MagnusHex

Another filler episode with some very light "character development," so who cares? Dean sucking up to be a professional does nothing for me because it feels like treading on familiar grounds of the brothers dealing with their CW-branded angst. On the other hand, I do like the name-drop for the monster of the week (not so much the adaptation of said mythological monster, which might as well have been a vampire). SMT and Persona fans should recognize the name easily. Here's some history on them from the SMT wiki: "Vetala are evil spirits from Hindu folklore with varying shapes and forms who haunts cemeteries and takes demonic possession or control of corpses and are constantly plotting their return to the realm of the living or attacking humans until they are mangled. Their eyes glow with a dull light. Legends say that the Vetala wield secret arts and can raise the dead by chanting mantras. They make their displeasure known by troubling humans. They can drive people mad, kill children and cause miscarriages. There are spells to utilize them to manipulate the dead. They suck the blood of their victims and bend them to their will, even controlling their movement like puppets. Vetala are considered the greatest of all evil spirits but were also known as vampires or leaders of ghosts. They were also known as Preta as the most dangerous of them. In Buddhist tradition, they are called Kondara or Metara." The only part the episode got right was the "vampire" part. No secret arts of necromancy or puppet masters here, which is a shame, because Christ, that would have been a far more interesting episode. 2/5

2x17: Twenty-Two The problem with watching older shows, especially those very old shows, is that you inadvertently call up memories you have of newer shows. Sometimes, this is detrimental to your viewing experience as you make unfair comparisons which had a better telling of the same story. "22", however, had me at the edge of my seat in the last 5-10 minutes because I've seen Final Destination. I literally yelled in my head, "DON'T GO ON THAT PLANE!" Granted, the character of Liz Powell (played by Barbara Nichols) is a little thin in character substance. Worse, she acts like an airhead blonde who's rude to the psychiatrist trying to help her feel better. However, under a different context, this episode takes on a more feminist approach: mansplaining doctors and colleagues trying to claim that the woman is delusional (in a Rosemary's Baby kind of situation). Though to be fair, the doctor did his best to help Liz snap out of her supposed nightmare (the agent Barney Kamener, played by Fredd Wayne, not so much helpful as patronizing and sleazy). Furthermore, I just like the whole atmosphere of the dream sequence and how it foreshadows quite decently what's about to unfold in the ending. It's basically one very long sequence of Final Destination premonitions, which I found to be clever once I realized what it all meant (my headcanon is that this is the TV pilot to Final Destination and poor Liz ultimately didn't escape the entity of Death itself after the episode ended; Flight 180 was merely history repeating itself). I was waiting with bated breath for the plane to blow up even though I don't think I've seen this episode before (or haven't seen it for a long time), and when it did, it was still such a shocking moment. Anyway, great fun of an episode when viewed from a modern movie goer's perspective. Rod Serling was ahead of his time. 4/5

2x14: Bread and Circuses What happens when you release an episode that was produced earlier at a later date than another episode with a similar plotline but was produced later? You get people thinking it's a rehash of that episode that was produced later. I'm watching the show according to the production order, so B&C came before "The Omega Glory", an episode I read that had a similar premise as B&C. Without knowing that context, however, I greatly enjoyed B&C. I just find it fascinating because AFAIK, this is probably the earliest incarnation of televised real live violence that I've known of in fiction. Arnold's Running Man wouldn't arrive until 1987, along with many other "murderous reality show" stories that were more ubiquitous as shows became more self-aware and "meta." B&C's mockery of TV ratings was amusing and quite refreshing for its time. The alternate history of Rome was fun as well as we not only explored the idea of Rome not collapsing, but also the titular concept of "bread and circuses," where Roman citizens were placated with violent gladiatorial show, thus becoming indifferent to the existence of "well-treated slaves" who are offering them entertainment. If you're gonna do a story about a violent reality show where real murders happen, it couldn't be more appropriate to base it on the classic Roman gladiatorial games since it's the most well-known version of gladiator fights (thanks to Russell Crowe and a tongue-wagging Joaquin Phoenix). Of course, I wish they did more with this alternate history because it feels like scratching the surface, especially with the way they haphazardly revealed that the Sun Worshippers are actually SON Worshippers, as in Jesus H. Christ (the H is silent; Christoph Waltz best Jesus). Like c'mon, you're gonna leave me with a reveal like that and NOT expand upon it? Good lord. I wanted to see Jesus go Django on those Romans' ass. lol Let's also not forget that Spock and McCoy had a nice little exchange in the prison, and despite Spock's attempt at his usual stoicism, I think Spock is just putting up a front (remember, he's half-human) and McCoy was at least partially right about his feelings of frustration. I like how both of them kinda laid out their heart to each other in the short scene. Overall, a fun concept of an episode (Kirk uses a machine gun!) that I wish I could've seen more of. 4/5

Oh man, now I wanna see that.

Disagreed. Disagreed.

