Well it seems that during his off-camera time with Ruby, Sam has been working hard on honing his telekinetic demon-exorcising powers, and tonight we saw the payoff in a big, creepy way. No more nosebleeds and headaches for Sammy, no sir. And now he’s doing some Sylar-esque people flinging as well. Did I mention it was creepy? Poor Dean was a little too unconscious to see it, so of course Sam lied about it later.
At the very least, Dean is starting to bring it out into the open more often. We saw he’s still hurt by what Sam said to him when they were both under the siren’s spell, and Sam is still brushing it off.
There were quite a few familiar faces in this episode, with the return of Pamela, Tessa(!), and Castiel, as well as guest stars Alexander Gould and Christopher Heyerdahl.
Poor Pamela, I really liked her and it was a shame to see her go like that. True to her character, she berated Sam and Dean for bringing her into this mess, right up to the end. She certainly was one wise woman, and her telling Sam that his intentions aren’t as good as he thinks makes me worry for him a little. It certainly does seem that they’ve reversed roles in a way; Dean is worried about all the innocent people that are going to die by saving the reaper, and Sam couldn’t really care less.
I really didn’t think we would ever see Tessa again, even when I knew this episode was going to feature a reaper. She just struck me as yet another one-timer we’d never see again. It was a pleasant surprise though, because “In My Time of Dying” is one of my all-time favorite episodes.
Dean got a warning of his own from Tessa before she left. Of course I get that they have to be cryptic and keep us in suspense, but I’m really wondering what is going to happen to Dean after this is all over. The hint seemed to be that Dean isn’t really getting a second chance at redeeming himself at all. Is Castiel going to try and throw him back in hell after the job is done? He proved he’s willing to cheat by going behind their back and making them believe the information was coming from Bobby, so they’d do what he wanted.
I admit, I have my stomach all tied up in a knot for the Winchester brothers, where this journey is taking them, and whether or not they’re going to survive it at all. I know, it’s TV, they couldn’t do that to us, could they??
Clacked by Cate Cropp
on Mar 13, 2009 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
Good episode. I am intrigued to see Dean get some torture done.
Christopher Heyerdahl was awsome in this episode. He has just been popping up everywhere all of a sudden. I loved the tone of his voice.
I noticed the change in spots the brothers have taken since the beginning of the series too. I don’t think Sam has become a hard ass like Dean tried to be at the beginning but he has become a realist that sees the bigger picture. That became very clear when he was talking to the boy and flat out lying to him about staying where he was.
I have to say that even though I understand it, the “I was a bad guy in Hell” thing Dean has going on is wearing a little thin. I liked the carefree-yeah it happened-but we are going to move on- Dean. This one takes life too seriously.
*POST AUTHOR*
Heh, I haven’t seen Heyerdahl in much, I don’t watch Sanctuary, but his voice reminded me of a demonic Marlon Brando. Very cool though.
Agreed on Dean…I understand its part of his character now, but there are other ways to show his ongoing inner conflict than him giving a speech about it every week. We get it.
Did he make a speech about being in hell this week? If so, I missed it. I agree, it can be clunky sometimes but I didn’t see it this episode.
As for Sam and Dean’s role reversal, it’s very interesting. On the surface that’s what it is, a straight up role reversal from the beginning of the series. But if you look closer, you realize that Dean’s devil-may-care, badass, do anything to kill the bad guy attitude was mostly just a front. He rarely actually did do things that were truly unethical and when he did (in Bloodlust or in Croatoan for example) he suffered afterward with serious pains of conscience. Now it’s not so much that Dean has actually changed his nature and just cares more about the innocent people that they sometimes hurt, he’s just stopped putting on the front that the immoral part of their job doesn’t bother him. That was his nature all along, he’s just not hiding it anymore.
On the other hand, it now seems that Sam barely has a conscience. Several times now he’s done things that were downright unethical or pretty creepy (this started in season three), and seems to have very little qualms about it either before or afterwards. Sam has become a person for which the end always justifies the means. So unlike Dean, it seems as if his fundamental nature, the Sam we knew in Season 1 and 2, has actually changed. Remember what yellow eyes said after Dean brought Sam back from the dead? I think that when Sam died and came back, he left some part of him behind, some good part, and what came back is Sam, but not the best side of Sam.
*POST AUTHOR*
Re: the speech, I was referring to Dean’s convo w/Tessa. “You know I’ve done things, horrible things…”
Ah, yes, now I remember that. When I saw it I thought he was referring to everything bad he’s ever done, not necessarily just the Hell stuff, but even so it was pretty subtle I thought. Not nearly as clumsy as some of his recent Hell spiels, lol.
Greate episode. Little sad about Kim Manners, he will be miss.
I am bored with Dean whining, bored to death actually.
This is not role-reversal, this is full on gary-stueing of Dean. He’s the weepy little damsel with angels whooping and fangirling him and his man-pain. Dean used to be sexy, now he is pathetic.
This ep killed the show for me, permanently. I have been less and less interesting in the show ever since they tried the role-reversal and ended up in making Dean the constantlu suffering whiner. Even Sam was never this whiney and mopey and by god, he was whiney and mopey in season 1 and 2 but never to this extent.
I’ve had enough woe-me speeches to last me a life-time with this show. I was never tingled with self.pity and that is all I get from Dean now. Yuk! The whining about Sam not wanting him along on the job had me puke. So this is heroism? Let me puke again.
Yeah, Dean is the perfect man, I get it Kripke, he’s also become the most boring character ever. Thanks for that, Kripke!
This episode helped pull me back into Supernatural a little bit. It was a good one to have after the back to back hiatuses (hiati?).
I, too, am sick of the constant Dean speeches. It started last year with all the “but your my brother/I don’t wanna go to Hell” speeches and snowballed into a running theme. But, Sara, it would take quite more than a few misty-eyed monologues to have me hopping off that ridiculously good-looking man-train (yes, I wrote that, and though I may have vomited in my mouth a little, it was worth it).
I’m so glad they brought Tessa back-and Pamela. References like that, nods to past events, really help maintain the story’s interest (for me). To Jeremy Carver’s credit, he really imbues his dialogue with a very casual realness-and all the pop culture references were great.
And, for the record, Joe the Plumber WAS a douche.
Side note: Does it seem like Sam has changed from Luke Skywalker into Anakin Skywalker?
That seems to me to be a wonderfully apt way to put it. :-)
Good old Comcast Cable in the Sacramento, CA area dropped CW (and a couple of other channels) just after Supernatural started Thursday night, and only came back on just before the ending. ACK! Of course our local CW station has no plans to air the episode any time this weekend to help out fans (nice, thanks CW31). What is that phone number for DirectTV again? :)