#1x10 Asylum

[bloodfreak-boyking]

big siblings energy AND weird flirty comments? In my supernatural? its more likely than you think

[hurricanejane]

[nosemolesupremacy]

Hey uh in this episode Dean literally says "don't ask don't tell" in reference to Sam's psychic powers which is. Hm. Ah. Yes.

[normalbrothershow]

cinematographic voyeurism in supernatural, asylum 1.10

-> filming techniques that make the audience the voyeur, rather than another on-screen character/being

[spn20rewatch]

Season 1, Episode 10: Asylum (October 31st)

Sam and Dean are trapped in an abandoned asylum with a ghost who causes extreme rage in its victims. -Super-wiki

Originally aired on: November 22nd, 2005

Written by Richard Hatem, directed by Guy Norman Bee.

Fun fact: The asylum shots are filmed in Riverview Hospital, a site which is used a few other times through the run of the show. Also, this is our first holiday episode! Happy Halloween 🎃

[arcanespillo]

The OC s1e02 —SPN s1e10

[soft-pine]

1.10 asylum // cn domestic violence

once again, it's sam that's looking for john. he's calling john's friends and colleagues. he suggests calling the Feds to help find john. dean pushes back saying, accurately, that john would hate that.

then john texts dean's phone - a new case. dean is somewhat relieved by this; john is alive and okay enough to give them homework. sam is, understandably pissed.

the case - cop murders his wife then himself - takes them to a bar in illinois where they stage a scene so sam can talk to the cop's old police partner. in the scene, dean plays a reporter badgering for details. sam plays the local hero - pushing dean away from the table and buying the cop a beer.

but he pushes dean hard enough that dean is clearly taken aback and even comments on it later.

DEAN: Shoved me kinda hard in there, buddy boy. SAM: I had to sell it, didn't I? It's method acting.

the episode ends with sam getting controlled by evil dr ellicott. his anger takes over. he shoots dean with rock salt. he would have shot him with live ammo if the gun dean handed him hadn't been empty. it's not the last time spn will have an episode where someone's anger gets magnified and intensified by supernatural forces. 4.14 and 8.06 come to mind.

but i think it's interesting that not only sam's anger - but the violence - were present before ellicott ever got his hands on sam. people have a view, i think, in which dean's more often aggressor in their physical altercations. (it's not true, of course. they're much more evenly split than that). but i think it speaks to the toxic family and culture they were raised in that violence shows up in these ways.

and i think sam is genuinely frustrated with dean for not having as much enthusiasm in searching for john. sam is upset dean is just working the cases john sends. but sam is also clearly mad at john. i mean, 1.20 makes it very clear that sam does not accept the "need to know" basis john has been forcing on them. in 1.02 sam is furious when john doesn't turn out to be in black water ridge and wants to abandon the case.

so sam's mad at dean and mad at john but john's not here.

it reminds me of the scene in 1.20 where john conversely angry with sam for not just taking him at his word and instead pushing back. but he expresses it by telling dean that he's not doing a good enough job taking care of baby.

dean is there to absorb (and try to diffuse) the anger john and sam have for each other.

but critically, dean is also dealing with a huge amount emotional uncertainty about john this season. we know john's left them before - and for long periods. but the pilot makes very clear that this time john has been gone and out of communication longer than normal. once dean's realizes that john is probably okay, he's just left to wonder what john's motivation is for not being in contact. season 14 will tell us that one of john's punishments is distance and silence.

i wonder if that's what dean's thinking about and feeling now. in the last episode, he called john crying to ask for help. in this one - with no check-in or follow up that dean is aware of - john texts him his next job.

when sam's being affected by ellicott, he says "I mean, why are we even here? ’Cause you're following Dad's orders like a good little solider? Because you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval?"

but it's something much more basic than approval that dean is maybe hoping for. and i think he is worried that sam's insistence on not working cases in order to find a john who does not want to be found is going to jeopardize even the small contact he's receiving. of course dean doesn't know john is aware sam is with him. so any time they take away from working the cases john sends, could be read by john as only dean's actions. and, like we see in 1.20, even if it's not dean's actions, he could still face the consequences. and dean knows he's never gotten anything from john by demanding it.

i know im kind of playing a lot of speculation games. but dean's emotional landscape in this season is so important to me. and i think the way his peacekeeper role comes into play and diminishes his ability to voice his own needs is crucial to unpack a bit.

