S05.E07: The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester

[DittyDotDot]

Bobby and the boys get involved in a high stakes poker game that gambles with years of lives.

 

I really want to love this episode, but it settles in at just like. I don't care for the fact that there's no resolution with the witch in the end so the whole thing seems kinda pointless. That being said, I thought Chad Everett did a good Dean and this episode sparked an interest in a spinoff with Grumpy Old Hunters.

 

I do love Jensen's little youthful dance at the end of the episode, though.

[Demented Daisy]

In my S5 top 5.  Like Ditty loves her alternate reality/universe episodes, I love the episodes where things are just a little bit off -- where it's more than Sam and Dean hunting the MotW.

 

I love that Dean is still trying to be Dean, even though he aged 50 years in a matter of minutes.  I love the banter between Dean and Bobby.  I love that Sam won the poker game at the end (perhaps a nod to Jared winning a celebrity poker tournament in '06).

 

I don't have a problem with the ending.  They were never going to beat that witch -- he was just too good.  A fault of the writers?  Perhaps.  But maybe it was all part of a theme for the season -- not everything can be wrapped up in a neat little bow. 

[DittyDotDot]

I love that you love it DD!

 

I don't need it to be wrapped up in a bow, but some acknowledgement that they let the guy go or something. It only annoys me because it seems very important that they find and stop the guy, but then they don't and they don't even acknowledge why or how it was resolved. Does that make sense even?

 

 

BTW: one of my favorite moments in the episode is when Dean walks over to the old guy that's now young and peeps under the covers at him. And, Dean's wink at the prostitutes is just priceless.

Edited October 7, 2014 by DittyDotDot

[Demented Daisy]

Makes perfect sense.  I guess I just don't think of it that way.  

[DittyDotDot]

And I'm okay with that.

[catrox14]

Just rewatching this on TNT and I really did love Chad Everett's Dean.

I think he really nailed Dean's essence and mannerisms especially as the episode progressed. It makes the episode itself a lot more palatable

I also really liked the guy that played the "man witch" (oh Dean lol)

Edited August 10, 2015 by catrox14

[Ubiquitous]

I saw this one this morning. I got bored and lost interest. That was Chad Everett? I wondered why he looked familiar.

[GirlyGeek]

I really like this episode, and I always forget that I like it till its on, lol.  Its funny and different.  One qualm I have though is that I get just a teeny, tiny whiff of 'Yellow Fever Sam'- he just doesn't seem concerned enough about Dean getting old and what that could mean (i.e.: not being too concerned that Dean's 'having a heart attack', poking fun at him going up the stairs, etc).  Like I said, just a teeny bit, and he gets REAL serious later on, so I forgive it  ;)

Old!Dean is awesome.  I can almost forget that its NOT Jensen, cause the actor does a great job being Dean.  And I agree with Sam "Its like watching Grumpy Old Men".  Ha ha (is it just me, or is that more of a Jared laugh when he delivers that line?  LOL.  Maybe we just don't see Sam laugh enough, so to me it always seems more 'Jared')  

I feel bad for Bobby, but I do love Dean's conversation with him in the end.

And the guest actor playing Patrick was fantastic.  Funny and likable, but still the bad guy.  Plus... accent.  Can't go wrong there ;)

[Hanahope]

Oh man, what I'd do if I was just 10-15 years younger.  I had my kids older, so I'd love knowing I'd have more years with them, maybe get to see some grandkids.  Plus I wouldn't have quite the aches and pains I do now, (and see if there was something I could do to prevent arthritis before it strikes).

So why did Patrick take some lives, but not others that he could?  Did have some compassion for older guys trying to get more time, but not younger guys getting greedy?  

[DittyDotDot]

53 minutes ago, Hanahope said:

So why did Patrick take some lives, but not others that he could?

This is why this isn't a favorite episode of mine. I guess the idea was that he was stealing years from these people for himself and his lady love, but he some people he just liked more than others? I still don't understand why Sam and Dean didn't seem to care he was going to keep doing what he'd always been doing, though. 

[bettername2come]

I love the guy who plays Patrick. There's this book I read around the time the episode aired that I would love to see him as the antagonist if they ever did a movie version. I like that he's not completely evil and lets the one guy win a few years. I liked him automatically letting Dean cash in 25 years for Bobby. "I thought you said you were good at poker." I like that Patrick wouldn't let his wife hurt them when she caught them in their room. The clap is one of my favorite puns on the series. "Sam, when you get to be our age-" "You're thirty, Dean!" I liked his wife. They were good together. Chad Everett was a good Dean. I need to see Bobby with other cranky old men more often. He needs peers. I love the Bobby/Dean conversation where he tells Bobby not to talk about giving up. I don't mind so much that they let the guy go because he's not tricking anyone. It's an honest game, they know what they're getting themselves into. 

