Rewatch S6: You Can't Handle the Truth
Ok! After a short break from rewatch posts, let's tackle the sixth episode of the sixth season...
Biggerson's. I love the fact that Supernatural has it's own restaurant chain in its universe. It makes the universe seem that much more real.
The curse has to work so that they offer the truth, otherwise it's still too easy to hide things. I'm a horrible liar, but I'm excellent at lying by omission...so, yeah, really the only way the course would work is if it drew out people's secrets, not just made them answer questions truthfully.
"...it's not just the vamp, ok, he has been different from the jump."
"Alright, I'm with you."
"Are you?"
"Yeah, I'll hit the books hard. Just don't shoot him yet, just watch him, we need facts, because if it ain't Sam, we don't know what it is. If we're going to put him down, we need to know how."
"I don't even want to ride in the same car with him, let alone work a goddamm case."
"Get in the car. He's your case."
- I think Bobby knew there was something different with Sam the whole time. I like when he tells Dean that SAM is the case. Bobby always knows how to get Dean to focus when he gets emotional about something.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, how are you?"
- I love Dean's expression here. All wide-eyed and skeptical.
Sam is so satisfied when he calls the sister's bluff. "Look at me, Dean, I'm so smart! I'm totally making her cry!" and Dean is like, "ok, right around now Sam would normally be trying to console the woman, not grin triumphantly at her downfall..."
"Tuba and an issue to Crochet Today - so what already kinda suicidal?"
- Dude, I crochet...and play the saxophone...words hurt, Sam. Oh wait. That's the whole point of this episode.
Dentist scene! SKIPPING...though, you know, for the record, that dude totally had it coming.
"But Dean, there's a worst case scenario..."
"What that Satan's my co-pilot? Yeah, I know."
"Well, that'd be the other worst case."
"Then what?"
"Maybe it's just Sam."
"I gotta go."
"Dean..."
"You got a day, Bobby, and then I'm handling this."
-Another brilliant scene done by Jensen here - because you can SEE that the idea that this is actually Sam hadn't occurred to him, and it's like Sam is dying all over again...that his brother might be irrevocably altered because of his time in Hell to the point where he is unrecognizable...to the point where Dean can no longer trust him, or even get along with him on any level.
Cass, Chris, Christian, Dave, Don, Gwen, Lisa - those are the names in Dean's phone. I wonder what Cas did with his cellphone? Dean still has the number programmed in, but he never uses it. I don't know who Chris, Dave, or Don are.
"Dentist drilled a guy to death"
"You mean the nonsexy kind of drilling, right?"
"Fifty-bucks say he's mixed up in all the crazy."
- I have to say, I kind of find it amusing how much fun Sam has when hunting. It's also a little disturbing, I suppose...but mostly I'm just amused. I like how Sam doesn't seem to understand why Dean isn't having as much fun as he is. I think really, until Sam started hunting with Dean again, he didn't realize to what extent he was different than before.
Dean is looking up Dopplegangers on the computer. You know, I wonder if they are a separate things than shapeshifters in the Supernatural universe...probably not.
The guy at the horn store is so short! It's crazy to see him next to Jensen. I jokingly often refer to Supernatural as the the Tall Person Employment Agency - because everyone they get for that show usually has to be pretty tall. It's kind of odd to see them employ some short people as well. (And yes, I realize there have been short recurring characters, but come on...for the most part, everyone is huge.)
"Castiel, Hello, possible loose nuke down here, angelic weapon. Your department. YOU HEAR THAT CAS?"
"Hello Dean"
"Are you kidding me? I have been on red-alert about Sam, and you come for some stupid horn!"
"You asked me to be here, and I came."
"I've been asking you to be here for days, you dick!"
"I didn't come about Sam, because I have nothing to offer about Sam."
-See, the more I rewatch the beginning of the season, the less sympathetic I am to Castiel at the end of the season. He accuses Dean and Sam of only calling when they need him, but he does the same to them. Dean needs A FRIEND right now...also, didn't they cover this with Sam 3 episodes ago? "The least you could do is pop down and say 'I don't know'"...just because Cas doesn't have anything to offer about Sam, doesn't mean he shouldn't stop by and put Dean's fears about Lucifer to rest earlier.
