5.21 episode review, part 1
Episode reviews by tahirire and blacklid :
5.21 Episode review: Two Minutes to Midnight.
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Caps this week by cybel.
THE ROAD SO FAR...
The Far Side of The Devil You Know
{{NOW}}
I have to start this review by saying how much I LOVE cybel 's caps. Know why? Because she stands up for what she believes in, and REFUSES to cap gratuitous snot usage. *applause*
So, uh. There aren't caps of the first scene. But the first scene takes place in the middle of the episode anyway, so we'll get there when we get there, I suppose. I'm not particularly looking forward to it. I DON'T do snot.
*gags*
So we'll start somewhere safe instead - Bobby's house. :)
Bobby gets the Lawrence Bulletin, which somehow does not surprise me one bit. Also, I feel like I just saw that ACTUAL story on the news, except it wasn't Kansas.
*eyes the sky warily for signs of coming Apocalypse*
Oh. Crap.
So to clarify, when it says one day earlier it means one day earlier before the incident with the snot. Got it? Ok go.
Part 1 of this review starts and ends with the same scene - everyone standing around at Bobby's arguing. One thing that's always impressed me about Show is that they can have episode after episode of mainly just people standing around talking and I never feel bored. I mean, I can think of 1 or 2 scenes off the top of my head that I go ahead and skip through on re-watches because I already have the info, but mainly each scene is so charged with emotion and insight to the characters that largely expositional episodes (Like Shadow, Faith, Devil's Trap, IMTOD, Houses of the Holy, Tall Tales, No Rest for the Wicked, I Know What you did Last Summer, Lucifer Rising, The Point of No Return, ect) end up being my favorite ones.
So anyway. Dean is yelling at Sam, which is totally understandable, I mean, Sam & Co were pretty harsh with Dean for thinking about saying yes to Michael, not to mention the fact that the idea of Sam saying yes to Lucifer TERRIFIES Dean, and not just because of the what-if-he-fails factor. Not just that by a long shot.
However, THIS time, there is a LEGIT reason, a reason beyond but we don't have any better ideas. This could actually WORK. The other important - CRUCIALLY important - factor here is that Sam won't do it unless the vote is unanimous. Not exactly the way Dean tried to say yes to Michael, sure - but it means so much more than just that. In my head.
Still, lol, one brother saying yes and one refusing? Why, it seems we have a double standard! WHY I NEVER!
*clutches pearls*
Sam shooting Bobby *told you so* looks and Bobby shooting them back? Priceless.
Dean going from *wibbly* to *RAGEFACE* in one frame? Hysterical.
I LOVE how Dean is all 'Good, case closed', and then he's like 'We are NOT done talking about this.' And by love I mean I LOL remembering like, every argument I EVER had with my mother growing up. Because - but mooooom, I thought you were DONE YELLING. *rotfl*
Is it just me, or does it seem like Bobby has already changed his mind about Sam's plan in between the time he yelled at Sam last week and the time since he's gone and SOLD HIS SOUL? Guess he doesn't really have room to talk about crazy plans anymore, you know - now that he's SOLD HIS SOUL.
*headdesk*
Two Minutes to Midnight
I liked this title a lot. Of course it's an Iron Maiden song, but it also, in the Supernatural world, implies the impending collection of a deal. In this instance, I'm sensing a whole lot more foreboding than this just being about BOBBY making a deal. We're talking the deal of all time. And I don't have to explain what an Iron Maiden is, do I? And I don't need to bring up the 5th element being Iron AGAIN, do I? Y'all pay attention. Y'all know this stuff by now.
*petpets*
PS - Who has seen Iron Man 2?
*shifty eyes*
The killer's breed or the demon's seed
The glamor, the fortune, the pain
Go to war again, blood is freedom's stain
Don't you pray for my soul anymore
2 minutes to midnight
The hands that threaten doom
2 minutes to midnight
To kill the unborn in the womb
*more shifty eyes*
*drinks heavily*
HOLY CRAP THEY FINALLY GOT IT RIGHT!!!
Dear Show,
Why, yes, that IS Misha Collins!!! You did it!!
*Gives Show a gold star*
~T
Cas becoming human-ish? Awesome. (Don't fool yourself, he's still an angel.)
*leaves that there*
Cas apologizing to Dean and saying he's not the burnt and broken shell of a man that he believed him to be? Priceless.
Dean's reaction? PRICELESS.
Cas/cellphone is my OTP.
We've spent a lot of time this season sitting down at eye level with Bobby. It just makes it that much more impacting later when we can sit in the Impala and look UP at him instead. Yay Show.
First the guys got intel from Badger, and now they are willingly walking into Serenity Valley?
O.O
HOW AWESOME IS THIS SHOW, YOU GUYS.
