Supernatural - 1x16 "Shadow" Rewatch
Added 2024-01-21 09:16:19 +0000 UTC
Comments
Hah! Just really noticed how Meg and Sam are totally rocking the same haircut! It is sorta messed up that this was where they really made the brothers have this overarching relationship codependency crux which they decided to drive through every single season. Yes I am still salty that they tried to make it sound like everyone was okay with this and what needed to happen at the end. Just throw in a few nostalgic lines from season 1 and we have to accept it since things are coming full circle. But why did we watch 15 seasons if they were just going to reset back to factory settings? Expanding the idea of family which included both found and not based on blood only, made this show great and they made it stone number one and built on it. Losing each other at the end seems to unravel all the blood, sweat and tears not only they put in but we as the fans did as well. Even with the contrivances over the long run of this show, the brothers still hit me emotionally because Jared and Jensen are amazing but the death scene at the end didn't get me at all. At one point I was thinking "please die already" because I was just ready for it to end. That is not something I thought I would ever say so yeah...salty. *I am 100% ignoring the character assassinations that plagued both brothers, all that the side characters that suddenly disappeared but I cannot believe how they fumbled Dean in the final season especially.
CrystalDeth
2024-03-15 18:38:56 +0000 UTCShelley, the episode you are referring to in later seasons when Sam was okay with hunting was "Book of the Damned" and he was having the conversation with Charlie. One of my favorite scenes of that whole season. Gets me every time. I've added a link to the full 2:42. Felicia and Jared knocked it out of the park. Sam: "I guess I really understand now...this IS my life. I love it. But I can't do it without my brother...I don't want to do it without my brother. And if he's gone - then I don't" Charlie: "I got it" https://youtu.be/_8n14qSJM8Q?si=po_qJRSKHXGhC9Ar
Vel
2024-01-24 16:05:40 +0000 UTCAs a fellow Buffy and Supernatural fan you have probably rewatched Buffy numerous times? Would you consider a rewatch of buffy at some point? I would love to watch it along with you.
Shona
2024-01-23 22:22:06 +0000 UTCEp 12: MOTW Ep 13: Agree with all comments you made. Ep 14: Myth arc. Ep 15: MOTW You and I are simpatico…Phil Sgriccia is absolutely the most consistently great director, along with being responsible for so many of the music cues, gag reels, and post production producer.
AdoptDontShopPets
2024-01-23 17:46:39 +0000 UTCUgh I could not agree more about the truck episode. In all my many, many rewatches of the show… I have never once rewatched that episode. (I don’t like Bugs either and don’t rewatch that one either… but that’s only because I can’t handle creepy crawlies lol.) I loved Nightmare too. I think it is a myth arc. I think Faith is also a myth arc. With how the story of reapers and magic (specifically it having a heavy price) carries through the series. So much good stuff. I’m one of the few who really liked The Benders— I think because of my psychology background and it showing human monsters. RIP OG Meg. 😢💜 I think that masking tape symbol could have been done better. There were a lot of blood spots not in the symbol pattern, so how did Dean know which ones to connect?? lol cmon set people… you can do better than that. lol Plus I think the symbol looks more X-Files than SPN. “Something Michael Murray” lol. I used to have such a crush on him back in the day lol. Side note… it drives me nuts how often they write deans character like he never reads… then other times say he’s reading Vonnegut. Know your character and pick a side, writers. Sigh. Awwww Dean just wanting his baby brother to stay with him. My heart. ❤️ I have always had very mixed feelings about John. On one hand, I do believe he loves his boys. But on the other hand, I despise how he brought them up and all the pressure and guilt he placed on Dean. But yet, it gave us the strong and loyal boys we love so much. I grew up in a very very abusive home. My father was extremely physically and emotionally abusive to my mom and us kids…so I think that plays in to my anger towards John.
BunkerGirl
2024-01-22 21:40:30 +0000 UTCRoute 666 is my least favorite of the season. Bugs is my second least favorite. I actually don't like Nightmare that much. It's my least favorite of the psychic kid stories. Of the 3, I prefer The Benders. I really like Shadow and I'm sure a lot of that is due to the final scenes, but I liked getting to see Meg again too.
KAREN GAUCK
2024-01-21 22:23:29 +0000 UTCI'd say they both aren't hybrids. Faith is motw and Nightmare is myth arc (is that how one writes it?). I think Meg really meant Chad Michael Murray. I believe they were talking about that she went to LA only for a short time and there met him as a nod to him also being on Gilmore Girls and Jared's character actually having somewhat of a rivalry with his character on the show.
BexFangirl
2024-01-21 20:58:08 +0000 UTCRip Nicki Aycox leukemia sucks but she was a hell of a Meg I enjoy her acting so much!🌹
NSTG_Eddie
2024-01-21 16:50:01 +0000 UTCI hadn't heard that about the 300th episode! That's fascinating.