-Also, why did Cas keep raising Sam from perdition a secret? I still haven't figured that out.
"If Lucifer escaped the cage, we'd feel it."
"What is wrong with him?"
"I don't know Dean, I'm sorry."
"What happened to you, Cas. You used to be human, or at least like one."
"I'm at war. Certain regretable things are now required of me."
- I do love how Cas pours the whiskey for Dean here. I think it's Cas' way of apologizing for being a dick. It's a gesture of service.
"Well, nice seeing you anyway."
"Dean"
"What?"
"About your brother. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I do want to help. I'll make inquiries."
*disappears*
"Yeah, thanks."
-And again, we see how hurt Dean is that Cas only came because of a possible heavenly weapon - not because Dean is in crisis, not even just to say hello or hang out...and Dean just expects him to take off again. The "nice seeing you anyway" is so hurt and sarcastic. We all know Dean has abandonment and self-esteem issues...Cass is not helping by only appearing when it suits his purposes and then disappearing right away. Like Dean said, Cass USED to be like a human - meaning, he USED to hang out with Dean. Now he doesn't.
"You know, I will have that other one"
"I thought you were working."
"I am working up to it."
- Another one of my favourite lines.
"I've never told anyone that, why am I telling you? Probably because you're my favourite, although Sam's a better hunter - lately anyway. Whoa whoa, why the hell am I telling you this."
- Awww, Dean is Bobby's favourite. I like Dean's little smile. Poor Sam, he gets no love...though, it's hard to love a soulless dude.
"How is it that half the time you clean a mess, you end up dirty?"
- Another great line.
"You shoved my kid, Dean, how about we do this now."
"It wasn't like that."
"Then how was it?"
"I can't really explain."
- See, Dean SHOULD have explained. I touched on this in the first episode - as soon as something is related to hunting, Dean stops being as honest with Lisa as he usually is...and that leads to trouble. I'm sure if he had just explained that he was temporarily a vampire and that Lisa and Ben had been appetizing....well, ok, maybe Dean has a point...but so do I!
"You've got so much buried in there, and you push it down and you push it down. Can you honestly think you can go through life like that and not freak out? Just what? Drink half a fifth at night and you're good?"
- I was kind of hoping that they would do something with this in S6 with Dean...that maybe things would finally come to a head for him, where he couldn't repress things any longer. It didn't happen...and now I'm wondering if maybe they'll do something about it in S7, but I'm not going to hold my breath. We'll see though - I mean, SOMETHING is bound to go wrong eventually when Dean is living on alcohol, pills, and repression.
"Hey, you knew what you signed up for."
"Yeah, but I didn't expect Sam to come back. And I'm glad he's ok, I am, but the minute he walked through that door, I knew it was over. You two have the most unhealthy tangled up crazy thing I've ever seen, and as long as he's in your life you are never going to be happy..."
- I actually like the fact that Dean doesn't apologize for who he is - just says that Lisa knew what she signed up for.
- And of course, I love the fact that she says that the minute she saw Sam she knew it was over....again, I love the way they shot that scene in 6x01, because Sam IS an imposing figure in Dean's life. He takes up ALL THE ROOM (and that's not just a size joke). I don't even ship them, but I agree that no one will ever be more important, or even AS important, as Sam is in Dean's eyes. It's why he can't understand why Cas won't help, it's why he got short with Bobby in 6x04 - despite Dean growing enough to allow Sam to be his own man at the end of S5 - Sam is always going to be the most important thing to Dean.
"...that came out so much harsher than I meant."
"It's not your fault."
- This reminds me of learning German.
"I'm not saying don't be close to Sam. I'm close to my sister, but if she got killed, I wouldn't bring her back from the dead."
"Ok, Lis, I'm not going to lie - me and Sam, we got issues, no doubt, but you and Ben..."
"Me and Ben can't be in this with you. Sorry."
