Friday, December 2, 2011

Supernatural 7x10 "Death's Door"

Oh man. I think I need to take a second to process. Though I've always liked Bobby, I've never really been one wringing my hands, fearing he might die. But tonight I suddenly didn't want him to. And that is entirely courtesy of a great performance from Jim Beaver. I could probably wax on about it all, but instead I'm going to get into the recap.

In case you don't recall, the last episode left Bobby with a hole in his noggin courtesy of head Leviathan Dick. We pick up right where it left off, with the boys rushing him to the nearest trauma center. While the doctors go to work and the boys go to fretting, Bobby is in his noggin, working through the good, the bad and the bloody memories of his life.

These initial memories include a scene from the last episode with Sam and Dean, a flirty bedroom scene with his wife Karen before she got possessed, and working on a hunt with Rufus. Soon enough, a Reaper appears and tells Bobby that it's his time to go. But Bobby knows he has something to tell the boys - something he found out in Dick's office last episode - before he would feel okay doing so. That something turns out to be a number, though I honestly have not a clue what the number means. Are we supposed to know? Is that a mystery the boys will have to solve? Guess we'll find out.

Luckily for Bobby, he's a hunter, so he's able to get dream-vision Rufus on his side in figuring out how to not cross over to the other side in a kind of convenient memory where Rufus just happened to have told him that he went through something similar. Perhaps it's not altogether too convenient, maybe it was just Bobby's unconscious latching on to it. Wow I thought about that too much. Anyway, Rufus informs Bobby that the way out is through - he has to go through his worst memories to get back to life.

Not sure what that might be, he goes to the first one that comes to mind. The night when he apparently told Karen that he didn't want to have kids, which broke her heart. We find out that she was possessed three days later, which was not enough time for them to get through that and for Bobby to realize he would actually make a great dad. Alas, it was not meant to be. But this memory was not the one he needed to get back.

Back in the real world, the doctors are fairly grim about Bobby's chances of pulling through. A representative of some kind even has the nerve to ask Dean about the possibility of organ donation. Dean being Dean, he punches a glass directory in anger. Distraught, he heads outside to find Dick smugly waiting in his town car. Dean gives him a verbal lashing, but anything more than that is out of the question for now with so many onlookers. Of course, while Dean is not ready at all to accept the fact that Bobby might die, Sam tries to ease him into the idea. Not so successfully. You'd think he'd learn by now.

Back in Bobby's head, he's decided that since he doesn't know what memory will take him out, he's got to work some mojo on the Reaper to give himself some more time. Because that time is definitely running out. Stuff has started disappearing in this world-between-worlds, and it's because Bobby either needs to cross over or he'll get stuck in between and become an angry spirit someday. While he temporarily traps the Reaper, though, he also manages to figure out what memory is the right one.

It's one from his childhood. We saw a brief scene earlier with his parents - the meek mom and abusive dad that was hinted at not so long ago. But this time we get to see the whole thing. When Bobby's dad starts to abuse his mom, our time Bobby tells him the what for, that he was afraid to have his own kids because he didn't want to turn out like him, but he ended up adopting two boys anyway, and they turned out to be heroes. Awww. We also find out that apparently little Bobby shot his dad in the head, in the same spot that Bobby was just shot in the head! That was a cool bit of symmetry.

Recap/review of Supernatural 7x10 "Death's Door" by freshfromthe.com
Idjits. Weep.
Back in the real world, the doctors think that Bobby's brain has stopped swelling enough that they can operate, so they tell Sam and Dean now would be the time to go in and see him. Of course, this just happens to be when Bobby manages to wake himself up enough to scrawl the important number on Sam's palm and call the boys idjits before flatlining. Bobby!

In his brain, he spends one last good memory with the boys before the Reaper comes calling again. Time to make a choice. Go? Or stay? And.... fade to black! Damn it, I knew it!

What do you think? Is Bobby going to the great white yonder, or will he miraculously pull through? Honestly this felt like a love story goodbye to him, so I would kind of be surprised if he lived. But who knows. I DO know, however, that the preview for the January 6th return (yes, we're on hellatus!) looked pretty awesome.

Random Thoughts:

- I said to myself "his life is flashing before his eyes" and then someone said it out loud on the show and it made me feel smart and cool like a dork.

- The scene with Bobby playing catch with little Dean - awesome. I especially liked the follow up phone call he had with John. Aww.

- Idjits is Bobby's way of saying I love you, and it made me want to weep.

- Chuck Norris vs. Jet Li ... who would win in your book?

- That entire bickering segment with Dean and Sam at the end before they disappeared warmed my heart so much.

