SPN - "Party On, Garth"

[feliciakw]

Gonna try something a little different this week. Rather than doing a chronological recap, I think I'll take the ep element by element.



Garth: Amusing in small doses. Somewhat competent with a basic salt-and-burn, though lacking in research beyond hearsay. Has a special lady. Somewhat overconfident and annoying, a lightweight when it comes to the alcohol, which he seems to enjoy anyway. Smart enough to call Dean when he's in over his head. However, spends the climactic showdown knocked unconscious (both times). Probably just as well.

And I had a brief flash of H50 when he called Dean "brah."

I've seen some complaints that there was hope he wouldn't be made to look smart at the expense of the boys. I found it to be quite the opposite. Placing Sam and Dean with Garth highlighted how experienced and professional the Winchesters are. Working with Garth was like part mentorship, part babysitting.

Well, with the exception of Tess, who responds to Mr. Fizzles? Dean can't get her to talk, but she'll talk to a sock puppet? I couldn't help but think of Dean with Lucas in "Dead in the Water." Tess draws. At one point, I actually wanted Dean to put a stop to the sock puppet and ask Tess to draw what she saw. Because Dean knows how to work with kids who are more comfortable drawing than talking. Sheesh.

Still, Garth is well-meaning and enthusiastic. If he doesn't get you killed, he'll grow on you.

And George got a huge kick out of the Pacer in-joke. Sam and Dean were driving a Pacer (I couldn't figure out if it was a Gremlin or a Pacer, and I was quickly informed that it was the latter), and Garth's comment about it. Because the original Garth (from Wayne's World) drove a Pacer.

George also found it highly amusing that they went from a badass Charger last week to a Pacer this week. And that Garth was driving the "cool car," the El Ranchero, while the boys were driving the Pacer, which Geo called the least cool car on the planet, even below a Gremlin. He's been enjoying the change-up in cars this season, even if no one else has.

Shojo: Excellently creepy MotW, sadly under-used. Would like to have seen a case revolve more around that, with less distraction in the realm of guest star. Not sure how to accomplish that, though.

And my first thought, when they sussed out that it was a monster you could only see when drunk? No problem for a functional alcoholic like Dean, right?

Dean: Oh, Dean. So much going on with him. Many moments that I liked. Like when he discovers that Thighslapper Ale is actually awesome. Hee! Also, "Beer isn't food. It's whatever water is." Oh, Dean.

Dean's the one who figures out the connection between those who saw the monster. (Smart!Dean)

Then in the office, he hands Sam the whiskey, while he himself picks up something that's extremely potent even for Dean. I'm thinking moonshine or white lightening of some kind. (My first thought was ouzo, but now I'm thinking moonshine. Because the stuff I've tasted? Would work really good as an antiseptic in a pinch. Or window cleaner. Or to strip furniture. Oy.

"Can you even get drunk anymore?" Sam asks. "It's kinda like drinking a vitamin or you, right?" Oh, Sam. You have a point.

But it does the trick and gets Dean a (kinda) drunk. But even drunk, Sam and Dean speak the same language. Heh.

I also kind of love that they consult with a Japanese chef, and that Dean has the chef recite the Shinto blessing while he (Dean) pours spring water (a "running spring," after all) over the samurai blade. Going ghetto on the spellwork, indeed. Hee! But hey, whatever works in a pinch.

Also also? Dean is a samurai!

Also x3? Teamwork! Sam is drunk from watching the last sister, and so can see the monster. Dean has sobered up, and so has his wits about him for the fight, but can't see the shojo. So Sam is Dean's eyes. Teamwork! \o/

And oh, Dean. So very hopeful that Bobby is still around. Chronicling the weird stuff that's been going on.

And Sam sees Dean's hope, and knows that this could break Dean.

Sam: So . . . Sam did in fact try to contact Bobby after the disappearing beer. But no dice with the talking board. I totally get his not wanting to bring Dean in on it without proof. Why do that to Dean?

And as Dean lists the things that could be Bobby, Sam doesn't want Dean to go there. Because Sam knows how tenuously Dean is holding on. And Sam does have a point. We see loved ones we've lost. In a crowd. Out of the corner of our eye. Normal people see these things, Winchesters simply see a different variation. It's a good argument.

Some folks are thinking that when Sam went "a little nuts" after the beer disappeared, that perhaps Sam was seeing Bobby. Maybe, maybe not. He's been hallucinating a lot of things this season. Hallucinating Bobby, but no confirmation from the talking board, no EMF. Makes sense.

And this reasoning makes sense to Dean, because if it were Bobby, Bobby would let them know.

But per S3, talking boards don't always work. Sometimes the spirit world is chatty, and sometimes it isn't. (Still, it's an understandable assumption that if Bobby were around, he'd take that opportunity to make himself known.)

(Also x4? Swayze reference!)

The Reveal: Bobby! Now that's how you play the reveal of the return of a much-loved character. You don't promote it to death and spoil it. Heck, Jim Beaver's even been lying to us for weeks about working on a film in northern Canada, probably to keep the secret in case the paparazzi snapped in at the Vancouver airport. Plausible deniability. Or something.

Bobby! I didn't want him to return as a ghost. Bobby knows better. And if Bobby can't communicate with the boys, he's going to get frustrated. And things will escalate. But as long as he has a purpose, perhaps that will be enough.

