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hells_half_acreWooo! EDLUND!!! (imagine a rock concert, I guess - I'm a bit sleepy, so I'm trying to jazz myself up.) Honestly though, this is a good episode. Edlund always comes through.
Cornfield...apparently they used a Cornfield maze for this episode. It reminds me of home. I was born in a cornfield maze and raised by wolves, you know. Cornfield wolves. They're surprisingly dexterous.
"There's something out in the corn."
-That's never a good sentence to say.
Seriously Patrick, you're silly. Also, who would just leave a sexy girl like that to go look for something in the corn - priorities dude!!
Oh man! I had forgotten about the X-files opening. Brilliant!
A lot of the crew worked on X-files, though I'm sure most of you know that. I didn't watch the X-files myself - just didn't like it that much. It was the same with Buffy. I have very specific tastes, it seems. I liked Due South, so I've concluded that my tastes are: homoerotic shows that involve classic cars. (But no, I do not like the Dukes of Hazard).
"We are right in the middle of what we in the field like to call a UFO flap, and I am as happy as a pig in shoes."
- I love that line, "a pig in shoes" - I've always been a fan of little-used expressions. I don't think pigs would actually be happy in shoes.
"Of course it's not UFOs, it's faeries"
"Faeries. Ok, well thank you for your input."
"What flying saucers not insane enough for you?"
"What newspaper did you say you worked for?"
"Look if you want to add glitter to that glue your sniffing that's fine, but don't dump your wakadoo all over us, we'd rather not step in it."
"Ok, we're done."
"Only thing you're missing is a couple dozen cats."
"It's a blood-sugar thing. My apologies."
-Ok, so this is a hilarious line....but TECHNICALLY, I think Sam would actually be more willing to listen to a fairy theory than UFO theories. I mean, it's true they've never encountered fairies before and the lady IS insane, but at least fairies are of this earth (so to speak).
-Ok, so this is a hilarious line....but TECHNICALLY, I think Sam would actually be more willing to listen to a fairy theory than UFO theories. I mean, it's true they've never encountered fairies before and the lady IS insane, but at least fairies are of this earth (so to speak).
"And Sam, by the way, it's not the lady's fault she took the brown acid."
-For those that don't know, this is a Woodstock reference. What I like about this line though is that it's true...there are a lot of slightly demented people out there who just did too many drugs back in the 60s/70s.
"What do you want me to do, fake it?"
"Yes, absolutely, fake it. Fake it 'til you make it."
"What happened to you wanting me to be all honest?"
"Hey, you want to be a real boy, Pinocchio? You gotta act the part."
"I WAS faking it, Dean, every day since we got back on the road together. I was picking every fricking word. It's exhausting."
"Alright, but until we get youback on the soul-train. I'll be your conscience."
"So, you're saying you'll be my Jimney Cricket?"
-This episode really does have this Pinocchio comparison running all through it. Technically, I see Sam's point here - Dean DID tell him to be honest. It's a be-careful-what-you-wish-for problem.
"Now, your son was the first to disappear?"
"First to be taken."
"Taken?"
"Out, get out."
-Obviously, this guy keeps secrets as well as my older sister does. (She once came home and announced: "Yes! I dropped acid last night! But it was in a safe environment!" and my mum was like "um...all I said was 'hello', but uh, ok.")
"You know Jimney, I was on my own for a whole year. i did fine without you."
"I don't want to know the definition of fine."
- Neither do I. We end up seeing a bit of it in Unforgiving and The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Did Dean drive his car into a cornfield? That can't be good for the undercarriage.
"You better run man, I think the 4th kind is the butt thing."
"Empathy, Sam! Empathy!"
- Ah hahahaha...sigh. Also, a bit too rapey for poor Dean, but I'll get to that.
The UFO camp is great.
"My brother was abducted, so I'm pretty good on the whole proof part."
"Your brother was abducted?"
"Yeah"
"Oh my god!"
"It's fine. I mean, I've had time to adjust."
"Did it happen when you were kids?"
"No, like half an hour ago."