[samepisodebracket]

Round 1; Group 4

[bloodfreak-boyking]

sam babe your silence is DEAFENING. and WHAT is that look?? oh this therapist ABSOLUTELY knows he wants his brother carnally

[my-supernatural-rewatch]

Episode 10: Asylum

Dean Winchester in the Supernatural episode Asylum

Another episode where I kind of forgot that I had seen it until I got a good 15 minutes into it.

Dean and Sam investigate an abandoned insane asylum that might be causing people to go insane when a police officer who went inside kills his wife and then himself.

Two cops go into an abandoned insane asylum looking for whoever broke in and one of them says "Let's split up." Nothing good ever happens after someone says "Let's split up." (this will also come back to us later in the episode.) Ironically, the dude who says "Let's split up" isn't the dude who ends up dead.

So off-screen, some time between this and the last episode, Dean told Sam that he called John and that John never responded. So now Sam is worried that John could be dead (because that's what a normal person would think if their own fucking father didn't respond to a teary phone call from their brother) and Dean snaps, insisting he isn't dead. Which is when Sam drops a truth bomb on Dean, "What? He's hiding? He's busy?"

No shit, Sam...he's an asshole.

So John texts Dean coordinates...no hi. No how's Sam doing? Not a fucking thing but coordinates. And Deans' thrilled and Sam's annoyed.

It is not often I side with Sam but in this episode there is a big part of me siding with him about John.

Our currently ever optimistic Dean (when it comes to John, anyway) is hopeful that if they go to Rockford, Illinois (where the coordinates are) - John will be there. Sam knows this is most likely bullshit and really doesn't want to drag his ass to Illinois.

"If he wants us there, it's good enough for me!" I don't have to tell you who said that, right? Then when Sam pushes back, Dean comes up with:

"Dad's telling us to go somewhere; we're going!"

Sam is not happy but, you know, Dean has the car keys so what choice does he have?

And here we have another episode where Dean spends a bit of time making fun of Sam's newfound psychic abilities. This will never, ever make sense to me. They hunt the fucking supernatural. Dean should be excited about this new aspect of this brother's personality and be trying to use it to, you know, do their fucking job.

When they've been in Illinois long enough to realize that John isn't going to be there, Sam wants to discuss it. Predictably, Dean doesn't.

Dean's response to Sam's attitude about John made me laugh, even if I don't think it's true:

"That's why I always got the extra cookie."

For fuck's sake, Dean, we come to find out there wasn't even any extra cereal, let alone cookies. Get this man a psychologist please.

More sibling squabbling leading to Sam asking the question on all of our minds:

"So, what? We gotta always follow Dad's orders?"

Guess what Dean says? GUESS????

"Of course we do."

Oh Dean. OH Dean. You break my little heart.

Sam talks to a psychiatrist as a patient because he's the son of the psychiatrist who worked at the abandoned insane asylum and he's trying to get info out of him. He gives him pieces of the truth: his real name and the fact that he's on a 'road trip' with his brother. Leading the doctor to ask the question we'd all like to hear the answer to:

"This brother you're road tripping with. How do you feel about him?"

But guess what? They cut away from Sam's serious look just before he responds so we don't know what he said. But we do know he spent a LOT of time in the doctor's office because when he finally comes out the first thing Dean says is:

"Dude, you were in there forever. What the hell were you talking about?"

Yeah, Sam. What?

One note about earlier in the episode. Sam and Dean got to a bar to talk to the cop who uttered the "Let's split up" line before his partner went nuts. Dean pretends to be a reporter and Sam comes in and pushes him around for bothering the cop so Sam can gain the cop's trust and get info from him.

When it's all said and done, we get this interaction with the brothers:

Dean: Shoved me kinda hard in there, buddy boy. Sam: I had to sell it, didn't I? It's method acting. Dean: Huh? Sam: Never mind.

