#sam humphries doing good work

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

One of my favorite things is when a Green Lantern's constructs are juxtaposed with another's, and you get to see the differences in their styles and personalities. Probably the most famous example is in Green Lantern: Rebirth when Hal's yapping about Guy, John, Kyle, and Kilowog while they fight Parallax-possessed Ganthet, but the entire run of Green Lanterns does it really well for Simon and Jessica:

Simon's creations are sharp, defined, angular. His background in mechanical engineering shines through as he outfits Cyborg with a massive cannon for a team attack, and even something as simple as the good old boxing glove gets a telescoping mechanism to pack an extra punch.

By contrast, Jessica's constructs are much more fluid and organic in shape. Her affinity for nature and wilderness (an underappreciated aspect of her character imo) shines brightly in the vines and roots and animals that she creates.

And when you put the two of them together, you can really see how differently their minds and personalities work, despite sharing the same name and powerset.

[chiisana-sukima]

Tell us more about Cara Roberts? 👀❤️

Cara Roberts, my beloved, ngl I would instantly take my shirt off if she said this to me too:

x

Sure, it sounds bad in isolation, but it's even worse in context, and I adore her for it. She's drinking at work, she's got a dead husband and is casually admitting motive for murder to an alleged FBI agent, she's having one of the hottest sex scenes in the show, and they let her live anyway!! Truly, who is doing it like her?

The thing about Cara, is she's a whole-ass person in just a few swift strokes. She has her own life and her own problems, and she intersects briefly with the Winchesters, makes the most of it, and then gets the fuck out; as far as we know none the worse for wear and in possession of an incredible memory to look back on. I can see her watching leviathan!Sam and Dean shoot up that diner on TV, thinking, "huh, dodged a bullet on that one. well, the sex sure was good so whatever" in the least disturbed internal voice imaginable, and heading down the hall to do another autopsy.

She's still a prop of course. Her purpose in the episode is to be a plausible monster of the week while turning out to be just a random woman and also to up the ratings by giving them an excuse to get Jared out of his shirt, but her role in the plot allows her to avoid becoming any of the things most women on spn end up as: a victim, a mother, a victim-mother, an innocent little sister, a scheming duplicitous demon bitch, dead, or somehow all of the above. I'm kissing Cathryn Humphris on the mouth about Cara every day.

[sgiandubh]

Friends and friends of friends a network make

Boys are back in town, no rings (Real Life, not Instabuzz) and active networking:

In this case, those who are missing from the pic are as (if not more) important as those who made it, riding in the rain.

Let's unpack:

John Laurie, Managing Director at the Glenturret distillery, where my personal favorite blend (oh, well, The Famous Grouse - I know, really LOL, but it is what it is) is made. A long, interesting career that started in 2000, as General Manager of a fitness club network headquartered in Irvine, California (LA Fitness) and got him more and more involved in whisky business since 2014, as General Manager of Edrington, the Macallan distillery. If it sounds familiar to you, well... always remember that #silly old slogan on the Pall Mall cigarette packs: 'wherever particular people congregate'. I know I do 😎.

Something immediately piqued my interest in this short bio: 'opened a fine dining restaurant that achieved a Michelin star inside 7 months'. And it is, of course, true: part of the reasons I am always using LinkedIn to place people, is that it would be counterproductive to blatantly lie, there. Or childish: even McSideburns knows that, with his very empty page and 1 contact - but what the hell do I know, though, he's more private than if he worked for the MI-6.

The one starred Michelin restaurant who got 'le macaron' in seven months is The Glenturret Lalique Restaurant, that opened in July 2021, on the distillery's premises and got it by February 2022. The first time a distillery wins a Michelin star, by the way:

Now, where did I read a similar business story, not so long ago and wrote about it? Oh, that's right, Tom Kitchin's first restaurant in EDI apparently followed the same yellow brick road to instant success, back in 2007:

Again, I am sensing a theme, here. Associating with young, dynamic and daring entrepreneurial voices in the whisky business. Not exactly the manwhore, closeted gay, peasant and crook some hypocrites would like to portray. I have to say, I am always, always over the moon glad to see the real thing showing up from time to time: a consistent effort to get things done, properly.

But sure, you believe what you want. I cannot force anyone to go beyond a sometimes very limited world view.

Second person being missed is David Coulthard, F1 legend, but also...

Company Director at Whisper Films, one of the most dynamic, fastest growing UK media groups. He founded it in 2010, along Jake Humphries, BBC F1 commenter extraordinaire and Sunil Patel, a former BBC producer, but also a Board Member of the Edinburgh TV Festival:

And for those who might not know it (I didn't), Coulthard hails from Dumfries & Galloway. Mmmhm. Well done, S. Well done.

S knows exactly what he's doing, where he's going and when and with whom he is seen. By this point in time, I think we might safely think his somewhat lackadaisical recent Insta follows (Romanian female MMA athlete? ROFLMAO, really and I howled) as gently trolling this very obsessed invested fandom. As I wrote it many, many times already, the Scottish Mafia is a reality - and good for him, really, to use what is readily available. And if you still had any doubt that was a business informal meeting, The Highland Chieftain tagged SS in his story.

He's going to laugh all the way to the bank, this one. You'll see. Great news and I will always be here to put it in context. Some of the things being heavily peddled around in here might not be very interesting to me - but this yes: this is exciting.

Also, many, many thanks to the two of you who immediately keep me up with these: you know who you are and you are loved, of course, why even ask?😘🙌

[boykingscourt]

+ also fave season and favorite/least favorite episode from it 🤔

I will get to your other ask but this one is much easier to answer so I will do it now!

up until probably a year ago I would've said my favorite season is 4 but after a few very recent rewatches I think I enjoy 2 a hair more!

now s2 has very few skips but one that will always be a skip for me is hollywood babylon I can't properly describe how much I dread that episode lmao

favorite from s2 is obviously very hard but it's probably born under a bad sign. it's been one of my favorite episodes period since I began watching the show as a stupid teenager and remains one of my favorites! meg!sam is just too iconic and its only downside is that it reminds me what a short time cathryn humphris worked on spn. a real tragedy that she left the show so soon but at least she gave us a handful of really important character-driven episodes

other faves from s2 are 2x01, 2x12, and 2x21 but s2 has sooooo many good episodes it's ridiculous

ty for the ask!!

[oliverreedmasterass]

GVF doing the Architectural Digest Home Tour as a crackfic

Welcome to My Crib

Words: 2.8k

Warnings: language, mention of blood

Notes: Sorry @starcatcherkiszka, I kinda took the "crackfic" part of this idea and ran with it...

_______________________________

“Hey there!” Sam greeted the camera with a warm smile as he stood in the doorway of a large, modern-looking white house. “My name is Sam Kiszka, and welcome to my crib.” The camera panned down for a brief second to take in Sam’s short shorts, black mesh top, oversized sunglasses, and birks. Behind him, Jake, Josh, and Danny were just in frame, the twins jumping to try and see over Sam’s head. Sam looked back to acknowledge his band and then turned to the camera with a chuckle. 

“They don’t live with me, but they spend enough time here that they might as well. They’re gonna join me for the tour since we’ve got a lot of ground to cover.” 

“I call dibs on the backyard!” Josh leaned forward to call into the camera. Sam pushed him back and then made a grand gesture to welcome the camera into the house. 

“Let’s get this shit going!” he called out, hardly able to contain his excitement. 

The camera moved in behind him and made a slow circle, taking in the open and bright entryway decorated with potted plants and a marble statue of cupid resting on a fancy pillar. As the camera passed by Jake, he awkwardly held up a hand and mumbled, “Hi, Architectural Digest.” 

Sam jumped back in front of the camera and motioned towards the cupid statue, accidentally knocking into it so Danny had to jerk forward to catch it before it crashed to the tiled floor. 

“I call him Benedict Humphries” Sam shared, hardly batting an eye at the chaos he nearly caused. “He’s a man of culture, much like myself.” 

From behind him, Danny rolled his eyes. 

“As you’ll see, this entry way is nice and open to maximize the air flow in the house. I actually designed this house myself, so every single detail was my idea. I’m a very meticulous person, you’ll come to find.” 

“Sam chose white paint for the entryway since it represents his purity,” Jake tried to call out, though Josh slapped a hand over his mouth before he could continue. 

“Let’s go to the living room,” Sam pointed forwards, down the hallway lined with mirrors straight out of a Crate & Barrel catalog and various pictures of people who looked unfamiliar. “I spent the most time working on this room,” Sam continued, talking over his shoulder to the camera. The camera stopped to look over the clean, open room, and Sam stood in front of it with his hands on his hips, taking it all in. “Ah, yeah,” Sam sighed out. “This is the good stuff. Where do I begin?” 

“How about that TV? Jesus Christ,” Danny could be heard commenting offscreen. Sam took his cue and moved to the television that was easily over 80 inches wide and took up nearly an entire wall of the room. An L-shaped, baby blue suede couch sat across from the television, paired with a glass table and even more house plants. Sam got slightly distracted by a copy of Vogue that was left on the coffee table but then snapped his head back up and waved his hand at the flatscreen. 

“I brought the movie theater straight to my living room; it was really the best financial decision of my life,” Sam shared. “I love watching old Animal Planet reruns on this thing, it's like I'm actually out in the African Savanna.” 

“I watch C-SPAN,” Jake chirped, strolling back into frame. 

Sam ignored Jake and made a sweeping gesture at the rest of the living room, which the camera followed. 

“This room is the pinnacle of feng shui excellence,” Sam declared. “The energy is just, you know, immaculate.” 

“For crying out loud,” Josh mumbled to Danny. “You can hardly call this feng shui, I'm practically suffocating in here.” 

“Each piece in this room was designed by myself and, I know it might be hard to believe, but I made it myself too, with my own bare hands,” Sam kept blabbing. 

“You should see what the man can do with a saw,” Danny added. 

Sam noticed a pretty hefty stain on the carpet that looked like it could be either wine or blood, and made a concerted effort to plop down and sit on it with a grunt, hiding it before it could be spotted by the cameraman. 

“My pal is going to take over the next portion of the tour,” he announced from the floor. “Take it away, Daniel!” 

Danny moved in front of the camera and gave a small wave. 

“I’ll show you the kitchen and dining room, otherwise known as the two rooms Sam hardly ever uses because he can’t cook for shit.” 

“I make a mean margarita!” Sam protested. 

“Agree to disagree,” Danny corrected him, then returned to the camera. “Let’s go,” he said, and made his way through the living room to the kitchen, which had nice marble countertops, a large island equipped with bar stools, and an overall off-white theme. Danny scanned around the room in awe as if it was his first time seeing it, and then grunted at the memory that there was a camera crew there. 

“This is Sam’s kitchen, uh, with a nice electric stove it looks like, a gigantic fridge, dear lord you could fit a body in there, and plenty of counter space.” Danny took a brief pause to clear his throat, and then pointed back at the counters. “The marble was taken from Sylacauga, Alabama and, actually this is really cool, if you put your ear up to it, you can hear the opening riff to ‘Sweet Home Alabama.’”

“He’s telling the truth,” Josh jumped back in front of the camera to confirm. 

Danny spun around in a circle, trying to gather inspiration on what he could showcase next. He quickly hurried over to a toaster and slapped his hand down on it so it made a few crackling metallic sounds. 

“This is still hot,” Danny announced. “And now my hand hurts.” 

While Danny rushed to the sink to drench his burned hand in cold water, Josh started to sort through the liquor cabinet in the background.

“Mead?" he called out in shock. "Who the hell owns mead? I mean, Sam, what the hell?"

Sam shook his head at Josh.

"Beats me."

“Uh,” Danny backed away from the sink and was searching around again. “The fridge is, well, it’s great to store…” Danny trailed off as he opened the double doors of the fridge and poked his head in. “It’s great to store mustard?” he asked aloud, sounding confused. Jake, Josh, and Sam hurried to his side to peer at the lines of mustard that were tucked in the side door. 

“This bottle expired in 2011,” Jake realized as he grabbed one closest to him and read the label. 

“Do you want to explain, Sam?” Danny turned to his friend. 

“Well,” Sam thought hard, “I firmly believe that these old bottles will be worth a lot someday. I like to invest in unconventional things.” 

“I found a bottle that expired in 2006!” Josh called out. 

“That’s gonna be worth thousands,” Sam winked back at the camera. 

“I say we check out the next room, what do you say?” Danny looked around at his bandmates. They all proceeded to salute him, so Danny moved onwards to the dining room and skidded to a halt, gaping at it in shock. When Jake saw the room, he had to duck back into the kitchen, where he could just barely be heard choking out between cackles, 

“What the fuck?” 

The table was long and decorated with vases of sunflowers, which was a nice sight, but the oversized portrait of a very nude Burt Reynolds stood out as an oddity. Danny uncomfortably shuffled next to it, trying to cover the more crude parts of the image with his head, and nodded back at it. 

“Sam is a huge fan of exhibitionism. It’s something he can feast his eyes on while he’s enjoying a meal. There’s just something so profound about the peaks and valleys of Burt Reynolds’ body. It’s like, every time you look at the picture, you notice something new.” 

“Hairy men are so underappreciated in the art community,” Josh agreed. “Sam is really forward-thinking with his statement pieces in this house.” 

Jake wandered back into the room wiping some stray tears from his eyes and Danny gave him a pat on the back. 

“I can’t do this anymore, it’s your turn,” Danny could just barely be heard telling him. Jake sucked in a deep breath to compose himself and then flashed a toothy grin at the camera. 

“I get the pleasure of showing you the bedrooms, where the magic happens.” 

“That’s a weird thing to say about your brother’s house,” the cameraman couldn’t help but interject. Jake turned on his heel to face the cameraman and shrugged. 

“It’s my line, and I’m sticking with it whether you like it or not, Jerry.”

"My name's not Jerry," the cameraman muttered. 

Jake started to lead them back towards the front door, but then quickly whirled around when he noted he was lost, and moved towards the staircase leading upstairs. 

“Sam paid some beavers to harvest the wood for these stairs from the Franklin State Forest," Jake shared over his shoulder as he pointed to the wooden steps. "Their rates are really fair for the quality of their work."

Jake approached the first door in the hallway and slammed his hand down on the doorknob. 

“This is where the magic happens!” he announced, thrusting the door open. The camera went in first, taking in a nice and large room basking in natural light from the French doors that led out to a roomy balcony. A massive king-sized bed sat in the middle of the room with simple white sheets and a collection of earthy-toned throw pillows. Jake approached a salt lamp that was sitting on the bedside table and gave it a testing sniff. "Sam licks this when he gets bored," he shared. "If you look closely, you'll find some bite marks on it."

With a grunt, Jake threw himself back onto the bed, bouncing up and down a few times, and lifted a thumbs up to the ceiling.

"This is an optimal bed for back support," he proclaimed. "God, I feel like I could fall asleep right now."

