#just to make it all the more brutally obvious with every episode that Dean is in love w an angel

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

posts that could be spn episodes

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[according-to-the-laura]

StackedNatural Day 88: 1x12, 14x10

StackedNatural Masterpost: [x]

January 17, 2022

1x12: Faith

Written by: Sera Gamble & Raelle Tucker

Directed by: Allan Kroeker

Original air date: January 17, 2006

Plot Synopsis:

After Dean is fatally injured on a case, Sam thinks he's found a cure in a preacher who performs miracles. However, after they discover that these miracles are not as 'holy' as advertised, the brothers race to stop them before another innocent life is sacrificed.

Features:

Electrocution via taser ater, Dean’s blithe acceptance of death, John’s voicemail, Dean’s little grey hoodie, faith healing, a bound reaper, Dean’s survivor’s guilt.

My Thoughts:

WHAT a Stack for the Deangirls! Dean’s heart being damaged is a goddamn character thesis statement.

Dean looks SO young and the aesthetic of this episode is SO good. When people talk about the early seasons’ palette and lighting this is always the episode I think of. Everything should be grimy and grey and rainy. Dean’s freckles should always be visible and his hair should always look soft and rumpled.

This episode is great on its own merit, but as a piece of accidental foreshadowing it is outstanding. There’s some obvious pieces for season 4; that God has a job for him, which Cas will echo in Lazarus Rising, that Dean doesn’t feel he deserves to be saved, and Roy will even touch Dean on the left arm just below the shoulder where Cas’ handprint will be burned on in a few years. Plus the comment that he’s not a believer but he will be echoing his relationship with Cas developing from semi-antagonistic to the person Dean literally prays to.

I haven’t watched this episode since I got back into Supernatural, so I was honestly surprised by how there’s also some unintentional late seasons foreshadowing. Yeah, God IS watching. He needs his protagonist to survive and so Dean gets chosen from the crowd. The line “must be rough. To believe in something so much, and have it disappoint you,” made me almost scream because of how well it lines up with this Stack, and how his world is going to kind of come apart when he realizes that Rocky’s bar isn’t real. That line is also brutal in a non-foreshadowing way when you think about how John doesn’t even call them when Dean is dying, how he never contacted them when they had to go back to Lawrence.

Other things I love about this episode that aren’t related to foreshadowing: Roy is cast perfectly. The directing is gorgeous, I love the close up shots on his hands as he prays. The implication that Sam carries around Tarot cards and looks at them enough that he would remember the cross on the Death card (although on that note, Sam should have been kind of weird and witchy, why don’t the Tarot cards ever come back?). Sam in season 1 is a little baby boy whom I love. The man whose life was traded for Dean’s was gay, and that seems significant to me. Dean’s guilt complex starting SO early and following him for the rest of his life. Also, it makes me think of @katebushstandean’s EXCELLENT Somebody To Love amv that makes me scream every single day if I think about it too long.

Notable Lines:

“His heart, it’s damaged.”

“I drew the short straw. That's it, end of story. [...] I'm gonna die. And you can't stop it.”

“I'm not exactly a believer.” “You will be, son. You will be.”

“The Lord guides me. I looked into your heart, and you just stood out from all the rest.” “What did you see in my heart?” “A young man with an important purpose. A job to do. And it isn't finished.”

“Why do you deserve to live more than my daughter?”

“The Lord will deal with him as He sees fit.”

“God save us from half the people who think they’re doing God’s work.”

“Must be rough. To believe in something so much, and have it disappoint you.”

“I'm not much of the praying type...but...I'm gonna pray for you.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 9.9

IMdB Rating: 8.9

14x10: Nihilism

Written by: Steve Yockey

Directed by: Amanda Tapping

Original air date: January 17, 2019

Plot Synopsis:

Michael retakes control of Dean as his army of monsters continue to move in; Sam devises a plan to reach Dean and stop Michael before anyone else dies.

Features:

Dean and Pamela’s dream bar, I stare at Pamela’s arms, another archangel molotov cocktail, Michael’s monster army, the world is a failed draft, inside Dean’s mind, Poughkeepsie, Jack burns some soul, Dean is the Cage, Billie’s ultimatum.

My Thoughts:

The big highlight of this episode is everything that happens in Dean’s mind. I am obsessed with Rocky’s Bar and how even in his fantasy retirement he wants what he can’t have and he still gets attacked by monsters constantly. I know that’s played as satisfying that he kills the vampires so easily, but this is a fantasy. He can’t even imagine a life with a partner or without the threat of being attacked by people whose family he’s killed. And the bar isn’t even a particularly successful one, it’s just a quiet little life that he wants. Depressing!

I do think that Jensen’s acting as Michael is great most of the time, and he does a good job of distinguishing him from Dean. My main question about the Michael stuff is when did he change into the suit? We picked up where we left off but instead of being in Dean’s hunter outfit he’s back in the peaky blinders suit. We don’t even see him do an angel thing to get it one we just have to accept it I guess? It’s a weird continuity thing that bothers me.

I think Maggie is a great character and it kind of pisses me off that they brought in all these traumatized hunters from apocalypse world, built a network with them, and then they’re going to just throw them all away in a bit. It’s a waste of a great plotline. I want to see more of her and the others adjusting to our world, and more of Sam taking on Bobby’s role as the hub of the network. And then Dean could run a roadhouse like Ellen! Everybody wins.

I want to give Jack a big kiss on the forehead :( Michael is playing on his insecurities and it is so sad.

Okay, back to the bar: The little monkey thing @meg3point0 says is in “heaven” in 15x20. I tried to confirm this but even looking at google image search results with screenshots depressed me so severely that I had to stop, so we’re taking her word for it. A sign for El Sol beer is centered in a lot of the frames, especially ones where it’s between Dean and Sam and Cas, visually marking the line between fantasy and reality in a very cool way (thank you Tapping-Yockey dream team). The song playing says he’s searching for a rainbow (gay), he’d love to stay but he can’t. Perfect song choice. Dean draws Cas’ name out really long when he says he’s on a ghoul hunt with Sam, and he does it every time that line comes up, which leads me to think it was an intentional acting choice (also gay). The lighting in the bar is gorgeous, all oversaturated with so many different colours - the blue behind the bar, the neon signs, there’s even purple in the background.

I might be reading into this a bit, but Pamela is such an interesting choice for his business partner in this fantasy. She says out loud that he doesn’t actually want her and that he only wants what he can’t have. Pamela has only appeared in a few episodes at this point- she’s not the obvious choice for someone Dean would settle down with. If they just wanted someone he would be friends with and not in a relationship, they could have chosen Charlie, who was part of the series way more recently, or Jo, who was in way more episodes. Pamela’s first episode was also Cas’ first episode, which is even referenced OUT LOUD in this episode. Ergo, Pamela is a stand in for Cas. I rest my case.

I could talk way more about this but I’m running out of time and I have things to do. I love this episode, I loved this Stack. Good day!

Notable Lines:

“How come you only want what you can’t have?”

“Even God can die.”

“So much trauma in Dean's mind. So many scars.”

“Dean thrives on trauma. I mean, he's had to his whole life, right? It keeps him alert, keeps him ready, but if I wanted to distract Dean, I-I... I'd give him something he's never had before.” “Contentment.”

“I’m the Cage.”

Laura’s (completely subjective) Episode Rating: 9.8

IMdB Rating: 8.7

In Conclusion: Today in season 1 he isn’t much of a believer and yesterday in season 15 we watched him get down on his knees in purgatory and pray to Cas to apologize! Love wins!

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[my-sherlock221b]

Supernatural Rewatch Ramblings: Dead in the Water

This episode is the first one to be directed by Kim Manners. It was written by Raelle Tucker and Sera Gamble. It is still the MoTW format and once again the ‘monster’ is something that was created by human action. Ordinary seeming stories—of bullying, lies, cover up—with deadly consequences.

Read below the cut for more and also watch out for the add-ons by my partner in crime @soulmates-for-real​ who does the most amazing gifsets and image galleries 😎

It reminded me of this quote:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

It is a chilling experience—both the actual monster when we do finally see it and the backstory of what really happened. These monsters are all created by the flawed human beings. Here is another quote from the same source which could well be the underlying bedrock of the two very different approaches we see Sam and Dean take in later episodes to the whole saving people hunting things.

“Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.” .

Philosophical overtones aside, we are also getting more glimpses into the heads and hearts of the two leads.

It is already obvious that Dean has put the whole ‘Dad- is- missing- and- hasn’t- been-home-in -a -few-days stuff’ on the back burner till …ummm  forever ? cos he has Sammy in front of his eyes who is sitting shotgun and being completely brotherly and sniping and bitching while also being boyfriend- level possessive.

As I said in the earlier review- I was just so swept away by the swashbuckling swagger of Dean that so obviously was an armour for his vulnerability that I almost didn’t notice Sam much. This is the episode where he became something more for me. Someone who was also finding out what Dean was all about at the same time as we were.

Someone who could pull him down to earth with a sharp: ‘People don’t just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them.’

But also reach out to him and remind him that they ‘can’t save everyone’.

In an early scene in the episode Sam scolds Dean for even starting to flirt with the waitress. 

He smirks when Andrea shoots Dean down. He mocks Dean’s pick- up line about kids are the best. He seems pleased in a very petty way that Dean’s attempt has failed and that he has no choice now but to hang out with Sam and to give him his full attention.

The episode does have plot holes –that house Lucas draws and the history of the friendship of the two men and the missing boy surely must be well known to everyone in that small town, including Lucas’s mother and how come no one joins the dots etc. etc.

But small quibbles aside, we get to see that the past casts long shadows—whether sins of the past or just events of the past. ( again a parallel to the lives of the Winchesters themselves. And in later seasons we find out just how far back into the past those shadows reach!)

We see that Dean connects with the mute boy, Lucas, but then we learn that he can do this because he had also shut down after he saw his mother die and he knows how scary the world can seem and how he needed to make himself brave to carry on.

Sam watches from the sidelines and we can see him have an ‘oh ok’ moment as he stores away this information because it has clearly never been discussed in the family earlier. Kudos to Jared for being amazing with the ‘active listening’ that Sheila O’Malley references so often.

So despite Sam challenging him to name 3 kids he even knows, we see that Dean actually focusses on the kid throughout. The shared sense of loss aside, maybe Dean also sees himself as the protector of all little kids especially after the Shtriga incident. (which we don’t know anything about yet) (and we do see him bond with kids in every episode that involves kids. It is adorable !!)

In this episode Dean is almost drowning in his dad’s leather jacket and the way the silver ring looks on his hand is just ridiculously sexy…sigh….and that amulet right where it belongs…..deeper sigh. Then the cocky grin, the unsubtle flirting, all macho/manly/me- so- hetero/me- see- me- conquer on the outside but the soft squidgy child- whispering caramel centre, the trauma of being a motherless kid—having become motherless in a brutal way, a missing and probably almost cruel dad, a brother he raised as his own who walked out on him to go seek his own dreams….all these layers are being put together slowly for us.

Dean is not what he seemed to be and that brash swashbuckling exterior hides a very complex and interesting person. The script and direction were excellent of course but Jensen brought to it just the perfect balance of bad-boy + I wuv hugs.

Sam is still finding his way into the story and we are still watching things from Dean’s perspective as narrator which is fascinating to realize during the re-watch. As I have mentioned earlier, I was so swept away by Dean that it took me a very long time to focus on Sam as a separate person.

Ok, now, all together shout--- --WHY do people DO the following things??!!!

Put hands elbow deep into a sink, give lifts to obvious deranged malevolent spirits in human form, ‘let’s split up so we can cover more ground’, go into a shower/bath in a scary scene—can’t they HEAR the dun-dun-dun music score in the background?!! Sheesh.

Anyway.     *eyeroll*

In a not- at- all- very- surprising turn of events Sam and Dean’s fake identity is called out and they are asked to leave town, which they do. But ….of course Dean does a very dramatic turn on the highway and takes them back to make sure the kid is ok!

Then Sam rescues the mother from the lethal bath- tub while Dean makes sure the kid is safe. Then they start to connect even more dots and eventually we see an incredible heroic rescue scene in the scary lake with Dean and the boy.

Jensen had described this shot in some interview as the most terrifying scene he had ever done apparently because he was responsible not only for doing the scene right but also for the young boy’s safety underwater.

What a fabulous visual we do get finally, with the boy in his embrace as they shoot out of the water!

That lake with its dark water is one super creepy place. That very first scene where we see the girl swimming from an underwater perspective had me yelling at the screen for her to GET OUT NOW.

So, finally, all is sorted and revenge has been had and bad folks die, good folks live and as they leave the town of course Lucas chats with Dean and they high five and just like the sister in the Wendigo episode, the young mother in this one also gives Dean a kiss on his cheek. Dean of course blushes and goes all gruff and drives off with Sam smirking in the shotgun seat.

The pattern is beginning to be established.

I am loving it!😍

.

The gag reel of this episode shows Jensen leaping into Jared’s arms.

This is the third episode only. So they have known each other only for a couple of months at this point?! Hmm…my J2 tinhat is also shining. And also wow. I mean Jensen is NOT a tiny guy.

  Here are some other possibly more erudite and informed reviews if you would like to go down that rabbit hole like I did.

This one is cool https://the-orbit.net/entequilaesverdad/2016/05/10/supernatural-s1-e3-dead-water-summary/ and gives a fun and interesting score at the end which goes like this

Episode 3 counts:

Woman in the Fridge: 1

For Sophie Carlton being the first to get murdered by the vengeful spirit. It’s obviously meant to hook us harder: I mean, nobody would care as much about obnoxious brother Will, right?

Revenge from Beyond the Grave: 4

Sophie Carlton, Will Carlton, Bill Carlton, and Jake Devins.

Brotherly Love: 2

I had to give one to Sam for cock-blocking his brother right at the start. Another point goes to Dean’s sick-of-your-attitude lecture to his little brother, throwing Sam’s decision to go to college while Dean stayed behind with their dad in his face.

Toxic Masculinity: 1

For Dean downplaying his grief when Sam draws him out about the aftermath of their mother’s death.

Swimming in Sexism: 2

For Will Carlton’s comment to his sister that “guys don’t like buff girls.” I added a point for all the times they had Dean hitting on any available woman. They do want us to be extra-very sure he’s hetero, don’t they?

Cumulative Counts: Dean’s Man Tears: 3

One point awarded for all Dean’s choking up about Mom. We’re now three for three, folks.

.

This review totally calls out Dean LOL. I love the reviews that were written as first watch because they are without the benefit of hindsight we have on a re-watch.

.

http://markwatches.net/reviews/2013/11/mark-watches-supernatural-s01e03-dead-in-the-water/

“It was fascinating to me, then, that through this, Sam was able to learn about Dean’s own emotional reasoning behind his hunting. Of course, Dean, being the most stereotypical dude of all dudes who ever duded, has to immediately act like feelings aren’t cool because BLEH. Okay, that is one aspect of Dean that I’m not terribly interested in, especially since he expresses feelings like every five seconds. The whole “I am a straight man and I’m very straight and look at that butt straight I’m straight” thing is already exhausting because I get it. You don’t need to tell me this every five seconds.” 

The comments to this review are also super entertaining with gems like this:

“So, if you knew that someone had drowned in the lake recently and their body was never found, WHY WOULD YOU STILL GO SWIMMING IN THE LAKE? Especially if two people had. It wouldn't make you think, "Hey, maybe there's something dangerous in that lake?" This show has some of the least genre savvy people EVER. Like, for example, once this mysterious death thing shows up in a sink, why would anyone want to take a bath or really ever fill any basin with water again? Seriously, is this the Bad Decision Olympics?”

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Here is an awesome review from Fangasm also

https://fangasmthebook.com/2021/01/13/looking-back-on-dead-in-the-water-classic-supernatural/

[archivistsammy]

In my previous post, I talked about how my tarot study group has been working through the Star card this week, and that it’s brought up a lot of really interesting associations and conversations. Many of these have felt deeply relevant to the struggles Sam and Dean face at the beginning of season eight. I’ve already talked about Sam, but now I want to dive into Dean, and then add some final thoughts for the pair of them.

Dean’s situation after the events of the season seven finale is obviously very different than Sam’s. He’s not entirely devoid of family, for even if Cas is missing, he’s still in Purgatory with Dean, and Dean knows he can find him–that he will find him. When we think about the Star in terms of a navigating force, even in terms of hope, Castiel is an obvious fit. Dean’s singular thought in Purgatory is finding “the angel”–even before getting back home and/or returning to Sam. You get the firm sense that Dean would stay in Purgatory forever if that’s how long it would take to get Cas back. Not to mention, the fact that he is literally praying to Cas every day. Talk about a guiding light.

Still, I think Dean’s time in Purgatory falls more into “survival mode” than anything else. Yes, he has a goal and he has a hope–finding Castiel. But if we think of the Star as both the experience of survival and the experience of grappling, then Dean’s still not really functioning in a Star-aligned way. I want to make it clear that, if we think of the Star as following the Tower (we don’t have to! But for now, let’s), then surviving becomes a paramount next step. Survival mode does not have to include hope and/or optimism or deep self reflection. Survival mode means finding a way to make it through the day and start again tomorrow. In times of upheaval, survival mode can be the motivating force. The way we navigate. But while surviving is necessary, it’s not the same thing as grappling. It’s not the same thing as dealing with or processing what came before.