- I love this exchange. I'm starting to see that the problem with me reviewing (funny) Edlund episodes in this manner is that it's mostly me going "this was funny."
"So you've been hunting UFOs for 3 decades and you have no conrete data and zero workable leads?"
"Well, I-"
"Have you considered the possibility that you suck at hunting UFOs."
- I love that Sam calls the dude out on a professional level - I mean, everything else aside, they are in a similar business, only aliens don't exist and Sam's monsters do.
Knife and gun! Awesome. Dean Winchester: Rejected by Fairies.
"I totally understand, you guys need time as a family, but it's just - what was it like?"
"They were grabby incandescent douchebags, goodnight."
"Too soon."
-Since I usually track allusions/real sexual assault against the leads while I watch the show (I do not do this on purpose, for some reason I just can't help but notice them), I'd like to point out that this is yet another. They've increased exponentially since S4 as well. Before S4, it was actually Sam who got violated the most, but from S4-S6 it was suddenly Dean who was at the centre of it all. I really need to write a meta on this some day, but I have SO MANY GODDAMN PROJECTS.
-Since I usually track allusions/real sexual assault against the leads while I watch the show (I do not do this on purpose, for some reason I just can't help but notice them), I'd like to point out that this is yet another. They've increased exponentially since S4 as well. Before S4, it was actually Sam who got violated the most, but from S4-S6 it was suddenly Dean who was at the centre of it all. I really need to write a meta on this some day, but I have SO MANY GODDAMN PROJECTS.
"You're upset."
-Wow, this reminds me of the exchange in (BBC) Sherlock "You're angry." "Yes, good deduction that." I guess it just solidifies the Soulless!Sam=Sociopath thing...though I should point out that BBC Sherlock isn't really a sociopath, he just says he is, but he's actually on the autism spectrum.
"I was abducted, and you were banging patchouli"
"I didn't think she smelled that bad."
-Why IS it that certain hippies like patchouli so much? It boggles my mind. I have a theory that they initially like the smell and then slowly lose the ability to tell how much they have on...or it's because it's the only thing that masks pot-smoke. *shrug* (I'm not being anti-hippie here, I'm just wondering why patchouli is so popular. I don't particularly like it all that much.)
I love when Dean goes to sit on the bed and it's the bed that Sam was having sex in, so he moves over to the other bed...it's small moments like this that make these characters so real and hilarious.
"It's okay. Safe room."
-Haha, Soulless!Sam trying to be comforting is NOT comforting.
"There were these beings, and I couldn't see them, but I could feel them pulling me towards this table-"
"Probing table!"
"God! Don't say that outloud!"
"Right, so what'd you do?"
"I went crazy. I started hacking, and slashing, and firing. They actually seemed surprised. I don't think anybody's ever done that before. I had a close encounter, Sam, and I won."
"You should take a shower."
"I should take a shower. I'm going to take a shower."
-Again, we get the rapey-aspect to this all. What struck me about this scene though is that although it is plaid for laughs, Dean IS legitimately uncomfortable and disturbed - not only that, but even Soulless!Sam can recognize it and knows that Dean will feel better after a shower. This all goes back to my firm belief that Dean was in fact raped in hell (by Alistair, or at his direction, either way) and that Sam either knows or at least also suspects this.
"So, if aliens are actually real, what's next? Hobbits?"
-Yes please?
"You just gave her the silent 'how you do'!"
"What?"
"Our reality is collapsing around us and you're trying to pick up our waitress?"
"Right, okay, brings up a question: Say you have a soul and you're on a case, and your brother gets abducted by aliens."
"Then you do everything you can to bring him back."
"Right, you do. But, what about when there are no more leads..., I mean, are you supposed to just sit there in the dark and suffer even though there is nothing to be done at that moment."
"Yes!"
"What?"
"Yes! You sit in the dark and you feel the loss."
"Right, but can't I do all that AND have sex with the hippe chick?"
"No!"
