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hippychick006 · 6 years

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SPN Analysis - Season 4

SPN Analysis – Season 4

In relation to This Post, I’ve finally completed Season 4. I also made separate posts on each episode of Season 4 and it’s clear that although there are a couple of weaker episodes, there were no outright clunkers, and the majority of the individual episodes were very good. So why don’t I love the season overall?

1) For me (as you’ll see in the analysis), it was the start of the myth arc outweighing and overpowering the original MOTW concept – road tripping, investigating urban myths and legends. If I was to top 20 all Supernatural episodes, I’d be surprised if at least 90% of them weren’t MOTW format with a nod to the myth arc. Classic supernatural for me, will always be seasons 1-3 and those are my favourite seasons with season 1-3 style episodes like Baby, Regarding Dean and Red Meat joining them. Just personal preference and what drew me in to the show in the first place. This is the biggest reason why I’m struggling with Dabb, but we’ll come onto his seasons later.

2) What I struggled with more than this though, was the overall myth arc of Season 4 and where we ended up. I don’t mind brother angst, I don’t mind Sam going dark side, I don’t mind him drinking demon blood and being ultimately wrong in killing Lilith as the last seal (since Dean unknowingly broke the first seal). What I don’t like is what Season 4 led to, which is the narrative that Sam is constantly blamed by everyone for starting the apocalypse. I don’t like that Heaven’s betrayal was softened by Castiel’s last minute defection which unbalances the season (at least for me) and Sam’s character comes off even worse than it should because of it.

Any detailed notes explaining reasoning, I’ve put under the cut so as not to take up your dash.

Monster of the Week v Myth arc Episodes: 13 MOTW v 9 Myth arc.

4.01 (Lazarus Rising), 4.03 (In the Beginning), 4.09 (I know what you did last Summer), 4.10 (Heaven and Hell) 4.16 (On the head of a pin), 4.18 (Monster at the end of this book), 14.20 (The Rapture). 4.21 (When the levee breaks) and 4.22 (Lucifer rising) were Myth arc. A few were debatable including 4.17 (It’s a terrible life), but since Zachariah says that Sam and Dean were in their real world (with only their memories changed) and that it was a real case, a real haunting with real people affected, I put it under MOTW. Some of the other cases were stopping the breaking of one of the seals which relates directly to the overall myth arc but were enough of a case to put it in the MOTW category rather than myth arc – e.g. 4.02 (Are you there, God, it’s me Dean Winchester).

Wannabe Hunters: 0 (See Note 1)

Ship Pandering: 0 (See Note 2)

Fan Pandering: 0 (See Note 3)

Someone is called “Family”: 2 (See Note 4)

Death having no meaning: 0 (See Note 5)

Sidekick status Updates: 0

I specifically checked on Bobby and there are no mentions of what he’s up to unless he actually appears in the episode. Castiel is not mentioned unless he’s in the episode.

Sam or Dean dumbed down: 2 (See Note 6)

Retcon

Bobby’s narrative changing over time to be that of a father figure

Mary being a hunter and making a deal

One more point I’m going to make on Season 4 is that whenever anyone complains about Season 14 being Sam and/or Dean light or that they aren’t hunting together, or that they are focusing on something that isn’t Sam or Dean (e.g. the Nick storyline), we’ve been told that the show has done this before. And I agree, to a very minor degree they have. Season 4 is an example of this, the brothers were sometimes separated, either working on their own or with other people but re-watching just hits home the difference. If you have decent writing, coupled with decent characters with backstory you get invested in, and decent actors that portray them, you don’t notice because you are completely drawn in to the story. That contrasts sharply with Dabb era where at least 2 out of the 3 (and sometimes all 3 elements) are missing.

Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3 if you missed them are here.

Note 1: Wannabe Hunters

4.17 (It’s a terrible life). The ghost facers are back and appear to have moved on from being paranormal investigators to ghost hunters. They’ve produced an instructional video which newbie hunters Dean Smith and Sam Wesson find extremely useful in their first ghost hunt. The whole dialogue (for me at least) is funny and we were never meant to take the ghost facers seriously. They are just there for comic relief and it’s very much played as two idiots that accidently stumbled into the supernatural world and are very lucky they haven’t been killed yet. They are there to show that people that don’t know what they are doing should not be anywhere near a hunt. They aren’t ever shown to be better than the Winchesters - even in the instructional video, they keep saying they learned things from the douchebag Winchesters, so still score of 0 for wannabe hunters.

Note 2 Ship Pandering

I decided to do a full re-watch specifically for the purpose of watching Cas and Dean scenes through shipper eyes and I’m not seeing or hearing anything I would call ship pandering. They aren’t even friendly with one another. There were no lines of dialogue you could call ship pandering, nor moments between them that were deliberately put in to feed shippers. I don’t see anything for any ship that’s been put in there to deliberately pander.

Note 3: Fan Pandering

There was no fan pandering of characters (e.g. Cass is pretty). It’s not clear whether there were any amendments to the original role of characters following fan reaction to them. On rewatch, I’m actually inclined to say not, but if anyone has any evidence saying otherwise, I’d love to hear it.

In terms of Castiel, he was in the first three episodes, all of which would have completed filming before the first of them aired. By the time the first episode aired, scripts for later episodes would already have been in progress, so I’m inclined to assume his next appearances in 7, 9 and 10 were already planned. Which makes sense as his role throughout the season was to act as a conduit between Dean and Heaven, a single point of contact that tells Dean about the breaking of the seals and Dean’s purpose.

Anna does not appear until 4.09 and she disappears at the end of 4.10. Both episodes would have been completed before either episode aired. So again, Anna disappearing is not anything to do with fan reaction. It was planned. Neither she nor Castiel appear again after 4.10 until 4.15. On rewatch, Anna’s purpose appears more than anything else, to be to drive Castiel’s defection.

The only thing I’m not clear on is whether Castiel was supposed to die in 4.22 and not come back in 5.01, because that would actually have been an amazing sacrifice. I’ll come back to this after Season 5.

Note 4: Someone is called “family”

There are 2 instances of the retconning of Bobby to be more than he was originally written:

4.01 (Lazarus rising). Dean to Bobby trying to convince him he’s not a demon. “You’re about the closest thing I have to a father.”

4.21 (when the levee breaks). Continues the changing of Bobby narrative when he says to Dean during Sam’s detox in the panic room, “Look, I know you hate me for suggesting it, I hate me for suggesting it. I love that boy like a son.

Note 5: Death having no meaning

In 4.02 (Are you there, God, it’s me Dean Winchester), Henriksen, Meg and Ronald Resnik all return. They appear as spirits as part of the breaking of the 66 seals, so not alive, still dead and it was a clever way to see them again without cheapening death. Particularly Ronald, because no doubt he’d be a “fan favourite” with the writers now and someone the Winchesters go to for advice on hunting.

In 4.03 (In the Beginning), Dean is sent back in time and he meets his young parents before they were married. Still dead in Dean’s timeline.

In 4.08 Sam dies briefly due to a wish, which is reversed minutes later.

In 4.21 Mary and Alastair appear, but they are all hallucinations in Sam’s mind when he’s going through blood detox. Still dead as doorknobs.

If I’ve missed any, let me know.

Note 6: Sam and Dean are dumbed down

Okay, not counting putting salt down in rooms with windows:

4:12 - They turn their back on a magician who is tied up to have a conversation and unsurprisingly, the magician escapes the ropes and disappears. I have no issue that he’s capable of slipping the ropes, given the kind of act he has. I do have an issue with Sam and Dean taking their eyes off him. In Dean’s words: “Guess we should have seen that one coming.” Also, they didn’t search the room for him.

4.20 – They should probably have tested Amelia for being a demon prior to letting her go with her daughter. I was going to let it slide, but nope.

#spn analysis #spn critical

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semirahrose · 6 years

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There was a torturing scene in 13x22. Cas and Dean was torturing a soldire. Many viewers thought that was “cool”. I recalled another torturing scene from 10x03, which was Sam torturing a crossroad demon. At least I couldn’t find anyone who thinks that scene was cool. What would be the difference? Those are the same torturing scene, but one is accused, and the other is okay like it’s no big deal. Sam was in a desperate position. (1/3)

Why would Sam’s motive was ignored and only his brutal action was emphasized? This show chose to accuse Sam. I wonder why they don’t put the same standard to other characters. There are also some dramaturgic difference between demon Dean and soulless Sam. When demon Dean hits someone, they put lively rock music behind and make the scene very thrilling.(10x02) When it comes to soulless Sam, it was never like that.(6x13) (2/3)

Wouldn’t this be a double standard? How come Dean could be a badass while Sam is only ruthless, despite the same violence? Would it be only me who have this inquiry? I would like to listen to your opinion. (3/3)

You are, of course, absolutely correct. The way the show handles Sam’s premeditated violence is completely different from the way it handles Dean’s, or, in some cases, even Castiel’s.

On one hand, it’s absolutely a horrible double standard, and it disgusts me. We saw something very similar in season 13 when it came to Sam and Dean’s expressions of grief. Dean started the season belittling, threatening, and overall being absolutely terrifying to Jack. His accusations and cruelty were significant factors in Jack taking a kitchen knife and attempting to kill himself.