While the cameraman focused on getting additional b-roll footage of the room, a strange sound started to pick up in his headphones. He turned around and, lo and behold, within a matter of seconds, Jake had knocked out cold in the bed, rattling the room with his deep snores. Josh grabbed a Sharpie out of his back pocket and leaned over Jake, drawing a fake goatee and glasses on his face while Sam snickered. Danny shook Jake back awake and he jolted up, looking around at everyone in shock.

"Did I fall asleep?" he asked around.

"Yeah," the room echoed back to him.

"That's a damn good bed then," Jake decided as he got back to his feet and rubbed at his eyes, smudging some of Josh's work. "Let's head to the next room."

Jake led the way and everyone else followed out to the door on the opposite side of the hallway. With a sly grin, Jake put his hand on the doorknob. 

“That magic I was talking about earlier? Well, it also happens here,” he said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye as he pushed the door open. 

This time, the door revealed a room that was entirely empty with the exception of a single folding chair. Jake's hand fell limp back to his side and he studied the chair, trying to make sense of it.

"This is where Sam...ponders? I actually don't know. Sam, you're gonna have to help me out here," Jake looked to his younger brother. Sam tried not to laugh at Jake, since his face looked absolutely ridiculous, and took in the single chair.

"That's my guest room," he replied, like it was a totally normal answer.

"Feels like home," Jake commented. Growing quickly bored of the odd room, he led them down to the next door.

“Welcome,” he said with a dramatic pause, “to where the magic happens.” 

This time, Jake started to walk into the room before the camera could take it in, but he abruptly stopped and then shut the door, pressing his back against it with his eyes wide. 

“What?” Josh asked, shocked by how distressed his twin looked. 

“There’s some stuff in there that I don’t think Architectural Digest can feature on their YouTube channel,” Jake squeaked out. 

Danny gently nudged Jake out of the way and poked his head into the room. He let out a short gasp and then, like Jake, quickly closed the door. 

“Considering the stuff in there, I think that is where the magic happens,” Danny blew out a long breath of air. “There was so much leather.” 

“That’s my secret room,” Sam softly explained, his face red “Hey, why don’t we go down to the backyard, Josh?” 

Sam sounded eager to get them as far away from that room as possible. Josh was more than ready to cut in, as he snatched the camera from the cameraman’s hands and whipped it around so he could address the lens at an unflattering angle. 

“Come with me on a journey to the outside domain, where Sam’s vision for merging man and the natural world comes together in a stunning harmony.” 

Before the cameraman could grab the camera back from Josh, Josh started to run down the stairs, the camera still pointed at his face. He tripped a little on the last step, which nearly resulted in him falling flat on top of the 4K camera, but caught himself and continued to book it to the back door. Just barely visible in the corner of the frame, it looked like there was a broken window next to the sliding door. 

“Here we are,” Josh announced as he flipped the camera around to pan across the backyard, which was complete with a swimming pool, grilling area, and outdoor dining set. He slipped off his tennis shoes and made a show of zooming in close on his feet while he stomped around the well-maintained grass. “This is the perfect space to unblock your chakras. I like to sink to the bottom of the pool just to feel weightless. You know, especially with the pool being eight feet deep, it lets me drop and drop and feel the heaviness of my soul, but when I push back up to the top, it’s like all the negative energy is flowing out of me.” 

The cameraman, Jake, Danny, and Sam all watched as Josh aimlessly wandered around the backyard, filming shots of bees, flowers, and the sky while talking to himself. 

“Do you think you could get the camera back for me?” the cameraman asked, sounding exasperated. Architectural Digest didn’t pay him near enough to deal with these hooligans. It was nerve-wracking to watch the short ball of energy manhandling his camera around the backyard, zooming in and out on a single blade of grass while humming some kind of incantation. 

“He’s in his element, just let him get it out of his system,” Jake told the cameraman, putting a hand on his shoulder. He didn’t feel bad for the guy at all, especially after he didn’t find his “this is where the magic happens” joke to be fucking hilarious. 

“Maybe we should get the camera back before Josh breaks it,” Danny sounded worried. 

“HEY!” a voice shouted behind them. They all twisted around to see a middle-aged man, his face red with rage, standing at the back door. 

“Oh fuck!” Josh called out. He rushed the camera to the cameraman and tucked it in his hands. “We gotta go!” 

“Why? What’s happening?” the cameraman asked, his head spinning. 

“WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING ON MY PROPERTY?” the man shouted louder. 

“This isn’t our fucking house, dude,” Sam told the cameraman. “We broke in.” 

“Catch you later!” Jake said before booking it for the side fence, flipping himself over the top of it, and rushing down the street. Josh quickly followed suit behind him. 

Danny gave the cameraman an apologetic smile. 

“Thanks for the opportunity, I hope the video turns out well.” 

The cameraman stood paralyzed, gaping in awe at Danny and Sam, who also disappeared over the fence and out of sight. 

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, buddy,” the property owner growled as he approached the cameraman. 

“I wish I could,” was all he managed to say. 

[eemoo1o-animoo]

Kuroshitcember Prompt List:

(2022 edition)

Kuroshit name, I know. But, I’m making this a thing! Reblog if you’re using it, and feel free to send me the results!

Happy Kurostmas everyone, and other merry tidings.

Thursday, the 1st of December; — Sebastian delivers a letter to his master.

Friday, the 2nd of December; — Grelle smiles at Will everyday when he comes into work. Why? How does she feel when he ignores her? Does he ignore her? How does he react?

Saturday, the 3rd of December; — Agni stands by his prince in absolute silence. Why? What is he thinking about? How does he feel? How long has he been doing this for?

Sunday, the 4th of December; — Pick a male character and dress them up in drag! Ciel doesn’t count. Why are they in drag? Do they like it? How do people react? Is this a regular occurrence? What happens next?

Monday, the 5th of December; — Fast forward a century or so, and the Grim Reaper Dispatch’s collection system has switched to AI and other complex technologies. How good are the grim reapers at this? How do they feel about it?

Tuesday, the 6th of December; — Caskets and coffins, colds and collectibles. Write something about the Undertaker and his fresh clients of winter deaths!

Wednesday, the 7th of December; — Demons don’t usually sleep. So, how do they dream?

Thursday, the 8th of December; — Pick two characters and swap their species! What does this do? Is demon Will just another version of Claude? Is human Sebastian any different to how he is now?

Friday, the 9th of December; — Listen to Stolas Sings by Sam Haft. What do you think this could represent?

Saturday, the 10th of December; — Paperwork that Will asked for gets handed in late. What happens?

Sunday, the 11th of December; — Finny writes a letter to St. Nicholas. What does he write?

Monday, the 12th of December; — As Christmas draws near, so does the cold, which plays hell with Tanaka’s old bones.

Tuesday, the 13th of December; — Ronald Knox’s wristwatch breaks. One of the other reapers gives him a gift to replace it while it’s in repairs.

Wednesday, the 14th of December; — Ciel’s birthday. What happens? How does he feel?

Thursday, the 15th of December; — A day in the life of a Trancy servant.

Friday, the 16th of December; — Rice cakes. That’s it. That’s the prompt.

Saturday, the 17th of December; — Eric Slingby reminisces about his domestic life with Alan Humphries. What does this entail?

Sunday, the 18th of December; — Listen to Bloody Mary by Lady Gaga. What do you think this could represent?

Monday, the 19th of December; — The Undertaker used to be allied to the Phantomhives. Why was that? How does he feel now that he’s no longer affiliated with them? What was his relationships like with Cloudia and Vincent like, respectively, perhaps in contrast to the one that he now has with Ciel?

Tuesday, the 20th of December; — Grelle Sutcliff and Madame Red are just after meeting. What happens? What do they talk about?

Wednesday, the 21st of December; — Mey-Rin sits down with Bard over a packet of smokes. What do they do? What do they talk about? Is it romantic or completely platonic?

Thursday, the 22nd of December; — “[She/He/They/It] prowl(s) around London with [her/his/their/its] [claws/weapon] dragging along the wet ground, waiting until […].”

Friday, the 23rd of December; — Sebastian thinks about his life before his contract with Ciel.

Saturday, the 24th of December; — Sebastian (and, more optionally, the servants) prepares the manor for the young master for Christmas Day.

Sunday, the 25th of December; — Sebastian bears an awful resemblance to someone held near. Pick a character and let them realise this!

Monday, the 26th of December; — “And then he was all like, ‘I am simply one hell of a butler’. Ugh! I hate that guy.”

Tuesday, the 27th of December; — William T. Spears is just after laughing. Why? How? What has just happened to cause such a cosmical event?

Wednesday, the 28th of December; — “Tanaka looks to Sebastian and Ciel. All he truly sees in front of him is a monster.”

Thursday, the 29th of December; — The Undertaker and [Ciel/Sebastian/one of the reapers] sit down and have a chat during dire times. Why? What do they talk about? Is it an argument? If so, who’s winning?

Friday, the 30th of December; — The Grim Reapers prepare the office for a New Years’ Eve party. Why? What happens?

Saturday, the 31st of December; — Sebastian takes his final bow as the final curtain call nears on Ciel’s life.

[Image ID: SFW and NSFW is allowed! Sebaciel and the like is not! *Sebaciel shippers DNI!*]

[according-to-the-laura]

StackedNatural Day 160: 1x20, 7x19

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

April 20, 2022

1x20: Dead Man's Blood

Written by: Cathryn Humphris & John Shiban

Directed by: Tony Wharmby

Original air date: April 20, 2006

Plot Synopsis:

After Daniel Elkins, a vampire hunter and John's mentor, is murdered, Sam and Dean are surprised when John himself shows up to solve the case. John discovers the vampires have taken an antique gun, which has the power to kill all supernatural beings. 

Features:

Daniel Elkins, the introduction of the Colt, the non-extinction of vampires, Sam and John butting heads, an extremely horny pack of vampires, need-to-know parenting, a college fund’s worth of ammo, 

My Thoughts:

This is a great episode in most respects - the hunt is interesting, the effects are great, and the relationships between the characters are expanded and complicated. Not to mention the Colt is going to be so crucial for so much of the series. 

It is kind of funny in retrospect that Sam and Dean thought vampires weren’t real and John thought they were all extinct because they show up SO often as the series goes on. Either John was total shit at vampire hunting or vampires got REALLY busy turning people shortly after 2006.  

It’s not this episode’s fault that Jenny, the random victim of the week, is the one that kills Dean in the series finale, but it does piss me off in retrospect. It actually works kind of well, especially given the line “Once a vampire has your scent, it's for life”. The problem is that the only think I remembered about this episode was the colt and the fights between John and Sam. Jenny didn’t make a big enough impression for me to have any reaction to her turning up in Carry On. I think Dabb just went through season 1 and picked the first monster that got away. In terms of theme, it’s shitty to end a show that tries to ask a bunch of questions about the morality of hunting by saying that letting a creature flee will kill you. But again, we can hardly fault this episode for Andrew Dabb’s sins. 

The directing of this episode is great. Dean is visible literally between Sam and John while they fight, a buffer protecting them from each other. The eyeshine on the vampires and the rearview mirror lighting John’s face up are also great. I like the special effects on the kill with the Colt as well.

I love to hate John Winchester and this is a good episode for that. I do think he loves his sons, but that doesn’t make him a good father. The fact that it never occurred to him to consider what Sam wanted out of life is proof of that, aside from the fact that he treats his children like soldiers. I like the conversation between him and Sam - it helps show us his worldview, but even with all that he doesn’t apologize for cutting off contact with Sam. 

Notable Lines:

“Hey Dean, why don't you touch up your car before you get rust? I wouldn't have given you the damn thing if I thought you were going to ruin it.”

“Are you telling me you're cool with just falling into line, and letting him run the whole show?” “If that's what it takes.”

“You're the one who said ‘don't come back,’ Dad. You closed that door, not me.”

“Back in 1835, when Halley's comet was overhead, the same night those men died at the Alamo. They say Samuel Colt made a gun.”

“After your mother passed all I saw was evil, everywhere. And all I cared about was keeping you boys alive. I wanted you...prepared. Ready. Except somewhere along the line I stopped being your father and I ... I became your drill sergeant.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 8.6

IMdB Rating: 8.5

7x19: Of Grave Importance

Written by: Buckleming

Directed by: Tim Andrew

Original air date: April 20, 2012

Plot Synopsis:

Bobby's spirit tries to help Sam and Dean as they try to find a missing friend inside a haunted house.

Features:

Foxhole trysts, more of Dean’s functional alcoholism, Bobby’s haunting efforts, a super duper haunted house, the mechanics of ghosthood. 

My Thoughts:

Y’all, we found it. A Buckleming episode that is not only watchable, but enjoyable. The dialogue wasn’t even atrocious. 

Annie appeared on screen and I straight up thought it was Ellen for a second, so apparently Bobby has a type. The Hemingway foxhole bit in the restaurant was actually so funny that I laughed out loud. Well-written and well-acted.

It’s nice to have a Bobby POV episode now that they finally confirmed that he was still around at the end of the last season 7 episode, and I like the ethical dilemma that it raises about the morals of killing ghosts. It would be better if that was followed up with any nuance in their later hunting habits, but we can’t have everything. 

This episode made me know in my heart that 15x02 Raising Hell could have been handled better. The same writers seven years earlier did a ghost power struggle and it was interesting and had high stakes, rather than a union but evil. 

It is funny that Bobby and Annie spent so much time looking for hidden doors in this episode. You guys are ghosts. Walk through walls until you find what you’re looking for. 

Notable Lines:

“All right, now. I can kill werewolves, fix a Pinto, and bake cornbread. I will be damned if I can't get Zen.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 8.4

IMdB Rating: 8.5

In Conclusion: A whole day off tomorrow and I have no idea what I’m going to use my lunch break for. 

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[bustyasianbeautiespod]

Episode 29 Transcript: Has Dean Ever Been In A Bitch?

[intro guitar music]

G: Hello, my name is Grey.

C: And my name is Crystal.

G: And this is Busty Asian Beauties, the Supernatural commentary podcast where I, someone who has seen this show several times...

C: And I, someone who only knows the show through social media, discuss every single episode of Supernatural from start to finish. Also, we're both Asian.

G: Both Asian!

So for today's episode, we will be discussing Season 2, Episode 7: "The Usual Suspects," written by Cathryn Humphries, directed by Mike Rohl.

C: Hi, Cathryn!

G: Hi Cathryn! What are her other episodes?

C: She co-wrote "Dead Man's Blood" with John Shiban.

G: Ohh. She was responsible for the good parts. [laughs]

C: Yes.

G: Oh, she's the Elementary person!

C: Yeah, she's the Elementary person, so I'm going to assume that she's good. [both laugh]

G: Okay, before going into the episode, we have an announcement. The thing is, like, when I when I was contemplating how to do this announcement, we were gonna do it for episode 30 of the podcast, and the joke was gonna be "Daddy's little girl broke in 30." [laughs] But I'm not doing it in the 30th episode, we're doing it on 29th, so Daddy's little girl broke in 29?

