yourlibrarian (yourlibrarian) wrote in mind_over_meta, @ 2009-10-16 22:54:00 |
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Entry tags: | supernatural |
SPN 5.06 - Back to the future
Looks like the show is back on track this week. While there were still occasions where the logic train leaped off the tracks, this episode successfully delivered a number of things that contribute to a good episode – a twisty plot, realistic interactions between the brothers, an advancement of the storyline, and some humor. I read some comments and reviews last week that lauded Fallen Idols for being a return to the MotW cases. Even though we hit the arc section of this episode three quarters of the way through, I thought this episode did a far better job of not just echoing those S1 episodes but improving on them. And for me, at least, the turn from an entertaining case to a deeply serious arc story was an unexpected treat and one of the sleight of hands that I enjoyed.
While the opening sequence didn’t really engage me, this had as much to do with my disinterest in horror elements as the writing. More importantly, the editing undermined the writing in one case and the staging in another. On paper it was a clever idea to have a double fake out, first when Amber discovers Jimmy in the closet, and second when the howling dog outside mirrors the dog attack she’s watching on TV. However, Jimmy’s discovery was undermined by a glimpse of Amber beginning to sigh after she opened the closet door and before we actually see Jimmy. The second problem is that seeing Amber’s body lying on the sofa rather undermines the whole dog attack idea since the room looks perfectly normal. We kind of expect Amber to be dead anyway, but a disrupted room (which could have been caused by Amber stumbling about) would have lent more credence to the animal attack idea. Most importantly, the dog attack is only a fake-out that doesn't disrupt the logic of the story, misleading the viewer by suggestion rather than by planting an element of the story that doesn't later make sense. By misleading us with the dog we pay less attention to the brush.
I liked the way that this episode mirrors Sam and Dean’s interactions with the boys. Dean, talking to the boob-lusting, prank baiting, mini-me quickly figures Jimmy out with a combination of friendliness and bluster. I was left wondering though if he was lying himself, or if when little he really did have such a babysitter. After all, someone had to have looked after wee Dean and Sam, and John couldn’t have done it 24 hours a day. Dynasty debuted in 1981 so he might well have had such a sitter at the age of 5 or 6.
One leap of the logic train came in the next scene, when the coroner calls Sam and Dean regarding the electrocution victim. While it might have been a peculiar death, it hardly seems in the same category as Amber’s case, which the coroner has already mentally closed the book on anyway. Nor does he seem all that concerned about it when they show up. So why would he bother calling them? Also, why would he say that Mr. Stanley wasn’t making sense? The man was holding the joy buzzer and a demonstration would have been quick and easy enough. Certainly Sam and Dean don’t need to do much interrogation. But how would an elderly, hospitalized, senile man have gone to a novelty store recently (since the store owner is quickly able to recall the sales)? For that matter when the coroner tells Sam and Dean at the beginning that he “emailed” an updated report that morning, I’m left wondering if he’d mailed it to the FBI or if he’d mailed it to Sam and Dean (who should have been using an official account). In other words, I was wondering if Sam meant they actually had server issues or if he was just excusing them for not being in the loop.
The coroner’s role aside though, I’m willing to buy that asking around the hospital would have turned up the other odd cases. I was also amused by the little dig the writers threw in to SPN’s lead-in, that perhaps they anticipated would outdraw them in the ratings. And I really like the way Dabb and Loflin set up the whoopee cushion joke two acts before it happened. It’s always refreshing to see writers trust an audience.
One small detail whose intention I wonder about were the bare feet shots of first Amber as she walked to the closet, and then the little girl as she snuck her tooth under her father’s pillow. This mirroring seemed deliberate and I realized that in this episode all three women are mistrustful of male lies. Later on we see Julia quickly cast Sam and Dean as demons when they come to interview her.
If nothing else I love the fact that Dabb and Loflin referenced the refrigerator issue. I have often wondered why Sam and Dean so often are able to find very low budget motels that nonetheless have full kitchens. I’ve stayed in motels a step up from the places they choose and they’re pretty short of amenities. So I appreciated that nod, and even more so, I appreciated that Dean was acting as I would expect him to, taking advantage of a hunk of costly meat instead of throwing it out.
Mike and I laughed so hard at the hairy palm bit that we had to stop the recording. And then re-watched the scene three times because it was so entertaining to see how JA and JP played it. I suspect that this and the whoopee cushion scene had a lot of retakes. I would have thought, though, that Jesse was a little young to be told that tale. But then given how Jimmy was depicted, maybe not.