We see this in Dean once he gets out of Purgatory. The way he talks about his time there, the way he describes it as “pure,” like he could be his most authentic self there. That says a lot about how Dean sees himself. “Daddy’s blunt instrument” indeed. And we know, especially given what transpires in 15.18 and 15.19, that at his core, Dean doesn’t want brutal violence to be his defining characteristic. Dean wants to be defined by love and by family. So, what does it mean that Dean comes out of Purgatory seemingly bolstered by what he did there (Cas staying there aside)? What does it mean that when Dean escapes from Purgatory–and ostensibly from the need to stay in survival mode–he continues to operate as if the rest of the world is as ruthless as Purgatory was?

Well, to viewers it might mean that Dean has PTSD. That he’s repressing the trauma of what he experienced by acting even more so as if Purgatory clarified things for him, rather than muddied them. And I’d say we’re all 100% correct. But my point here isn’t that, but rather Dean’s denial of how difficult Purgatory must have been for him is further evidence of his refusal to grapple with anything that makes him ache. Dean never really reflects on himself or his life, he just hides everything away behind a wall made of Scotch tape. Which means that Dean never really heals.

The Star is a card whose central tenet (imo, anyway) is how we heal. How we rebuild after catastrophe or unexpected upset. But seeing Dean after Purgatory never actually process what happened there is demoralizing. Especially in relation to Sam, who is basically doing the same thing. Neither of them properly talks about or works through what happened to them after killing Dick Roman. They just survive, and keep surviving, until they’ve buried their hurt so deep they can pretend it doesn’t affect them.

And I think what really frustrates me is seeing these behaviors in the context of the finale. Knowing that when this series truly ends, Sam and Dean will essentially do the same thing. They defeat Chuck and go back to hunting. Dean dies bloody, like he always thought he would. Despite having faced in “Despair” that what keeps Dean going is love, not violence. “Everything you do is for love,” Cas tells him, and an episode later Dean seems to truly embody this. Not killing Chuck was a supreme act of healing. “The ultimate killer,” Chuck says. “See, that’s not who I am,” replies Dean. And yet, another episode after that, Dean dies in the midst of killing once more, expressing the sentiment that they knew it would always end this way. Where is the Star in this ending? Where is the growth?

And for Sam, I feel the same. One of the trends that we see through the years on this show is the brothers thinking that in order to have an “apple pie” life that’s settled down and absent hunting, they have to reject and excise every part of their life that came before. Put away the jacket, lock away the car, don’t ever talk about what happened. Sam doesn’t seem as rigid about this in “Carry On,” given he and his son have the anti-possession tattoos, that he named his son Dean. The divide isn’t quite as sharp. But I think seeing the Impala locked up, covered up, clearly something he doesn’t touch on a regular basis…that to me is evidence that Sam has once again compartmentalized. That he hasn’t integrated his experiences and his feelings, his grief and his hope. He hasn’t rebuilt in a way that facilitates honoring what was destroyed. And that’s very upsetting to me.

There’s never any healing in Supernatural. The energy of the Star is always blocked, always bitter. But this pain is especially felt in the front half of season 8. It’s a low point for the brothers, and a low point for the show, and it really helps showcase how empty life can feel when we don’t deal with the shit that haunts us. When we don’t meet the energetic expectation of the Star and deal with what hurt us. When we don’t accept what we’ve lost. When we don’t wade through the muddy swamps of grief and anger and sadness. The Star is there to remind us that rebuilding is possible, while also acknowledging that rebuilding is messy, difficult work, and that part of that work is grappling—not just surviving—all that’s happened that’s made you ache.

[darkarfs]

my favorite WWE matches of 1997

Though I officially started watching wrestling in 1995 (my family famously first bought SummerSlam that year, which would be my first wrestling show ever, because it was $25.00. 1995 was a bad year for wrestling), I became a regular watcher of both WWE and WCW Raw and Nitro, and was able to buy my own PPVs, around summer of 1996, when Hogan turned. The first show I bought with my own money was In Your House: Buried Alive, though I kept up with weekly TV. And, for better or worse, I've been a fan ever since.

1997 was a REAL rollercoaster year for wrestling. The NWO was becoming a bloated mess in no time at all, Bret Hart was riding high, while he and Shawn Michaels publicly hated one another, a young Rocky Maivia was slowly transforming into the most charismatic wrestler of maybe all time, a young Steve Austin has broken his neck and can only work 5 minute matches but is somehow the most OVER wrestler in the company, and by the end of the year, the Screwjob happens, Bret's in WCW, Shawn's on handfuls of SOMAs (yet main-eventing). In a lot of ways, I'm grateful, because I side-stepped all of Hogan's WWF and WCW run. But it was a tornado of a year for a business always on precarious footing, as it ever has been.

And it gave us some CRACKING matches! - The 1997 Royal Rumble I love me a Rumble, and it's REALLY hard (but not impossible) to find a bad one (1993, 1995, 1999). And I personally love one with a storyline that runs throughout, and in this case, it's the ultimate heeling of Stone Cold Steve Austin. He visibly dominates the match until he hears Bret Hart's music, and then goes into panic mode. And it furthers the characterization of Bret's hand-spun narrative as being rightfully pissed that he's being taken advantage of by the roster, screwed by the company, and booed by the fans. Fun bonus: this is also the only Rumble appearance of lucha legend Mil Mascaras, who was so full of old-school carny spirit he famously refused to let anyone else eliminate him, so he eliminated himself, pissed Vince off, and was not spoken of again on WWE TV until the 2012 Hall of Fame ceremony, where he was inducted by his huge prick nephew, Alberto del Rio. - Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, WrestleMania 13 This match is considered legendary, and for good reason. The greatest technical wrestler in the company vs. the best brawler, months of build, the world's most iconic (and off-the-cuff) blade-job (so much so that the visual of Austin bleeding in the Sharpshooter going "DAAAHHHH!" became the cover for his first VHS) and the wrestling world's most exquisite double-turn. It's fun, it's thrilling, it feels at once timeless and modern. Fun fact: there's a fun version of this match you can watch with just Austin doing commentary over it, and it's entertaining as hell. A true classic, and one of the greatest 'Mania matches of all time. - Ken Shamrock vs. Vader, No Holds Barred match, In Your House: a Cold Day In Hell Vader, famously, while a big teddy bear and a for-all-accounts lovely guy outside of the ring, had a reputation of being a bit "snug" with other wrestlers. Meaning he hit a little too hard, had little self-control, and took liberties with people, especially rookies and younger guys. It's supposedly why Shawn Michaels didn't want to work a world title program with him from summer to fall of 1996, because he was "too rough." But what never occurred to Vader is that trying that with a guy who's had 2 matches but has almost 5 years of MMA experience might not be the smartest or most prudent idea. Shamrock gives Vader as much as Vader gives him in this match, and there are moments where you can tell the guys are going into business for themselves. There's a moment where Shamrock is clubbing Vader with punches, and you can hear Vader, as he's turtling up and putting his arms up to block, yell "SLOW DOWN!" and then he rolls out of the ring to catch a breather. Vader, by the end of this match, is bleeding through his mask, a product of a broken nose, which is why I assume he gives Shamrock the stiffest short-arm clothesline I've ever seen. It's brutal, it's stupid, it weaves in and out of the script SO many times like a drunk man trying to stand up straight on a canoe, and I'm fascinated by each and every instance. - Owen Hart vs. the British Bulldog, European Championship Tournament Finals, Monday Night Raw, March 3rd Somehow, a workrate classic is stuck on a rinky-dink episode of Raw from Berlin, Germany. Smith and Hart blended some of their acquired WWE-style of work with classic junior heavyweight wrestling, complete with intricate reversals and fast-paced offense that was unlike either man's designed ethos of the time. Hart's shift toward his underhanded instincts as the match wore on provided enough story to balance the beautiful grappling from two men with impressive resumes. You can feel that these two knew one another, grew up together, and most importantly, wrestled together. An honest-to-God sleeper hit, but everyone who knows this match calls it a classic. - Shawn Michaels vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin, King of the Ring It's a concept that would be beaten into the ground in short order: Tag Team Champions that hate each other's guts. John Cena, seriously, has only been tag champions with people he's feuding with. That's

not even a joke. Austin and Michaels won the belts out of mutual dislike for the Hart Foundation, and then were programmed together for a wild match at the King of the Ring, one without a winner. Early on, the two actually pieced together a tremendous wrestling match full of nifty counters (prior to Austin changing his style after August for obvious reasons), before it degenerated into chaos after both men assaulted referees in the heat of the moment. Granted, neither man could really lose this one, so the screwy finish did serve its purpose. Until that point, it's a different type of incredible Austin match. You're never so happy to see a double-DQ finish. - Owen Hart & the British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels & Stone Cold Steve Austin, Monday Night Raw, May 26th And now we have a match set! The previous 4 participants in a brilliant and brutal tag team match. The Tag Team championship switch marked Austin's first piece of recognized gold in WWE, in a match on free television no less. That's not to insult the match any, as it was a pay-per-view quality fracas that barely slowed down. It is a mere 14 minutes long WITH entrances, but it moves at a clip, and everyone has their working boots on. It was a harbinger of days to come for this new period in WWE's history, and the crowd ate it up.

- Taka Michinoku vs. the Great Sasuke, In Your House: Canadian Stampede What happened here? Just when you think WCW had the cruiserweights cornered, WWE pulls this shit...and then kind of ignores it for a few months. But not before importing two of Michinoku Pro's finest to have a TakeOver-length exhibition. At first, the crowd in Calgary wasn't sure what to make of the undersized performers, but it wouldn't take long to win them over. From Michinoku's hands-free springboard dive to Sasuke's beautiful Thunder Fire Powerbomb, the expansive crowd was positively hooked on the daredevils with each passing minute. Although Sasuke wouldn't be long for the company, and Michinoku's run as Light Heavyweight Champion faded as 1998 wore on, the display at Canadian Stampede was a wondrous experience. This wouldn't have looked out of place in a Chikara King of Trios tournament. - The Hart Foundation (Bret Hart, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, Brian Pillman, the British Bulldog) vs. Team Austin (Stone Cold Steve Austin, the Legion of Doom, Ken Shamrock and Goldust), In Your House: Canadian Stampede I would have put this match on the list for the entrances and the finish alone. The crowd is at fever static for the entire match, seriously at the level of Punk/Cena at MITB 2011. And even though the Harts are the heels, they're in Calgary, and they get rock-star level ovations for merely existing. Everyone plays it mad and delighted, and you can tell they're all having a ball. Especially Pillman, who is just magically unhinged, a template for a young Dean Ambrose during their feud with the Wyatt Family. It is a magical, unreal main event, one of the best B-ppv main events maybe of all time. Well...other than MAYBE... - Shawn Michaels vs. the Undertaker, Hell in a Cell, In Your House: Badd Blood The very first Hell in a Cell match may very well double as the greatest of its kind. What stands out to me (other than how the match ends) is just how GREAT Michaels' selling is. When he's running away, he's constantly looking around for an exit, like a scared rat. When he finally gets caught and struck, he sells almost to the level he did for Hogan at SummerSlam 2005. But while he was doing that to make Hogan's offense look stupid, he's doing it here to make Taker's offense and anger look legit, and it somehow WORKS. But as fabulous as the match and the psychology is, it somehow takes a backseat to the debut of the Undertaker's monstrous little brother Kane, finally confronting his older brother in perhaps the greatest character debut in WWE history. - Mankind vs. Kane, Survivor Series I dunno what it is about this match that does it for me. Mankind's emotional lead-up to the match, where he's sad that Uncle Paul (Bearer) left him. Maybe the fact that Kane sells like Michael Myers, not so much that he's in pain, but as if he's never been hit in the face with a steel chair, a DDT or a piledriver. Maybe it's because Mick takes more horrific bumps than he needs to to make sure Kane looks like a legit monster. Maybe it's the broken Virtua Boy lighting. But it's genuinely unlike any other Mankind, Kane or ANY match I've seen before or since. It's a perfect somehow sympathetic serial killer vs. bigger, scarier serial killer that feels nothing story in a wrestling match. I didn't even know you could DO that.

[katsidhe]

Why isn’t Sam insane? 3/3: Dr. Compartmentalization, or How Sam Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Guilt

(Part One, Part Two.)

I think a lot about Sam’s compartmentalization. It’s got so much unique flair. It bears very little in common with usual depictions of repression, because repression isn’t really the word for the way Sam copes.  

Sam’s got little overlap with Dean’s brand of repression, for instance, which tends to follow a more generally straightforward model: push down your emotional and mental fragility until you can’t anymore, until you gotta collapse or punch or cry. “Spurts of violence and alcoholism,” indeed. Whenever Dean says he’s fine, he’s usually transparently lying to himself and his audience. But when Sam says he’s fine... even when he’s clearly NOT fine, I often get the sense that Sam has persuaded himself to a degree Dean never really has. 

Sam prefers to fancy that he’s honest with himself. He doesn’t suppress the bare facts of what he’s feeling the way Dean is more liable to; instead, Sam operates on telling himself slant truths, and keeping facets of both his identity and his mental health confined to several different, walled spheres.

So many of Sam’s foundational traumas have built-in distance: the Cage; Mary’s death when he was too young to remember her; subsequently growing up in a silent cult dedicated to her loss; Dean’s death in s3 where he had a whole year to prepare and a further year to plan revenge. None of this was sudden. There’s too much time and distance and complication involved in all three of those traumas for “reacting” to be the right word for how he responds. Sam doesn’t react so much as he sublimates.

How?

Thesis time: I think the reason Sam’s able to pull this off is because he has an uncanny ability to bolster his mental health at the cost of his emotional health. That is to say, Sam’s sanity and his guilt are anti-correlated.

Sam’s sense of guilt, shame, and self-blame is arguably one of his strongest, most concrete, and least mutable emotions. When other flavors of his emotional landscape come and go and shift, guilt has stayed with him from early seasons to late. It’s powerful, it’s central, it’s not going away anytime soon.

So what does Sam do with it?

He weaponizes it, internally. It’s a grudge match: guilt vs. trauma. He makes his Bad Thoughts fight it out. It’s brutally effective. Sam uses his shame and guilt not only to goad himself onward and force himself into ever-twisting forms of self-castigation and redemption and recompense, but also as a means to defang the emotions and the experiences that cause him significant mental distress, the ones he’s sure he can’t deal with while remaining sane. 

Weirdly enough, Lucifer’s preferred flavor of victim blaming (putting emphasis on Sam’s personal culpability; it’s your fault, you did this, you chose this) actually contributes to Sam’s ability to cope like this. So too does Dean’s patent inability to let go of a grudge. 

Because the shadow side of guilt is autonomy. If Sam’s responsible for screwing up, that means he had personal control when he screwed up. I think this is a large part of why Sam clings so tenaciously to his shame over mistakes both real and imagined. 

Holding on that tightly to guilt has obvious costs.

Juxtapose Sam’s fevered-but-hopeful mission in the latter part of s8 with his eventual collapse in 8.23. Sam’s certainly at the end of his emotional rope, but... he’s not really in a mental crisis in any way comparable to what he experienced in s7. He’s forcibly shoved himself into functional sanity by focusing on those feelings of guilt and betrayal and letting Dean down, culminating in the pain he feels in “Sacrifice”.

Similarly, in s14, I think Sam’s mental health/sense of his capacity for improvement and self-actualization is on a definitive upswing (thanks, 13.23!), but his emotional health is arguably more fragile than it’s been since s8. He cries every other episode (it’s great), and that’s in no small part because he’s taken on so much personal ownership and guilt and responsibility concerning the fates of the AU hunters, and Nick, and Jack, and Dean. 

Think about Sam saying “no, see, I’m just viewing my time in the Cage as really extreme penance, so I’m all good,” in early s7. (Incidentally, some of s7 is a rare reversal of the usual trend, wherein Sam’s feeling less guilt but having much worse sanity problems.) Think about Sam concluding “my problem is my uncleanliness and past sins; these will all be fixed once I close the gates of Hell,” in mid-to-late s8. Think about Sam deciding in 11.11 that “my ACTUAL traumatic takeaway from being in close quarters with Lucifer? Is really just my lingering guilt over Purgatory; better apologize to Dean again, that’ll help.” 

Sam takes VIOLENT ownership over his experiences. Not so he can deal with them, no no no--so that he can force them into metal-lined safes at gunpoint.

He even does the gunpoint thing literally in 6.22. Except he takes my analogy a step further; he actually murders Cage!Sam and Soulless!Sam in order to merge with them safely. And what’s spurring him on? “You know me; you know why.” Why is responsibility. Why is guilt. 

[askclaireaboutit]

[OOC]

Spoilers—

Season 14, episode 13, "Lebanon."

I'm going to be brutally honest. It was like half of this episode was written by an amateur writer who was hired for their looks and money, not for their talent. And, the other half was written by a semi-decent writer who actually understands how to write an episode of supernatural.

At first I thought this episode was amazing. It started out by shaking things up a little, making things interesting. A teenager was talking to a group of other teenagers about Sam and Dean. He mentions Castiel and even Jack, so it's obvious that he's seen them recently. (Let me know if he's been on the show before. If so I don't remember him) But, then it just got worse from there.

Almost half of the episode was completely pointless, shoved in to make a story out of something already fascinating and turning it into a pile of garbage. There was no detail, no interest from me as a viewer. I was disappointed.

Usually it's an interesting struggle to kill a ghost and to end the episode. In previous years, the episodes were captivating with great detail. This episode should have been split into two episodes and then extended, but it's obvious that the writers care more about what's happening next then what's happening now.

They did this for Deanmon and also Dean and Michael too. So much of an interesting turn at both, a great new twist on Deans character which they cut short both times, annoyingly.

In this episode, bringing John back was obviously the highlight, and they based everything on the episode around that. It's left me dissatisfied. It seems less likely with who Dean is now to have wished subconsciously for John back, it's honestly dumb how they had him come back.

