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Supernatural – Season 10 Episode 19 – The Gripe Review

Apr 26, 2015

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Hello SPN fans. Welcome to this week's Gripe (but not really) Review.

Man what a difference another writer makes. Just when I was wrestling with myself to watch another sub-par Supernatural episode - and write another scathing review- along comes Robert Berens and saves the day. Like the last well-crafted, entertaining episode he wrote, this one too was one of the season’s best.

Berens is one of the newer writerd on the staff and twice now he has left me with wall to wall praise for his work. It's interesting that a writer who has a shorter history with the show can produce denser, more engaging, and more relevant episodes than the veterans. His episodes focus on the main characters instead of his own pets. His side characters are multidimensional and real instead of cartoon villains or gimmicks. He shows that he cares more about the story than what pleases him or his twitter followers. That's what good writing is to me, putting the story before your ego, and Berens shines that way. He even manages to make Rowena interesting. He reminds me of Edlund somehow who, in his later years, showed up every once in a while to clean up the mess other writers had made after they’d partied and smashed the SPN mythology house.

This is where I usually start listing the things I found questionable or substandard in the episode. This time however I'm going to post the things I thought worked well, and I wished were done more often, in hopes other writers would see and copy.

Things that made 10x19 a quality episode (SPN writers take note!)

Telling a story through setting


One the most impressive elements of this episode was the fact that, aside from a few scenes in the Impala, with Rowena, and the flashbacks, nearly all of it was filmed in Suzie’s house. In that sense it reminded me of the finale of season 3. It’s a treat to watch drama unfold within a single, confined space and still be entertained by it. Part of the reason of course was good acting and dialogue. Another part however, was the house itself.

I don’t know if it was in Beren’s script or the director’s choice, but every room in Suzie’s house tells a story about her. It’s cluttered, it’s dirty, it’s in shambles, and it is alive. In a way, the house is a part of Suzie’s character. It shows us Suzie’s history, what her life has been like since her family died. It’s a brilliant strategy to give information without adding exposition to dialogue.

Writing dialogue that represents character (or good dialogue in general)

Dialogue is still the main storytelling tool in a script. When used skillfully however, it can do multiple tasks. In this case we have the scene between Dean and Suzie in her kitchen, right after he tells her he’s from the neighborhood watch. Suzie is a slightly unhinged woman who, at a tender age, watched her whole family commit suicide. She can’t put coherent thoughts together. What shines about her dialogue is that her level of insanity comes through. A person like Suzie wouldn’t sit on the couch, drink coffee with Dean and tell him what happened, yet we have seen similar scenes many times in previous episodes. Such exposition doesn’t tell us much about the character. It’s just passing information to the audience, information that in most cases was already shown in the intro or the flashback.


Berens is clever enough to make his dialogue work harder than that. He makes Suzie talk all over the place and when she finally arrives at the cause of her horror, he has her say this, “I told her (Suzie’s aunt) not to go on the basement. No one goes in the basement.” This dialogue is intercut by shots of Sam walking through the basement and finding the forbidden box. The dialogue does three things at once: 1) It informs us of the fate of Suzie’s aunt, 2) It shows us the state of Suzie’s mind through the broken, grammatically incorrect way she speaks, and 3) it ramps up tension by making us worry what might happen to Sam. This is what every line of dialogue in great TV shows like True Detective and Hannibal sounds like. This is how every line of good dialogue should sound like.

How to infuse every scene with tension

One thing this episode did well was to produce tension for its entire run. Berens and Pleszczynski made sure that in every scene there was something keeping us on the edge of our seats. Whether it was Suzie’s unstable mind that could make her pull the trigger on Dean any time, or Sam opening the box unprepared, or whatever happened after the box was opened, we were always kept in a state of unease. The only parts that fell a little short were the parts with Rowena and Sam trying to decode the box, and the long stretch with Dean walking through purgatory and Benny chasing after him. But even those ended in events that made up for their slowness, and hence worked as buildup for highly tense or emotional scenes.

