Supernatural: The Winchesters Experience A Mental Breakdown

November 18, 2009, was the last time we saw Sam and Dean Winchester as the two brothers failed to kill Lucifer and stop him from resurrecting Death in Carthage, Missouri. With the help of Castiel the brothers barely escaped with their lives intact. So after a wait of over two months and growing anticipation of what happens to the planet with the arrival of Death, I was met with a slap to the face. Viewers were greeted with another Supernatural monster of the week episode, which happens to contain no plot progression at all. While the episode did have a tendency to be a bit freaky, it overall felt like a letdown.

The episode opens up inside of a doctor’s office at Glenwood Springs Psychiatric Hospital in Ketchum, Oklahoma. Schizophrenic patient, Susan Fletcher, pleads with the doctor that there is a monster roaming the halls of the hospital and it is the reason for all the suicides. The doctor reinforces that her schizophrenia is messing with her mind and dismisses Susan’s pleas for help. Susan is later seen in her room as the nurses call lights out for that section of the hospital. It doesn’t take much to realize that the future of Susan Fletcher is about to come to an end. Without wasting any time the monster comes down through the ceiling vent in Susan’s room. The nurses ignore Susan’s blood curling screams for help as she pounds at her door hoping to put distance between her and the monster. A fellow patient across the hall watches Susan’s final moments as she is ripped from the door and silenced for good. Due to the abrupt nature of how the screams stopped, a nurse checks in on Susan only to find the body of Mrs. Fletcher in a pool of her own blood with her wrists slit.

As usual with the Supernatural format, we see the Winchester brothers in the same psychiatrist’s office that Susan was once in as they try to gather information on what was occurring in the psychiatric hospital. Posing as rock legends, Edward and Alex Van Halen from the rock band Van Halen, the brothers start discussing their everyday lives causing the doctor to admit both the Winchesters into the hospital. I definitely got a chuckle out of the fact that they posed as Edward and Alex Van Halen, but the doctor questions their referral, a Dr. Babar who is named after an elephant from children’s storybooks.

After a “thorough” checkup from Nurse Foreman, the brothers share an awkward moment about their experience. Soon after the funny banter between the brothers we find the reason they took time out from the apocalypse to stop at a psychiatric hospital. Martin, an old hunter friend of their dad’s, who’s been checked into the “loony bin” has a gut feeling something is in the hospital. Due to his current mental state he is not up to par with taking down whatever the monster might be.

The brothers are broken up as Sam is sent to a group session and Dean meets a new Dr. Erica Cartwright. Dean questions Erica about anything out of the ordinary going on in the hospital, while she questions him about his personal life. In the group session the patient, Greg, who witnessed the death of Susan claims he has seen the monster and begs what will be done about it. The psychiatrist tells him there are no such things as monsters and for him to quiet down. You would think multiple patients screaming about monsters might bring up the realization that something is quite wrong. Greg’s final words brought a chill down my spine as he screamed, “Listen to me. We’re all dead.”

Sam and Dean meet back up after their individual sessions where they decide to question Greg about the monster later that night. Unfortunately for the boys they enter Greg’s room seconds too late to find him hung from the ceiling with his bed sheets. With no clues to go on the brothers break into the morgue to inspect the body. After probing a hole found in Greg’s neck, which was pretty uncomfortable to watch, Sam discovers it leads to the brain. Sending Dean to act as a guard outside, Sam takes a saw to Greg’s head to see what the monster has done.  Sam realizes Greg’s brain has been sucked dry. How Sam knows so much about the anatomy of the brain and cut one open perfectly is still something that boggles my mind.

The Winchester boys bring Martin the news of the discovery allowing the ex-Hunter to come to the conclusion the monster hunting the halls is a Wraith, a creature who cracks open the skull and feeds on the brain. With a weakness of silver the hunters now must try to find the monster, which can disguise itself as a human. The only way to reveal the true identity of a wraith is with the use of a mirror.

The brothers spend the episode hunting down the Wraith, but the task becomes difficult as their minds start to slip away bringing them into delusional states. The episode becomes trippy as the mental states devolve. What seems real becomes a trick of the eyes proving over and over again that the mental state of Sam and Dean are one step away from a psychiatric ward as the fifth season of the show has a tendency to remind the viewers.

Sam becomes constrained to a padded room after his psychotic state brings out a state of pure rage causing the doctor to lock him away for Sam’s own safety. Dean on the other hand spends his time sitting in a corner in a fetal position trying to save what little control he has over his mind.

After investigating a scream Dean and Martin walk in on Nurse Foreman feeding on a patient. The Wraith escapes to Sam’s padded cell where Dean manages to kill her single handedly with a silver plated knife to the chest.