Me and Crystal have decided that we're gonna tone down the episodes into a once a week thing, 'cause if you know didn't know this or if you're listening to this in the future, where we are doing once a week, all the prior episodes to episode 29 have been done twice a week, so now we're reducing the numbers of episodes we put out.

C: It's a lot of work, and also, you guys probably don't have time to listen to us talk for like, three to four hours per week either, so.

G: Yeah. The thing is, like, when we were doing it, like, two hours per week, it was fine, right? [laughing] Now, we're doing it two hours per episode, so it's like, dude cut it off, cut it off. So, yeah, we're gonna be doing once a week. Starting from now, we'll be releasing episodes every Tuesday. I'm really sad that we didn't do it in episode 30. I really wanted to break at 30, like Dean Winchester, but alas.

C: Alas.

-

G: Okay, so before going in, "The Usual Suspects." What did you know about this episode before watching it?

C: So I didn't know anything from the name, but once it started, I remembered that there is a plot in "bad moon rising" that is similar to this where they get questioned by the police, and one of them like, killed a woman, because of something related to heroin. But in "bad moon rising," it ended with, I believe, Sam and Dean killing both of the cops and jetting, so sadly, we didn't get that. [laughs]

G: [laughs] Yeah. I also didn't- I mean, I know that the usual sus- I know where the title comes from. Actually, I don't know where the title comes from. It's a reference to a movie, but I haven't watched the movie, so I- like, that's not the thing that hinted me in. It's the "Previously On."

C: Yes!

G: Like, it's a supercut of all the crimes. Credit card scams, identity theft, lying about occupation. Like, all those crimes, it's a supercut of that. And then we get the scenes from "Skin" that were showing that Dean is wanted by the police, and I was like, "Oh, okay, this is the cop episode. This is the interrogation. The 'frisky women,' 'I'm an Aquarius' episode."

C: When do we get Henriksen? I was hoping he would show up at some point.

G: I think we get Henriksen in season 3? I'm actually not sure. But we get him prior to season 4, I'm sure of that.

C: Okay, yeah.

G: Actually, let's look it up, because- wait, I'll look it up. Don't look it up.

C: Yeah, I'm not allowed to know.

G: Oh, no, he shows up in season 2.

C: Okay. Fun.

G: Cool. So let's look forward to him. Things we're looking forward to in seaason 2- [laughing] the first mention of Busty Asian Beauties, and Mr. Henriksen himself.

So we start the episode in a buzzing police station. We follow a man as he goes to an interrogation room and starts talking to a guy that we don't see until the end of the scene, but, you know, it's Dean.

C: Yeah, duh.

G: And this entire thing is interspersed with a SWAT team, like, going up the stairs of a motel, you know, barging into a motel room. So just imagine that. The man that's talking to Dean - I think his name is Pete? Pete Sheridan?

C: Yeah.

G: Outlines the crimes that Dean has done.

C: [laughing] Yeah. He pulled out the BABpod misogyny tally and was like, "Well-"

G: And he says that all these crimes were short of murder, except for one in St. Loui...s. St. Loui[s]? St. Louis?

C: Louis.

G: Except for one in St. Louis that the police can't prove because Dean allegedly died there. So, as this is happening, in the motel, the SWAT team enters Sam's motel room, and tells him to put his hands up in the air- whoo-whoo- and [laughs], in the police station, we finally get the Dean reveal. And the way Dean's face was revealed is the camera pans behind him, shows his back, and then the side of his face as he turns to look- pretty much directly into the camera, right?

C: Maybe. I don't know. I don't look at the screen when Dean's face is on it. [G laughs]

G: [laughing] This is the part where I messaged you, like, "I love Supernatural." Like, literally, this is two minutes and thirty seconds in, and I was like, "Love to see Dean's face. I'm so excited to see more of his face throughout this episode."

C: Boo.

G: In the Philippines, we have two basic translations to the word handsome.

C: Uh-huh.

G: There's gwapo, and then there's pogi. This is gonna be relevant, okay? Stay with me.

C: Okay.

G: Gwapo is basically the more- it's like the higher version. It's like, "You have a beautiful face." That's what gwapo means. Pogi is more the appeal, you know? The- the charisma. All that, you know? So pogi is like, you know, "You look like you smell nice." That's pogi. [both laugh] Anyway, like, literally when this scene was happening, I was screaming at the screen, like, "He looks so pogi! He's so pogi!" Literally, he looks like he fucking smells nice, bro.

I don't know. He looks very good this episode. I think it's the mystery, you know. It's the air of mystery surrounding him. Because he was very quiet and he doesn't speak for much in the beginning, right?

C: Yeah.

G: So it's like, the air of mystery really gives him that quality of "Yeah, he's a handsome guy." [laughs]

I need to suck a dick. [C screams] Like, in real life, bro. I need to stop lusting over Dean Winchester.

C: Well, I hope you find many dicks to suck that are attached to pogi-er faces than his. [both laugh]

G: Exactly.

-

C: We cut to the police station. We cut to Sam's interrogation room, and he's just standing and pacing. Are you allowed to like, get out of your chair when you're being interrogated?

G: The thing is, like, Dean is a suspect, and he's caught red-handed, so he's chained to the table. I guess Sam is not. Like, he's more a witness type.

C: Right.

G: So he is allowed to walk around.

C: That's true. Yeah, yeah. He looks very, very tall in this room. This room has a low ceiling. And I think this was the moment when I sent to you on Discord - well, first, before watching this episode, I said "screaming and crying as I'm forced to watch Supernatural today," [laughing] and then, I think I sent, "Never mind, Supernatural is fine. I love seeing Sam." and I think it was at this scene.

G: [laughs] Yeah. He looks very good this episode, I would say.

C: Yeah. With the broken arm?

G: Especially because most of his scenes are with a shorter person. Yeah, the broken arm- with a shorter person.

C: Uh-huh.

G: So, like, you can really see him be big and hunkering and lumbering, and he's so fucking tall.

C: Yeah, yeah. I mostly just liked him because he's doing his like, puppy dog eyes at the cops sometimes. [G laughs] Like, "Please don't awwest me, we didn't kill anybody." [laughs]

So, the policewoman - her name is Ballard - she comes in with coffee and gives it to Sam. Sam says, "Oh, so you're the good cop. Where's the bad cop?" and Ballard says, "Oh, he's with your brother." [laughs] So she tells him how Dean's being held on suspicion of murder, and Sam looks completely fucking shooketh about this. He's like [overlapping], "Murder?! Oh my god!! Murder???" What-? Sam. You were there the whole time during "Skin," like, the whole time, right? Remember that part? Remember when you called an APB on Dean in "Skin"?

Yeah, so they talk for a bit, and Sam says that Ballard can't hold him and Dean there without formal charges, and she says, "Well, we can for 48 hours." And she says, "But you being a pre-law student would know that." [laughs] Again, pre-law is not a real major [G laughs], and Sam was totally a psych major, and how would he know that? I don't think he took a single, like, criminal psychology or criminal justice class. Which is correct of him.

So Ballard starts revealing that she has a lot of background information on Sam. She says the whole thing about how he's 23, no job, no home, Mary's death. She says, "Your father's whereabouts are unknown." Ouch. [laughs]

G: They don't know that John died because- I guess because he gave a different name?

C: Yeah, they think that- they know that Eli McGillicutty died, but they don't know that John did.

G: [laughs] That's a deep cut.

C: Yeah. And then she says, like, "And then there's your brother Dean, whose demise was just a little bit exaggerated." And then she starts talking about how Sam was a straight A student as a kid, got into Stanford, and then she says, "About a year ago, there was a fire in your apartment. One fatality: Jessica Moore, your girlfriend. After she died, you fell off the grid. Left behind everything." And like, Sam sorta ducks his head and looks quite sad at this. Agh, what a poor little meowmeow. And then he says, "I needed some time off. [in unison] To deal." [laughs] To deal. And he says that he's on a road trip with Dean, and he says, "We saw the second-largest ball of twine in the continental U.S. Awesome!" [laughs] Ugh, I love this guy.

G: At this scene, he takes a seat opposite-

C: [laughing] Yeah, and he sits backwards! Like, the chair is backwards!

G: Yeah, he sits the way Jared sits during conventions. [laughs]

C: Oh, no! That's disgusting. I hate that.

G: I know this because I did watch like, clips of conventions when I was younger. I mean, I think I still do it now. It's very, like, I think it is [laughs] I don't think everything that you can consume in life needs to be worth your time. [both laugh] That's my take on watching convention clips.

C: Yeah.

G: But when I was younger, like, I watched Jared sit like that. I was like, "I'm gonna start sitting like that on chairs!" And I did. So. Yeah. [both laugh] Oh god.

C: [laughing] Good for you. Yeah, so he's sitting fucking backwards on the fucking chair. So the chair is- like, he pulls the chair up to the table, and he likes spins it around on purpose, I guess, so he can sit on it backwards?

G: Yeah.

C: Ugh.

G: Literally like Jared Padalecki. [C laughs]

C: So Ballard says that Dean's fingerprints showed up as a lot of possible crimes, and that she is planning to run Sam's too. Sam continues to be uncooperative, starts drinking the coffee after sniffing it, I guess to check for poison. And then Ballard starts digging-

G: No! Like, the whole point is that she said fingerprints, like, she's talking about fingerprints-

C: Oh, right. Oh, yeah.

G: So they're gonna get his fingerprints from the cup-

C: From the cup, yes.

G: So it's like him saying that, like, "Oh, you're gonna get my fingerprints? Fine." And that's why he took the cup.

C: Okay, yeah, that makes sense. So Ballard starts really digging in. She says, "Sam, you seem like a good kid. It's not your fault Dean's your brother." [laughing] Soo true. [both laughing]

G: Literally so true!

C: Soo fucking true. She says, "We can't pick our family," and she talks about the case from "Skin," and she says, "Dean’s a bad guy." So true. "His life is over." [laughing] So true. [G laughs] "Yours doesn't have to be." Soo true! [laughs]

And Sam says, like, really shocked, "You want me to turn against my own brother?" Like, yeah. This is not that big of a leap, bro. [laughs] Haven't you read the Bible?

She says that, like, "Well, no, 'cause we already have him, we just need you to talk a bit more because I can try to figure out a deal with the DA for you." She says, "You can get on with your life. Dean's as good as gone." How do you think Sam is like, feeling during this scene? Because she has just poked at the wound of Jess's death and sort of brought up that he left Stanford just like, a year ago, and he could have had a normal life. Like, obviously, he's not planning to turn Dean in, but do you think he feels any kind of regret?

G: No. I think- well, I the way I interpreted this scene is he was being very focused on the immediate what's happening, you know. Like, "Dean is being arrested, I need to get out of here, we need to solve the case." Like, those are the main problems.

C: Yeah.

G: I guess because the episodes doesn't really linger much-

C: That's true, yeah.

G: - on Sam, like, at this point in the episode, so.

C: Yeah.

G: Yeah.

-

G: We start with this thing that the episode does where there are flashbacks interspersed with Sam being interviewed. So while he's being interviewed, Sam says, "Oh, my dad and Tony Giles were old friends, so we came as soon as we heard about his death." [both laugh] And then it's a flashback to Sam going, "Who's Anthony Giles?" [both laugh] And what they figured out is this Giles guy, his throat was slit, and the tapes didn't see the assailant. Which, now that we know what happened, how do you think he did it? Like, he literally just tampered with the evidence?

C: I think he just wore gloves and edited the security, yeah. Like, they've definitely- this is not really that much to go off of for a case.

G: Yeah, that's true. But they have, you know, showed up for less, so. Anyway, the only important bit in this part is the exposition, and also Dean going, "What do you think, Scully?" and Sam saying, "I'm not Scully. You're Scully!" And Dean replies, like, "I'm Mulder. You're a red-headed woman!" Have you watched X-Files?

C: I have not. Have you?

G: No, [laughing] so this is entire conversation is fucking worthless.

C: I know that Scully's the skeptic and Mulder's the one who believes in all of the conspiracy theories. So I don't think either of them is Scully or Mulder. I feel like they're pretty balanced.

G: I don't know, maybe in the actual show, like, if you watch it, there's a dynamic that's, you know, you can see better. But all I know about Scully is that she's played by Gillian Anderson. [laughs] And all I know about Gillian Anderson is she plays Bedelia in Hannibal. And all I know about Bedelia from Hannibal is she is a fucking mo-

C: MILF?

G: [laughs] Yes. Is she a mother in the show? I don't think so. But she is a MILF, I love that, so.

C: Yeah.

G: Who in the Winchester brothers is the MILF in the relationship? [laughs] I think it's Sam. Go, Sam!

C: Sam's MILF bait, yeah.

G: Sam's MILF bait.

C: I don't know he is a MILF-

G: -coded.

C: - himself, though.

G: [laughs] Yeah.

Anyway, back to the interrogation. Sam is defending Dean now, saying that, "Well, because we weren't there when he died, Dean couldn't have possibly killed him." Sam tells the cop that, when they arrived, Karen, who is Anthony Giles's wife, was a mess, and they just want to be there for her. [both laugh] And this is followed by a flashback of Sam and Dean posing as insurance guys investigating Tony. And Karen is fucking devastated, but she's cooperating. She says that Tony stayed behind because his computers were being troublesome, and that's it. Dean's starts pressing for information, and the way he does this is he asks if he- as in Tony - said anything unusual. And Karen's like, "Uh, unusual?" And Dean was like, "Like, strange." [both laugh] And Karen was like, "Strange?" And Dean was like, "You know! Weird!" [both laughing] Yeah, like, did he see anything, did he hear anything, and Sam starts clearing his throat. And he looks at Dean, and the way he does this is, every time he looks at Dean, he's making a, like, face that's like, "Oh, what are you doing, dude?" And then he gathers his face up back to the sympathetic, empathetic guy who's talking to the wife of a dead guy. And it's absolutely fucking hilarious.

C: It is.

G: Like, truthfully fascinating facial control that Sam has. [C laughs]

C: Like, we saw him be a shit actor in "Asylum," but apparently, he's gotten better.

G: Karen mentions that Tony had a nightmare where a woman was at the foot of their bed. Dean asked if Karen knows what the woman looked like, and she refuses to answer at first, but eventually says that she was pale and had red eyes. Back in the interrogation room, Sam is saying, "Oh, I gave her a hug and told her to call me if she needed me. And that's it. End of story."

C: Yeah. So Ballard pushes because she says that she has an eyewitness that two men looking like Sam and Dean-

G: I think you should start calling her Diana.

C: Oh, okay.

G: Because that's the name that they use in the episode.

C: Hm, yeah. I guess they call her Ballard in "bad moon rising," [laughs] so that's what I'm going off of.

