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lunabee34Why, why NBC do you play an extra long "My Name is Nobody Cares" so that my tape of SPN starts 17 minutes into the episode??!! *screams* If Jim Halpert wasn't so cute, I might be enacting some wrath right now.
What is and never should be
This review will begin in list format and then culminate in thoughts of the more thinky variety.
First, I'm glad the episode starts off with a nod to the previous one--Sam freaked out by a cop car (although, I don't really see any indication of what "going deep" means). Second, Dean, man. I love you. But you really need your little bro as backup. This going it alone shit is not working for Lorraine.
Pop culture refs: Barbara Eden! Dean mowing the lawn to a Joey Ramone cover of "What a Wonderful World!" "The Shining" shoutout with the typewriter in the abandoned building. "We're not in Kansas anymore." Dean prefers El Sol.
Looks that killed Lorraine (in both angsty and non-angsty ways, but mostly angsty ones): The way Dean's totally nonplussed by Carmen at first but tries to hide it. Poorly. The look on Dean's face when he sees Mary for the first time. The surprised look on Sam's face when Dean tells him he's happy for him. At the end when real!Sam says, "I'm glad we do," and Dean looks at him with all this emotion on his face. At the end when real!Sam says, "It's worth it," and Dean doesn't say anything, just looks at him like he doesn't really know.
Misc: John playing softball! Whooooo! I sense fic for that one. Jess is so freaking beautiful. I love the way fandom has embraced her. In a fandom that's so slash oriented, I'm really pleased that fanfic doesn't vilify all the chicks the way I've seen it happened in other fandoms. (We will not speak of Cassie, for she is horrid and deserves vilification LOL) Dean's never mowed a lawn. He works at a garage--go us on the fanon. When Sam and Dean re-enact the fight scene from the pilot, much love. Fake!Sam falls asleep on the drive, much like real!Sam. *huggles them both*
Now, for the real stuff. Dean's unspoken wish is that his mother had never died. So this version of his life is the one that would have occurred if that death had never happened. (I'm just gonna take that at face value; maybe that's not true and the djinn just makes up whatever version he wants, but *shrugs*) What kills me is that in this life, Dean is a fuckup. He's obviously a drunk; he steals (both money and women), and he's not there for Sam when it matters (like on graduation). As much as I wanna smack John Winchester in the face with a blunt object for emotionally traumatizing my boys, apparently the structure he raised Dean with was really necessary for him. It looks like without that discipline and that purpose that Dean would've screwed up. At the end, fake!Mary says, "It's still better than anything you had," and I think the beauty of this episode is that it's not. It's not better. I know Dean says he wanted to stay, and I believe him. But ultimately that reality is flawed for me in a way that transcends the flaws of his real life.
I find it really interesting that the fantasy life is not a perfect one. It obviously kills Dean that he and Sam aren't friends. (Did anyone else notice that the writers had Dean call Sam Sammy like eleventy million times just to call more attention to their estrangement? LOL) But Dean is willing to be happy in this imperfect world. He's gonna make things right with Sam, and his mother is alive and although his father is dead, he died of natural causes. (Did anyone else break into tiny wee pieces when Dean's reaction to John's death in the fantasy was, "That's great?" His relief in that scene hurts so much) I think also (and hello fanfic) the implication at the end is that now that Dean is in on the charade, the script can change a little--he and fake!Sam can be friends instead of estranged like they begin.
Even though they're estranged, I love the way fake!Sam comes along for the hunt. My take on why he comes is that Dean plays along with the whole "I'm a fuckup; I'm here to steal silverware to cover my debt" routine; but he takes *a* knife. Lorraine has been to the pawn shop more than she'd like to admit in the past year and that knife would get Dean both jack and shit for his trouble. So I think Sam realizes Dean's lying about why he's taking the knife. When fake!Sam says, "Because you're still my brother," my heart soared and then plummeted again when he totally didn't get the Bitch/Jerk riff. Actually, I think that moment of the episode hurt me the most--that this version of Sam doesn't know Dean well enough to even have that kind of innocuous inside joke with him. Tears are welling up right now.
The score in this episode is amazing. It reminds me a good bit of the score to "Houses of the Holy" which I think is one of the best bits of orchestral music in a television show, period (barring the score for "The Message" FF).
We've got canonical evidence that Dean prefers brunettes now. :) (Not that I'm letting my hair status color my glee) Both times that a woman's physical attributes are ostensibly pulled from his head (Carmen and Tessa in IMTOD), he goes with the brunette. Which speaking of Carmen, when Dean says, "I get it....why you're the one," what does he mean? It's very ambiguous, and I just don't know.
Finally, two bits of dialogue were particularly poignant for me: Dean's conversation with John at his grave, when he pauses and then says, "Yeah," and walks away. That could not have been done any better than it was. Also, at the end when Dean's holding the girl and he says, "I got you," over and over again. That's something Dean says often, but mostly to Sam, and it kills me every time he does it.
