annspal

I love that it's being made clear the characters/stories ARE retreads! We've already had an ANDY... kill his evil brother... to save Dean. (Season 2 Simon Said) Let's get Sam and Dean noticing that and the other "coincidences" (like Dean and Jessica having the same birthday,"Castiel" being invoked during Season 3's Red Sky, etc.). Just because it's becoming explicit in the narrative now doesn't mean it's new at all. Let's see Sam and Dean wonder harder about when the recycling began and WHY. The idea of needing to STOP / STOP IT showed up again in this episode, and that is feeling huge to me. As for the bolded.... YES!! The Winchesters should remember Season 2 Andy's talent for sending out thoughts and images! (Not unlike the Trickster's "It'll feel real" illusions or the Djinn's altered reality dreams?) I am pretty afraid, though, that any harmless tea party distraction they'd come up with for God!Chuck would turn bad like Season 4's wishes. Editing because I forgot to include the thought that someone needs to remember that it was a WEREWOLF HUNT story that Sam wrote that impressed his teacher back in the day!

http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/15.04_Atomic_Monsters_(transcript) with my bolding Don't Becky's reactions to Chuck's rewrite sum up Sam's beginning-of-the-episode nightmare? I'm feeling all chicken-and-egg about these bookends -- especially with Dream!Dean and Becky having such similar lines.

Not sure where this belongs... (maybe posted already?) "The IMDb Show" interviews Chad Michael Murray and nicely references Jared from their Gilmore Girls and House of Wax days.

Well, this one is particularly rewatchable for me! I understand wishing for more practical conversations and objecting to all that wasn't dealt with, but I can't get too worked up about it. I am buying the theory of "Let's just enjoy having our family together for a minute" being the operating principle - especially once it was clear it couldn't last. (And Sam believed from the first that a John out-of-his-time would have consequences that were going to be unsustainable.) Some things: Sam and Dean spent an extra lot of the episode being knocked off their feet. First the pawn shop bad guy got them, then the clown tossed Dean to the couch, then John gets the drop on them both, and finally Zachariah and Cass leave real marks (not to mention Max stealing the Impala so easily!). I'm not sure if there's a message in all that (beyond Sam and Dean having each other's back and not quitting?)? Sam being the one tempted to pull the teddy bear's string was unexpected. Was that showing us that Dean is too serious/preoccupied with Michael to be distracted that way? That doesn't fit with Dean being the one to try the dragon's breath atomizer, though. The combo of the bear's creepily sewn shut mouth and unpulled string makes me too curious. The inventory pages in the catalog book from the pawn shop are pretty awesome! It was worth looking at screen caps. Sam cracked me up with the "blah, blah, blah-blah-blah, blaaaahhh" bitch face when Dean's flirting works in the post office. I like the pearl as a vehicle because of its physical structure of layers upon layers - which is how I see the Winchester story and indeed universe(s!). Smashing the pearl reminded me of Bobby burning the photo after Ellen and Jo died. (And Dean's flinch of course was reminiscent of when Sam shot Madison.) I am really appreciating the instances of genuine pleasure and pride (JDM has a lovely smile.) at finding themselves with each other as well as the tears of regret over the unchangeable. I admit (with a little embarrassment) to wishing we'd seen John notice the ring Mary wears on a chain. I wished for his leather jacket. I wanted Mary to have changed from her traveling shirt by the time the guys got back from the trip to town. I wanted Sam and Dean to watch John and Mary dance. As manipulative as they were, there was room for more! 😏 Sam's slow-mo hair while Cass was beating him up was pretty extreme. (extremely distracting!) Did anyone see what happened to the cook at the pizza place? When Sam and Dean enter, they shoo out the kids and Max's mom. Maybe there was a back door through the kitchen? I wish they'd gone with something other than "versus" as John is talking to Dean about making the time paradox right so Mary would stay. "Or" would have worked without implying adversaries. I hope there's something that John said/left behind/otherwise that makes a difference (sets a course or saves the day) in a follow-up episode. I hope they don't ignore that John was there!

Are we sure of this timing? I thought Billie was implying the extensive rewrite was due to the universe-hopping. She is only catching Dean up now that his life has caught up to the (currently) single intersection between all versions?

