Friday, February 17, 2012

Supernatural 7x15 "Repo Man"

Now, see, this is what I've been waiting for. The return of the hellucinations! By far my favorite episode of the season was the second one when they were first introduced. I wish it hadn't taken so long for them to resurface, but hey, at least they are!

To the recap! We start off four years ago, which is when? Third season? Fourth season? I think it was the fourth based on the sketchy timeline of events in my head (edit: apparently we're meant to believe this is season three, must be between the last two episodes, things get confusing when you've got time jumps in between seasons is all I'm saying). The Winchesters were in search of Lilith back then, and had tracked down a demon possessing a guy named Jeffrey to get the name of one of her special lieutenants. They get the info after some pretty terrible torturing of said dude. Dean drops him at the hospital once he's free of the demon, and that's that.

Of course, that's not that. Flash forward to the present day, where some bodies have been turning up, killed in the same way that the demon in question used to do. Though Dean wants to focus on the leviathans, Sam insists this is unfinished business, and they go to investigate. And now we actually get to see a glimpse of what Sam has been dealing with in regards to Lucifer still being around in his noggin. In the past he's been able to rub the scar on his hand and get him to go away, and that sort of continues to work here too, but as we'll see, it doesn't work for much longer. Oops, spoiler alert! But it's sort of a duh, so, whatev.

Recap/review of Supernatural 7x15 "Repo Man" by freshfromthe.com
Uh oh! Uh oh!
In any event, the boys go to see the woman who had previously helped them track down the demon before. She doesn't know much (or does she?!), but does lead the boys toward Jeffrey, the demon's onetime meat suit, as demons tend to be sentimental about the bodies they possess, often coming back for seconds. Jeffrey, it turns out, did not fare so well after his time with being possessed, and is now living in some kind of halfway house. But he did just get himself a cute doggy (at that point I said "oh no, they're going to kill a dog" and hoped I would be wrong. Alas! Whoops! More spoilers!), so he must be sort of turning things around, right?

Ummm. When the brothers check up on him, they figure out he's not possessed again. But he does remember a few things from his time - names on a list that the demon apparently kept in his head, those that he was going to kill next. And the women being killed now are following that same order. While Sam goes off to keep track of the next woman on the list, Dean hangs out with Jeffrey, who has another memory: there was a sort of hideout place that the demon used to go to when he wasn't killing people. Maybe he's there again now! Or maybe you shouldn't trust Jeffrey, Dean, because he's kind of weirdly shifty! But go to the mysterious warehouse they do, only to find a kid tied up to a chair. Dean tries to free him, but gets shot in the neck with something. Jeffrey! You mongrel! At this point we're wondering whether Jeffrey is actually possessed, or maybe he's just straight up crazy town. I was leaning toward crazy town, musing that perhaps he felt a connection to the demon and felt he should finish what he started. Close, I was, but not entirely correct!

Sam, meanwhile, has found the next victim at the library. He keeps a watch on her all while being constantly chatted at by Lucifer. Sam ignores him and ignores him and ignores him, until he surmises that Dean is probably dead since he is not picking up any of his phones. When Sam tells him to shut up, we can see the battle has just been lost by dear Sammy. Lucifer has found a way back in. Uh oh.

At first, he's helpful. Nothing has been going on with the librarian, and Luci points out that the answer is actually in the coroner's notes. This time around, all of the women were tranquilized. Why would a demon need to tranquilize women, one must wonder? Back to Jeffrey's! Sam combs the place until he finds some latin papers, which look like they came from the woman's place. Indeed, they did. Ms. Havelock was forced to try to come up with a summoning spell for the demon because crazy Jeffrey took her son, the boy we saw tied up earlier. The first spell didn't work, but she found one now that will, only it takes the blood of the exorciser. Namely, Dean. Better find him quick!

Dean, meanwhile, is getting an earful from crazy Jeffrey, who is, yes, crazy. It turns out he had serial killer tendencies even before the demon showed up, and felt free once he was able to do everything his heart of hearts desired. Now he just wants to get the demon back and feel whole again. Only when he performs the summoning, the demon decides to take up residence not in Jeffrey, but in the kid. Though the demon is proud of Jeffrey for fulfilling his terrible potential, he doesn't want to join back up with him. Obviously, Jeff is less than pleased with this information, so the demon gives him a slappy slap. Don't talk back to your demon, buddy, they don't like it.

Recap/review of Supernatural 7x15 "Repo Man" by freshfromthe.com
Lucifer, I missed you. Wait. What?

