Quick Reaction: 8x16 Remember The Titans
Feb. 28th, 2013 01:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hells_half_acreHello! Late one tonight... sorry...
Walking home, I was really worried that no song would come on the iPod that would give me a good lyric for this episode - I went through Moist, the Beatles, Jason Collett, Johnny Cash... and nothing... and then finally, JUST as I was walking in the door, Jonny Lang saved the day.
So, let's talk about this episode...
Okay, so right off the bat, I knew this was an episode about Prometheus. And just, for the record and to admit my biases: I adore Prometheus. So I was excited to see what Supernatural would do with him.
Apparently, they're going to first hit him with a car... and we get a stand-up individual who hits and runs. Great....
I LOVED thecrow eagle eating his liver, just before the cop found him. Perfect homage to the real myth. But cop dude, do you really have to check for a pulse when the dead guy has a gaping hole in his gut and has already been picked at by a bird? I mean, I guess better safe than sorry... especially since, HE'S NOT DEAD!
Cut to the bunker... Sam is having his morning sip of water, when he suddenly spits blood back up. Gross! I was really worried he was going to start losing teeth or something here - teeth falling out grosses me out to no end, so I was really happy when it was just a whole lot of blood. Sam goes immediately into "hide the evidence mode" - and I love how Dean can see the "cagey" a mile away. Sometimes the show isn't that consistent with characters, but one thing I love when they get right is how if you spend nearly 24/7 with one person for 8+ years (even with "vacations away from each other") you will be able to pick up that person's mood in SECONDS.
And I love how matter-of-fact Dean is about it, "Cas is MIA, Kevin's silent, and you're acting cagey." (or whatever the line is).
Sam distracts him with possible zombie hunt, and it's off to Montana to find interview a sheriff!
I love the reversal they do here with Sam and Dean pretending like zombies don't exist and the sheriff believing wholeheartedly that they do.
TO THE MORGUE!
So, I like that they made Prometheus a good looking dude... I do not approve of the name "Shane" though, and the fact that at times he seemed rather "surfer dude" rather than tortured Titan... but those are really minor quibbles. I actually really like the way Sam and Dean responded to him - but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I loved the conversation outside the morgue window while Prometheus wakes up - and then Sam and Dean noticing. They take him back to the motel, because they can't really explain why the dead guy is alive... and they discover that "Shane" has amnesia, but has been dying every day for as long as he can remember. He was apparently found on "some mountain in Europe" as a supposed victim of an avalanche. (And this is kind of funny, because to my knowledge there is no skiing in Greece... mind you, I don't think the myths ever really specified WHICH mountain, so maybe Zeus sent him to the Alps. (Another quibble: The "mountain in Europe" line was a good vague premise the first time it was said, but when it was repeated by Hayley later it was too obvious of a vague premise. She should have just said that she went on a ski trip with her friends and not bothered reconfirming the location.)
Sam and Dean think he might be cursed by a witch. I guess since they just got off a witch case, they've got them on the brain... I loved Dean's line about how Sam would have to be the one to do the "body cavity search for the hex bag" - because he has a point about why the curse doesn't really fix with a witch's MO.
Instead, they get a separate room and leave Shane to sleep... only Shane is attacked by a hot goth chick! Oh no? I feel like I'm quibbling all over this Quick Reaction, but it might have been nice to have less cuts in that fight. I guess the actors were bad at pretend fighting? Usually if your actors are somewhat decent you don't need that many quick cuts (says she of very limited directorial-knowledge.)
I LOVED how Artemis (aka: hot goth chick) vanished into thin air. In the past few weeks I've been writing a fantasy novel in my head and a couple of my leads can vanish into thin air and that was EXACTLY how I pictured it... so, I kind of had a moment where I was like "It IS as cool as it was in my head!!"
I also liked how they made her weapons seem otherworldly without actually doing too much to them... they just sort of gave them that mercury look, and that was enough.