Dean was always a little on edge with John, if he was truly mad at him before he came back like he had said in that very episode, then why would he want him back? Also, on a side note, the acting was phenomenal for what the episode was. Although, I sort of ruined Jeffrey Dean Morgan for myself by watching him on 'The Walking Dead'

Everything was so desperately rushed and I hated it. Certain scenes were stupid and they made me cringe. For example when they realised that everything was changing and people they knew didn't know them. I also cringed when they showed what Sam would have been. It was dumb because no matter what, he would have become a hunter, because they took John from a time after Mary, meaning they were raised into the life. John never killed the yellow eyed demon because he disappeared, meaning that Jess still died and Sam is not the type to let that go and make, as Dean so lovingly put it, "Wannabe Ted talks."

I did like, however, the first part of the scene with Castiel and Zechariah, when he was demanding of who changed time, and when he said they've always had a strange problem with Lebanon. That was interesting. I liked when he said that Castiel will kill them all unless they told him who did it, and how Castiel introduced himself by blowing the lights out and showing his wings. I hated, though, when Sam and Dean came in and how quickly Sam killed Zechariah. This big, bad enemy that they took so long to defeat last time.

I understand that it was quicker because they know more now, but it was still dumb. Then, the rest of the scene in the diner after that actually stayed pretty true to the show, I liked it. Castiel is to me, still one of the best characters ever and the dynamic between Misha and Jensen while acting is still iconic and makes every scene look perfect.

Then, going home. I felt as though it was pretty lame. John was so fine with leaving Mary, it was so weird. Mary in his time is dead and he spends all his time hunting down the demon who killed her. You would think there would be a little more conflict about him leaving, right? I honestly think it should have been Castiel who sent him back in time though. Also, I understand that Dean stayed who he was after the wish because he made the wish, but it's stupid to me how Sam and Mary didn't change. Sam didn't make the wish, logically the whole episode should have been about Dean alone, and then the second half of the episode should have been him trying to dodge Castiel and Zechariah while working out how to turn things back. Learning a lesson.

There was no lesson in that episode. Oh, except the same lesson that they have in every other episode, "there's always a catch."

Anyway, that's all. That's my critique/rant. Do with it what you will.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Supernatural: Exodus (13x22)

I was so, so, excited for this episode, and then I saw Buckleming's dreaded names flash across the screen, and my stomach dropped. This wasn't a bad episode. It had tons of good moments and ideas and things in it. But... it wasn't what I was hoping it would be.

Cons:

Buckleming episodes are always so crowded, and dramatic, and there's always so much A-plot happening, but for whatever reason, the emotional moments don't hit me as hard as they should. For example, Sam and Dean reunite, and obviously Jensen and Jared do a phenomenal job with the acting, but the direction and the script show them sharing a hug, and then going about their business. The trauma that Sam suffered at Lucifer's hands is barely addressed by anything more than Jared's facial expressions. If I had written this episode, I would have had Dean staring after Sam the whole way, keeping close by his side, worried that he was going to lose him again. Dean should have been shattered by Sam's reappearance, giddy with relief. Instead, the moment was underplayed.

In exchange for downplaying the emotions with the Winchester boys, we got an annoying amount of focus on Lucifer's character development. It seems he really is sincere in wanting to get to know his son, and Jack, understandably curious about where he comes from, seems willing to give him a chance to explain himself. Here's where I have a problem: Cas, Gabriel, Sam, and Dean all try to tell Jack, at various points, that he shouldn't listen to Lucifer, that Lucifer is a bad guy, but Lucifer has good arguments as to why he's just misunderstood. Why doesn't anybody spell it out for Jack? I get the idea of him wanting to come to his own opinions, but honestly. Why is it that nobody looks at Jack, and says: "dude, your father murdered Castiel in cold blood. He tormented Sam in the cage and continues to abuse and manipulate him every chance he gets. He has tried to kill both Winchesters on numerous occasions. Maybe he's not responsible for every bad thing in the universe ever, but he is responsible for the direct pain and suffering of the Winchesters and Cas, three people we know you care about." Wouldn't that go a long way to helping Jack understand the severity of the situation?

It bothers me that Gabriel is dead, because last week they were setting up that he might be a good candidate for running Heaven. It would have been the perfect way to keep him around without needing him to be in the story all that much. He could have popped in occasionally. I get that we completed his little mini-arc about not running away anymore, and standing up to the bad guy, but come on. This was such a wasted opportunity.

Oh, and one other little logistical note - the big idea of this episode is that everybody is going to come back through to Sam and Dean's world, regroup, resupply, and then go back to apocalypse land to take out Michael once and for all. But as the episode ends, Michael and Lucifer are trapped in the apocalypse world and Gabe is dead... and at no point does anybody wonder how it is they're supposed to get back through. Do they just have extra archangel grace lying around that I don't know about? It bothered me that nobody pointed out this obvious flaw in the plan.

Pros:

While I had some big problems with some of the emotional beats, and while I'm not even a little bit interested in a Lucifer redemption arc, I will say that there were some concepts and moments in this episode that worked quite well for me.

To start with, the basic plot is that Mary doesn't want to abandon her friends in the apocalypse world, so she wants to stay behind. Sam has a better idea - why doesn't everybody come along, so all of them can be safe? All... twenty-five of them? This is an awesome idea, and I love the concept of having an actual mini-army going in to the finale. It adds a level of epic that this show usually can't pull off with so few characters. It also means we've got Bobby and Charlie back in the story, albeit alternate versions of them. We also have Ketch, and a number of other resistance fighters who we might get a chance to get to know moving forward. I sure hope so.

If that really is the end of Gabriel, at least I'm glad that he got a good final episode. His conversation with Lucifer was one of my favorite moments we've ever seen from Gabe. He calls Lucifer out on his crap, saying that his whole victim act is really just an excuse for all of his abhorrent behavior. As everybody else seems to be oddly accommodating of the devil in their midst, Gabriel is the one person who is completely not here for it. And then that ending, where he stands up to Michael to give Sam and Dean a chance to escape? Aw man. So tragic. It was like Crowley all over again, only Gabriel has a better chance of being a force for good in the world, so it's an even more tragic loss. I was surprisingly moved by Dean's grief, and of course the expression on Sam's face was hard to watch as well. I like that the two of them and Cas commiserate over his loss back in the bunker.

We see AU!Cas this week, and although it's just a brief moment, it's always fun to see Misha giving a campy, over-the-top performance with a weird accent. I love that our Cas says he prefers humans to angels, as that really highlights the significance of seeing this evil, torturous version of Cas. This is what Castiel would be if he hadn't ever met the Winchesters.

And speaking of Cas, he got a lot of great moments. I loved the beat where he walks over to Dean's backpack, which Dean is still wearing, and pulls out the cuffs to lock up Lucifer. He also has a great line, when Lucifer calls Jack his son, and he responds: "this is Kelly Kline's son." Just... damn. You tell him, Cas. Much like last week, Cas played a generally supporting role in events, but it's always nice to see him backing up the Winchesters and being a bad-ass.

The scene where Dean and Sam rescue Charlie and Ketch from evil Cas was a surprising highlight. I was actually quite moved by both reunions. First, you have Sam hugging Charlie, and then pulling away when he realizes that of course this woman has never met him before. But Charlie smiles, and seems to realize enough of the truth to be okay with what has just happened. She gives Sam a friendly punch on the arm. God, I've missed Charlie. I really hope we get the chance to know this new version of her. And then Dean and Ketch... it took me a long time to care about Ketch as a character, and he's still under a microscope with me, but I really liked the moment when Dean rescued him and helped him out of the room. Ketch seemed very pleased to see him, and even cracked a joke about how it was about time that Dean returned the favor and saved his life for once. We also got hints that Charlie and Ketch have a partnership and a bond, which could be fun to see.

I did like the little Sam and Dean reunion moment, even if I think there maybe should have been more to it. But actually, it followed with what the fandom had been speculating. They thought that Sam would try to apologize for bringing Lucifer, and that Dean would shut that down, just relieved to have him back alive. That is essentially what happened. We got a nice long hug, and Dean saying "I thought I lost you," and I'm pretty pleased, all things considered.

I mentioned above that I'm not interested in a redemption arc for Lucifer. I almost put in the "cons" section the fact that everybody seems so completely willing to just let Lucifer tag along, because it seems unrealistic. But the ending fixed that for me - Sam asks Dean to let him handle Lucifer, and Dean agrees. As everybody goes through the portal at the end, Sam pushes Lucifer back and traps him. It was a ruthless, brutal moment, and it was exactly what Sam deserved to have happen after all of the torture that Lucifer has put him through. Obviously next week is going to mess with that, but I love that Sammy outsmarted the devil and got his revenge.

The final scene was quite lovely, with everybody in the bunker celebrating their successful escape. Sam, Dean, and Cas mourn Gabe, Bobby makes a speech and Dean remarks that he's already taking over, Jack sits forlornly in the corner, confused over Lucifer's absence, and Sam and Rowena have a nice moment as well, where Sam congratulates and thanks her for helping them out by holding the portal open. Rowena declares that Sam owes her one now, and she'll be sure to collect.

So... next week is the finale. I'm not really sure how to feel about the shape of this season overall. I think there are a lot of good elements, and I'm definitely excited to see Lucifer and Michael 2.0 come over and start mucking things up. That promo sure looks intense. We'll see how it goes!

7.5/10

[aion-rsa]

The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 16 Review: A Certain Doom

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This The Walking Dead review contains spoilers.

The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 16

The Walking Dead has, occasionally, taken some heat for its special effects. For some, the problem is the practical effects, because they look a little too good for the comfort of some. For others, the issue is the CGI effects, because they have looked a little less than stellar at times. Remember the CGI deer? If not, don’t worry, no one will let you forget it. Special effects take money, time, and expertise to pull off well, and, as it turns out, the coronavirus delay was a positive for The Walking Dead‘s special effects crew.

There’s an immediate sense of tension to the characters from the very beginning of the episode. We’ve seen them running around, being nervous, preparing for a big battle before, but there’s an edge to them that we haven’t seen thus far. As it turns out, there’s a good reason for that. After a nice little moment with Gabriel (Seth Gilliam) and Judith (Cailey Fleming) and a montage of everyone coming to help, we see the situation at hand. The hospital the survivors have holed up inside is surrounded with the largest horde the show has ever shown, with thousands of zombies clustered around it, and who knows how many Whisperers hiding in their midst. It’s an immediate jaw-dropper of a visual; we’ve seen these kind of situations before, but this is bigger in scope than anything the show has tried to show before, and it pays off dividends immediately.

One thing you can say about Greg Nicotero as a director, he knows exactly how he wants his special effects to look, and he shoots them in their full glory. Throughout the episode, the kills are brutal and bloody, with no expense spared to make them look as effective as possible. As the characters sneak through the zombie field surrounding their hide-away hospital, any little slip-up can be fatal. One stab wound, enough to fill the air with the smell of fresh blood, and the walkers fall on the person immediately, tearing them to bits in shockingly graphic fashion. Day of the Dead had the brilliant set-piece of Captain Rhodes’ death, and somehow, “A Certain Doom” has three or four of them in fairly short order. Every person torn apart by zombies is worse than the last, with Beatrice (Briana Venskus) having the worst death of all, getting torn apart while Carol watches in silent horror. She can’t scream, or she’ll give herself away, and her mission is one of life or death for the people she cares about.

However, an underrated bit about Nicotero is how well he guides the actors on the program. I’m pretty sure at this point they don’t need a ton of pointers, by and large, to get the performances their director might want, but for someone who one would think focuses on how things look, he does a great job with how performers respond to the gory tableau he paints from the director’s chair. It’s an attention to detail that not everyone seems to have; the scene in which Carol (Melissa McBride) watches her friend die in front of her, silently, eyes horrified but stock still, is stunning to watch. Beta’s (Ryan Hurst) reaction as, one by one, his army dies around him; even beneath the mask, his confusion is obvious in his body language and in the look in his eyes. The lovely little insert shot of Luke (Dan Fogler) and Jules (Alex Sgambati) shuffling side by side through the crushing horde of zombies, wordlessly holding hands with one another for support in a terrifying situation.

Read more

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The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 15 Review: The Tower

By Ron Hogan

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The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 14 Review: Look at the Flowers

By Ron Hogan

It’s a little subtle emotional moment in an episode littered with little spaces for characters to talk to one another and breathe. Carol and Lydia get a few lovely little moments, and McBride—who once again proves herself as capable of carrying the show with her strong performance—and Cassady McClinchy do a great job of making their companionship feel natural, despite both characters insisting they’re not falling into a mother/daughter relationship when it’s clear to everyone else that they are. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and McClinchy also get a few effective moments together, which is nice because those two permanent outsiders would naturally bond with one another thanks to the inability of the rest of the community to accept their radical change in lifestyle.

However, one of the strongest character moments is the little talk Gabriel gives to Judith and RJ when Judith comes to Gabriel to express her fear about their predicament. In a script full of nice little character moments (Corey Reed gets the credit for the teleplay, with story credit shared with Jim Barnes and Eli Jorne), this one sticks out because it shows Gabriel has taken over as a leader, capable of inspiring people at their level, in a very meaningful way. Gabriel, with his religious background, gives a great youth minister presentation for his audience of two, with a touching parable about their disparate communities—Alexandria, Kingdom, Hilltop, Oceanside, and the ones who aren’t here like the returning Maggie Greene—serves both as a good example of why he’s become a leader and a good foreshadowing for all of the random people who end up showing up and showing out at the end of the episode. Couple that with a great inspirational speech from Ezekiel to Eugene when Eugene is ready to throw in the towel on his journey to meet up with Stephanie and the leaders on the show do a great job of showing why they’re leaders.

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This might be the end of the Whisperer War, but it’s not the end of this season. One problem is taken care of, but there’s plenty of aftermath and the next and final phase of the ongoing television series is set up pretty neatly by the events at the train yard with Eugene and company. It’s a solid teaser for the future episodes to come, and it will be interesting to see just how, or if, this all ties in with the pending Rick Grimes movies, the spin-off series with Carol and Daryl, and the many other things coming from The Walking Dead‘s creative team in the future.

The post The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 16 Review: A Certain Doom appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[penniesforthestorm]

On ‘Twin Peaks’, Part 1

 A Policeman’s Dream

NOTICE: I have tried to avoid concrete spoilers, but honestly, if you haven’t watched the full series, all of this will sound like gibberish anyway, so read on at your own risk.

My very first favorite movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There was a period of time when I watched it almost every day. My favorite scene, the moment I geared myself up for every time, was of Snow White in her glass coffin, being mourned by the dwarves and other denizens of the woods. I didn’t cry because she was dead (I knew how the story ended), but because the dwarves were sad, weeping for their beloved companion.

Fast-forward twenty years later, during my first year on my own in New York City, when I decided to watch David Lynch's Twin Peaks for the first time. I had developed an impression of what it was—Kyle McLachlan playing a more grown-up version of his character in Blue Velvet (which I saw during my senior year of high school), once again investigating the corruption and decay behind the white-picket-fence façade of an American small town. Something about pie and coffee and owls and a dead teenage girl.

I was not expecting the visceral grief of the pilot episode. The way Pete Martell (Jack Nance)'s voice warbles on the words "wrapped in pla-a-astic"—indignant that Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), not just princess, but prom queen, should wind up in so cheap and unworthy a coffin. The tears of Deputy Andy Brennan (Harry Goaz), the Galahad of the Twin Peaks police force, as he examines the body no kiss could revive. Sweet Donna Hayward (Lara Flynn Boyle) and James Hurley (James Marshall) sharing a look of horror as they realize their friend has slipped out of their grasp one final time. Laura Palmer's murder touched everyone in this modest mountain town, so reminiscent of my own home of Missoula, Montana—which, of course, ends up playing a role in the series (and was the birthplace of David Lynch himself).

Over the course of the series, I realized something else: David Lynch and Mark Frost are two of the very few filmmakers who have ever captured the nature of dreams. It's one thing to throw forty-five or sixty or ninety minutes of nonsense at an audience and call it 'dream logic'—it's an entirely different thing to actually transmit the experience of dreaming itself. Special Agent Dale Cooper (McLachlan) has a dream in the third episode, in which a black-gowned Laura Palmer whispers the name of her killer into his ear. A little man in a red suit, his voice recorded backwards and dubbed forwards, says, "Let's rock!" There are red curtains, and a floor with a black-and-white zigzag. That, I thought to myself, that looks like one of my dreams. A series of images and phrases which may or may not retain any meaning upon waking, but which feel incredibly significant while you're experiencing them.

Or take that wonderful scene at the Double-R Diner, when the cerebral Major Garland Briggs (Don Davis), sits down with his wayward, petulant son Bobby (Dana Ashbrook), and describes one of his dreams. In so doing, he helps Bobby understand that despite their disagreements, despite all of Bobby's ill-advised rebellion, his father still loves him. It's a beautiful testament of faith—a little rest from all the terror and confusion surrounding the characters. (An excerpt of Major Briggs' monologue shows up in Terrence Malick's 2016 film Knight of Cups, which is itself a flawed, but frequently arresting meditation on fathers and sons. I almost squealed in the theater.)

The best trick, though, is the way Lynch and Frost made the real world seem like a nightmare. Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine) crawling out of the fog in her white slip, unable to give voice to what she's been through, languishing under heavy sedation at the hospital. Poor Maddy Ferguson (Sheryl Lee again, but with dark hair and a mousy affect), betrayed by the same figure that killed her cousin Laura. Even jovial Big Ed Hurley (Everett McGill), trapped by guilt into a suffocating marriage, and our Special Agent Dale Cooper, haunted by the woman he couldn't save. In the world of Twin Peaks, all lines are blurred—dream and reality, future and past, even (ultimately) life and death.

