S05.E05: Fallen Idols

[DittyDotDot]

Sam and Dean investigate what appears to be the deaths of people at the hands of celebrities.

 

I actually find this episode far less egregious than most, but I have no interested in cycling around and around that same old angry well. So, I will say that I find it humorous that they got Paris Hilton to do the shtick and it will never be not funny seeing a itsy-bitsy Gandhi try to eat a ginormous Sam. And Dean under "Christine's" skirt is such a loveable and cute moment.

 

That's all.

[mertensia]

Except for that poorly written scene I like the episode. Paris Hilton must have a bigger sense of humor about herself than you'd think. I loved that sheriff.

This episode makes me wish they would run into a real famous person ghost.

[DittyDotDot]

Oh, the sheriff and his "it's simple" explanations are hilarious!

[GirlyGeek]

I don't recall why I felt such a hatred for this episode when it first aired (and I never watched it again)...  this time around it was entertaining and funny, and the brother moments were much needed.  Good talks between the two that they really needed to have (and I'd forgotten they had them because I always avoided this episode in the past).

 

Yes, Paris Hilton grates and her scene was not great, but I don't have any ill feelings toward this ep.  Its actually a pretty decent MOTW.
 

It was nice to see that Dean asked Sam to join him again in the previous episode, but saying you want to work together and actually meaning it/forgiving are very different things.  That felt very real to me.  And Sam taking 100% responsibility for his part was nice- no equivocating or blame shifting.  Refreshing.

[catrox14]

My hatred is because I have no idea who that pod person with Dean's face was. 

[Hanahope]

I just thought it funny that Paris Hilton would show up in a Supernatural episode.  That's about it.

[bettername2come]

The Impala's going to be pissed Dean called another car "Baby." Death by Abe Lincoln is my favorite. And the crying woman saying Abraham Lincoln killed the professor is funnier than it should be. Heh. Ghandi's "squirrelly." "Double secret probation." "Either Paris Hilton is a homicidal maniac or we missed something." I'll say this for Paris Hilton, she doesn't take herself too seriously. I will never tire of Sam reactions to Jared Padalecki's other work. Sam totally get the bloody face more often than Dean. I feel like counting them. "Dude, you just got wailed on by Paris Hilton." Aw, Dean apologized. "We just gotta grab on to whatever's in front of us, kick its ass and go down fighting." Aw, he lets Sam drive. I love that cover of "Superstitious."

Edited July 4, 2017 by bettername2come

[RulerofallIsurvey]

Ah, the much discussed (recently at least) "Fallen Idols".  Dean: "This is what we're doing."  "End of discussion."  Yeah, not exactly a team decision.  Dean's not giving Sam any room for dissent, and I understand why he's doing what he's doing.  But Sam doesn't.  And it is pretty unfair to him.  

Dean getting under the car was nerve-wracking.  The boys looked good in their rolled up shirt sleeves though, especially Sam in his white.  Fwiw, Dean didn't really need to take a rubbing of the engine number.  He had the pencil and paper.  He could have just written it down, or used a flashlight and called it out to Sam.

Well, that wasn't Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, but I liked seeing Sam understanding (I won't say 'speaking', lol) a bit of Spanish.  Nice.  I don't know if anyone ever bothered to translate what Consuela was saying in Spanish (probably in the past, but it's not upthread) but since I'm am - literally - letting paint dry, I have the time so: "I can not live here. I need my family. I'm leaving now. I go home. No, I'm going to my home in El Salvador now. I was taking out the trash. I looked out the window and saw the man who killed Senor Hill."  Then Sam says, "Tell us what you saw."  And he translated the rest pretty well: "He was tall. very high. And wore the long black coat. And had whiskers."

Aw, look - the 'good ol' days' when Sam did research in just a t-shirt and Dean only wore two layers.  ;)

Those wax figures were great.  Wonder where they got them?  

Well, this is interesting: so I had closed captions turned on for the spanish, then it got to the scene where Sam walks in the motel room when Dean is on the phone with Bobby.  There's a line in the CC that is not spoken.  When Dean says, "Well, I'm sorry but it's true." what CC shows on screen is "Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on him."  I wonder if the "sorry but it's true" line got overdubbed later.  The hearing impaired viewers would not know about the "sorry but it's true" line.  And, to me, Sam asking about the "fresh start" (and the "let me grow up" line later) makes more sense in light of the "keeping an eye on him" bit.

I kind of liked Paris Hilton in this.  She did a pretty good job.

Damn, Sam went a little Lizzy Borden on Leshi.

[DittyDotDot]

1 hour ago, RulerofallIsurvey said:

Fwiw, Dean didn't really need to take a rubbing of the engine number.He had the pencil and paper.  He could have just written it down, or used a flashlight and called it out to Sam.

I know, I always wonder why he even tried to touch her at all. I mean, some ladies just don't like people touching them...but it is Dean Winchesters, so... . ;)

ETA: Also, seems like the engine number wasn't what Dean really needed anyway? I mean, engines can be replaced--especially if it had been in a couple crashes and such--and it wasn't the engine that was supposedly cursed or haunted, but the car itself. So, wouldn't Dean have needed the original VIN number?