Then again, the show has spent literally 13 whole seasons showing us how unhealthily Dean reacts to loss. He lashed out physically at Sam in season 2 after John’s death. This is not entirely unexpected, and the show doesn’t really hold Dean accountable for his actions. After all, he is grieving. Dean is hurting, too. In fact, fans often see such violence and jump straight to, “Dean must be suffering. Poor Dean!” And while they’re likely correct that Dean is dealing with some sort of emotional turmoil or loss, the way the show deals with his violence means that viewers thoughtlessly excuse it. I’m not saying that fans are not allowed to feel bad for Dean or love him despite his hurtful and unhealthy coping mechanisms. I would, however, appreciate if the show had a more nuanced handling of it. It’s entirely okay to feel sympathy for a character’s bereavement while understanding that the way they react to it is Not Good At All™.

Unfortunately, the way the show deals with violence doesn’t work well for Sam. Where, for Dean, the handling of violence or emotional outbursts has historically been permissive and sympathetic, it’s the exact opposite for Sam. The writers made sure we were worried for Sam’s humanity in the early seasons. We viewed every action with suspicion, even his kindness. Sam is a gentle, caring person, so it was very, very easy for the show to make us suspicious. From the beginning, Sam cared. He was so kind and so emotionally invested in things that he literally only had to do something a tinge less than saintly and we’d be cautious. Oh, wow! Sam did a thing that Dean does every day? Must be going evil.

Soulless!Sam is such a good example of this, and I’m so glad you brought him up. Rewatching season six with a critical eye, it’s hard not to notice that…. objectively, Soulless!Sam was still miles more principled than almost any other hunter in the early seasons. He was pragmatic and direct, but not actively malicious, yet his personality was such a huge departure from his usual self that it set all the alarm bells ringing. (By god, Sam gave his brother a hug but didn’t express enough emotion while doing so?! MUST BE E V I L.)

Sam has good, cheerful, consensual sex with a sex worker who enjoyed the experience so much she forgets she’s working? BUT BY GOLLY Sam didn’t profess his undying love and put a ring on her finger?!

MUST BE E V I L.

If Dean did almost anything Soulless!Sam did, viewers would either excuse it or wouldn’t even think twice. But because it was so unthinkable for Sam to do those things, viewers sat up and took notice of even the slightest indication of apathy or lack of consideration.

So I mean… part of it is just Sam’s natural goodness working against him.

He’s so kind, principled, and serious about his moral code that any departure, no matter how small, is alarming. In contrast, Dean started out as the “unprincipled rogue” who had more or less adopted John’s credo and methods without critically examining them. Sam was the show’s conscience, and viewers held him to a much higher standard because of it.

Part of it, of course, was that the early seasons were actively vilifying Sam. Sam bleeds a nurse to get the juice to take on Lilith? Absolutely horrible, a literal point of no return. Dean is also killing human vessels without a care in the very same season and helps drain possessed humans a season later? Perfectly all right, if the way the show handled it is any indication.

It’s partly understandable (it’s clear that having that tension about the state of Sam’s soul was important to the writers, and the stronger reactions to Sam’s violence are understandable because it takes a lot more for Sam to act out in anger than it takes for Dean to do the same), but as the seasons go on, and especially as they go on without any balance or nuanced portrayal of the brothers’ violence, it just becomes lazy writing. It got so bad during the MoC arc that it was literally painful to watch the show week by week. I think anyone who lived through it can share horror stories. The Sam hate was unimaginable.

So in season 10, when Sam tortured the demon, it was a shock because he isn’t the type to do that. (Except, if we look back at any time Sam has lost Dean, desperation, suicidal action, and ruthlessness are par for the course.) Meanwhile, Demon!Dean murdered gleefully and people cheered that Dean was finally getting to let go. And in season 13, when Dean’s thoughtless cruelty over the course of several episodes made Jack question his worth and attempt to end his own life, there was little backlash.

In contrast, when Sam, overcome with emotion, said to a grief counselor that he felt that Dean had more of a relationship with Mary, I can’t even tell you how many posts I saw belittling Sam for that single, 15-second expression of his pain.

It’s a double standard, yes, but it’s a double standard the show has nurtured since its inception, either accidentally or on purpose.

#wank for ts #bittersamgirlclub #spn meta #sam winchester #spnsamwinchester #gonna tag #dean negative #though not really?#and #fandom critical #double standards #narrative bias #my meta #my stuff #anonymous #semirah replies #THANK YOU anon you are absolutely amazing thanks for sharing your analysis!

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whiteclericmaris · 2 years

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Having been to a Hospital multiple times, it is kinda unnerving even though I understand that Yuya and his friends kept their clothes for easy recognition. You'd think the cops would have them change clothes like the other inmates in the facility.

#text #maris rewatches arc v

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cdyssey · 6 years

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Once Rewatch: Snow Falls, 1x03

“You’re a... girl?!”

“Woman.”

And then she clocks David upside the face with a big rock.

Now this is start of a beautiful pair. :’)

Omg, I’d forgotten that MM had gone on a date with Whale.

Talk about awkward.

Hm, I also think I’ll do some Whale analysis here as well. He’s arrogant, misogynistic, and kind of spineless when it comes to dealing with forces more powerful than himself. I think this is a great interpretation of source material, lol.

Bc if we’re being honest here, Victor Frankenstein is a whiny college dropout, a prototypical incel who probably passed biology but severely failed ethics.

I’m not crying—there’s just some Snowing in my eye.

On a related note, Isham’s swelling score is particularly powerful here; he amps up the suspense perfectly.

I love Once’s retcon of the name Prince Charming; it works so much better as an ironic moniker.

Snow: “True love? It doesn’t exist. It’s all arranged marriages and business transactions.” (1) So in my writeup on the pilot, I wrote something to the effect that Snow is less vulnerable to optimism than David is, that she’s long been disillusioned about the possibility for happy endings. I think this quote backs that sentiment up quite nicely. (2) I know A&E probably haven’t figured out the logistics of Regina and Leopold by this point, but even still, this quote very well applies to their farce of a marriage. (Snow’s cognition and/or ignorance of this is such a rich place to explore in fic.)

Emma (talking about Regina): Where does she think you are anyway?

Henry: Playing Whack-a-Mole.

Emma: And she bought that?

Henry: She wants to believe it, so she does.

This exchange is funny but also purty revealing, even if Henry doesn’t quite know it. Regina desperately wants things between them to return back to normal, so when Henry tells her that he’s off doing something normal, that he’s returning to his old habits of playing games and having fun and not becoming Storybooke’s new junior sleuth, she’s more than ready to take his word at face value.

Side-by-side, Ginny and Jared look so much alike, and I love that. <3 They also share a buoyant, youthful kind of energy when they play off each other. So I hereby headcanon that Snow and Henry, post-uh-everything, are always going out on mini-adventures together. With their combined imaginations and mutual penchants for curiosity, this grandmother-grandson can make even the most mundane of grocery runs into something like a hunt for buried treasure.

Regina: “Now you’re lying to me?” A simple question which cues us in on lying being a v. new trait that has surfaced in Henry. The psychology of it is pretty logical. She lied to him, and now he’s reciprocating the favor, both of them unable to trust each other at this point.

So Regina says that she found David lying on the side of the road somewhere and that she brought him to the hospital. Whale supports this statement and claims that she saved his life by this act. Assuming that this is true, then I’m reminded of that popular meta which essentially proposed that the Evil Queen rarely, if ever, made a move that would deeply or permanently harm Snow. Theoretically, Regina could have left him on the side of the road to die, could have dealt Snow an irreparable amount of damage without so much as lifting a finger... but she didn’t. #SnowQueen

“Enjoy my shirt... because that’s all you’re getting.” SJKhdsha.

I like to think that Emma kept the shirt, and every once and while, she pulls it on just so she can mock a v. embarrassed Regina. “Hey, Regina, what was it you said to me again? You know, back when you wore a lot of dark eyeliner and had a giant stick up your—” “Oh, shut up, Miss Swan.”

Lolol, I love how Storybrooke’s hospital is apparently bordered by the woods. That’s some reaaaaally safe architectural planning there.

Snow wants to go somewhere “isolated, where she can never get hurt,” and in the context of the entire show, I hurt to fully comprehend that Snow’s young life was a hellhole. Her parents were killed, she’s forced out of her kingdom and into exile by a vengeful witch, and now, as a bandit, her existence, for all its flux, is constantly defined by paranoia and fear and cynicism and... well... guilt.

In the grand scheme of things, I think we sometimes forget about Snow.

How much she’s endured.

How much she’s suffered.

Snow: She blames me for ruining her life.

David: Did you?

Snow: [Pausing, thinking, her voice hard and wistful.] Yes.

This is a great beat because it further emphasizes that this isn’t your Disneyfied version of Snow White and the Evil Queen.

There’s no such thing as black and white morality in the world of Once Upon A Time.

The Evil Queen wasn’t always evil.

Snow White was not always as pure as the color of her name.

It’s complicated.

They both are.