"When you can't run, you crawl ... and when you can't crawl, when you can't do that... You find someone to carry you."
We named K's new laptop Firefly.
Davenport, Iowa.
This scene reminds me so hard of Devil's Trap. I love that they can sit outside a building and try to come up with a plan and even without trying it floods the viewer with memories. I love even more that whatever memories you get flooded with always end up being relevant to what's about to happen next. It's like they DO IT ON PURPOSE!!
*clutches pearls again*
LOL @ Dr Evil's lair.
"It's more depressing than evil."
Eunice Kennedy LMAO.
I have to stop and fangirl Dean here, because in all my years of watching Walker, Texas Ranger, I NEVER saw Walker punch a guy and lay him out in ONE punch.
In fact, it usually took him about 6 roundhouses with his steel-toed boots to put a guy's lights out, and even then they were only unconscious for like 5 minutes! Dean throws ONE PUNCH and they just drag the dude into a corner and lay him there and he stays out for about eight million hours while they look at video tapes.
Dear Dean,
You really ARE awesome.
O.O
~T
THIS IS SO NIGHTSHIFTER, I haz a glee.
Also also? I LOVE that as soon as Dean's metaphorical lightbulb comes on and he gets back on Sam's train track, he starts sleeping again. Immediately. Every chance he gets.
Even when he's supposed to be working.
I kind of love it a lot a lot. I kind of pulled too many caps of it. I kind of don't want to delete any of them. Here. Have some caps.
Remember in last week's (I know I posted it yesterday, shutup) review, we had statue!Sam?
LOOKIT! Here he is again!
Seriously. Dude could stalk antelope in the Serengeti.
Ah, the good old days, when bad guys always interfered with electronics. Nice to know some things never change. :)
*gratuitous cap*
I like how, even though this *is* Supernatural, so we *should* be used to this by now either way, you can tell this chick is a demon the INSTANT she pops up on screen. Well played.
Ok, so, that part that shall not be named that we saw at the start of the episode JUST happened, and Pestilence has guacamole all over his face. In retrospect, we should have known better - but we ate guacamole burgers before the episode. And I can honestly barely look at these caps. Omgbarf.
Not REALLY understanding how touching the ring does ... anything. I suppose it acts as a channeling tool for the horseman's power somehow. This one also looks like the Slytherin ring. Lolz.
Not sure if he sent through multiple strains or if different people just react differently to the same mix or what have you, but Dude puked the guacamole and Chick bled out somehow. Again. Gross.
Also it reminds me of an episode of The Unit I just watched where terrorists attacked a town with Chlorine gas. I love the Unit. /random
I was hoping that some of Sam's immunities would come into play here, but apparently as far as viruses go, Sam is ONLY immune to the Croatoan virus. I personally think Dean is also immune, but that's neither here nor there today.
Anyway, I'm not sure where Dean was heading on the whole symptom train, but the second Sam walked around the corner he coughed really hard and then there was blood on his hand. Someone tally for me how many times this season Sam has coughed up blood, please, because IT'S STARTING TO MAKE ME WANT TO DIE A LOT.
"When you can't run, you crawl ... and when you can't crawl, when you can't do that... You find someone to carry you."
TOTAL new meaning to "The Doctor will see you now."
I'M NEVER GOING TO THE DOCTOR EVER AGAIN.
I love how Sam looks 100% badass right up until he falls over. *pets Sam*
Also, I love the room numbers in this hallway! Y'all should know by now my obsession with room numbers. Hi, I'm Russel Crowe from A Beautiful Mind, have we met?
Anyway, this hallway shows 4 room numbers - 209 through 212. Which are ... ready for this?
209 Croatoan - Wherin they introduce the virus threatening in this episode.
210 Hunted - Wherin Gordon prophesies how Sam was destined to be evil.
211 Playthings - Wherin Dean promises to kill Sam if he ever becomes something he's not.
212 Nightshifter - Which they practically already reenacted a scene from, lol.
I swear. I SWEAR they do it on purpose.
*dives under the covers*
I think it's noteworthy that while none of the horsemen seem particularly entranced or fooled by Lucifer or even really seem to REALLY care much about his wishes in general (Like how Pestilence doesn't care about the standing orders to not harm the vessels, and isn't that interesting, vesselS with an extra S, I see you there...) they DO seem kind of pissed at God in the same way Lucifer does, which is to say they just really seem to despise people.
Run-on sentences FTW!
SHOW. WE HAVE BEEN OVER THIS. STOP WITH THE HAIR PULLING.
I really can't stand it watching them get tortured like this. It makes me so cringey.
I don't typically watch this type of scene over again.
HOWEVER - I do find it amusing that after caps like this -
We get this face. *ROTFL* Show has the most awesome bad guys, I swear.