Edited July 8, 2017 by DittyDotDot

[RulerofallIsurvey]

On 7/8/2017 at 1:40 PM, DittyDotDot said:

I mean, some ladies just don't like people touching them...but it is Dean Winchesters, so... . ;)

Well, it was Dean Winchester and a classic car, so...

On 7/8/2017 at 1:40 PM, DittyDotDot said:

ETA: Also, seems like the engine number wasn't what Dean really needed anyway? I mean, engines can be replaced--especially if it had been in a couple crashes and such--and it wasn't the engine that was supposedly cursed or haunted, but the car itself. So, wouldn't Dean have needed the original VIN number?

I don't know all that much about VIN numbers versus engine numbers, but I remember Dean said that Cal (?) had the VIN number and that was supposedly the same as James Dean's car, so they had to track the engine number to be sure.  But also since JD's mechanic rebuilt the car after the crash, I guess he could have replaced the engine then, right?  So, basically, neither one makes sense!  And what was that you say about logic and this show?  ;)

[Iju]

dean searching out a regular mission out of nowhere, i knew it was because he wanted to get things straight. their relationship is still pretty tender and red at this point which i completely understand, and it's only the 5th ep. "Man, I really want this to be a fresh start, you know? For the both of us." aw, dean sounds like they are a couple (in a sense, i know there are some actual shippers out there and i'm not one of them). he must really care.

"What? Ghandi was a great man." i will never not find it amusing on the constant praise that is given to ghandi considering he was an explicit racist. so i probably found it funnier than it should have been when ghandi was attacking sam because he hated white men (with good reason, but still). i don't hate ghandi and as a surprise to many i don't find a racist to be on the top 10 list of the horrible things a person can be. everyone has their flaws, that doesn't take away their positives. i just find it funny that the US praises ghandi so when its so big on racism.

D: "We can't go back to the way things were."

S: "Yeah I know, that's what got us here in the first place."

well that's true. maybe this whole catastrophe was for the better good. there's that saying about bad situations and moments in life, but the outcome was worth the reward and the life they had after the tragedy was better than before. just think of it this way, the brothers are so close it would take literally the Apocalypse to change their relationship. "No one will be able to hate me more than I do myself. Hell you won't be able to punish me more than myself." i think when dean shut up and just stared, he was thinking of his own internal blame and hatred he had with himself and he understood.

i liked how dean wasn't blaming sam for dooming the world, he was just disappointed that they didn't doom the world together. after all he offered to kill lilith with sam, just without ruby. they are super to have their really big highs and really drastic lows together, that is dean's main point. 

some other stuff:

"Oh wow, that ripe." i can't help but feel bad for the boys. it's sad how they've built a near immunity to the smell of death. i picked it up ever since the family remains episode, when dean said "You get used to it." :T

"Why so kill-crazy? Ah, maybe the apocalypse has got 'em all hot and bothered. Yeah, well, we all know whose fault that is. ...Well I'm sorry, but it's true." my brother believes dean was actually talking about himself.

"For years now, I've been wandering. Hungry. Scared. Scrounging for scraps. So not sexy. But then, the best thing ever happened. Someone tripped the apocalypse. And I thought, what the hell, I'm tired of watching what I eat." my mother said that this has been said so many times that it should be a running joke by this point. if some of says it again, she says, sam should just say "OKAY. I STARTED THE APOCALYPSE. I'M SORRY." for comic relief. i sort of agree with her. i actually hope it does happen in this season, this show handles comedy pretty good.

when dean gave sam the keys i was surprised. but when he said that he would take a nap with him at the wheel i was shocked. i have nothing against his effort to trust sam, but in my eyes that's a huge leap of faith. my father is almost a picture perfect driver, i've never been in an accident with him. and still i can't fall asleep in the car. i'd have to be really, REALLY dog tired for that to happen, which is tremendously rare.

paris acted better than i thought she would have. interesting. also her death was pretty violent, even my brother was surprised that they allowed her severed head and headless body to be shown on TV. 

that ending segment of the future episode looks cool.

[DittyDotDot]

14 minutes ago, Iju said:

paris acted better than i thought she would have. interesting. also her death was pretty violent, even my brother was surprised that they allowed her severed head and headless body to be shown on TV. 

Apparently, you just can't show the actual cutting off the head, but can show the gruesome remains. Standards and Practices makes no sense.

[Iju]

19 hours ago, DittyDotDot said:

Apparently, you just can't show the actual cutting off the head, but can show the gruesome remains. Standards and Practices makes no sense.

that's some weird schizophrenia lol

[gonzosgirrl]

On 3/29/2018 at 6:37 PM, DittyDotDot said:

Apparently, you just can't show the actual cutting off the head, but can show the gruesome remains. Standards and Practices makes no sense.