Yeah, okay, Diana starts telling Sam that people saw him and Dean breaking into Tony's office. And Sam says, like, "Oh, well, Karen just called us and wanted us to get some stuff from Tony's office even though the police weren't letting her in, like a picture of the two of them in Paris." He says, "It was wrong to enter a crime scene, but she gave us the key." And then we cut to them [both laugh], like, picking the lock of the office.

G: This entire, like, back and forth is actually really fun to watch.

C: Yeah.

G: Yeah, like, the juxtaposition of the statements is actually very fun. Like, you know how, like, episodes that borrow from movies are rated very low?

C: Yeah.

G: Yeah, I'm wondering if they borrow a lot of stuff from other movies for this one, or, you know, it's just a common enough trope that people are like, "Oh, we've seen this before, but it's still fun. It's still alright."

C: Yeah. I like interrogation room episodes.

As they get into the office, they see a pool of blood where Tony was killed. And Dean thinks it's probably a vengeful spirit. While inspecting the office, they see this paper that just says, the word "Dana Shulps" printed over and over, and it covers the whole thing. It's like, on a bunch of papers in the room, and also, it's apparently on the glass table in the office. Which we see by Sam-

G: Yeah! Hell yeah, dude!

C: like, breathing on the table, and then, like the left-behind- Yeah, I thought that was neat. I enjoyed that.

G: My notes said, "Blow it, Sammy!" [both laughing] Literally blow it Sammy.

C: Yeah.

So they start trying to look up who Dana Shulps might be, but they've got nothing. Sam, apparently, is trying to break into Tony's computer. He says that he's pretty close to cracking his password, close by, like, 30 minutes. Which, like, how do you think Sam is doing this? Do you think he has the Wikipedia page for, like, 1000 most common passwords pulled up [both laugh] and he's just typing them in one by one?

G: Literally, how is he doing this? Because it's not like the computer tells you, "You're one letter off!"

C: [laughing] Yeah!

G: Like, you literally have no way of knowing!

C: Right, exactly.

G: Does he have- is he hacking into this computer like a professional hacker might?

C: I don't know.

G: How does that even work?

C: Yeah, I don't even know how a professional hacker does it. Yeah, whatever. He's so smart. Whatever he's doing, good for him. [both laugh]

G: Who am I to question Sam Winchester's computer prowess?

C: Exactly. He has literally invented laptopping it up.

So Dean is like, "Okay, so I guess I'm just gonna hang out here, while you do that for 30 minutes." And he starts sitting and making mouth noises. Like, the, you know [crunchy mouth noises], you know the mouth-fart-

G: Yeah, yeah, like- I don't even know how to recreate it, but yeah.

C: Yeah. ADHD icon, he's just like me for real, etc. And Sam starts getting quite annoyed, and Dean's like, "Okay, I'm just gonna leave and talk to Karen again." So he does.

I feel like, the thing is, okay, flip phones at this time had games on them, right? You know that game with the snake that keeps getting longer and longer?

G: Yes! As you eat apples? Yeah.

C: Yes. Couldn't Dean have just played the snake eating apples game for 30 minutes?

G: Literally.

C: Yeah. Like, I think Dean should have just sat there and played Candy Crush so he wouldn't get accused of murder! [G laughs]

-

G: So we go to Karen, who is lounging around. And she gets freaked out by an apparition. She walks around, you know, all freaked out. She goes to her room, calls 911, and the phone hangs up by itself, and the printer starts going, printing out "Dana Shulps" over and over again. She goes to her cabinet to get a flashlight, and when she turns around, there's a woman there. And she screams.

C: So now we cut to the outside of the house, where Dean arrives. He knocks on the door, there's no response, so he breaks in and eventually find Karen dead on the floor with her throat slit and with a bunch of pages reading "Dana Shulps" all around her. And he goes, "Seriously, what the hell?" [laughs] And then he notices that there are bruises on Karen's wrists, and, as he takes one of her wrists in his hand, he hears the word "Freeze!" behind him, and a bunch of cops with their guns on him, and they order him to get on his knees, put his hands up, and he gets handcuffed.

G: It's truly fascinating his reaction to a dead body, I feel like.

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: Like the "Oh, dammit." And then he just walks in and starts touching it. And it's like, "Cool! [laughs] Go Dean!"

C: Go Dean! I just- I know that every episode they leave their goddamn fingerprints all over dead, murdered people, but this episode's, like, "wow, you guys are really leaving your fingerprints all over dead, murdered people!" Yeah, it also feels rude to Karen.

-

G: We go to Dean's interrogation room, and Diana - which is the woman who interviewed Sam - walks in and tells Pete - the guy who's interviewing Dean - that Sam and Dean's story lines up to the last detail.

C: Yeah. Which is very cute.

G: Truly fascinating! Yeah! Very nice. And the two cops walk out, and we follow them. Diana says, "Everything is circumstantial evidence." Pete says, "Juries have convicted for less." Diana says, "What about the murder weapon? What about the motive? What about reasonable doubt?" Pete says, "Diana." and holds her face?!

C: Yeah. Like, right in front of everyone? Ew!

G: And God, yeah. [laughs] Literally right in front of everyone and God. And asks her, like, "Do you have reasonable doubt?" It's fucking [audible cringing]- I don't know why I was so put off by this scene. Like, I guess because they're cops. [laughs]

C: Yeah.

G: [laughing] That means they're not allowed to have love in their lives.

C: I agree. It's so gross.

G: So a cop passes by, and he drops his time and he says, "Dean is our guy. And if you keep leaning on these guys, one of them will tumble." Diana reveals to us that Pete and Giles were good friends, and that Giles was a defense attorney. Diana wants to get back into the interrogation room to talk to the Winchesters, but Pete says "No." They stand by some vending machines, they look around if there are people, they kiss. Literally, boo.

C: I literally wrote down, "Ew!" [both laugh]

G: Literally ew.

C: I think it's interesting the way that they're setting up these characters because it's like, the way that Pete is so focused on getting Dean convicted, and we find out later why, but I feel like-

G: But I'm pretty sure cops are just like that.

C: I'm pretty sure cops just talk like that, yeah, all the time. And I know that Diana is supposed to be "the good one," and I mean, she is casting doubt on what Pete says, but the vibe is not like, "I don't think they did it," the vibe is like, "They definitely did it, but we need to get more evidence so we can land them in jail so we get our bonuses." [laughs]

So we go to Dean's interrogation room- well, we get scenes where we're cutting between Sam and Dean in their interrogation rooms, sharing their one brain cell. Dean is trying to figure out the Dana Shulps thing. He's muttering it to himself while Sam starts writing it down on a pad of paper. And then we sort of get scenes cut together where both of them realize at the same time that it's probably an anagram instead of a name. Again, this was a good episode for Sam and Dean having one brain cell, and I think that's sweet.

Eventually, someone knocks on Dean's door, and it's some guy. He's smiling. And he introduces himself as Jeffrey Kraus and Dean's lawyer with the public defender's office. Do you have to ask for a lawyer to get one? Or do they just show up?

G: No, well, they just show up because that's your right, so.

C: Yeah.

G: Like, if you don't ask for one, the DA will provide one for you.

C: Oh, yeah, that's part of the Miranda rights statement, yeah.

So Dean does not seem very happy about that. He goes, "Thank god. I'm saved." And he asks for a pen and paper, which he gets. So Jeffrey starts talking to Dean about how his case isn't looking too hot, whereas Dean is completely ignoring him and trying to crack the Dana Shulps anagram. So Jeffrey's like, "What are you doing?" and Dean says, "I think it's an anagram," and Jeffrey's like, "A what?" and Dean says, "An anagram. Same letters, different words." And it's like, did Supernatural really think that like, no one knew what an anagram was [G laughs] that they felt it necessary to put in this exposition?

o Dean turns around the paper and asks if anything on there looks familiar. And Jeffrey, after a bit of like, "What the hell are you doing, man?" notices that one of the things on the paper, which is "SUP ASH LAND" is familiar because Ashland is a street name close to here. So Dean starts writing a new note to Sam, and then tries to get Jeffrey to deliver it. Jeffrey is like, "You could be facing the death penalty here," and Dean says, "Thanks for the law review, Matlock." Another Matlock reference. And he gets Jeffrey to take the note over.

-

G: So we go to Diana on her desk, and she's typing up a report, when suddenly, "Dana Shulps Dana Shulps Dana Shulps" like, starts showing up on her monitor. And it all disappears. And she's a bit freaked out by this. We go to Sam's interrogation room, where the lawyer comes in and gives Sam the note, which reads, "Hilts- It's a street. Ashland. -McQueen."

C: Of course, referencing Lightning McQueen from Cars. [both laughing]

G: I know that this is Steve McQueen that they're referencing, but I choose to believe my truth, which is that Dean is a fan of the Cars movies.

C: Right, and he's saying "Zoom zoom out of here." [both laugh]

What year did Cars come out?

G: I don't- let's look it up.

C: Oh, Cars came out in 2006.

G: Ohh.

C: Okay, so they could have just watched Cars.

G: There's like, a tagline, right? There's a Steve McQueen tagline? Steve- not Steve McQueen. "Lighting McQueen quote..." - "Ka-chow!"

C: [laughs] Yeah, I think that's it.

G: [laughing] I think Dean should have said "Ka-chow," like, at any point in Supernatural. It's reasonable- [laughing] like, we've had this discussion last episode-

C: Uh-huh.

G: - but we're just continuing it. It's completely reasonable for him to like Cars the movie.

C: Yeah.

G: Like, he likes cars, so.

C: He does like cars. I mean, do you think it would be upset at the mechanical inaccuracies in Cars the movie?

G: Yeah, he's probably gonna be that guy. But also, they're sentient cars, so I don't think-

C: Do you know what I think? I think he forced Sam to stay home at the motel, and then he drove Baby over to a drive-in theater to see Cars, and he viewed it as a date [both laugh] between him and the Impala.

G: Literally.

C: And I think he gave a little whistle at the blue Porsche who's the love interest in Cars, and then immediately, he was like, "Oh, no, don't worry, Baby, she'll never be as beautiful as you!" [both laughing]

G: [laughing] Noo! No!

Yeah. We need to write a Cars AU. For realsies.

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: The lawyer says, like, "Oh, I hope that was meaningful, but I would like to discuss your case now." And Sam says, "Sure thing, Matlock." And I love that. Like, the lawyer even says, like, "You two really are brothers, huh?" And I'm like, "Of course, right?" Like, they grew up together, they grew up watching the same television in the same motel room, of course they're gonna know the same references. Like, they watch the same thing!

C: Yeah.

G: And yeah. It's- because you know how Supernatural always does this thing like, "Sam and Dean are foils. What Sam likes, Dean doesn't like, and what Dean likes, Sam doesn't like." And it's like, they're brothers. And not only are they brothers, they grew up in such close proximity for such a long time. Like, it's just impossible that they won't have so many things similar with each other.

C: Yeah. Yeah.

G: As the lawyer starts talking, Diana knocks, and she says, "We need you with the other one." And so they go off to Dean's room.

-

C: So we're at Dean's interrogation room, and he's being filmed by a camera, and there's a lot of people outside watching. And Peter says that Dean has decided to confess. So Peter tells me to talk directly into the camera, first stating your name for the record, and then we get the opening scene of the clicky AMV.

G: Literally. Literally. They made Supernatural so that LiveLikeHeroes can make the clicky AMV, for real.

C: Exactly.

So Dean says, "My name is Dean Winchester. I'm an Aquarius. I enjoy sunsets, long walks on the beach, and frisky women." Okay, Dean. [G laughs] "And I did not kill anyone. But I know who did, or rather, what did."

G: Has he literally ever been in a bitch?

C: What?

G: No, I didn't say that properly. Has he literally ever been [both laugh] I can't pronounce it! Has he literally ever been in a beach?

C: A beach? Oh.

G: [laughing] Yeah.

C: Right. [both laughing] For a second there, I was like, "Yeah, I think we have seen him have sex before, but I don't know why you're calling them bitches!" [both laughing] Literally, has he ever been in a bitch. Virgin Dean Winchester truthing starts now.

I think he talks- I know in season- what? 13?- he talks about how like, "After all this is over, we should go on vacation to the beach" in a way that makes me think that he hasn't been to the beach before.

G: Yeah.

C: But, you know, the "I enjoy sunsets and long walks on the beach" is like a- I don't know what's a reference to, but it's a joke that people often use talk about how generic like, dating show profiles are, so I think that's just what he's doing.

G: Yeah.

C: The frisky women, I think he added that all by himself. A special Dean Winchester touch.

Can I get a point for this and for calling Sam a redheaded woman, like, combined?

G: I mean, sure, yeah. I don't think frisky women is like, that bad. I don't think it's a bad thing to say. He likes frisky women!

C: I guess? I guess. It's a weird vibe.

G: I think you can give half for that, and then half for calling Sam a woman.

C: Okay, so that's together as one point. So Dean has gotten to his sixth misogyny of the season.

So, Dean continues. He says, "I did not kill anyone, but I know who did. Or rather, what did. Of course, I can't be for sure, because our investigation was interrupted, but our working theory was that we're looking for some kind of vengeful spirit." And everyone around is like, facepalming and going, "What." And Dean clarifies, "You know, Casper the bloodthirsty ghost?" He just continue spouting shit about the supernatural. He starts saying that the ghost was seen by Tony and Karen, that it left behind a word, "Dana Shulps," but that was jumbled because it's hard to communicate across the veil, so whatever's going on, it started on Ashland Street. Peter starts getting quite upset at this. He's saying, "You arrogant bastard. Tony and Karen were good people, and you're making jokes." Alright, Peter. [laughs] And he accuses Dean of murder again, and Dean's like, "Oh, yeah, St. Louis wasn't me. That was a shapeshifter that looked like me." And Peter gets really mad, and he just- I mean, he just runs in and like, grabs Dean by the collar and slams him against the wall. And Diana tells him to hold off, and Peter says, "Lock his ass up." And then another cop shoves Dean against the wall face-first and handcuffs him.

I know that people use the scene, a lot to be like, horny.

G: [laughs] Yeah.

C: But I feel like you don't- I don't know. I feel like there are scenes you can sexualize that don't involve police brutality.

Yeah, they're definitely playing Dean as like, the cocky hero who's like, smiling and enjoying this, though, so, like, I feel like it's not that bad to sexualize it, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth sometimes.

G: No, because, like, you know that scene in season 9 where Cas is being tortured, and he literally- like, the scene where they go "Shave your chest, father of two, it's fanservice time"?

C: [laughs] Yeah.

G: That scene. Like, I feel like, you're allowed to sexualize Cas in that scene, because, like, it's not something that's, you know, as prevalent as police violence, but like, yeah.

C: But also I think that-

G: I'm not saying that people are bad for doing it, but it does leave a bad taste in your mouth, like, in context.

C: Right.