- Break-up over for the phone, ouch. Still, at least she can't see how she crushed your little heart, right? I think all Lisa saw was that Dean was making progress over the year he was with her - and then within weeks of Sam being back, he's becoming a prison guard, he's showing up in the middle of the night and shoving them around oddly...he's not being honest with her...and it's like Sam came back and Dean just backslid into being a basket case....so yeah, I can see why Lisa would end things. She can't make Dean leave Sam, she wouldn't even try, but the way she sees it, Dean has to work his problems out by himself now. Right or wrong, I think she just decided that she couldn't take the worry anymore. But hey, that's just my opinion.
"Dean, I can't lie here. Do you really think I would let something like that happen on purpose - you're my brother, how could you..."
"Ok, ok...sorry, I thought I saw something. I guess I was wrong. It's just been a really really bad day."
- God, Dean is so crushed here, because he believes Sam can't lie - and if Sam can't lie, then that means that it IS Sam....yeah, really really bad day.
I love it when they fall unconscious together. Such a cool pose and shot with them lying like mirror images.
"Hey Dean, I'm curious, how do you really feel about your brother."
"Better now. As of yesterday I wanted to kill him in his sleep. I thought he was a monster, now I think..."
"Now you think what?"
"He's just acting like me."
"What do you mean?"
"It's the gig. You're covered in blood until you're covered with your own blood. Half the time you're about to die, like right now. I told myself I wanted out, that I wanted a family."
"But you were lying."
"No, but what I'm good at is slicing throats. I ain't a father. I'm a killer. And there's no changing that, I know that now."
- Like I said before - Dean wants a family, but he also wants to be a hunter...and unfortunately, the way Dean's mind works, it's impossible for him to have both.
- I also love the mirror here - that Dean considers Soulless!Sam to be acting like him. That there is a measure of soullessness in Dean too, out of necessity and due to everything he's been through, rather than the physical absence of a soul.
"Look, what we do is hard, but we watch out for each other and that's what's important. And that's it, that's the truth."
"No, no it's not."
- I like this actress, the way she completely freaks out when she realizes that she has no effect on Sam. It's interesting that the Alpha vamp can feel the absence of Sam's soul, but this pagan god can't. I would say it's a sign of differing power levels...or perhaps necessity. We also learn here that curses work on the soul, not the body...or at least this one does.
Veritas *to Sam*: "You're not human."
Dean: "What?"
Veritas *to Dean*: "You didn't know that? Now that I believe."
- Also love this reveal - because Dean had been trying to make peace with the fact that Sam was Sam and the brother he knew was dead and gone....and then he finds out that he was right in the first place.
"Dean, it's me"
"You are not my brother, what are you?"
"Just listen, it's me, Dean, just let me explain."
- I do love how freaked out Sam is here...how he's not underestimating Dean at all, how he's genuinely like "oh shit."
"...There's something wrong with me, really wrong. I've known it for a while. I lied to you, yeah, and I let you get turned by that vamp. Because I knew there was a cure, Dean, and we needed in that nest, and I knew you could handle it."
"Handle it!? I could have died! I could have killed Ben"
"And that should have stopped me cold, but I just don't feel it!"
"You what?"
"Ever since I came back, I am a better hunter than I've ever been! Nothing scares me anymore, because I can't feel it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think, I need help."
PUNCH TO THE FACE!
....and then THIRTEEN MORE PUNCHES TO THE FACE! IS THAT THE HELP YOU NEED SAMMY?!
- When I first watched this episode, I was pretty horrified that Dean would do that - because Sam was making the puppy-eyed weepy face, and then just BAM (x14)...and I figured well, there's Dean's repressed emotions coming out. Then a friend of mine watched it and pointed out that Sam sounded a lot like a drug-addict/alcoholic who knew what people WANTED to hear and could put on a show...basically, that Sam was being emotionally manipulative to get forgiveness for his behaviour. In which case, well, yeah, I'd punch him too, because I hate emotional manipulation. So, I don't know...what did you think?
And that's that. My house sitting days are over - so as of tomorrow I'll be back in my cold* apartment with my DVDs and my laptop, and not a huge HDTV and a Bluray player. You guys will probably not notice a difference....but I will! :P
*our heat is broken and apparently the landlord is "thinking" about what to do about it. Sigh.