Yay, they saved Shane! Only... HEART ATTACK. As SOON as Shane started rubbing his left arm, I'm like "I know what's about to happen..." and yup. I did love the boys though, "Should we call 911?" "And tell them that the body we stole from the morgue is having a coronary!?" Oh boys, your lives are weird.
So, Prometheus dies yet again.... and the boys wait around for him to wake up. Only, there's a brunette at the door! Okay, this is where my "can't tell brunettes apart" problem comes into play, because I seriously thought "What, they're just going to answer the door because the murderous girl from last night changed her clothes and knocked?" But no.... DIFFERENT GIRL. (Geez... I can't even blame racism, because it's my own frickin' race. I have no idea what is wrong with my facial recognition abilities.)
Anyway, her name is Hayley and she's got a cute blond kid with her.... and uh, yeah.... in the long tradition of Greek gods not being able to keep it in their pants, apparently Titans have the same problem.
Hayley gives them the same story - and then it's awkward family reunion time when Prometheus wakes up.
I think this is the point where Dean and Sam have the best exchange of the episode, which I wish I could remember word for word, but I'll have to paraphrase. Sam: "What do we know that has Jason Bourne like powers, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?" Dean: "I don't know, you?" Heheheh
Anyway, Sam puts it together that it's Prometheus. Now, besides the quibble that any person who has read mythology should know damn well who Prometheus is, and if Dean knew enough about Prometheus to know that he gave humans fire, he should have bloody well known the entire myth... but, whatever, you need an excuse to explain it to the audience, so one of the Winchesters has to be your fall-guy.... anyway, like I was saying, BESIDES all that, I absolutely loved the way Sam explained the Prometheus story.
What I love is that they're immediately sympathetic and THANKFUL to Prometheus. He's a buddy. He's been suffering for eternity because he helped humanity, therefore he's in the friendly monster catagory along with Castiel. So, yeah, I was really pleased about that.
Then came the other twist: The Prometheus curse is hereditary! Oliver, Prometheus' demi-Titan son, has started to die every day ever since he turned 7, which is apparently the age of manhood in ancient greece. Really? 7?! His balls haven't even dropped.
So, it's not about saving Prometheus, which is probably a fools errand, it's about saving the innocent kid. (Sidenote though: I wonder if Oliver gets any other powers as a demi-Titan). Then it's off to the Bunker!
This is the first time that they've brought other people into the Bunker! Dean's is bragging about it, but the whole time I'm like "DEAN! It's a SECRET BUNKER. You are going to have to kill them now! THEY KNOW THE SECRET!" Geez, Dean, I'm not sure you would have made it through initiation...
(Location sidenote: I forgot to mention, but the motel that they just left was one that they used before, a couple of times. I think they first used it in S1 in Hell House, and then again in S2 in Bloodlust.)
DRAMATIC RESEARCH TIME! Seriously, speaking as someone who works as a researcher, I LOVE whenever Supernatural dramatizes hours of library research. I find it hilarious, but it also kind of makes me feel like a bad ass.
Dean finds the solution, some dude named Dracopolis (Dragon Penis? That is NOT what polis means, Dean). Anyway, Dracopolis once summoned and trapped Zeus and had a weapon that could kill him or something... to tell you the truth, I don't remember the explanation.
So, the plan is to treat Zeus like a witch/crossroad's demon - summon him, ask him to remove the curse, and then kill him if he doesn't and hope that works. You know, never mind that it's ZEUS. I do love this aspect of the Winchesters though, the fact that they DO use their ability to bluff more often than not....which is something that Hayley can't wrap her head around.
Also, kind of hilarious that they corrected themselves with the fulgurite....
While Dean and Hayley drive to a gem store. Sam digs up a body... and Prometheus asks him why the hell he's helping them, and Sam's like "*shrug* It's my job, and you saved humanity, and even though you're doomed to a horrible fate, it's worth it!" And Prometheus is like... "uh, are you made of sunshine and rainbows?" or maybe that last line was in my head.