G: I understand that these people are not using it in context, so like, you know.

C: Yeah, yeah. And I also think- 'cause it's like, for these scenes, I feel like, people usually go like, "This is like, 'Dean likes getting shoved against walls by men'" [both laugh] whereas the Cas thing is just, like, "It's hot that he has his shirt open and blood going." Like, there's no like, "He likes being tortured" aspect of it, you know?

G: Yeah. Yeah.

-

G: Also, just to mention, like, during that scene, like, Diana notices the Dana Shulps thing that Dean says and looks actively distressed by this revelation that somebody else knows about Dana Shulps.

Anyway, Diana and Pete go to Sam's interrogation room, and as they open the door... Sam is gone, baby! He's not there. And the window is ajar, etc, etc. Pete can't figure out how Sam escaped because the fire escape is way over on the other side of the building. And Diana picks up the note and reveals that Hilts is Steve McQueen's character in The Great Escape.: Sam and Dean planned this all along. I love this!

C: Yeah.

G: I love it. Because, like, right now, it's still not as prominent as thing, but later on in the show, Dean does become, like, a fountain of pop culture references, and usually, like, I don't understand him, and, you know, it's a thing that Cas says, like, "I don't understand that reference." Like, he also doesn't understand it. But Sam does. Because, again, they watched the same things growing up, so he you would understand what the fuck Dean is talking about.

C: Yeah.

G: And I love that, like, they weaponize that. Like, Dean being incomprehensible is something that they use to their advantage to communicate to each other secretly. It's pretty cool!

C: Yeah, it is.

G: So Diana enters a comfort room, and the lights won't turn in. She heads to the sink, and they all automatically open. "Dana Shulps" starts being written by an invisible finger in the steamed mirror. And as Diana wipes this off, the ghost woman shows up. Now that we see her clearly, the ghost woman, we see that her throat has been slit and that she looks like she is trying to speak, instead of actually attacking Diana.

C: So Diana now enters Dean's interrogation room, and she asks him about the stuff that he was talking about earlier. The ghosts, all of that. She says, "Let's pretend, for the moment, you're not entirely insane. What would one of these things be doing here?" And Dean explains vengeful spirits, and Diana goes, like, "Oh, they can kill people?" And Dean notices that Diana now has bruises on her wrist, like the ones on Karen's. And Dean realizes like, "Oh, you've seen it. You've seen the ghost." Because, you know, the bruises thing is related to the spirit. And Dean tells her, "I know you think you're going crazy, but let's skip that part [G laughs], because the last two people who saw this died pretty soon after."

Do you- Okay, do you think Peter was at this point planning to kill Diana, though? Like, because he doesn't have any reason to.

G: I know. I mean, shouldn't Claire - which is what the woman's name is - show up in front of Dean first?

C: Yeah! Like, that seems to be Peter's next target.

G: Yeah. Unless Peter really wants to fucking kill Diana, I guess.

C: Like, just for fun?

G: Yeah, just for funsies. [C laughs] He is, you know. That's his kink.

C: [laughing] Oh, no!

So Diana realizes that like, "Oh, you think I'm gonna die," and Dean says, like, "Go to Sam. He'll help." Diana's like, "Well, then, I'll know where he is and I can arrest him." But Dean says, "No, just go to the first motel listed in the Yellow Pages. Look for Jim Rockford. It's how we find each other when we're separated." Agh, it's so nice to like, just have all of the like, Sam and Dean contingency plan backstory bits. Like, so true.

G: Yeah. And like, I just- I wasn't able to say earlier, but, like, the fact that they had the same exact story.

C: Yes.

G: Like, you think they also formulated the, like, "What would we say if we get arrested?" Like, "How would we twist the story?"

C: Yeah.

G: And it's, I don't know. It's cool that they have that like, backup plans for each other.

C: Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

So Dean says, "You can arrest him if you want. Or, you can let him save your life." If I was Diana, I would just die. [G laughs] Like, I would just be like, "No." [laughs] And then I would just die. I wouldn't arrest Sam, but I would also just die. But, you know, if she wants to believe in ghosts, that's good for this episode, so, good for you. Now, please quit your job.

-

G: So we go to Sam. He's in a motel room. And he opens up the door for Diana. She shows him her wrists, and he asks her to elaborate, and she says, "I must be losing my mind. I should be arresting you right now." And Sam says, "Well, arrest me later. After you survive this." She then tells Sam what he saw earlier. The ghost was pale, had red eyes. Her throat was slit. And Sam brings up a bunch of photos from crime scenes in Ashland Street and asks her if she recognizes anyone. And Diana's all like, "You can't have those!" Sam says, "You have your job. I have mine." She recognizes someone. Claire Becker disappeared eight or nine months ago. Before her death, she was arrested for dealing heroin. And Sam asks if Diana ever did Narcotics - well, you know - and she says yes, but doesn't remember busting Claire. Sam says, "She was last seen entering 2911 Ashland Street, but police didn't find anything." So he stands up and goes, "We're gonna have to find it ourselves and see if we can find the body." Diana appears fucking shocked, and Sam explains that they have to salt and burn the bones to get rid of the spirit, so.

C: Yeah. Also, I feel like as a police officer, if you think someone got murdered you do also go find the body. [laughs] Like, I don't know what Diana is so shocked about.

G: Yeah! I mean, he just has to salt and burn afterwards, so.

C: Yeah. Just an extra step.

-

C: So we go into a warehouse, [laughs] which the transcript calls "A Dark and Creepy Warehouse," in all caps. [G laughs] Well, in titlecase.

So they start looking around for a body. Sam goes upstairs, and while Ballard is searching- while Diana's searching, she sees Claire's ghost standing by the window, trying to talk to her. Diana freaks out and calls for Sam, who, as soon as he shows up, the ghost disappears. So, again, they note that the ghost doesn't seem like she's trying to attack anyone, she was just reaching out Diana, and she was over by a window.

So, as they move shelves aside, they see that the window says "Ashland Supplies," but the "plies" has been like, shaved off [G laughing] so that's the full, like, anagram. What?

G: [laughing] I don't know, I just found it so fucking funny, like, they- I don't know. Couldn't they have just have found an anagram for the street itself? [C laughs] Do you think that would be like, way too in your face?

C: Maybe. I don't know. But yeah.

G: This reveal, I thought was fucking hilarious. Like, of course some letters got erased and that's why it says Dana Shulps in the anagram.

C: Yeah. [laughs]

G: Whatever.

C: So they see that there's a shadow on the wall where the letters appear really nicely 'cause of the light through the window, and Sam brings his EMF over to the wall, and it starts buzzing as he gets closer to it. So, like, yeah, her body's probably in there. So he just picks up a sledgehammer and starts going at it.

G: Yeah. He makes, like, groaning noises [C laughs] that I was wondering if it was ADR-ed. It was like, "Eugh! Eugh!" [C laughs] And I was like, "Cool! This is great." [both laughing]

C: So there's something in there. So they start trying to get the body out, but he mentions that it's weird that Claire has led them to her body, because no vengeful spirit that he's encountered before has done that, because they don't want to get salt-and-burned. So, eventually, they get Claire's body out, and she's like, in a black body bag or something.

G: Yeah.

C: And they cut open the bag, and, it's like, this dusty-ass corpse in there.

G: How did that not smell?

C: Yeah. Right.

G: Why do corpses smell bad when it's convenient and not when it's not?

C: Yeah. Maybe Peter put a bunch of pine air freshener inside the bag, but we just didn't see it. [both laugh]

G: It's not relevant to their journey.

C: Exactly.

They notice that there's this very obvious necklace on Claire's corpse. And Ballard says, like, "Oh, I recognize this. It's rare. It was custom made over on Carson Street. I have one just like it. Pete gave it to me." Dun-dun-dun!

G: Dun-dun-dun!

C: So is the implication that he and Claire were romantically or sexually involved, as well as her helping him deal heroin?

G: Yeah, probably.

C: Huh. Yeah. So maybe he was just gonna kill Diana 'cause he's just into killing his romantic partners. [both laugh] Geez.

G: Sam figures it out, that Claire's not a vengeful spirit, she's a death omen. She doesn't want vengeance, she wants justice. Sam asks, "Detective, what do you know about your partner?" And Diana starts talking about how, one time, heroin went missing from lock up, which I guess is like, where they store crime paraphernalia from people they arrest. And obviously, it was a cop who took it, but they never knew who did it, and whoever did it, though, needed someone to get the product out. Somebody like Claire.

In a prisoner transport van, Pete is driving Dean in the middle of the fucking night, and Dean's trying to talk him up, but he's not responding, and Dean is obviously very worried about this. Back to Sam and Diana who are now in the car, Diana tells Sam about how Pete just took Dean, claiming that he needed to be transferred, and dispatch has been calling, but Pete is not answering. And Sam says, "If he took a county vehicle, it should have a lojack that just needs to be turned on," and, you know, words. But, basically, they can track this sucker down.

C: Yeah. Diana's willing to give Pete really quickly, right?

G: I mean, like, I guess she's like, bitter about the romantic aspect. [laughing]

C: Oh, do you think that's it?

G: Yeah.

C: Yeah, no, you're right because when she's like, beating him up, she's like, "Why don't you give me another necklace?" [laughing] Like, Jesus.

G: [laughing] Yeah.

C: Which, like, on one end, you know what, that makes sense, because I feel like cops often are not willing to give up their partners, even when they do illegal shit. So yeah, I guess it makes sense that there's this extra dimension to it. However, it is kind of weird that they're having that for a woman, but also, misogyny doesn't count when it's against cops, so whatever. [both laugh]

So the van pulls over, like, in the middle of nowhere, and Dean says, "Pee break, so soon? You might want to get your prostate checked?" [laughs] Alright, buddy. Peter seems pretty distressed, and he gets out, and he, like, yanks Dean out of the van and throws him to the ground. And he tells Dean, "You're a cocky son of a bitch. You think those people in St. Louis are gonna buy that crap you're peddling? You're not gonna make it to St. Louis. You're gonna die trying to escape." And he pulls out his gun and aims it at Dean. And Dean's like, "Wait, let's talk about this! You don't want to do something that you're gonna regret later." And Pete cocks the gun [G laughs], and Dean goes, "Maybe you do!"

Just in time, Diana arrives and tells Pete to put the gun down. And Peter says, like, "How did you find me?" And she says, "I know about Claire." Which, I guess, "I know about the murder," but also, "I know you were two-timing me"? She points her gun at him too, and they have a bit of a standoff. And Diana asks, "Why are you doing this?" And Pete, after denying, says that "It wasn't my fault! Claire was trying to turn me in! I had no choice." And, apparently, Tony scrubbed the money and then wanted to come clean about it, and he probably told Karen, so that's why Pete killed both of them. And he says that he just had to clean up the mess, and he panicked.

Diana asks, "How many more people are gonna die over this, Pete?" And he says, "There's a way out. This Dean kid's a freaking gift. We could pin the whole thing on him, right? No trial, nothing. Just one more dead scumbag." Which.

G: [laughing] Dean's like, [overlapping] "Hey!" [both laugh]

C: But I think it's a good line in terms of- like, I don't think this episode is critical of cops as a system-

G: Yeah.

C: I think it's very much like, "Pete's just one bad guy," but I think that that line is a good like, demonstration of the way that having the power that police have can make someone do really terrible things, so I liked that line. Because, you know, like, Clara was like, a heroin dealer, like, she was also someone that society "wasn't really going to miss," and same with Dean, so like, yeah, it is about how cops have the power to just pin stuff on random people the way serial killers kill off people who society "won't miss."

So Peter continues. He says, "No one will question it. Diana, please, I still love you!" [both laugh] Okay.

G: Wild.

C: [laughs] Wild.

Oh, god, like, they really like, just had all of this in here for no reason. [both laughing] Like, they forced me to watch cops kiss for nothing.

So, she starts putting down the gun, and he says, "Thank you," and he turns back around to shoot Dean, but while he's distracted, Diana shoots him in the stomach.

G: Well, she shoots him in the leg.

C: Oh, yeah, okay, yeah, she shoots him in the leg, and he falls down as Dean gets out of the way. And then she says, [laughing] "Then why don't you buy me another necklace, you ass!" [both laughing]

G: [laughing] Literally, this entire thing boils to down to "you bought her a necklace, and you bought me a necklace"!

C: [laughing] Literally, "I can excuse three murders, but I draw the line at buying another woman a necklace."

So they start, like, fist-fighting each other, and Pete gets her gun. Pete's saying, "Don't do it! Don't do it!" like, all scared, so they look up, and it's Claire, who is looking at him and smiling. And then we hear a gunshot. And Diana has shot Pete in the back. And he's dead. Goodbye.

G: Hell yeah, dude.

-

G: So, in the morning, Diana asks Sam and Dean about what happened to Claire. And Sam says that she should be at rest. Dean asks, "What now, officer?" And she says since Pete confessed, she can probably get their cases dismissed, but the St. Louis murder is a different story. But she can just say that Sam and Dean escaped. And Sam's like, "Are you sure?" [both laugh] And Dean's like, "Of course she's sure, Sam!" And Sam says, "You could lose your job!"

C: Good.

G: Diana says, "I just want you to do what you do best." Dean asks about his car, she tells him where it is and to not even think about getting the car [C laughs], and Sam and Dean are like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. We'll just improvise." And as they walk away, Sam says, "Nice lady," to which Dean replies, "Yeah, for a cop."

C: So true.

G: And then, we get some- we get Dean saying, like, "Are you hungry?" and Sam says, "No," and Dean says, "For some reason, I could really go for some pea soup." Do you know what this is a reference to?

C: No, but I checked the Wiki after.

G: Okay. So it's Linda Blair. This woman is Linda Blair.

C: So, apparently, she throws up pea soup in [both] The Exorcist. Yeah.

G: It's fascinating- like, I'm sure she's famous, like, Linda Blair for being in The Exorcist. But just the fact that I know the name Linda Blair. I think it's because of a Filipino song that was played a lot when I was young, and the song is literally called "Linda Blair," and it's like, the plot of the the song is like, "I'm a student, and then I become possessed by a demon in the middle of school." [both laugh] It's a fun song, and it literally goes, like, "Teacher, teacher, my name is Linda Blair. And the ghosts are everywhere, I can feel it in the air." And it's super fun.

C: That is fun.

G: So that's why I know the name Linda Blair.

C: Yeah.

-

G: Anyway, what did you think about this episode?

C: I thought it was pretty fun. Like, I liked the format. Yeah. [laughs] I mean, I wasn't expecting any particularly good commentary on cops, so I was not disappointed in that regard. But yeah, it was fun.

G: Yeah. I liked the episode, because of the format, as you said. Like, the format really brings it to life. Other than that, I don't really see it as particularly exceptional. Like, there's no emotional beats that are pertinent to the season. But, I'll be honest, like, when the episode started, I was like, "Aw, can't we just do a monster of the week? I just want to see a monster of the week!" [laughs]

C: Yeah.