Biggerson's. I love the fact that Supernatural has it's own restaurant chain in its universe. It makes the universe seem that much more real.
The curse has to work so that they offer the truth, otherwise it's still too easy to hide things. I'm a horrible liar, but I'm excellent at lying by omission...so, yeah, really the only way the course would work is if it drew out people's secrets, not just made them answer questions truthfully.
"...it's not just the vamp, ok, he has been different from the jump."
"Alright, I'm with you."
"Are you?"
"Yeah, I'll hit the books hard. Just don't shoot him yet, just watch him, we need facts, because if it ain't Sam, we don't know what it is. If we're going to put him down, we need to know how."
"I don't even want to ride in the same car with him, let alone work a goddamm case."
"Get in the car. He's your case."
- I think Bobby knew there was something different with Sam the whole time. I like when he tells Dean that SAM is the case. Bobby always knows how to get Dean to focus when he gets emotional about something.
"You ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, how are you?"
- I love Dean's expression here. All wide-eyed and skeptical.
Sam is so satisfied when he calls the sister's bluff. "Look at me, Dean, I'm so smart! I'm totally making her cry!" and Dean is like, "ok, right around now Sam would normally be trying to console the woman, not grin triumphantly at her downfall..."
"Tuba and an issue to Crochet Today - so what already kinda suicidal?"
- Dude, I crochet...and play the saxophone...words hurt, Sam. Oh wait. That's the whole point of this episode.
Dentist scene! SKIPPING...though, you know, for the record, that dude totally had it coming.
"But Dean, there's a worst case scenario..."
"What that Satan's my co-pilot? Yeah, I know."
"Well, that'd be the other worst case."
"Then what?"
"Maybe it's just Sam."
"I gotta go."
"Dean..."
"You got a day, Bobby, and then I'm handling this."
-Another brilliant scene done by Jensen here - because you can SEE that the idea that this is actually Sam hadn't occurred to him, and it's like Sam is dying all over again...that his brother might be irrevocably altered because of his time in Hell to the point where he is unrecognizable...to the point where Dean can no longer trust him, or even get along with him on any level.
Cass, Chris, Christian, Dave, Don, Gwen, Lisa - those are the names in Dean's phone. I wonder what Cas did with his cellphone? Dean still has the number programmed in, but he never uses it. I don't know who Chris, Dave, or Don are.
"Dentist drilled a guy to death"
"You mean the nonsexy kind of drilling, right?"
"Fifty-bucks say he's mixed up in all the crazy."
- I have to say, I kind of find it amusing how much fun Sam has when hunting. It's also a little disturbing, I suppose...but mostly I'm just amused. I like how Sam doesn't seem to understand why Dean isn't having as much fun as he is. I think really, until Sam started hunting with Dean again, he didn't realize to what extent he was different than before.
Dean is looking up Dopplegangers on the computer. You know, I wonder if they are a separate things than shapeshifters in the Supernatural universe...probably not.
The guy at the horn store is so short! It's crazy to see him next to Jensen. I jokingly often refer to Supernatural as the the Tall Person Employment Agency - because everyone they get for that show usually has to be pretty tall. It's kind of odd to see them employ some short people as well. (And yes, I realize there have been short recurring characters, but come on...for the most part, everyone is huge.)
"Castiel, Hello, possible loose nuke down here, angelic weapon. Your department. YOU HEAR THAT CAS?"
"Hello Dean"
"Are you kidding me? I have been on red-alert about Sam, and you come for some stupid horn!"
"You asked me to be here, and I came."
"I've been asking you to be here for days, you dick!"
"I didn't come about Sam, because I have nothing to offer about Sam."
-See, the more I rewatch the beginning of the season, the less sympathetic I am to Castiel at the end of the season. He accuses Dean and Sam of only calling when they need him, but he does the same to them. Dean needs A FRIEND right now...also, didn't they cover this with Sam 3 episodes ago? "The least you could do is pop down and say 'I don't know'"...just because Cas doesn't have anything to offer about Sam, doesn't mean he shouldn't stop by and put Dean's fears about Lucifer to rest earlier.