Summon Zeus time! And he pulls the ol' "let me out of the trap and I'll do what you want" trick, and Dean bluffs him right back... but Hayley is a horrible poker player and lets him out of the trap. And Zeus is like "Tell me, Hayley, has Prometheus seen his son die?" and she's like "Yuppers" and he's says, "and does it cause him pain?" and HAYLEY I SWEAR TO FRICKIN' GOD....
Listen, first rule of getting what you want out of your enemey (morals aside): KNOW WHAT YOUR ENEMY WANTS. Maybe, just MAYBE if Zeus cursed Prometheus to die a horrible death every day for ETERNITY, he MIGHT be interested in Prometheus suffering as MUCH AS POSSIBLE. So telling him that his kid dying makes him suffer is NOT going to convince Zeus to lift the curse, it's going to convince him to chain the kid to the mountain next to him. THIS ISN'T ROCKET SURGERY! What you wanted to do was to tell Zeus that Prometheus was cool with it and actually liked having a little dying buddy... I mean, that might not have worked, but it definitely wouldn't have been WORSE.
Anyway... oh hey, when did Artemis come in? At some point Artemis comes in...and tacks Sam and Dean to the wall, and then has them follow her out of the room. And this is where Sam shines... and I start wanting Sam/Artemis make-out times. Because Sam plays Artemis, first reminding her that she's the god of Hunters (and therefore should be on their side) and then putting motivations together and coming up with the fact that odds are Artemis has a thing for Prometheus and doesn't want to kill him....
And I LOVED Artemis stroking Sam's cheek with her weapon (*cough*) and saying "I like you"... because a)HOT, and b)Someone likes Sam! (Seriously, I try not to sound like a bitter Sam!girl, because I love Dean just as much, but I'm kind of sick of Dean getting all the friends.)
But most importantly, IT WORKS! Artemis turns on her father and saves the day! WITH ARCHERY! (Seriously, someone better write me some Sam/Artemis/Archery fic.)
Okay, Artemis doesn't QUITE save the day. She shoots Zeus, but Zeus uses PROMETHEUS SHIELD BLOCK and it is super effective. Now, apparently there's something with Artemis' weapons that kills gods dead dead... So, Prometheus is done for, but I absolutely love that Prometheus proved himself a BAMF to the very end and pushed the arrow through himself into Zeus, taking him down too.
Then we get Artemis taking away Zeus' body, but leaving Prometheus behind, basically acknowledging that Hayley loved him also, and that Prometheus loved her too - once his brain had gone to so much mush that he couldn't remember Artemis, anyway. Then it's burn the corpse time... and I did like the tie in with the visual of the Dean lighting the fire.
Sam tries to cheer up the kid with icecream - which, uh, yeah... "so the dad you only just met is dead now, will ice cream cheer you up?" and the kid is like "No" and Sam is like "awkward"... and they do sort of have this weird look exchange which I couldn't decipher the meaning of, and I couldn't help but find it awkward.
Then it's important talk in the Impala time! Sam has suddenly come around to Dean's viewpoint and figures that sealing hell is going to kill him - because saving humanity ALWAYS kills him. And Dean points out that Sam basically promised him that if Sam would survive no matter what, and that if Sam's going to die, it's going to be from something "normal". "Like a heartattack?" Sam replied, incredulously, because they just saw Prometheus have a very unnatural heartattack, not to mention that Sam's body giving out early as his lungs slowly filling up with blood could be considered a normal crappy human death... but since Dean doesn't know about the blood, and he's too angry, he just shuts down the conversation.
But he IS worried... and once they're back home at the Bunker. Dean takes a moment to pray to Cas.... asking him to please watch out for Sam. And Dean was obviously hoping Cas would show up to talk to him like a good buddy would, but Cas is still MIA... and the episode closes on Dean's "where are you, man?" I really loved Dean's prayer - because he's prayer to Cas as though he's a powerful being, but he finishes the prayer by calling Cas "man" which really points to the weird middle ground that Cas occupies in the universe ever since he chose to fight for humanity instead of heaven - is he an agent of heaven or is he an agent of man?