Continuity with the season’s overall arc


One of my favorite details of the Cain prophecy is the tale that Dean will kill a pile of people plus Crowley, then his best friend Cas, then his brother Sam. This part of the mythology was introduced in The Executioner’s Song (10x14,) by Berens. In that episode it was implied that Dean did not intend to go through with it, and if it came down to it he would rather die at the hand of Cas or Sam.

The detail was brought up by imaginary Benny in this episode, to be used as a weapon against Dean. Since fake Benny is created by Dean’s subconscious mind and therefore carries all of his thoughts and feelings he knows what Dean wants to do as well as the doubts he has. Through him we realize that even though Dean is firm in his resolve, he knows his friend and brother's feelings on the matter too. They are his white and dark knights and as much as they want do the right thing, their love for him would get in the way. Benny even adds a dash of salt to that apprehension by reminding Dean of what it would do to them if they were forced to kill him, effectively guilt-tripping him to change his mind.

All these canon relevant mind games create a mallet that the spell-generated Benny grabs and swings, hitting Dean over the head with the better idea to end it now, while he could, before it’s too late and either his brother or his best friend fall victim to Cain’s curse.

Twist #1 - Dean on the brink of suicide


The image of a dazed Dean with a broken bottle in his hand reminded me of the other times I’d seen a similar image on the show. Usually it is followed by the other brother, either emerging victorious from a fight or newly arrived on the scene, bursting in to save the spellbound Winchester and snap him out of his funk.

This episode gave us a different outcome, once again tied to canon. Dean cannot be killed with ordinary weapons. His mark won’t let him. It begins to glow and jolts him out of his fake reality. Although slightly predictable this twist breaks the long standing trope mentioned above and reminds us again of the workings of the MoC. I don’t recall any episodes written by the other writers that addressed the mark (the show’s current conflict) as often and in as much accuracy and detail as the two Berens episodes of late. Again writers, take note!

Twist #2 - Rowena

The episode’s best twist however was Rowena’s presence in the house. I confess I didn’t see it coming, which is impressive since I was one of the few who guessed the ending of M. Night Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense half an hour before the end of the movie.


Rowena being Sam’s hallucination was a very well-played stunt, aided by her clever entrance in which she destroys the previous hallucination. I wonder if the Werther Box possessed some intelligence if it could produce such a smart trick, to first present an obvious hoax, then cannibalize it by the real one to fool the victim. In the end, when Rowena was encouraging Sam to bleed to death and Dean ran in and didn’t even look her way, the penny dropped for me. It had been a long time since the show surprised me with a clever twist and because of that, the discovery of fake Rowena became one of my most enjoyable moments of season 10.


Teeny-weeny gripes

Of course it won’t be the Gripe Review without gripes. But these are so insignificant I’ll just list them in bullet points:

. In the intro flashback why did young Suzie suddenly feel compelled to break the wall and unveil the box? Was she possessed? Why then and not sooner? I don’t imagine that was the first time she took laundry down to the basement, and I don’t remember an explanation for why the box would act up at that time.

. After present day Suzie discovers Dean’s con and pulls a gun on him she strangely sounds more sane. I wished Berens had continued her slightly lopsided persona.

. I was happy to see Benny back, yet I wished Ty Olsson would soften his accent a bit. He was really laying it thick this time around. I didn’t understand half the things he said to Dean and had to dig up a transcript.

. The Rowena twist was great. Only problem was that hallucination-Rowena actually did crack the mystery of the box. How did that happen? Did Sam somehow get smarter under the spell? When fake Rowena told him the box needed more Winchester blood and he started cutting himself I thought it had nothing to do with the box and was a trick by the spell to have him kill himself. But when Dean arrived and snapped him out of it, he gave the box some of his own blood, and it did the trick.

. At the end of the episode Dean seemed really happy that he and Sam closed the case together. It was a sweet moment they shared in the Impala, yet it was soured by Sam’s sideways look, indicating he was still lying to Dean. That of course is not Berens’ fault but something chosen by Carver. It doesn’t make it any less disappointing, or unoriginal, and creates a faint stain in an otherwise flawless episode.