Nice detail of having the postal truck drive by Jesse's house when later on we see a mail carrier attack Jesse’s mother. I’m rather baffled by Sam and Dean’s behavior though. In the establishing shot there appears to be a station wagon parked to the side of the house (which is curious since the parents are both at work) yet the Winchesters march straight up to the house and immediately set to work lock picking the door. What on earth gave them the idea no one was home? Are we missing some scenes here? I’m also a bit puzzled by the shot of Dean sporting the demon-killing knife since its importance doesn’t come until later when Castiel lifts it off of him or from their room. Maybe that has to do with a missing part to this scene as well. And speaking of the knife theft, I assume that along with Castiel's other lost abilities is the power to kill demons without weapons.
I love how Jesse ended up trusting both Sam and Dean – Dean because he waved the power of authority around again (something we might expect Jesse to take at face value) and Sam because he instantly related to the serious, lonely, and composed-beyond-his-years little boy. The show was incredibly fortunate in casting Jesse. Not only did he do a fine job, but without a highly capable child actor in that part the whole episode would have deflated like a balloon. The character of Jesse conveyed intelligence and an unusual wistfulness that made him incredibly sympathetic as a potential victim and also believable as a dangerous and unnaturally powered demi god. In the scene where Sam speaks honestly to Jesse there is no sense of him talking down to him but in fact two actors on an equal level playing a scene. I imagine good direction helped this as well. The actress who played Julia also turned in a good performance in a role that gave her a lot of potential scenery to chew.
One odd piece of forgetfulness on the writers’ part was in not providing any explanation to Jesse or Julia as to why they were there to interview them. When Sam and Dean reassure Julia that her son is a good, normal boy and then we see them leaving, Mike pointed out that her next question to them should have been “So why are you here then?”
The interview with Julia revealed what seemed to be an incubus tale. I am assuming that the demon itself impregnated Julia, it wasn’t that she simply became pregnant while possessed, but that wasn’t completely clear. I didn’t notice any particular sign of religious faith in her house, but I wondered if that wasn’t implied by her not being a particularly young virgin. Then again, historically the tales of incubi were often used to explain away inconvenient pregnancies in the supposedly sexually chaste, so perhaps the writers were incorporating that aspect of the story, or perhaps it was considered an important element in the Antichrist’s existence. I’m not clear though why the demon couldn’t have tracked Jesse while Julia went through the adoption process, which is hardly a speedy thing. I was also somewhat disappointed by the same demon supposedly reappearing to claim Julia. I thought it would have been an interesting story element if Jesse had been one of the YED’s kids. After all, this took place nine years earlier, so it would certainly have been possible and would also have made sense as part of his plan. It would also have made sense for Meg to reappear in this episode to possess Julia since we haven’t heard from her since 5.01. I suppose we could later discover that it was Meg after all, but it seems a missed opportunity here.
The timing for the whoopee cushion joke was a great payoff. (And did they bother with sound effects or did they just use the doubtless hours of tape they must have of Jared at this point?) As a complete aside, I was startled to see how blue MC’s eyes are when I saw the edited scenes on the S4 DVD, and how vividly they show up on camera. It’s amazing to think how darkened all this footage is that they appear completely brown in this scene.
This is a wonderful scene for various reasons. In it all the characters seem to be reasserting their original traits. We see Castiel reverting to form as a merciless soldier who has no sense of ambiguity in what must be done (even if later when he is about to attack Jesse, he displays regret). He points out that a year ago (much less actually) Sam would have been willing to kill anyone to prevent the apocalypse. We see Dean revert to form in trusting in a parental figure – he would once have said, “Dad will know what to do.” And Sam wants to have faith in people to do the right thing, even if it’s a small child. But Castiel says the obvious – Sam couldn’t even rely on himself to make the right choices. Too much hangs in the balance.
I wondered why Jesse would be wandering around awake while his parents were asleep. I thought the scene of him filling a water glass implied that he had been in bed and got up because he was thirsty but he was hardly dressed as such. It was very interesting to see that Castiel can lie. Up until now it hasn’t been clear that the angels were ever directly lying as opposed to simply withholding information. What’s more the lie doesn’t even seem particularly important, so he can do so casually at will. I’m going to assume that Dean didn’t have Ruby’s knife with him when they went to talk to Julia, and that Castiel already had it with him when Sam and Dean returned, because it isn’t clear otherwise how he got a hold of it. It also doesn’t make much sense that Sam and Dean were able to get to Jesse’s house so quickly since it would have only taken Castiel a few minutes to put Jesse’s parents to sleep. At least it had been established that the motel was quite close to Jesse’s house though.