And we break for three weeks! But the promo for the return episode looks crazy! It's going to be three weeks of antici-
...
...
-pation.
Walking home, I was really worried that no song would come on the iPod that would give me a good lyric for this episode - I went through Moist, the Beatles, Jason Collett, Johnny Cash... and nothing... and then finally, JUST as I was walking in the door, Jonny Lang saved the day.
So, let's talk about this episode...
Okay, so right off the bat, I knew this was an episode about Prometheus. And just, for the record and to admit my biases: I adore Prometheus. So I was excited to see what Supernatural would do with him.
Apparently, they're going to first hit him with a car... and we get a stand-up individual who hits and runs. Great....
I LOVED the
Cut to the bunker... Sam is having his morning sip of water, when he suddenly spits blood back up. Gross! I was really worried he was going to start losing teeth or something here - teeth falling out grosses me out to no end, so I was really happy when it was just a whole lot of blood. Sam goes immediately into "hide the evidence mode" - and I love how Dean can see the "cagey" a mile away. Sometimes the show isn't that consistent with characters, but one thing I love when they get right is how if you spend nearly 24/7 with one person for 8+ years (even with "vacations away from each other") you will be able to pick up that person's mood in SECONDS.
And I love how matter-of-fact Dean is about it, "Cas is MIA, Kevin's silent, and you're acting cagey." (or whatever the line is).
Sam distracts him with possible zombie hunt, and it's off to Montana to find interview a sheriff!
I love the reversal they do here with Sam and Dean pretending like zombies don't exist and the sheriff believing wholeheartedly that they do.
TO THE MORGUE!
So, I like that they made Prometheus a good looking dude... I do not approve of the name "Shane" though, and the fact that at times he seemed rather "surfer dude" rather than tortured Titan... but those are really minor quibbles. I actually really like the way Sam and Dean responded to him - but I'm getting ahead of myself.
I loved the conversation outside the morgue window while Prometheus wakes up - and then Sam and Dean noticing. They take him back to the motel, because they can't really explain why the dead guy is alive... and they discover that "Shane" has amnesia, but has been dying every day for as long as he can remember. He was apparently found on "some mountain in Europe" as a supposed victim of an avalanche. (And this is kind of funny, because to my knowledge there is no skiing in Greece... mind you, I don't think the myths ever really specified WHICH mountain, so maybe Zeus sent him to the Alps. (Another quibble: The "mountain in Europe" line was a good vague premise the first time it was said, but when it was repeated by Hayley later it was too obvious of a vague premise. She should have just said that she went on a ski trip with her friends and not bothered reconfirming the location.)
Sam and Dean think he might be cursed by a witch. I guess since they just got off a witch case, they've got them on the brain... I loved Dean's line about how Sam would have to be the one to do the "body cavity search for the hex bag" - because he has a point about why the curse doesn't really fix with a witch's MO.
Instead, they get a separate room and leave Shane to sleep... only Shane is attacked by a hot goth chick! Oh no? I feel like I'm quibbling all over this Quick Reaction, but it might have been nice to have less cuts in that fight. I guess the actors were bad at pretend fighting? Usually if your actors are somewhat decent you don't need that many quick cuts (says she of very limited directorial-knowledge.)
I LOVED how Artemis (aka: hot goth chick) vanished into thin air. In the past few weeks I've been writing a fantasy novel in my head and a couple of my leads can vanish into thin air and that was EXACTLY how I pictured it... so, I kind of had a moment where I was like "It IS as cool as it was in my head!!"
I also liked how they made her weapons seem otherworldly without actually doing too much to them... they just sort of gave them that mercury look, and that was enough.
Yay, they saved Shane! Only... HEART ATTACK. As SOON as Shane started rubbing his left arm, I'm like "I know what's about to happen..." and yup. I did love the boys though, "Should we call 911?" "And tell them that the body we stole from the morgue is having a coronary!?" Oh boys, your lives are weird.