So much for the original series. I finished it just after Christmas of 2014. Time moved forward. I followed the rumors of the show's return, that terrible period when it seemed like Lynch wanted no part in this expansion of his creation, and the wild mishmash of speculation on the fates of various characters. (Whither John Justice Wheeler? …Just kidding; no one cared about him.)

In the spring of 2016, I experienced a shattering tragedy of my own: the loss of a friend, a wonderfully talented and tenderhearted young man. He, too, was the focal point for a small, vibrant community of people. He, too, had secrets. In the fall of that year, I started watching Twin Peaks again, in preparation for the new series. Suddenly, the reaction of Sarah Palmer (Grace Zabriskie) to her daughter's death—her madness and devastation—didn't seem so extreme. Time moved differently in the aftermath. One foggy evening in December, I briefly felt as though I had left time completely. (The next morning, under the shroud of a brutal hangover, I experienced every second with thudding clarity.)

I sped through the series, exchanging observations with my brother—how I'd hated creamed corn as a child, the sweetness of the friendship between Shelley Johnson (Mädchen Amick) and Norma Jennings (Peggy Lipton), how, this time around, I felt a certain tenderness toward Bobby Briggs. I skipped a large portion of Season 2—the plotlines of Ben Horne: Civil War Enthusiast and Invitation to Love: The James Hurley Edition in particular. I nursed deep disappointment over the fact that Michael Ontkean would not be returning as Sheriff Harry S. Truman. There's a moment, fairly late in the first series, when Truman hears Agent Cooper coming down the hall, and his face just lights up: here comes my friend. I was sure his steadfast decency would be missed.

The day before the premiere of Twin Peaks: The Return, I finally watched the film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which is, chronologically, a prequel to the original series, but would make absolutely zero sense in isolation. (No, I am not going to make the obvious joke here. You can do that on your own.) It functions as something of a dark mirror to the TV show. Instead of the chipper, kindly Dale Cooper, we get Agent Chet Desmond (Chris Isaak)—vaguely louche and sardonic, investigating the death of the transient Teresa Banks (Pamela Gidley), in the badlands of Oregon. The Deer Meadow law enforcement is steeped in corruption and obtusely unhelpful. Harry Dean Stanton shows up as Carl Rodd, owner of the trailer park where Teresa Banks lived, spectacularly put-upon and haunted by… something. At the FBI headquarters in Philadelphia, David Bowie makes an outrageous, ethereal cameo, as a long-lost agent gabbling about convenience stores and someone named Judy (or, rather emphatically not about Judy).

And Laura. Laura Palmer, in her last week on Earth, already nearly crushed by her own secrets. Laura, of the coloratura scream and fathomless blue eyes, desperately trying to protect her darling Donna (portrayed here by Moira Kelly) from the degradation of the infamous Bang Bang Bar (a.k.a. the Roadhouse). Laura, paralyzed with horror when she finally understands the true identity of her tormentor. Laura, seeking one last respite in the arms of the faithful James, before disappearing into the woods where her martyrdom awaits. In a world where another season of the show would likely never happen, Fire Walk With Me provides an ending. Notice I didn't say 'the' ending.

Please join me for Part 2, coming tomorrow!

[ramajmedia]

10 Hilarious Supernatural Monster Memes Only True Fans Understand

The smash-hit TV show Supernatural has been on since the year 2005. Which is longer than some teenagers have been alive. Supernatural has literally existed for a longer time than the network that it airs on has existed (at this point it's obviously the only remaining holdover from The WB network). Obviously over the course of 14 going on 15 seasons, Supernatural has built up a massive fan base, and it's long-lasting stories and characters have inspired a lot of amazing and hilarious fan works.

RELATED: Supernatural: All the Angels And Their Powers

Fan works are an essential part of any fandom, and any genre TV show or movie worth its salt (pun intended) will have a pretty solid body of fanfiction built up after years of success and growth. Supernatural can definitely count itself among those kinds of TV shows, and while every fan creation deserves its accolades, we're personally big supporters of memes. So here are 10 of Supernatural's best.

10 Negan Defeated

Anyone who watches The Walking Dead knows that Negan is the worst dude to ever show up on the block, but it should come as no surprise that Supernatural manages to one-up that badness. Negan is a nightmare, but he's nothing in comparison to the literal devil.

Lucifer has always managed to keep himself quite busy in the world of Supernatural. There has been a lot of bloodshed in Lucifer's quest to rise from hell, and while losing Glenn and Abraham was brutal, it's pretty tough to compete with Lucifer killing Castiel and Bobby Singer back to back.

9 You're Better Than Hogwarts, Bobby

Bobby Singer just can't get any respect. Sam and Dean are indisputably the best demon hunters of all time, but the buck really stops with Bobby. He's expected to be able to match Sam and Dean in his monster-fighting skills and he's expected to be a living, breathing monster encyclopedia, and somehow he manages to actually succeed on both fronts.

RELATED: Supernatural: 10 Times The Show Broke Our Hearts

Whenever the boys run into trouble, Bobby is the first person who they call; on the rare occasions that Bobby doesn't have the answers, there really isn't any place else he can go for assistance, although a wizarding school would be convenient.

8 Especially Crowley

How is it that Sam and Dean miraculously manage to be total geniuses and complete idiots when it comes to all things supernatural. To be fair, pretty much every time that Sam and Dean turn to a supernatural creature for assistance, it's because they feel like they have no other choice.

That said, in nearly every instance, they wind up coming up the losers in the situation. At some point, you'd think they'd catch on and stop rethreading this path. Crowley may be a demon, but at least he can honestly reflect upon his own trustworthiness.

7 John Winchester's Dream Job

John Winchester earned his reputation as one of the greatest demon hunters to ever live. But John Winchester is also, to be frank, a crazy person. He might not quite be Negan, but he is only a stone's throw away from him.

Negan's wife's death drove him to spend every waking moment gleefully killing mindless zombies, does that sound familiar? John isn't a sociopath but he is nuts, and while the world may be a better place for all of the monsters that he's killed, he is still a pretty messy dude.

6 It's Funny Cause It's True

It is hard to tell which one has a more negative effect on the Winchester brothers, honestly. On the one hand, demons are not expected to be nice or pleasant, but most people don't expect their dad to be constantly ditching them in favor of said demons.

RELATED: Supernatural: 5 Relationships Fans Were Behind (& 5 They Rejected)

John raised two kids who are absolutely incredible at their jobs, but that might be more in spite of what he did than because of it. However, as actual human beings, Sam and Dean are profoundly disturbed and damaged individuals. The demonic possession thing was kind of inevitable, but John could have relaxed just a little more as a dad.

5 The Family That Hunts Together...

...dies together, unfortunately. Or actually they die brutally and alone more often than not. The Winchester-Campbell family business is an unforgiving one, and no one in the squad is left alive in the end. Unlike most of their family members, Sam and Dean have both been blessed (or cursed, depending on your attitude about it) with the chance to die and come back over and over again.

But it's easy to see why so many of this clan tries to find comfort in the bottom of a bottle or through a deal with a demon. After all, their day-to-day lives aren't exactly filled with hope.

4 A Barrel Of Laughs

There already exists an episode of Supernatural that partially takes place in a sitcom, so this is not that farfetched. Despite Supernatural taking its main story seriously, the show has always found ways to make evil funny. And not to be too presumptuous with these suggestions, but why exactly can't we have an episode of Supernatural where Bobby, Cas, and Crowley have to make some awkwardly tight living arrangements work together?

Or even better, an episode of Supernatural where Castiel and Lucifer get to explore their damaged brotherly relationship while a canned laugh track punctuates the punchlines? It's not any weirder than the average Supernatural episode.

3 Lazarus Rising, Repeatedly

Well after you've died and come back from the dead so many times, you've kind of already beaten death at its own game. Furthermore, if death is a literal flesh and blood monster (kind of?) and you're the greatest hunters to ever live, then death can be killed.

RELATED: Supernatural: 10 Reasons Why God/Chuck Is The True Villain Of The Series

Dean's accomplishments when it comes to destroying monsters, angels, and everything in between is second to none, but even death didn't see his own ganking coming. Death made a deal with Dean that involved killing Sam, and shock of all shocks, Dean didn't want to go through with it. Ironically death kind of signed his own death warrant.

2 Meme Crossover

While Gordon Ramsay might often react angrily to meals that are not up to his standards, at least, overly salty food still provides some benefit to society. Also, using food as the method of transportation for salt is sneaky!

Sam and Dean traditionally use bagged salt for all of their salty needs, as it is hard to find salt in any greater bulk and they certainly go through a lot of it. However, if you're walking around with an overly seasoned ham sandwich and just slap an offending demon across the face with it, they're never going to see that move coming!

1 A Real-Life Trap

The Australians have come to save us. If you want to trap a demon then a devil's trap is just the ticket, but actually leading said demons into those traps isn't always the easiest. Demons are natural sneakers, and even an idiot knows how to dodge obvious traps. Modern problems require modern solutions; thankfully, Outback Steakhouse seems to be ready and willing to provide those solutions.

Anyone who has set foot in a Walmart Supercenter wouldn't even be able to tell the difference if that place was filled up with demons.

NEXT: 10 Things From Supernatural That Haven’t Aged Well

source https://screenrant.com/supernatural-hilarious-monster-memes-fans/

[davewakeman]

40 over 40: Folks That Are Doing Great Stuff That You Should Be Paying Attention To

  I put together this 40 over 40 list because it became a little bit of a joke on marketing Twitter.

So I bit and I put together a list that is in no way comprehensive and might not even hit the ages of some of the folks exactly right, but this is 40 people in the range of 40 that are doing work that you should be paying attention to.

If I missed a few people that were definitely people I’d include because I didn’t know if they were over 40 or close, I’m sorry. I’ll make another list to include you on.

In the case of the few more famous people that I put on the list, they are there for a specific reason as well. Or, if there are obvious people that you know are over 40 that didn’t make the list, that is also for the reason that they might already have a lot of attention and what fun is it to include the obvious responses in every situation.

So check out my list of people and reasoning behind why I added them to my special list.

I know that I won’t make everyone happy and that’s great because I want you to tell me the people that I missed and why.

Without further explanation, here is my list:

Alan Weiss: 

I wanted to kick off this list by highlight Dr. Weiss because he wrote a book about the topic of not allowing your age to define you, Threescore and More. 

Dr. Weiss is a key figure in empowering people to take control of their lives and careers to build exactly what they want through his work as a coach, consultant, and teacher.

If you’ve ever heard the term, “Million Dollar Consulting” you’ve heard of him.

Ryan Wallman: 

You might not know the name right off the top of your head, but you’ll know the Twitter handle, @Dr_Draper.

Ryan is a copywriter in Australia, but he is also a critic of the groupthink that seems to have strangled marketing and advertising over the last few decades.

He is constantly provoking and engaging with champions and critics to help drive a conversation about the quality of advertising and marketing thinking.

You’d do much worse than to check out his pinned tweet with his guide to what the keynotes at Cannes would look like…let’s just say he nailed it.

John Loken: 

I know for sure that John is over 40!

He’s actually been working on promoting the idea that you aren’t dead at 40 as well.

His newest venture is focusing on creating mass live events. He has a history in the live entertainment business and called me one of his go-to resources for small business marketing. So I mean the compliment alone should be enough to get him on the list, but you should check out what John is up to.

Nicole Yershon:

I made a list of marketers I admire and learn from a few months back, which is likely where this list started building steam.

Nicole is on that list and she is on this list too.

Why?

Because she is brilliant.

Check out her book: Rough Diamond. It encapsulates all of her thinking on innovation, change, and leadership.

Soledad O’Brien:

Most of us remember Soledad from her time on CNN and other broadcast news organizations.

But she has started a new venture, Starfish Media Group. 

This allows her to tell stories that might not be being told today. With her platform, she is able to shed light on people, places, and things and draw attention that might not be covered.

In the world we live in, we need more independent voices that are willing and able to tell stories that are vital to uncover and have a platform to share them with a larger audience.

That’s why Soledad is on the list…because that’s what she is doing. Using her reputation for the betterment of others.

Adrion Porter: 

I don’t remember exactly how I came across Adrion, but his work speaks to me because he is talking to Generation X.

I know that I find most of these generational tags worthless, but I also know that there are legitimate cultural touchpoints that we all share in common.

In his work, he talks a lot about reinvention, leadership, and growth. A recent podcast episode talked about keeping your dreams.

Check him out!

Dean Caravelis:

I’ve been fortunate to know or meet a lot of the people on this list, but Dean and I have the longest history because we went to high school together.

That caveat out of the way, you should check out Dean for a number of reasons:

He has a great company in Orlando, Blezoo that creates promotional items for marketers.

He has a blog, Outrageously Remarkable. And, his blog meets that promise because he has had some of the smartest people you’ve heard of and some you likely haven’t. And, when I think about it, his blog is a platform much like my own and my Twitter feed to try and highlight ideas and people that aren’t always the ones we go right towards.

Corey Gibbs:

Corey’s name isn’t familiar to you if you aren’t in tickets. If you are in tickets, you’ve likely heard of Corey and his ideas.

Corey is like me, an Alabama man.

He also shares a belief in doing the right thing by his customers, understanding customer service is the best form of marketing, and, lately, he has focused heavily on innovation.

He also just became a doctor and is studying pricing and purchasing in tickets.

Annie Duke:

Annie is famous for playing poker.

But she really should be famous for writing one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time, Thinking In Bets.

Her book really takes the idea of certainty and puts a new spin on it. The reality is that we are never absolutely certain of anything, but we are often pretty certain.

Or, to put it another way, even when we are certain of something, there is still the likelihood that another outcome might present itself.

And, in your life and decisions, you are just trying to make decisions with the best data so that you can put the odds in your favor.

Lawrence Peryer:

I formally met Lawrence at INTIX this year in Dallas, but before that, I was a fan of his Twitter feed.

We’ve become friendly since then and we had a chance to talk on my podcast about all kinds of interesting things he’s done over the years including digital goods, Amazon Music, and a lot more.

The stuff that he is doing with Lyte is really interesting and cool. He’s working hard to return more of the value to the content producers especially at live festivals and he is a really thoughtful voice about music, events, and business.

Tammi Gaw:

When I met Tammi, she introduced herself to me with some variation of: “I’m known for my Twitter feed.”

And, she does get into on Twitter.

But that shouldn’t be the thing she is most known for.

In truth, she should be known for her fights for justice in all of its forms. Be that politically, in the legal system, or for student-athletes.

When I am looking at things that I’m confused about or concerned about, I will often look to Tammi’s point of view or ask for her insights.

Tom Peters:

Does Tom Peters need to be on my list?

I’d guess he’s fairly famous in his own right, but I think if you don’t know him already…where have you been living?

Tom has written many of the most famous business books of all time.

He is known for helping coin the idea of “Managing By Walking Around” and he is one of the most active users of Twitter around.

His Twitter feed calls out everyone and everything that he finds lacking in today’s business environment.

Tom has a really great ability to make things that are absolutes seem ridiculous. He also does a great job of making the complex simple.

I want to highlight him for one specific reason though, his devotion to helping find a way to encourage more entrepreneurs. I share that belief that helping people start their own things can transform people, their careers, and the economy for the better.

Jill Vedder:

Sure, Jill has a famous last name, but you should really be paying attention to Jill due to the work she is putting in for EB Research Partnership.

The skin disease that is known by EB is brutal. It is a genetic disease that causes kids skin to be as delicate as a butterfly’s wings and can shorten their lives, cause them great pain, and limit their ability to participate in normal kid activities.

It is an awful disease.

I found out about EB a few years back and I have been a dedicated supporter of the organization as long as I’ve known about it. I’ve had a chance to learn more about the organization and have become a real admirer of Jill and everyone involved in the organization.

Since it is a rare disease, I’m not sure how many people know about EB or how awful it is. Because she’s working to change that and cure the disease, Jill is on the list.

Richard Howle: 

Richard Howle is my buddy and we get together every time I am in England.

He is also one of the smartest people about theatre, production, pricing, and events that I know.

He writes and speaks around the world on the topic of pricing, promotion, and ticketing. We had a great chat on my podcast where we discussed all kinds of ills that fall into the world of live entertainment and Richard is at the forefront of creating a better future where people have the chance to enjoy live entertainment.

Cassandra Calleja: 

I’m not really sure how old Cassandra is. She might be too young to make this list.

That’s why I didn’t fact check.

But why I really wanted to have her on the list is because she is one of those people that can travel anywhere in the world and build relationships.

I think that is often in short supply in today’s world and I think having the mindset of building relationships is a huge plus.

She’s also a great sports marketing and partnership person. Like a lot of people I’ve included, she’s super dedicated to the customer as well.

Peter Shankman:

I’m not 100% sure how long I’ve known Peter for.

I do know that as long as I have known him, I’ve been a fan of his work.

Even though I’ve known him so long, I even still get a little fanboy about him.

But I just have that much respect for him and his work, especially his dedication to laying the ladder down for others to follow him up.

He writes, speaks, and works around the world…so it is likely you’ve heard of him.

But I want to take a moment to include him here because of the efforts he continues to make to ensure that his success doesn’t happen in a vacuum and that he helps others create opportunities to be successful as well.

Christian Davenport:

Christian writes about space and I find that fascinating.

As I’m writing this, he helped pull together the Washington Post’s coverage of the 50th anniversary of man walking on the moon.

At a time when science is taking on a larger place in our thinking and space seems like it will be the next frontier, you should be paying attention to Christian and his work.

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy:

Sukhinder has one of the toughest jobs in the world, she’s the President of StubHub.

