Supernatural: Jump the Shark
Thursday, I’m In Love
by Sylvia Bond
Supernatural Episode Review – Season Four, Episode 19
“Jump the Shark”
While watching this ep, I promise I didn’t stare at Dean’s ass when he did a backover kip to escape from the crypt. I didn’t swoon over Sam’s noble brow, nor the sweet sweep of Samhair that danced across his eyes when he was tied to the dining room table. I didn’t drool over Dean’s lush mouth, nor at his teeth that seemed extra shiny and impactful this week (I have a thing about teeth), nor did I sit in open-mouthed lust every time the camera gave me a nice long pan of Sam’s legs. I didn’t want to reach out and touch Dean’s silky skin, nor did I long to sidle up to Sam so he could tuck me against his taut self and with his powerful arms teach me how to shoot Dean’s 1911 pearl-handled Taurus. I just didn’t, okay? The ep was too good, too perfect for me to be distracted by mere trifles such as that. Besides, I’m just not that shallow. Really.
The name of the ep comes from the phenomenon known as jumping the shark, which happens when a TV show crosses the line into absurdity, or ignores previous character development to the point of making a mockery of itself for the sake of ratings. As a shout out to this concept, the name of the café where the brothers meet Adam, Oliver’s Café, comes from the point in The Brady Bunch series where a character named Cousin Oliver was introduced to revive the cute, youngster whose innocence and earnestness provide so much laughs. Which is when The Brady Bunch jumped the shark, in my opinion.
Oliver always reminded me of a midget version of John Denver, which wasn’t bad (go rest high, John), but he seemed so out of sync with not just the culture of the show but the look of the kids; early 70’s kitsch clashed terribly with the late 70’s self aware back-to-nature look that Oliver had going on. (Author’s note: The Jump the Shark site, according to Wiki, sold out, and has itself jumped the shark. It’s sad that this game, independent website got absorbed by TPTB.) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark)
Anyway. Show used the reference to make a point about what it was trying to do, in that introducing not just a new character but a new Member of the Family Winchester was coming perilously close to the point where it would be strapping on a pair of water skis and attaching a ski rope to the nearest boat. It was as if Show was declaring that it had a premise so powerful and so tight that it could introduce a new Winchester brother willy nilly, and then snap him back out of existence without so much as a twitch. Show was saying, sharks be damned, I can jump the shark and not fall, Show’s version of stotting. That’s a pretty ballsy thing to attempt, but I’d say that Show pulled it off.
Here’s the plot. Something is digging up dead bodies in Windom, MN, and the boys go to investigate. In addition to finding out about that, they also discover several more interesting things, that living people are disappearing, that this was a case that The Dad yet again failed to wrap up tight because the monsters he was hunting still walk, and that, in addition, there is evidence of Dad Sex and John Winchester’s failure to keep it in his pants.
The evidence’s name is Adam, and is yet another example of the interesting blend that a blonde haired mother of the Rapunzel variety (The Dad obviously has a particular taste for blondes) and a dark-haired father of the brooding Heathcliff variety will produce. I practically failed biology (all those X’s and Y’s, not to mention frogs in formaldehyde), but Adam had The Dad’s dark eyebrows (which Sam has) and long eyelashes (which Dean has), Sam’s mouth, but Dean’s fair skin, and so on. Adam is an interesting plot device, but he dies, so don’t concern yourself with him.
Instead, let’s talk about The Dad. Frankly I don’t blame him for responding to, as Dean puts it, “the grateful chick,” because, seriously, the man seemed too virile to be kept down long. I’m not talking about excusing those carless amorous jerks spreading their seed because they can, I’m talking about a man, lonely on the road, finding some surcease once in a while. So go, The Dad. Besides, it’s nothing Dean and Sam haven’t done upon occasion, and The Dad’s not the only one who might have let “one slip by.”
Besides, upon having found out about said son, The Dad returns to the scene of the crime to interact with his little hidden family. Whether he gets any additional pootie from a single mother, from a series of family photos (there are pictures providing evidentiary evidence all around Adam’s mother’s house showing just how often The Dad was there), we discover that he spent what is known in the biz as Quality Time with Adam. There’s baseball. And fishing. Maybe even camping or Friday night pizza.
I think this is a good example of The Dad reaching for Normal, in spite of everything we saw about him being a single-minded hunter. Without going into that discussion yet again, suffice it to say that for The Dad’s piece of normal, the price was paid and not by him. When he was off catching lake trout with a nice, handy little 15 pound fishing reel, who was looking out for the Wee boys, eh? Okay, maybe they weren’t that wee, Dean would have been around 22 years old and Sam 18, but still.
What I find more interesting than my personal dismay over Sam and Dean missing out on this kind of fun, is the idea of The Dad’s character itself. Images and stories about The Dad are littered through this episode, a little like mini ice floes after a sea bound glacier has calved. I love the fact that this character, two years DEAD, can still participate in the current storyline, in spite of not having any actual lines to speak. But for all the dearth of The Dad in actual eps, he marched into history with those thick boots of his and manages to pop up as a minor player, and continues to kick at the darkness till it bleeds daylight. Or, to be more mindful of The Dad’s character, to kick at the darkness till it bleeds.
Back to the main story. The issue of Adam being The Dad’s kid is not just a throwaway attempt at introducing the Cousin Oliver aspect of the Lost Brother (always an act that makes a show jump the shark), it’s actually part of the storyline, isn’t that cool? The boys find out about Cousin Oliver, I mean Adam, and then interesting things start to happen.