So, Prometheus dies yet again.... and the boys wait around for him to wake up. Only, there's a brunette at the door! Okay, this is where my "can't tell brunettes apart" problem comes into play, because I seriously thought "What, they're just going to answer the door because the murderous girl from last night changed her clothes and knocked?" But no.... DIFFERENT GIRL. (Geez... I can't even blame racism, because it's my own frickin' race. I have no idea what is wrong with my facial recognition abilities.)
Anyway, her name is Hayley and she's got a cute blond kid with her.... and uh, yeah.... in the long tradition of Greek gods not being able to keep it in their pants, apparently Titans have the same problem.
Hayley gives them the same story - and then it's awkward family reunion time when Prometheus wakes up.
I think this is the point where Dean and Sam have the best exchange of the episode, which I wish I could remember word for word, but I'll have to paraphrase. Sam: "What do we know that has Jason Bourne like powers, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?" Dean: "I don't know, you?" Heheheh
Anyway, Sam puts it together that it's Prometheus. Now, besides the quibble that any person who has read mythology should know damn well who Prometheus is, and if Dean knew enough about Prometheus to know that he gave humans fire, he should have bloody well known the entire myth... but, whatever, you need an excuse to explain it to the audience, so one of the Winchesters has to be your fall-guy.... anyway, like I was saying, BESIDES all that, I absolutely loved the way Sam explained the Prometheus story.
What I love is that they're immediately sympathetic and THANKFUL to Prometheus. He's a buddy. He's been suffering for eternity because he helped humanity, therefore he's in the friendly monster catagory along with Castiel. So, yeah, I was really pleased about that.
Then came the other twist: The Prometheus curse is hereditary! Oliver, Prometheus' demi-Titan son, has started to die every day ever since he turned 7, which is apparently the age of manhood in ancient greece. Really? 7?! His balls haven't even dropped.
So, it's not about saving Prometheus, which is probably a fools errand, it's about saving the innocent kid. (Sidenote though: I wonder if Oliver gets any other powers as a demi-Titan). Then it's off to the Bunker!
This is the first time that they've brought other people into the Bunker! Dean's is bragging about it, but the whole time I'm like "DEAN! It's a SECRET BUNKER. You are going to have to kill them now! THEY KNOW THE SECRET!" Geez, Dean, I'm not sure you would have made it through initiation...
(Location sidenote: I forgot to mention, but the motel that they just left was one that they used before, a couple of times. I think they first used it in S1 in Hell House, and then again in S2 in Bloodlust.)
DRAMATIC RESEARCH TIME! Seriously, speaking as someone who works as a researcher, I LOVE whenever Supernatural dramatizes hours of library research. I find it hilarious, but it also kind of makes me feel like a bad ass.
Dean finds the solution, some dude named Dracopolis (Dragon Penis? That is NOT what polis means, Dean). Anyway, Dracopolis once summoned and trapped Zeus and had a weapon that could kill him or something... to tell you the truth, I don't remember the explanation.
So, the plan is to treat Zeus like a witch/crossroad's demon - summon him, ask him to remove the curse, and then kill him if he doesn't and hope that works. You know, never mind that it's ZEUS. I do love this aspect of the Winchesters though, the fact that they DO use their ability to bluff more often than not....which is something that Hayley can't wrap her head around.
Also, kind of hilarious that they corrected themselves with the fulgurite....
While Dean and Hayley drive to a gem store. Sam digs up a body... and Prometheus asks him why the hell he's helping them, and Sam's like "*shrug* It's my job, and you saved humanity, and even though you're doomed to a horrible fate, it's worth it!" And Prometheus is like... "uh, are you made of sunshine and rainbows?" or maybe that last line was in my head.
Summon Zeus time! And he pulls the ol' "let me out of the trap and I'll do what you want" trick, and Dean bluffs him right back... but Hayley is a horrible poker player and lets him out of the trap. And Zeus is like "Tell me, Hayley, has Prometheus seen his son die?" and she's like "Yuppers" and he's says, "and does it cause him pain?" and HAYLEY I SWEAR TO FRICKIN' GOD....