I’d guess she’d also say it was one of the best jobs in the world.

I’m including her on this list because she has been really confronting a super sticky situation, trying to get the world outside of the United States to embrace the secondary market.

From my travels around the world, that’s a tough sell. But I do applaud the effort.

Another reason to watch her is due to her background in tech and applying that to a tech company that really is a marketing company for live experiences.

We are going to see a lot of change in this area over the next few years and she’s likely to be in the middle of a lot of it.

Faris Yakob:

Again, I don’t know if Faris is actually old enough to qualify for this list.

But it’s my list and he is on.

I don’t know if you follow him on Twitter, but you should.

He writes and thinks about the world of marketing and advertising. He also lives everywhere. As he and his wife, Rosie, have taken the ability to work from anywhere and put it to the test.

You should be paying attention to what he is writing and thinking about because it is likely a different take than the average run-of-the-mill thinking that you are going to get from far too many folks.

Harrison Monarth:

I had the chance to have dinner with Harrison a few months back at the invitation of another member of this list.

Harrison is great!

He is a bestselling author and focuses his efforts on leadership and executive presence.

I’m a fan of his idea of inclusive leadership and the work that he does to help people become stronger leaders.

The work he is doing now with regards to communication is something that is likely to be even more important as we move forward and the generation gaps become more pronounced.

Andrew Thomas:

Andrew is from the UK. He is an entrepreneur in the mold of all the best entrepreneurs meaning he’s focusing on creating value, filling unmet needs, and constantly reinventing himself.

This year he’s been out provoking the world with his idea of “how to be more like airlines” at a point when people don’t have a fondness for airlines.

He is also on the board of INTIX and has created a really special ticketing conference in England called the Ticketing Professionals Conference. 

Like me, he also complains about the traffic in his neighborhood often.

You’ll want to keep an eye on him as he continues to push for more innovation in the world of events and tickets and uses his platform as a member of the board of INTIX to offer up his thoughts and ideas.

Dorie Clark:

Dorie has written a trio of books about you, your career, and the ideas that can allow you to thrive in the modern economy:

Reinventing You

Stand Out

Entrepreneurial You

If you haven’t heard of Dorie yet, you have been missing out. Her work is practical and focuses on actions you can take immediately.

Also, she doesn’t ever imply that the work ahead is easy.

That’s what is cool about her work. She tells you it is possible, but that you’ll have to work hard.

At the same time, she isn’t one of those people that are telling you to never let up as she talks about her transformation into someone that not only recognizes the need for balance but works at creating balance in her life.

She’s someone else that I’m totally not sure is old enough to be on this list.

Heidi Browning:

Heidi is the CMO of the NHL.

I’ve been watching what she’s working on closely because I’ve always felt that the NHL had the most room to grow as a popular sport in the States.

There are so many great marketing and advertising initiatives going on with the NHL right now from the Stanley Cup’s twitter feed to videos with Snoop Dogg promoting hockey that it is tough to point to just one effort that is likely driving increased attention to the NHL.

I’m excited by hockey and I’m excited to see someone from outside of sports business have the chance to market the sport because I think the meeting of sports business and a consumer-facing background creates a lot of really cool opportunities.

Shaji Prabhakaran:

Shaji is the President of Football Delhi!

He is working to sell the sport to India and get people out to play.

I mean those are two things I can really get behind, helping people play together and learning a new sport.

I found out about Shaji when I first started my podcast and was looking for cool people around the world to highlight and while we haven’t had the chance to record a podcast just yet, Shaji is doing great work.

Bruce McTague:

I’m not sure how I came across Bruce, but one day we got into a discussion about what is going on with messaging and the Democratic Party.

At which point Bruce sent me a detailed strategy and messaging plan that he shared with the Clinton campaign that probably mirrored many of the ideas I was offering up to the people I know in politics.

In general, you should follow Bruce because he is in the same vein that I am of taking an idea that has the stench of conventional wisdom and trying to flip it on its head, shake it so he can see what falls out of its pockets.

Susan Oh: 

Susan is a former journalist and now she is taking the journalist’s eye to business.

Check out Muckr.ai and see how Susan is applying AI to fight the idea of “fake news” and in her words, bullshit.

As we have to deal with technologies that can manipulate us more and more, this kind of focus on helping truth see the light of day is essential.

Ian Nuttall: 

Ian has created a whole bunch of really cool things that should be drawing attention and do.

He has the Ticketing Biz website, Xperiology, and Stadium Business…basically, if you want to know about the business of fun, if you aren’t paying attention to me, you likely should be paying attention to him.

Bonnie Bernstein: 

I dig what Bonnie is up to because like a lot of people on this list, she’s reinvented herself over the years to reflect her interests.

I remember her from being on CBS specifically.

Like Soledad, she is working on telling stories and she is a promoter of health and fitness.

Colin Lewis:

I have to say that if I wrote a column for Marketing Week, I might write one just like Colin’s.

He is a really incredible marketing thinker and clear writer.

I’ve gone back and forth with him over the last few months about starting a marketing podcast called “Above Average Intelligence.”

I think it would be a good idea if only because it would allow more people to find Colin and his work.

Soomean Chang:

Soomean was a client of mine back in the days that I was selling tickets and that’s how I became familiar with her work.

She calls herself a creative director and if you see her social media posts you’ll notice that there is a vibrancy to the way that she approaches things and it is refreshing. She also curates her content in a way that decidedly shows her point of view…and that is also great.

Derek Palmer:

Derek paid me one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever received when he told a group of sports business executives something along the lines that I was the only “marketer he knew that wasn’t full of it.”

I mean that alone would get him on my list. (Hint: for future lists, flattery isn’t a disqualifier.)

Derek is also one of the real innovators in the ticket business. He has sold technology that helps teams market and sell their inventory more effectively all over the world, but now he is working on a new idea that will make dynamic pricing and marketing even more successful for organizations that are struggling to compete in the experience economy.

He doesn’t always tweet about business, but he’s been doing it a little more often lately.

Amy Pritchard: 

There are a few people on this list that were nice to me when I really couldn’t expect people to be nice to me, Amy is one of them.

When I first moved to DC, I didn’t know anyone.

Amy helped change that.

Amy is the kind of political consultant that is in the business for the right reasons and she is one of the handful of political consultants that I respect the most. (I think she works with almost all of the rest of them.)

She is a great advocate for progressive causes, fighting for women, and doing good around the globe.

I can also say without knowing Amy I would have never had the opportunity to work on some really high level, national political campaigns which have been a real highlight.

Simon Mabb:

If you’ve read my blog or followed along with my work for any length of time, you know Simon name.

But he deserves to be on this list despite the fact that we are friends because the work that he has done changing insurtech into a customer-focused venture through his work at Booking Protect makes him a global leader in customer service and innovation.

It is Simon’s dedication to the vision that just because you are working with an insurance company or a refund product doesn’t mean you have to be stuck with bad service and a poor customer interface has driven tremendous growth in the ways that customers protect their ticket purchases, their holiday bookings, and their nights out.

I should note that when people ask me how I became a Spurs fan, I point at Simon.

Stu Heinecke:

Stu coined the term “contact marketing” and it has changed the way that I approach marketing.

From following Stu’s lead, I realize that one right action can change the course of your career. That one correct touch point can begin a new relationship. And, that marketing can and should have a bit of fun, whimsy, and, always, creativity to it.

Ruby Newell-Legner:

I love Ruby’s idea of 7-star service so much.

The concept encapsulates so much of what I talk about as well:

Customer focused

Earning repeat business

Wowing your guests

Ruby has taken her idea all over the world and if you ever meet her, ask her to show you the photos of some of the hotels she has visited because until you see what Ruby calls “world-class” service, you have no clue what world-class service really is.

Alastair Thomson: 

I’ve included Alastair on this list because he is a CFO that isn’t fighting marketing.

In fact, he gets into marketing conversations pretty regularly.

Chatting and learning from Alastair should be viewed as an opportunity for anyone in a revenue-generating role because hearing his opinions on what a CFO is looking at when we discuss marketing, sales, and branding is pretty valuable.

Lisa Bowman: 

Lisa is the CMO of the United Way.

The United Way is powerful because they fight for people in every community in the country. I’ve seen their work help create real, positive change in the DC area. So imagine the impact of a positive partner in every community in the country.

When you are marketing that kind of power and impact, you better pay attention to the person telling those stories.

So check out Lisa’s work.

JP Hanson:

Okay, like Colin Lewis, JP is sort of a marketing spirit animal for me.

He takes a common sense approach to marketing that can’t be taken for granted.

As with a lot of marketers I admire, he says things and puts them into words that I might have been thinking and couldn’t quite get them out.

And, sometimes he doesn’t pull punches on topics that I might have.

Lynne King Smith:

Lynne is an entrepreneur and she empowers women through her work at INTIX, TicketForce, and, Thrive Co-Working For Women.

Also, anyone that says they are fueled by craft beer is alright by me.

Mitch Slater:

A decade ago, Mitch spent time with me when he didn’t have to.

I lost touch with him and a while back he popped up in people I should follow on Twitter.

Again, when I look at my list, I see reinvention and Mitch has reinvented himself to focus on finance and he has a podcast that is really great called, Financially Speaking. His guest list is phenomenal. Check out his conversation with Larry King. At heart, his podcast is about business, finance, marketing, and life.

You’ll also dig his Twitter feed because he is undeniably a Springsteen superfan, a Mets’ fan, and a relentless critic of Donald Trump and things that politically don’t make a whole lot of sense.

As for me, I can’t put myself on my own list:

But if you are just getting to my work, check me out on Twitter, LinkedIn, or by signing up for my newsletter where I discuss value, strategy, marketing, and revenue.

Who did I miss? And, know if there are people that already have huge audiences, they likely just didn’t make it because what fun is it to highlight the more obvious people?

          Please follow and like us:

40 over 40: Folks That Are Doing Great Stuff That You Should Be Paying Attention To was originally published on Wakeman Consulting Group

[awed-frog]

The Memory Remains/Carthago Delenda

On the whole, I think I really liked this episode? It certainly felt very old school, in the best possible sense. There were a couple of moments I was actually worried, and considering that I know perfectly well both Sam and Dean will always be fine, that’s quite something. 

I sort of liked the mythology, and I liked the class thing, and as for Dean hooking up with a waitress - look, first - this is the writer who practically wrote Dean as bi in Beyond the Mat, his only other Supernatural episode. I know they didn’t quite go there, but by paralleling a young Sam jerking off to some picture of Rio (sorry to be coarse, but that’s exactly what it was and it was confirmed both by dialogue and by Sam’s embarrassed stammering) with Dean’s obsession for Gunnar, well, kudos for the effort. And Jensen, of course, went with it, like he always does, and made the whole thing very obvious. So there’s that, and second - this is what Dean does. He’s a kisser and a hugger and all about touching and be touched, and sex with strangers was the only thing that, growing up, gave him that physical intimacy he craved and nobody else was capable to share with him. We know Mary was dead, of course, and John was not the hugging type, and Sam - my headcanon (which I use liberally in my fics, and sue me) is that he was an expansive child and Dean secretly loved it, but at some point John told both of them to just cut it out already, ‘cause you’re too old for this shit now. So that was that, and from then on, touch that actually matters has been in short supply for Dean - and, unlike Sam, whom I read as more reserved, Dean craves to be touched and held. It’s just who he is. So, whatever - he’s worried sick about Cas, and that’s not going anywhere anytime soon, and there’s a million other things going through his head and now that stupid sheriff’s brought half of them up again by talking about a kid who grew up with an abusive father as though that’s nothing and what can you do (I actually went back and looked three times at that scene, at how the sheriff says, “Guess who gets to take care of him?” because something was bugging me and yeah, there it was - Sam visibly makes an effort to react to the conversation because it’s what’s expected from him, but Dean just looks up - up and to the left, that is, which is what happens when you remember past experiences; and I don’t want this person who reads a lot into every detail, but these are basic biology things an actor would do without even realizing, and also it’s beyond canon, by this point, that Dean took care of John more than once, because that’s what happens when you’ve got an alcoholic parent) - and, sorry, here’s the end of the sentence - it looks perfectly reasonable to me that Dean would want some comfort, and I do believe he slept with that woman and that it was great and that it cheered him up a bit in some bittersweet way and what can you do?

Honestly, all that I’m upset about is that the straight stuff is always out in the open and for the queer one you need to stop your video and squint at the scene and the paintings and the colours and yeah, that BS smack on Dean and the waitress could be nothing -

(Also, that girl is not his type at all. She was just there, and she liked him, and, as he’s told us himself, he likes waitresses because they smell like food and it’s not easy to get them - if that doesn’t sound like comfort and a need for validation to you, I don’t know what does.)

Moving away from Destiel-related content, I really liked how seamlessly the different parts of the episode moved into one another. From that woman reading the text of the Fourth Amendment on the radio at the very beginning (the one which makes it illegal to search a house without a warrant or probable cause, that is), to Ketch and his men walking around in Sam and Dean’s lives as they themselves are in the outside world, living them - that was very well done.

Also well done: the whole social commentary on class and money. 

Industrial benefactors are sometimes seen as a good thing, because they normally provide houses for their workers and schools for their workers’ kids and therefore create and enrich a whole community, but personally I’ve always hated the concept (which is not as outdated as one would expect, and ew) and I was happy to see our writer didn’t give them an inch. Yes, sure, the town did prosper, but that factory was creepy and unpleasant in itself (even if you eat meat, you gotta admit that the meat industry and meat factories are about as bleak and morally ambiguous as you can get) and, more importantly, it was only held together by human sacrifice. The idea that it could, in fact, be considered acceptable to lose a kid every year so that the rest of the village can get by was never even suggested, and thank God. Instead, the whole episode read like some old-fashioned Quaker or Socialist leaflet: money corrupts (look at our first victim, lured to his death by a backpack full of dollar bills), creates division and resentment (the tale of the two brothers may have read like a bad Dynasty episode, but these things happen every day), generally comes from blood (the entire god story and the sacrifices) and it’s always better to be honest and poor than rich and tainted (I really liked the sheriff, poor guy).

As for the lore itself - I’m slightly less happy with it, mostly because I would expect both Sam and Dean to know perfectly well what a satyr is (and no, they don’t eat human flesh - those were the women who danced with Dionysos, totally different stuff) and because Moloch has been maligned plenty enough, but I did appreciate the casual horror of it all - a starved and tortured god locked in your cellar, people dressing as animals to capture an unwilling sacrifice - very gothic and compelling.

Since we’re now talking about pagan stuff, maybe Sam and Dean’s discussion about their legacy and mortality made sense, but it was still hard to watch. What happened to the wary hope of S11? To the idea it’s not too late to find a partner, perhaps even to have kids? With that mournful discussion and by carving their initials in the Bunker’s table, Sam and Dean have somehow closed the circle. Their story, this is what they seem to think, is not going anywhere, is not leaving any memory behind. The thing was so sweet and sad, I’m actually comforted by the fact this is not the last season, because there it was - the perfect foundation to end this story in a burst of flames. The reminder to their childhood, the belated acknowledgement that it wasn’t, in the end, as bad as it could have been (“Next time you hear me say that our family is messed up, remind me that we could be psycho goat people,” Dean says, and man, now I can’t wait for that confrontation with Mary we know is coming), the quiet acceptance about their importance in history (non-existent), in people’s lives (often significant) and in their own consciences (“We left the world better than we found it, you know.”) - the knowledge that one day they’ll both die, and they’ll be forgotten, and someone else will live in the Bunker, fight on - it was heartbreaking, but also - also, after all these years of anger and torment and hurt, it looks like Sam and Dean are very close to being okay with everything - their family, their jobs, their place in the world, and even each other - and that’s -

- yeah.

We'll eventually fade away, too.

Just in case someone is wondering: Moloch was the god of Carthage, a city which used to be roughly where Tunis is now. At one point, it was Rome’s main rival - mostly because Carthaginians were better educated and smarter and had a longer and richer civilisation behind them - so Rome started a brutal campaign against them which included a few wars and also liberal amounts of bullshit propaganda. What Moloch is generally associated with is child sacrifice, which ties in nicely with our two victims in The Memory Remains, and I’m not saying that never happened at all, but still - it’s very likely it didn’t happen with the alarming frequency described by some of the more vitriolic Roman politicians. Plus, you know - human sacrifice is a thing in every culture, and it makes perfect sense. A human life, and especially a child’s life, is the most precious thing a community has to offer, right up there with other very precious things, like a good stallion or a fertile bull, so when things start to go really bad, you have up up the ante a bit. Gods are not stupid, and no god is going to show up and save your stupid city in exchange for a loaf of bread and two rabbits. That’s just the way it goes, and everyone knows it. Even the Romans used to perform human sacrifices in times of trouble, so they can just shut it (as you can see, since I’m an archaeologist I’m approaching history in a calm, academic fashion, without taking sides, because that would be both unprofessional and pointless).

Oh, and this is a statue of Moloch which was created for some movie and ended up in someone’s garden in New Jersey, because why not.

Random thoughts: 

I so wish this was on HBO, because Jesus, stoned!Dean must be quite something and that’s clearly something he does, or used to do, a lot and uuugh, where’s my spinoff on those four years he spent without Sam?

Ketch is definitely coded as bisexual - what kind of man notices another man’s hair or clothes? - but at the moment I’m more interested in him stealing Mary’s picture and what he thinks about it.

Which Stark was Sam supposed to be? Who would appeal to him the most? Since Dean was Oberyn, I’m guessing we’re not looking for Tony, but for a random member of the Stark family - Ned, perhaps? Or Bran?