First, they get to convince each other that they all sprung from the same pair of manly loins, which they do through a series of exchanges that left me feeling like I’d seen pieces of something very real and painful. It’s hard to put into words, but watching Dean listen to Adam tell him about the baseball and the camping was like watching a family argument where you know down to your bones that the problems go much deeper than one sister getting ballet lessons while the other one didn’t. You know that conversation? Even if it wasn’t about ballet lessons at your house, you had something like it, where the issue of who is more loved while not overtly admitted to is demonstrated again and again and again. And then one more time after that. Parents always say they don’t have favorites, but they do.
When Adam blithely tells Dean about all of it, the expression on Dean’s face reflects both the joy at hearing more about The Dad, and the stomach-plummet of dismay that for all Dean did and was for The Dad, he missed out on the Good Stuff. Dean misses his Dad like crazy all the time, and still loves and admires his father, even if he can see the truth about who The Dad really was. Yet, at the same time, Dean wants a piece of what he sees in those photos, the smiling relaxed The Dad with his arm around his boy and a huge speckled trout held up with pride between them, just ready to be filleted and fried in an iron pan over an open fire.
And Ackles sells this to me, like he does everything else. I swear, the guy could probably convince me to flood my basement and make an ice skating rink out of it if he wanted to, he’s got that kind of face. During this scene, he gives me a Dean who is all grown up and understands the reality of who The Dad was. Yet, at the same time, I got this image of a more vulnerable Dean, sobbing his heart out in a dark corner somewhere. It’s pathetically sad to think of, that kid who never felt he was enough of what The Dad wanted, and yet kept giving more. And all of this is presented in Ackles’ face, in the flicker of light and dark in his eyes.
With regard to Adam, Sam and Dean figure out fairly quickly that Adam was protected, as Sam wanted to be and as Dean never was. The problem starts because Adam wants revenge for the death/disappearance of his mother. He figures out pretty quick that the boys aren’t just mechanics (although they are in a way, mechanics fix things, and so do hunters), and he wants a piece of the action. And thus the boys diverge, like two roads in a wood. If anyone says they never saw this coming, they’re stone blind and have been watching a different show.
Sam wants to teach Adam everything he needs to know to protect himself and become a good hunter, so he takes it upon himself to train Adam how to deal with guns and lay down salt. He also he teaches Adam about supernatural lore, and then he delivers the most important message of all, according to Sam. And that is, in order to become a hunter, you must cut all ties to love and family and stability. Hunting isn’t just a job, it is a way of life and everything else must be sacrificed to that end.
Most interesting to note is the fact that Sam is doing everything with Adam that Sam hated The Dad doing with him. I don’t think this represents hypocrisy on Sam’s part as much as it points to the fact that Sam was living in denial when he walked away from being a hunter in the first place. He seems to be really taking to the whole thing rather ell. Rather too well. Dean, on the other hand, wants to continue on with the way The Dad started things, by protecting Adam, by keeping Adam normal, by shielding Adam from the curse of the Winchester family. Even if, as Sam points out, since Adam was born a Winchester, it’s already too late for that.
Later, all battered and bruised by this particular gig, Dean gives his little end-of-the-ep speech, only in this case, it ties in very nicely with what’s been going on. He confesses (like we didn’t already know) that he wanted to BE The Dad, he dressed like him, did everything The Dad did. Then he tells Sam that Sam, without even trying, is more like The Dad than Dean ever hoped to be. Sam takes that as a compliment, and this tells me two things. That Sam is indeed like The Dad if he can’t see what’s wrong with this statement. He marches through the ep like a huge chunk of sea ice, floating and watching and pronouncing, with cold air banking off him like he’s just about frozen enough to attach himself to the sea floor (I did much better in oceanography).
And second, that Dean, for all his being f’d up by his time in hell (a time longer than he’s been alive, it’s occurred to me), is turning out to be the wiser of the two. For all he loves The Dad and reveres him and respects him, it’s not escaped his notice that The Dad was severely troubled by tunnel vision and a less than healthy approach to dealing with grief. Dean proves in this episode that not only does he know how to use his eyes and his experience and his instinct, he understands that the all or nothing I Am An Island way of doing things (yeah, I’m talking to YOU, John Junior) is not the way to be a hunter.
Dean is approaching the altar of wisdom here, if he’s not gotten there already, becoming more stable in the process, and, dare I say it, more like Bobby. Bobby, for all he steals screen time from My Boys, knows that it is what it is and at the end of the day you just have to walk away from it, but in order to do that you have to have someplace (or someone) to walk to. Otherwise you go crazy. Bobby’s not normal (no hunter is) but he’s got ties to normal (by having a house, a mostly regular job, and dogs to care for), and that’ll keep him going long after most hunters would burn themselves out. Like The Dad was, and like I fear Sam will soon be.
Though I am a Samgirl, I do not feel that Show touted Dean at the expense of Sam. It felt more natural for Dean to be more affected by the appearance of Adam than Sam would be. After all, Sam was the baby of the family, he’d had his turn at being protected and loved (relatively speaking); he has his own wounds and issues but they are not about this. The contrast between Sam’s reaction and Dean’s reaction is demonstrated by what they do about Adam; in Sam’s case, he stands tall and cold and starts flinging out orders and directions. Dean might balk at this, but Sam overrules him by continuing to talk as if Dean hadn’t even spoken up. I liked Sam icy like this; I liked watching Padalecki do cold and unbending, doing his version of how John Winchester must have been like.
One of my favorite scenes takes place in the bar. Dean’s gone there by himself to get away from Sam for a while. He’s dressed as an FBI agent. My preference for the FBI garb is due to my admittedly unrealistic romantic view of all things FBI-related, for which I blame Dale Cooper, Fox Mulder, and, lately, Don Eppes, with his sexy little rolled up shirt sleeves. A white shirt, no less. Plain white. Who knew?
