#until a doctor gives her a lobotomy basically and suddenly shes fine and going to school and shit

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Honestly, if American's thought us in the UK growing up on a show that is basically child abuse (Horrid Henry) was bad, wait until they see Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

My Super Special Awesome Sauce Supernatural Re-Watch -- Season 1 Episode 10, Asylum

Welcome to my Supernatural Re-Watch project in which I'm re-watching every episode of Supernatural. Why? Because I want to. I've kind of made a name for myself in the Shadowhunters fandom for my love-hate relationship with the Freeform show. So I thought, hey, since I'm reviewing a sub-par show that constantly disappoints me (Shadowhunters), I should also review a show that I love. This way, when I'm critical of Shadowhunters, my audience can get an understanding of where I come from. What it is I look for in good story telling. Or they could think I'm a hypocritical idiot. Either way, I'm doing this. And also, I love Supernatural and I'm really just looking for an excuse to watch the show and then talk about it. Here we have episode 10, Asylum. As always, please respect my opinions and no spoilers for Season 13, please.

RECAP

Our story starts off with a couple of police officers investigating an abandoned asylum that has quite the history to it. The cops are here because apparently, local teenagers like to break in to try their luck at survivng a night in it. The cops go in and split up to find the teenagers. One of them finds them but the other meets a mysterious figure inside the building. When the two officers meet up outside, everything appears to be fine. Until the one who encountered that figure in the asylum goes home and kills his wife out of some euphoric rage-out. 

Cut back to our Winchester boys and they're talking about their father again. Once more, Sam is getting angry that they still can't find their father, that their father doesn't seem to even want to talk to them despite everything that happened in the previous episode. Sam even brings to the table that for all he and Dean know, Papa Winchester could be dead. This is immediately debunked when Dean receives a text message from an unavailable number giving them coordinates. The boys discover that the coordinates lead to the town where this episode's teaser takes place. They discover an article about the police officer who came home and shot his wife and then shot himself. Dean decides they need to go and investigate it because it's obviously what their father wants them to do whereas Sam is getting a little sick of being dragged everywhere at the beck and call of their father. It creates quite the dramatic little character arc for our boys throughout this episode.

Sam and Dean go to a bar in this town to talk to the police officer's partner who was with him when they went to the asylum. Sam does further investigation by meeting with a therapist to find out more about the asylum. The therapist, after getting Sam to come clean about his feelings about Dean, tells him the story of the asylum. That eventually the patients revolted and took control of the asylum. Lots of people died and some bodies were never recovered. 

Sam and Dean head off to the asylum that night to find these bodies and burn them so the spirits can move on. But they're not alone in this little adventure. Before they arrive at the asylum, two teenagers on date night (Gavin and Kat) show up at the asylum looking for some thrills. Gavin decides to walk around on his own in the asylum after Kat becomes too spooked to go any further in it. As Gavin walks around, he sees a figure in the shadows who he assumes is Kat. This figure comes up to him and kisses him. He is then immediately repulsed when he realizes this figure is not Kat but a woman with a deformed face. Yup, he kissed a ghost. 

Sam and Dean eventually meet Kat and all three of them go to look for Gavin. They split up. Sam goes on his own and Kat sticks with Dean. Sam eventually finds Gavin and Gavin relays his encounter. That the woman kissed him but afterwards she tried to whisper something in his ear. Sam is perplexed by this because when they arrived at the asylum he, too, was confronted by a spirit who didn't seem to want to harm him but wanted to tell him something. Dean and Kat are also on the prowl when a ghost suddenly grabs Kat and pushes her into a room. Dean is unable to open the door. Sam and Gavin arrive and Sam tells Kat she needs to face the spirit and let the spirit tell her whatever it is he wants to tell her and the spirit will let her go. These spirits aren't trying to hurt them. Kat eventually does this and afterwards, the door unlocks and she's able to rejoin the group. She tells Sam and Dean that the spirit told her "Room 137". 

Dean goes off in search of room 137 while Sam escorts the teenagers to the entrance of the asylum. When they get to the door, they realize it's locked. They have no way of getting out. Sam realizes that while the majority of the spirits aren't dangerous, one most likely is and locked the doors so no one could leave.