I found it fascinating the way that Sam and Dean approached Jesse after his transfiguration of Castiel. Both seemed very overtaken by their past, which we see emphasized in the final scene of the episode where both are thinking back to their childhood. Dean tells Jesse that he’s a superhero, the same way he broke the news to Sam about John. Sam sits silent, letting Dean take the lead, but clearly not happy with the idea. After all, it didn’t work too well for him.
And if there’s someone who understands both the appeal to Jesse of a world where he is special, powerful, and able to live without lies, it would be Sam. But he knows now that it’s the offer that is a lie. His life in Stanford was simply a lie he told himself and, ultimately, everyone around him including Jess. (I wondered, in fact, if the child being named Jesse was supposed to inspire the subconscious thought in Sam of a son).
At the same time I have to wonder what’s going through Dean’s head. Sure, he’s not going to be gung-ho to kill a kid, especially one he’s met and liked. But then at the end of S3 Dean was ready to kill Lilith, was ready to let Sam kill Lilith, and yet the child host would have been more innocent than Jesse, and Lilith was less powerful. Dean also was suspicious and wary of Sam’s powers from day one. Yet here he tells Jesse that he’s awesome when he exorcises a demon, with far more ease than Sam ever did. Is he simply continuing to lie to Jesse? Or does it say something about how he never did trust Sam to be able to control his abilities and to do the right thing with them? Had Dean trusted Sam more, would Sam have been more amenable to Dean’s input, could the mistakes have been avoided? Or did Dean simply know Sam so well that it wasn’t a matter of trust but foresight?
Nice to see how Sam and Dean are so unconcerned with Julia that neither goes over to her to so much as check her pulse, even though it was perfectly possible that the demon had killed or badly wounded her while possessing her.
The conversation that follows seems so deeply meaningful for Sam and Dean even though it’s directed at Jesse. Like so much else in this episode, from the little jokes, to their smoothly working partnership, the talk of family and life choices resonate as Sam and Dean bonding through their shared past. Despite the absence of friction here, I don’t think things are truly behind them. But I did find it telling the way Dean bowed his head when Castiel reminded Sam of what he’d done. He recognized the truth of it even while knowing that the reminder would be quite painful for his brother.
The scene of Jesse looking at his Australian poster was a nicely subtle suggestion of where he’s gone and what he plans to do with himself in the near term. What makes less sense is that in the time it took Sam and Dean to walk upstairs, Castiel wasn’t simply restored but was apparently psychically aware of the effects of Jesse’s departure on everyone else in town.
The final scene seemed intended to show how Dean and Sam are slowly coming together on their past. Sam’s reponse about John was unsurprising since this echoed what he said to Dean in the Pilot. Instead it’s Dean who is rethinking his point of view, and thus questioning John's decisions yet again. This seems to fall in line with the idea of the boys setting out to create a future, and to make decisions, that are their own rather than what might have been expected of them.
Overall the whole episode revolved around issues of lies and misplaced trust. The urban legends were lies that became real, but some of the practical jokes also dealt with lies and trust -- such as the joy buzzer. Julia, perhaps, wanted to lie to herself. Despite her gut certainty that her child was destined for evil, she preferred to pretend he was just a human baby, and thus gave him away rather than killing him or keeping him. Jesse seems to have believed his parents because he believed they loved him, but otherwise he seems to have a pretty good sense of who is telling him the truth and when. It makes me wonder if, as with his exorcism, he not only "just does" things but he's also capable of "just knowing" things too.
Most importantly, of course, Sam has lied and Dean wants to trust him. And while it seems that they are coming together I rather wondered about the incident in Jesse's kitchen. As Sam pointed out, Dean could have killed him with it if he'd been wrong. And given the demonstration with the rubber chicken, it's pretty obvious Dean could have demonstrated the harmlessness with an inanimate object or even himself. Why take the chance? Is it that Dean's that sure of himself or is it that Sam's death no longer holds the same impact for him that it once did?