Anyway, watch what Dean does here. First, he doesn’t flirt with the bar maid, which he usually might. It’s not that he’s not interested or too tired, but perhaps more that he’s on the job, and they’re be time enough for that later. Second, when he puts out the picture of the Most Recently Dead Guy, it turns out to be the bar maid’s dead husband, and with nary a murmur Dean continues with his questions but slides the offending picture out of the way, so as not to offend. Both of these show that Dean is all business, all grown up.
Third, watch his expression when he learns of yet another connection of The Dad’s to the people in the town. Dead Guy was a deputy, and when he did something right, he admitted he had help from “an expert.” There behind the bar is a picture of the Dead Guy, in his deputy outfit. Close by is a copy of the newspaper article, which has a picture of the crime scene, in the corner of which is The Dad, watching unobtrusively from behind a tree. We’ve seen this image before, but this is an actual newspaper clipping not just a copy of one, so the effect is more immediate, and since Dean is alone (sans Sam), more private and meaningful for Dean. The Dad is obviously the unnamed expert and it is this little moment of hearing this praise about The Dad that is like a little present to Dean; Dean who has remained unswerving in his devotion to John all these years, and in spite of his being able to understand who The Dad really is.
The Set Dressing team did a bang up job. I mean, they always do, but this time, it was perfect. There was the diner, which was a little cheesy and stale with rude wait staff, as it should be. Then there was the motel, which is the same motel just dressed up different; but it’s like a reoccurring secondary character, which, as you know, Show always does very well. Then there’re the little tunnels that Dean gets to crawl through. The first one is a metal heating duct (“Ducts! Why does it always have to be ducts?”) that runs under the floorboards. The other is a dirt tunnel that runs between two crypts.
The metal duct is claustrophobic and twisty, and Dean crawls through this with much flashing of flashlight and much groaning and kvetching, having lost at Rock, Paper, Scissors yet again.(As he does. As he always does. I love it when Show remembers continuity moments like this.) The one made out of dirt is straight and just about the same size. And even though the MOW drags bodies through both tunnels apparently with ease, but Dean’s only got about, oh, one inch to spare on either side. Hey, I’m not looking at his powerful and broad manly shoulders as he crawls through the tunnels, I’m not. I was not absorbed in watching them churn, in watching the pull of his shirt over his arms. No. I was thinking about the plot. Totally.
Then there’re the crypts in the cemetery. Yes, two, two, two crypts in one. There’s the obvious one that some hooligans are suspected of breaking into; five tombs broken and the embalmed bodies gnawed on. Then there’s the less obvious one next door that the cops would never think of checking out because from the outside it looks like it’s still sealed. But using his Hunter Eyes, Dean spots a draft that he follows through the tunnel, a process which I gushed over earlier.
Both crypts look like Halloween at the coolest house on the block, dressed by those people who (God bless them) never grew up and never will and understand that the neatest thing you can do to on a night like that is to make it real. There’re cobwebs and skeletons and brain tissue and who knows what else all over the place. Instead of the neat crypts we’ve seen in the past on Show, or even the crypts that TV gives us elsewhere, which are the tidy, you could eat off the floor and don’t show up as anything but spooky cute, this place is a mess. Dean’s feet crunch bones when he walks. Of course he’s not grossed out, he’s just doing his job, not to mention his experience in hell might have left him a tad inured to the texture. Anyway, I fell in love with the crypt because it looked like the Set Dressers went to town and had a good time with it. And NOT because Dean was ingenious in getting himself out and especially not because he did that lovely kip using the bar he placed in the open window. Nice shots of tight backsides do not affect me at all, no sir, they do not.
While Dean’s trapped in the crypt, Sam is trying to protect Adam from whatever it is. Part of the fun here is the fact that even by the last reel the boys haven’t figured out what it is. And they never resort to calling Bobby! I’m so proud. Anyway, Sam’s doing what he can, but, it turns out that Adam AND his mother are ghouls, and since it’s Thursday, they tie Sam up and start eating him. Sam is tied in a cross position on a table, and where on earth they got a table long enough to accommodate his long legs is far more important an issue than the fact that his legs are gorgeous, I assure you. And about this eating thing, was it just me or did Sam get a Christ-like wound in his lower left side? Yeah, I didn’t think so; the Jesus overtones here were screaming at me.
First aid. Yeah. Let’s chat. I didn’t mind that Sam was applying his own first aid to his leg after the ghoul tried to drag him under the truck. Even though, truth be told I would have liked the camera angle to be a little higher so I could watch his nimble fingers at work. But. Later, the ghouls sliced open Sam’s arms. He’s breathing hard, he’s struggling and calling for Dean (“Dean! Dean!” Ah, music to my ears.) while Dean is busy beating up the ghoul and taking out his angerragegrief about The Dad maybe loving Adam more. All the while, blood is pumping out of Sam’s arms into a fairly large looking bowl on the floor. I’m not saying it was arterial blood, but it was flowing pretty fast from Sam’s arms, and you can die that way.
No rush to the hospital because it would take up too much with non-plotty stuff? Okay then. Why not show us Dean doing the sewing on Sam’s arms, and dosing him with orange juice and maybe a jot of whiskey after? I’m sure Dean would make the nicest little stitches and hardly leave any scar at all. Why, in future eps, the scar would most likely seem INVISIBLE. If I have any beef with this ep, this would be it, the lack of first aid. But that’s me, and it doesn’t detract in any way from my enjoyment of Sam Whumpage or Dean Rescue. (Besides, Sam did look perfectly woozy as he sat up from the table, and there was a brother touching moment or two as Dean wrapped Sam’s forearms in dishcloths. I feel pretty sure that the stitching, as well as more brother touching, did occur, though off screen, much to my dismay.)