-Also, why did Cas keep raising Sam from perdition a secret? I still haven't figured that out.
"If Lucifer escaped the cage, we'd feel it."
"What is wrong with him?"
"I don't know Dean, I'm sorry."
"What happened to you, Cas. You used to be human, or at least like one."
"I'm at war. Certain regretable things are now required of me."
- I do love how Cas pours the whiskey for Dean here. I think it's Cas' way of apologizing for being a dick. It's a gesture of service.
"Well, nice seeing you anyway."
"Dean"
"What?"
"About your brother. I don't know what's wrong with him, but I do want to help. I'll make inquiries."
*disappears*
"Yeah, thanks."
-And again, we see how hurt Dean is that Cas only came because of a possible heavenly weapon - not because Dean is in crisis, not even just to say hello or hang out...and Dean just expects him to take off again. The "nice seeing you anyway" is so hurt and sarcastic. We all know Dean has abandonment and self-esteem issues...Cass is not helping by only appearing when it suits his purposes and then disappearing right away. Like Dean said, Cass USED to be like a human - meaning, he USED to hang out with Dean. Now he doesn't.
"You know, I will have that other one"
"I thought you were working."
"I am working up to it."
- Another one of my favourite lines.
"I've never told anyone that, why am I telling you? Probably because you're my favourite, although Sam's a better hunter - lately anyway. Whoa whoa, why the hell am I telling you this."
- Awww, Dean is Bobby's favourite. I like Dean's little smile. Poor Sam, he gets no love...though, it's hard to love a soulless dude.
"How is it that half the time you clean a mess, you end up dirty?"
- Another great line.
"You shoved my kid, Dean, how about we do this now."
"It wasn't like that."
"Then how was it?"
"I can't really explain."
- See, Dean SHOULD have explained. I touched on this in the first episode - as soon as something is related to hunting, Dean stops being as honest with Lisa as he usually is...and that leads to trouble. I'm sure if he had just explained that he was temporarily a vampire and that Lisa and Ben had been appetizing....well, ok, maybe Dean has a point...but so do I!
"You've got so much buried in there, and you push it down and you push it down. Can you honestly think you can go through life like that and not freak out? Just what? Drink half a fifth at night and you're good?"
- I was kind of hoping that they would do something with this in S6 with Dean...that maybe things would finally come to a head for him, where he couldn't repress things any longer. It didn't happen...and now I'm wondering if maybe they'll do something about it in S7, but I'm not going to hold my breath. We'll see though - I mean, SOMETHING is bound to go wrong eventually when Dean is living on alcohol, pills, and repression.
"Hey, you knew what you signed up for."
"Yeah, but I didn't expect Sam to come back. And I'm glad he's ok, I am, but the minute he walked through that door, I knew it was over. You two have the most unhealthy tangled up crazy thing I've ever seen, and as long as he's in your life you are never going to be happy..."
- I actually like the fact that Dean doesn't apologize for who he is - just says that Lisa knew what she signed up for.
- And of course, I love the fact that she says that the minute she saw Sam she knew it was over....again, I love the way they shot that scene in 6x01, because Sam IS an imposing figure in Dean's life. He takes up ALL THE ROOM (and that's not just a size joke). I don't even ship them, but I agree that no one will ever be more important, or even AS important, as Sam is in Dean's eyes. It's why he can't understand why Cas won't help, it's why he got short with Bobby in 6x04 - despite Dean growing enough to allow Sam to be his own man at the end of S5 - Sam is always going to be the most important thing to Dean.
"...that came out so much harsher than I meant."
"It's not your fault."
- This reminds me of learning German.
"I'm not saying don't be close to Sam. I'm close to my sister, but if she got killed, I wouldn't bring her back from the dead."
"Ok, Lis, I'm not going to lie - me and Sam, we got issues, no doubt, but you and Ben..."
"Me and Ben can't be in this with you. Sorry."
