\n
\nThe End of Music<\/big><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nIt’s a color scheme that has become so common in Hollywood that it’s now a cliche. You will be able to date current films, not because of the actors in them or the topics covered or the technology used, but because every damn movie has a teal and orange color palette!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nLet’s Stop Talking About Teal and Orange<\/big><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n2. Throw him off the scent so he doesn’t get killed<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nDean is open to the awesome-ness of others in “Nightshifter,” whereas Sam is pretty closed off, focused only on the mission. I mean, a guy says “Okie-Dokie” to the both of them, and Dean loves it so much he goes off on a dreamy monologue about how much he likes that guy, “he says Okie-Dokie\u2026 Okie-Dokie\u2026” He tries out how it sounds when he says it. (The guy is listed in the cast credits as “Okey-Dokie.”) Then there’s the moment Dean takes to open up to the woman in the vault, suddenly presenting her with his inner self, his vulnerability, demanding intimacy, insisting on getting her name, giving her his name. Dean is VERY open in “Nightshifter.” The whole episode starts with him flirting in a pretty hard-core way and then discovering how great Ronald is. It may sound strange, but the world of “Nightshifter”, to Dean, is filled with pretty girls who are open to him, awesome smart nerds like Ronald, and kindly guys who say “Okie-Dokie.” Dean is soft<\/i> here. It’s a reminder that he has no friends. Maybe he’d like to have some friends. Dean’s flirting batting-eyelashes stuff, compulsive though it may be, especially in inappropriate situations, is one way to make the world seem friendly, small, like he has a place in it. Exhibit #5,672 why “womanizing” is such a dismissive and wrong way to talk about his behavior. Sometimes he bats his eyelashes and people get pissed off. But sometimes he bats his eyelashes and doors open for him, shirts unbutton for him, drinks are poured for him \u2026 it’s worth the risk for him because sometimes he is allowed “inside” with all that that conveys, okie-dokey?<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n2. Filmability<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n