YazH
2024-01-21 15:38:16 +0000 UTCYou make so many good points about Route 666 - I think the only attractive thing about the episode is we get to see how beautiful Mr Ackles is ;) I completely agree about Phil Sgriccia- 100% the best director. And good point about Nightmare and John being somewhat better on a scale than Max's dad (I would say Nightmare is pure myth arc, but Faith is MOTW). And The Benders-wise, I think the dad Bender was a good actor which really helped the episode. But I do think you're right about Shadow - the scene between the boys in the motel room about Sam's going back to school, notwithstanding, Nightmare is a better episode over all. For me, in Shadow Jeff's take on John has always struck me as out-of-character. The super-softness and teariness here has always jarred with who and how he was in Salvation and Devil's Trap (and like you say how Dean knew it was Yellow Eyes in the latter). For me, those portrayals ring more true with how he was in In my Time of Dying and in the flashbacks we get in Something Wicked. But I do love how you keep bringing up Lata and Carlos being missing in John's life! I'm loving re-watching with The Winchesters and Drake's portrayal as a reference point. (The Chad Michael Murray thing was an in-joke as he was on Gilmore Girls and in House of Wax with Jared, and was a friend of his, I think). The best shots and lines of the episode for me were when Dean says 'Could be' with the little hopeful half-smile and Sam gently says 'I don't want them to be.' Heartbreaking.
YazH
2024-01-21 15:30:58 +0000 UTCAt 1:08:03 mark, OMG Shelley, you get it ... about John in the 300th episode ... that was what Andrew Dabb had said as one of his explanations about why John was not as hard on the boys. It was as a consequence of he might have been remembering his "visit" to the bunker in the future ... it softened him towards the boys. At the end of the 300th episode scene, he said that he dreamt it when he returned to the past. Let me see if I can find the article again and his exact quotes. ETA: Q: ... With that, John fades away, waking up in the Impala circa 2003. “I just had one hell of a dream,” John says when Dean calls him. “It was a good one.” So how does what John experienced fit into the show’s mythology? Does he actually recall what happened in 2019? “I think it would create some problems for us, time travel-wise, if he remembered everything,” co-showrunner Andrew Dabb tells TVLine. “He thinks it is a dream. And it didn’t change him, it didn’t change our history, but I would like to think it did, for maybe just a small amount of time, soften him toward Sam [and] Dean. The John we see in Season 1 is very much not the John we’ve talked about who existed before Sam went away. That John was much more hard-edged… And I would like to think that, possibly, this dream, this experience that happened, marks that turning point. via link: https://tvline.com/recaps/supernatural-recap-season-14-episode-300-john-remembers-dream-1026692/ At 1:18:03 mark, Meg is YED's daughter ... as said by YED!John to Dean in 1.22 The Devil's Trap and Meg herself, in 1.11 Scarecrow at the very end scene when she cut the throat of the man who picked her up. She said "Yes, father," to someone whom I presumed to be YED, via the bowl of blood.
rose mnor
2024-01-21 14:45:13 +0000 UTCI haven't watched the rewatch reaction yet, but I would like to post these observations first, culminating my earlier comments up to here in Shadow. In my opinion, this episode demonstrates the reasons why John didn't contact Sam and Dean throughout the season. So that John wouldn't be tempted to meet up with the boys. Their enemies then wouldn't have access to John as the boys would also not be used as vehicles to convey or to leave messages for John, ESPECIALLY if that intel were designed to bring John in. If there was a need, John would then surreptitiously go to see them without the boys knowing about it, like in 1.09 Home. The father and sons would be hard to use as bait against each other if there were no contact to begin with. As I've said before in my comments, imo, John is being hunted back by YED as a consequence of his hunting the demon in the first place. Like YED said 4.03 In The Beginning to Mary, "... as long as I am not interrupted" but Mary did so she was killed. John now is hunting YED so he has to die before Sam can be turned. As long as John is alive, he will hunt and then try to kill the demon, and with all his might John will try to prevent Sam from going darkside. Therefore, the endgame to YED in S1 is - John has to go. Also, John now has the reputation of being an accomplished hunter and tracker, so he is a threat to YED. Hence using his sons as bait to bring him out of hiding. John is the target right now imo, not Sam, not yet. Furthermore, if they are together (like in this episode) and confronted by the enemies in the process, John can be threatened with - by hurting the boys in return. He would then have no choice but to comply with whatever their demands. John is in a weak position and vulnerable to threats in those moments - his sons are his weakness for the enemies to threaten him with - and that is what I gleaned from that scene and what Dean had meant. And John wants to keep Sam away from him, as YED is, as I mentioned earlier, hunting John. John hasn't found YED yet and on top of that, MOST IMPORTANTLY, he hasn't found the weapon that can kill it - the Colt. He was on the right track though, so hunting with or meeting up with the boys is pointless to him right now - it is not the time yet. ETA: I watched it already ... loved that your takeaways are more or less similar to mine, Shelley, for the most part ...