MM: “Henry told me that you were from a similar situation to his own?” Honestly, beyond the fact that they were both adopted, I don’t think comparing Henry and Emma’s situations is exactly... apt. Emma bounced around from foster home to foster home and had to deal with the fact that she was ‘abandoned’ by her parents. Henry was given up by Emma to receive his best possible chance at life, and accordingly, he grew up in a mansion with a—as we’ll come to find out—loving mother.

But, lol, that’s not the point the show’s trying to make here. Point is, Emma is a lost kid, and she’s trying so hard to make sure that Henry doesn’t end up being one as well. Plus, it’s heartbreakingly ironic that the very person she’s been trying to find is standing right next to her.

Oh, Kathryn, you have a v. painful arc coming up.

You know, had I been in the OUAT fandom when Ginny and Josh announced that they were together, that would have been the end of me.

The chemistry between these two is incomparable.

Like, I know it’s for the aesthetic™, but this bag is so impractical for the life Snow lives, lololol.

Had to include these iconic lines.

Regina: We’ll talk about your insubordination later. Do you know what insubordination means?

Henry: [Shakes his head.]

Regina: It means you’re grounded.

Good God—Kathryn’s fake backstory is so intricate and moving. (Also, I love Anastasia Griffith. She really portrays the duality of Abigail/Kathryn well.)

“Because all of this has reminded me of something, oh, so very important... how grateful I am to have Henry.”

“Because not having somebody... well, that’s the worst curse imaginable.”

Lana Parrilla has no right giving such a nuanced performance of what should have been a one-dimension villain.

But that’s why we love her.

Over the course of the seasons, we learned that the curse backfired on Regina. Sure, everyone was miserable, but so was she... and at least her victims weren’t even cognizant of the fact that they were cursed. Heck, in that sense, they had it better than she did.

So in exacting her perfect revenge, Regina only deepened the void inside of her, drove herself to an emptiness like no other she has felt before.

By the time Greg and Owen showed up, it was nearly unbearable.

And then... she adopted Henry.

And suddenly, she wasn’t alone anymore.

Without Henry, her life is but a void, an emptiness, a nothingness of her own design, and right now, Emma Swan is a perceived threat to the tenuous solace she has carved out for herself these past ten years.

What Regina doesn’t understand is that she’s the real threat.

She’s the one who is ultimately pushing Henry away.

Okay, y’all aren’t allowed to make eye-contact anymore. 😭

:’)

I think I can safely say that “Snow Falls” is one of the most tightly written and acted episodes in the series. On an architectural level, the dialogue parallels were especially poignant, and the sentimental moments were well chosen. For instance, concluding the episode on this sweet, tender moment between Emma and Mary Margaret is an expert choice that ameliorates the Snowing pathos we’re currently feeling. Theatrically, it’s the little nuances that make “Snow Falls” so great: JMO’s uncomfortable vulnerability as Emma talks about her history with MM, the mutual attractions of Snow and David that surface in meaningful glances expertly affected by Ginny and Josh, the softnesses Lana and Anastasia imbue their hardened characters with.

Just really wonderful stuff all around.

#sorry I was late with this one #work... is... exhausting #i really want to try to write tomorrow #watching fairytales #reginianwrites #s: ouat #once upon a time

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typingtess · 7 years

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NCIS: Los Angeles Season Eight Rewatch: "Glasnost"

The basics: The poisoning of a woman in Studio City brings Garrison to America and Callen a big surprise. Kensi continues to improve.

Written by: Andrew Bartels wrote or co-wrote “Allegiance”, “Zero Days”, “The Grey Man”, “Humbug”, “Fighting Shadows”, “Driving Miss Diaz”, “Angels & Daemons” and “Where There’s Smoke…”

Directed by: John Peter Kousakis directed “Imposters”, “Sacrifice”, “San Voir” part one, “The Fifth Man”, “Parley”, “Inelegant Heart”, “Chernoff, K.”, “Active Measures”, “The Long Goodbye”, “Talion”, all of the Afghanistan scenes from “Iron Curtain Rising” to “Zero Days” in season five and all of Kensi’s injury/recovery storyline scenes from “Queens Gambit” to “Sirens” (the next episode) in season eight.

Guest stars of note: Daniel J. Travanti is back from "Matryoshka" Part Two as Garrison, Vyto Ruginis was last seen uncomfortably sitting in Hetty's Jag in "Exchange Rate" as Arkady Kolcheck, India de Beaufort as Alexandra (Alex), Joan Severance as Mary Reynolds/Katerina Polunin, Anthony Hill as Waiter/Jason, Kurt Yaeger is in his second consecutive episode as Sullivan, Tom Choi is back from season four's "Drive" as LAPD Officer Fong, Ward Roberts returns from "Matryoshka" Part Two as Artem Fedor the Los Angeles based Russian who Arkaday's protégé wanted arrested, Tristen MacDonald finishes her three-episode arc as Kensi's therapist Emily Janderman, Zoran Radanovich as Assassin, David Storrs as Vagrant/Calvin Stokes and Meredeth Giangrande as Young Tan Woman/Dawn.

Our heroes: See the return of Callen's Russian side of the family – and a growing family it is – while Kensi's rehab continues with notable improvements and frustrations.

What important things did we learn about:

Callen: Is Uncle Callen in a way he never expected. Sam: Just thrilled to have Arkady back. Kensi: Has moved up to light jogging and fine motor skills. Deeks: Admits to Callen and Sam that Eric saved him and was great in the field. Eric: Saved Deeks. Nell: Running the morning briefing alone – no Eric, Hetty or Granger. Granger: Out of the office all day. Hetty: Freed Garrison.

What not so important things did we learn about:

Callen: Dropping Russian in two straight episodes. Sam: Cooked three turkeys, half a ton of mashed potatoes and enough gravy to drown a horse for Thanksgiving one year. Kensi: Having Thanksgiving with Deeks, Julia and Roberta – "fun." Deeks: Would love to talk about CrossFit even though he hates CrossFit. Eric: Wrote a 17-page profile on his first arrest subject. Nell: Inside today. Granger: Sent Eric in the field to avoid reading his 17-page profile. Hetty: Worried about Granger.

Who's down with OTP: Deeks was great with a feisty then frustrated Kensi as her rehab continues. Hetty is worried about Granger.

Who's down with BrOTP: The Callen-Sam-Kensi scene is wonderful. The series started with Callen returning from an injury, now he's there to help Kensi bounce back. Callen is a guest at Sam's Thanksgiving, Kensi is offered a seat. Once again, Eric is Kensi's biggest champion – this time to a weary Deeks.

Any Hanna family mentions: All about Thanksgiving at the Hannas this year.

Fashion review: A blue/grey plaid button down shirt for Callen with a nice black leather jacket. Brown henley for Sam with a grey jacket. A lovely eggplant zip-up hoodie for Kensi over a dark tee-shirt with a scoop neckline and multicolored grey capri workout tights at PT. At home, she’s in a red v-nek tee with a white undershirt and a pair of blue shorts.

Deeks is in his light grey sweatshirt and darker grey field jacket. A medium blue tee-shirt for field Eric under a dark blue, ribbed, zip-up sweater and long, tan pants. A dress with a multicolor floral print on a black background with a black blazer for Nell. Granger is in a medium blue suit with a pale blue dress shirt. Brown pinstripe suit for Hetty.

Muted tones for the men today.

Music: None.

Any notable cut scene: None.

Quote: Deeks: "Could be grabbing coffee, picking up laundry, or, God forbid, doing CrossFit." Eric: "Didn't you do CrossFit?" Deeks: "That was Kensi, but she talked about it so much it made me feel like I did it." Eric: "Hmm, first rule of CrossFit, always talk about CrossFit." Deeks: "Exactly. Now I'd give anything for her to be talking about that again." Eric: "Kensi will be back in the field. I'm sure of it." Deeks (absently): "Thanks, man." Eric: "No, Deeks. I'm serious. You know how I know Kensi will be back in the field? Because I'm in the field. I mean, if you had said that I'd be out here in-interrogating people and throwing grenades, carrying a gun" (Eric shows his weapon) Deeks: "Okay, easy, partner. Put the gun, put the gun away." Eric: "If you had said that three years ago, I would have said, "Impossible." But you guys, you helped me. You supported me. That's what you're doing for Kensi. So, yeah she'll be back." Deeks (sincerely): "Thank you.”

Anything else: Lots of previouslys to start the episode – Callen learning his Mom worked for the CIA and Hetty was her handler. Our friend Arkady (miss you, man) meeting his protégé Volkoff in Moscow, FlashBang Beale making an arrest. The real Hannah Larson telling Callen about Amy. Garrison promising to tell Callen everything.

At a nice outdoor bakery, Mary Reynolds is getting her some coffee and a Danish. And a smoke. Jason the waiter thought she quit. She keeps promising to quit and Jason wants her to – she is his favorite customer. A homeless man asks for spare change. When she offers a few quarters, he takes offense. The homeless man wants real cash. Jason rushes to Mary's side. While he is pushing the homeless man away from Mary, a man with tattoos on his fingers takes Mary's cigarettes and leaves behind a pack of the same brand. Mary is shaken by the homeless man's aggressive panhandling. Jason tells Mary breakfast is on the house but she's really unsettled. She stands and lights a cigarette.