The end of the episode focuses on Sam and his realization that the anger he has built up in him is unnatural. To be honest it feels like the show is gearing up for the prophesied showdown in Detroit where Sam is supposed to say yes to the devil allowing Lucifer to take his body as a vessel. Dean asks if Sam is with him and gets what seems to be a half-hearted “I’m with you.”

With the show possibly on its final season it seems like this episode was more of an unnecessary reminder of the mental states of  Sam and Dean Winchester. In the end while the episode did have its moments where it got under my skin and made me feel uncomfortable, it fell flat with no plot progression and its constant reminders of who the brothers are and what they have been through.

For another take on this episode, check out Winchesters Checking In by Nicole Cukingnan.

Season 5, Episode 11: Sam, Interrupted (original air date January 21, 2010)

For more on Supernatural, click here.

Thursdays at 9/8C on The CW

Photographs courtesy of The CW, David Gray, and Jack Rowand.

Supernatural: Winchesters Checking In

First Supernatural episode of 2010! I’ve missed the paranormal shenanigans of the Winchester brothers and I happily welcome them back to my living room! Dean and Sam commit themselves into a psychiatric facility to investigate a string of deaths after being called by an old hunter friend of their father’s (who is an inpatient himself).

The brothers simply tell the truth to the doctor, that it’s the apocalypse and that they have to save all of humanity and voila they are committed for observation. It was entertaining to see them just be truthful about what they were doing as they interacted with the different characters because they were inside the loony bin and it was expected. Who would believe a psych patient that there was a real monster attacking them?

What was great about this episode is that the brothers are able to take a break from the end of the world and see the impact that demon hunting has had on them. There’s still action of course as they figure out that patients are being killed by a wraith that feasts on brains, but the pace is much slower as they confront their own inner monsters. When they are on the hunt for Lucifer there isn’t much opportunity to pause and reflect at their own humanity because they are too busy saving lives. Sam discovers that he has a lot of pent up rage and finally realizes that he is responsible for that. Dean in the meantime finally feels the burden of being accountable for 6 billion people and sees his drinking and womanizing as a way of coping with the stress.

They get to this point because the wraith has poisoned them by touch and they start hallucinating, but what they see is still their creation. It’s very much like your own personal hell where your inner fears are brought out. The wraith turns out to be the nurse who sees the facility as her own private restaurant. I was surprised though that Dean was able to kill her pretty easily even in his drugged-like state.

In the end Dean tells Sam that they need to bury all their issues so that it doesn’t drive them insane because they still have something important to accomplish. Still there is one scene where the imaginary psych doctor asks Dean, why does he have to be the one to save the world? We can learn something from this because people always find themselves in less than ideal situations and we ask the question, why me? The Winchesters didn’t ask to be demon hunters or to save humanity from the apocalypse, but those are the cards they were dealt with. While I’m sure Dean’s bury everything mentality will bite them in the ass at some point in the future, I have to admire their gusto to keep going anyways. Sometimes that’s all any of us can do, keep going.

For another take on this episode, check out The Winchesters Experience A Mental Breakdown by Bilal Mian.

Season 5, Episode 11: Sam, Interrupted (originally aired January 21, 2010)

For more on Supernatural, click here.

Thursdays at 9/8C on The CW

Photographs courtesy of The CW, David Gray, and Sergei Bachlakov.

SUNDAY, 24th (Week of Jan 24 – 30)

BIG LOVE: Bill takes a trip to D.C. and witnesses first hand how awesome we are here! (9pm/HBO)

MONDAY, 25th

THE INBETWEENERS: Awkward British teenage boys starring in their own comedy show that BBC America will probably add subtitles to. (9pm/BBC America)

TUESDAY, 26th

NCIS: Word of advice – don’t watch this episode if you plan on flying anytime soon! (8pm/CBS)

WEDNESDAY, 27th

PSYCH: An Alfred Hitchcock-themed episode?! This show never fails to deliver on the pop culture goodness! (10pm/USA)

THURSDAY, 28th

LIVE FOR THE MOMENT: Sorry, but all the inspiration I need for this year, I got from Conan O’Brien. “Don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism….it doesn’t lead anywhere.” True words, Coco. (8pm/CBS)

FRIDAY, 29th

KITCHEN NIGHTMARES: This show made me never want to set foot into a restaurant again… but damn, I missed it! (9PM/Fox)

SATURDAY, 30th

2010 MISS AMERICA PAGEANT: Everyone knows hosting this pageant is Mario Lopez’s dream job. And only job. (8pm/TLC)

Bones: The Proof in the Pudding

Everything that Bones got wrong last week they got right this week with an episode that cut back on forced humor and meandering subplots. It presented a compelling mystery that involved all of the principals in meaningful ways and advanced their characters. In other words, it was a return to the Bones of old and the Bones I love. The tone was pitch-perfect. Yes yes yes yes yes! Now you got it, writers. This is how you do it. All you need to do now is keep up the consistency and I’ll do nothing but gush praise like a drooling idiot.