rose mnor
2024-01-21 13:41:54 +0000 UTCWhen Meg says she met Something Michael Murray it's one of those early seasons in-jokes - Chad Michael Murray was in Gilmore Girls and House of Wax with Jared and they are friends according to superwiki. There's another reference to GG in Hollywood Babylon in s2 and to House of Wax in that s5 ep with Paris Hilton.
Jay
2024-01-21 12:44:26 +0000 UTCIn later seasons Sam says he is happy with his life when it is him AND dean hunting together. Once Dean is gone then he doesn't feel that way and leaves.
Christopher simeon
2024-01-21 12:02:27 +0000 UTCI chose this episode over Nightmare because of the moment between the brothers and the John scene giving us great character insight. Objectively I think Nightmare is a better episode this one had a slow start and in all honesty it was the acting that really elevated the script.
Kim Rigg
2024-01-21 11:45:57 +0000 UTCAs always, thanks for a great reaction Shelley . I might be enjoying these even more than the first time round! And I love that I can chat freely now 😄 Might as well say about the Psychic kid power sets but you are right that we get more info in season 2 👍🏻😄. The kids have one primary ability to start with: sam and Ava have psychic dreams, max had telekinesis, Andy and Asam have mind control, Jake has super strength, Lilly killed people if she touched them, another kid electrocuted things with touch. But Jake and Ava say that when you give into in, a switch flips and you get all kinds of powers (Jake uses mind control after flipping, Ava can control demons, Andy didn’t give in to ‘evil’ but by practicing he went from needing to talk to people, to being able to project his will onto people). This is all before any (adult) demon blood drinking. So Sam already had telekinesis (not just because he was around Max) but he wasn’t giving in to using his powers - he was fighting it. Plus Ruby finally tells him in Lucifer Rising “you didn’t need the feather to fly, you had it in you the whole time” (Dumbo reference) - so one head canon is that Sam could actually do all the psychic stuff without demon blood, the blood just power boosts him, plus Ruby needed him addicted to string him along For this episode: the Daeva Shadow Demons are pretty meh to me, but I love what we learn about both Meg and John and that puts the episode on par with Mightmare for me (both episodes are definitely myth arc episodes, and I’d say Faith is just MOTW). Meg absolutely did buy into the YEDs bullshit😄. She is ALL about Loyalty. She says later: “You find a cause and you stick to it.” And she always does. First it’s YED, then it’s Lucifer once he rises, then it’s killing Crowley in revenge for him helping to defeat Lucifer and stealing the throne of hell. But due to her loyalty to her causes she is able to be trustworthy if your goals align. She is a Dean parallel - the good son - and one of my favourite villain characters 😄 As for John here, yes we see a much needed soft side, (and it’s needed because we will see his detrimental treatment of young Dean in Something Wicked, and we will see stubborn pride as he and Sam butt heads in Deadman’s Blood.) - John absolutely is a complex messy and imperfect character! But I love digging into all of that. Plus he is doing something important just now in going after Azazel. The Mission (tm). There is more at stake here than just revenge, and John has Azazel scared or Meg would not have been sent to take him out! Should the Winchesters Family have struck together? Sam and Dean prove that they are ultimately stronger together despite the weakness of caring and being vulnerable. I think the moral of the story is that even in war you can’t lose your humanity or you become the evil you are fighting. (However in terms of the show, we do needed Sam and Dean on their own for growth🤷🏻♂️😄 so as in all things: balance is probably the answer) Enjoy Hellhouse if you enjoy seeing baby GhostFacers and the Tulpa 😄. But I’m more looking forward to Something Wicked and getting to unpack the weechester flashbacks and the Striga.👍🏻😄 cheers.
MidnightSilver
2024-01-21 11:23:03 +0000 UTCSam: "when this is over, you'll have to let me go" makes me so mad knowing how the show ends because instead of dean having growth and actually letting Sam go live the normal life he wants, he just has to die in order for Sam to have that life coz the boys are incapable of growth appearntly. I never understand dean's logic in saying john must be away for them in order for them not to be used against him, it makes no sense especially because in this episode Sam and dean were used against john even though they weren't together so I don't understand how that makes any sense, it's better for the three of them to stick together so they can support each either, it's a weak excuse for not having JDM more often lol
Hasnaa
2024-01-21 11:10:54 +0000 UTC
