Supernatural - 6.06 - You Can't Handle the Truth - Recap by Selina

I was interrupted so many times while trying to watch and review this episode. So if it seems fragmented, that’s cause it is. Pretend it’s post-structuralism and just go with it yeah? :)

This was a great episode though, and I can’t wait to get into the details with you guys! If you like this review, don’t forget to check out The Patchwork Blog for more SPN reviews, and thoughts on other TV shows, movies, books and more.



A loooong previously on… I guess a lot of what happened last episode was pretty pivotal huh?

Open at a restaurant, where a redshirt is being set up for slaughter. There’s some kind of Invention of Lying vibe happening, and waitress Jane seems to be at the center of it. She takes out a gun that… she conveniently keeps in her drawer? It seems like this has been happening for a while, if she already had the gun, but I’m not sure at this point. She shoots herself, aww sadness.

Bobby and Dean discuss Sam some more (told ya they would), and Dean is sure it’s Lucifer in Sam’s body. Castiel is apparently screening his calls these days so Dean can’t get a hold of him, but he is desperate to get something done.


“He’s been different from the jump.” No pun intended.

Dean is convinced that Sam is not Sam. Which in TV usually means that he’s wrong… but we’ll see.

They go to check out Jane’s suicide, the latest in a line.

The sister tells them that “Jane was having a really bad day” (again, just a day? And the gun came from where?) so she tried to cheer her up, told her to hang in there. She’s lying though, and Sam knows. The sister admits that she told Jane to kill herself, and she couldn’t stop from saying it.

Next we go to a dentist’s office. The dentist begins to hear truths next… but this time the victim doesn’t kill himself though, but his patient – way to increase people’s fear of dentists!

Meanwhile Bobby tries to prepare Dean for the worst: that Sam is, in fact, just Sam. Hardened by his Hell experience, and his demon blood drinking. Dean refuses to accept that possibility though, and why should he at this point? He was in Hell, tortured for years and afterwards spending years torturing others, and look at him now. Full of pain, but ultimately the kind of person intent to get the best out of life, and care for the people around him. He’s always been something of a mother hen, actually. But that’s why Sam’s transformation is doubly painful: if it’s really Sam then it would mean that Dean has lost his brother, AND that somewhere, he hasn’t done his job right (that’s what he feels, anyway), and failed to protect him from himself.

He calls Lisa, lets the phone ring once, then hangs up. Sadness.


The non-sexy kind of drilling.

Aww you gotta love the awkward jokes on this show.

It seems physically impossible for Dean to be in the same room as Sam. So he sends Sam to investigate, while he stays and researches (doppelgangers). And you know, it’s so convenient they’re investigating what seems to be some kind of truth spell, when Dean is so desperate for the truth himself… hmmmmmm.

Dean goes to the dentist, and haha, the saxophone in the office was hilarious. You can just imagine, in his break, the dentist playing some jaunty tunes for himself… poor neighbours!

And speaking of saxophones… looks like there’s a link for the keen eye (I could never do this job): Harry’s House of Horns! If I didn’t know better I’d say the Trickster was involved again… but sad pandas, he died.

Harry turns out to be of no help, but he “reminds” Dean of a stolen, 1000-year-old horn… a truth-horn, perchance? Muahahaaa.

It was stolen the day Jane died (wasn’t she the latest in a line of suicides though…?), so Dean figures it’s probably one of God’s toys lying around.


Let me pour you some alcohol… you’re gonna need it.

Castiel appears, but he’s there for the horn. He “has nothing to offer about Sam”… but there’s a definite avoidance going on. He’s not Lucifer, though, Cas knows that much.

“What happened to you, Cas? You used to be human, or at least like one.”
“Certain… regrettable things are now required of me.”

I wonder what Cas has been made to do. And why, if he’s leading a rebellion, he would be made to do them. He evaporates though, when Dean mentions the horn, and Dean drinks his scotch/whiskey/other unspecified substance.