As for Dean picking Oberyn, lol. Bisexual guy who gets into fights to protect his family and is in love with an unpredictable ‘I’m as strong as you and can look after myself, thank you very much’ partner - it’s okay, sweetie, we’ve got you.

If this isn’t going anywhere, Wanek needs to take a chill pill - look at the ships and the puppies and the trench coats and oh my God, that BS sign - what the hell, man?

[huntertales]

Part Two: It’s Just a Scratch. (Abandon All Hope S05E10)

Useful Links: Last Part | All Episodes Word Count: 6,227. A/N: Oops, I made this part super long again. And while I would have gotten this out sooner...I guess I need to catch a little cold to help slow down the process. I hope this was worth the wait! Make sure to bring a box of tissues for the next part! :'(

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Today was the day: doomsday. You sat in the backseat with the brothers for the drive that took almost all morning with the Harvelle women riding behind you as Cas decided to hitch a ride with them. Nobody said much of anything, except to make sure you had everything you needed to face an impossible amount of demons and their creator; salt, shotguns, demon knife, and most importantly, the colt and the ammunition Crowley gave you. While you had just about every single weapon all of you had, along with a few spares from Bobby for safety, you weren't exactly sure what the outcome was going to be. Or what you should be even feeling right now.

You weren't scared to see what might unravel in the next upcoming hours. But you weren't restless with excitement at the thought of facing off with the devil, and watching as one of the Winchesters put a bullet in his head. You were just...handling the situation best as you could, trying the pessimistic at bay and the optimism of what might be from keeping your hopes up that this was all going to end with the devil being dead and the world would be safe. Getting revenge isn't that easy, you knew that first hand. Killing Azazel took years and the brutal killing of your parents, the Winchesters and Jess before Dean finally pulled the trigger. The past year and a half of getting to this point was the worse situation you had ever been in. You just hoped all of the fighting and sacrifice would be enough to stop this before it could get worse.

“Anti-God is Anti-American.”

You looked over your shoulder to see the progress of where Ellen’s truck was when you arrived into town just a few minutes ago, but your eyes lingered to a billboard just across the way. It was huge, no doubt the size was so people could see it right away in this small little town to convey the message this was a God fearing town. You sat back in your seat and looked straight ahead. This town was abandoned, but no thanks to the big man upstairs. He could save them from what evil was lurking in these abandoned streets, but you had a feeling God was long gone to care about what his son was doing.

Dean told you and his brother to see if there was any service around here after he couldn’t find any on his phone. Which wasn't a good sign for all of you. The result had been to roll down your window and try every which way to see if you could have at least find a single bar. But there was nothing. You sat back in your seat and shut your phone before it could get damaged from the drizzle of rain that was coming down.

"Great. It's like Croatoan and War all over again." You muttered underneath your breath, just quiet enough for you to only hear. You looked up from your phone and to the boys, who were trying themselves to see if you had any contact to the outside world. "Are you guys getting a signal?"

“No, nothin’.” Dean answered you. “Nice and spooky.”

Dean adjusted his handling of the phone so it was now placed back in his pocket, his free arm waved for the Harvelle women to pass through as he moved the Impala to the curb. You watched as Ellen drove a bit further until her truck was right next to the Impala. She seemed to have made the same discovery as you and the boys had. "Place seem a little empty to you?" She asked, you could hear the worry starting to settle in her voice.

“Sam and I are gonna go check out the PD.” Dean explained the situation to the women and CAs, who had been quietly sitting in the backseat for the entire car ride. You grabbed the duffel bag you had switched out from your clothes last night to everything you needed from ammunition rounds of salt and too much holy water. Before you opened up the backseat door to get out, you patted around in your pocket, wanting to make sure you felt the outline of the demon knife. The boys agreed on keeping the colt if you could take the knife if you had stumbled across an unfriendly visitor. “You and Y/N stay here—see if you can find anybody.”

You told the boys to be careful, a warning you always told them before they ventured out on their own. You let out a sigh as you walked to the sidewalk, allowing Ellen to park as the Impala drove off into the distance, and soon, disappearing from sight. You tightened your grip on the bag as you looked over at the car to see Ellen turned the key to shut off the engine as Jo wasted no time in getting herself out to join you. She looked around for a brief moment to see if she could find anyone herself, but her gaze spotted Cas, who was still patiently sitting in the backseat, and seeming not in a rush to get out. Jo looked over at you with a bit of a confused expression, you merely shrugged your shoulders, knowing that even after of knowing the angel for over a year and a half, he still did things that surprised you.

“Hey.” Jo leaned forward and tapped her knuckles against the backseat window to get the angel’s attention. “Ever heard of a door handle?”

"Of course I have." You turned your head away from the car to see that Cas was standing in front of you and the younger woman. You rolled your eyes from his ability to jump wherever he wanted, always managing to catch you off guard. You were about to make a remark about how he should learn to act like a human being, but you stopped yourself, finding something off about how Cas was looking around town as his eyes squinted slightly, almost as if he was picking up on something that you couldn’t. You asked him what was wrong out of concern. “This town’s not empty. Reapers.”

"'Reapers'?" You repeated after him. You didn't like hearing the mention of a reaper, but it was the plural of the word that made you feel even more uneasy. As if you could see what the angel could, you cautiously examined the empty streets, trying to find at least a reaper with the naked eye. "As in one than one?"

"They only gather like this at times of great catastrophe—Chicago fire, San Francisco quake...Pompeii." Cas explained to the three of you. You let out a slow breath, not needing to have a history lesson to figure out all of the tragedies could have been categorized with one thing in common. The death toll of human rates that reached from a few hundred casualties to an entire city being buried under volcanic ash and the debris of their once standing civilization. "Excuse me. I need to find out why they're here."

You weren't exactly on board with the idea of Cas running off on his own, especially with no way of contacting him with service being down. But you had a bit of faith in thinking that maybe he could figure out what was going on without getting himself into trouble. You watched as he began walking into the empty streets and stopping every few steps, as if he was trying to observe something before heading off. The angel wandered all the way across to an old movie theatre after spotting something in the window. You squinted your eyes to see there looked to be an older man dressed in a black trench coat and pale white eyes that were haunting Seeing him brought a sense of warning to you. Maybe you had a bit of an advantage here with your other half, but this particular reaper caused something to be set off in you, a warning flag. As you directed your gaze to Cas, you had the sudden urge to capture his attention, but when you looked down at the street, he was gone.

+ + +

You tore the place apart best as you could, but in the ten minutes since you arrived, there was not a single living soul in sight that you could find. You and the Harvelle’s decided it'd be best to head to the station to see how the boys were coming along. The entire car ride to the station had left you antsy, you were hoping that the brothers would have Cas at their side, but when they were waiting on the sidewalk with only themselves and the Impala parked, you could feel your stomach drop. Something bad was happening here, and your instincts were telling you the angel had landed himself in harm's way without even realizing it.

"Station's empty." Dean said, giving you a bit of information that was an obvious fact from the state of this town. You stuck your head out from the backseat window to hear him better.

“So is everything else. By the way,” You wrapped your fingers around the cold glass to ask them a very important question that wouldn’t leave your mind, you were now hoping they were going to give you the answer you wanted to hear. “Have you seen Cas?”

“What?” Sam asked you, his reaction wasn’t exactly helpful as it was nothing short of surprised at what he was hearing. “He was with you.”

Ellen shook her head, “Nope. He went after the reapers.”

“Reapers? He saw reapers?” Sam questioned all of you. You watched as his expression began to change into a serious one. Even he didn’t like the sound of how this situation was coming along for the five of you. “Where?”

“Well, kind of…” Jo tried to answer the younger man, but she couldn’t be specific as she paused for a moment before giving a rough estimate from how he reacted. “Everywhere.”

Everybody decided it'd be best if you started on this adventure on foot to save the precious gas you had just in case you needed to make a quick getaway. And this town wasn't that big. It wouldn't take too long to find out that there was nobody here. You followed behind the group with your bag still hanging over your shoulder, but with an added touch of a fully loaded shotgun in your hand, just in case an unwanted visitor came your way. You weren't sure what you to expect with abandoned towns, but you knew nothing good came from it. You'd seen people infected with a demonic virus you nicknamed it Croatoan that turned people from civil human beings to monsters that wanted nothing more than to rip your throat out. People got infected with the virus through blood. While you had to learn the hard way, it turns out, thanks to a nurse who got infected, you were immune.

The other situation that you had landed in not too long ago with Ellen had townsfolk attacking just about anyone after they were seeing black eyes. While you were lead to believe there was a mass demon possession, that wasn’t the case. You had met the first horseman—War. He decided to have a bit of fun and make people paranoid out of their minds. It was either kill or be killed, like the good old days. He was taken care of after you cut off his finger and stole his ring. You tried figuring out what was going on here, but you’d been here for less than a half an hour. All you knew was that people didn’t decide to skip town after they found out the devil was coming. It didn’t explain all the reapers, and where the hell Cas had wandered off to.

“Well, this is great.” Dean spoke up, breaking the silence that had fallen between the five of you. “We’ve been in town for twenty minutes and we’ve already lost the angel up our sleeve.”

“You think, uh,” You looked over at the younger Winchester when he decided to try and give a possible theory to what happened to the angel. You roughly bit the inside of your cheek when you began thinking of what danger Cas might be in. Sam lowered his tone slightly as he shifted closer to his brother so he could propose a theory that only the two of them could discuss without any of you starting to get cold feet for the big fight you were thinking was still hours away. “You think Lucifer got to him?”

“I don’t know what else to think.” Dean admitted underneath his breath.

You found yourself beginning to trail behind on the group, your thoughts blocking your concentration on the situation at hand, as the pessimistic attitude you'd been trying to push away since you left this morning were beginning to become too bearable to pin down. You tightened your grip on the shotgun you were holding as you slightly turned your head, just a natural reaction you had grown accustomed to for hunting. It never hurt to check your surroundings to see if there were any enemies trying to sneak through in your blind spot. You honestly thought this place was abandoned without a human soul here. While you were right about that, you might have forgotten about the ones with a soul black as their eyes.

You turned your head to the side when you saw her again, the black eyed bitch you kept sneaking away whenever you tried to pin her down and stick the knife into her chest, Meg. You weren’t ever happy to see her. Jo had met the demon awhile back when she first started hunting on her own. It was in the form of Sam after she decided to possess the poor man and take you on her little adventure of slaughtering hunters for the fun of it. But she wasn’t the reason why you stopped dead in your tracks and forgot how to properly move. Meg felt her smile grow even more at your precious reaction, but it seemed the rest of the group didn’t realize she was gracing her presence, so she decided to make it known by making a vocal announcement.

“There you are.” Meg said with a cheery voice. She wasn’t the least bit afraid when she saw four guns loaded with rock salt pointing her way. Sam was the first one to recognize the demon, as he spit out her name with a venomous tone. “You shouldn’t have come here, boys. But I have to say, you're my job a hell of a lot easier."

“Yeah?” Dean wasn’t afraid of the demon. He wasted not a single second to pull out the colt and pointed the barrel at the woman, his finger on the trigger. The man didn’t realize she here to chat and say hello. But she wasn’t dumb enough to come to a gunfight empty handed. “Well, I could say the same thing for you.”

"Didn't come here alone, Dean-o." Meg said. You didn't need to hear the spine-chilling growl to realize the demon had brought a weapon that was far superior to a little gun. You nervously swallowed as you watched one of the hounds closest to Meg put one paw out in front of him, everyone could only see an invisible force make a splash in a small puddle. You, however, saw every little detail of the beasts, from their sharp claws and teeth they showed off as they snarled at you.  There was at least ten, far too many for any of you to fight off, even with the colt in your possession now. You didn't even know if the knife could work and shooting rock salt at the hounds would be like poking a stick at a bear. It would only cause it to get angrier. "Hell hounds. I know how much they're your favorite, Y/N."

"Eat dirt and die, bitch." You hissed at her.

"Come on, Y/N. Don't be like that." Meg said. She pretended to be hurt at your words as the hell hound far to the left snarled at you, his lips snarling upwards to show off his razor sharp teeth to you. You quickly looked away to keep from the vivid memories of the night you were dragged to Hell from flooding back to you. "Our father wants to see you."

“I think she’ll pass.” Sam said, jumping to your defense. “Thanks.”

"Your call. I'm just doing what I'm told. My father said he wanted Y/N alive. But he didn't say anything about getting a few scratches on that pretty face of hers. So, what is it gonna be?" Meg asked as her gaze lingered over to you to make the final decision. "You can make this easy on everyone. Or you can make it really, really hard."

You took a moment evaluate where they could be; one was still lingering next to Meg, your gaze followed another that was starting to get ready at pounce at you before going for Sam. You shifted your sight just quick enough to realize there was one for Ellen and Jo. Maybe, just maybe, if all of you were smart enough, you could get out of here without a scratch. And you had enough bullets in the colt to take down the hounds if you pointed them out to Dean. You had a feeling being half demon was starting to have an advantage in this fight. You slowly looked over at the man to see that he had been following your eye move. With the simple nod of the head, you thought it wouldn't hurt to take your chances at fighting them.

"When have you known us to ever make anything easy?"

Dean wasted not a single second when he drew the colt away from the demon to point it at the hound. You heard the shot go off, wounding the animal just enough for it to be taken down, but that still meant you had nine other of his friends nipping at your heels. All of you didn't waste a second before you were running for your life. You heard the vicious barking come from behind you, and it was getting closer than you wanted. Taking a second to inspect the situation, you noticed one of the hounds was going for the Harvelle women as another chased after Sam, the last one was dead set on you. As he reached up one of his claws to dig it into your skin, you aimed the shotgun and pulled the trigger, wounding the hound just enough for it to lag. You tried your hardest to start running faster, but it seemed in that moment, your mind decided to stroll down memory lane.

Your heart pounded inside your ears, it was loud enough to muffle the gunshots that were going off around you, but it wasn't enough to silence the agonizing screams of pain that seemed to have come out of nowhere.Suddenly you could see it all again; Dean lying on the floor as a hell hound hovered over him, the hound's claws viciously digging into his chest as he begged for the pain to stop. You couldn't scream or cry, Lilith had made you a prisoner in your own body as you watched the man you loved be torn to pieces. All you wanted to do was for it to stop. You suddenly could feel yourself on the brink of being sick at the memory, and just like that, your legs seemed to have forgotten how to work. You stumbled slightly in your footing, and just that little lag, was enough for a sharp pain to pierce your skin.

You felt the scream that had been building up in your throat suddenly come right now when you felt yourself being thrown to the ground by an invisible force that nobody could see except you. You landed face first on the pavement, your shotgun stumbling out of your hands after the hound had nicked your leg just enough to make you fall prey to him. Everyone had been heading for a sport's store that was just along the way, but your cry of pain had made them stop for just a second. You shouted at the top of your lungs for them to go on without you as you tried your hardest to fight off the hound before it was too late. You pulled the knife out from your pocket before the hell hound could sink his teeth into you and drag you away like a dead carcass to show it to his owner. Before either one of you could try and see who would win this fight, you heard a gunshot from the colt go off, wounding the hound.

Dean wasn't going to let you fall behind, while the rest of the group headed for safety, he took his chances at helping you. You quickly grabbed his awaiting hand and pulled yourself to your feet, you tried your hardest to ignore the stinging feeling in your ankle as you made it to the safe haven Sam and Ellen had found. But it seemed you weren’t out of trouble just yet. Jo had strayed away from the store when she spotted a hound coming for you, and while she tried to warn you, it was too late, so she decided to take action. She raced forward to the two of you, and at what she thought was a safe distance, she took her shot at the hound. You looked over your shoulder to see that the hound was wounded momentarily, but it decided that for right now you could slip away, for it had another target on its mind. Your eyes widened in fear as you screamed Jo's name on the top of her lungs to get back when you saw the animal coming for her. But it was too late.

You watched in horror as another hound came out from nowhere, and without a drop of remorse, he sunk his claw into the woman's hipbone, dragging his nails into her skin and sending her flying down to the ground. As she cried out in pain and tumbled to the pavement, you somehow realized how to function as a hunter again. You pushed Dean away from you and snatched your shotgun from the ground so you could take a shot at one of the hounds that was tempted to make a move on you as his friend was about to attack again. Ellen had witnessed everything happened. You could hear the woman shout her daughter’s name with horror as Dean raced over to help Jo. You tried your best to fight off the hounds as you took shot after shot to get them to back off. Your mind only focused on survival as you backed dangerously fast to the store, and avoiding the trail of blood that lead directly to the store as you took off your last shot before stumbling inside to freedom.

Neither you or Sam wasted a second when you slammed the door shut and pressed your back against it, keeping the hell hounds at bay for a second as the younger Winchester reached to grab a thick metal chain. You stepped away so Sam could wrap the chains around the handle of the door and give you all a bit of safety. But it wasn’t safe here. Chaos was rising between everyone as Dean tried to gently lay down Jo to the ground and propped her against the counter as Ellen was following close behind. She tended to her bleeding daughter as you found yourself rushing forward to see how bad the damage was. You dropped yourself to your knees and tried to see how Jo was doing, but all you could see was blood. It was covering the tiled floors and Ellen’s hands. You shrugged off your jacket and quickly gave it to the woman, hopeful that it might help at least keep the wounds from draining out anymore blood if you could help it.

"All right, okay, okay. Breathe, breathe, breathe." Ellen told her daughter as she pressed harder against the wound. Jo tried her hardest to tell the both of you she was fine, but she was far from it. She was starting to become dizzy from the blood loss as she was sweating, all of which weren't good signs. "Boys, need some help!"