Yet another contribution to the long line of problematic scripts where men being taken advantage of was played for comedic effect. Sure, no sex happened (supposedly), but Becky still took his pants down and strapped him to a bed. I guess among some circles, that would be called "getting lucky" instead of sexually harassed, but you know, he's a man. He probably enjoyed it. I think the worst part is that the episode treated like Becky merely did a "oopsie" (note the quirky comedic music at the end) rather than being a creepy stalker. I want to believe that that's the reason why Sam and Dean find her appalling - not because she's unattractive since she's quite pretty, but because she's so clingy, needy, and as we have seen from this episode, possessive. Also, didn't a guy did a similar thing seasons ago and the episode also made it seem like he was a victim (instead of a sexual predator? It's probably not comparable though, to be fair, since I can't remember if there was sex involved with that one, unlike the case with Becky. Plus, I'll admit that Becky is kinda a victim anyway because "Guy" the demon was practically like a drugdealer. I will boost a point in this episode's favor though for Crowley's appearance. It was a nice speech from him about the integrity of Hell... even if I had a bit of a hard time buying it (from Crowley of all people, talking about integrity). 2/5

2x11: The Deadly Years The fear of old age. Probably one of our most primal fears, alongside the fear of the dark and the unknown. It is kinda surprising that in the 23rd Century, the problem of aging (and all its unfortunate consequences) has yet to be solved. You'd think that something like that has been resolved, alongside the cure for cancer. But while this episode had a very interesting concept, it suffered from many problems in the script. For starters, why did Commodore Stocker waste time on holding some competency hearing when they could have spent that precious time finding a cure for the very disease that's making Captain Kirk RAPIDLY AGING. RAPIDLY. As in time is running out! Christ, I don't know which was dumber: his time-wasting (probably just to usurp Kirk) or his trespass of the freaking Neutral Zone. Damn bureaucrats. Furthermore, Spock agreeing to waste time on the competency hearing was far, far worse as it showed the lack of his usual rational thinking. Bones at least had the excuse of being too senile to focus on curing the disease. And another thing: why didn't they immediately go into quarantine after discovering that something on the planet was making people age rapidly? You'd think that after all the invasive disease and phenomenon Kirk had encountered, he'd have learned. If not him, Spock. Finally, that cringeworthy line from Kirk to Janet Wallace: "What are you offering me? Love, or a going-away present?" (He probably means sex when he said "present", ugh. Gets even more creepy when you take into account the whole grandpa roleplay fetish.) It's a shame too because the episode had such a strong first act (despite the lack of quarantine). The way Scotty's aging was revealed was nicely edited and I could feel genuine tension (even though I already had a feeling what Scotty was gonna tell Bones). 2/5

Probably the closest you could get to solid proof that this show is misogynistic, because killing a mother protecting her child isn't something worth feeling guilty about as much as lying to your brother. Good job, show. Go Team Dean. Bravo on all points this episode. I hope you are proud of yourselves. I probably shouldn't be surprised though. CW is a tween network, so the maturity of its stories are teen-level. Expecting Dean to take some accountability is too complex for this show (ironically, even the shallow MCU had its heroes took accountability in Civil War), because if the writers had to figure out how to make Dean admit his mistake without offending his precious fanbase, the plot would never move along. Teen drama needs to move at a good clip without pondering too much. You can tell this is a tween drama by the way the latest hottie in line falls head over heels with Dean, our knight templar, after her friend was killed. Sam does the boring stuff of exposition, and Dean gets the girl. Phew. You are sure Sera Gamble, a woman, was the showrunner for this season? The whole vibe here just feels a little frat-boyish (kinda fits that Jensen got cast as Soldier Boy, who's even more dated in his masculinity ideals). I love Zack Handlen's review on the MotW plot: "Ugly people will turn on you the moment they get a chance, because they are bitter. Also, unattractive." The MotW is whatever because as always it's just another generic monster plot they didn't bother delving too deep into, because the real meat of the show is that mopey brother drama. 1/5 I have a feeling Dean killing Amy wouldn't resolve that soon though. If so, I might increase this up to a 2/5, because even if the Amy-killing does have more consequences down the line, this episode just leaves a bad taste in my mouth with Sam shrugging away Dean's actions. Then why the hell did you get so pissed off in the first place?! If you're gonna go halfway on your morals and principles, Sam, I'd rather you just shrugged it off in the first place instead of wasting my time.

Dean and Sam immediately not becoming wanted men anymore by the end of the episode was lame, and Dean's singing went too long and ended up making the scene kinda awkward. Other than that though, this episode was pretty good, especially the reveal that not only is the Big Bad now part of the government, he cooly rejected Crowley's offer instead of teaming up against the good guys like I had expected him to. 3.5/5

So, killing a monster who swears off feeding is fine, but letting go two blatant killers who had no remorse for their murders too? Fuck off, show. Cool Buffy reunion though. James and Charisma's scenes together were the best part of the episode, which don't amount to much. I also like how they had Don save their asses. James should just appear again later in the season to join forces against Leviathan. 3/5