Yeah, right.

Bobby! And the way that last scene was played. With Dean almost acknowledging him. That pause by the door, as if he senses something.

And Bobby flickering out.

I didn't want Bobby coming back as a ghost. But this is well enough played that I can go along with it.

Bobby! O.O I sat with my eyes like O.O and my hand over my mouth just . . . O.O

Bobby!

Dean!

Sam!

O.O

Comments

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

I woke up the next morning and felt like an idjit - of COURSE the reason the board didn't work is because hello, Dean wasn't there. Bobby is tied to the flask, so he goes where Dean goes, and Dean was off at Frank's.

*headdesk*

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. When they were using a talking board in S3, it didn't seem that the spirits had to be *right there* to talk from beyond via the board. The talking board was how Bela found out that the rabbit's foot was in John's storage locker, right?

But that *would* explain why no EMF.

So no talking board, no EMF, Sam's conclusion is logical, as was his reason for testing it in the first place--hallucinations. Particularly if we're following the line of thinking that Bobby is attached to the flask, but Sam was seeing Bobby when Dean and the flask were elsewhere, then if Sam was seeing Bobby at that point (while Dean and the flask were absent), Bobby would have been a hallucination, right?

[/hypothetical theorizing]

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

Bella summoned the spirit to the board, I think. The boys have never tried to summon a spirit and failed. (Houses of the Holy, Death Takes a Holiday, Weekend at Bobby's)

I think it's rather airtight that Bobby is connected to the flask - every time he's been around so has Dean, and when Dean left the flask behind, he left Bobby behind too, and then when he came back for it and removed it from the room, Bobby flickered out - supposedly to reappear in the car. He's traveling with them.

Sam said after the beer vanished he 'went a little nuts', which I took to mean he saw Bobby at some point, for sure. But yeah, I wouldn't put it past Sam to also hallucinate Bobby, and poor kid, how is he supposed to tell the difference? *hugs him*

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. Bobby is connected to the flask, no doubt. Where the flask goes, Bobby goes.

Dean has Bobby in his pocket, you might say. ("There's a wocket in my pocket.")

I'm blanking as to when Sam and Dean summoned a spirit in Death Takes a Holiday (Alistair interrupted, didn't he?) or in Weekend at Bobby's. Refresh my memory?

Hallucination!Bobby is kind of how I took the "went a little nuts" line. It might have been Bobby (if the flask was in the room), but I took it more as meaning he was hallucinating all sorts of stuff at the time, and he was trying to confirm whether or not the Bobby he was seeing was real. With no confirmation via talking board or EMF, his conclusion of hallucination is logical, and thus, no need to bother Dean with it.

So I think we're pretty much saying the same thing only differently.

[tahirire.livejournal.com]

Lol, yeah.

*facepalm* It was Bobby who summoned the ghost in Weekend at Bobby's. You'll have to forgive me I'm also trying to write an essay about Faith Popcorn. No really, that is her name.

justshootmenow

[sarcasticval.livejournal.com]

I have to say, I thought this episode looked incredibly stupid given the promos, but I rather quite enjoyed it. I also thought Garth came off rather well, only 1/10th bumbling idiot but still a mostly competent hunter. (And while the sock puppet thing was strange, the camera angles on it cracked me up)

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I don't know that I'd go as far as to say that Garth is "competent" so much as well-meaning and lucky. Certainly not a total novice, but he has much to learn. (The saying "He knows just enough to be dangerous" comes to mind when thinking of Garth.)

That said, I do rather like Garth in small doses, and I think he has the potential to be a fun recurring character.

[sarcasticval.livejournal.com]

I dunno...when he realized that it wasn't the ghost of Jenny Greentree he called in for backup. He recognized the signs of a potential Bobby haunting almost immediately. He was the only one of the guys to pick up on the connection between business owner and his illegitimate kid, and once again called for backup rather than try and tackle the thing entirely on his own. And I'd give him credit for getting the little girl to talk, but that scene was too hilariously bizarre for me to take it seriously. (Camera! Focusing in on the sock puppet as if it were a person! I loved it! And hated it! But loved it!)

Edited to use my spirited icon because when has it ever been more appropriate?

[feliciakw.livejournal.com]

I guess the thing with Jenny Greentree, for me, was the lack of follow-up to the eye witness interviews. Yes, the interviews were a logical place to start (the boys do that all the time. Interviews are SOP), and Jenny Greentree was the logical conclusion based on those interviews. But it seems he did no additional research into the area, into the public records of what might actually have happened to Jenny Greentree, into previous killings/disturbances/sightings/whatever. He took the eye witness information at face value, dug up a body, and was ready to leave town.

That's not to say that the Winchesters have never salted and burned the wrong body, or drawn erroneous conclusions, but they're in the habit of doing a bit more research before they do a dig or decide it's just a local legend or whatever.

I will give Garth credit for recognizing when he's in over his head and calling the Winchesters, but I still think he's got a lot to learn. I think that's why Bobby paired Dean with Garth in the first place--so that Garth could learn from Dean (and now, Sam). He's smart, but in the heat of battle, he's easily taken out.

He's a good ally to have. I just sort of question his ability to take the lead on a hunt or face down monsters.

The sock puppet scene was indeed bizarre, for a number of reasons.

Spirited icon is spirited.