I look forward to your comment below. I have realized in the past I disappoint a few people every time I post a positive Gripe Review but I can’t help admiring Berens. He is a tough opponent for any grumpy critic, one who gives nothing to gripe about and makes me love him more with each episode. Luckily (sadly) it’s Thompson’s turn next week (again,) so I’m sharpening my slating pencil for that one.

Tessa

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twitter.com/tessa_marlene 

37 comments:

  1. Suzy breaking the wall when she did. Someone on another board noted that the Mother said the workmen had left for the day and that the wall was marked for demolition (there is an outline of a doorway on the wall.Plus Suzy was angry that she was stuck doing chores when her brothers weren't. I'm guessing it was a combination of having the tools available and being able to destroy something that was going to come down anyway, so it was sort of no harm no foul way of letting off steam. My question is how did Suzy get it back into the box? Did it automatically go back once everyone was dead and it would be left alone? If so, why didn't it get Suzy to kill herself? Did she promise to keep it safe? Not a big deal, but one of my questions. Actually this is a good thing, because it means I actually cared about Suzy, which doesn't always happen with the PIP of the week.

    I think Sam cracking the code is proof that he really is smart. He was able to do it all on his own without help from anyone, even when under the Werther spell. Maybe he has a knack for witchcraft? Now that the show has established that all witch power does not come making a deal with a demon, could Sam have some intrinsic abilities that are not tainted by having been fed demon blood? The show will still find a way to condemn him for using them, but it is a way for Sam to have something different about him that isn't imposed by a demon.

    My guess about the Werther spell was that it latched onto the first thing that it saw in Sam to use to pressure him into suicide, his guilt over putting people in danger to save Dean. It had no way of knowing that Sam had combated far more powerful hallucinations when he dealt with Hallucifer. Once it realized that guilt wouldn't work it moved on to Sam being willing to die to save Dean or the world (as long as killing Dean isn't part of saving the world).

    This was a good episode, I wish we would have more like this.

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  2. I found it less then interesting. It was ok but blah.

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  3. Thanks for clarifying the Suzie part. And you're right, how did she put the spell back in the box? Maybe it goes back by itself once it is released and done its job. But that doesn't explain why it didn't kill her the first time. And I liked Suzie too, mainly because, like Tina in the TeenDean episode she had a relatable character and wasn't just there to be an information mouth piece to the Winchesters or to move the plot along.


    I too wished the show would make Sam's intelligence part of his personality. This episode Berens did us a great service by fixing the whole 'making deals with the devil' mess Thompson left behind last episode. Sam is smart enough to utilize Rowena but not let her play him. I want to see more of that and less of Charlie outsmarting him on the show.


    Yes it was a good episode, and easy to write a review for. Yet I doubt it would generate much conversation since a lot of people I checked liked it. Generally when people like something they're content to just sit back and munch on it, which in its own way is a good thing. Gives us some rest before the Claire sh-storm hits us next week. :]

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  4. Wasn't that a great episode, and do you know how happy I am to be able to say that about an episode this season? I liked it better than Executioner's Song even, because it was gritty, suspenseful, the characters seemed real, and the dialogue was intelligent.


    I have not been thrilled with Berens' episodes up until Executioner's Song, only because they focused on support characters. Even though I didn't like them for that reason, Berens still wrote to characterization, as we saw in this one, and that is something the rest of the stable of writers should be doing at the TV network level.

    Some thoughts:

    Dean walking through purgatory and Benny chasing after him:

    While I agree there wasn’t suspenseful, per se, in that scene, it immediately drew me in because Dean already informed the viewers that Benny was ‘subconscious junk’ and shortly later Benny said they were walking in circles and Dean was leading the way. From that, viewers knew Dean’s mind has been going in circles. I liked it, because Dean often thinks that way when he is chewing on a problem.