CAS! To the rescue! WITH A BUS TICKET!!! In front of the ... Hunted door. FTW! \o/
He points straight at Sam and says, "Don't worry, I -" before he starts coughing, and all me and blacklid could think (and we both thought it together at the same time ftw) was that he was about to say PAID FOR IT, and we both fell over laughing.
Ohmigosh.
*looks away*
Sam's eyes look black here. They aren't, but still - cool shot. I like how they like to keep the guessing going. :)
BROWNIE POINT TIME!
Dear The Effects Team,
HOLY CRAP, FAKE HAND OF AWESOME. YOU DUDES ARE ROCKING THIS SEASON LIKE - WOW. SRSLY. You get lots and lots of brownie points. Enough to make a reeeeeeeeeeeeeally big brownie.
Yours in astonishment,
~T
LOL CAS IS MAKIN' OUT WITH A DEMON. Turns out being human has it's certain pitfalls, I suppose. LOL.
At least he knows what to do with it when he's done.
*snerks*
*cues angry comments about my insensitivity*
*blows raspberries*
"It doesn't matter. It's too late."
I like that we never actually SEE anyone vanish. (With the exception of ghosts of course.) Not only does it save on the effects budget, but it's just as effective, if not MORE effective, as showing. I think Charmed is a good example. Everyone had to vanish differently, there was blinking, orbing, sliding, popping, fading - keeping track was exhausting. Plus, I think it's creepier that way. Not seeing it works just fine for me. :)
Here's two guys who just beat a horseman! Or else two guys who just lost their pony, I can't really tell the difference.
Bobby can't tell the difference, either.
So suddenly Bobby knows where Death is. And what his PLAN is.
And I find it very smooth that it's quite obvious that Death told Crowley the info and later on made sure he got the scythe to lure Dean in because he's tired of waiting for Dean to catch up. Which means Bobby never had to make a deal for Death to work with Crowley. Which means Bobby's deal is pure collateral.
"I don't understand your definition of good news."
Cas: *ponderface*
Dean: *Most exasperated eyeroll EVER*
Me: *Falls off of couch laughing*
I LOVE, love, LOVE that Crowley pours himself a shot and then swirls it around and then IMMEDIATELY puts it down. Why? B/C it has Holy Water in it, LOL.
*pets Crowley*
If you've never read Good Omens, DO IT. I'm almost done with it myself, having come into that one a little late in the game, but it is SO FUNNY. This Crowley IS Crowley. There is no question. It's brilliant seeing him onscreen. If they ever do a movie of Good Omens, and they don't get Mark to be Crowley, I WILL CRY.
Also for some amazingly fun Crowley crack!fic, go read ' Man's Worst Friend', by lassiterfics. It's SO Pratchett/Gaiman-ish, and it's about Crowley and his pet Hellhound. Seriously. Go read it. It's awesome.
SO. Bobby made a deal.
This does not please Dean. He takes it out on Crowley, though, and not Bobby. Which kind of makes me want to give him a hug, because if anyone knows what it's like to feel like you have no choice but to be a total hypocrite and make a deal, it's our Dean.
*gives Dean a hug*
Sam: "Did you kiss him?"
Dean: "Sam!"
Sam: "Just wondering!"
Fandom: LOLYAYOMGLOLOL SAM WANTS DETAILS!
blacklid and I: SAM NEEDS TO KNOW IF BOBBY SEALED THE DEAL OR NOT FER GAWD.
Sam's hair: *makes no comment, just sits there being awesome*
Everyone in this scene really, REALLY rocked it. It was played with this perfect balance of seriousness and comedy. It's funny that Sam has to ask, but he's asking a SERIOUS question. If there was no kiss, then there was no deal. Period.
*stops for a moment to be bitter that Sam never got farther along sealing his 'deal' with Lilith*
And so when Bobby lies and says "NO!" ...
... Sam isn't sure, because if that's true then Bobby's soul still belongs to Bobby.
Suddenly Dean isn't sure, either.
WHICH IS WHY CROWLEY TOOK THE PICTURE.
Because as we discussed, Bobby's deal is PURE COLLATERAL. And he knew the Winchester brothers would know that sealing a deal involves a kiss, and he knew that Bobby wouldn't admit to the kiss, and he knew that he'd have to prove he sealed the deal if Bobby's soul was going to be useful at ALL for leverage.
So anyway - way to miss the point, fandom.
*facepalm*
'Can't or won't?'
That question has been going around an awful lot lately. In Dean's case, the answer used to be 'Can't.' Lately it's been 'Won't.' In Dean's case, 'Won't' is the one we want.
Of course, yelling ensues. Crowley outs with the fact that he is keeping it for collateral.
Um - duh? Silly Bobby, deals are for kids.
*headdesk*
Part two