G: I literally was like, sitting there, like, "[audible pout] I want to do a monster of the week." And then I saw the Dean shot at the beginning of the episode, and I was like, "Yeah, hell yeah, dude! I take back everything I said" [C laughs] but, yeah.

Yeah. So, Best Line/Worst Line. This is gonna be difficult. There are no particularly good or particularly bad lines in this episode.

C: Yeah. I think for best line, I'm just gonna go with the one that I pointed out about how like, "Dean's a gift, we could pin the whole thing on him. No trial, nothing. Just one more dead scumbag." for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

G: I think my best line is "Hilts - It's a street. Ashland. - McQueen." Because, as I said- I mean, I think it's pretty evident, the way I commentarized on it earlier - [laughing] is commentarized a word? I think it's just commented. [both laugh] No, I commented on earlier that I was super excited about the idea of Sam and Dean having like, a language of their own. I mean, who isn't? When you're a kid, like, that's all you do with your siblings.

C: Yeah.

G: You make codewords and shit. And Sam and Dean are living the dream, living the brother dream.

C: [laughing] Yep.

C: Okay, for worst line, I'm gonna go with [laughing] "Then why don't you buy me another necklace, you ass!" [both laughing]

G: [laughing] I know! That's also my worst line. Literally, "why don't you buy me another necklace, you ass." So true.

C: Ugh. [laughing] The necklace should have been the "you're only gay once necklace." [G laughs]

G: Literally.

Okay, so, IMDB rating.

C: Yeah, like you said, this doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of season 2 and things that strongly borrow from other horror movies get low ratings, but I also thought it was fun and people might like that the format was shaken up a little bit this week, so I'm just gonna go with, like, what everything in season 2 has been getting, which is an 8.2.

G: I think I'll go a bit lower. An 8.1. Just because. Just to diversify our assets, as we like to say.

C: Yes.

G: Oh my god!

C: What?

G: It's an 8.6!

C: Oh, wow. Do people just really like the guest star? Like, I feel like people might be excited about that.

G: I think it's literally just because of Linda Blair.

C: Yeah. That makes sense. Deserved.

G: Let's see these reviews.

C: Yeah, people are all going like, "As soon as I saw Linda Blair pop up, I knew I was gonna enjoy this episode."

G: "Offbeat episode. It's rather fun."

C: Yeah, it is. It's offbeat and rather fun.

G: I mean, yeah, I guess. "Funny episode with a funny ending." Is this a funny episode? I mean, I guess they're committing bits. Yeah.

C: Yeah.

G: "It was funny." [laughs] Literally, this person just put the entire Linda Blair portion. Like the bit at the end. "I am hungry, and the strangest thing is I'm in the mood for peas, which is a reference to The Exorcist. She spilled a lot of green beans there. It was funny. Sorry for the misspelling." [both laugh] Me too, bro.

C: [laughing] There's a ten out of ten rating that just-

G: "How did Sam escape?"

C: Yeah, that one.

G: "Am I slow lol"

C: It's a ten out of ten rating, and all it says is, "How did Sam escape? I don't have a clue how Sam got out of the police station? Am I slow lol." [laughs] So true.

G: Literally.

This one said "It's tropey but fun," which I would agree with. Like, there's nothing wrong with being tropey if you do it well, you know?

C: Mm-hm. Yeah.

This one says, "Dean is hilarious as usual. Plus, we get to see a good amount of Sam, and he is in the background." [both laughing] They said literally Sam to is in this episode.

G: [laughing] Noo!

Yeah, I think that's it for this episode of Busty Asian Beauties. Next week, we will be discussing Season 2, Episode 8: "Crossroad Blues." Leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts.

C: Bye! [laughing] Or, no, I forgot about my part! [both laughing] Never mind! Okay! Why did I say that? Okay! Follow us on social media! [still laughing] Okay! It's because I'm so hungry. I was like, "Thank god, I can leave and get food." [laughs] No.

Follow us on social media. We are on Twitter at twitter.com/BeautiesPodcast, and on Tumblr at bustyasianbeautiespod.tumblr.com. Our official tag is #BABPod, B-A-B-POD. Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/bustyasianbeautiespod.

G: You can email us any feedback, comments, or inquiries at bustyasianbeautiespod@gmail.com. See you guys next time! [both] Bye!

[guitar music]

[northoftheroad]

What’s in a retcon, anyway?

The more I think about, the less I believe that comic book writers feel compelled to be bound by earlier writing. Unless an editor is keeping them under their thumb to get coherent writing – and if DC had that, things wouldn't be such a mess – it seems to me they are happy to blend their personal variant of a canon backstory. I will present a number of examples to support my hypothesis.

Pre-Crisis, Marv Wolfman wrote Dick saying he was Robin from age 8 (New Teen Titans #39, 1984), and he’s about 19 at the time. 

New Teen Titans # 39. By Marv Wolfman, art George Pérez. (1984)

When Crisis on Infinite Earths reached Batman, Jim Starlin wrote the retcon that said that Dick was Robin for six years, presumably from age 13 to 19. (Batman # 416, 1987). This version also included that Bruce fired Dick from Robin, but more on that later.

Batman # 416. By Jim Starlin, art Jim Aparo and Mike DeCarlo. (1987)

And then Marv Wolfman wrote Batman Year Three (Batman # 436–439, 1989), and all of a sudden, it was ten years since Dick's parents were killed when Jason had recently died. That has to imply that Dick was Robin for longer than six years, right? And that Dick was about ten when he came to Bruce.

The following year, 1990, Dennis O'Neal wrote an illustrated short story about Dick's origin where he was ten when his parents were murdered. (The Glimpse. In Secret Origins vol 2 # 50, 1990)

Dennis O'Neal, by the way, was the editor of Batman # 416 and co-editor of Batman Year Three (Batman 436–439). He should be the guy to keep track of details like this, shouldn't he?

Then we have Chuck Dixon's version of Dick's origin in Robin vol 2 Annual # 4 (1995). This retcon includes that Dick spent time at a youth centre before he came to Bruce (the "juvie origin"), but his age is never mentioned. He doesn't look old enough to be 13, in my opinion.

The next decade, Devin Grayson had Dick say, in at least two different issues, that he was orphaned at 8. (Batman: Gotham Knights # 21. By Devin Grayson, art Roger Robinson and John Floyd (2001), and Nightwing vol 2 # 76. 2003) Just as in (the Pre-Crisis) NTT # 39.

Nightwing vol 2 # 76. By Devin Grayson, art Mike Lilly and Andy Owens. (2001)

Does that mean Devin Grayson also intended to rewrite other retcons that came after the Crisis – so that Dick wasn't fired from Robin and/or Dixon's "juvie origin"?

It’s difficult to say, since she never did write her own version of Dick’s origin. I can't remember her Nightwing run mentioning either how Dick left Robin or what had happened before he moved in with Bruce. (Actually, I can't remember any writer, besides Chuck Dixon himself, referencing the "juvie origin".) But Devin Grayson wrote Dick talking about being left in an orphanage in Gotham Knight # 21, in a context where he surely would have said “left at the youth centre” if she had ment to stick with Dixon’s version. 

Batman: Gotham Knights # 21. By Devin Grayson, art Roger Robinson and John Floyd. (2001)

After Flashpoint, in the new origin story, Dick was 15 when he was orphaned. (Nightwing vol 3 # 0, 2012) But in Rebirth Batman # 54 (2018), by Tom King, Dick is drawn way younger in a flashback, and he’s been shown younger in the Nightwing title too. 

Two more examples of canon jumping all over the place are Jason Todd's origin and how Dick left Robin to become Nightwing. Dick originally left by his own decision, because he felt Robin was the junior partner to Batman while he had outgrown that, but the Post-Crisis on Infinite Earth retcon was that Bruce fired Dick. First, in Batman # 408, because he got scared when the Joker shot Robin. Later, in Chuck Dixon's version (in Nightwing: Secret Files and Origin, and Nightwing Year One, Nightwing vol 2 100–106), Bruce fired Dick at ostensibly because Robin wasn't available enough when Batman needed assistance.

Again, after Dixon, I can't remember any writer referencing that Dick should have been outright fired as Robin.

Jason Todd was introduced as a strawberry blond, circus kid Dick Grayson clone but after Crisis on Infinite Earths he was a black-haired street kid. And when Dick originally left Robin, it was his choice to let Jason become Robin. Post-Crisis, Batman made Jason Robin – and while Dick might not have been on good terms with Bruce, he did accept Jason as Robin.

Fast forward to the 2010s. When Grant Morrison wrote Batman, and Batman and Robin vol 1, he re-introduced Jason Todd with red-blond hair – but not his Pre-Crisis personality (the Dick Grayson clone.) 

Morrison's era Jason Todd was the street kid and he had always liked trouble which made him "a juvie" (Batman and Robin vol 1 # 23, 2011, written by Judd Winick). In the same issue, there is a flashback that shows that Dick was on good terms with Bruce and working with Batman and JasonRobin – as if it were the Pre-Crisis version. 

Batman and Robin vol 1 # 23, by Judd Winnick, art Guillem March and Andrei Bresson. (2011)

In the very last issue of Batman before Flashpoint and New 52 (Batman # 713, by Fabian Nicieza, 2011) a flashback seems to confirm that it was Dick's decision to leave Robin.

Batman # 713. By Fabian Nicieza, pencillers Steve Scott, Daniel Sampere, Andrei Bressan. 2011.

The Morrison era Batman was, very much, built on a mix of Pre- and Post-Crisis material.

Pre-Crisis, by the way, Jason Todd was the first boy that Bruce adopted, and that was still the case when he was killed Post-Crisis. But he's been referred to as his ward in Batman: Gotham Knights # 44 (2003, written by Devin Grayson), as well as Batman and Robin vol 1 # 23 (2011, written by Judd Winick). (I'm sure other writers/other issues have put Jason down as adopted son...)

Batman and Robin vol 1 # 23, by Judd Winnick, art Guillem March and Andrei Bresson. (2011)

Neither Devin Grayson nor Grant Morrison wrote, as far as I can remember, a "visible" retcon where their ideas of the character's backstories are laid out. But it's nevertheless clear that they did not work with the same version of the character's history as writer/s who preceded them.

Then there's Robin Dies at Dawn from 1963 (Batman # 156), where Batman took part in a psychological experiment. That was canon and the unnamed doctor, who seemed pretty harmless at the time, became a major adversary, Doctor Hurt, during Grant Morrison’s run. Doctor Hurt has also been active as a Nightwing villain in Rebirth.  

Batman # 673. Written by Grant Morrison, pencil Tony S. Daniel, ink Jonathan Glapion and Sandu Florea. (2008)

Nightwing vol 4 # 19. By Tim Seeley, art Javier Fernandez and Minkyu Jung. (2017) 

Another recent example of cherrypicking is Tom King who, in his Batman/Catwoman mini series, uses the character Andrea Beaumont/Phantasm from the DC Animated Universe (she was created for an animated film in 1993). Of course, she's far from the first character who has been created in the animated universe and made their way over to comic book canon.

Tom King also used Hush in Batman vol 3 # 80 (2019), even though the man was last seen being killed in another universe (Batman: Prelude to the Wedding, Nightwing vs Hush, 2018). 

Batman: Prelude to the Wedding. Nightwing vs Hush. By Tim Seeley, art Travis G Moore. 

Sam Humphries, who wrote Nightwing vol 4 for a short period – I don’t know why he left early – had plans to use Dick’s Uncle George, whose one and only appearance was in 1944, in Batman vol 1 # 20. This is from an interview on Batman-news.com: https://batman-news.com/2017/11/27/a-nightwing-before-christmas-an-interview-with-sam-humphries/

SH: I will… I will say that’s a very intriguing pick.  I’ve not thought about that.  I do have a list of characters I want to bring in on the run, most of which I’ve gotta keep close to my chest.

JY: Sure, sure.

SH: You know, I do… Dick Grayson has an uncle, George Grayson, and there’s a story I want to tell about him that I’m really excited about.

In conclusion. It seems to me that official comic book writers are just as prone to pick and choose from earlier canon and disregarding whatever retcon they dislike as us ordinary fans... 

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

I've come to realize from going through your blog that I know very little about the Green Lanterns (curse of being an arrowverse into a batfam fan apparently) and I really wanna know more. From both a writing perspective, because I don't want to do them dirty when using the JL for something, and also because they seem like really interesting characters?? And I've never heard most of their stories.

So what would you recommend as the entry point to getting into them?

Ough that's a difficult one to answer because with seven (eight including Alan and nine if you count Keli) Green Lanterns from Earth alone, there's a lot of different places you can start. Like I personally started reading comics just before the New 52 reboot in 2011, so everything before that I've picked up via collected TPBs or wiki summaries or sheer osmosis from the Internet lol

I'll go in reverse order, because the more recent additions have the clearest starting points. They're pretty easy to catch up on since they don't have as much history as the others.

For Jo Mullein, Far Sector (2019) serves as both introduction and solo run, and it's essential for establishing her character before tossing her into the mix with the other Green Lanterns in Geoffrey Thorne's 2021 run and Jeremy Adam's current run.

Keli Quintela (aka Teen Lantern) debuted the same year as Jo in Brian Michael Bendis's Young Justice run, but unfortunately got lost in the shuffle of juggling an ensemble cast, most of whom were already established fan favorites. So her origin story is honestly half-baked. Keli played a small part in the Thorne run but was dropped into a coma and has only just woken up. Poor girl desperately needs a good writer to give her some depth.

Simon Baz came in with the New 52 in 2011 and Jessica Cruz arrived a few years later in the Forever Evil storyline of Justice League. Core aspects of both characters were established in those comics, like Simon's cynicism and Jessica's anxiety. Personally however, I consider Sam Humphries's Green Lanterns (2016) to be where the two of them actually got character development and focus, which is why I've put the two of them together.

Kyle Rayner is where things start to get complicated, because he and the older Green Lanterns have a lot of history that predates Geoff Johns's work that, for better or worse, basically is the start of the "modern era" of GL comics. While Johns's Emotional Spectrum saga does effectively become the new foundation for the characters going forward, the first story in it is Green Lantern: Rebirth (2004). Which was written for an audience who's already familiar with the GL mythos, so it's not an ideal place to start with if you don't already know the characters.

Rather, I think the most efficient* starting point is the Emerald Twilight storyline, which begins in issue #48 of Green Lantern Volume 3 (1990). It's Kyle Rayner's origin story, so it's not hard to find collected TPBs of it, and he starts out knowing basically nothing about Green Lanterns so it's a good jumping on point for new readers.

However, Kyle's origin is inseparably tied with the fall of Hal Jordan and the Corps, so if you prefer to have more context for those characters, you might want to read Emerald Dawn I (1989) and II (1990) beforehand. A lot of the stuff from them get retconned in Johns's retelling of Hal's origins, but they're still worth a read.