In the end, Sam and Dean wrap up Adam’s body in a shroud and dose him with lighter fluid and set him on fire because he was The Dad’s son, and a Winchester, after all, and deserved to be honored as a hunter. Even if he died before even knowing what a hunter was. The gesture only makes sense in Dean’s mind, you see.
Sam’s all for calling in favors from the Soap Angel and having Adam be given the touch of life. Sam likes to mess around with fate, even though part of what he was trying to teach Adam about being a hunter was that sometimes you have to pay the consequences; that Adam is dead is a consequence of The Dad not finishing the job when he was in town nine months before Adam was born. I didn’t mind the confusion here; death and grief do funny things to people. And funerals make them fight over who took out the trash last and who inherits the cookie jar. I’ve seen gang riots on TV that look more civil than a post-wake discussion about just what to do with Nana’s collection of dustpans. (I got her cookie jar, by the way. My sisters are still pissed.)
The episode is just about perfect. It integrated the overall story arc and included the brothers dealing with their growing discord. That is, not dealing with it, but at least we got to SEE them not dealing with it as they snipped at each other in a variety of failure-to-communicate scenes, beautifully rendered and masterfully filmed in all their discordant glory. Then there was the gig of the week, which was a ghoul, a new monster with unpredictable eating patterns and a nasty habit of leaving a mess. And then there was the strong element of The Dad throughout, his footprints as durable as those of the iguanodon in a fossilized coastal swamp bed. Overall, I would give this ep one of my strongest recommends for all of these things, but also for having the classic structure of two brothers on a roadtrip, saving people and hunting things. Be it ever so.
Whenever TV people come up with a premise, it is usually a combination of other premises that have worked in the past. These premises work because they are based on character and story; I’m here to tell you that any show that isn’t based in character and story a) doesn’t interest me, b) isn’t worth my time, and c) does not produce a loyal nor passionate fanbase. Shows that do all of the above are exactly what TV people live and die for. If you are a TV person, you should be so lucky. Alas, a few years into the premise, based on a desire for even higher ratings, someone usually decides to shake things up, to make it new. But remember New Coke? That was a disaster of the first water, and TV people would do well to learn that lesson: Newer is not better, it’s just newer.
People fall in love with a TV show and watch it week after week because it gives them what they need, what they want. When they stop watching your particular show it’s not because the story is old and stale and needs a new coat of paint. It’s because the viewer is done getting what they needed from that particular storyline and pretty much nothing you do is going to help with the ratings.
My advice? Do what you do, do what you set out to do, and keep doing THAT. Don’t mess around with perfection. Which is what Show was for the first two seasons, and now, during the fourth season (and not the last, I’m pleased to note), Show is again. Show has hit its stride. Doing that. Doing just that one thing. Getting the right writing team together, telling the story, letting the story guide the plot. Letting the brothers do what they do, be who they are. Letting tendrils of The Dad seep in like smoke from a distant fire. Letting it BE. More like THIS, please. (And more nekked nudity wouldn’t hurt either, but seriously, compared to good story? Nekked nudity is just gratuitous. Really.)
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Sylvia Bond is a ten-year technical writing veteran with too many degrees under her belt to count. She lives in Colorado, but does not ski, preferring instead to spend her money and time at the annual Great American Beer Festival, taking road trips across the United States, and reading historical fiction from the comfort of her fluffy green arm chair. She has been involved in fandom since 1993 and been writing fanfic since approximately 1993. What she finds most amazing about fandom (besides the open heartedness of fans and the sheer amount of creativity) is how visible fandom has become. “In my day,” she says, “we had to hide behind P.O. boxes to get fanfic. But nowadays, people wear t-shirts that shout their affiliation and share their shiny toys on the internet.” It’s a wonderful world.
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Ohh Sylvia,as always I'm in awe!You just read my mind…and above all,you read all the thoughts I didn't even know I had!Your review is perfection and on a shallow note….YES,I needed to see first-aid scenes,show keeps on skipping that part but just like the laundry scene,they should start showing us bits of stitching or concussions or first aid in general!And you know what?This is not even a shallow thing,it keeps things real!;D
Thank you for sharing!
Hi Sylvia! Fantastic review as always
I specifically enjoyed the Sam whumpage this week, it seems like every other epside Dean is getting the crap kicked out of him or ending up in the hospital and this week it was Sam's turn. That boy is just plain HOT when he's tied up and bleeding… oh goodness… Tied up on that table, trying to keep his eyes open, I found myself yelling for Dean to turn around and help his brother. Show really got me into it, I love it when it does that. Anyway, we'll see you again next week!
This:
Don’t mess around with perfection. Which is what Show was for the first two seasons, and now, during the fourth season (and not the last, I’m pleased to note), Show is again.
YES!
Nice review Sylvia. I think there should have been more of a patch up scene, not just because it would have been nice to see, but because it should have been necessary. I'm gonna figure that a body Sam's size has a bit more blood in it than the average person, but he still lost enough to warrant a trip to the hospital. Instead, he's up and on his feet in the next scene. I chalk it up to the typical crap shows pull in that regard. I also chalk it up to the fact that they're trying to cram his evilness, and his distastefulness down our throats, and a hospital scene would have been, in their eyes, too sympathetic, for Sam. He's never had a hospital scene in the course of the show, and he couldn't have one now, not if we're all supposed to vilify and deride him. They don't want us to like him, so they refuse to allow him anything that portrays him in a sympathetic light. The episode was good, over all, and there were certainly no sharks jumped, but it wasn't perfect.
I think its more the problem of finding a hospital bed big enough ? I am no fan of the way they write Sam the show is too slanted towards Dean at times but I like Sylvia wasnot left feeling that Sam was treated badly in this . I actually thought it was fair to both brothers.
Besides those that will hate on Sam will do it regardles of how they write Sam because thats the way they are.