In the outside tables area of the hospital, Kensi is hanging out with Callen and Sam. Callen is mocking Sam's overdoing it at Thanksgiving and being in a tryptophan coma for two days. Kensi is laughing. Sam thinks Callen was actually hungover and offers Kensi Callen's spot at the Hanna family Thanksgiving. Kensi passes – she's having a small dinner with Deeks, Julia and Robert – "fun" she says without really meaning it. Kensi is in a good mood, just seems like too much of the Moms right there (nice foreshadowing for “Sirens). Sam thinks Thanksgiving with the Moms is nice. Callen says It wouldn't be a Hanna Thanksgiving without "Uncle Callen".

Kensi tells the guys she misses hanging with them – misses them. And if she is going to get back to them, she has to go to therapy. Kensi stands on her own and hugs Callen, though her left hand is still not really functioning. Sam gets a fist-bump with the good hand. Kensi walks away on her own with a small limp.

Up in Ops, Callen and Sam are shown the mug shot of the criminal Arkady's protégé Pavel Volkoff wanted arrested – Artem Fedor – for help getting Arkady out of jail. Nell tells Callen and Sam that Fedor is willing to talk for transfer to a minimum security. Fedor has information on a planned assassination of a dialogue coach from Studio City, Mary Reynolds. Callen and Sam are skeptical until Nell tells them Reynolds has been in the hospital for four days with a mystery illness and now is being tested for poison. Granger, who is not present, wants Callen and Sam to check out Reynolds. Sam is surprised they're not talking to Fedor but Nell tells them Granger sent Deeks and Eric. That is a bigger surprise to Callen and Sam. Nell says Eric was involved in the original arrest – something Sam notes was throwing a flashbang grenade at Fedor, "it's not like he wrote a profile on the guy," Nell says Eric did – 17-pages long. By page five, Granger just sent him. With Fedor in prison, Callen wonders how much trouble can Eric really get into.

Deeks is being very solicitous to Fedor during his interrogation. Eric is a tad aggressive but comes off silly. When Fedor doesn't remember Eric, Eric pulls out a flashbang canister. Deeks pulls him away from Fedor and wants to know what Eric is doing. Eric explains it fake – he has jellybeans inside. In his profile, Eric believes Fedor will be more likely to cooperate if he is being intimidated. Deeks notes that since Fedor called them, he is cooperating. Eric thinks he built this moment up in his head.

Deeks hits reset and wants to talk about Mary Reynolds. A Russian FSB (secret police) agent hired Fedor to kill a woman named Katerina Polunin. Polunin is now going by the name of Mary Reynolds but before Fedor could kill her, he was arrested. After telling Eric to stop pacing, Deeks notes that Fedor has been in prison for months – how did he know about what happened to Mary Reynolds. Fedor received a call the day prior cancelling the job – the threat was neutralized. Whoever Katerina Polunin/Mary Reynolds is or was, some very powerful people wanted her dead.

At the hospital, Mary's daughter Alex is by her side answering questions from Callen and Sam. Mary is not doing well – she's in and out of consciousness and not always recognizing her daughter. Sam asks Alex if Mary was born in the US. Alex says yes – don't the Feds have this information in "databases or something?" Callen asks if anything has been strange lately. Alex says they had a falling out a few years ago but things were better now. This was going to be their first Thanksgiving together in a while. Alex has to go to work – she's a waitress. She promises to bring Mary some cherry pie – it is her favorite.

After Alex leaves, Callen says "Mary, can you hear me?" in English with no response. In Russian, he asks "Katerina, can you hear me? I'm here to help." That gets a bit of response from Mary/Katerina. Sam gets a text from Nell. They found polonium 210, FSB's poison of choice, in Mary's system. Sam says Mary/Katerina does not have long. Mary wakes up and grabs Callen's hand.

A hazmat team is working at Katerina's house. Traces of polonium were found in the kitchen and bathroom, Eric explains to Deeks in at Deeks’s desk. Deeks thinks she was poisoned there but Eric explains that they are likely remnants of sweat. For polonium to work, it has to be inhaled or ingested. Tracing her credit card receipts, Eric finds the Katerina's favorite bakery and security footage of the cigarette pack switch. There are no clear shots of either the homeless man or the man with the tattooed fingers but there are clear shots of the ink – they're Russian prison tattoos.

Deeks is off to talk to the waiter alone when Eric adds that "we" probably need to check that area out for radiation trails. The "we" part startles Deeks. He mentions Granger probably wanting to get out of the office but Granger has already gotten out of the office and he won't be back for the rest of the day. After Deeks wonders why Granger has been gone a lot, Eric says "not surprisingly, Granger doesn't really share things with me." Eric is going with Deeks but no jellybean grenades, Deeks insists.

Coming out of Katerina's house wearing a respirator mask, Sam says there are no more cigarettes inside. A NEST team is on their way. Sam asks Callen if he wants to talk. Callen does – the way Katerina looked at him, it was as if she knew him. "Whoever she is," Sam tells Callen, "she doesn't deserve this." Nell calls – in 1988, Katerina disappeared in the Soviet Union and not surprisingly, Mary Reynolds appeared in California. Sam asks why was she targeted? Callen thinks he knows someone with answers, someone Sam won't like.

At the bakery, Deeks is talking to Jason the waiter. Katerina's hospitalization explains why she wasn't in the bakery all week. Jason know nothing about the guy with the finger tattoos but the homeless man is a usually harmless, living behind the bakery. Outside the bakery, Eric is getting radiation measurement and being rude and intrusive with the bakery's customers. When Jason points that out to Deeks, Deeks says he'll handle it. Jason asks about Katerina and Deeks suggest he visit soon.

Eric, after being so insulting the two women sitting at Katarina's usual table that the women leave, shows Deeks the radiation levels at the table and from a half cigarette butt he found in the street. Huh? I live in a large northeast city – the guys with outdoor cafes hose them down every morning, sweep up every night. Katerina has been in the hospital for four days and Eric finds her cigarette butt? Add in the homeless guy living behind the bakery – someone would have cleaned up after or smoked that half-butt. Sorry, big city person rant.

Behind the bakery, Deeks finds the homeless man's bed but he's not there. Eric's radiation detector starts going off near a dumpster. Deeks smells something bad. Just as Deeks warns Eric not to open the dumpster, Eric opens the dumpster. The homeless man in dead inside, upsetting Eric.

In the main room of the boat shed, Katerina's 1988 passport photo is on the big screen. Sitting at the head of the table is Arkady, who thinks Katerina is beautiful. "Is she single," he asks. That does not get the most positive reaction from Callen and Sam. "Do we look like a matchmaking service?" Sam asks. Callen says Arkady helped bring a lot of Russian refugees to America – was Katerina one of them. Arkady claims not to remember her but he helped bring so many people over so many years ago. His memory isn't all that good. "Besides, it isn't me you should be asking. In Russia, it was all him." Callen tells Arkady that Garrison dropped out of sight last winter – he burned down his farm. Before Arkady can answer, Nell appears on the TV screen – shots fired inside Katerina's hospital room. Callen and Sam are on their way and they're bringing Arkady. He may not remember Katerina but she may remember him.

LAPD tells Callen, Sam and Arkady that by the time they got the room, everything was over. One suspect was dead, one escaped, both armed. Katerina was moved to another room so LAPD could work on the crime scene. Sam looks at the dead man's body – no tattoos. Arkady wants no part of this, especially when LAPD says the doctors think Mary won't make it. Sam asks the officer in charge about who shot the suspect since LAPD arrived after he was dead. "That would be suspect number three," the officer explains. The man was standing over the dead body, dropped his gun when asked. He's not in the system – any system. "It's like he doesn't exist." The officer takes Callen, Sam and Arkady to Garrison. Garrison says hello, in Russian, to his son.

Garrison is in interrogation, Callen and Sam are in the main room of the boat shed. Sam thinks it is a really bad idea that Callen is going to interrogate his father. Callen wants answers. Hetty arrives and promises Callen he will get his answers but only when the case is solved. Callen isn't happy Hetty is telling him how to do his job as he walks into interrogation.

Callen shows Garrison as cell phone before taking his seat at the interrogation table. A quiet Callen doesn't know what to call him – Garrison, Constantine, Nikita. Garrison would like father. Callen says Garrison visits LA and doesn’t even bother to call. Saying he promised to tell Callen the truth when they were in Russia, Garrison is ready to talk. Callen says he doesn't know anything about Garrison so he doesn't know what is the truth. So he's going with what he knows now – Katerina was sent to the US in 1988 by Garrison. 28-years later, she's been poisoned and Garrison is found over the body of a dead man in her hospital room.

Garrison says the man he killed was sent by Pavel Volkoff. When Callen reacts to Volkoff's name, Garrison knows Volkoff helped Callen in the past. "For a price I'm sure," Garrison replies but whatever price Callen paid was too much. Volkoff is interested in power and money, embezzling millions while working for the KGB as a young man. and putting it in his mistress' bank accounts. Katerina is that mistress. Callen figures out Katerina took the stolen money. "Affairs are a messy business, but so is the Soviet Union," Garrison tells Callen. The theft was overshadowed by the fall of the Soviet Union – most people forgot. But with Volkoff's star on the rise in the Russian bureaucracy, people are looking for dirty in his background. If they can tie the money to Katerina, Volkoff's career is finished. He's cutting all ties with his past – that means Katerina.