With John Stewart and Guy Gardner, a lot of their characterization from the 20th century is notably different from how it is today. Part of it is the way that Geoff Johns rewrote them, part of it is how popular the JL/JLU cartoon was. This is a large reason why I'd suggest the Emotional Spectrum saga as a starting point for understanding the modern versions of these characters before going back to their older stuff from the 80s and 90s.

Hal Jordan's history makes me want to beat my head against a wall. He's been around since 1959 but so much of his early stuff is still a blur to me. Someone's probably gonna scream at me if I don't mention Hard Traveling Heroes and his friendship with Oliver Queen. A lot of his Parallax and Spectre era material doesn't take place in actual GL comics but I don't know where to read it other than Zero Hour and Final Night because those were the only TPBs available to me.

Alan Scott, being a Golden Age hero, is largely a supporting character in the JSA, though he does sometimes show up in GL stuff. He did get a miniseries recently, Alan Scott: The Green Lantern (2023), that rewrites his past as a gay man in the Cold War era.

*I say efficient because I could list a bunch of miniseries and debut issues that are historically important for each of the characters but that would make this already lengthy post at least twice as long.

Alternatively, get the 80th anniversary special from a few years back and chug that shit

[rael-rider]

How would you do a Nova comic?

I think DnA really had the right idea in the first 15 issues of their run when they had Rich going from planet to planet getting involved with what was happening, saving people and dealing with threats. Yeah that’s what the Guardians of The Galaxy do (or should be doing because some writers don’t even make them do that) but Nova should also be about pushing things even further than the known places in the universe. It’s basically how he found Knowhere. Maybe some space western here and there because I like the Lone Ranger aspect of having a man go from place to place helping different communities with their problems and answering calls for help than the whole cop going around actively looking for perps to arrest (which really is more of a Green Lantern thing than a Nova thing, Novas were always more like soldiers). I would have Rich just travel to different places go to unknown planets and introduce a new race or civilization with their own problems and stories and also introduce new characters. Probably try to have non-humanoids and civilizations that aren’t just a more advanced version of Earth (one of the reasons I hated how Spartax was portrayed during the Bendis and Humphries era because Humphries made Spartax culture be just America in space and Bendis really didn’t care to make anything interesting with it, not even when Peter was Emperor/King/President of  Spartax and yes his title changed that often). Dan Abnett is very good at writing sci-fi and giving alien or foreign fantasy civilization their own culture, tradition and history. His work in 40K’s Black Library and 2000AD (ugh I still need to read Lawless) plus his Aquaman run and his work with Andy Lanning really speak for itself when it comes to that.

Also I would definitely touch into Xandarian culture, religion, etc... A bit on what the Nova force is and how Xandarians viewed it. I wouldn’t necessary bring Xandar back (it’s been done so many times and another writer just comes and kills them so maybe they should stay gone otherwise the weight of Annihilation would just be lost) but I definitely would do something with the surviving Xandarians (Garthan Saal, Pyreus Kril, Gabriel Lan, and that lost colony that broke away when Nebula attacked them which might have Powerhouse, Comet, and some of Rich’s other friends when he was living in Xandar) and their thoughts of Rich being Nova Prime. As for Sam I definitely have thought out a lot about what I would do with him. Even though his life is mostly on Earth I would have him just go and have space adventures during summer vacation or winter break. Also he definitely helps out SWORD and Abigail Brand defend Earth from space threats.

[shirtlesssammy]

3x10: Dream a Little Dream of Me

Then:

The show keeps reminding us that Dean’s going to Hell, so enjoy his pretty face while you can

Now:

Bobby stalks his house at night. He’s suddenly attacked ---and we flash to him in a motel room, unconscious. A maid wanders in and finds him. He’s inside his mind fighting whatever haunts him. 

Dean finds Sam getting day-drunk at a bar. Sam laments the fact that he tried saving Dean. Dean settles in beside his brother and orders a “whisky, double, neat.” 

Sam is beside himself thinking about where Dean’s going, and what he’s going to become. “How can you care so little about yourself?” Sam wonders. (WE ALL WONDER.) Dean’s saved by a phone call and the brothers rush to the hospital to find Bobby comatose. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him. 

(Ooh, I forgot that Cathryn Humphris wrote this episode. So good.) 

The brothers look around Bobby’s motel room. Sam finds his murder board in the back of the closet. They find an obit of a doctor that went to sleep and never woke up. Bobby must have been looking into the doctor’s death. 

Dean heads to the doctor’s office and interviews his lab assistant. Apparently the doctor was an expert in dream and sleep disorders. The lab assistant doesn’t really want to talk. She already talked to the other detective, the “very nice, older man with a beard.” 

Dean threatens the woman with a trip down to the station. The assistant swears she didn’t know anything about his side experiments. Dean bluffs his way into getting the doctor’s research. Good job, Dean!

He next heads to one of Doctor Greg’s test subjects. Dude offers Dean a beer, and Dean accepts. Hmm, I’m questioning your professionalism as much as the dude is Dean. Anyway, turns out the guy can’t dream. The study was the first time he had a dream since he was a kid. The guy didn’t continue with the study. 

At the hospital, Dean and Sam meet up. Sam brings research on the African Dream Root that was part of the dream study. This stuff has been used for dreamwalking (but not like Jack and Kaia dreamwalking…). It lets someone wander in someone else’s dreams. With enough of the root and practice, you can start to control things, changing dreams. “Killing people in their sleep,“ Dean suggests. YEP. 

The boys wonder why Bobby is still alive. 

We get a glimpse into Bobby’s dream. He’s barely holding on. BOBBY. 

The brothers theorize who the killer is --probably one of the test subjects. Sam laments the fact that they can’t talk to Bobby about the case. Dean suggests taking the dream root. They realize that in order to do that they need Bela.

Later, Bela arrives at the motel. Sam’s there alone. Bela almost instantly turns on the sexy time, and Sam is VERY responsive. 

Alas, it was just a dream and Dean wakes Sam and tells him he was making some “serious happy noises.” OH SAM. 

Dean wants to know who Sam was dreaming about but Sam wont tell. Let’s take a moment and add that Dean’s guesses are: One (1) Angelina Jolie. Two (2) Brad Pitt. DUDE, quit projecting so hard. 

Anyway, Bela arrives, much to the discomfort of Sam (and his pants). 

She’s brought the African dream root for Bobby. Dean puts the root with the Colt in Bobby’s safe and kicks Bela out of the room. Sam awkwardly bids her adieu. 

 The brothers concoct their dream potion to save Bobby. It includes some of Bobby’s hair.

They drink the concoction and feel no change. Sam then notices that it’s raining. It’s actually raining upside down --and they’re at Bobby’s house. It’s cleaned up. They start walking around calling for Bobby. 

Sam tells Dean he’s heading outside to look. He walks outside and it’s sunny and the birds are chirping. And when he tries to go back inside, the door won’t open. Dean can’t hear him from the inside either. 

Dean continues to wander the house. He wanders to the back closet and finds Bobby.

Dean tells him they’re using dream root to share his dream, but Bobby’s locked firmly in Dream Mode. He’s more focused on the flickering lights in his house. “She’s coming,” he pants. And his wife walks in, bloody and terrible. Oh Bobby :( She asks him why he stabbed her to death. He pleads for her to understand that he didn’t know about monsters back then. OOF. Hard stuff. 

Meanwhile, Sam’s walking through a laundry detergent commercial.

The doctor’s former test subject suddenly shows up, whacks Sam with a baseball bat, and then declares himself “a god” in the shared dream. Well, that ALWAYS ends well on this show!

Dean pleads with Bobby to let go of the nightmare Karen who’s pounding and wailing on the other side of the door. “I’m not gonna let you die,” Dean promises, because Bobby’s “like a father” to him. BRB WEEPING. Bobby uses the power of FILIAL LOVE to control the dream, and the pounding stops.

Sam, Dean, and Bobby snap awake at the same time (preventing Sam “Head Trauma” Winchester from getting another blow with a bat). 

Later, Dean asks Bobby about Karen. THIN ICE TERRITORY! “Everybody got into hunting somehow,” Bobby explains. Sam breaks into the soulful moment with an update on the dream dude. Jeremy Frost is a genius whose dad whacked him in the head with a bat as a child. Jeremy never dreamed after that - not until he started using dream root. Now he can trample into people’s dreams with a bit of their body - like hair, or in Bobby’s case, saliva. Bobby sipped some beer when he talked to Jeremy. Dean looks abashed. He….MIGHT have drunk a beer at Jeremy’s as well. Now that both Dean and Bobby are targets, the stakes are raised. It’s time for operation STAY AWAKE.

Two Days Later

Dean is EXTREMELY GRUMPY. It’s been two days, they haven’t found Jeremy, and he is missing his sleep desperately. #RELATABLE Bela and Bobby continue to work the case from the hotel with no luck. At the end of his tether, Dean pulls the car over and settles in for a snooze in the danger zone. He’s going to confront Jeremy on his own turf. Sam swipes one of Dean’s hairs and prepares to join Dean’s dream root nap.

They wake up in the car, still in the woods at the side of the road. Suddenly, Dean’s movie reel mind spins up a gentle song and soft autumn colors and THERE sits Lisa in a clearing. She’s wind-rumpled and gorgeous, dressed in soft yellow and waiting for Dean at a romantic picnic in the park. 

For My Heart Aches for Dean Science:

Excuse me while I cry in Dean’s face for thirty minutes. Sam did not expect his brother to be so damn soft. “I’ve never had this dream before,” Dean protests.

Lisa blinks out and Jeremy peeks around a tree. It’s chase time! The dream transitions to the hotel hallway, now papered in a forest print. At the end of the hallway is a door that leads to a dimly lit room. Inside the gloomy room, Dean sits at a desk. 

Other!Dean greets himself (very polite) and tells himself that it’s time to talk. “I’m my own worst nightmare,” Dean smirks. He GETS the symbolism, and it’s BORING. Except that Other!Dean immediately peels away Dean’s bravado. He tells him that Dean is dead inside and worthless (and we bundle this man up into blankets and plop him into therapy!)

Dean can’t make the apparition disappear, and Other!Dean quickly takes control. The door slams, trapping them inside the hotel room. 

Sam wakes up back in the Impala and tries to wake up Dean, but Dean’s turned into Jeremy. Jeremy explains that he killed the doctor so he can keep using dream root and DREAM. He binds Sam to the ground.

Other!Dean continues to say every terrible thing Dean thinks about himself and it is HARD. TO. LISTEN. TO. THIS. SHIT. Everything about Dean is patterned after his father, and geared towards protecting Sam. There’s nothing TO Dean, Other!Dean argues, other than being “Daddy’s blunt little instrument.” 

Dean snaps at last. “My father was an obsessed bastard!” he shouts. And the fight begins. “I didn’t deserve what he put on me, and I don’t deserve to go to Hell!” DEAN!!!! BRB weeping some more! Dean shoots his other self, but what should be a moment of psychological triumph quickly goes south. Other!Dean wakes with black eyes and Demon!Dean gleefully tells him that there’s no escaping his fate. He’ll die, go to Hell, and become a demon. 

Sam’s in dire straits. He’s still bound to the ground, with Jeremy hovering above him with a baseball bat. In a moment reminiscent of Princess Bride, Sam metaphorically switches the sword to his right hand and reminds Jeremy that he ALSO took dream root and has control of the dream. Jeremy’s dad barges out of the forest, a screaming terror of a parent, and Jeremy’s eyes go wide. Sam whacks Jeremy with the bat while he’s distracted, and both Sam and Dean’s dreams dissolve. They’re back in the waking world, in the Impala. Jeremy’s threat has been neutralized. 

Later, Sam and Bobby debrief in the hotel hallway. Bobby’s glad Sam saved them, but wonders if Sam’s psychic abilities came into play. Ummmm definitely not? Probably definitely not? Almost certainly definitely possibly. 

Dean’s having trouble tracking down Bela. Bobby wonders why she was helping them in the first place. “Flagstaff,” Dean explains. This doesn’t make sense to Bobby - he just cut her a good deal on a sale there, that’s all. It dawns on the Winchesters that they may have been played. They head to the hotel safe to discover the Colt missing. 

At the Impala, Dean asks Sam what he saw in the shared dream. UM NOTHING. Dean also says he didn’t see a damn thing! He was just focused on trying to find Sam. Bbys plz. Dean clears his throat awkwardly and confesses (in a tone one might use to confess to wearing ladies’ undergarments) that he doesn’t want to die. Sam promises to find a way to save him. Dean flashes back to his dream one more time, just so it’s seeped into our hearts. We see Demon!Dean taunting Dean about his fate. Demon!Dean snaps his fingers, a cruel grin on his face, and the episode cuts to black.

Mister Quoteman, Send Us a Quote:

No one can save you, because you don't wanna be saved. How can you care so little about yourself?

Thanks for the news flash, Edison!

Dean. I love you

What are the things that you dream? I mean, your car? That's Dad's. Your favorite leather jacket? Dad's. Your music? Dad's. Do you even have an original thought?

You can’t escape me, Dean. You’re gonna die. And this? This is what you’re gonna become!

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[archivingspn]

Codependency

Scripts

• 2016: 11x17 - Production Draft

Canon Quotes

2x22 | 4x14 | 8x23 9x23 10x23 11x11 11x16 | 11x17 | 11x20 11x23 12x01 12x22 13x20 14x11 14x12 14x13 15x17 15x19 15x20

Cons

• 2012: SDCC Press Room - Jensen - companion!Sam • 2013: TorCon Meet and Greet - Jensen (expressing Dean’s feelings, love you in finale) • 2015: Jibcon 6 Saturday - Jensen - relationship won’t break  • 2016: DCcon - Jared - Romeo and Juliet • 2018: Nashcon - Jared - BAE

Articles/Interviews

• 2006: Sequential Tart - epic love story • 2008: Eclipse Magazine - What they are willing to do for each other is both a strength and a character flaw. • 2008: Morgan’s Maniacs - epic love story-ish • 2010: Supernatural: The Official Season 4 Companion - Humphris • 2010: TVGuide -Gamble - implies the brothers need each other and will go to great lengths for it • 2011: The New York Times - NYT - (...at its most basic it is about sibling devotion: no pair of brothers or sisters on television is more closely bound, not even the siblings on “Brothers and Sisters.” Proving their intimacy each week the Winchesters argue as if they were a married couple and seem conceived to correct for the existence of so many only children who must fight their battles solo in fairy tales and other fiction for the young.) (“In a sense all the brothers have is each other...”) • 2012: Fangasm - Jensen- (he would’ve made all the deals)  • 2014: Variety - (the brother relationship is depicted as interesting and the heart of the show, not as something toxic or to be broken) • 2014: EW - brother bond • 2017: EW - Jan (Exception!chesters) • 2017: EW - Sep (Brotherly Love, brotherly bond that holds it together) • 2017: EW - Oct (lifeblood of the show, My Two Dads) • 2018: EW -  (A good season has brother struggles and finding ways to make it work) • 2020: TVLine - (it ends about these two guys) • 2020: Fangasm - (Happiest moment in a way) • 2021: Variety -Jan 15- Jared (No. 1 on the planet) • 2021: TV Guide - (the series becomes the story of two brothers who would do anything for each other, including selling their soul to save the other.) • 2021: Decider - Misha (couldn’t care about anything more in the world than one another)

Social Media

• 2013: Twitter - Oct 10 Glass (Dean’s love for Sam drives the show) • 2014: Facebook - Supernatural (nothing stronger) • 2016: Twitter - Alaina (Romeo and Juliet) • 2016: Twitter - Ruth (Romeo and Romeo) • 2017: Twitter - CW SPN  (epic love story) • 2018: Twitter - TNT (BAE)

Misc.

