feliciakw: (SPN - LR (4.01))
[personal profile] feliciakw
It's back. And about freakin' time, too. Withdrawal, I tell ya, is not fun.

Plus S1 creepy with S4 angst is for yay.

Not much in the way of the thinky thoughts on this one, though [livejournal.com profile] dodger_winslow has some really good ones. A lot of what she put into words I picked up on on a peripheral/subliminal level. (Mind you, I don't agree with her stance on everything in the ep, but at the core, I don't disagree . . . )




"Then" . . . a recap of Dean's story arc. And I found the editing to be somewhat distracting. I know why they did it the way they did it, but a new shot on every phrase is just . . . jarring.

"Now" . . . Okay, I'll say this up front. When I first saw the production stills from this episode, my first reaction was, "Oh! They're bringing Missy Bender back?" In many ways, this ep reminded me a little bit of "The Benders," a little bit of the XF ep "Home," (though not nearly as disturbing, and a little bit of "Bloody Mary" it its creep factor. You will also notice a couple homages to the original The Haunting, which I'll point out along the way.

I'm also told that the exteriors were, in fact, the same house used in the XF ep. Good call, [livejournal.com profile] janglyjewels. Thanks for pointing that out.

Doors opening by themselves and creepy children wandering out . . . ftw.

Title flash. I still really like it.

Impala, night. And countless fanfics wherein the Boys spend the night in the car are now validated. Heh. Sam sleeping in the back seat, and insomniac Dean looking for a job. They've been working non-stop for a month (of hiatus) and haven't mentioned the conversation at the end of 4.10 since. Hm . . .

And now, instead of nightmares, Dean simply isn't sleeping at all.

I also love how they take the time, from time to time, to point out that ghosts aren't the only thing that makes an EMF meter go off. And I also like the shift in focus to catch the reflection of the power lines.

Doll head in the closet. I believe my response was, "That's not right." I'm totally with Dean on the "That's super disturbing."

Aliases: Stanwyck and Bevar. Now, Stanwyck I get--Barbara Stanwyck, which I thought a little odd. But Bevar didn't ring any bells. So I did some 'Net surfing and discovered that Carol Bevar was in a couple of what look like bad sex comedies. Now, this is interesting to me, in that it might be indicative of the movies each of the guys likes, with Sam preferring the Hollywood classics (I know Stanwyck mostly from noir, but her career was long and varied, that's for sure) and Dean opting for sex movies and porn (big surprise there). It could also be a reflection of how they see themselves and/or each other. Assuming Dean is the one who has the IDs made, it would seem that Dean sees Sam as . . . classier, smarter, with more versatility and longevity, while Dean sees himself as low-class, expendable, with no future.

Or I could be reading way too much into it.

FBI agents wear matching ties. (Almost.) Heh.

Creepy girl in the window is creepy.

Person in the closet is also creepy. I will say that the direction and photographic direction of the creepy in this ep is very . . . creepy. And effective.

Hey, if the mom can figure out how to get a good zucchini garden, I'd like to talk to her.

D: So what now?
S: We could tell them the truth.
D: Really?
S: No, not really.

Kind of a role reversal there. Used to be Sam was the one who wanted to tell them the truth and Dean said no, absolutely not.

And then we have nods to The Haunting. I didn't really association the writing on the wall with The Haunting at first, but it totally could be. No, what made me think of The Haunting was the girl petting the dog and having her hand licked. Because I totally knew that wasn't her dog. Seriously. Then to have it confirmed, it's still downright creepy. (Btw, if you haven't seen the 1960 The Haunting, that scene is one of the scariest in the movie.)

Okay, are the interiors a rearrangement of the set that is Bobby's house? Because the windows look familiar, and the all configuration kinda reminds me of Bobby's, but not quite.

Ack! Impala's tires are slashed!

ACCCCKKK!!!!! Weapons are gone!!!!!

And the other vehicles are useless, too. Trapped! They're all trapped!

And suddenly the ghost has a lot more range than they expected. So it's back into the house, to a hopefully defensible position.

And Dean is taking this job very seriously. "I'm not letting anyone die tonight." Dean? I'm getting flashbacks to Sam in "Playthings" and other S2 eps. But more on that later.

It also seems to be their new MO that Dean stays with the victims while Sam goes to investigate. In "Monster Movie," there was, of course, a reason Dean wanted to stay with Jamie, but in this current scene, Sam makes the same suggestion: Dean "babysits" while Sam investigates. Must ponder . . .

"Fonzie." HEE!!!!

And . . . creepy girl comes out of the creepy closet, and . . . um . . . crosses the salt line. You know? I should have clued in earlier that she wasn't a ghost, because she didn't stutter or fritz.

And once he figures out she's a person, and alive, Dean steps back from the offensive and goes on the defensive. Hm . . .

The disappearance of Danny is very creepy, and rather disconcerting. No one noticed him get snatched? He went off by himself? Bzuh?