    Rowena the hallucination: Loved it, and I didn’t guess it either until Dean rushed in and didn’t see her. I don’t think the box has some hidden smarts, but I think Sam dismissed what Suzie was saying to him (because he is dead set on saving Dean come hell or high water), so his mind went straight to the Rowena illusion because the deal he has made with her is his deep-seated guilt.


    Benny's accent: I like it ,but mostly I am dying to find out if there is a connection between him and the Stynes in some way, since they both speak Cajun.

    Opening the box: I will take a guess. Rowena said in the hands of an amateur, the spell fizzled, but Sam no amateur at magic and is so focused on saving Dean, he may have focused enough to complete the spell without it fizzling. That’s all I can think of.



    Since this is the Gripe Review, I'll throw in a couple of minor gripes, ignoring what caused Suzie to take a sledgehammer to her house over doing a load of laundry. I think we all saw that one.


    First off, I cringe every time I hear the word 'cure' when speaking about finding a solution to the MoC. It's not a disease! The Mark is a curse, and it should be 'lifted,' not 'cured.' Using 'cure' implies that they should be looking for a magical vaccination of some sort.


    The driving distances. It's a 6-hour drive from Lebanon, Kansas to St. Louis. Dean waking up, discovering Sam wasn't coming back from a breakfast run, drawing an etch , researching the case for himself, and getting to Sam...man, he must have been flying. It's a seven-hour drive from St. Louis to Tulsa. Maybe Dean had to find the nest...or something...but; again, pretty implausible that Sam made it right as Dean was finishing up.


    Dean and magic: I couldn't figure out how Dean could not be affected by the magical Death Star blast from Rowena two episodes before this one (Inside Man) and be affected by magic this time. That really bothered me, because the premise of Berens whole episode was magic. Inside Man clearly showed Dean was not susceptible to magic, and it took me a while to remember About a Boy, since I tend to quickly forget any Adam Glass self-insert episode, but Dean was susceptible to magic in that episode. Now I'm going with Dean is susceptible to magic unless death is imminent, then the Mark kicks in.


    Loved seeing an intelligent script, good dialogue, good characterization, and I think every actor did a wonderful job. Amazing what a meaty script can do for the show. Lastly, I really liked how Berens took the issue of suicide and used it as a MotW. How Supernatural is that!

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  5. Berens did us a service on many things,by showing Dean just a little more on the edge and showing us him sleeping like a baby after a kill, that the mark actually does more than look like it needs a groupon tat removal.


    Sam got to be smart and desperate at the same time as well as possibly playing into his insecurities as I took it Rowena turned up in his hallucination not only because the box knew it wasn't working but latched onto Sam's doubts and insecurities. That he feels that he isn't capable of doing anything on his own.


    I also like the proper shout out that they are both proper men of letters, because it needed mol blood to work. Not just Sam's but Sam and Dean's. That it takes more than a nod and knowing where the bunker is to be a mol - I'm looking at you Charlie.

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  6. While I agree with you about the writer, I didn't like the episode that much. Everything about it felt too easy to be true! Unlocking the box by reading a damn instruction on the door(!!!!!) and after that much hype, rendering that smart, resourceful and awfully cunning Rowena to a sort of slave, Dean not suspecting the slightest bit about Sam, also Sam acting surprisingly amateur despite being one the best and smartest hunters,... . Nothing adds up to the characteristics we've had so far.


    I know Sam is probably too desperate to be able to think thoroughly (though apparently he can outsmart the witch), but Dean's ignorance and Rowena's sudden downpowering could be just plot devices. I won't think about the box b/c everything about it all over the place; why MoL didn't read the instruction, why they didn't bring it to their base and hide it somewhere safe, why Magnus thought witches couldn't open it (surely they could read the 'instruction' and sacrifice a couple of MoL, unless it must be the blood of all MoL members), .... . Yes, those details you mentioned were great, but the big picture was way off IMO.

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  7. I thought Berens not only showed Sam's smarts which, after Her Highness Charlie, was refreshing, but I liked that he also showed Dean's strong willpower and the fact that he never quits and never gives up. I think the MoC used that innate core of Dean's personality in breaking the spell. Those two things, to me, show how Berens writes to characterization (as I mention in my above post).