What I would like to see is Dean realizing the fact his death impacted Sam and was the final straw for this broken boy .
But really liked this episode and poor Adam never really stood a chance.
I watched this ep three times in a row, Syl, because it was sooooo fine! I love to see Winchester boys get tortured scenes (I know, I'm sick), and the ghouls and Sam was a goodie (although I did wonder how he survived all that blood loss). It was good to see Dean tending to Sam with such care, but how is someone in Sam's state going to be able to apply pressure to his own wrists?
I was saddened, however, by the fact that they never actually met their real brother, but a ghoulish facsimile. When they were burning Adam's body, I suspect they were mourning the loss of John's son far more than that of their half brother.
I'm terrified for Sam. He HAS turned into John, a guilt-ridden, tunnel-visioned man on a mission who is also addicted to demon blood–not a healthy combination. He wants to kill Lilith, avoid the Apocalypse, and is willing to sacrifice himself to make it happen. He doesn't realize what it would do to Dean to lose him again–or perhaps he doesn't care anymore. Like John, he will give himself over to the darkness so Dean can remain in the light.
Don't do it, Sam!
Hee, the hospital bed may indeed be a problem. But they could at least try. And you are very right in that those who want to hate Sam will do so regardless of what's written on Show, but it certainly does seem that Show panders to them anyway, heaping fuel on a fire that was already merrily blazing.
"What I would like to see is Dean realizing the fact his death impacted Sam and was the final straw for this broken boy ."
Thank you! That is EXACTLY what I want to see. But usually if you say that, you'll get accused of blaming Dean for the choices Sam made while he was gone, which is not true. He is not responsible for those choices, but he has yet to even acknowledge how badly his death hurt Sam, and how much it messed his brother up. That's what, IMO, needs to be shown.
"Sam is tied in a cross position on a table, and where on earth they got a table long enough to accommodate his long legs is far more important an issue than the fact that his legs are gorgeous"
LOL!!! I thought the same thing about them finding a table long enough to accomodate all 6'4" of Jared… Some screencaps I've seen show a bit of the table behind his head and it has pretty intricate inlay and stuff… I kept waiting for somebody to yell WASSAIL and see some knights around the table harrassing a wench… That sucker looked like it was dragged out of some renaissance faire or at least a medieval times restaurant…LOL!!! I'm sure they could have comfortably fit a family of 20-50 around it…LOL!!!
I had a blast watching this episode too! I'm still waiting for the episode where it's Sam in the hospital! I don't think we've seen it yet.
and yeah, I agree season 4 is really picking up the pace and is starting to feel as good as season 1 and 2.
Hope they don't "New Coke" it next season.
Thank you, thank you for again doubling the pleasure of my weekly addiction by helping me relive the show with astute and witty insights! What would I ever do without my weekly fix of all that is Winchester and lovely and fine? I'm already feeling the mourning coming on at the prospect of not having this in my life (even if it is at least a year away)!
I respectfully disagree with the idea of Sam being icy. Methodical is more the way I saw him when it came to teaching Adam about hunting. He wanted Adam to clearly understand that hunting was a total commitment….a life commitment before embarking on it . When Dean made the demon deal to save Sam,that's the time when Sam's view of hunting started to change. Sam knew in order to survive on his own he had to become Dean and Sam had to survive on his own those months and he did the best he could, still trying to do the right thing with saving people. Sam's warmth and gentle caring nature still peeks through even during these days of gloom and doom it did quite a bit in this episode! It's in the little things like in the diner or the welcoming mannerism he had with his newly found brother. Sam looked happy being the big brother for a change and Sam wanting Adam to know what's out there and to be able to protect himself may not have been Dean's view but Sam cared just as much.
What I found mind boggling about this episode is the writers wanted us to know in the most obvious way that the brothers have reversed roles and they used the episode "Something Wicked" as the prime example. Sam in this episode said and did so many of the things Dean said and did in "Something Wicked" But you could also see many other role reversal references from the episodes "Skin" "Shadow" and "The pilot!" But neither acknowledged it. Dean may have since changed his views but he didn't just act like Dean the first season he was John for most of the first season and he taught Sam much of what Sam was teaching Adam in Jump The Shark but both of them seemed to have first season amnesia.
The phrase "Jump The Shark" comes form the show "Happy Days! In the series later seasons the character named " Fonzie" actually jumped a shark!
Corrected version of second comment…..
What I found mind boggling about "Jump The Shark" is the writers wanted us to know in the most obvious way that the brothers have reversed roles and they used the episode "Something Wicked" as the prime example. Sam in this episode said and did so many of the same things Dean said and did in "Something Wicked!" But you could also see many other role reversal references from the episodes "Skin" "Shadow" and "The pilot!" But neither Sam or Dean acknowledged it.
Dean may have since changed his views but he didn't just act like John the first season he was John for most of the first season and he taught Sam much of what Sam was teaching Adam in "Jump The Shark!" But both brothers seemed to have first season amnesia.
The phrase "Jump The Shark" comes form the show "Happy Days! In the series later seasons the character named " Fonzie" actually jumped a shark!
Yeah, they've really turned it around, I think. I've yet to investigate which writer worked on which ep, because then I'd start watching the credits, and that would slant my impression even before the ep began: "OH, NO! Not them again!" You know? So I'm thinking towards the last few eps of the last season, I might take a lookback and see which writers worked on eps I liked, see if they have anything in common.
Thanks for coming by!