Creepy secret passages in the walls make me nervous.

The way Dean resigns himself to doing what needs to be done. Such a trooper.

"Please nobody grab my leg." Gah! *shudder*

Turning and running into the hanging . . .whatever? Made me jump. Bwah.

And you know, you know, you just know Uncle is gonna get it.

Stick figures of a boy and a girl. Huh.

And just as an aside: When Dean leans back against the wall, keeping quiet while the girl scurries away overhead? Jensen looks really good there for some reason.

And now . . . every death that Dean is even remotely in the vicinity of is going to weigh on him. Oh, Dean.

"Story ripped from an Austrian headline." Hey, if CSI can do it . . .

And I'm kind of endeared to the fact that Dean simply cannot seem to wrap his brain around how people can treat each other that way--especially family.

Okay, so the kid was locked up in the house her whole life, but she reads and writes. I'm not so much thrown by that as wondering how the child survived. Obviously the infant had someone taking care of her, because infants can't do for themselves. So someone somewhere along the line had to be giving the kid some kind of care. Yes?

"Like you know what Hell's like." Ooh. Um, yeah. But you know? I rather like that they're acknowledging that Hell isn't necessarily a metaphor to be tossed around. Not anymore. It's very real to Dean and . . . and apparently I'm too tired to form coherent thoughts anymore.

I also like that Dean is the smart one who figured out that dad was using the dumb waiter.

Ack! Night vision scene, especially with the girl crawling into the basement, was creepy.

And Dean. Desperate to save as many people as he can, hoping to make up for what he did in Hell. Oh, Dean.

Okay, what is with the random cross lying on the floor? I noticed the Mary statue on the end table at the beginning, too. Must these mentally disturbed families always be portrayed as religious? It doesn't add anything to this story.

Oh, excellent. Dean gets his sawed-off and his ivory handled Colt back. Yay. I'd hate for him to lose that Colt. It's his favorite pistol.

This of course begs the question as to how she broke into the trunk and snagged the arsenal to begin with, yes? Of course, I suppose she's well practiced in stealing things to survive.

Uh-oh. Creepy!Girl has a brother? Yep, there he is. Ack!

So. Creepy!Girl attacks the shed while Creepy!Brother is fighting with Dean.

You know? Creepy!Brother also explains the girl and boy stick figures painted in blood on the wall. I'm thinking they're twins?

Dean kills Creepy!Brother, a human death at his hands. And Dad kills Creepy!Girl, who stares creepily from where she lies in the field.

Yay! they got their arsenal back!

Opposite of okay, but together. You're listening, guys. Right?

And how sad is it that my first thought at seeing the beginning of the closing scene was, "Oh, no. Not again." Seriously. I don't mind these roadside confessionals, but seriously. Can't we split them up a little. I realize for the guys it's been a month since the last one, but for us the audience? It's back to back. We just did this. Writers, directors. Please. Change it up a little bit. Please? Set the Big Reveal in a laundromat while they're sorting their socks.

I like that Sam has a habit of cluing in on when Dean doesn't eat. Because Dean doesn't not eat.

And what can I say about that last reveal, really? It makes me twitchy for where they might be going with it, though I can't articulate why. It's good that Dean is bothered by it, too.

Now before I toddle off to bed, let me ramble a bit about the Dean-Sam comparison. In S2, Sam was very concerned, scared about what he might become. He didn't want to become a monster, become something he's not. Dean? Has now been there. He became a monster during his time in Hell. It's that role reversal thing again. Sam was afraid of turning, with Dean reassuring him it wouldn't happen. Now Dean actually did turn, and Sam is offering forgiveness. Dean knows whereof he speaks when he talks about the slippery slope and turning, and that gives his cautions to Sam that much more weight.

I've also come up with the theory that Dean did not remember his time in Hell when he first returned because if he had, he wouldn't have been able to function. They (the angels? God?) gave him time to settle back into life before allowing or making him remember. But you know? It's kind of important that he does remember. He's the only human who can appreciate what will happen if they fail. As Castiel said, Dean of all people should know what it means when the threat of Hell on Earth looms. Of course Dean is guilt ridden by what he did, what he became. He tortured other human souls. But he also knows now what will become of humanity, what must be prevented.

I just hope the brothers can help each other through their respective mine fields to a place that isn't so dark, a place that is, in fact, victorious.

And you know? Re-reading that last line tells me I really need to get some sleep.

Date: 2009-01-17 06:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kalquessa.livejournal.com
The scene with Kate and the dog and the...not a dog? Ew. Anyway, yeah, that scene totally made me think of the black-and-white Haunting.

And just as an aside: When Dean leans back against the wall, keeping quiet while the girl scurries away overhead? Jensen looks really good there for some reason.

I took particular notice of that moment and Jensen's brilliant acting skillz, too.

And how sad is it that my first thought at seeing the beginning of the closing scene was, "Oh, no. Not again."

Dude, I am so there with you, there. I am dead from roadside confessional, over here.

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