Callen mentions Volkoff sent NCIS to arrest Fedor. Garrison explains Fedor worked for Volkoff's enemies. When he was arrested, Volkoff's enemies approached Garrison with the promise of a pardon if he could find Katerina. Callen is surprised – Garrison is only in LA for "a job." Garrison doesn't reply. "Well, now I know."

As the coroner's van is slammed shut, Deeks give Eric a briefing – odd turn of events. The homeless man was named Calvin Strokes and his neck was snapped six days ago. Eric found $100 bill – likely used to pay Strokes to distract Katerina so the cigarettes could be switched. Deeks wonders why the assassin left the money behind but Stokes had it hidden in a shoe. Eric found fingerprints on the bill – which is new. There were only two, Strokes and a bank teller in Mar Vista. Nell scrubbed the bank's security footage and found the man with the finger tattoos. The man used a fake ID at the bank but they were able to trace it to a debit card used in Montrose just a little while ago. "Can we go, giddy up," Eric orders Deeks. Deeks is not happy.

Arkady is stunned his protégé could be behind all this. "I taught him everything he knows," Arkady tells Callen, Sam and Hetty. Maybe he learned too much, Sam replies. " You're loyal to no one but yourself, Arkady. You really expect anything different from your prized pupil?" Sam asks. Arkady is going to call some old Russian contacts and clear Volkoff's name. He leaves angry. Nell pops up on the screen. There are no IDs for the shooters in any databases. Checking Katerina's financials, Nell can't find the kind of money Garrison said she took from Volkoff. Callen doesn't think Garrison is lying about the money but he is lying about something. He also doesn’t understand why Volkoff would poison his long-forgotten mistress. Hetty wants to talk to Garrison.

In the parking lot where the man with the tattoos on his fingers used his debit card, Deeks and Eric are looking around. Deeks makes a CrossFit joke. Eric thought Deeks did CrossFit. Kensi did CrossFit, he explains and she spoke about it so much, he felt like he did it. "First rule of CrossFit is talk about CrossFit," Eric jokes. Turning serious, Deeks tells Eric he'd give anything to have her talking about it again. Eric promises Deeks she'll be in the field again. Deeks give a perfunctory "Thanks man" to Eric but Eric champions Kensi once again. He knows she'll be in the field because he's in the field. Three years ago he never saw himself in the field with a gun or interrogating suspects. But Kensi and Deeks supported him just like Deeks is supporting her now. Deeks offers a very genuine thanks to Eric this time. "She'll be back," Eric tells him just as someone starts shooting.

After Deeks positions Eric near him, Nell calls in the shoots fired to both LAPD and Callen and Sam. Eric says the shots were coming from the Black Cow Café. Nell tells them that is where Alex, Katerina's daughter works. Guns drawn, Deeks and Eric move to the café. Armed men are forcing Alex to leave. Deeks yells "federal agents" and the bad guys have bigger guns. Deeks pushes Eric behind a pick-up truck. Nell can see with security cameras that Alex is being forced away from the café. As Deeks tries to shoot at the kidnappers, a large SUV comes racing up. Eric yells "get down" just in time to save Deeks from a burst of gunfire. As Deeks goes down, Eric jumps up and takes a few shots at the SUV before Alex is thrown in. Once she's in the vehicle, they drive away but not before a back on his feet Deeks shoots one of the kidnappers. "Son of a bitch," is Deeks's reaction.

Callen and Sam arrive at the crime scene. They ask about Eric, who Deeks tells them is interviewing witness. He also mentions that Eric did great and kind of, sort of saved his life, maybe. The question is why grab Alex – if she knew where the money was, why would she still be working as a waitress? Deeks would be island hopping. Eric arrives – Alex has a five-year-old son in pre-school in Glendale. Deeks is on his way to pick him up from school before the kidnappers do. Figuring that Alex is being taken to an FSB safe house, Callen realizes that Arkady may know where that is. Sam is not happy. Callen notes it isn't Sam's lucky day.

Hetty asks Garrison if he knows her. "Da, you were Clara's handler." Hetty tells Garrison he thinks of Clara every day. She believes everyone's lives would have been so different if she could have gotten to her on the beach. Garrison tells Hetty "we are all to blame" – he tried to recruit Clara as a KGB Officer. Hetty compliments Clara. Clara recruited Garrison for the CIA – a very resourceful woman. Garrison noted that Clara was resourceful and beautiful and that always helps.

Hetty asks about Katerina. Garrison gets a little agitated. In 1988, Garrison was working for the CIA. He put her life in danger and that's why he had to send her to America where she was safe for a while. Katerina died, Hetty tells Garrison. She also knows that there was no pardon offer from the Russian government. This mission was always personal. Garrison is worried. Hetty tells Garrison that she wasn't able to save Clara but she saved her son. Now it is time for Garrison to finish what he started. Opening the door the to the interrogation room and then to the boat shed, Hetty leaves them both wide opened so Garrison could leave.

After working her way up to a light jog on the treadmill, Kensi has a new project from Emily: working on her fine motor skills. Sitting working on his fine motor skills is Sullivan. He is picking up small beans and moving them on a board. Another therapist walks up carrying two plates with some veggies and utensils. Kensi is grossed out by the food. Sullivan explains they're for ADL practice. Kensi isn't sure what that is. Sullivan is disappointed since Kensi obviously isn't paying attention to anything they do in PT. ADL is for Activities of Daily Living. Using a fork and knife – activities of daily living – requires isolated finger movements.

Kensi has a hard time gripping the fork. She can cut with her right hand but Sullivan claims she's not "restaurant ready." Kensi tosses a carrot at Sullivan who throws one right back at her. She then uses her fork to shoot a cucumber slice at him. Sullivan, by the way, has scars all over his right forearm.

Callen and Sam meet Arkady – his contacts at FSB have gone silent. Volkoff has positioned himself to be the head of FSB, making him second only to Putin. Arkady is disappointed in his now former protégé showed his true colors. "He's not the man I thought he was." Sam says the same of Arkady as way of an apology.

On Comms, Nell asks Callen if Garrison is with him because he's not at the boat shed. Callen is surprised and asks for Hetty. Hetty arrives ins Ops and says Garrison slipped away, not mentioning how exactly he accomplished that. Hetty assumes Callen may have a plan and he does. He asks Ops to turn on tracker 7B. Nell is stunned that Callen put "a tracker on your Dad." Sam asks Nell if she met Garrison but Nell had not. Sam tells her if you met the man, you'd put a tracker on him too.

Callen and Sam are going to the tracker. They both know Hetty let Garrison go. Callen is sure she has a good reason. As they get near the home with the tracker, Alex is walking down the street with a Garrison's jacket on. She said Garrison gave it to her – it is cold outside (everyone is wearing jackets). Sam realizes that Garrison traded himself for Alex. Callen is sure Garrison has the money – always did. This was an ambush. Alex was dropped off in this neighborhood. She hands Callen the phone the bad guys gave her with instructions to call when she was safe. Callen makes the call. When the bad guys answer, they put Garrison on the line. When Garrison knows Alex is safe, he apologizes to Callen. Garrison says he'll be with Callen's mother soon.

Deeks pulls up in the super long black SUV. He's there to take Alex to safety and to her son. Nell and Eric are mixing and matching the tracker's past locations and the cell phone call location to find Garrison. Alex thinks she was let go 15 or 20 minutes earlier. Eric is able to give Callen an address.

At the FSB house, Callen can see Garrison taking a pretty good beating through a half-opened window. There are gates and locks all around the house. Callen doesn't think Garrison will last much longer. Sam has an idea.

Inside, a battered and beaten Garrison says the money is gone. He also tells them e's an old man and no threat but the two guys doing the beating think he's a threat to Volkoff's future. Sam jumps through one of the windows and shoots one of Volkoff's men. Callen breaks through the front door and shoost the other. While Sam checks the house for other bad guys, Callen unties his father. Callen tells the older man he took a big risk. Garrison didn't think it was much of a risk. He knew Hetty would track him. Callen said he needs to talk to Hetty about keeping secrets. He also wants to talk to Garrison about the same thing. First, however, Callen wants to know about the money. It is long gone. Refugee charities, peace organization, people who really needed it. "I was done with war but somehow it wasn't done with me."

In PT, Kensi has Sullivan in a choke hold demanding he eat his vegetables. Kensi keeps calling him "Marine". Emily arrives, unhappy about the mess. Deeks arrives and asks what's going on. Sullivan tells him that physically Kensi is improving but mentally she's going downhill fast. Deeks is there for Kensi, taking a thrown carrot out of her hoodie's hood and snacking on it.