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  8. I think there were two spells that were being talked about. The one Rowena said would fizzle in the hands of an amateur was a general defusing spell that would counteract the Werther protection spell. That one did fizzle which is why Suzie committed suicide and both Sam and Dean were being led to suicide. The second spell was written on the Werther box and was a specific how to open the box and to counteract that particular spell. That spell is the one that didn't fizzle. At leas that was how I saw it.

    I think that it's not that Dean isn't susceptible to magic. I think magic can't kill him. The spell Rowena tossed was meant to kill and the Mark totally shut that down. The Werther spell was more insidious. The Mark let it do it's thing, but didn't let it get to the end of killing Dean. The Mark may well kick in only when death, and possibly great physical harm, are imminent to protect Dean. Otherwise it may well not protect Dean from magic per se.

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  9. Have to admit Berens seems the best writer they have right now as he is writing the brothers as brothers and as themselves not putting self inserts into it.


    Sam's actions made a bit more sense, though still think he is over blowing the mark's effects on Dean to the point where when Dean does blow three quarters of the audience will go - why???

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  10. "The show will still find a way to condemn him for using them."



    You always portray Sam as a victim of the writers. You don't know that; none of us do. I quite like Sam this season and I think the show is doing a good job of including both brothers in the MoC story. Granted, it has not been much of a story up until this episode for either of them but; hopefully, the Winchester story will take up the last four episodes.


    I have my doubts, what with Thompson writing a Claire episode for the coming one, but I am hoping that he doesn't spend a great deal of time setting her up to be the newest hunter on the block starting next season.


    And thanks for clearing up that Suzy wall banging thing. That bothered me, but I was trying to overlook it as just being part of the teaser.

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  11. It is an interesting dichotomy that Dean's actions, even as a demon and to date, do not warrant the worry both Sam and Cas have for Dean. They are assuming the Mark is all evil, but Dean's actions have not shown that at all. In fact, that is something I have wondered about since early in the season, and I am curious as to why that is and if that point is going to be addressed. For instance, Colette's unconditional love of Cain is what caused him to stop his murder spree, but treating Dean like he is a ticking time bomb about to commit mass murder is anything but supportive.

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  12. A quick observation on your remark about the intelligence of the box, I
    got the feeling that there was a sort of intelligence about this
    particular box, or not an intelligence per se as a residue of who made
    the box Cuthbert Sinclare. rowena's reaction just before "she"
    disappeared reminded just a little bit of the particular personality of
    Sinclare. Kind of like a slightly bored but "well hell, they beat me,
    oh well better luck next time" attitude, i felt Sinclare had. i could be
    off the beaten track but that was how it came across to me

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  13. The whole young Suzie thing was about feminism, bucking gender norms. Suzie complains about the stuff she has to do around the house because she's a girl, and her mom tells her "none of your Betty Friedan stuff." The wall was already marked to be knocked down, so she wanted to do the "I can do anything a man does."


    As for the Werther showing Sam how to open the box, and bleeding him. The key words on the transcription was "our blood," meaning the Werther requires more than one person's blood, and so it knew Sam wouldn't be able to shut it down alone.

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  14. perhaps dean was affected because the spell itself was not what killed its victims. it was the mind games that caused the victims to kill themselves. when rowina tried to use the magic tattoos to kill dean the mark protected him. rowina even said that the spell "should have torn him apart". so when the dean was close to killing himself, that was when the moc actually stepped in. just a thought.

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  15. I agree. If anything the whole the Mark is bad and must go as it is turning Dean evil is going to turn into a self fulfilling prophecy to my mind. There is too much Sam tell rather than show Dean has become a high functioning psycho.


    Sam's actions are going to lead to something that is going to tip Dean over the edge. Whether that is Charlie's death or having to defend Sam from Crowley because of Sam's deal with Rowena, I don't know. From the releases Dean is going to go after the Stynes for some reason, whether that is justified or caused by Sam's deflecting (ie Charlie working with the book leads to her death and Dean blames the Stynes when she wouldn't have been in the firing line if she hadn't been working with Rowena and the book).