The demon's about to turn his attention on Dean, but that's when Sam and the mother turn up. They trap the demon in a devil's trap (though I wonder why that was there? Did Sam and the woman have time to put it up? I wouldn't have thought so. And why would Jeff put it up?) and exorcise it, but not before Dean has to shoot Jeffrey down dead when he tries to kill the kid meat suit. Another demon in training sent down to hell, yikes. It won't be good when he comes out someday.

The boys head back to their motel suite. Dean flops onto the bed, but Sam is not so lucky, because Lucifer is still there with him, and now that he has acknowledged his presence, Sam can't get rid of him by rubbing that scar on his palm anymore. His bed fills with flames while Lucifer cackles beside him. Sammy!

Random Thoughts:

- Oh hi, Impala! We've missed you. Will you be coming back anytime soon? Or is this like the alterna-reality leading to that future where you're buried beneath a tarp and future Dean is all mean? Huh? What? That was season five. Get over it.

- Yikes, that forked tongue from Lucifer was freaky gross! Squick factor: extreme!

- I loved it when Lucifer called himself Luci. Haha, yes!

- You know someone is straight up evil when they kill a dog, especially their own dog. Damn you, crazy Jeffrey!

- The whole thing seemed to wrap up a little too easily after such a great build up, but I won't quibble when generally it was really good.

- Brain melt thought of the night: why does Lucifer manifest as the Nick version? Is that the version that Sam would've seen in hell? Obviously for budgetary reasons we can't see some mystical devil figure, but what if Sam saw Lucifer as himself sometimes? Jared was always great at playing him. Probably would get too confusing.

- The preview! OMG, the preview! Sam on a hospital gurney looking crazed! Misha! The awesome way they said the date of the return in that gramophone (March 9th, btw. Yep, we're in another mini hiatus)!

Quotes:
(I could just call this Lucifer quotes!)

"It's nice. Kinda like a men's room with beds." - Lucifer

Guy 1: I wanna talk about Cinemax. We're grown men. We pay rent. Why can't we get Cinemax?
Guy 2: Heh heh. Skinemax.

Dean: Sorry, just had to make sure.
Jeffrey: Make sure of what? That I peed my pants today?

"You're right. We just don't read anymore." - Lucifer

"I'm pretty sure this guy's the boring sort of chubby chaser." - Lucifer

"This is what I'm talking about, Sam, real interaction again, I've missed that. The rapier wit. The wittier ape." - Lucifer

"Hmm. Latin. Not suspicious at all." - Lucifer

Sam: A demon summoning. Why?
Lucifer: Why? To summon demons, jackass.

"Ay carumba! Mi cabesa!" - Lucifer

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

2 comments:

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  2. By far my favorite episode of the season!!!!! Ben writes a very good mystery and unlike last week we have a very terrifying villian, a homicidal maniac who just wants his best buddy back, and will go to such means to brig him back also he manipulates everyone around him into thinking he's the victim like a genuine serial killer like Bundy, even adopting a dog that took 6 WEEKS just to kill her for his summoning, that's psycho! There is some continuity errors with that but the episode was good I ll forgive it. That balls on approach has been missing in the series for some time. Yet there are still some people graping that the main focus of the episode had nothing to do with the Supernatural. Why is it these people hate the "Freaking Humans!" stories? Some of those are some of the best telligs of horror and mystery in the series!

    What we also see is a whole new perspective in demon exorcising. Dean and Sam actually ask the possessed if it's alright to hurt him in order to get the info they need to hunt Lillith's posse, and of course her. Then Dean drops off the unlucky at the hospital with the cover story "You were mugged." These refreshing ideas breathe new life into a tired formula.

    As for some of your question and inquiries in my honest opinion

    A. I think Sam helluncinates (< I like what you did there.) Mark Pelligrino because it's how Sam best knows him burning through Nick's body, and his mind manifests that image. Lucifer himself in the cage would have been a beam of white light and not very interesting to see Sam conversing with such an entity Nope Nick had to do. I personally would like to have seen Jared in the other seat a bit playing off of one another to see more focus on Jared's acting but heyt whatever Mark was great.

    B. As for when the hell were they in the flashback, I think the time period puts them in the third season. If you were to wind back four years from now you would end up in early 2008, plus add to that Dean seems to be more agressive in hunting Lilith then Sam who just sits back and mostly assists which would make sense considering he's really beating the clock to save his soul. The other thing Ruby's knife is missing and there's no fireworks when the knife is stuck in Jeffery. Holy water was used but I doubt Dean learned that in Hell. On a unrelated and random note; did you notice Dean was wearing the Poni pendant in the flashback? Awesome!

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