• 2008: WildStorm Productions- “Supernatural Rising Son #6: The Beast with Two Backs” - Eric Kripke, Peter Johnson • 2010: Season 5 DVD - epic love story • 2014: A Very Special Supernatural Special - Kripke, Carver, Singer, J2M2 • 2014: The Essential Supernatural [Revised and Updated Edition]: On the Road with Sam and Dean Winchester - (show about brothers, not something to be broken) 2020: TVLine - (it ends about these two guys)

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

AN INTERVIEW WITH LUKE ARNOLD

Many people know actor Luke Arnold from the Starz TV show Black Sails where he plays the character, John Silver. But, to add to his extensive acting credits is his debut novel, The Last Smile in Sunder City. The first novel of the Fetch Phillips Archives series. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Sunder City, you should fix that ASAP. (Our review can be found here.) Sunder City is a little bit of fantasy, a little bit Sam Spade, and a whole lot of good writing. GdM got the opportunity to sit down with Luke and talk to him a bit about his writing, and what is happening in the future for Fetch Phillips.

GDM: Hi Luke. Thank you for agreeing to chat with me a bit about your writing, life, and The Last Smile in Sunder City.

LA: My absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me.

GDM: For the uninitiated, could you tell me a little about yourself and how you got into writing Sunder City? Have you always been a writer?

LA: I’ve been working as an actor for most of my adult life. When I started out, all my creative paths were intertwined. I’d write things, act in them, direct them, and collaborate with anyone on anything. Then I was lucky enough to have some success in the acting world, most notably on a show called Black Sails, and gave that all of my focus for a few years. After that wrapped up, it felt like it was time to dig back into my own writing, so I put away some time and punched out the first draft.

GDM: I know with acting, you must pull character creation and visualization from a creative space. How does that differ from character creation when writing novels?

LA: In some ways, they couldn’t be more opposite. When you act on film, you really have to trust everyone around you and hope that you’re in safe hands. You work off someone else’s material on a set that someone else built, in a costume that someone else made, while you listen to direction and hand your performance over to an editor at the end of it. It’s about doing your homework, preparing properly, and then committing to this brief window of time when you try to be in the moment and deliver a performance worth capturing.

GDM: With a novel, you are the entire crew, and the window lasts as long as you need it to. For the most part, there is no collaboration, no outside input, nobody rocking up with a ready-made set or a beautiful coat to put on one of your characters. For better or worse, it’s all you.

LA: To be honest, being able to bounce back and forth between the two makes me enjoy each of them even more.

GDM: The Last Smile in Sunder City was a remarkable story. I loved how the story is told through a series of interactions, both now and in the past. It was a compelling narrative device in describing how a character can change once crossing a pivotal moment in their lives. In Fetch’s case, it was the before and after the Coda. Did you plan for the story to be told in this fashion, or did the story change organically as you wrote it?

LA: When I started writing this story, it was only the present-day part of the story: a man-for-hire searching for a Vampire in a broken fantasy world. I thought maybe I would do a bunch of these short cases, stick them together, and then do an origin story one day.

I shared the story with some friends in the publishing world and while they really liked it, they informed me that collections of short stories are nearly impossible to sell, and suggested that a novel would be a better path. Thankfully, I took their advice.

I think the scars of that process can still be seen on this story, but I kind of like that. It’s the same thing that happened to Raymond Chandler (my biggest influence when it comes to this book). Chandler wrote short stories for a magazine called Black Mask. Most of his novels were an amalgamation of those shorter stories, tied together and padded out.

My second book, Dead Man in a Ditch, is more tightly constructed, but for the first story about a hopeless, wandering gumshoe who only begins to find his way, I think the creative journey added to the tone.

GDM: How did you create the after Coda world? What was the inspiration?

LA: A lot of the pre-Coda world (the magical time) was planned out before I started. I tracked the beginning of magic and thought about how it would seep into the world and create versions of all the magical creatures we’re familiar with. But in the post-Coda, a lot of it comes to life as I take Fetch around the city and see who he stumbles across. Rather than being inspired by any particular time or place in history, it’s more about a feeling. A bit of guilt. A touch of depression. A regular spoonful of self-loathing. Sometimes it’s about growing up. Sometimes it’s about living in the aftermath of mistakes. It all depends on where Fetch’s mind is at. He’s always struggling with some internal dilemma, and I love to make him bump into the perfect creature that will make things even worse.

GDM: Are you a big fantasy and science fiction reader? Which books have you been inspired by?

LA: I’ve always been a big reader, but I only dabbled in fantasy before this. I’ve been doing my best to catch up over the last few years. Most of the fantasy worlds that influenced me would have come from video games, anime, and film. I’ve been going through Final Fantasy 7 recently (remake, and replaying the original), and realized that it probably influenced Sunder City more than any book.

There’s plenty of Pratchett in my world, and I’ve stolen fantasy creatures from everywhere, but you’ll find more elements of Humphry Bogart than Hobbits.

GDM: One of the take-aways I had From The Last Smile in Sunder City was even under all the dark, the ominous, the despair, under the constant struggle to live, there is always a small shiny kernel of hope. As a reader, I am drawn to stories that have this; it helps me connect and want more as a reader. Was this always the intention?

LA: Sure. I love playing with the expectations we have of fantasy characters versus what we expect of ourselves. In worlds with magic spells, evil villains, and ancient prophesies, we want our heroes to find the special sword, kill the baddie, and restore peace to the land. When you’re younger, our world seems so different to the ones in books that it feels like escapism. But as you get older, you realise that there are actually these looming threats coming to destroy the us and villains who cause suffering for their own gain, but the bit that we struggle with (at least I do) is what we can do about it. Could we be better? Does anything we do matter? Or could we wake up tomorrow and actually make a difference?

I don’t know how to fix the world (yet) but I do know that a shared moment with a close friend or a perfect cup of coffee will help me get up tomorrow and keep searching.

GDM: Can you tell me a bit about Dead Man in a Ditch?

LA: The first book hints that the magic might not be completely gone for good. Of course, Fetch isn’t ready to believe that, but word has gotten out. Folks start arriving at Fetch’s door, asking him to find a way to fix things. That includes the police department, who invites Fetch to a crime scene where a guy’s face has been blown apart by a fireball.

With the stage set by the first book, Dead Man in a Ditch makes some big moves forward, though the shadows from the past are still hanging around.

GDM: Finally, I always like to end on a light-hearted question. The Dinner Party question. If you could have dinner and conversation with three figures from real life, alive or dead, or fiction, who would they be and why?

LA: Jim Henson. I think Sesame Street is the most important television show ever made and everything Jim brought into the world has made it a better place. Maybe I’d get to learn a couple of things but maybe I’d just get to spend a couple of hours in his presence.

David Bowie (Similar reasons to Henson, really) and Nina Simone (because she seemed really disappointed at Montreux that Bowie wasn’t there, so I’d die to see them hanging out). And there would be a piano tucked in the corner, as if by accident, but I’d never ask anyone to play (until the second bottle of wine, when I absolutely would).

I know they’re all creative, but then I would at least have a chance of joining in the conversation. If it was Nelson Mandela, Marie Curie and Martin Luther King, I’d be outed as an imbecile immediately.

- Grimdark Magazine (x)

[revisitedgrunt]

Harley and Ivy.

A new fans thoughts on this relationship and the Harley Quinn comic: Part 4 of 4.

Issue 34 was the last one written by Amanda and Jimmy.  They’ve written 64 issues of the Harley Quinn comic book, not including specials, one shots and annuals, and every issue is absolute gold.  Some stories were, of course, better than others, but everyone was still a joy to read. They were fun and they made me happy.  I'll always have them, I'll reread them often and I have Amanda and Jimmy to thank for that.

Frank Tieri takes over for issues 35 – 42.  His short run mainly focuses on the Penguin trying to take over Coney Island.  This story arc was fine.  I didn't enjoy it as much as Amanda and Jimmy's work, but I didn't have any problems with it.   It was OK.  Harley and Ivy have a very brief interaction in issue 40.  It isn't of any consequence and is over in a second.

Sam Humphries takes over as the regular writer in issue 45.  Before I get into that, it seems to me that there are people at DC, editors and writers, that understand the Harley/Ivy relationship.  They understand just how much these two care about each other, how much they love each other.

In the Bombshells continuity, written by Marguerite Bennett, Harley and Ivy are in a romantic relationship.

In the last part I said I hoped to see Harley/Ivy in bed.  This sort of scene is exactly want I want in the canon contuinity.  I want there to be no doubt that Harley and Ivy have had sex.

The DCeased continuity, written by Tom Taylor, is non-stop death, blood and misery, but even here Harley and Ivy get a sweet scene together.  

It's not just non-canon realities.  In the canon continuity, the “Everyone Loves Ivy” story arc (Batman 41 - 43) , written by Tom King, has Ivy take over the world.  She has mind controlled everyone on the planet, and the only reason she stops is because Batman has Harley talk her down.

This leads into the “Heroes In Crisis” miniseries.  This is also written by Tom King, and he writes Harley and Ivy as a couple.  Harley breaks into Sanctuary to see Ivy.  Every scene the two share is full of love, care, support and respect.  Harley calls Ivy “pretty girl”.  When Harley is mourning Ivy, she says “I shouldn't have loved you.” When Harley is about to kill Booster Gold, she says “She saw her love (Ivy).  Covered in blood.”  In issue 9, when Harley sees the regrown Ivy, Ivy says this.

Which is one of the most romantic things I've ever read.  Harley rushes into Ivy's arms and stays wrapped around her for the rest of the comic, momentarily leaving her side to do this.

This will lead into the Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy miniseries, which is written by Jody Houser and is due September.  The description for this is pretty interesting as it says they will “explore their relationship” and the miniseries will “change their friendship forever.”  I'm obviously hoping that this means they will officially get together. I am so ready for Harley and Ivy being official girlfriends.  It could also mean that their relationship falls apart and they end up enemies, but I'm not thinking about that.  However, the fact that they’re getting their own miniseries shows that DC knows how popular they are, and how much they mean to each other.

So, to reiterate, DC seems to understand the Harley/Ivy relationship.  So I have to wonder why Ivy has completely disappeared from the Harley Quinn comic.

From issues 45 – 63 (19 issues), Harley and Ivy have not interacted once.    Harley has briefly mentioned Ivy twice, and that's it.  That's not the worst of it. Tony, Queenie, Goatman, Eggy, Jimm, Red Tool, the gang of Harley's (not including Coach), Summer Daze and the rest of the Roller Derby team have all disappeared!  These are people Harley considered family, characters I enjoyed reading about, and now we don't see them at all.

I understand a new author wants to make their own mark on a book, but I feel like you can do this by building on what came before, not ignoring it!  To me, this honestly feels like Sam didn't care about, or respect, all the work Amanda and Jimmy had done.

I also don't like the stories he's writing.  Harley always seemed to work best as a street level (anti) hero.  Now she's on Apokolips, breaking and fixing DC contunity, and completing trials to become the Angel of Retribution.  It doesn't work for me.  There's also a cancer storyline regarding Harley's mom that ties into the trials.  I think cancer storylines are played out by now, but this highlights another issue.  We have a very good understanding of Ivy's character by now.    We know that the second she found out Harley's mom had cancer, she'd drop everything to be there for her.  But she isn't, she seems to have ceased to exist. 

Does Sam not like Ivy?  Does he not like the Harley/Ivy relationship?  Has an editor told him he can’t include Ivy?  I would love to know why Harley’s best friend, and primary love interest, has completely disappeared from her comic book.

I used to have so much fun reading this book, now I find myself struggling to care.  I really wish I wasn't in this position.  I want to love this book like I used to, but it's really difficult at the moment.

I don't want to end this on a downer.  Amanda and Jimmy's work is superlative.    They also redefined the Harley/Ivy relationship and no one can now say they don't love each other.  No one can say they are just good friends.  Hopefully Tom King and Jody Houser, will build on the groundwork Amanda and Jimmy laid and, with any luck, we will soon get Harley and Ivy as official girlfriends.              

To finish, I'm really happy to see DC move away from the Joker/Harley relationship.  The story is no longer two wild, wacky kids, who were in a dysfunctional love affair.  It is now about a woman who was in a horrifically abusive relationship, but found the strength and courage to break free.  The Joker will always be a huge part of Harley's story, but it now seems like he won't be her great love, Ivy will.

I, for one, am very thankful for that.

Thanks for reading.

[jaysterg5]

Green Lanterns #4

Writer - Sam Humphries

Pencilers - Ed Benes, Robson Rocha and Tom Derenick

Cover - Robson Rocha, Jay Leisten and Rod Reis

“Rage Planet” Part 4

Trapped inside the Hell Tower with his partner infected by rage, Simon Baz needs to hold it together and get out with his ring almost out of power.  As the tower dredges deeper into the earth, the moment of Red Dawn and the ascent of the Red Lanterns gets closer!

I initially thought this was going to be one of those issues where the heroes fight until one beats sense into the other.  And while that was pretty much a big focus of the issue, I was surprised at the amount of emotional content and character insights we get through it all. Some of it is a bit heavy-handed, but it’s nice to see the characters facing their fears and weaknesses, growing, changing, and maturing - and these characters have a LOT of work to do in those areas!  it’s nice to see that they need each other as well.  They each need the other to help them grow and change.  They probably wouldn’t be able to do that without each other.  All of that was the pleasant surprise of the issue.

In spite of several pencilers and an army of inkers, this issue felt a little more uniform than the last.  The styles seemed to mesh better and it wasn’t as jarring from page to page.  Some were better than others, but overall it was a decent issue from an art standpoint.  I still think the biweekly schedule truly hampers the art in the book.  I’ve been seeing it more and more as I read through these initial Rebirth story arcs.  Good books could have been even better with more time devoted to the artwork from the launching teams.  I’m hoping this evens out at some point.

in general, this was a decent issue that was elevated somewhat from cliche to something more interesting.  Now we need to get back to the main storyline.