    But I get the feeling that something Sam does is going to do triggers it and if he hadn't, Dean would have held on. Just like Cain would have done if Dean and Crowley hadn't gone looking for him.

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  16. LOL! I just like the way you talk about charlie's death like it's a given ;D
    I wish but I don't think so. In fact I fear if they let any harm goes her way, they'd make a big deal of her heroism, innocent vulnerability, and how the brothers damned her happy life, and eventually give her a magnificent revival, sth on par with Dean's Lazarus rising! So I hope she goes down the rabbit hole or sth and leave the show for a while.


    I agree with you about MOC and the strange reactions to the non effects of it.

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  17. A girl can dream can't she?


    I know that sounds bad about wanting a female character to die on a show that lacks females, but damn it I can dream!!!

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  18. At least Claire becoming a hunter makes a lot more sense than Charlie 'I read a book on line and now I want an adventure'

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  19. Yeah . . . I'm pretty sure Sam will be thrown under the bus - yet again - before the end of the season.

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  20. This episode didn't do much for me, which is par for the course this season, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!

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  21. If Sam gets thrown under the bus this time there must be consequence outside something else made him do it.


    Still it is a bit of rinse an repeat.

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  22. Great review. I too thought that this was one of the better-written episodes. I've become so used to your declaring the guest stars as cartoonish caricatures, that I was expecting you to do the same with Suzie and was fully prepared to debate you on the subject. But I'm glad to see that your views on this pretty much match my own.

    Regarding Werther-Rowena cracking the box - I believe Magnus deliberately put that in as a part of his spell that Men of Letters seeking to defuse and open the the box would be guided onto the right path. Recall that one of the Men of Letters who died back in the fifties was found near the box with his wrists slit and Magnus said that he was on the right path. Magnus probably made the box such that it'd require two men of letters acting in tandem to open it even when they were under the effect of his spell.

    There was another thing I noticed, which, if my deductions are correct, would go a long way to redeem Sam. While I still believe that trusting Rowena with the Book is stupid, there was something Rowena said that stuck with me - that her latest attack on Dean happened last month. Now, we know that when the attack happened, Sam was getting Metatron out of heaven and shooting him in the leg. And while Sam was getting the Book, Metatron and Castiel were on a road-trip, which I doubt was longer than a few days, especially given that Metatron's leg would was pretty fresh. Which means, Sam must've gotten the book - and had that esoteric family dinner with Cas and Charlie - a few days after Rowena attacked Dean and almost a month has passed since then and the making of the deal. Which means, Sam had a whole month to try and figure out the book by himself and when he had really ruled out all other options, he went to Rowena. His choice to trust her - despite all "precautions" - still seems like a mistake, but alteast this way, it lends credibility to the idea that he had already explored other options.

    Unless, ofcourse, that line is simply the writer's wa of reconciling TV-time with real-time and has nothing to do with the plot at all.

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  23. What do you mean by Rowena's down-powering? She wasn't that powerful to begin with.

    One of the Men of Letters did read the instructions and was trying to "slake its thirst" - the one who was found dead near it with his wrists slit. They decided not to move it because they didn't know what might set it off - and the place they hid it in was an MoL safehouse and they'd made preparations to protect it - though Abaddon put a crimp in that. There is also the fact that the instructions were "illuminated" and read aloud by the hallucinations, which begs the question - were they always visible or could they only be illuminated when a Man of Letters was attempting to open the box under its influence.

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  24. "My question is how did Suzy get it back into the box?"


    I think that was because Suzie was knocked out at the time. Remember, the yellow smoke we saw isn't a demon living inside the box, it is a defense spell. It activates when some-one tried to open the box, "poisons" everyone in vicinity through their eyes and lets the spell work it out. Since Suzie was knocked out, it just hovered above her, but couldn't affect her and then went on to affect the others.