Best Regards,
Sylvia
Not sure why they leave first aid scenes out all the time, especially this one, which, seriously, would have required stitches for Sam. Those cuts weren't just glancing scrapes, they were deep. And with the blood loss? He might have nicked a vein, so….I'm hoping Dean took care of him off screen, though it would have been BETTER to SEE it. Can you imagine the conversation they'd have while Dean was sewing? "Guess he wasn't really our brother like you thought." "Yes, Dean." : D
Best Regards,
Sylvia
Hey, thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And yeah, Sam was fabbo being tortured, and why is that so hot, do you know? I can never figure it out. Maybe it's his vulnerability. Maybe it's the way he writhes. I'd be interested in anyone's theory at this point, because I've been wondering it for quite some time. Dean really bashed up that ghoul, didn't he? There wasn't anything left! Poor thing. And poor Dean! Oh man. To hear that yeah, after all, your dad took some kid to a baseball game but it wasn't YOU? I could hear his heart breaking through the TV.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
No we haven't, I hadn't realized that! It's about time, I think. I'll start mentioning it. A LOT.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
Yay! i'm so happy that SPN is back to it's usual self
Great epidode, and great review! thank-you!
I definately agree with Dean…Sam is more like John now then Dean ever was. The way the writer brought on this reversal of roles was quite clever. And i loved the scene where Sam and Dean went straight into rock paper scissors, without saying anything, as soon as they saw the duct under the bed! I hope we see some kind of bandage or Sams arms in the next ep…those cuts won't heal quickly. I love when there are awknowledgements of what happened in the last ep included in the show. Looking forward to Thursday as per usual! Thanks sylvia!
I have to say i was actually shouting at the television and hyperventilating a little (ok, a lot) when Sam was getting rather graphically tortured! But as usual, Dean came to the rescue so all was ok
Hey, you're more than welcome. Reviews are a pleasure to write when the ep is as good as this one was. Although writing about the bad ones is fun sometimes too; though I've not had a chance to do that with Show in a GOOD LONG WHILE. They've been doing very very well, and I like the way everything is going.
The rock paper scissors thing was totally funny – I ran out of room (and time) to write about everything, because everything was so good. But I like that, like you say, they didn't discuss it, they just DID it, because that's who they are, and what they know. : D
Best Regards,
Sylvia
Hey Sylvia,
Great review for an episode that while it didn't leave me as sad as "Sex & Violence" did, it came close. It's just breaking my heart (loyal Samazon that I am), to watch the path our lovely boy is traveling down – the Anakin Skywalker vibe gets stronger every week.
I do have to say on a totally shallow level re: Dean in the vent… there's just SOMETHING about a man on his hands and knees… actually I think it's just that man…
… actually I think I'd better shut it, now.
I know, RIGHT? Man. Vent. Crawling. Hands. Knees. It was almost too much, huh? I tried not to be shallow, it was so hard. I failed. Epic fail. It's not my fault both brothers are so damn pretty.
I think I know what you mean about it being sad…It had such a season 1 feel to it, esp like Brenda describes, all the Dean rescuing Sam bits – like we used to see and that expresses such brotherly love. And all the while, Dean's getting slammed with the whole Adam thing and Sam is turning into The Dad. It was brilliant mix of then and now. Which made it poignant, ya know?
Best Regards,
Sylvia
Hi Sylvia – thanks again for making us think. Just thought I would share something that has occurred to me over the last two episodes. Have you noticed how many times Dean saves Sam? In tMatEotB – it is by bringing Chuck, this week we get TWO Sam-saves. Driving up in the Impala just in time to keep Sam from being dragged under the truck & and taking on the Ghouls at the end. It really hearkens back to Season 1, and I hope is a clue going into season 5 that ultimately the redemption of Sam will be through Dean. But oh there are dark days coming.
I don't mind Sam being saved, he does it so well and always looks so aghast that, yet again, the world is that cruel and unpredictable. It's almost like he doesn't believe that it's that dangerous either, when surely he knows better. And perhaps, in his heart of hearts, he knows that Dean likes playing Rescue Man, so, maybe he gets himself in these situations for Dean's sake. : D
Best Regards,
Sylvia
And did Sam ever aknowledge how badly his death messed up Dean? Sam didn't HAVE to die in AHBL2. Sam died because Sam decided he was too good to kill Jake, who was a) trying to kill him and b) was clearly going to be easy prey for Azazel to get to do his bidding. Jake was trying to kill Sam, so Sam would have had every acceptable reason to kill him. Also, Sam made an amateur mistake by leaving the knife right next to Jake, who was only unconscious. That's why Sam died and that led to Dean's making the deal. I don't remember Sam being all sorry for not killing Jake when he had the chance or for leaving his weapon right where Jake could get it.
Sam doesn't even take responsibility for his own actions and decisions, he tries to find excuses why someone else caused him to do something. why in the world should Dean take on even more for Sam, when Dean already acknowledged that the deal was his fault and his fault alone and apologized to Sam for it in Season 3. Dean's not responsible for Sam's actions. Sam's never even yet managed to acknowledge a single thing about Dean that he admires, about Dean as an individual person(and no taking care of Sam does not count, that's about what Dean can do for Sam not about admirable strenghts and qualities of Dean as his own person). Dean did that for Sam in season ONE.
Perhaps I am old fashioned. But to me, coming into the comment space of an author's insightful and well-written review solely for the purpose of agressively stating your opinions without so much as acknowledging the review or reviewer, is akin to walking into someone's dinner party and launching into an animated airing of your opinions without so much as greeting your hosts, or thanking them for the invitation. Which is to say I find it rude.
I really have no desire to get into a brother vs brother pissing match with you. I am never going to agree with you, and I'm fairly certain you are never going to agree with me. It would be a waste of our time, and this comment space, to retread the same points and counterpoints. I think aspects of what you posted are severely skewed, others are outright wrong, and you obviously thought the same of my post. Neither Sam, nor Dean, is perfect or above making a mistake, and neither of them is worthy of complete condemnation or revulsion. They are flawed, and imperfect and that is one of the reasons we love them.
