S02.E02: Ontological Shock

[Trini]

When Colter suddenly disappears during his search for a missing father, Reenie recruits his brother, Russell (Jensen Ackles), for help.

Airdate: October 20, 2024

[AnimeMania]

Jensen Ackles as Russell 

April Parker Shaw as Dr. Blair

Steven Culp as Scott Palmer 

Next New Episode (New Time): October 20, 2024         CBS     8:30pm

[LexieLily]

The green screen for both scenes of Colter/Russell driving on the road was....something 🤣

[buttersister]

Mulder and Scully they are are not. One issue I’ve had with this show is the cartoon escapes and random solutions. This certainly highlighted that lowlight. Maybe I just don’t find the bros as charming as they find themselves.

[ahrtee]

The writers seem to have much more fun putting in Supernatural easter eggs than writing a story that makes sense.  At least I could just watch the pretty.  

[emma675]

I'll admit, at first I was highly distracted by all of the pretty Russell stuff (the Dean/Supernatural Easter eggs are so fun), but this had some pretty big plot holes. 

We're seriously supposed to believe the DOD black ops spooks are just going to give up on the brothers and the victim because the incident is over? After they killed the professor and made it look like a suicide? Yeah, right. 

But Russell is so much fun. Reenie's an idiot. Hit that, girl!

[Quickbeam]

The Iris subplot was so weak. Plus where’s her husband who filed the restraining order. Oops, now she’s dead. I will say this…even under the hyper spotlight of black ops/alien invasion, Justin is still pretty. 

[agathapenny]

2 hours ago, LexieLily said:

The green screen for both scenes of Colter/Russell driving on the road was....something 🤣

Good grief that was bad, lol.

3 minutes ago, Quickbeam said:

The Iris subplot was so weak. Plus where’s her husband who filed the restraining order. Oops, now she’s dead. I will say this…even under the hyper spotlight of black ops/alien invasion, Justin is still pretty. 

Yeah, this made no sense. The guy and his daughter are fine to just walk off into the sunset but the professor has to be killed?

But....the writing has improved at least 75 per cent since last year in that it's far less boring, even if there are giant plot holes, and much better pacing and dramatic tension. The brothers were tons of fun and I loved seeing Reenie squash the prosecutor. She's so great in lawyer mode. If I don't think too hard, it's easy this season so far to just sit back and enjoy.

[NeenerNeener]

Was that the car from Supernatural? If not, it should have been.

[Pondlass1]

Russell’s pretty long hair did not move one tad during that ride in the convertible. If you’re going to have actors pretend drive, don’t use an open top car.  Hair gets blown about

Actually I wish they’d stop pushing with the Deanisms during the Russell episodes and concentrate on good writing.  Nothing made much sense. Waste of our actors.

 

[MissLucas]

Oh, show - why don't you just open with 'Carry On Wayward Son'?!?* LOL! Not that I'm complaining.

I took the bad green screen as another SPN reference. Russell's car is apparently not quite the same model as Baby but close enough to bring back memories.

Yes, there were plot holes though I wonder if this story is really over. Both the fragment Russell snatched plus DoD guy talking about Daddy seem to point in that direction. But that Scott and his daughter and the Shaw brothers were let go while the poor Professor had to die really rankles.

I don't mind the show pandering to the SPN folks as long as it's kept to one or two episodes per season. As much as I enjoy the pretty show needs to find its own footing - just like Colter. (Given that Ackles is busy with other projects - Countdown sounds intriguing - this is probably the maximum amount of episodes they can get him anyway.)

*Why is it 'Carry on Wayward Son' when he clearly sings 'Carry on MY Wayward Son'???

Edited October 21 by MissLucas

[possibilities]

I am immune to whatever charms Ackles may have, and I found this episode to be probably the worst of any the show has offered us. Killing the professor while handwving the threat to the people who actually inflitrated the facility? Seriously?

I think I would rather watch a show about Reenie and her law practice. 

The scenery is not enough to overcome the execrable writing and bland, paint by numbers acting on this show.

I hope this was just a dud because everyone writing it was sick or something,  because otherwise-- ye gods, what garbage.

And I do not believe the guy he was looking for would just give up and agree not to continue his search for info. They had all those special effects in the background but nothing was actually learned about what was going on, and the guy just says ok, I give up? After getting so close? 

Even the family history drama last season was less stupid than this, and I wasn't a fan of that story either.