[RulerofallIsurvey]

I really hate Bobby feeling sorry for himself because he's in a wheelchair now - and I hated that first time I saw this episode too.  That "should have put a bullet" in his head line just disgusts me.  I get why he might be feeling that way - and it's probably part of some grieving process that's normal to go through, but I also just saw part of the Warrior Games on tv last night, so this really stands in stark contrast right now.  

Poor Sam, getting the Clap.  Dude doesn't even get any action.  And not too nice of Dean smirking at him for having to get a booster shot when it's kind of Dean's fault that he does.  

I liked the wife.  And I liked that she wanted out and her reason for wanting out.  

Cliff was a jerk.  

The Bobby/Dean digging up the grave scene was funny.  

I remember thinking the first time I watched the episode that it was really cool that Sam was able to out bluff/out play Patrick.  I'm not sure what that says about Sam or Patrick though.  Either Patrick wasn't as good at reading people as he thought, or just not as good at reading Sam.  But I'm not sure why Sam would be any different from anyone else Patrick had played throughout his 900 years.  If it were S4, I'd say it was the demon blood.  But since Sam's supposed to be cleaned up now, maybe it really was just luck on Sam's part.  The same kind of luck that put them on that airplane.  ;)

[Wayward Son]

On 09/07/2017 at 0:19 AM, RulerofallIsurvey said:

I remember thinking the first time I watched the episode that it was really cool that Sam was able to out bluff/out play Patrick.  I'm not sure what that says about Sam or Patrick though.  Either Patrick wasn't as good at reading people as he thought, or just not as good at reading Sam.  But I'm not sure why Sam would be any different from anyone else Patrick had played throughout his 900 years.   

Personally, I put it down to arrogance on Patrick's part. He went into that game believing Sam "wasn't much of a player" and he treated him accordingly, rather than as a genuine threat to be watched. Then at the end he was so convinced he had Sam all wound up, from the threat to Dean, that he never stopped to consider Sam's panic was anything but genuine. I thought the whole thing was rather believable. Patrick went into the game with a particular view of Sam and Sam used it to his advantage.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Wayward Son

[Iju]

On 21/09/2016 at 8:40 PM, GirlyGeek said:

I really like this episode, and I always forget that I like it till its on, lol.  Its funny and different.  One qualm I have though is that I get just a teeny, tiny whiff of 'Yellow Fever Sam'- he just doesn't seem concerned enough about Dean getting old and what that could mean (i.e.: not being too concerned that Dean's 'having a heart attack', poking fun at him going up the stairs, etc).  Like I said, just a teeny bit, and he gets REAL serious later on, so I forgive it  ;)
 

no you're good :P i don't feel that sam mistreated dean THAT much i do understand that many feel he didn't treat dean as he should have. so i saw it more here than the yellow fever episode and i understood their feelings about that ep.

------

there's not much to talk about because this episode was strangely very vague; i LOVE the guy who played old dean though, he even had his expressions and walk down.

kudos to sam for winning, but i was so worried about dean i honestly didn't give a crap on the patrick's compliments to sam. i feel it would have been better if the moment sam won he got in his face and said "now give him back" or "I don't care" and got up and left when patrick tried to talk.

dean looked so happy coming to the car i wanted to run up and hug him.

[Katy M]

On ‎7‎/‎25‎/‎2017 at 10:34 AM, Wayward Son said:

Personally, I put it down to arrogance on Patrick's part. He went into that game believing Sam "wasn't much of a player" and he treated him accordingly, rather than as a genuine threat to be watched. Then at the end he was so convinced he had Sam all wound up, from the threat to Dean, that he never stopped to consider Sam's panic was anything but genuine. I thought the whole thing was rather believable. Patrick went into the game with a particular view of Sam and Sam used it to his advantage.

It's also possible that he let him win after messing with him.  We know that he sometimes let players he liked win (like that Ash guy he was playing when Sam first came in), and he did say that he liked Sam.  After all, if he had just let Sam run out, he would have won.  Did he care that much about the few remaining chips (years) that Sam had in front of him?

[The Companion]

I really liked this episode. Didn't love love it, but really liked it. I really enjoy Bobby and I am happy to see them explore the consequences of his paralysis. I think grief, anger and depression are very real and common emotions when faced with something like this. We have seen discussions of what happens to a hunter when they can't hunt anymore. The continuation of that was, in my opinion, compelling. My only minor quibble is that it wasn't clear that getting younger would do anything for his paralysis. 

I think it is funny how many functionally immortal people have shown up since the desperate search to prevent Dean from dying. Patrick was unafraid of the gun, so there are more than youth here. At least for him. 

Old Dean was awesome. I loved the sequence where he was flirting with the maid.