    As for Sam "cracking" the code, I'm a little confused. Sure, he understod what the Latin meant, but he couldn't read it until it was illuminated by the Werther Rowena. Which is why I think that the box did have the failsafe of leading any MoL man to the correct answer.

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  25. Loved this episode and it was also one of my favorites this season so far. Really wish the writing could always be this good and no so inconsistent as it usually is these days.

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  26. A sink hole to China would be a nice place to stick Charlie, but I am afraid if something happens to Charlie, we are just going to get Claire as her Sue substitute, so I am not seeing a win-win at all. After all, there has to be a reason why Thompson was given the Claire episode this time, instead of the Charlie episode.

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  27. Tessa, did you notice when you LIKE the episode there aren't 100 comments? What was it that Tolstoy said, all happy families are exactly the same, it's the unhappy ones that have the interesting differences?

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  28. I been thinking about Rowena. I think she is small-bore. Sort of like I thought Crowley was small bore in Abandon All Hope. Crowley "saw" what Lucifer's ultimate plan was and, since he wanted to live, helped Sam and Dean. Rowena's idea of "using her powers" appears to be 4-star digs and good food, she has lived three centuries without any real plan. She wants back into the Grand Coven. But she's done nothing to reach out. Dean put down the Hansel-and-Gretel witch pretty easily, so could Rowena. She's all smarmy, sort of like a used-car salesman. She is so manipulative and grinning about it. Then saying, DUH of course I'm manipulating you. If she had any finesse she could have had Crowley eating out of her hands. Her plan appeared to be getting into the MOL Bunker and begin using all the spell-work in there, to make herself the ultimate supernatural power. BUT she ended up chained in a basement because she so telegraphs her untrustworthiness. See? Not half the "player" she thinks she is.

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  29. Yeah to that. Kripke was big on "changing" canon too. I have always been surprised they don't have one assistant producer or whatever they'd call the person who is just in charge of things like "grand canyon references" or "beach" references.

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  30. I've seen people throw out the, "they were on a beach in 10x04." Technically, yeah they were sitting on the grass in front of a lake, but it's obvious Dean was talking about a beach beach, with sand and sun. But whatever.

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  31. I so totally agree on that one; to me Dean was referring to heading for the beach in the Corona Beer commercial. That beach in 10.04 was a lake beach with a No Hunting sign and probably covered in Canada Goose poop (at least every lake beach "I" ever saw has Canada Goose poop covering the shore).

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  32. I wonder if it is a male thing (if you are a male, if you aren't, then I am making a stupid point): I saw green smoke. I think my set is color-tuned properly, but I saw green. Anybody else see green (my point was do guys see yellow and gals see green).

    Also I think the Box would "kill" all people in the vicinity, and then re-set. Susie, knocked out in the explosive outburst by the box's Spell, woke up after the re-set.

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  33. I saw green smoke as well, and I'm female.

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  34. That is why Cain mentioned Dean's story is running IN REVERSE to what Cain's story ran. That instead of the marked one killing the innocent brother it will be the innocent brothers insistence on HELPING the marked one that will fulfill the prophecy. I believe the Big Bad for this season is actually The Book of the Damned, Sam's good intentions (We all know where those lead to.) and The Mark of Cain.

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  35. Exactly, Sam lying about destroying the book, the Stynes coming back for it and Dean killing the Stynes is what will lead to the end. I think Sam is actually what I term a somewhat "innocent" Big Bad.

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  36. That Mark does not mean Dean is immune to ALL magic. It means some spells can get through to him and manipulate him. He is still Human after all. I do not think that is an over sight or a hit to cannon. The same with the driving distance. It costs money to shoot scenes like that and it drags length out to and ruins the pacing of the episode. As viewers it is incumbent upon us to realize this when watching a show. It does NOT mean canon is being displaced. It is simply a common technique in movie making and is an unfortunate side effect of the whole Blurring Reality Fictional Universes and how they are displayed visually versus the written language.

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  37. You're correct I think. TV time does not equal our time that we live in right now. It is usually a throw away line that is needed because people think it is a mistake of writing when it is a simple mistake of TV show production.

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