While Dean may still be having trust issues, Sam does too. He wants to be able to have faith that people can do the right thing, even if he can no longer trust himself to do so. Like Jesse, he seems to be drowning in lies – lies he was told, lies he told others, lies he told himself. He wanted to be able to believe in all of them. But Sam seems to have reached a tipping point in his coming-of-age where he realizes they will never bring anything but ruin. He tells Jesse it isn't fair, to ask him to take control of things he doesn't even understand yet. But he knows there comes a point for everyone where they have to face the world, and themselves, as they are and not as they want it to be, and they have to decide the truth or falsehood of things themselves and not from having placed their trust in others.
Lastly, I thought it was facinating that in a comment to my meta on victims in SPN, ariadnes_string brought up the issue of class in parenting, with working class parents being represented as people who deprive their children emotionally rather than the focus being on the family's economic status as a form of deprivation. And here in Julia’s conversation with Jesse she suggests that his parents don’t really love him because he is without them while both are at work, and because they don't care enough about him to prepare him for how the world works. I don’t think ariadne's point was an intentional message in this episode, at least as far as the deception is concerned since the (single?) father who loses his teeth tells the same lie to his daughter. Given his house (and that of Jimmy’s parents) they are clearly in a higher income bracket than Jesse’s family. But it is interesting to see that the threat to these higher-class households is seen to come from a lower class one – both in the family that adopted him and biologically from Julia, who appears to live in similar conditions. In fact, Julia’s appeal to Jesse of joining a better club among demons rather reminded me of Castiel’s remark to Dean about how he had fallen from his higher class of being into not only human form, but in 5.04, one of a much more tenuous and deprived existence. In that episode he's certainly gone from the country club to the trenches.
So this made me wonder why Jesse's family was depicted as working class? The obvious answers were that the writers felt this would be a closer parallel to Sam and Dean's childhood, and also that this conveniently explained why Jesse would be alone. However Dean was able to get Ben alone when he wanted to talk to him. It would certainly seem possible to find another way to do so for Jesse. And for that matter, with her weathered house and old car, why is it important to depict Julia in that fashion? There's no reason she couldn't have come from any economic class. With Jesse at least, another possibility is that his need to care for himself from an early age has led to an independence that makes his later actions in the episode believable.
Final Thoughts
1) Seriously? Plant and Page isn’t screamingly obvious to the average person (especially of the coroner’s age)? Though I liked how Sam continued the disguise by introducing himself as Robert, how is there anyone who wouldn’t have raised eyebrows at badges with those full names on them?
2) When Sam and Dean interview Jimmy’s parents there’s a shot of the hairbrush on the TV, which is presumably the one Jimmy laced with itching powder. But one would assume the brush was Amber’s in which case why wasn’t it either taken in evidence or thrown away by the parents? It’s obviously been a few days for the case to have come to Sam and Dean’s attention.
3) Isn’t Mr. Wizard a little before Sam and Dean’s time?
4) Props to Dabb and Loflin for knowing how to hit a fanfic bingo square. And, I suppose, for keeping the S5 streak going.
5) I wondered what Dean was reading when Sam came in to report on his Jesse research. I’m assuming it was research on the case, which is a nicely subtle suggestion that not only are Sam and Dean back in the swing of things as hunting partners, but that Dean is doing his share of the research as well.
I also wondered when was the last time we saw either Winchester referring to John’s journal. Dean conveniently had it in his pocket in ItB but short of that I don’t remember seeing it.
6) Wow, convenient that Julia gave birth in a basement that happened to have a bag of rock salt available.
7) Shouldn’t Julia have been suspicious of that mail carrier the moment she saw him coming up to her house after dark without a mail bag?
8) What the Julia-demon said to Sam and Dean about Sam being an untouchable vessel, and Dean being very much a target seems to make perfect sense. But given that the demon was already aware of Sam and Dean’s visit, why didn’t it try to take Dean out beforehand? Destroying Michael’s vessel would seem to be at least as much of a coup as corralling Jesse. Why not kill Dean in the first instant it entered?
9) Julia said something quite interesting about her possession, that the pain of childbirth allowed her to retake control of her body. Presumably the overwhelming physical input was a way to temporarily disable the demon. It makes me wonder if that’s how Bobby and John were able to take over, that a deep emotional pain rather than physical one allowed them to temporarily gain the upper hand. It’ll be interesting to see if this tidbit reoccurs as a battle tactic. I didn’t get the sense there was a lot of extraneous material in this episode.