But they were a little busy right now. You pressed harder against Jo's wound as the brothers grabbed whatever rock salt they could find, making sure to cover every single crack of this place, building a fortress that would keep out any possible threat. While you could hear the growling from outside slowly die down, their damage was still going strong in here. Ellen slowly moved your hand away, saying something about how she wanted to inspect the wound for just a second. The boys had raced straight forward when everything was done to see what was going on here. You swallowed and did what you were told, allowing your, now bloodied, hands to hover as Ellen slowly forced herself to lift her own to inspect the wound. You could feel yourself let out a sharp gasp of surprise at how deep the gashes were.

“Oh, God.” You accidentally muttered underneath your breath.

It was bad, worse than you had anticipated. Jo's wounds were deep enough for blood to keep gushing out when Ellen took the slightest pressure off as Jo let out a whimpering noise of pain. You could feel yourself instinctively pressing back down on the wound again before she could lose anymore fluids. At this moment you needed to be strong and level headed, but when you looked up at Jo, who knew how bad her wounds were, you gave her a wobbly smile, despite being on the brink of tears. You told her that everything was going to be all right. Maybe it was for her to think there was a chance at getting here alive...or for your guilty conscience for leading everyone here.

+ + +

You busied yourself over the past hour to help Ellen the best you could to help find all the supplies you would need for to cover her daughter's wounds so she wouldn't risk the chances of getting an infection or losing any more blood. Jo was stable now after you found some ace bandages and some clean towels that were soft enough to makeshift for medical attention she desperately needed. Despite being in tremendous pain, Jo didn't complain, she just laid against the counter with her legs outstretched as Ellen did everything she could to ease the suffering best to her ability. You hadn't moved from Jo's side since you had gotten here, and while your legs we're starting to cramp, you felt the obligation to stay by her side and tend to any need she might have. You kept her mind busy and forced her to stay awake by asking her how hunting had been with her mom and told a couple funny stories about Cas to help lighten the mood. Jo had gotten a kick at hearing about the angel's attempt of losing his v-card in a brothel to a prostitute named Chastity, but it seemed he wasn't smooth with the ladies. She tried to laugh when you told her about how the girl lost it when he brought up her buried daddy issues, yet the slightest shift in movement caused her to let out a wince of pain.

Sam had been around every once in a while to see how things were going and to check on the salt lines to make sure it was in check. Dean had kept to himself since all of you were put on lock down. He searched around the store until he found a portable radio and some batteries to make the thing work. You looked away from the women as Sam headed over to his brother so the both of them could have a private conversation about how seriously screwed all of you were. All of you were trapped like rats as Cas was probably in the same predicament, not to mention, the Devil himself was here. While it was good to know this plan might just work out, the concern right now was to get out of here before anyone else could get hurt.

You were pulled from your thoughts at the faint noise of squeaking coming from the radio Dean had been tinkering with over the past few minutes. Sam wandered over when Ellen called out for a pair of hands that weren't covered in blood. You glanced down to see that your clothes and hands were stained red, the sight of it made you feel another wave of nausea when you inhaled the deep rich copper smell. You pulled your attention away from the mess when you heard Dean speak, and even from your spot across the small store, you heard a voice that suddenly felt like music to your ears. "Bobby, it's Dean. We got problems." "It's okay, boy. That's why I'm here." Bobby comforted the older Winchester, knowing even with his voice strained as he tried to be hard, there was no denying the fear in Dean's voice. "Is everyone all right?" Dean paused for a moment when he heard the question. You watched as he looked over his shoulder to stare at the situation that had been slowly unfolding, he shifted his gaze to see that you and Ellen were doing everything you could to keep Jo in at least stable condition. While you had tried to remain optimistic that things were going to be fine for the woman, Dean had seen more of this lifestyle, and he knew a bad situation when he saw one. “No.” Dean answered as he looked backed to the other side of the store, turning his back again on the four of you. He tried keeping his voice hush when he spoke the devastating news. “Uh, i-it’s—it’s Jo. Bobby, it’s pretty bad.”

“Okay. Copy that.” Bobby replied after a second of silence of his own, needing to take some time to process the worst case scenario that was unraveling. “So now we figure out what we do next.”

“Bobby,” Dean muttered the hunter’s name as he tried his hardest to tell him what happened. He didn’t need to see her wounds to figure out this wasn’t going to end well. He had to pause again so he could force the words out of his mouth, but saying it would mean that this was actually happening. “Bobby, I don’t think she’s—”

But he couldn’t do it. Dean took his finger off the button and stopped himself. He stared across the room and focused on anything with his vision starting to grow the slightest bit blurry as he tried his hardest not to break down. He always forced himself to be the leader of the group, it was a role that came naturally to him. Dean would rather stay in charge so things could go his way. But with this situation, he couldn’t. He was pinned in place like the little fly trapped in the spider’s web. He was being forced to watch one of his closest friends suffer, and he couldn’t do anything to fix it.

“I said, ‘What do we do next,’ Dean.” Bobby said. His tone was serious as he forced the older Winchester to start focusing on the situation he was being dealt with. Dean let out a heavy breath as he bent his head down to rub his eyes from the stress. But like a good leader, the man sucked in his internal pain, and jumped back into the conversation. “Now...tell me what you got.” Dean told him the little progress that all of you had been making. The only lead you had was something about reapers Cas mentioned about wanting to talk to. But that had been what felt like an entire lifetime ago. “Before he went missing, did Cas say how many reapers?”

“I-I don’t know. He said a lot of things, I guess.” Dean muttered with a solemn tone. “I mean, does the number matter?”

You excused yourself from the little group when you tried to be of assistance for someone else when you heard Dean getting frustrated about how Bobby was focusing on something that seemed so little of importance, right now. But it was the devil in the details. You walked over to Dean and tapped the back of your hand against his arm, catching his attention. You nodded your head to the walkie-talkie to you could speak to the man. "Bobby, it's Y/N." You said. “The way he was looking, the number of places Cas’ eyes went, I’d say we’re talking over a dozen reapers—probably more.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Bobby said, you found yourself rolling your eyes at his response.

“Nobody like the sound of that, Bobby.” Dean told the man. “But what—what does that sound like?”

“It sounds like death, kids.” Bobby answered him. You furrowed your brow as you locked eyes with the man standing in front of you. Neither one of you would had a good feeling about this. “I think Satan’s in town to work a ritual. I think he’s planning to unleash Death.”

"You mean, like," Dean tried wrapping his head at what he was being told. "This dude and taxes are the only sure thing?"

"As in Death—the horseman, the pale rider in the flesh." Bobby said, being more specific.

You let out a quiet sigh from what you were hearing as you turned your head slightly to look at Jo from the corner of your eye. "'Unleash'? I mean, h-hasn't death been tromping all over the place?" Dean asked. "I mean, hell, Y/N and I've died several times ourselves."

"Not this guy. This is—this is the Angel of Death, big daddy reaper. They keep this guy chained in a box six hundred feet under. Last time they hauled him up, Noah was building a boat." Bobby explained the situation to you and Dean. You heard him pause for a moment, as if he was thinking to himself. It seemed that he figured out an answer to a problem that was so little compared to what you had going on here."That's why the place is crawling with reapers. They're waiting on the big boss to show up."

The Devil himself and the Angel of Death all in one town. As if things couldn't have gotten any worse. You placed the back of your hand against your forehead as you shifted around slightly in your spot, turning your back on everyone so you could wrap your mind around what the hell was going on. You tilted your head up slightly as your eyes slowly shifted upwards to the ceiling. This...this was beginning to become too much for you to handle. You inhaled a deep breath breath through your mouth, trying your hardest to compose yourself. Dean tried lifting up the mood by asking the other hunter if he had any good news to spare.

"Well, in a manner of speaking. I've been researching Carthage since you've been gone, trying to suss out what the Devil might want there. What you just said drops the last piece of the puzzle in place." Bobby explained to the both of you. You turned around in your spot to hear what the man had to say after you gotten your emotions under control for now. "The angel of death must be brought into this world at midnight through a place of awful carnage. Now, back during the civil war, there was a battle in Carthage—a battle so intense, the soldiers called it 'The Battle of the Hellhole.'"

"Where'd the massacre go down?" Dean asked, seeming intrigued at this new information.

"On the land of William Jasper's farm." Bobby said.

You and the older Winchester's locked eyes when you heard the exact location of where the Devil would be tonight. You shrugged your shoulders slightly as you forced yourself to give the tiniest bit of a smile, thinking this was the little fraction of optimism you needed to get through these next challenging hours. But you knew. You knew this wasn’t going to end the way you wanted.

This situation had reminded you of when you were about to go to hell, when you were trapped in your own body as Lilith took control, everything was about to get worse. You knew it was going to end. You found yourself starting to remember an old poem that Dante Alighieri had written about his character's journey through all nine circles of Hell.

Through me you pass into the city of woe: Through me you pass into eternal pain: Through me among the people lost for aye. Justice the founder of my fabric moved: To rear me was the task of Power divine, Supremest Wisdom, and primeval Love. Before me things create were none, save things Eternal, and eternal I endure. Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.

[movietvtechgeeks]

Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/ouch-supernatural-gets-emotional-twigs-twine-tasha-barnes/