- Break-up over for the phone, ouch. Still, at least she can't see how she crushed your little heart, right? I think all Lisa saw was that Dean was making progress over the year he was with her - and then within weeks of Sam being back, he's becoming a prison guard, he's showing up in the middle of the night and shoving them around oddly...he's not being honest with her...and it's like Sam came back and Dean just backslid into being a basket case....so yeah, I can see why Lisa would end things. She can't make Dean leave Sam, she wouldn't even try, but the way she sees it, Dean has to work his problems out by himself now. Right or wrong, I think she just decided that she couldn't take the worry anymore. But hey, that's just my opinion.
"Dean, I can't lie here. Do you really think I would let something like that happen on purpose - you're my brother, how could you..."
"Ok, ok...sorry, I thought I saw something. I guess I was wrong. It's just been a really really bad day."
- God, Dean is so crushed here, because he believes Sam can't lie - and if Sam can't lie, then that means that it IS Sam....yeah, really really bad day.
I love it when they fall unconscious together. Such a cool pose and shot with them lying like mirror images.
"Hey Dean, I'm curious, how do you really feel about your brother."
"Better now. As of yesterday I wanted to kill him in his sleep. I thought he was a monster, now I think..."
"Now you think what?"
"He's just acting like me."
"What do you mean?"
"It's the gig. You're covered in blood until you're covered with your own blood. Half the time you're about to die, like right now. I told myself I wanted out, that I wanted a family."
"But you were lying."
"No, but what I'm good at is slicing throats. I ain't a father. I'm a killer. And there's no changing that, I know that now."
- Like I said before - Dean wants a family, but he also wants to be a hunter...and unfortunately, the way Dean's mind works, it's impossible for him to have both.
- I also love the mirror here - that Dean considers Soulless!Sam to be acting like him. That there is a measure of soullessness in Dean too, out of necessity and due to everything he's been through, rather than the physical absence of a soul.
"Look, what we do is hard, but we watch out for each other and that's what's important. And that's it, that's the truth."
"No, no it's not."
- I like this actress, the way she completely freaks out when she realizes that she has no effect on Sam. It's interesting that the Alpha vamp can feel the absence of Sam's soul, but this pagan god can't. I would say it's a sign of differing power levels...or perhaps necessity. We also learn here that curses work on the soul, not the body...or at least this one does.
Veritas *to Sam*: "You're not human."
Dean: "What?"
Veritas *to Dean*: "You didn't know that? Now that I believe."
- Also love this reveal - because Dean had been trying to make peace with the fact that Sam was Sam and the brother he knew was dead and gone....and then he finds out that he was right in the first place.
"Dean, it's me"
"You are not my brother, what are you?"
"Just listen, it's me, Dean, just let me explain."
- I do love how freaked out Sam is here...how he's not underestimating Dean at all, how he's genuinely like "oh shit."
"...There's something wrong with me, really wrong. I've known it for a while. I lied to you, yeah, and I let you get turned by that vamp. Because I knew there was a cure, Dean, and we needed in that nest, and I knew you could handle it."
"Handle it!? I could have died! I could have killed Ben"
"And that should have stopped me cold, but I just don't feel it!"
"You what?"
"Ever since I came back, I am a better hunter than I've ever been! Nothing scares me anymore, because I can't feel it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think, I need help."
PUNCH TO THE FACE!
....and then THIRTEEN MORE PUNCHES TO THE FACE! IS THAT THE HELP YOU NEED SAMMY?!
- When I first watched this episode, I was pretty horrified that Dean would do that - because Sam was making the puppy-eyed weepy face, and then just BAM (x14)...and I figured well, there's Dean's repressed emotions coming out. Then a friend of mine watched it and pointed out that Sam sounded a lot like a drug-addict/alcoholic who knew what people WANTED to hear and could put on a show...basically, that Sam was being emotionally manipulative to get forgiveness for his behaviour. In which case, well, yeah, I'd punch him too, because I hate emotional manipulation. So, I don't know...what did you think?
And that's that. My house sitting days are over - so as of tomorrow I'll be back in my cold* apartment with my DVDs and my laptop, and not a huge HDTV and a Bluray player. You guys will probably not notice a difference....but I will! :P
*our heat is broken and apparently the landlord is "thinking" about what to do about it. Sigh.