Now first off, no way does Dean NOT know what method acting is. He's too much of a pop culture fiend to not know. But let's forget them making Dean dumb AGAIN for a moment. Sam shoved Dean hard on purpose. Sam has a hate boner for Dean in this episode that I guess is due to Dean's loyalty to John...I don't know, this is Supernatural, nothing is ever that obvious...but the shove, and then him talking to the psychiatrist about Dean...and then what comes up very soon at the asylum...for the one that got away from the family and the abusive father, Sam has a complex about Dean as if Dean was the one who had it better and that annoys the shit out of me.

Back on track:

This is another episode that was shot very dark for a lot of scenes. Note to cinematographer's: I don't need to SEE the darkness to know the episode is dark.

Also, quite random, one of the two people in the asylum when Dean and Sam get there is named Gavin. I get that there are over 300 episodes of this show but there are so many more names to use - why does this show repurpose names so often? (The woman's name is Kat...which I can't remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure we got another Kat at some point too.)

When they figure out who the spirit is, Dean opens up with a little honesty:

"The only thing that makes me more nervous than a pissed off spirit, is the pissed off spirit of a psycho killer."

Word, Dean.

When it comes time to search the asylum, Dean says the dreaded words: "I guess we're gonna split up then." And, just like at the beginning of the episode, the one who decides to split up isn't the one the spirit goes after.

Dean takes Kat with him while Sam goes it alone. Unlike most of the previous eps where Dean figures out the big THING, Sam is the one who figures out that the ghosts that keep going after them aren't the violent spirit but are trying to tell them something. When Dean loses Kat to the ghost, Sam is the one to convince her to listen to the ghost. She does...and they figure out where they have to go.

More angry Sam: He tells Kat and Gavin that hunting ghosts is basically their job and when Kat asks if Dean is his boss he responds with an angry and curt, NO. No "We're brothers." Just NO. Sam is pissy today.

So they discover that basically the spirit of the psychiatrist was trying to work on aggressive behaviors and instead of helping the patients he made it much worse...and in death he was doing it to people like the cop at the beginning of the episode and now...Sam.

So Sam was angry all episode just so this could happen. Okay.

Without hesitation, when Dean figures out Sam isn't right, Sam shoots Dean right in the chest with the shotgun full of rock salt. Doesn't fucking hesitate.

Before he does, though, and before Dean figures out something isn't right, Dean tells him to put the shotgun down and when Sam asks if that's an order and Dean tells him it's a 'friendly request' Sam responds:

"’Cause I'm getting pretty tired of taking your orders."

And then after he shoots Dean, we get this scene:

Dean: We gotta burn Ellicott's bones and all this will be over, and you'll be back to normal.

Sam: I am normal. I'm just telling the truth for the first time. I mean, why are we even here? ’Cause you're following Dad's orders like a good little solider? Because you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval?

Dean: This isn't you talking, Sam.

Sam: That's the difference between you and me. I have a mind of my own. I'm not pathetic, like you.

Dean: So what are you gonna do, huh? Are you gonna kill me?

Sam: You know what, I am sick of doing what you tell me to do. We're no closer to finding Dad today than we were six months ago.

Dean: Well, then here. Let me make it easier for you. (He holds a pistol out to Sam.) Come on. Take it. Real bullets are gonna work a hell of a lot better than rock salt. Take it!! (Sam takes it and points it at Dean) You hate me that much? You think you could kill your own brother? Then go ahead. Pull the trigger. Do it!

Sam pulls the freaking trigger but nothing happens. There are no bullets. He pulls the trigger two more time and Dean is finally done. He punches Sam dead in the face.

Dean: Man, I'm not going to give you a loaded pistol.

Now, point to Dean for knowing Sam isn't really Sam here and not just killing his ass. But don't tell me there isn't a lot of truth to what Sam said under this influence. I don't think he wanted to KILL Dean, that was definitely the psychiatrist/spirit but he was already exhibiting all that anger toward Dean before the spirit got to him and this was his opportunity to dump it all back on Dean.

So Dean finds the bones of the doctor because of course he does...and after the doctor's spirit makes it difficult, he still finds his Zippo and burns the bones...yay Dean!

When the bones are burned and Sam is back to being Sam, he apologizes to Dean for the things he said. Dean seems a little surprised that Sam remembers what he said (another clue to me that Dean thinks like I do and that Sam really meant what he said).