At their home, Kensi and Deeks are playing checkers and he knows what ADL therapy is. He wants her to pick up the checkers, not slide them across the board. Deeks asks about Sullivan. "We're stuck together in a hospital for months doing therapy," she tells him. She asks if Deeks is jealous as she tries to pick up a checker piece and can't. Deeks tells her he was curious. Kensi tries again and knocks two checker pieces off the board. Deeks tells her it is okay but she's terribly frustrated. He's going to reset the board. Kensi lists all the things she can't do –dress herself, pick up a checkers piece – she's never going to get better.

Deeks reminders her of the timeline. She's two months into a six-month rehab – a third of the way there. Besides, Deeks asks, when did they ever play checkers on a case? No, Kensi tells him, but can draw his gun (nice foreshadowing for "Sirens"). Deeks wants Kensi's hand. She gives him her right (good) hand. He wants her left hand. She calls it her claw, he calls it her sexy claw – "it's like dating a pirate." When he spreads his fingers out, she tries to grab hold to his hand. It is a lot of work but she gets there. He kisses her hand to celebrate Kensi’s success.

Hetty greets Granger, saying she feared for the worst. He tells her he's not dead yet. "Not even close." This is so sad. Hetty says nobody would blame him for taking some time off. Granger pours himself some scotch – she knows him better than that. Besides, when he goes, he won't be sitting at home. Hetty asks about his daughter. Granger hasn't told her he's sick yet before chiding Hetty about letting Garrison go. If Garrison was killed, Callen would have never forgiven Hetty. Hetty agrees but it was worth the risk for Alex.

At a cemetery, Alex is burying her mother not far from Hannah Lawson's grave. Jason the waiter attended the funeral. Garrison thinks Amy as Hannah is buried in a lovely spot. He also says he will keep his promise and tell Callen everything about why he wasn't part of Clara's, Callen's or Amy's lives. Callen believes if he was, Amy would still be alive. Garrison explains he couldn't be there the way they all needed him. Callen asks if Garrison even tried. Garrison thought he was protecting them by severing all ties. He doesn't expect Callen to understand and Callen agrees. He doesn’t forgive his father and doesn't know if he ever will.

Softening a little, Callen also knows that Garrison did many good things with Arkady and saved a lot of lives. Garrison tells Callen he couldn't save the lives that mattered to him – Clara, Amy or Katerina. He is near tears when he mentions Amy. Callen realizes that Katerina was poisoned to lure Garrison out. And when she was dead, Volkoff went after Alex. Callen wants to know how long Garrison knew about Alex. He only learned recently – Arkady tracked down Katerina for Garrison he left Russia with Callen, Sam and Sharov. Arkady called Garrison when Katerina was poisoned. "You're a grandfather." "You're an uncle." Callen does not want any more secrets – they are going to tell Alex.

What head canon can be formed from here: Garrison and Katerina, the Russian years. Kensi’s growing successes at physical therapy. Eric’s growing confidence in the field.

Episode number: Episode number nine of season eight and the 177th overall.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #NCIS Los Angeles #ncis la

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elizabethrobertajones · 7 years

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I don't know if you have noticed, but they have some serious clothing issues in season 12. Seasons 1-11 we just had Sam and Dean. But now that there's Mary, they can't all wear plaid. Because there would be too much flannel with three Winchesters. I'm being serious. I've rewatched season 12, and there's no episode where all three Winchesters wear plaid. One of them always has to sacrifice the hunter look.

Yeah, they don’t all wear it all the time anyway - Dean’s always had a bunch of stock shirts which are so boring he can wear them all the times he’s going to get killed or whatever gets him covered in blood to the point that he can’t use it any more :P Sam has slightly more variety, I think, because he doesn’t wear as many block colours in general, wears his shirts buttoned up so Dean can get away with wearing a block colour shirt and t-shirt, and Sam’s on the wrong side of the self-imposed class divide so doesn’t wear henleys either, all adding up to him needing at least subtle stripes on his shirts a lot of the time… Sam wearing boring grey in 11x22 should have been a warning something pretty horrific was going to happen to him because that’s Dean’s choice of colour for “I’m about to have a bad day and I don’t know it yet” which he at least also mixes into his regular wardrobe to add the element of surprise :P

Buuut yeah I bet there was at least 1 time they had a moment where they did all wear plaid and looked at each other and had to work out who had to go change immediately.

Anyway since we have a whole season now, let’s look at Mary because I like looking at Mary :D

12x01:

generic hunter jacket, jeans and boots (workman boots halfway between Sam n Dean’s). Shirt doesn’t look like much of anything she likes wearing, never did find out where Dean got this from for her, because finding perfectly fitted jeans at dawn in the middle of nowhere within apparent walking distance of the bunker?? There’s a weirdo gap where he stole clothes for his mom off a clothes line or something. I think the point was it was white and a little lacy at the top, mimicking the nightgown as a shirt, upgraded for hunter Mary. Easing the transition along :P

12x02:

she’s so SMALL.

At some point Dean also found her fluffy slippers. These are modern fluffy slippers because they don’t match ones we’ve seen him wearing around the bunker which I assume are period authentic ones.

Dean wears grey and black, I guess to match Sam’s nondescript colours, while Mary cracks out her first plaid, AND with a white henley underneath

she’s still wearing white because mom, and Sam hasn’t seen her yet, but the plaid is the sign of hunting, and she’s officially dressing more like Dean right now. Dean wore red n blue and achieved balance in 11x23 and Mary is immediately the next one to wear it as the next plaid on screen since. I think it’s a sort of family integration theme since Sam n Dean often are red v blue coded.. I like this shirt because it has an XOXOXOXOX pattern embroidered on it. The mumsy version of their plaid :P

Cas is not wearing plaid.

I noticed a couple of episodes further down the line that she almost always wears her shirt untucked on the right side, and I guess I thought she was just rumpled because of the fight but she already does it in both main outfits this episode.

Sam has swapped into plaid, but Dean and Mary are dressing identically except for the colour schemes and Mary’s untucking habit.

12x03:

Mary’s wearing the ring prominently for I think the first time, and of course is wearing her shirt tucked in like that (I think this is where I first noticed it) and is the outfit she cuts her hair in, so having her in 1 pale layer quietly mimicks her show-long look for a final time before she ditches it for having a much broader and more practical wardrobe. She’s wearing this to mourn John and read the journal, and also her conversation with Cas. Looking like a default Mary, as she “should” in the saint!Mary image influences Cas to feel he has to leave because she belongs or should feel she does and he wants her to bond with her sons, but she begins breaking away immediately after this.

Aaand Sam’s still the only one wearing any sort of pattern, and Mary is dressed like Dean (but belt, no untucked shirt) and Dean is wearing grey so he doesn’t step on anyone’s toes…

Mary also keeps wearing the red maroon of family, in a one off, no one else ever wears anything remotely like it, sleeveless jacket, which she wears exclusively in the car or in the dark so no screen shots

I think this is a lovely sweater, tucked into the left side, a tank top underneath it, which is like in 12x14 where she’ll be wearing a blank tank top similar but without the fashion layer on top, and her ring very obviously displayed. Going from white because mom to black because mourning, both her entire family, and in these conversations, the old way of hunting. She’s moved I guess from shock and non-stop action to the next step of grief.

At the motel Sam wears green and purple plaid, and Dean wears a denim shirt.

Look what you are doing to your sons, Mary.

12x06:

Mary is introduced boots first (the cowboy boots seen in her room in 12x02?)

This outfit is truly unflattering and practical - she’s swimming in the coat, but she’s also wearing a belt again like 12x03, which was the other way to distinguish how she wears her shirts, and on the family unity theme not only wearing red n blue plaid again, but has it half buttoned half unbuttoned, bridging the gap between how Dean and Sam wear theirs. She exists in a lot of spaces between - half-tucked, or half-buttoned.

Dean once again wears plain grey, and Sam wears grey plaid.

12x09:

White because Lawrence, plain blue shirt in closeness to Dean’s outfits, and wearing *dark* grey-green because she’s in mourning still. She’s not wearing plaid or family colours because she’s on her rejecting her living family tour in exchange for moping about the dead.

Swaps to red to yell at Cas for not wearing plaid. She’s angry, and she’ll later still be wearing this for getting Alicia’s call and going off on the path of distracting herself with hunting, a la Mark!Dean with random vampires, when Dean got really into wearing a red shirt of a similar hue. You couldn’t see the ring in Lawrence but it’s on top of her clothes again here. Maybe she just couldn’t bear to expose it while sitting in the same place she had her first date with John? Winchester repression and all.

Cas is not wearing plaid, and this is the epitome of ‘hey we’re gonna wear boring grey shirts to lose in 12x08 and boring grey jumpsuits all of 12x09’ for the Winchesters to keep them out of it, but Mary has the same under layers as at Mulroney’s but instead of dark grey-green she’s wearing her tan jacket, the Cas colour scheme because they’re bonding, and hilariously (or not >.>) the colour Sam is wearing in 12x21 in the letter scene… Dean has a plaid in these colours too which he wore in 12x13 to see Gavin reunited with his lost love, and first wore in 10x14 at the very end, so I’ve got it lodged in my brain as the Colette/pining set of colours on others.

