#me with 5.05 heh

[nextstopparis]

sometimes its just like [hasnt seen this ep in two years] [gives opinion abt what happened in it]

[mittensmorgul]

5.05: Things aren’t what they seem. It’s an old bait-and-switch.

Plus there’s a lot of folks deceiving THEMSELVES, and we see what begins to happen as their beliefs are questioned... Such as the sheriff who initially presented the case of Cal’s death based on the video evidence as open and shut, despite the tape not showing any actual evidence of the crime.

CARNEGIE: Look, you know this ain't brain surgery, boys! Whatever it looks like, that's what it usually is. It's simple.

Riiiiiight. *that is the word of the day here...*

Dean, all giddy as he’s telling Sam the history of the car (it killed a mechanic by falling on him) reminds me of Dean sarcastically replying to Adam when he asked how John died:

Adam: I thought he was a mechanic? Dean: A car fell on him.

It was a lie then, and it’s a lie now... well, at least about this car here being what it looks like on the surface. So I guess that’s another connection between the two episodes, because like Adam, Little Bastard-- the car-- turned out to be a fake.

The next murder appears to have been committed by Abraham Lincoln, also of a person who was a “super fan” of Lincoln, like Cal was a fan of James Dean. Meanwhile, Sheriff Carnegie is getting a little desperate to make sense of this murder. It’s not as easily “open and shut” as the previous one...

CARNEGIE: Well there's gotta be a reasonable explanation. There always is. DEAN: Well what's your reasonable explanation? CARNEGIE: Professional killer. SAM: Come again? CARNEGIE: Well, CIA, NSA, one o' them trained assassins, like in Michael Clayton.

Of course Sam and Dean come to a different conclusion. But why are ghosts of famous people seemingly ganking their biggest fans? A wax museum that uses the actual possessions of the people on display-- Abraham Lincoln’s hat, James Dean’s key chain, and Gandhi’s glasses...

Sam has a staring contest with the figure of Abe Lincoln, and then is attacked by Gandhi. Dean salts and burns the glasses and Gandhi disappears. Sam’s biggest sticking point was that it didn’t seem like Gandhi was a ghost, because it was trying to take a bite out of him but the real Gandhi was a fruitarian.

Meanwhile, Dean completely doubts in Sam. He still blames Sam for releasing Lucifer...

SAM: Dean, one of the reasons I went off with Ruby...was to get away from you. DEAN: What? SAM: It made me feel strong. Like I wasn't your kid brother. DEAN: Are you saying this is my fault? SAM: No, it's my fault. All I'm saying is that, if we're gonna do this, we have to do it different, we can't just fall into the same rut.

They need to find another way, they both need to let go of the past and move on...

But just as Dean’s about to leave town, he gets his third call from Sheriff Carnegie, and at this point he doesn’t even have a theory for the weirdness:

DEAN: Sheriff, what happened? CARNEGIE: I, uh, uh... CARNEGIE shrugs and shakes his head. CARNEGIE: I don't know!

(heh, rule of threes)

A girl was taken by Paris Hilton. But Paris Hilton isn’t dead, so there’s no way it could be a ghost. Sam autopsies one of the victims and finds seeds from an extinct tree associated with a forest god, Leshi. But at least they finally know how to kill the thing.

It’s also a delight watching Sam and Dean get beat up by Paris Hilton. The god wearing her face has such a similar story to the pagan gods in 3.09, as well, in everything from the MO to their insistence on performing the ritual before making the sacrifice.

LESHI: Someone tripped the apocalypse. And I thought, what the hell, I'm tired of watching what I eat. I wanna pig out. So I found this little place. It's awesome. Adoring fans stroll right in the door. SAM: Yeah. But they're not your fans. LESHI: So? They worship Lincoln, Gandhi, Hilton...whatever. I'll take what I can get.

(House of Wax joke, Leshi threatens to become John Winchester so that she can eat Dean, since she could only consume the blood of those devoted to her, or the visage she’s currently wearing anyway, Sam offs the god and makes fun of Dean for getting beat up by Paris Hilton)

But after all that honesty came out, Sam and Dean share some honesty, and a more equal responsibility for having started the apocalypse. Dean broke the first seal, Sam the last, but neither of them knew it at the time.

DEAN: I'm not saying demon blood was a great way to go, but, you did kill Lilith. SAM: And start the apocalypse. DEAN: Which neither of us saw coming, I mean, who'd have thought killing Lilith would've been a bad thing? Point is, I was so worried about watching your every move that I didn't see what it was actually doing to you. So, for that I'm sorry.

It really was the whole mentality that had been drilled into Dean his whole life, “watch out for Sammy.” He just hadn’t learned the subtle difference between the way John wanted him to watch out for Sam’s actions (if he goes darkside you’ll have to kill him), because that led to the horror and desperation for Dean to find a way not to have to kill his brother, and blinded him to what was actually going on with Sam.

Sam didn’t need a jailer and a guardian, but support.

Which is what Dean has been giving him in s12. Of course Sam would try to hide things from his keeper, from someone he felt would judge him harshly if he knew the full truth, but Dean’s apparent TRUST in Sam in s12 (at least as far as he’s extended it, in agreeing to work with the MoL despite suspecting there’s some larger truth he has yet to learn), is what’s keeping Sam from turning completely to the Dark Side now...