2x13: Back There This was a weak episode that had such potential. Time travelling back to prevent a president's assassination (or to prevent any national tragedy for that matter) is such a concept we dream about that this episode would have been more interesting if it had shown the unfortunate consequences of preventing said assassination rather than the failure of such prevention in the first place. Imagine if Peter Corrigan had made things worse after he travelled back to the present. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Furthermore, Peter was acting like a raving idiot. Granted, he was panicking about the event of the assassination, but from what I could tell, he had at least a few hours before Lincoln was shot at 10:15pm, so he had ample time to calm down and form some kind of plan. It didn't even have to be a complicated plan; just take the place of the guard who was supposed to keep a look out (the guard went off to get drunk instead according to historical records) and then yell "ASSASSIN" when JWB (or whichever suspicious individual that wasn't supposed to be there) appeared. Lastly, Lincoln's assassination took place around the Civil War. A lot of people had reasons to kill him. Why didn't the police chief (or anyone else for that matter) took Peter's threat more seriously? It didn't make sense. This episode had a lot going for it with its premise, but unfortunately, it failed to deliver on all counts, including making Peter's motivation to stop the assassination more fleshed out. That being said, I would have liked to see a remake in the '80s Twilight Zone that's about the JFK assassination instead. That one might prove more challenging to prevent due to not only the probable existence of multiple shooters, but also all the conspiracy around it. Same with trying to prevent 9/11 from happening. 2/5

2x10: Mirror, Mirror Mirror universes aren't exactly a new trope (though admittedly, it might have been new in the '60s, assuming The Twilight Zone didn't have something like that), but man, this was a fun episode, if only for seeing Shatner chew the scenery for a few minutes as Mirror Kirk. Gotta love the fact that Mirror Spock remained as logical and compose as ever, not being reduced to the barbaric nature of his fellow crewmates. Shows that Vulcan nature can overcome the environmental influences sometimes, and that saner minds prevail (Mirror Kirk's in for a nasty surprise when he gets back home). More than anything, I just like how the episode doesn't really hold back in showing how evil the counterparts can be, whether it's attempted sexual assault from Sulu (literally can't keep it in his pants to assault Uhura in private instead of in public view) or just committing genocide casually. The episode went all in on the evil, and it paid off in its stakes that gave the episode real tension. 5/5

2x12: Dust I hate episodes like these. It's written to be so manipulative. I mean, I get it, Serling's Twilight Zone has always been filled with preachy messages, and I was fine with them - when they made a good point. An episode like this, however, where we are supposed to side with the convict because he's remorseful of his mistakes, where we are supposed to hate the people who cheered for his execution because they are all apparently racists, not because they wanted to see a drunk who killed a kid punished, it just doesn't work for me. It feels hypocritical in its message and disingenuous. All the racism and voyeurism the townspeople have displayed, and all the nasty scams Sykes have pulled, sure, I will condemn them. They are all assholes. This episode would have aged perfectly in our day and age to be honest with all our modern values towards racism. But one wrong doesn't excuse another. DUI is a crime, and Luis Gallegos shouldn't have been free - not because he's a POC or whatever, but because he killed a kid under the influence. There should at least have been jail time for him. AFAIK, DUI isn't usually punished with the death penalty, but the jail time is definitely high. The fact that Rod wants us to sympathize with this guy because RACISM is just such an appalling way of discrediting the issue of racism. It's poor writing like this that real racists could use as ammunition to cry "woke!" everywhere. 2/5

He didn't write the script, but he did still hog the spotlight, intentionally or not. Anyway, I'm not surprised about your comment, seeing how the fandom feels about Sam and Jared compared to Jensen. I still stick by my comment and have no intention of backing down. This season should be fun though for anti-Dean fans.

I've started noticing a pattern with these last two episodes: it gives us a groanworthy moment with Dean, but it gives the few Sam fans out there (that like him more than Dean) a nice moment that either redeems Sam as a character or just makes him look that much more well-written. Sam's final moment this episode where he finally admits that he's feeling better about his life is easily one of my favorite moments on the show, period. Plus, I like that Padalecki is given an opportunity to show his acting range for once instead of letting Ackles hog the spotlight like always. It's just weird but also cool how Sam's character has matured a lot more this season while Dean's character took a regression instead of being the usually level-headed and rational one. Sam is the heart and Dean is the head of the team, but this season so far, Dean's head is somewhere stuck up his butt. I don't mind Jo returning, and Osiris' whole schtick had so much potential for a plot (not to mention how we are finally upping the stakes to making mythological gods a regular MotW now), but unfortunately, that potential was squandered because the show wants to drag Amy's plotline out. This episode would have been given a 4.5/5 at minimum if Amy was put on the stand and Sam has to struggle with being betrayed by the end. As it is, bringing Jo back just for what might as well be a filler episode that failed to address Dean's guilt over lying to Sam in any shape or form, I sentence you to a... 2/5 The 2 is for Sam, both for his speech at the end and him being a lawyer. No points for dragging out what was a poorly written scene from last episode's ending. On the bright side... next episode: SPIKE AND CORDY. OH MY FUCKING GOD FINALLY LETS GOOOOOO