I guess in Mary’s case here it’s not about dead lovers, but an upgrade to focusing on a now problem instead of a past problem, and also of course is part of the huge Cas n Mary web of parallels, of which this episode visually doubles down on with the Cas missing Dean paralleling Mary in 12x03 missing John sitting at the table in the dark in the Bunker thing. Actually missing Sam n Dean, she sits at the kitchen table, the private family space, to avoid any cross-contamination of visual images, and links to the bacon scene in 12x03 where she and Cas both refused to engage with Dean’s happy family breakfast…

In the first scene Mary’s wearing this we get introduced by ANOTHER pan up from her boots (her… 3rd? maybe? already) this time again showing she’s wearing Dean-like boots, and her more killing-things friendly belt choice, and dark red plaid (so dark you can’t see it well >.>) and dark pink shirt, all of which screams Mark of Cain and Dean parallels.

Cas is still not wearing plaid.

this is the most generic Winchester plaid she has so far rather than one that yells mark of cain or the family balance and integration themes - everything from “what you needed most” to Dean n Sam getting to a better understanding re: all 12x22 did for them as well) but fits in the TFW plaid from earlier, with tan and blue (Dean is wearing his original tan plaid in that scene in 5x13 although not the first time he wears it - it goes back to Nightshifter and for some reason my brain always tells me he didn’t have the plaid until 8x01 at which point I briefly clip out of reality every time he first appears in it in season 2 :P) Anyway 5x13 is aaaall about Mary and their family destiny/curses (I say curses because it’s about the apocalypse but Michael throws in the Cain and Abel thing for free)

Since Sam n Dean didn’t get a chance this episode (and were purposefully wearing non-memorable clothes in 12x08 so nothing important got lost) she’s covered the whole plaid thing for them. She’s making the choice to work with the BMoL here and wearing Sam-like plaid in a Dean-like way - note the sleeves too - but ultimately this arc does fall on Sam.

Anyway she is acting as the representative head of the family here making the decision for them.

12x12:

ANON YOU ARE WRONG. All 4 Winchesters are wearing plaid, because my brain just clipped out of reality while I had it paused like this:

and my brother who is coincidentally here on the other side of my monitor and I forgot was in the room because he’s listening to podcasts, stretched, and his plaid-covered elbow appeared behind Cas and I thought it was his.

(I’m very tired, it’s been a loooong day)

Anyway Sam’s wearing blue and white, Mary is wearing blue and black, Dean is wearing Burger Date Plaid which is more important for the diner scene than the rest of the episode, and Cas is at least going to have the decency to nearly die on the plaid sofa the same-ish pattern as Dean’s shirt next episode.

I suppose when 3 Winchesters get together all wearing plaid, Bad Shit Happens, so if all FOUR of them wore plaid at once, reality might fracture, and considering season 13 looks like reality is going to be having some serious fracturing issues anyway… Yeah. Bad idea.

Even Wally is wearing plaid…

Much luck it gave him.

Anyway Mary’s generally having some more dark arc stuff, with a blank henley and the evil version of sam’s plaid, and a nondescript pale green jacket over the top. The ONLY reason Mary has this many plain nondescript jackets of varying hues is for symbolism. In this case green is kinda toxic and since she and Sam have negative versions of each other’s plaid and connect over the yellow eyes thing, I think it’s more about her guilt.

This all transforms at the end to the 3rd version on a simple outfit, of the one from 12x09 but this time with pale blue to make her even more Cas-like, but these colours could honestly just be associated with bad decisions, given the context here… I mean, not like Cas isn’t a freakin beacon of them :P

She also blends nicely into the diner, with its blue and beige tones. Compared to Ketch in his fancy suit. She also isn’t wearing plaid for this, going under the table with this as it were.

12x13:

Sam, Dean and Mary aren’t all in the same scene but Dean is wearing dark grey/puple and Sam a dary grey/blue with thin red lines - Mary’s wearing the opposite again, white with thick red outlined in blue.

She’s also untucked on the same side again.

Sam and Dean swap into the generic red plaid for Sam and the TFW/Cas plaid I mentioned for Dean - beige, white and blue, which he wears the rest of the episode while dealing with the MacLeod family drama.

This is their most plaid intensive episode, then as all of them get a costume change and all opt for more plaid. They’re working on family loyalty stuff so it’s quite important.

Mary’s next one is for the very monotone scene with Ketch, where she’s wearing grey and brown, and her shirt isn’t tucked interestingly or anything.

I think that’s about as much as you need to say about this episode :P

12x14:

Ooops I forgot 12x13 fed into this episode. In my defence it’s a bad idea to split a 2 episode cliffhanger by cliffhangering like 3-4 minutes before the end of the episode, even though the next episode is going to start immediately where you left off with what of all of the things happening in your cluttered episode is the main plot thread… Ah well.

Mary shows up in a cream henley, under a strawberries and cream plaid - although pink is a baaad sign on this show, I guess she may have been aiming for cute and mumsy again, but not wearing the cute XOXOXOX family integration theme plaid from 12x02 when it looked she might have a hope of doing that before draaaama hit.

Sam is wearing all black (keeping out of the way in the fight and thematically) and Dean is wearing a non-pink and much more tightly patterned shirt (he’s drawing those family lines closer together) in the same broad colour category as Mary’s, but does sort of link them - they have a fight that gets thiiis close to dealing with Dean had to be the mom all their lives not Mary, because Berens and all, but they don’t get close enough and it has to wait until 12x22 after this, but it aligns them in a different way to how Sam and Mary have been having night and day versions of each other’s plaids, just as her blue n red plaid is so similar to Dean colours, but not the ways Sam wears it.

We then cut to her wearing her black tactical gear, and in an alarming move for a Winchester, later just a tank top. Incidentally they should all do this more often, Mary right through to Cas. She however is not bearing all, because her texts just aren’t laying out the whole problem and I don’t think she can see it, because she brings sam to meet her, and gives him the pitch as soon as he gets out the car.

The main day of the action, Dean wears a red shirt, Sam wears blue, white and beige plaid (They own a LOT of these colour-combinations)

Mary is wearing red and black plaid I think the same as 12x09’s main action, which aligns her with Dean (for the Ketch seduction parallel?) and sets her at odds with Sam so they’re not too conspicuously wearing night and day versions of each others’ clothes. They ARE both wearing hunter plaid (as Dean says, to do the job you put on a flannel…) while dealing with the hunter specific arc of the season, while Dean is wearing a plain red shirt, which he uses to face inner demons. Mary’s colour aligns her with Dean, the pattern with Sam, and he wears a red plaid shirt more often than Dean these days. For Sam and Mary it’s an episode where they’re doing their thing together. Especially as it deals with repercussions not root causes - their lives branched, and Mary’s giving Sam the speech about a world without monsters like he can reclaim what life he lost, but he is on the path to lead the hunters and all his MoL stuff, so the TFW/bad decisions colours are appropriate? Mary’s on a dark arc which the actions make clear but the red plaid is always a nice reminder of when it’s channelling Dean… Sam wears his with impunity.

12x17:

Another episode where Mary and Sam n Dean are separated for the most part so can get away with them all having at least worn plaid in the same episode, though 12x12 remains the only one they all wore it TOGETHER (see above: look what happens >.>)

I’m still bothered by the way Buckleming often write Sam and Dean as a total matching unit and I never managed to put my finger on it until this episode when they give Mick the “so yeah Lucifer’s baby is a thing” speech because it combines multiple other scenes they’ve written in the past to finally just make SamandDean a stock exposition unit. I probably have another post to write about this and how they helped contribute to an overall weird feeling with both sides of the fandom stanning for 1 brother and some who love both feeling their fave/s was totally sidelined this season - done right Sam n Dean as passive viewers to the story is a great device (11x14!!) and this season did it a lot as a way to lighten the load on dudes who managed to have 3 babies between the two of them this year in the space of a couple of months, but also to broaden the story to give Cas and Mary development and to follow some other threads beyond what the Winchesters see and know just because the show has grown so far out of its original bounds… But anyway this wardrobe moment the morning after makes Sam and Dean literally dress identically to talk to Mick, and the show knows the theme, it just wasn’t well-done here, and I love the use over all in the season but this episode made me really side-eye the execution.

The wardrobe in the Mary stuff was good though. She wears her XOXOXOXOX plaid with the red n blue blah blah family integration theme - Dean’s wearing his About A Boy plaid up there, incidentally, which is red and BLACK lines - Mary’s one was her uniform for saving Sam at the start of the season and she’s at a cusp of things here. She’s in a comfortable pattern working with Ketch, but I think lets her guard down to sleep with him, and though she puts up emotional walls immediately and there’s all the stuff with her ring and mourning and wanting to have both hunting and family (a GOOD side of the red n blue theme in other places) she’s really putting herself on the path that leads to her mini demon!Dean arc in 12x21/22 as the inevitable result of this Mark of Cain arc stuff since midseason.

12x20:

Grey jumpsuits, for her and Ketch, which now I’m looking at the costumes for season 12, should have been an even more obvious clue after 12x09, although honestly the fake out introduction to Mary in this episode with the shifter in captivity with her face > the end of the episode with Mary captured, was pretty telling without throwing in the obvious prison uniform imagery that this jumpsuit transforms completely depending on context; Mary in the chair or Mary out the chair.