-Oh Sam, trying to multi-task. Again, this exchange is hilarious, but if you really think about it, it comes down to the fundamental problem of Sam being unable to love Dean. Dean's disappearance is a problem, but not something to mourn. It's an inconvenience...and there's nothing more insulting than only being a matter of convenience/inconvenience to your loved ones.
-This exchange, and the next bit, brings me back to the previous episode and one thing I forgot to say about that last conversation...when Sam tells Dean that there are things he remembers that make him think he SHOULD have his soul back - not to be cheesy of course - but I think he's talking about the memories of being happy and of love. Anyway, I'll take about that more after this next line:
-This exchange, and the next bit, brings me back to the previous episode and one thing I forgot to say about that last conversation...when Sam tells Dean that there are things he remembers that make him think he SHOULD have his soul back - not to be cheesy of course - but I think he's talking about the memories of being happy and of love. Anyway, I'll take about that more after this next line:
"So, you're saying, having a soul equals suffering."
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."
-If emotions come from the soul, then yes, having a soul equals suffering - but it is also, therefore, the only source of true happiness as well. Soulless!Sam is in this odd state where he is neither happy nor sad - he likes to keep busy, because otherwise he is BORED. There is no sitting in the sun and reveling in the beauty of the day or being happy that you have your brother by your side and a beer in your hand...there's only sitting in the sun and thinking "I'm not doing anything. I should probably find something to do. I'm bored."
"So you're saying suffering is a good thing."
"I'm saying it's the only game in town."
-All you feel is pain and suffering wading through Samsara. - That's a line from a Tea Party song that I really liked as a teen. I looked up Samsara in the dictionary when I first heard the song, and it was defined as: The continuous cycle of birth, suffering, death, and re-birth.
-Dean falls into the trap here of only describing one side of the coin - because it's much easier (especially for an American male) to talk about life as suffering than it is for him to talk about life as love and happiness and puppies and hugs. :P Hilariously enough, this exchange reminded me of conversations parents sometimes have with their kids where they try to simplify things so much for the kid that they end up obscuring what they were actually trying to say.
-Dean falls into the trap here of only describing one side of the coin - because it's much easier (especially for an American male) to talk about life as suffering than it is for him to talk about life as love and happiness and puppies and hugs. :P Hilariously enough, this exchange reminded me of conversations parents sometimes have with their kids where they try to simplify things so much for the kid that they end up obscuring what they were actually trying to say.
The red-cap is never explained. I think that's probably the only week point of this episode. I knew about red-caps because I read a piece of fanfiction once that heavily involved them, but I think otherwise I would have been confused.
"yeah, well at least books have punctuation."
-So true...though, have you tried to read Twilight? Sometimes I wonder where the hell the editor was on that one. (For the record, I have not read it myself, but I follow a blog that picks it apart for entertainment...so my opinion may be skewed. I apologize to those of you who like Twilight.)
"See what?"
"See the blood, all the blech"
"Sorry man, I don't see it."
"You don't see the echh? It's right there!"
-I love Dean's use of "echh and blech" it's hilarious.
"It was a little glowing...hot...naked lady, with nipples, and...she hit me."
"I'm not supposed to laugh, right?"
- I LOVE Jensen here, because he makes Dean so sad that the hot little naked lady hit him. Awww....
"I think they're taken to Avalon to service Oberon, King of the Faeries."
"Dean, did you survice Oberon, King of the Faeries?"
-And a billion fanfics were born. Some people wondered by Sam seemed so interested in whether Dean serviced Oberon, but I think that's just Sam trying very hard not to laugh and to take it all seriously.
"I gotta say, I love the feel, it's like..."
"It's like Sedona, Arizona, crapped in here."
"...cute-rific. It's cute-rific."
-Again, I just love this exchange.
"God, is it on me? I feel like I have the crazy ON me."
"No, you did sit in some glitter though."
-I often feel like I have the crazy on me...and often discover that no, it's just glitter. :P
"..if I didn't know better, I'd say you had a bunch of elves working for you."
*Brennan looks surprise, but then goes back to his drink.*
"Except I DO know better, and you have a bunch of elves working for you!"
-Again, I just love the way these lines are delivered.