Sam tells him he didn't mean any of it...and Dean is obviously not buying it - but he doesn't want to talk about it:

"I'm not really in the sharing and caring kind of mood."

Now in a perfect world, that's how the episode ends. Dean pissed and Sam worried about how much he pissed Dean off. But no...we can't have nice things. Instead we get Sam and Dean sleeping in a motel room and Dean's phone ringing. For whatever reason, Dean sleeps through it and Sam answers it.

Guess who finally remembered he had sons?

Some notes for posterity:

Only one song in this ep. Is that right? Okay. Bachman Turner Overdrive's Hey You.

Dean tells the dead cop's partner that he's Nigel Tufnel from the Chicago Tribune. Sam tells the psychiatrist his real, full name.

Movie References: Dean brings up The Shining again and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest while doing a pretty decent Jack Nicholson impression. He mentions Yoda, Haley Joel Osment, Patricia Arquette and Jennifer Love Hewitt (the latter two both played psychics on television shows) and the Nigel Tufnel reference comes from This is Spinal Tap.

This hunt takes place in Rockford, Illinois.

Dean uses a lighter to burn the bones of the psychiatrist.

[onespncap]

s01e10 -- "Asylum"

[highfunctioningflailgirl]

Damage Control - 1x10 Asylum

Back at the motel, they’re both quiet and subdued; both pretending that what had happened at the asylum - Sam trying to kill Dean - was just another Thursday. They hadn’t talked in the car, but Dean had felt Sam’s discomfort and bad conscience. And as much as Dean wants to deny it - he’s hurt, both physically and emotionally.

The rock salt from Sam’s shotgun had hit him square in the chest. When he stiffly goes to the bathroom and slips out of his blood-stained t-shirt, he finds the skin underneath peppered with small wounds. They sting, the salt embedded in them having dissolved. Bruises are blooming around the wounds. It’s nothing serious; he’ll live. But he will be in pain for a few days - a constant reminder of the near-fratricide he survived today. And of Sam’s hurtful words.

Of course, Sam had been under Ellicott’s influence. His brother hadn’t been himself when he’d first blasted him with salt and then pulled the trigger of Dean’s Colt, aimed directly at Dean’s head, several times. Thank God the gun had been empty. 

And yet. It had been Sam. Sam on supernatural steroids, but still Sam. Ellicott’s brain scramble hadn’t turned him into someone different. It had only taken what was already there and amplified it. The ghost doctor’s “treatment” had boosted and multiplied whatever feelings of anger Sam had been carrying around with him. And, apparently, those were a lot. 

Dean knows that his brother has a quick temper. People always thought Sam was the softer one of the two, the one who thought before he acted. That wasn’t entirely true. Sam could be mercurial and rash. When Sam and their father had fought - which had happened all the time - tempers on both sides had flared equally quickly. A small trigger, even a single word could be enough to cause an explosion, and many times Dean had been caught in the middle, unable to defuse the tension before scathing insults flew and doors were slammed. If it hadn’t been for Dean’s intervention, things would’ve turned physical more than once. 

To Dean’s knowledge, Sam’s anger had rarely been directed at him. Sure, he’d become tired of being ordered around by his older brother during teenagehood. But that was normal, right? However, in the asylum’s basement, shotgun pointed directly at him, Dean had been shocked by the vitriol in Sam’s voice.

“I'm just telling the truth for the first time.”

Had it been the truth? Sam’s accusation that Dean was just “Dad’s good little soldier” and desperate for their father’s approval? 

Dean steps into the shower, wincing when the pelting water stings in his wounds. The dried blood washes off him, swirling rusty brown into the drain, and he wishes he could wash the uneasiness about Sam’s attack off just as easily. They’ve faced manipulative creatures before who’d played fucked-up mindgames with them. Their recent run-in with the shapeshifter is the latest example. Sam seems to have shaken that one off without qualms. But somehow, Dean can’t shake his feelings of doubt - and anger.

Desperate for approval? As if John Winchester had ever shown much appreciation for any of his sons. Sure, he’d put more and more trust in Dean’s hunting abilities and relied on him as Sam’s guardian whenever he’d left them alone. Both had filled Dean with a quiet pride as much as it had put pressure on him and, sometimes, overwhelming responsibility. But considering their vicious fights, Sam had been the desperate one, pleading for acceptance and for his father’s blessing when he’d wanted to go to college. 