Cas appears behind him, only gone for a moment yet he’s already looked everywhere. He does want to help find out what’s wrong with Sam, and promises to “make enquiries”. Oh, great, problem solved! Phssss. People tell you they’ll make enquiries, you already know you’ll get jack squat. We’ve all been there, Castiel!


Fun truth times… but with great power, etc.

Sam, wearing his finest Gryffindor tie, visits the morgue to examine some bodies. The bodies are gone, though, vanished.

Dean finds refuge home in the bar, where there is a woman with a very striking purple dress behind him. The news lady with the Tina Fey glasses (who is in like, every scene in this episode) tells the viewers to “find out the truth,” something she also says a lot. Is it foreshadowing, or just clever storytelling? Sam calls with a lead, a girl who died a week before all the others.

Dean flirts a little with the bartender, and we know where this is going… Dean “would just like the frickin’ truth,” mouth close-up and all… wow poor Dean is falling victim to the mysteries almost every week isn’t he?!

At this point I’m thinking, clearly there’s something going on with the television lady, maybe they use the horn in the news music… but right now all we find out is that the bartender thinks she can’t get pregnant cause God knows her marriage is a sham. Huh. Dean realises he’s now under the curse… again, convenient, considering he needs some truth from a certain someone! As he leaves, the purple dress girl clarifies her bizarre chest display. Deeeean just keep walking!

He calls Bobby, who can also give him some truth (good for you, milk is good for the teeth and bones). And he gets pedicures!!! Oh Bobby. We also find out that Dean is his favourite, which we kind of knew already considering how much more time they’ve spent together trying to save Sam, but it’s still a bit sad. I’ve always felt bad for Sam, because he takes a backseat to Dean in so many ways.



Truth hurts, baby. Hasta la vista. Terminator Sam. Ok, that’s enough with the free association exercises.

Lisa calls Dean – uh-oh. She’s upset, understandably, that he shoved Ben. And it’s truth time: “you’ve got so much buried in there, and you push it down and you push it down. Do you honestly think you can go through life like that and not freak out? … I didn’t expect Sam to come back, and I’m glad he’s okay, I am, but the minute he walked through that door I knew it was over. You two have to most unhealthy, tangled up, crazy thing I’ve ever seen, and as long as he’s in your life you’re never gonna be happy.” Oops. Well guys, that’ll give us some food for thought.

As Lisa ends the call, and possibly the relationship (which I won’t dwell on cause meh), we’re left to reflect on some of the things she said. She’s voicing a lot of the Supernatural fans’ thoughts, but what’s funny is, don’t we actually want their relationship to be everything she said? Unhealthy, messed up, all that? Because that’s where we get the angst, and angst has always been a main component of the show. So ironically, at least for me, the ideal is to get the brothers back that stage where they are co-dependent and weird. Those were the characters we fell in love with.

Dean is sad. Understandably. His little exhale also indicates that he thought – or feared – that this would happen.

And EW, the truth-obsessed girl killed her own cat to do her mojo!!!! How upsetting!

Dean and Sam meet up and it’s the MOMENT OF TRUTH…….. but in true TV style, like when Buffy conveniently couldn’t read Angel’s thoughts because of some nonsense about the thoughts being there but giving no reflection, of course it doesn’t work on Sam. Which in itself shows that there’s something wrong with him.

Dean believes him though… don’t do it Dean! It’s sad for him, because at this point he believes that Sam is indeed Sam, he’s just changed.


That explains it, it’s Veritas(erum)!

Jared’s been spending too much time in Canada, wanting to take the goddess “aut”, and the brothers devise a plan to save Dean from becoming a human sacrifice.

We also learn that Veritas is an attention-whore – and once again the news anchor is alluded to. Speaking truth to the masses, indeed. Nice foreshadowing work there, show!

The brothers investigate Ashley Frank’s tapes – or rather, super-stamina Sam does, while Dean erratically moves around the room and eats various food. Finally he finds something, a dog which barks at her. Her eyes glow blue, and they’ve got their proof.