Listen, first rule of getting what you want out of your enemey (morals aside): KNOW WHAT YOUR ENEMY WANTS. Maybe, just MAYBE if Zeus cursed Prometheus to die a horrible death every day for ETERNITY, he MIGHT be interested in Prometheus suffering as MUCH AS POSSIBLE. So telling him that his kid dying makes him suffer is NOT going to convince Zeus to lift the curse, it's going to convince him to chain the kid to the mountain next to him. THIS ISN'T ROCKET SURGERY! What you wanted to do was to tell Zeus that Prometheus was cool with it and actually liked having a little dying buddy... I mean, that might not have worked, but it definitely wouldn't have been WORSE.
Anyway... oh hey, when did Artemis come in? At some point Artemis comes in...and tacks Sam and Dean to the wall, and then has them follow her out of the room. And this is where Sam shines... and I start wanting Sam/Artemis make-out times. Because Sam plays Artemis, first reminding her that she's the god of Hunters (and therefore should be on their side) and then putting motivations together and coming up with the fact that odds are Artemis has a thing for Prometheus and doesn't want to kill him....
And I LOVED Artemis stroking Sam's cheek with her weapon (*cough*) and saying "I like you"... because a)HOT, and b)Someone likes Sam! (Seriously, I try not to sound like a bitter Sam!girl, because I love Dean just as much, but I'm kind of sick of Dean getting all the friends.)
But most importantly, IT WORKS! Artemis turns on her father and saves the day! WITH ARCHERY! (Seriously, someone better write me some Sam/Artemis/Archery fic.)
Okay, Artemis doesn't QUITE save the day. She shoots Zeus, but Zeus uses PROMETHEUS SHIELD BLOCK and it is super effective. Now, apparently there's something with Artemis' weapons that kills gods dead dead... So, Prometheus is done for, but I absolutely love that Prometheus proved himself a BAMF to the very end and pushed the arrow through himself into Zeus, taking him down too.
Then we get Artemis taking away Zeus' body, but leaving Prometheus behind, basically acknowledging that Hayley loved him also, and that Prometheus loved her too - once his brain had gone to so much mush that he couldn't remember Artemis, anyway. Then it's burn the corpse time... and I did like the tie in with the visual of the Dean lighting the fire.
Sam tries to cheer up the kid with icecream - which, uh, yeah... "so the dad you only just met is dead now, will ice cream cheer you up?" and the kid is like "No" and Sam is like "awkward"... and they do sort of have this weird look exchange which I couldn't decipher the meaning of, and I couldn't help but find it awkward.
Then it's important talk in the Impala time! Sam has suddenly come around to Dean's viewpoint and figures that sealing hell is going to kill him - because saving humanity ALWAYS kills him. And Dean points out that Sam basically promised him that if Sam would survive no matter what, and that if Sam's going to die, it's going to be from something "normal". "Like a heartattack?" Sam replied, incredulously, because they just saw Prometheus have a very unnatural heartattack, not to mention that Sam's body giving out early as his lungs slowly filling up with blood could be considered a normal crappy human death... but since Dean doesn't know about the blood, and he's too angry, he just shuts down the conversation.
But he IS worried... and once they're back home at the Bunker. Dean takes a moment to pray to Cas.... asking him to please watch out for Sam. And Dean was obviously hoping Cas would show up to talk to him like a good buddy would, but Cas is still MIA... and the episode closes on Dean's "where are you, man?" I really loved Dean's prayer - because he's prayer to Cas as though he's a powerful being, but he finishes the prayer by calling Cas "man" which really points to the weird middle ground that Cas occupies in the universe ever since he chose to fight for humanity instead of heaven - is he an agent of heaven or is he an agent of man?
And we break for three weeks! But the promo for the return episode looks crazy! It's going to be three weeks of antici-
...
...