We cut over to Dean finding room 137 and finding Dr. Ellicott's journal. Dr. Ellicott was the prmary therapist on the job while the asylum was still running. Dean finds out the not so good doctor was doing all kinds of terrible things to the patients. Electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and a rage-out procedure. Apparently, the doctor believed if his patients could confront their rage then that would cure them of their violent impulses. Spoiler Alert: it backfired. The patients revolted and then killed him and his body was never found. 

Meanwhile, Sam receives a call from Dean and goes to the basement to find him. Before he leaves, he gives Kat a shotgun filled with rock salt and tells her to shoot if she sees anything. Sam heads into the basement and is confronted by the spirit of Dr Ellicott. Dean eventually makes it back to the teenagers and is confused when he finds Sam isn't with them. They tell him Sam got a call from him to go into the basement. Dean realizes the spirit probably called Sam to lure him into a trap. This spirit, man. He gives a whole new meaning to "ghosting." That's a term I use for when I butt dial someone or my phone just randomly calls someone. 

Dean heads into the basement and finds Sam. He tells Sam that they need to find the doctor's hidden office as that's most likely where the body is buried. Dean eventually realizes that the doctor has worked his rage-out mojo on Sam. Sam is now very angry with Dean. He's angry that Dean keeps dragging him everywhere. He's angry that Dean keeps following their father's orders without question. Sam shoots Dean with a round of rock salt which temporarily incapacitates Dean. Sam gets the upper hand and Dean gives him his pistol and tells Sam if he really wants to kill his own brother, a pistol will be much more effective than a shotgun filled with rock salt. Sam eventually pulls the trigger on the pistol but finds out it's not even loaded. Dean then knocks out Sam, finds the body of the doctor and burns it. 

Sam and Dean escort the kids out of the asylum and Sam apologizes for what happened. Dean is surprised to learn that Sam remembers everything but Dean doesn't want to talk about it. Basically, in Dean's mind, if Sam remembers it then that means he was in control. Which means there's a part of Sam that did want to kill Dean. We see the boys again the next morning sleeping in their motel room. Dean's phone rings and Sam picks up and responds with one word, "Dad?" And we're left with a cliffhanger. 

Thoughts

I enjoy this episode as I enjoy most bottle episodes. For those of you not in the know, in tv production, bottle episodes are episodes that are shot almost exclusively in one closed off setting. In a long running tv series, there's normally one or two bottle episodes in a season. This is done so the production can save money in their budget. If most of the episode takes place in one singular, closed off location, that means they can use their sound stage for that location and not have to spend a whole lot of money going to off-set locations. I really love bottle episodes. A lot of times, they're some of the best episodes. The first season of Teen Wolf has a fantastic bottle episode and it's probably one of my favorite epiosdes in the entire series. What is it that I like so much about bottle episodes? Well, mainly it's because typically, you're not going all over the place with the plot. Because the idea of a bottle episode is essentially to film in one location to save money, it means the plot is normally very singular. If there's only one thing going on with the plot, then that means you're spending a lot of time with the characters and a bottle episode done right, the character arcs are pretty interesting. And that's exactly what happened in this episode. They spend the majority of their time in this asylum setting so the plot stays very singular in its goals and sotry-telling. And as a result, we start getting a lot of great character moments. Even the guest stars (Gavin and Kat) I found entertaining to a certain degree.

This episode we start to really catch a glimpse on what it is about Sam and Dean that makes them so different from one another. Yeah, in previous episodes we've gotten the obvious things. You know, Sam is a nerd and Dean is the guy who never wants the party to end. But in this episode, you start seeing more of what makes them tick. Sam, at his core, is more of a free thinker. He questions things. He's the kind of person that if you were to tell him to do something without explaining, he would ask, "Why?" Whereas Dean would just simply do it. Not that he's a robot or anything. But he's a soldier through and through. He's been taught to follow orders and that's what he does. He protects Sam to no end because that's what his father told him to do at the age of four. We're going to see this theme of Sam being the rebel and Dean being the soldier explored countless times throughout this show's run. It's going to become especially important in Season 5. It’s actually quite interesting. A lot of times when a nerd is portrayed on film, they’re usually portrayed as someone who always wants to follow the rules and the party animal is seen as the rebel. But here it’s the opposite. Just another example of this show’s amazing ability to subvert expectations. But unlike a certain movie I recently saw back in Dec 2017, Supernatural actually subverts expectations the correct way.