- What in the world does the number mean? I think it was 454895? Did Bobby get to write the whole number on Sam's hand or did I add an extra 5 on the end in my head?

- Did you guys see the video Jared and Jensen did thanking everyone for voting in the People's Choice Awards? No? GO WATCH IT.

Quotes:

"What, you were expecting Farrah Fawcett?" - Karen
"No, she always calls first." - Bobby

"Mother Mary, I've got a messed up fruitcake." - Bobby

"You got the only case of genetic bullet in the brain I've ever seen." - Reaper

"Idjits..." - Bobby :(

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

5 comments:

  1. I think I agree completely with your first couple of sentences. I was okay with Bobby dying until this episode really got going. Jim Beaver should be proud.

    Chuck Norris, of course.

    I am excited for the new eps after the hiatus. Five weeks though! Ugh.

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  2. Wow how's Jody gonna take this? After all she was starting to have a lil crush on Mr. Singer. Too bad I thought the two of them would have made a cute couple.

    Chuck Norris definitely! Does Jet Li have his own set of manly jokes. NO! After all there has to be some truth to those jokes.... right?

    The number is probably a map coordinate 45 48 95 would make the location somewhere in Wisconsin.

    Now as for the episode itself... you all know it's coming but I'm gonna leave it brief since I'm gonna be sounding like a broken record if I keep this up but as a supernatural episode it was ok The episode was tiring up until the last 10 minutes or so more on that below and choppy, especially the beginning with Bobby in the woods with the boys like a time reversal this confusing bit of is this a dream or did that just happen I found myself screaming WHAT A CHEAP SHOT! another Mystery Spot? F*** Another thing that bored me and angered me; when Bobby's interacting with his own memories as if they're real people! Even he should know that by interacting with a memory they are just that memories, not people. If you interact with your memories and they well talk back then they would be dreams.

    Ok enough of that now the good parts....

    The organ donation question and Dean's confrontation with Dick for obvious Jensen acting plus the final 10 minutes every scene in those final minutes were great Bobby confronting his dad and finally putting his fear to rest, and knowing his darkest secret was the murder of his own father by his own hand. EPIC! A lil cliche but EPIC!!! Sam and Dean's emotional brief reunion with Bobby that final word his own special way of saying I love you. Idgits. I felt something. I really truly did, and of course his last memory of his boys as they bicker over licorice as the Reaper asks him should we go or are you staying, as the image of his last peacful memory fades and with it the scene into black.

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  3. I think he could interact with them because they were memories, but the fact he could walk through them like that must mean they were also a part of his imagination. If he could "imagine" himself there, he could imagine the memories' reactions to him.

    I knew right away the woods was a memory, but maybe that's just because it's been done before on the show, so I was sort of waiting for something like that this week.

    I'm partial because I have always loved when a show or book travels into a character's mind via dreams or the imagination. Always intriguing to me to see what makes them tick.

    I do wonder if this is really the last we see of Bobby. It's like Buffy-- is anyone ever really truly dead in the Supernatural 'verse? We might see him again in some form. We'll see.

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  4. Did you guys notice how there were the random Chuck Norris commercials in there too? It made me laugh. Some kind of unintentional cross-promotion!

    I also love it when shows go into dreams and such. Always interesting to see the inner psyche.

    Even if Bobby is truly dead, and I kind of think he is, Supernatural does have a tendency to bring back dead characters (except *cough* Jeffrey Dean Morgan *cough*), so it is likely not the last we'll ever see of him.

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  5. Bobby is dead, but does that mean he's gone? No, I'm sure Bobby will reappear sometime in the future, as a dream, past memory, etc.

    After watching the episode again Bobby consolidating his memories into his dreams could explain how he was able to talk to Rufus but I like to think Rufus was actually Bobby's conscience. That he was actually talking to himself using Rufus as his avatar cause he trusts him.

    Now I'm not bashing the Dreamscape type episodes, normally I like these stories but a lot of stuff didn't fit. One big example was Bobby's revelation about Karen. He broke her heart when he revealed he did not want kids. Almost instantly she wanted nothing to do with him, and 3 days later he killed her when she was possessed. Not only did I find this a cop out to an already great emotional trauma but this contradicts established continuity with S5 when Death rose the dead along with Karen. now it could be possible she had no memory of Bobby's lies since she did herself say she could not remember how or the day she died. I still found it a bit of a stretch, since in the episode she was cooking for him and showing him affection, and cleaning not once was she screaming at him. This revelation would ret con all of that.

    Plus it didn't help that the episode mostly followed "In My Time of Dying" with Bobby chased by his reaper as Dean and Sam watched helplessly as he lie comatose, just like when Dean chased by his reaper and Sam and John were watching helplessly as he lie comatose.

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