"So, tell me how does a father decide to trade his son for a bunch of watches. I mean, I'm assuming you have a soul, so what's your excuse?"
-I like how Sam is like 'I know why I'd do it, but I'm incapable of love...what the heck is with you?"
Man, Jared is gorgeous. He just seems to get more and more beautiful every season. - uh, yeah, every once in a while my notes get a little off course.
The slow walking-chase scene is funny too. I was once in a slow-bicycle chase...it was not fun and creeped me the hell out.
"Haha, I'm just kidding!"
-I think that was an adlibbed line by Jensen...which was hilarious.
"Dean! What happened? What am I supposed to do?"
"Fight those fairies! YOU FIGHT THOSE FAIRIES!"
-Classic.
"I'm trying to understand exactly what kind of hate crime this even was."
"It wasn't a hate crime."
"I mean, if this gentleman was a full-size homosexual, would that be ok with you?"
"I don't hate any size person, or any size gay guy."
-It's nice to know where Dean stands on the issues ;) Hahaha
Gaelic! I only understand the word "and"...my gaelic studies never got very far. I can count, and tell people that I'm sick and tired. :P
"...you're brother? He's marked - been to the ranch. He's ours now."
-I wish they'd come back to this at some point. Can Dean still see fairies or could he only see THOSE fairies? Does he have a fairy-hit out on him? In S6, Dean became a vampire and entered the fairy-realm...it'd be kind of cool if it all amounted to something, you know? But I don't know what the heck it would amount to. Dean's only other superpower is his ability to make possessed people take back control of their bodies through their power of love for Dean.
"We fairy folk are all about energy, and the human soul gives off a certain...perfume. Your soul is far away, but not completely out of reach."
"Is that so?"
"Sam, I can get it back for you, for a price."
"That's adorable. It's locked in a box, with the devil."
"Your devil, not mine."
-I love the way Sam says "that's adorable" - but I also like the way this exchange opens the mythos. We already knew that Lucifer wasn't everyone's Devil, but he was still able to kill all those pagan Gods...what would a Lucifer vs. Fairy death match look like?
"So, you're my blue fairy, you can make me a real boy again?"
-Back to Pinocchio...though, I do love that in the Supernatural version of Pinocchio, Pinocchio tries to blow the Blue Fairy away with a shotgun.
"You're right, I'm done shooting. So do me a favour and count this."
"No"
"Why didn't I do that earlier?"
-I also think the "why didn't I do that earlier" was an adlibbed line from Jared (along with his diamond of: "do you have bigger cups?")
I don't really have much to say about the end Impala scene...it's very beautiful, and of COURSE Sam is having second thoughts. No one enjoys Samsara.
COMMENTARY
Sera Gamble, Bob Singer, and Ben Edlund do our first commentary for the season.
This episode, of course, is partially an homage to the X-files - Edlund: "The show that went where we were going ten years before we got there!"
They had to do 12 versions to get the theme song until they found one that it wasn't too close to the x-files theme that legal would pass.
They talk about inability to keep secrets about the show. Edlund: "Any secret we've ever tried to keep has been hurled at the audience by the CW the week before."
According to Ben Edlund one of the first drafts of the script had the fairy lady attacked by a unicorn - stabbing it's horn into her trailer. :P
Singer: "Because of the restriction of television, you are actually forced to tell a better story than you might see in the movies...because they rely on 'oh sure, we can do that, we have the money' and then stories get lost along the way."
Sera talks about how Soulless!Sam = no ethical barometer.
Dean making the decision about which bed to sit on was not in the script. Sera: "That Jensen, he's a good actor!"
They praise John Showalter, the director.
Edlund: "Jensen has a very very tuned, I think, through Dean...he's got a very tuned comedic presence. I think Jared is crafting a new comedic kind of vehicle in this soulless presentation."
Sera:"This is the episode where got to have fun with Sam's problem.".