Exactly. As Billie's handing over the One Book with the resolution that doesn't end with Micheal escaping and ending the world, she's saying that all the others have been re-written due to Winchester actions. I'd assume that there's still room for major revisions in any/all of the "drafts." Let's start thinking "out of the box" about this, boys! (yes, pun intended) I get that Dean is incredibly strained with holding Michael down (and I'm sure Sam does too since Dean's nightmares have him calling for "Sammy" and leaving literal bloody scratches on the wall). That's all the more reason not to get myopic and married to a single path. Dean has a team who also want the world to survive. I think of Dean especially as the master of improvised strategy, and I hope he can remember to wish for a holocaust cloak as they list their assets. It can't be accidental that the week's case illustrates (not for the first time) the misinterpretation of even divine messages. It was simply a little easier to swallow in S2;s Houses of the Holy with the dead priest who thought he was an angel prompting the murders of secretly evil people by aimless pawns. I am truly distressed that the "next prophet" guy in this episode ends up committing suicide - with Dean's gun, no less. I wished Nick and Sarah had spoken of where Teddy is. I wish she'd been explicit is saying the peace she was being denied was a reunion with their child. (Good point, sarthaz, about how extraordinarily articulate she was.) I noticed myself liking Sam's hair more than once in this episode. I loved that the motel wall had a bridge photo. I was really uncomfortable at the Impala pulling the coffin-trap-box around. Yes! I am in love with the episode's ending. I was surprised at the reaction they could still get from me. Just excellent.

Right. But, I figure by now it's kind of a Biggerson in-universe chain. I associate it first with John, of course, but it also showed up with Crowley. Wasn't that where he held Mama Tran a lot closer to Kansas? No matter, though, since they didn't re-use the name (or great sign!).

I definitely recoiled when I recognized what was in the lockers. (What? Spare parts?) At took me a beat to see it as trapping currently-incapacitated-but-potentially-still-viable monsters. (Simple padlocks don't compare with an Enochian puzzle box or even Original Bobby's curse box, though.) Sam and Dean must have multiple stashes like this. Was it the leviathans that weren't ended by simple decapitation? Abaddon? I don't know if I dislike - or love! - that Mary's shotgun booby trap echoed so closely what we've seen before. I know I wish she'd had a secondary trap set to spring. Did anyone else have their eyes peeled for the Castle Storage sign?

I especially loved her Dean-like reaction as Nick was checking the first locker contents. She seemed to give a "Yep, that's right" acknowledgment to his "Really, is that what I think it is?" only to follow it up with sneaking a double-check herself at what was in there. :D

"What do you want?" I'm another who hasn't see Babylon 5 or Lucifer, so I'm drawn to possible references within Supernatural's canon. Season 4's Wishful Thinking is the first episode I want to rewatch! The entire premise was getting what you wanted -- whether it was to be loved more than anything, power against bullies, a companion for tea parties, or notably, a sandwich -- and Lilith's head on a plate. Beyond that, though, I'm thinking about the episodes where it was important to listen to and understand what the ghost wanted. The Pilot had the Woman in White who wanted to go home. I think most of the examples that come to mind boil down to reunions or justice/revenge or simple survival (before they devolved into entirely crazed, I-want-to-eat-you, too-far-gone types). Would Michael's relationship to the people, angels, and monsters in our universe be so very different from the Winchesters' early season relationship to trapped spirits?

Better? I am personally flying high at the moment at the thought of the Winchesters being in the same boat and uniting to define what is possible. (I'm of the opinion that if 5.23 Swan Song had turned into the series finale, Adam wouldn't have been necessary and both Sam and Dean would have gone together to "break on through to the other side.") Since we know we are getting season 14, I anticipate we won't see a final chapter, but what fun if S&D find (create?) a new level to the game for one of Dean's do-overs! alternative world?! It would turn out bad like the 4.08 Wishful Thinking wishes, no doubt, but still.... This spoiler-less speculation only. I'll enjoy it while I can!