What is and never should be
This review will begin in list format and then culminate in thoughts of the more thinky variety.
First, I'm glad the episode starts off with a nod to the previous one--Sam freaked out by a cop car (although, I don't really see any indication of what "going deep" means). Second, Dean, man. I love you. But you really need your little bro as backup. This going it alone shit is not working for Lorraine.
Pop culture refs: Barbara Eden! Dean mowing the lawn to a Joey Ramone cover of "What a Wonderful World!" "The Shining" shoutout with the typewriter in the abandoned building. "We're not in Kansas anymore." Dean prefers El Sol.
Looks that killed Lorraine (in both angsty and non-angsty ways, but mostly angsty ones): The way Dean's totally nonplussed by Carmen at first but tries to hide it. Poorly. The look on Dean's face when he sees Mary for the first time. The surprised look on Sam's face when Dean tells him he's happy for him. At the end when real!Sam says, "I'm glad we do," and Dean looks at him with all this emotion on his face. At the end when real!Sam says, "It's worth it," and Dean doesn't say anything, just looks at him like he doesn't really know.
Misc: John playing softball! Whooooo! I sense fic for that one. Jess is so freaking beautiful. I love the way fandom has embraced her. In a fandom that's so slash oriented, I'm really pleased that fanfic doesn't vilify all the chicks the way I've seen it happened in other fandoms. (We will not speak of Cassie, for she is horrid and deserves vilification LOL) Dean's never mowed a lawn. He works at a garage--go us on the fanon. When Sam and Dean re-enact the fight scene from the pilot, much love. Fake!Sam falls asleep on the drive, much like real!Sam. *huggles them both*
Now, for the real stuff. Dean's unspoken wish is that his mother had never died. So this version of his life is the one that would have occurred if that death had never happened. (I'm just gonna take that at face value; maybe that's not true and the djinn just makes up whatever version he wants, but *shrugs*) What kills me is that in this life, Dean is a fuckup. He's obviously a drunk; he steals (both money and women), and he's not there for Sam when it matters (like on graduation). As much as I wanna smack John Winchester in the face with a blunt object for emotionally traumatizing my boys, apparently the structure he raised Dean with was really necessary for him. It looks like without that discipline and that purpose that Dean would've screwed up. At the end, fake!Mary says, "It's still better than anything you had," and I think the beauty of this episode is that it's not. It's not better. I know Dean says he wanted to stay, and I believe him. But ultimately that reality is flawed for me in a way that transcends the flaws of his real life.
I find it really interesting that the fantasy life is not a perfect one. It obviously kills Dean that he and Sam aren't friends. (Did anyone else notice that the writers had Dean call Sam Sammy like eleventy million times just to call more attention to their estrangement? LOL) But Dean is willing to be happy in this imperfect world. He's gonna make things right with Sam, and his mother is alive and although his father is dead, he died of natural causes. (Did anyone else break into tiny wee pieces when Dean's reaction to John's death in the fantasy was, "That's great?" His relief in that scene hurts so much) I think also (and hello fanfic) the implication at the end is that now that Dean is in on the charade, the script can change a little--he and fake!Sam can be friends instead of estranged like they begin.
Even though they're estranged, I love the way fake!Sam comes along for the hunt. My take on why he comes is that Dean plays along with the whole "I'm a fuckup; I'm here to steal silverware to cover my debt" routine; but he takes *a* knife. Lorraine has been to the pawn shop more than she'd like to admit in the past year and that knife would get Dean both jack and shit for his trouble. So I think Sam realizes Dean's lying about why he's taking the knife. When fake!Sam says, "Because you're still my brother," my heart soared and then plummeted again when he totally didn't get the Bitch/Jerk riff. Actually, I think that moment of the episode hurt me the most--that this version of Sam doesn't know Dean well enough to even have that kind of innocuous inside joke with him. Tears are welling up right now.
The score in this episode is amazing. It reminds me a good bit of the score to "Houses of the Holy" which I think is one of the best bits of orchestral music in a television show, period (barring the score for "The Message" FF).
We've got canonical evidence that Dean prefers brunettes now. :) (Not that I'm letting my hair status color my glee) Both times that a woman's physical attributes are ostensibly pulled from his head (Carmen and Tessa in IMTOD), he goes with the brunette. Which speaking of Carmen, when Dean says, "I get it....why you're the one," what does he mean? It's very ambiguous, and I just don't know.
Finally, two bits of dialogue were particularly poignant for me: Dean's conversation with John at his grave, when he pauses and then says, "Yeah," and walks away. That could not have been done any better than it was. Also, at the end when Dean's holding the girl and he says, "I got you," over and over again. That's something Dean says often, but mostly to Sam, and it kills me every time he does it.