Wait. They're not perfect? Oh no!!!!
Just kidding. I'm pretty sure boy boys have the best and most honorable of intentions.
What I like watching is that yes, sometimes Sam doesn't want to see that he's the master of his own destiny. He's got a very dramatic and romantic soul, and he likes happily ever after very much. I think that what happens to him is that when the worst occurs, which it always does, for some reason he's not very well equipped to deal with it. Adversity tries people, and poor Sam flails a bit. I
I'm not saying that he's not calm in a crisis, indeed, who got him and Dean and The Dad out of the range of the Shadow monsters in Season 2? Sam was the one who thought that through. When rescuing someone else, he's the master of his art. Rescuing himself, he doesn't do so well. I don't think he goes around blaming Dean or anything like that, but he's rather on the side of "why me?" and "What the hell do I do now?" and unfortunately, the only thing he can see is Ruby and her mysterious blood.
Remember in Mystery Spot? Sam couldn't see the forest for the trees; it never occurs to him to change the pattern. Dean does that. Part of Sam's problem is that he's got tunnel vision. Like The Dad.
As for Dean. The boy is an enabler of the first water. He can't ever say no to Sam, especially, and while this is charming when there's the last of the spaggetios to consider, it's less so when there's life and death on the table. Dean takes on burdens, even when he's fresh out. He's co-dependent and overly giving, and never takes care of his own emotional health. It's going to break him if it hasn't already, and I highly suspect that he's completely whacked and all we're seeing is the thin outer shell that's going to crack at ANY MOMENT. (Or is this just me wanting to see him in the looney bin for real? Oh, Dean. I'm so sorry…)
Both boys are flawed, horribly. And I love them all the more for it.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
New COKE sucked!!! And regular Coke isn't too good for you either….off topic there, sorry.
Sam needs to go to the hospital!!!! He needs stitches. Sheesh. Can we at least get a few bandages next week? Please?
Best Regards,
Sylvia
I tried not to be shallow but it didn't work. The boys are too pretty to be believed this week, it was a pleasure, just a pleasure. But seriously, did you see the depth of those cuts? Stitches for sure. Why doesn't Sam ever end up in the hospital? Hell, even Superman got taken to the emergency room!
Best Regards,
Sylvia
I knew that about Fonzie, I always thought it kind of fun that this one little act would spark such a phenomenon of being able to talk about when a show was making a fool of itself. There were a few shows that never jumped the shark, before the site was taken down there was Hogan's Heros and The Simpsons. I can't remembe any of the others. Oh, and SHOW of course!
I agree with what you say about the role reversal, except that when Dean was teaching Sam what The Dad taught him, he did it in his own way, rather than The Dad's. He tended to include reasons (or tried to) and explanations, his motivation behind things. The Dad, one assumes, just gave orders and expected them to be followed.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
I feel strange enabling your addiction, but there you go. I'm addicted to writing reviews, and you're addicted to reading them. : D
The ep was particularly fine this week, wasn't it. I kept thinking, they can't be that pretty, they can't be! But they are.
Yours in Astuteness,
Sylvia
Oh, no kidding! Most men who lost that much blood wouldn't be able to speak, let alone sit up! I'm going to give them some leeway for poetic license, but seriously? The boy needed a hospital and fast. He never has had a hospital scene, you're right. Maybe it's all that demon blood keeping him out of there, but jeeze. WIth as nice as the guy looks in white? I'd love to see him there. Twisted I know….I wouldn't worry about Sam. I have a feeling he's going to come out on the side of might and right. You know. Like Snape did. Only Sam's not going to die. Never, ever, ever. EVER.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
"He is not responsible for those choices, but he has yet to even acknowledge how badly his death hurt Sam, and how much it messed his brother up."
The problem is that Dean doesn't feel worthy of mattering that much to Sam. It's the reason Dean made the deal in the first place … because Sam is more important, he's more worthy of life than Dean is. Dean has always felt that Sam is the special one and Dean's low self-worth has been a consistent character trait in Dean throughout the seasons. In S3, Dean told Sam (told himself) that Sam would be fine without him, and I'm sure Dean believed it. Not because he doesn't acknowledge Sam's pain or love for him, but because Dean sees Sam as strong and independent and perfectly capable of living without him. So, IMO, it wouldn't even occur to Dean that Sam would be epically damaged by his death because Dean quite simply doesn't believe himself to be worthy of that hurt and pain.
And that is just one more scar that John's parenting left on Dean Winchester.
I love this comment. It pretty much sums it up perfectly, where Dean is coming from. Dean has so many scars, this is one of the bigger ones. His face when he found out about the baseball game on Adam's birthday just about broke my heart.
"Dean may have since changed his views but he didn't just act like Dean the first season he was John for most of the first season and he taught Sam much of what Sam was teaching Adam in Jump The Shark but both of them seemed to have first season amnesia. "
I just think it's wonderful that Dean has grown and matured so much this season. Yes, Dean's views have changed, through experience and through self-discovery over the years. I think it's wonderful that Dean can step back and re-evaluate the way he was taught growing up and how that impacted them. Dean's eyes have definitely been opened regarding John and I think it's great that he can separate his own emotional issues about how John treated him and what he felt was the best approach to take with Adam.
Oh I agree with you completely Lauren you put it so beautifully and it's been wonderful seeing the changes in Dean!"