Sera: "It must be said, about these two actors here, that although this script is exceptionally funny...a couple of the funniest moments in this entire episode, Jared and Jensen actually adlibbed. Like when we get to the trailer, and Jared is like "do you have bigger cups?" HAHAHA"
Edlund: "This is one of the dividends of having two actors play characters for this long, and they're really in the world of these two guys. And deeply to their credit, they're not done playing these guys. In some series, you can see the point where the leads, or the lead...stop investing in their performance."
Bob: "He still can't play short though, Jared."
Edlund: "He's awful at it!...He looks like a question mark....I'm like, 'you can't commit to that! You're all curled up in a ball!'"
...
Sera: "And neither of them are too good at playing ugly."
Edlund: "They can play sort of dirty, but the dirt looks better when it's on them."
Sera admits that they accidentally underplayed the red-cap, that the exposition on it got lost in one of the script edits.
They talk about how they have to rely a lot on the Vancouver crew and promises that things will end up looking cool:
Singer: "There's just a certain point where it's just a leap of faith off a very long cliff"
Edlund: "Yes, do you remember the cliff at all? Isn't it just a constant feeling of falling - guided falling."
Hilariously, Sera, Singer, and Edlund all joke about Patrick being eaten by Oberon. Uh, yeah, that's not where my mind when when I heard the words "service Oberon"....sometimes I think the writers can be adorably innocent.
There is a lot of talk about souls, of course. Bob Singer came up with the soulless!Sam idea.
Supernatural version of witty banter includes gunfire and how people take a shot, according to Ben Edlund.
Ben Edlund was a huge part of the logic behind Soulless!Sam and a lot of the first half of the season was harshed out during the writing of The Third Man.
And that's that. It was nice to have some commentary to listen to.
Until next time...let me know what I missed and/or majorly screwed up talking about...
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-17 11:32 pm (UTC)And speaking of fanfics, I'm halfway holding out hope that one of my ohsam comment-fics is on the mark and that Faerie is a legitimate third afterlife option for both Sam and Dean rather than going back to either Heaven or Hell. What that says about the state of SPN's universe... is a whole other meta.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-17 11:39 pm (UTC)Ooo, I will get more into this when I discuss the bluray feature (I have copious notes on them already, but I'm waiting to finish the rewatch before I type them up.) But you are correct in that it comes down to needing a third option: Heaven/Hell isn't an end for them.
they missed a perfect chance to quote The Princess Bride: "Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something." *coughCrowleycough*
ILU. That happens to be possibly my favourite line from the Princess Bride - what that says about me, I don't know. But yes, opportunity missed there. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 12:34 am (UTC)I couldn't understand why the boy in the beginning brought his girlfriend to a cornfield. You would think that living in the country, they would know that cornfields are not a romantic! There are HUGE spiders and lots of other bugs everywhere, and if you get silk anywhere, it itches. Also, there are plenty of racoons, mice and skunks roaming the stalks. Definitely not a spot for making out.
I love that we see fairies. I knew as soon as the guy in the red cap appeared that Dean was in trouble, but I'm a big fairy tale/retold fairy tales fan, and I'd encountered them before. A lot of people had no idea that it was anything other than a homeless guy wearing a red hat.
I love all the quotes you picked out...they're my favorites too! And I think I'm going to have to pull out the DVDs and watch the commentaries now...
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 12:43 am (UTC)Yeah, if I hadn't just read something that heavily involved red-caps, I would have just thought he was a weird homeless dude in a red cap :P
I really love commentaries - it's a shame there isn't more of them. Some can be REALLY boring (I've never been able to make it through the commentary on the Princess Bride), but others can be really good. In any case, I find that I enjoy listening to Ben Edlund talk. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 02:36 am (UTC)I knew about redcaps, but didn't connect with the guy until I watched this episode a second time, and I was like OOOH, Redcaps! Duh.
I'm always fascinated by commentaries by the directors or producers or actors for episodes, because I'm usually very interested in how and why they did a certain thing or write a certain scene, the rationale behind it, and it's illuminating to know what they're thinking when they're sculpting the scenes.
The adlibbing part is fascinating. You never knew it was adlibbed because of how it's done. Do they have to adlib every episode?