This has been the focus of my thinking since season four. Then, I looked for in-show explanations for the loops, echoes, repeats, and mirrors. They can be found from the earliest days. Take me home. I can never go home. (I now think there was no accident about choosing the Woman in White as the very first story to tell.) The premise of the show, urban legends, depends on storytelling and the existence of alternate versions of what is true. Anyway! I really like this episode. I hesitated before coming to read the boards because it was obvious some would have their reasons to take offense. I loved getting the return of the boys operating out of a themed motel room - room divider and all! It makes up for the severely limited appearance of the Impala. I am particularly enchanted by one of the paintings on the walls. We see it as Sam and Dean are deciding whether to settle in just before Gabriel shows up. Here's a crop (as Dean discovers the bed vibrates). (I wish I could control where it lands in the post, but....) I see two men in the canoe, facing the same direction, about to reach shore, one acting as hunter/protector and the other is guiding/steering. I see this as perfect foreshadowing of how I want the Winchesters to approach the next do or die crisis that we can presume is unavoidable. No more solo sacrifices of jumping into cages or being sucked off to purgatory, etc. Is there anything to be made of this being the Silver Dollar Hotel? Fate determined by the flip of a coin - like Choose Your Own Adventure possibilities? Back to the element of STORYTELLING inside the story! Of course this happens with Gabriel providing his backstory. The layer I love was Dean insisting on an in-progress REVISION to make it match previously "known" facts (Where are the porn stars?). We also get flexible storytelling when Kevin Tran insists that he has to believe what Micheal has told him (so he can be reunited with his mom!) - despite Mary's insistence that it is a lie and the heaven she knows is only memories. Jack and Mary play out a version of restraining the impulse to charge off alone to tackle the danger/bad guy/. Mary appeals to Jack to wait a day for AltBobby (as many of us wanted Dean to wait for Cass before taking off without Sam through the rift). When Jack appears to decide he will go anyway, that's when Kevin's hand is forced and his suicide mission is triggered. He would have held off longer otherwise, right? I loved the visual display of Jack's protective wings saving Mary, but the resulting lesson wasn't very hopeful, was it? What's the point if I can't save people? (paraphrased) I just rewatched and the point I will mention about the Sam and Dean conversation at the end is that Sam first broaches the topic in a very neutral, unchallenging way, giving Dean an opening to explain his thinking for running off to challenge Loki alone. Perhaps typically, Dean sidesteps the "offer" and Sam gets frustrated quickly.

We don't have to assume. The show is not shy about mentioning that Dean hadn't pooped in a week (after experiencing angelic time travel, was it?) or that Dean Smith was on a cleanse. That we manage to get bathroom information makes the common sense gaps more frustrating.

A couple more things noticed on rewatch: - The Patricia Hotel (the sign at least!) has moved from Sioux City in S4's Criss Angel magician episode to Seattle. (I love when they repurpose set pieces, props, and actors. When it's this kind of unmistakeable, I take it as deliberately reinforcing the idea of replays, etc.) They really went out of their way to make up Margaret Astor to remind us of Josie/Abaddon with the pearls added to the trademark SPN red hair and red lips. - The woman in the coffee shop that Dean was flirting with while Sam researched? She was reading Guarded by Demons. I really expected she'd have a part to play later. Will she return (is she observing/reporting to someone?), or was the moment meant as a no more than us getting to watch Dean be Dean? - Speaking of.... On first watch, I missed the flash of satisfaction from Dean to Sam making sure Sam noticed when the mobster used the word "whack" in conversation (after Sam razzed Dean for using the word out on the street). Nice!

That's all Sam said. The rest is Dean talking. No word from Sam about "Why not?" or "What other plan have you got?" because Dean didn't ask. So I've come up with something that works for me about why Sam objected. For me, it's given that they 1) aren't worried about being thieves and 2) aren't afraid of facing down a couple of human mobsters. No, it isn't in the text. (Is that a requirement? I've been doing this wrong!) Maybe Sam wasn't thinking long term implications. Maybe it was just a moment of recognition that thievery isn't his first choice and he wondered if Dean recognized it too? Walking Dead Spoiler: (I can't tell if I am doing the spoiler correctly. I'll come back in and edit if it isn't hidden.)