The expression “cat got your tongue” just took on a whole new meaning huh?

Marilyn Monroe-style, Frank arrives at the scene. Sam comes armed with dog’s blood (really?? Let’s stop with the pet killing already!) and the brothers get ready for some goddess killing. Guess they’re pretty familiar with that by now… and they should therefore know that these kinds of situations tend to get them their asses kicked!

They follow the white rabbit (okay, cat) down the rabit hole (okay, stairs) and find some gross, decimated corpses (okay… no, that’s actually right), and get knocked out. Told you, boys! Not too bright… good thing they’re pretty.

The goddess looks suspiciously like that girl Sam made out with in season 1, did anyone else think that? She eats some tongue, gross gross gross, and calls Sam and Dean gold standard liars.

Goddess Frank plays some Truth or Truth with Dean… “what do you really feel about your brother?” Ooh, way to go there! Good reporting! That’s the kind of questions we should be asking Kripke, guys.

“Better now,” he replies. “But now I think… he’s just acting like me. It’s the gig. I told myself I wanted out, that I wanted a family… but what I’m good at is slicing throats. I ain’t a father. I’m a killer. And there’s no changing that, I know that now.”

First of all, Dean is never going to have it easy is he? Second of all, I just want to say that as an equal opportunist Winchester fan, I’m getting a little concerned by how, by making Sam mysterious, the show season after season manages to focus on Dean’s feelings and development. Every season Sam seems to take one step forward and two steps back, while Dean goes through loads of angst and growth and character (re)definition. There’s a ridiculous imbalance, both ways, if that makes sense. Some people say that the storylines always revolve around Sam, and this is true. But the key word is around. And around Sam, we usually find Dean. Whose perspective we usually take when dealing with Sam’s issues.

But off my soapbox and back to the scene.


Too bad Sam’s not as Frank as she might want… ha ha ha.

This time, we get confirmation that Sam is fooling the frankster. “What are you?
she asks, horrified because for the first time, a human (or…whatever) can lie to her. “You’re not human,” she concludes. But now Sam manages to break free, and while he fights the goddess Dean breaks free too, and kills her.

Then he raises his knife against Sam, who pulls his confusion!face.

“Dean, it’s me,” Sam says, shakily.
“You. Are not. My brother,” Dean retorts, frothingly.
“Just listen,” Sam exclaims, desperately.
“WHAT ARE YOU?!” Dean shouts, furiously.
“It’s me, Sam,” Sam placates, placatingly……… etc. etc., angsty exhange stuff, you know the drill.

After some more of this, the God’s honest truth iiiiiisssssss: “There’s something wrong with me, really wrong … I let you get turned by that vamp, because I knew there was a cure Dean!”

Ok wait. Are we meant to believe him now? Because he told Sammy Sr. that he didn’t know there was a cure, so I’m going to hold judgment. It might be a really stupid mistake by the writers, but I don’t think so. “I just don’t feel it,” Sam says, as way of explaining everything. But “I am a better hunter that I have ever been! Nothing scares me anymore, cause I can’t feel it! I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I think… I need help.” Great, Sam, and it’s sure a plausible explanation. But I call bullshit – and evidently, so does Dean! As his fist will tell you.

And SCENE. What an AMAZING end to an episode! Cold, breathing, Dean having beaten the crap out of (supposedly) his brother… calling his bluff, because he knows him better than that. Overall, the episode was pretty good, with the funny truth telling and all that, but the last few minutes just put it through the roof. No mushy ending, no tearful confessions or heart-to-hearts, no more misleading and waiting for the characters to figure out what we already know… just pure, honest truth. We (us and Dean) don’t know the truth yet, but we know the lie, and that’s a hell of a big step forward.

(I'll leave you with a tiny PS that I just thought of: was it just me, or was there a total lack of resolution to the whole truth-horn stealing debacle? Lol.)