And I agree with Edlund about the dirt looking better when it's on them! LOL
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 04:41 am (UTC)I'm not sure if they adlib (or HAVE to haha) every episode - I think it's just on occasion, when they think of a line that is funny. I know that they'll do a take the way it's scripted, and then do a take with the adlib line so that the director/producers can choose.
Jared and Jensen: Making dirt look good since 2005 (actually, probably long before that).
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 02:58 pm (UTC)I've been meaning to do a rewatch myself, after borrowing the S6 DVDs from a friend :D I had no idea this was one of the episodes with commentary!
Anyways, I love all the adlibbed lines. Jared's 'bigger cups' line totally killed me.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 05:53 pm (UTC)There are only two episodes with commentary. This is one, and I think the finale is the other. The bluray has some pretty good features too - though, if you want to save yourself a bit of trouble, I'm going to eventually talk about them as well. ;)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 05:07 pm (UTC)Bob: "He still can't play short though, Jared."
Edlund: "He's awful at it!...He looks like a question mark....I'm like, 'you can't commit to that! You're all curled up in a ball!'"
...
Sera: "And neither of them are too good at playing ugly."
Edlund: "They can play sort of dirty, but the dirt looks better when it's on them."
And Jared adlibbed the bigger cups line? \o/ I love that. And this is the only episode that I don't find soulless!Sam endlessly depressing. Just cos he's so funny. In fact, I just loved this episode, for much the same reason that I loved 'Monster Movie'. It's just so ridiculous and entertaining. :D
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 05:51 pm (UTC)I love learning what lines were adlibbed and what weren't. It's always interesting to me what were actor-choices and what were writer-choices. For instance, and I didn't talk about this, Sam actually pausing to seriously consider the offer to get his soul back was a Jared-choice. It's a minor thing, but I still think it's interesting.
And yeah, I love this episode for the same reason I love Monster Movie too - it's just good fun.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 07:23 pm (UTC)I can't check what pause you're on about as my harddrive broke and I've lost my S6. I have every season on DVD, just not that one. :(
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:12 pm (UTC)Sad times. :(
It's just the pause to consider when the leprechaun offers Sam a deal for his soul - Sera said that she didn't originally picture Sam actually pausing to give it any thought, but Jared did, and she thought it was better that way. No big deal.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:28 pm (UTC)I can't even remember the leprechaun! Argh! Clearly it has been too long snce I saw this episode.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:30 pm (UTC)That's horrible about your photos :(
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:33 pm (UTC)Hopefully they computer man can get them back for me. Hopefully.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:35 pm (UTC)I'll cross my fingers that the computer-man will come through for you.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:45 pm (UTC)Thanks. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 09:38 pm (UTC)And I liked how Jensen played Dean so horribly uncomfortable with his experience, and I'm actually surprised about the low amount of Oberon-Dean-fanfic that came after that episode. Weird...
Anyway, I think that when Dean missed his opportunity of telling Sam why a soul is GOOD to have, he a) wasn't in the state of mind to remember the god things and b) didn't see the point in explaining the warm feeling you get when your world is in order.
As you put it: Sam would never GET the pleasure of sitting at the beach.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 10:07 pm (UTC)And yes, I agree with you about why Dean missed the opportunity to tell Sam why a soul was good. ;)
About pigs in shoes . . .
Date: 2011-10-20 12:46 am (UTC)""We are right in the middle of what we in the field like to call a UFO flap, and I am as happy as a pig in shoes."
- I love that line, "a pig in shoes" - I've always been a fan of little-used expressions. I don't think pigs would actually be happy in shoes."
Well, where I come from (where we actually raise pigs), the proper expression is "a pig in shit". Really! A lot easier to imagine than pigs in shoes.
Guess 'shoes' for 'shit' is like Bobby's "balls' for **** (insert whatever). Maybe they have to give up a vulger expletive for every blood splatter or related gore.
Thanks again for your review! Nice to revisit this epi.
Re: About pigs in shoes . . .
Date: 2011-10-20 12:48 am (UTC)