What got to me was not once hearing Sam say hey wait a minute didn't you say or do the exact same thing. Or Dean saying yeah I know I did that but this is what I learned from that experience to change my mind! Neither of them even hinted at remembering these things and it sort of seemed like the the writers wanted to have it both ways. They wanted to show us a complete role reversal with the brothers and use many references to season one in particular "Something Wicked' but then at the end of the show say oh yeah Dean was only acting like John. Kind of drove me in a nice kind of way crazy as it was a good episode like one of those puzzling circles ! I know it gave my best online friend a head ache trying to figure this one out! LOL
Thank you for replying to my comment Lauren VL
"The episode is just about perfect. It integrated the overall story arc and included the brothers dealing with their growing discord. That is, not dealing with it, but at least we got to SEE them not dealing with it as they snipped at each other in a variety of failure-to-communicate scenes, beautifully rendered and masterfully filmed in all their discordant glory."
Great review, Sylvia. I really enjoyed this episode as well for everything you've mentioned. And I loved the RPS scene, so much! Dean "ALWAYS with the scissors"! It was very nice of him to volunteer like that … he's such a good brother.
He is a good brother, isn't he. : D
I rather like it when Show gives us stuff like the RPS, because it's those small threads that make the story come to life, that give it texture and realism and continuity. Plus Dean is SO cute when he looses!!!!!
And thanks for the compliment, I'm glad you enjoyed the review!
Best Regards,
Sylvia
There was so much to love in this episode. Is Sam like John? Absolutely, he even said it himself back in season one. It just took Dean a while to catch up. The only thing I didn't like was that Dean did come off as quite hypocritical in that most of the things Sam said to Adam were the same things Dean has said to Sam. It's why Sam was so surprised that Dean didn't agree about telling Adam about the things that were out there and teaching him about hunting. I think a simple "I was wrong back then" would have solved that.
I did like that neither of the brothers was actually wrong. Dean was right in that it was a trap, while Sam's claim that Adam was in the line of fire simply because of who his father was turned out to be true.
Sam broke my heart in this episode. He is in so much trouble, and I keep waiting for Dean to actually SEE his brother. I would like to think that if a family member of mine changed as much as Sam has lately I would be doing everything I could to find out what the heck was going on.
"The only thing I didn't like was that Dean did come off as quite hypocritical in that most of the things Sam said to Adam were the same things Dean has said to Sam."
And Sam *hated* his life growing up, *hated* John for training them like warriors, and *hated* being a hunter. Sam resented Dean for agreeing with John that it was a good thing that they were taught to be hunters. Sam thought Dean was an idiot (as he told him in DMB) for having "blind faith" in John. Sam wanted no part of their life, which is why he left that life to go to Stanford. And now he embraces everything that John (and Dean) taught him. I think Sam comes off just as hypocritical as Dean here.
"It's why Sam was so surprised that Dean didn't agree about telling Adam about the things that were out there and teaching him about hunting. I think a simple "I was wrong back then" would have solved that. "
Dean was in a completely different situation "back then" though. Dean was just a child when John taught him about hunting. He was 6 years old when John taught him to shoot a gun. I don't think Dean was wrong to embrace what John was teaching him back then because Dean didn't have a choice. Just because Dean has a different perspective as an adult doesn't mean that he would have lived his life any other way as a child. He was a CHILD. But he isn't a child now and he's had the benefit of his own experience, enough to know that this life is hard, and he didn't want Adam to be dragged into it.
"He is in so much trouble, and I keep waiting for Dean to actually SEE his brother. "
You're correct. Dean has held onto his faith in Sam through everything. He has put Sam up on a pedestal for so long that he doesn't want to see flaws in the brother that he's so proud of, that he helped raise and is his proudest accomplishment. I think Dean has been giving Sam the benefit of the doubt because he truly believes that Sam deserves it. I do think his eyes have been opened now though.
The difference about what Dean said to Sam and what Sam said to Adam, is that Dean said it with love. I also think Dean would have preferred NOT to tell Sam any of it, to keep him shielded from the dark things.
Sam on the other hand marched right in telling Adam everything, and didn't seem to have much trouble just laying it all out there. Harsh reality? Bring it on!!!
The difference wasn't the message, mostly, but the intent behind it, if you see what I mean. They said the same things but for different reasons.
Oh, I absolutley agree that the the intent behind it was very different. Dean truly thought he was doing the best thing possible, (telling Sam it was better to not have any attachments, using the boy as bait in "Something Wicked") while Sam is just downright insane right now. I just got the feeling that the writers were trying to create parallels between season one and now, and just adding Dean saying "I was wrong back then" would have cemented the idea of character growth. I don't think the character of Dean is a hypocrite at all, I just think the writers sort of left out a line that would have erased any doubt. Does that make any sense at all?
I think so. You're saying they're doing a flip without adding any dialog to support it? That if Dean acknowledged how he's changed, out loud, that that would support the changes Show is giving us now. It's a little bit of a hole in the character development for Dean. And Sam too, because he's not ever acknowledged how Dean has changed. Let alone himself. Deny, deny, deny!!! Sam is insane in a way – I keep thinking that whatever road he's on, when he looks down, his footprints and the road disappear in a mist and he can't quite figure out where he is. Where he's going. Oh, Sam.
You are more than welcome; it's my pleasure, completely. Besides, I love being told I'm astute. : D
And yeah, next year is a long way away! Plenty of boys on the road to enjoy.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
It was HUGE table! It was so huge, that I'm sure we didn't even see all of it. What is it about Sam being tied up that seems so intrinsic to Thursdays? He looks so good that way, besides. I tried not to be shallow this week, but it was very, very hard.
Best Regards,
Sylvia
I'm worried about Sam too, but I think he's almost beyond saving. The blood drinking scenes were absolutely ghoulish; I'm a little surprised Dean didn't flip out any, he certainly has in the past. I've only been able to watch this ep once, so I hope to have more of a chance once the season is over. : D
Sam is like a lost sheep; he needs rescuing and badly.
Best Regards,
Sylvia