I really love the overall tone this episode has, as well. It's a serious horror film kind of episode but there's also a certain amount of snarky self-awareness to it as well. The episode was taking itself seriously but not too seriously. I think this is the episode where the writers were starting to get the feel of the humor they wanted to insert. They really got their formula down with this episode.

So in this episode, Sam decides to go after Dean when he receives a phone call from him and he asks Gavin and Kat if either one of them can use a shot gun and Gavin says no. His face was pretty much saying, "Why on earth would I know how to use a shot gun?" But Kat states she knows how to use one and even holds it like she really knows what she's doing and I love that it's Kat that's the one who knows how to use it. This is something that I really enjoy about what Supernatural does. The show really doesn't display too much favoritism towards any specific sex. Sometimes you get women in this show who are in need of being rescued and sometimes you get women like Missouri and Kat who can handle themselves in a pinch. And sometimes you get male characters who are strong and brave and sometimes you get complete wusses like Gavin here. I just really enjoy that aspect of this show. 

Also, the ghost horror film effects in this episode were fantastic. I was scared when I was supposed to be, I was freaked out when I was supposed to be. Special effects were on point in this episode and that's saying something considering this is the first season and first season special effects are usually pretty bad. 

With this episode, it also started inserting cliffhangers at the end of each epsiode. Which I really enjoy because it kind of breaks off the pattern of this being your typical monster of the week, procedural show. With these cliffhangers, it starts building more into the overall arc of the season. 

Favorite Quotes

DEAN: You shoved me kind of hard in there. SAM: Had to sell it. It's called method acting. This merited a chuckle from me. Not sure why, I just did. Maybe since I'm an actress myself, I appreciate the call out to acting.

DEAN: Let me know if you see any dead people, Haley Joel. SAM: Dude, enough. DEAN: I'm serious. Ghosts are attracted to that whole ESP thing you got going on. SAM: I don't have ESP. I just have strange vibes, weird dreams. DEAN: Whatever. Don't ask, don't tell. SAM: You getting a reading on that thing or not? DEAN: Nope, but that doesn't mean nobody's home. SAM: Spirits can appear at certain hours during the day. DEAN: And the freaks come out at night. DEAN: Hey Sam, who do you think is the hotter psychic, Tricia Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt, or you? (Sam punches Dean playfully on the shoulder) I really love this scene. It's something that this show gets better at over time. That being giving out exposition in the form of banter. Shadowhunters should really learn from this. In this scene we learned that ghosts can be out and about in the day, that just because you can't get a reading doesn't mean they're there, and we also found out psychics are at risk when around ghosts. All while disguised under this air of brotherly banter.

KAT: I thought we were going to a movie. GAVIN: This is better. It's like we're in a movie. KAT: I can't believe you call this a date. Yeah, Kat. If this is what your boyfriend feels is an acceptatble use as a date, you may want to re-evaluate what you're looking for in a prospective romantic partner. Yeah, you're in a situation that's straight off a horror movie screenplay, but uh yeah, how many characters survive in your average horror film? One? Maybe two if the producers are feeling generous?

DEAN: I've got a question for you. You've seen a lot of horror movies, yeah? KAT: I guess. DEAN: Next time you see one, pay attention. When someone says a place is haunted, don't go in. I love self-awareness snark. Every show that has a fantasy element needs to have some level of self-awareness to it. Otherwise, the show just becomes dull. If you as the writers, producers, directors, can't have fun with the story, how am I as the viewer supposed to have fun?

GAVIN: She kissed me. SAM: But she didn't hurt you physically, did she? GAVIN: Dude, she kissed me! I'm scarred for life. This is just plain funny, what can I say?

KAT: Why would anyone want a job like that? SAM: I had a crappy guidance counselor. Sam being a smart-ass, I love it.

I'd give this episode an A-. I really liked it. It's a solid episode especially for the horror genre themed episodes. I love the character arcs. I love that we started to really get a sense of who Sam and Dean are underneath their superficial layers of personality. Yes, you can insinuate that someone is a nerd or they're a ladies man. But that's not WHO they are. Those are character attributes. What we got in this episode was a glimpse of Sam and Dean's core personalities and how they clash against each other and I love it.

If you have any thoughts on this episode, I'd love to hear it. Just remember to be respectful of everyone and no spoilers for Season 13, please.