Ouch! Supernatural Gets Emotional with Twigs & Twine & Tasha Barnes

Sometimes it’s downright painful being a Supernatural fan! But I don’t mean that as a complaint—this is part of what the Show has always been. Two weeks in a row that were painful is tough to take, there’s no doubt about that, but there was a lot to appreciate in this week’s episode. Even the painful was just done so well! Grudging admiration, Steve Yockey, for the writing, Richard Speight Jr., for the directing, and all the actors for conveying the pain so brilliantly. Before I do an actual recap, here are some of the reasons for my grudging admiration. First, I love when an episode is a mirror for the Winchesters. This is a tradition going back all the way to the beginning, something Kripke liked to do and made work extremely well. Sometimes the mirror is a little too large and obvious, but in this case, I didn’t think we were too pounded over the head with it – or maybe I just enjoyed the pounding. Which sounds really wrong. Max and Alicia, the witch twins, were immediately seen by fans as a mirror of Sam and Dean in their first episode. Their closeness, the way they talked at the same time and finished each other’s sentences, the way they squabbled but clearly always had each other’s backs – all of that reminded us of the Winchester brothers. Sibling pairs often are used in the show as a mirror for the brothers, so that wasn’t a surprise. It was a surprise to see them back in another episode! A very pleasant one. Even in the limited time they had onscreen in their first appearance, they made a big (and positive) impression on fans. So yay for Show listening! There were several scenes where the parallels were made explicit, including Sam quoting Dean as he tries to convince his brother to come to the aid of Max and Alicia. The call back to the pilot made me smile, and had the intended effect on Dean too. Sam: Their mom’s on a hunting trip and hasn’t been home in a week… Dean: (in the pilot): Dad’s on a hunting trip and he hasn’t been home in a few days… I know not everyone enjoys the call backs, but I really do. I do a lot of research on fandom and the psychological impact of being a fan, and one of the things that makes us feel good is the familiarity of our favorite shows. We respond emotionally to our favorite television shows differently than we respond to any old show – they have more impact, actually creating some of the same physiological  and psychological reactions that we have when we sit down with an old friend to chat over a cup of coffee or a glass of wine. So all the small nods that reinforce our familiarity with a show increase that emotional impact. The phone call that Dean makes to his mother is also a call back, to the early episode aptly titled “Home”. In that episode, one of the first times I noticed how unique this show is and how unafraid the actors were to really “go there”, Dean calls his Dad and pleads for a call back, his eyes watering and his lip wobbling as he admits he doesn’t know what to do. I can’t watch it without my eyes watering too. In this episode, Dean doesn’t get as overtly emotional—his relationship with Mary isn’t as long standing and intense as his bond with John was—but he once again pleads for her to call him back and admits that he feels “spun out” and over his head.  I’ve had many conversations with Jensen about how the emotion in those scenes is not something he has to create, it’s something that happens organically. That’s clear by the small, unconscious tells – like a hint of Ackles’ Texas twang coming out as he tries to hold back the emotion from his voice. Those little things, and the way these actors are fearless in letting their emotionality come through, are what make this show so special and so impactful. Second and relatedly; the acting. Ackles and Padalecki knocked it out of the park with their empathy for Max and his repeated, brutal losses of his family—something the Winchesters can relate to with every ounce of their being. All three of the Banes family members were also incredible--Alvina August as Tasha, Kara Royster as Alicia, and Kendrick Sampson as Max. Alvina made us love her even in a short amount of time, which meant her children’s anguish over her death was incredibly painful. Kara showed us once again Alicia’s badass bravery but also her great love for her mother and her brother. And Kendrick Sampson nearly killed me by portraying Max’s devastation so powerfully that I could feel it in my gut. And it hurt! Sometimes I love this show so damn much even as I’m sobbing on the floor scrambling for more tissues. Not sure what that says about me. The BMoL story line ran parallel to Sam and Dean’s throughout the episode, which can sometimes give me whiplash from going back and forth. In this case, director Richard Speight Jr. and writer Steve Yockey made it seamless, and actors Samantha Smith and David Haydn-Jones made it snap with tension and intrigue. There was never a second of this episode where I felt like I had a chance to catch my breath, let alone think about making a sandwich! Smith’s slowly dawning realization of the colossal mistakes she’s made, and Jones’ portrayal of Ketch’s complicated feelings for Mary losing out to his indoctrination and psychopathology were fascinating to watch. And yes, also painful! And third, some big kudos to Richard Speight for the brilliant directing and gorgeously shot scenes, Serge Ladouceur and his team for the beautiful lighting throughout, Jerry Wanek and his team for infusing the twigs and twine theme throughout the episode (even in the wallpaper!) just so we could be even more creeped out than we already were, and the special effects wizards for making those violet eyes and all the other effects look anything but cheesy. And to Lou Bollo and his team for pulling off another epic fight scene worthy of the epic fight scenes in this show that have come before. [caption id="attachment_45848" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Photo: @sleepypanda[/caption] So yeah, I really liked this episode even if “enjoyed” wouldn’t be quite the right word. Let me walk through what happened, so I can point out more of what worked and possibly a few minor quibbles (because when does a review not have quibbles??) Unless it’s a Robbie Thompson episode. Then I plead for your indulgence. The episode begins right where we left off last episode, with the boys waking up the next day and trying to figure out what the hell happened with Cas (pretty much the way I felt after the last episode too). Dean draws a line between Castiel’s profession of faith in Lucifer’s child (and presumably his decision to knock Sam and Dean out and leave them in a playground) and the things Cas has done before with good intentions—for the right reasons, as he says. If you read my last week’s review, Dean and I were clearly on the same page. Dean: Last night, I didn’t recognize him. The boys are clearly worried about Cas. Meanwhile, Sam unwraps the broken Colt – and I actually leapt up to my feet and screamed! I was so devastated by its seeming loss last week, and so ecstatic to see that the boys haven’t given up hope on her yet. Dean: Can you fix it? Sam: I hope so. Me: PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE!!!!! At first I was surprised that it wasn’t Dean trying to do the fixing, since he’s the mechanical wizard who’s always taking apart the guns and putting them back together. But I assume this isn’t exactly a mechanical problem. Go, Sammy!! We’re re-introduced to Max and Alicia, and immediately the parallel is set up with Sam and Dean. They’re bickering, lovingly, as siblings do. Max: You’re being dramatic. Hah! I just talked about that same accusation being thrown at Dean by his sibling in last week’s review. Maybe it really is a sibling thing. (Actually that accusation might have been thrown at me by my brother a time or two, come to think of it…) Sam convinces Dean to help them by quoting Dean’s way of convincing Sam in the pilot, and off they go. Before he leaves, Dean makes that poignant phone call to Mary, leaving a voice mail just as Dean did for his dad in ‘Home’. The next scene of all four siblings together is awesome. Max is already one of my favorite characters, in part because Sampson pulls off both being a powerful witch and being a charismatic person. Max is also another queer character for the show, happily announcing that he got the hot bartender’s phone number. Remember the early seasons when Dean might have been uncomfortable (and we were uncomfortable with Dean’s discomfort)? Dean and Sam join Alicia in their affectionate ribbing, and then Dean wants to do some male bonding with Max over the grenade launcher. Seems like such a small thing, but I don’t think it is. I loved that scene so much, and love Sampson’s portrayal of Max. Alicia and Sam have their own bonding moments, which I got distracted by for a few moments by Jared’s glorious hair tossed by the wind. Anyway, we find out that the twins are hunting a borrower witch, which yay for Yockey keeping canon! Alicia and Sam connect over feeling like their siblings shared a special bond with their single parent. Alicia: Magic, it’s their thing. Sam: Dean and my dad had that bond with hunting. It was also interesting to have an outsider pov on Mary from Alicia, who wryly notes that Mary “doesn’t seem like much of a hugger.” I’ll say. The foursome arrive at the place they track Tasha to, which is a beautiful Vancouver house or something standing in for a bed and breakfast. This show has ruined me for idyllic bed and breakfasts in the countryside – I’d just be waiting for someone to kill me! I need to give Yockey and Speight some love for the wine scene too. And probably Ackles, for holding his wine glass in his fist so awkwardly, making it crystal clear that Dean isn’t used to drinking wine without ever saying a word. And Sam giving his brother his own glass of wine when he goes out to grab the food from the vegan restaurant. Sam: Dean, drink. (pats his brother on the knee affectionately—again one of those small nonverbal moments that say so much, and that every single person in the fandom picks up on. And appreciates) Dean: Yes. (pours Sam’s wine into his own glass happily) That was just such a Sam ‘n Dean scene—the kind I’ve been missing so badly all season. Thank you Steve Yockey! We already know at this point that Tasha isn’t really Tasha, but I have to say, that twig doll was pretty damn real! She had all of Tasha’s memories, and she certainly seemed warm and loving and wise. I liked watching her and Dean observing Max and Alicia squabbling, both of them with such fond looks on their faces. Dean is so wistful, it hurts my heart. He loves knowing that Max and Alicia had what he and Sam never did—a loving mother with them to raise them. And you just KNOW that he’s wishing that for Sam, most of all. Oh, Dean. Where are my tissues? Tasha and Dean talk about mothers too—a theme of Season 12. Tasha on moms: You think they’re perfect, then you grow up and realize they’re just people. This was one of the few times in this episode that I scratched my head. Show is really wanting us to go down that road, I guess—of saying that Mary is imperfect because of course all of us, moms or not, are imperfect. I’ve been worried about this all season, that they took us so far in the opposite direction that it’s going to be very difficult to spin us around and make us say oh well, Mary was pretty awful to her boys but hey, no one’s perfect. Why did you make it so difficult, if that’s where you wanted us to end up, Show?? I honestly don’t know if I can go where you want me to. And it’s not because I think moms have to be perfect—god knows, I’m not, just ask my kids. But this went so far away from perfect! Moms don’t have to be perfect, but they don’t have to be callous and hurtful either. We get another nice little slice of “yes these are the Winchester brothers I know and love” when Sam returns with the takeout and motions Dean to come with him. Dean: I know that look. What’s up? Nothing more Winchester than nonverbal conversation and reminding us that’s how well they know each other. Sam and Dean check out the basement where that creepy guy emerged from as they arrived (and I forgot to say how much I adored Jared’s awkward little wave—he has so much talent for doing comedy that doesn’t get used very often! I laughed out loud and had to replay that moment a few times). Nothing funny about this scene though—they find Tasha’s dead body. That’s horrible enough, but what happens next absolutely broke me. Max sees the light on and comes down the stairs. Sam and Dean (breaking my heart in pieces) try to shield Max from seeing his mother, instinctively wanting to keep him from that unbearable pain even though of course he’ll have to know. And oh my god, Max’s face when he does see her. Kendrick Sampson acted the HELL out of that scene! Max (brokenly): I… I just… He breaks down in sobs, and so do I. Sam and Dean, watching, are clearly devastated too, remembering their own traumatic losses, including their dad. Jared and Jensen were amazing in this scene too, again with all those little seemingly inconsequential nonverbal reactions that are anything but. At separate times, each of them scrubs a hand over their face, like they can’t quite decide how much emotion to let show there. Again and again, they look at Max and then turn away, like it’s physically too painful for them to watch his pain and empathize with it so thoroughly. God, that was a hard scene to watch. And absolutely masterful –from all involved. Dean and Max confront the witch, while Alicia tries to help her “mother” and Sam gets beat up by the twig doll hotel guy. The witch needs time to do some serious exposition, so she puts Dean and Max under a spell that freezes them. Dean looks distractingly pretty during this time, so I don’t mind so much that there’s a lot of exposition going on. Max, on the other hand, looks devastated—he’s forced to actually see his mother murdered. That trauma contributes, I think, to him considering taking the witch’s deal, but Dean tries to talk him out of it. Dean: No, your mom is gone. It’s awful and it sucks but… The witch silences him, though Max does hesitate. Meanwhile, for some unknown reason nobody has told Alicia that the twig doll is not actually her mother, so she’s not much help to Sam as he gets tossed around like a ragdoll and then strangled (shades of early SPN!)  She finally comes to his aid, only to be stabbed to death by the twig doll that’s not really her mother. How heartbreaking was it that when she saw her “mom” stand up, Alicia happily said “Mom!” right before she killed her. I gasped out loud when Alicia went down, truly horrified. Dean managed to break the witch’s spell long enough to shoot her with witch killing bullets, and when she dies, the other twig dolls disintegrate. Too late to save Alicia though. Sam yells for his brother, his anguished “DEAN!” ringing down the hall. And then Kendrick Sampson destroys me all over again, as Max sees that his beloved sister is dead. It was such a call back to All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2, the scene that kept me crying for literally an entire week when Sam dies in Dean’s arms. Max has such a similar reaction, rushing to his sister’s side and leaning over her sobbing. Max: Please, no, hey hey, no no no… It’s what the Winchesters say when one of them dies too –they always say “hey, hey” when trying to talk the other one out of leaving them, so when Max said the same I totally lost it. Nobody told me I’d need THAT many tissues! Sam and Dean are thinking the same thing; they look at each other pointedly as Max cries. He sends them away, and they respect his wishes and go. In the car, Sam tries to reassure his brother that he did the right thing, that he saved Max (his soul anyway). Dean: Yeah, he seemed super saved. Dean is so sad about how things went down, saying that they had a loving family, “the kind we should have had.” Dean: Sam, we do terrible things all the time to save each other, that’s what you do for family. Who am I to stop him? That’s pretty much Supernatural in a nut shell, and it’s why I love this Show. Hearing Dean say that just made me even MORE emotional. There’s a great music cue as Max does the same, putting his sister’s heart in the twig doll and bringing it to life. Alicia’s body burns as the twins leave, twig doll Alicia as mystified about what’s happened as Sam was when Dean sold his soul to bring his brother back to life at the end of Season 2. Oh, the call backs, my heart can’t take much more of this! Meanwhile, in the second story line, Ketch is torturing what at first looks like Mary but is in fact a shape shifter. Mary is watching, and her phone rings. Mary: It’s Dean. Ketch: And?? That sets up the beginning of the end for Mary and Mr. Ketch’s unlikely romance, if you can call it that. He takes every bit as much pleasure in torture as we would have expected him to, and Mary sees that side of him for the first time-the brutal side that his charming exterior has covered up. It’s telling that Mary refers to the shifter as “he” and Ketch corrects her to “it.” That’s what the BMoL – and every torturing regime ever—does in order to be as brutal as they are. They dehumanize, see anything other as “it” so they can torture with impunity and without regret. Mary is as put off by seeing this as Dean was when he was hunting vampires with Ketch. The Winchesters can be ruthless, but most of the time (if they’re not demons at the time or whatever) they don’t take pleasure in it. Afterwards, Mary is angry. Ketch, on the other hand, wants to jump into bed and work off all that adrenaline. (Ewww). Mary shuts that down pretty quickly, and Jones does a good job showing us, again with those subtle nonverbals that all these actors excel at, that Ketch is hurt by the rejection. And for someone as ruthless as him? That is not going to be a good thing. He taunts Mary that she’d better call Dean, or “he’ll think Mommy doesn’t love him”. Ouch. On the nose there. Mary finally gets Dean’s message, and leaves Dean the voicemail she should have left him way back in Episode 2 or 3, telling him that she’s sorry she hasn’t been there for him and Sam. Mary: But I want to be. I will be. I miss you boys. I love you. Me and everyone else watching: uh oh, that sounds like the sort of voicemail people leave when the show is about to kill them off. Ketch has been careful, even sending emails as though they were from Mick so Mary won’t get suspicious. But Mary is a hunter, and she’s smart, and soon enough she finds Mick’s body in a storage container and a room full of hunters’ photos and stats that make them look like the next intended targets. Ketch tries one last lie about Mick. Ketch: An accident, with a werewolf. Mary: (incredulous) A werewolf shot him in the head? Ketch: It’s not impossible… Me: actually laughing out loud. Nice dialogue, Steve Yockey! We then get one of those epic fight scenes that Supernatural is known for, thanks to Lou Bollo’s amazing stunt choreography and the willingness of the actors to always give it their all. They throw each across the room, get in punches and kicks. Ketch is still not entirely ready to give up on her, which really says something about the effect she had on him. He says he can keep her safe, if only she plays nice. Mary: I don’t play nice. I’ll say. Mary breaks his arm and brass knuckles him in the nuts, leaving him on the floor as she walks out. Nope, not that easy! Ketch tasers her and she falls flat to the floor. Meanwhile, Dean and Sam are driving away. Sam falls asleep, leaning against the window in the passenger side while Dean drives and keeps an eye on his brother, just like in all the best fanfic. Then Dean checks his voicemails. He gets to hear the one from Mary, which I’m glad about; so often in this show, the most important voicemails never get heard. Then he hears the one that tells him to call her, that they’ve got a problem. Dean to sleeping Sam: Sam, wake up, it’s mom, something’s wrong. SAM! Me: Why is Sam not waking up??? Is something wrong with Sam? (Probably not, this was just a fitting transition to the next scene, but it worried me) We end with a splash of water on a bound Mary’s face as she comes to. Ketch: (ominously) Remember Mary, I gave you a chance. And then we see the person NONE of us ever wanted to see again (but expected nevertheless). Lady Toni (with her goddamned notebook again): Now Mary, let’s begin. [caption id="attachment_45875" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Caps by @kayb625[/caption] Talk about callbacks! This episode may not have been enjoyable—in fact it was downright painful to watch at times—but it was incredibly well done. Kudos to all—writer, director, cast, crew. I’m full of trepidation as we start careening toward the finale, but that’s just Supernatural, isn’t it? For more Supernatural, check out our new book, Family Don’t End With Blood: Cast and Fans on How Supernatural Has Changed Lives, available now here! Check out next week's Supernatural 1221 There's Something About Mary.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

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It occurred to me that we can look at the second half of AHS 6 as an example of what to expect in the show from here on. It revisited a location, characters, lore, and it was NOT a private, isolated incident. The situation spiraled uncontrollably into the public eye and concluded in a MASSIVE public incident.

This is a good point Anon, and it could be a canon explanation for why there were only ten episodes instead of thirteen*, since the first five represented seasons 1-5 and the second five represented 6-10**, he might have wanted it to be an even half-past-seasons, half-future-seasons

*We know the real life explanation is most likely because Ryan Murphy had alot less time to work, with him having done The People VS O.J. Simpson in 2016 and him starting to work on Feud: Bette & Joan in 2016 as well, the fact that Sarah Paulson was also doing O.J. probably influenced it too

**Technically, we could also look at episodes 6-10 being seasons 7-11, because it’s questionable weather or not season six should count as it’s own plot, in fact that was my original thought, but because of what episode six was, I decided season six probably IS representing it’s self in episode six

It’s important to note before we start that it was recently stated that, wile season seven’s theme has been completely decided, seasons eight and nine “Are still being hammered out”, and anything that MIGHT represent eight and nine is up for either changing, modifying, or elimminating completely, I’m sure Murphy has a few vague ideas set up but they’re probably not developed well enough for definitive information yet

Let’s look into some things that happened in episodes 6-10 that could possibly be references to future seasons:

Chapter Six: I’m starting here so I can explain why I think this is meant to represent season six, episode six was the big reveal, showing us what the rest of the season’s format would be, revealing to us that only one person gets out alive, revealing who the actors actually are and what really happened between the real people (IE: Shelby and Matt splitting) and finally reveiwing some of what had happened earlier in season six (The nurses killing Rory and completing “Murder” for example, going back to the house for the first time during the blood moon, starting a new TV series etc) If there is a way to reveiw a show half-way through and give hints to the theme/plot of the rest of the season wile keeping it part of the actual show (IE: Not making it a clip show)? Then Chapter Six is hands down the way to do it

Chapter Seven: This is where the majority of our themes are going to come from, and they include:

-Cannabilism-Inbred hillbillies (I cannot think of a polite way to say that)-Infidelity-Alchoholism-The Woods-Insanity/becoming someone else-Witches-Ghosts-Rage*

Of these, the following have NEVER been explored on AHS before:

-Cannabilism-Inbred hillbillies-The Woods

The following could easily be references to past seasons (Again) OR could be repeated in future seasons

-Infidelity (season one)-Alchoholism (season two)-Insanity/becoming someone else (season two)**-Witches (season three)-Ghosts (seasons one and five)

The thing is, that these are all themes that are shaded in other seasons as well as the ones they’re featured primarily in, take ghosts for example, they may be a major theme of seasons one and five but they also appear in season four (Edward Mordrake), witches may be primarily season three’s property but Queenie comes into season five for a stint, insanity may be primarily featured in season two but it plays into other seasons as well, such as Pepper’s backstory in season four, etc etc, so they might still come in to play later but because they ARE old themes they’re really on the fence

*I don’t know how to describe this, but there was alot of blind anger in this episode, Shelley, who is usually pretty quiet and stable, flies into a murderous rage and brutally murders Matt, that stands out as being massively unique to me for some reason, I just don’t know how better to describe it…

**I specifically stated “becoming someone else” because Agnes’ psychosis is specifically related to becoming the Butcher, season two shows alot of people “becoming” other people, from Judy becoming Sister Jude (a transformation, albeit not one caused by insanity or becoming an actual different identity) to Ann Frank being labotimized into becoming a docile housewife, it’s pretty prominant

Chapter Eight: There really aren’t any unique themes in this episode, I’m afraid, the only ones that are different from Chapter Seven are:

-Japanese horror-The Piggy Man-Suicide-Wrongfull blame

We know The Piggy Man is a reference to season one, and wrongfull blame is a pretty common theme throughout AHS (Kit in season two, Pepper in season four, The Geep in season four, etc etc etc) so I’m not sure that either of those are going to play into season eight, thus the only two new themes are have are Japanese horror and *intentional* suicide

Chapter Nine: Chapter Nine only has a few themes, but they’re very very unique, potentially very telling themes, and virtually none of them have been done before, they are:

-Found Footage-Possession-Police involvement

Possession has obviously been a big theme before, namely in seasons two and five, police involvement was prominant in season five, but that still leaves us with “Found footage”

Chapter Ten: The last episode has the least themes overall and especially the least unique ones, wich makes sense, if this is going in order then it’s obvious why each episode has less information than the last, the later the season, the least likely it is to be fully developed, but that doesn’t mean that what we have isn’t worth mentioning, our themes are:

-Reality TV-Court-Interveiws-Ghost hunters-Children-Sacrifice

Obviously reality TV has been a theme before, mostly in season six but also in season five (Billie Dean’s show) and interveiws have been a theme too (seasons two, three, five, and six, all featuring Sarah Paulson by the way) children (mostly seasons one and five, but arguably every season has a relation to childen in some way) sacrifice has also been featured in the past, most noteably in season four where it was a primary theme

So to boil it down, the themes we have that are most likely to play into future seasons are as follows:

Season Seven- Cannabilism, inbred hillbillies, the woodsSeason Eight- Japanese horror, intentional suicideSeason Nine- Found footageSeason Ten- Court, ghost hunters

So far, all we know about the future of AHS for sure are these facts:

-Seasons seven, eight, and nine are already greenlit and will air in 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively-Season seven will begin in September-Season seven’s theme is set to remain a secret like Roanoke-Season seven will be “connected to Freak Show but set in the modern day”-Season seven will feature Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters-Ryan Murphy announced that there will be a season that’s a “Coven and Murder House crossover” but that it is NOT season seven-A teaser was released for season seven in November that featured ocean waves and a flash to the stick dolls with “Sweet Dreams” written over it, a scream heard in the background, and the caption “The monsters are all gone” beneath it

Let’s start with season seven:

Everyone assumes “The monsters are all gone” is sarcastic or a lie, but… what if it isn’t? What if season seven, like seasons two and four, are more about HUMAN threats instead of monsters? After all, we know that this season is connected to Freak Show, the only non-human creature in the entire season of Freak Show was Edward Mordrake, who was a ghost of another freak, add to that what we have in terms of themes for episode seven of Roanoke, wich are: Cannbalism, inbred hillbillies, the woods

In addition, a very interesting matter, Freak Show took place in Florida, wich is near the ocean (thus the “Sweet Dreams” teaser)

Based on this, we have a potential theory for season seven:

Taking place in or around Jupiter Florida, our charectors include the next generation of freaks (Jimmy and the Tattler Twins’ child(ren) perhaps, or maybe Dandy isn’t the last Mott after all? Or, ofcourse, there might not be any blood relations at all to the people of season four, they might just be a new generation who don’t know about Elsa’s cabinet, or who were even inspired by them) as well as the child(ren) inbred through generations of hillbillies who may hunt the freaks… or join them, and a cannibal (or a community of cannibals maybe) who want to kill and eat the freaks due to having a taste for human oddities, wich is a creepier twist on the collection aspect of season four

The woods could just be where the cast is mostly going to be located, but the reason I keep mentioning The Woods as a theme is because it’s a classic horror movie trope, something being “in the woods”, the only problem with this that I have is usually the “something” in the woods is supernatural, and specifically, in Roanoke, the “something” is indeed some sort of ghosts/monsters (I don’t honestly remember if we were shown what attacked Audrey and Lee in episode seven) If season seven is about human monsters then this doesn’t fit

Obviously we don’t have enough to go on for the other seasons yet, but…

Season eight could include intentional suicide and Japanese horror, the latter of wich I’m REALLY excited about, can you imagine an entire season of stuff like the Chens? Creepy movement, strange animal sounds, weird and terrifying urban legends… I’m in love (plus it could be a good chance for there to be some more diversity for the mains of a season *cough*)

Season nine could be a found footage thing- and why I bring this up is because I’m talking specifically about the Blair Witch kind of found footage, amatuar stuff, not the reality TV stuff wich we keep seeing, a Blair Witch kind of thing could really be interesting and could easily involve the police too (even though we’ve already seen that before, we haven’t seen it MUCH and it could come out to play as a more prominant theme later)

Season ten gives us court and ghost hunting wich is obviously a weird combination, and to be honest? I’m not sure they could be connected, if they are, I feel like one would be ALOT more prominant than the other… but wich one?

Anyway, this gives me alot to think about Anon, I wish we had a little more info from the episodes theme wise but I realize also that any plans for seasons eight and beyond, at this point, are so loose that giving more info would be unreasonable of them, as unfortunate as that is