[roamyn]

6 hours ago, NeenerNeener said:

Was that the car from Supernatural? If not, it should have been.

No that's not Baby or the same model/year.  But it is an homage to her.

[DanaK]

That was definitely a weird episode and I agree about it being nonsense that the bad guys let the good guy go but killed the professor. But I liked the interplay between the brothers

[proserpina65]

I hate alien/government conspiracy storylines.  It's why I eventually gave up on the X-Files.  So while I did like the return of Colter's brother, I really didn't like this episode.

 

[Dowel Jones]

I would like to know how the gubmint can haul all that equipment into their supposedly secret sites without anyone noticing the highway traffic.  And I hope Colter was eligible for an upgrade from his cell phone provider.  Dumpster-izing a $1000 phone cuts into the reward money.

[MarylandGirl]

As someone who never watched Supernatural, apparently, much of this was lost on me. And I don't feel the ep made much sense in general. Don't care enough to rewatch to try to understand.

Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the awful green screen!

[peeayebee]

I never watched Supernatural either. I may be wrong, but I got the impression that stuff in this ep would come up again later. Maybe I just don't want to think that everything ended just like the writers intended.

[Morrigan2575]

22 hours ago, ahrtee said:

The writers seem to have much more fun putting in Supernatural easter eggs than writing a story that makes sense.  At least I could just watch the pretty.  

Other than the car/Baby and Russ/Dean eating what other Easter Eggs were in this episode?

I liked this better than last week, not sure if it's just the Jensen/Russ factor or if it's having someone in the field for Coltor to play off. 

[Snazzy Daisy]

Not only the background looks so fake, Russell doesn't even have to worry about "crazy convertible hair". Lucky huh!

🙄🙄🙄

[agathapenny]

10 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Yes, there were plot holes though I wonder if this story is really over. Both the fragment Russell snatched plus DoD guy talking about Daddy seem to point in that direction. But that Scott and his daughter and the Shaw brothers were let go while the poor Professor had to die really rankles.

Oh, I think it's clear this will be continued later. They wouldn't have hired Matt Passmore just for this one-off. 

[MissLucas]

11 hours ago, Snazzy Daisy said:

Not only the background looks so fake, Russell doesn't even have to worry about "crazy convertible hair". Lucky huh!

🙄🙄🙄

Or Not-Baby's trunk is full with a life-time supply of Aquanet!

[Daff]

I’m hoping it will not be back to vex us..Passmore’s character seemed like a loose cannon, he might now have brain damage, funding pulled, because his operation failed. Honestly, when our heroes were escaping across the field, I thought it was a secret government test of new cloud seeding methods. 

Disappointing ep.

[MissLucas]

I actually thought it was a test for some sort of weapon that could cause the mysterious Havana syndrome 🤷‍♀️ but that would not explain the samples.

It looks to me as if the writers want to experiment a bit with the format and why not? That's what sophomore seasons are for IMO.

[TheCathedral]

Oh boy that was pretty bad, the first episode with Jensen was bad too but he's so awesome that I kinda ignored the bad plot, but this episode was terrible, the brothers are great together but they need a regular case or something, I understand that Supernatural was a big deal and their fans must love the Easter eggs but the writers are pushing it too hard.

I didn't understand the need to kill the professor but I stopped paying attention halfway through tbh.

Next weeks episode looks interesting with the star pitcher disappearing. 

[proserpina65]

3 hours ago, MissLucas said:

Or Not-Baby's trunk is full with a life-time supply of Aquanet!

Even Jack Lord's hair moved once in an episode of Hawaii 5-O.  He was on a ferry between islands, though.

1 hour ago, MissLucas said:

It looks to me as if the writers want to experiment a bit with the format and why not? That's what sophomore seasons are for IMO.

If it produces more episodes like this, they need to stop immediately.

1 hour ago, TheCathedral said:

the brothers are great together but they need a regular case or something,

I'd love to just see a "hiker got lost in the wilderness" case.  Something normal without any conspiracies or murderers.  And definitely no aliens.

[MarylandGirl]

19 hours ago, Morrigan2575 said:

Other than the car/Baby and Russ/Dean eating what other Easter Eggs were in this episode?

I liked this better than last week, not sure if it's just the Jensen/Russ factor or if it's having someone in the field for Coltor to play off. 

I do think it helps for Colter to have someone else with him. That was one of the things I disliked about much of the first season. In part because he was going into all these dangerous situations alone. But also because it can be good to have banter between two characters, like Briscoe and Green in L&O, as they're investigating. And it's not the same if he's just talking to one of the team on the phone.