The episode opens deceptively low-key. Brennan is buried in work (like usual) and Booth comes by the lab to give her a pizza, as he knows she won’t eat unless he impresses the concept upon her. After failing to convince her that he can see an image of Michael Jackson in the pizza (she doesn’t know who Michael Jackson is), Booth departs for the weekend. Almost immediately after he leaves, a trio of Men in Black arrive and lock down the Jeffersonian and everyone in it.

These are bad Men in Black, nowhere near as charming as Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith. The head honcho is Mr. White (which really must be a reference to the part in Men in Black when K gives J the alias of “Dr. White”) and he’s played by Judging Amy and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles vet Richard T. Jones, who specializes in portraying sullen authoritative types. He presents everyone with a skeleton and informs them that no one will leave until they determine the cause of death…but they are forbidden to identify the body. It’s a matter of national security he says, but being imprisoned against their will leaves everyone understandably vexed.

It’s a solid, tightly-structured setup that forces Cam to really take responsibility as the leader of the team and forces Brennan and Sweets and Angela and Hodgins to work together to identify the cause of death. There is no intern this week and I can’t say that I minded. The other great thing about the plot is that it finally gives Hodgins something to do that isn’t Angela-related. Hodgins has always been a conspiracy nut and monosyllabic government stiffs in suits with a mysterious skeleton has conspiracy written all over it. When he and Brennan uncover evidence that points to the possibility that the skeleton is that of John F. Kennedy, Hodgins’ Conspiracy-O-Meter skyrockets and he nearly hyperventilates to death.

Booth meanwhile is going nuts himself, nuts that his people are trapped in this bizarre and tense situation while he remains separated and powerless to help. He turns to his loser boss Hacker for help and the guy initially proves to be about as useful as soup on a stick (again, what happened to Booth’s original boss from season one, I liked him a lot more). So Booth does what he does best: he acts with his gut and breaks into the lab prison. Initially he tries to get through the doors by hand, but the suits have booby-trapped them. Booth’s natural response is to shoot through the glass, walk in and calmly wait for the suits to tackle him. It’s a really funny, enjoyable moment that is classic Booth. This is what I keep saying: Booth and Brennan are naturally funny characters. The writers just need to provide opportunities for them to be themselves and the humor will flow naturally. They don’t need to artificially manipulate the plot to set up blatant gags for them to be funny and hit us over the head with quirky music beats.

There are several funny moments in this episode, and they’re funny because they feel natural and come out of the character interactions…moments like when Brennan concocts insanely intellectual mumbo jumbo to distract Mr. White so that the team can put their plan into action. We also get some allusions to Booth’s sniper past (which I have long been hoping for) and the surprising revelation that he is a descendant of John Wilkes Booth…a fact he swore Brennan to secrecy on and is deeply bothered by. He also gets to do some shooting and kick some ass. No matter how many times you see it, watching twits get what they deserve is always satisfying.

The other highlight of the episode is that when Brennan determines that the skeleton was killed by two shooters, it almost shatters Booth’s soul. You see if the body is really Kennedy and Kennedy was killed by two shooters and not just Oswald, it means that the government Booth believes in and idealizes so deeply lied. If they lied about that, they could have lied about anything, including the reasons they gave him for killing the near-fifty people he sniped. Brennan makes an incredibly sweet, surprising and selfless choice late in the show in order to protect Booth. It’s one of the best moments of the season and probably the whole series.

The B storyline involves a pregnancy test that Cam finds. Initially she thinks it belongs to her adopted daughter Michelle but is relieved to discover that it belongs to someone in the lab. Although the B storyline ends up involving the Angela/Hodgins will they/won’t they thing considerably, it didn’t bother me because it was dealt with earnestly and in the spirit of progressing their relationship. It wasn’t just Angela calling people Sweetie and smiling with those gargantuan teeth and flirting. It’s a very solid episode and I think true Bones fans will be able to appreciate the difference between the quality on display here and what we got last week (and too often in the fourth season).

Season 5, Episode 12: The Proof in the Pudding (originally aired January 21, 2010)

For more on Bones, click here.

Thursdays at 8/7c on Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox and IMDbPro

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