Is that just for 'real people? Because they often show them beheading other humanoid monsters (vamps spoilers). I Or am I just misremembering having seen that? 

On 3/30/2018 at 1:40 PM, Iju said:

that's some weird schizophrenia lol

Ironic, huh?

[DittyDotDot]

13 minutes ago, gonzosgirrl said:

Is that just for 'real people? Because they often show them beheading other humanoid monsters (vamps spoilers). I Or am I just misremembering having seen that? 

I believe it applies to anything humanoid. They generally show someone with an ax or machete swinging at a neck, then cut away to a reaction shot of some sort and come back to the head being severed. It gives the impression that you saw the machete going through the head because it's done so quickly, but you really didn't. Part of that is for special effects reasons, but I remember reading an article where Kripke was laughing at all the nasty things you can show being done to an already-dead body, but that you couldn't show the actual act of a head being severed from the body. 

It seems like Standards and Practices are not uniform across all networks, though, so this may not be the case for all TV, just the CW.

[Iju]

On 4/1/2018 at 10:03 AM, gonzosgirrl said:

 

Ironic, huh?

it is, i mean the body and head are right there. and even the blood is dripping, hanging muscles and everything. strange...

[sarthaz]

"Citizen Fang" was on today, and Benny cleanly decapitates a vamp in one shot. It's from behind, though.  You see his swing and follow-through, and then the head rolls off.

[DeeDee79]

1 hour ago, sarthaz said:

"Citizen Fang" was on today, and Benny cleanly decapitates a vamp in one shot. It's from behind, though.  You see his swing and follow-through, and then the head rolls off.

Didn't he also decapitate the vamp at the beginning of Blood Brothers? Dean decapitates another near the end of the ep. The swing and follow through were shown for both IIRC.

[The Companion]

On 10/7/2014 at 7:51 AM, mertensia said:

Except for that poorly written scene I like the episode. Paris Hilton must have a bigger sense of humor about herself than you'd think. I loved that sheriff.

This episode makes me wish they would run into a real famous person ghost.

I don't particularly like Paris Hilton (whi does?) but she did always seem to have a sense of humor about herself. Oddly enough, I just watched Veronica Mars and she guest starred in that, so I am seeing a lot more of her than I have in years. 

On 7/8/2017 at 11:44 AM, RulerofallIsurvey said:

Ah, the much discussed (recently at least) "Fallen Idols".  Dean: "This is what we're doing."  "End of discussion."  Yeah, not exactly a team decision.  Dean's not giving Sam any room for dissent, and I understand why he's doing what he's doing.  But Sam doesn't.  And it is pretty unfair to him.  

Dean getting under the car was nerve-wracking.  The boys looked good in their rolled up shirt sleeves though, especially Sam in his white.  Fwiw, Dean didn't really need to take a rubbing of the engine number.  He had the pencil and paper.  He could have just written it down, or used a flashlight and called it out to Sam.

Well, that wasn't Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, but I liked seeing Sam understanding (I won't say 'speaking', lol) a bit of Spanish.  Nice.  I don't know if anyone ever bothered to translate what Consuela was saying in Spanish (probably in the past, but it's not upthread) but since I'm am - literally - letting paint dry, I have the time so: "I can not live here. I need my family. I'm leaving now. I go home. No, I'm going to my home in El Salvador now. I was taking out the trash. I looked out the window and saw the man who killed Senor Hill."  Then Sam says, "Tell us what you saw."  And he translated the rest pretty well: "He was tall. very high. And wore the long black coat. And had whiskers."

Aw, look - the 'good ol' days' when Sam did research in just a t-shirt and Dean only wore two layers. 😉

Those wax figures were great.  Wonder where they got them?  

Well, this is interesting: so I had closed captions turned on for the spanish, then it got to the scene where Sam walks in the motel room when Dean is on the phone with Bobby.  There's a line in the CC that is not spoken.  When Dean says, "Well, I'm sorry but it's true." what CC shows on screen is "Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on him."  I wonder if the "sorry but it's true" line got overdubbed later.  The hearing impaired viewers would not know about the "sorry but it's true" line.  And, to me, Sam asking about the "fresh start" (and the "let me grow up" line later) makes more sense in light of the "keeping an eye on him" bit.

I kind of liked Paris Hilton in this.  She did a pretty good job.

Damn, Sam went a little Lizzy Borden on Leshi.

Thanks for the translation. FWIW, I have the closed captioning on for when it is low and I am pumping and it was really accurate the first couple of seasons. It was sometimes way off last season with lines that were never spoken or entirely different. I assumed they were pulling from the original script because they would be like the above example. Completely different. It also once said angles rather than angels. Lol.

I really enjoyed this one. I totally googled James Dean's car. Hehe. Having Paris Hilton as the monster was hilarious. I thought some of the dialogue with regard to rebuilding the relationship was awkward, but I liked the underlying points enough to overlook it. 

It was sort of funny to see the thing that scared Dean. I don't remember him ever looking that freaked out. Everyone was a-ok with the creepy dead eyes of the wax figures  *cringe*