[tinderbox]

I like the brother and would love to see more of him on the show but I thought the storyline of this episode was weak and almost unwatchable.  

[threebluestars]

I'd love to see Velma get out there with Colter.

[Trini]

Wow -- that was a lot of silly, but the characters were taking it so seriously (but also blowing off the serious stuff). And then another unnecessary murder.

This one goes straight to the 'Never re-watch' pile.

[Dowel Jones]

I'm gonna guess that any aliens that they were trying to contact took one look at this rodeo of clowns and said, "Not today, thanks."

[Daff]

17 hours ago, proserpina65 said:

I'd love to just see a "hiker got lost in the wilderness" case. 

That was the very first scene of series one! Except the wilderness was coastal. He wrapped her up and moved her on to a higher level of care- rescue 101.

[MissLucas]

I understand some of the annoyance at a government/conspiracy plot. Yet, the main character's backstory is a family destroyed by the father's obsession with exactly those issues. So it's not that big of a surprise that something in that vein shows up - it's only surprising that it took the writers so long to get here. That said, the plot itself could have been less colander-y-. But next week looks like a return to the COTW format.

[possibilities]

A lot of the episodes seem to involve more than just normal levels of missing persons, and not even just single-actor abductions for peronal depravity or even ransom. The show leans heavily toward conspiracies and larger underground nefariousness.

It's not very joyful. Even the reunions are sad, because of all the murders along the way, innocent uncle getting killed, or other causalties.

The wins are not clean, the families are relieved but also overwhelmed by grief and misery and collateral losses.

 

 

[proserpina65]

5 hours ago, Daff said:

That was the very first scene of series one! Except the wilderness was coastal. He wrapped her up and moved her on to a higher level of care- rescue 101.

Yeah, but I'm looking for an entire episode which is more like that and less murder-y.  Like there's no villain involved, it just takes someone with Colter's skills to find the missing person.

 

[TheCathedral]

11 hours ago, Trini said:

Wow -- that was a lot of silly, but the characters were taking it so seriously (but also blowing off the serious stuff). And then another unnecessary murder.

This one goes straight to the 'Never re-watch' pile.

Unnecessary murders? that's the show staple! GMC trucks, Airstream, shirtless Justin and unnecessary casualties!

 

I'm not complaining about the conspiracy theories, it was just poorly written, like I don't even remember what was the plot. And I could say the same about the previous episode with Jensen, it was basically some weird story with a lot of Supernatural references. IMO that's a waste because Jensen and Justin are really good together. My least favorite episode of season 1 was the cult episode and that was way more interesting than this one.

[Infie]

I agree with the folks who thought this episode was a mess.  I always love seeing Jensen in anything, and so it was still bearable.  That being said, the story itself made very little sense.  I only saw two Supernatural references, so I don't think that there were 'a lot'; certainly not enought to be distracting.  Unfortunately I think that worked against the episode cause frankly a little distracting from how nonsensical it was would have helped.  *sigh*

[ahrtee]

1 hour ago, Infie said:

I only saw two Supernatural references, so I don't think that there were 'a lot'; certainly not enought to be distracting. 

Well, I wasn't keeping track but kept coming up across them:  there were at least 3 car/baby references, the Russell eating scene, and I may be wrong but the first scene where Russell came in to find Colter seemed a callback to the Supernatural pilot.  I also thought the driving scenes (with the horrible greenscreen effects as noted above) seemed awfully like all the SPN brotherly moments/driving scenes.  I was even expecting rock music on the radio instead of whatever they actually had on, and a "driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole." Maybe I was just looking for them because it took my mind off the nonsense of the plot.

[ahrtee]

Of course, they never explained how the UFO dude managed to get away from them, since he had already escaped when Colter got there.  And Colter managed to get out pretty easily, too.  So much for the super efficient black site.

I know!  They let the crazy UFO guy escape, because they figured he'd talk nonstop and everyone would see/assume he's crazy.  Plausible deniability.  And the professor had to die because she had credentials and people might have believed *her*.  

Makes as much sense as anything in this ep.  

[Trini]

Seems like this was supposed to be their 'halloween' episode, but scheduling changed.

[ahrtee]

Just watched the rerun.  Paying more attention this time, knowing what was supposed to be happening, and...it still doesn't make any sense.  Oh well.