Sam is the emotional one. The one who needs a pat on the head and a warm word to thrive. Dean doesn’t. He’s content with who he is. And, right now, all he wants is to go back to the way things were a few years ago - hunting alongside Dad and Sam. He doesn’t need approval. All he wants is his family back together. What’s left of it, anyway.

“You okay in there?” Sam knocks on the door, sounding worried.

Dean shuts the water off. “I’m fine!”

He hurries to dry himself off, surprised at the amount of steam that’s built up in the small bathroom. He must’ve been in the shower much longer than he’d intended. The mirror’s fogged up, but when he looks down at himself, he can see that the wounds on his chest look less garish, now that they’re clean. With his skin still red from the shower, the fresh bruising isn’t all that apparent, although he can feel it alright and knows he’ll be mottled in shades of purple come tomorrow. Only a few specks of blood remain on the towel when he dabs at his chest, so he doesn’t bother with disinfecting or bandaging. 

Towel slung around his waist, he steps out of the bathroom in a billowing cloud of steam. He could’ve taken fresh clothes with him and put them on, but, somehow, he wants Sam to see the damage he caused. He wants him to have a bad conscience.

And he succeeds.

“Does it hurt?” Sam asks ruefully, face twisted in remorse, as Dean walks past him to rummage around in his duffel bag. 

“No,” Dean lies.

“You know that I’m sorry, right?” Sam gets up from the bed he’d been sitting on, all 6’4 of him somehow looking contrite and ten years old. “You know I didn’t mean any of what I said, right?”

Dean remembers Sam aiming the gun at him.

“That's the difference between you and me, Dean. I have a mind of my own. I'm not pathetic, like you.“

And he remembers his own, defiant words:

“You hate me that much? You think you could kill your own brother? Then go ahead. Pull the trigger.” 

And then Sam had. That’s the problem. No matter what Sam says now, no matter how much Dean wants to believe him - he still feels the shock of the shotgun blast blowing him off his feet. He still sees the hate in Sam’s eyes as he points Dean’s own Colt at him and pulls the trigger, once, twice, three times. If the gun had been loaded, Dean‘s face and brain would be splattered all over that basement floor now.

“I know, Sammy,” he says, forcing the creeping doubt down, down, down, along with the anger and the hurt. “That wasn’t you.”

“I just feel that–”

“It’s fine, Sam,” Dean interrupts him. He really doesn’t want a discussion about their feelings now. “Just forget it.”

“Only if you do, too.” Sam does the sad puppy eyes now, and Dean cannot with those. The drama makes him bristle. 

“I will! I do!” he almost shouts, turning away to rummage in his bag again. He grabs a fresh t-shirt and pulls it over his head, over his wounds, putting them out of sight and out of mind. “Can we just…” He takes a deep breath, then looks around. “Where’s the beer?”

“In the fridge.”

Dean stalls to the small kitchen counter, opens the fridge and grabs two bottles of Mariekugel’s. He holds one out to Sam. It’s a peace flag.

Hesitating a little, Sam grabs it. The crease above his nose softens and his shoulders relax. Only now does Dean realize there’s a bruise blooming on his brother’s face, where he punched him in self-defense. He’d almost forgotten about that.

“How’s the jaw?” Dean asks him, pointing with the opened bottle.

Sam rubs it. “Sore.”

“Well, you deserved it.” 

“True.” They both take a swig, nodding in agreement. Dean takes his clothes and goes back to the bathroom to put the rest of them on. Some uneasiness lingers, but he’s willing to let the ground feel steadier beneath him again. While he’s not one to forgive easily, this is Sammy. He’s family. Right now, his only family. He’ll let it go and move on. He has to.

Read the whole series on AO3 here:

[adamshallperish]

Everybody's Got A Hungry Heart: The Supernatural Episode

[17yearslatewithlattes]

Ah man, I hate asylum episodes.

Human cruelty gets to me way more than monsters. And asylums have uh. No shortage of the former!

Plus you rarely escape without horrifying dehumanizing depictions of mental illness so. Good fun all round

[arcanespillo]

“Asylum”  

Supernatural S1E10

[spn-episode-showdown]

Round 1, Poll 24