Sam n Dean off on their side of things has Sam in the 12x12 light blue shirt, Dean in his off-brand demon!Dean shirt which isn’t a demon!Dean shirt at all, but one of coping and better decisions and trying a better way. But looks a whole lot like the old ways on the surface :P

Mary, meanwhile, is wearing grey plaid again. The prison jumpsuits thing is making me wonder belatedly if wearing grey this season has been about imprisonment, metaphorically or not - Sam wore it in 12x01 etc, and Kelly had a grey coat she wore a lot.

this one is darker, and with her black coat, her henley buttoned almost all the way up. Mary is defensive and secretive and beginning to be very suspicious about what she got herself into, investigating or interrogating in all her scenes except for the one where she kicks Ketch in the nuts aka the best thing Mary did for like all of 2 more episodes before she was like “I wanna punch the Devil in the face” because after killing Ketch she needed new goals :P

12x21:

Bearing in mind how MANY times she changes her clothes, including swapping out jackets and all, once she’s under the BMoL’s control, she has a freshly laundered set of exactly what she was wearing in 12x20 and no changes. It’s out of her control to decide now.

She starts dressed jacket and all, then is down to the plaid in the next scene and finally stripped down to the henley and a single layer as the BMoL metaphorically strip her inside too.

Then, new DARK jacket, I think a looser shirt, but the SAME grey plaid at the end. Untucked, on the wrong side.

Incidentally if you want bad things happening when all the Winchesters are in one room in plaid, Sam’s in a generic Sam shirt, Dean in his red and black checked plaid which is aaaalmost exactly like both Sam and Mary’s version of it, but not like the About a Boy one or other variations he has on the theme.

12x22

Hey guess who is now wearing grey plaid with RED AND BLUE in it under the black jacket? Aka Mary is imprisoned (we’re going with this, pls ignore how I’ve decided like 50% of the themes AS I analysed it :P) but has family back in her plaid - a sign she can be brought back, and a reason to hope at this point, and by the end of the episode, what she’s wearing for FAMILY REINTEGRATION :D

Hey look they all wear plaid :D

This may or may not open a rift in reality.

12x23:

Mary is back in white but in a wearing comfy plaid way, and it’s got blue and red in it. She’s mom again, but now updated and upgraded to being a hunter in the GOOD way not the way in 12x01 where she wore a white lace shirt just to hastily make her practical for one day of action, but she’s comfortably being Mom Winchester in the new understanding of what their family is.

Sam and Dean are in red and blue-ish colour coding although Dean’s actually in grey and you know what fuck them wearing grey. Take that shirt off right now.

nothing happens to Dean but he does kind of get shattered at the end of the episode and we don’t know what would happen to him next, so like I said maybe just avoid on principle.

Anyway the whole family looks all comfy and soft, at least until Dean and Mary put practical jackets over theirs, and Sam stacks the orange jacket over the brown-red plaid.

Cas continues to not wear plaid and pays the ultimate price. Get with the picture, buddy.

#Asks #the sam shoe saga #this is needlessly long #my stuff #season 12 #Mary F Winchester

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banrions · 5 years

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season 2 of the originals rewatch HERE WE GOOoO:

i love cami, so much. i love the way that she walks in and talks to supernatural beings who are a thousand years older than her frail human self. she’s just THE BEST

HAYLEY GETTING TO WRECK OLIVER IS FUCKING GOOD, GREAT. A+

francesca’s face when she realizes she is abt to die feels good. feels right

i also don’t ship klaus and hayley romantically like, at all. however, i also LOVE their dynamic as it grows. it’s such a weird complicated thing. and the two of them trying to manage their grief and rage and figure out what their relationship will be is Good

annnnnnnnnd now mikael is out and shit is Bad™

“which of our parents do we kill first?” THIS SHAKSPEAREAN VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF/WITCH NONSENSE I LOVE IT

mikael, the one that EVERYONE is afraid of, has cami kidnapped, hurt, and is threatening her life and the vampires that she sort of now cares abt and she is SCREAMING AT HIS 1000 YEAR OLD EVIL FACE AND TELLING HIM THAT HIS VIOLENCE IS SHIT, AND RUDE, AND HE NEEDS SOME THERAPY TO WORK OUT HIS ISSUES.

she’s actually trying to appeal to his humanity. bc she is the Best Human Around.

hayleyyyyy standing up to mikael AGAIN

ok, so i’m on ep 2x08 and davina is so against klaus above all of them and i’m like... yeah he’s a fucking tool and he sucks but... i genuinely don’t get (or have already forgotten) why she hates him so much above them all. like, esther and mikael are OBVIOUSLY worse. is this just abt the dumb fiddle player she had a childhood crush on?

rebekah just LOVING hope is Good™ but also like, babe, you can be a mom. adoption is a thing. you can literally compel ppl to not worry abt like, files and the fact that you seem to have been alive for a thousand years etc. YOU CAN ADOPT MY DUDE.

HAYLEY’S FACE WHEN SHE SEES HOPE AGAIN. I WILL NEVER EVER NOT GET EMOTIONAL AT THAT SCENE ANDHER FACE AND THE LITTLE SIGH OF RELIEF SHE LETS OUT ONCE SHE HOLDS HER.

ugh, i forgot how much i hate kol. hurting rebekah is my ONE LINE (that’s not true, hurting hayley or cami is my other one). but then i remembered that maisie richardson plays Other Rebekah and i didn’t love her the first go around but now i’ve seen legends and i know how awesome she is and i’m excited to go into this arc LOVING witch rebekah even more instead of being sad for no claire who i’d already loved. NOW I JUST GET TO ADORE THEM BOTH AND BE THRILLED ABT IT.

the whole, klaus (or whichever mikaelson they pick that week, but nearly always klaus) monologuing his way into some dramatic telling of the exploits his siblings and he have gotten into this week at the top of every ep is... funny, but also the dumbest narrative arc this show chose to use

cami’s faaaaaaaaace when she sees hope for the first time. WE WERE ROBBED of aunt cami and this show should PAY and someone other than me should FIC IT.

gia is annoying. in fact. ALL of marcel’s vamps are annoying. i care abt them the very least of the side characters.

i straight up forgot that mary was jackson’s grandmother. i just remembered that i loved her relationship with hayley.

freya, delighted by watching cartoons makes me want to DIE, so does rebekah being kind to herrrrrr. FOREVER MAD we didn’t get enough of the mikaelson sisters. too much goddamn brother drama.

the thing is, jackson is just.... so boring. and it’s SUCH A SHAME bc arranged marriage werewolf plot to gain an army could have been SO MUCH FUN. pls tell me someone wrote an au fic where jackson was a lady and it was dope bc i want it but i dont want to write it.

i rlly.... don’t like kol.

riley’s acting as freya tells klaus and elijah abt all the shit dahlia put her through is so so good. it’s sooo good to see the family dynamics shift once she comes into the picture and i can’t fully remember like ANY of this shit so i’m v excited to see it play out again.

mikael is... an absolute piece of shit who hurt his children beyond belief but watching freya watch him die is.... real painful, real sad.

dahlia is one of the best villains in this show (along with esther and mikael) bc the threats that come from inside the family are always the most interesting. also, she’s a bomb ass violin player and that is my one true weakness and string music is the best.

i’m sorry but i just don’t care abt josh or his dead boyfriend. the only ppl on this show who are interesting are the mikaelsons, hayley, cami, vincent, and marcel. (occasionally davina), no one else rlly. soz

yikes jackson, you’re not only boring you’re.... getting pretty fucking annoying. this arc could have been so much betterrrrrr

THE WOLVES BOWING TO HAYLEY IN THE RAIN GETS ME EVERY TIMEEEEEEE

ugh, i forgot that i only tend to love davina sometimes. her devotion to kol is just... so fucking annoying???? BABE HE IS IN NO WAY ANY BETTER THAN THE REST OF THEM AND YOU HOLLERING AT EVERYONE THAT HE IS IS GETTING REAL FUCKING OLD AND ALSO, INCORRECT.

freya saying “i don’t wanna kill him” abt klaus killlllllls me

cami fucking calling klaus out for all the fucking bullshit he pulled is Good™ and i’m still so pissed that he cursed hayley to do it

esp bc they start this season at such and interesting place in their relationship, in their shared grief abt losing hope and they end it with klaus cursing her and taking hope for himself. and i’m just... it’s so dumb and terrible and unforgivable and DUMB.

esther finally being a mom and saving her kids is... a long time coming, also actually Good Shit with the sisters forgiving each other.

i’m v glad that rebekah called klaus out abt hayley. like elijah, sure fine, whatever, but i’m v glad rebekah is like, fuck nah bro. you don’t get to make your sisters raise you kid and leave her mom as a wolf bc you got a shitty ego and abandonment issues and don’t know how to love or be a dad or even a person.

#WELP THAT'S IT ONE MORE SEASON DOWN #i don't remember like anything abt s3 except there's some other siblings who fight against them #and also jackson dies #and cami and davina #SO THAT'S NOT GONNA BE FUN #GETTING REAL AMPED UP TO BE PISSED FOREVER AGAIN #the originals

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