Supernatural7x3 "The Girl Next Door" Jewel Staite guest stars

[Dorian Thompson]

Spoilers and discussions be here. Jensen Ackles directed tonight's episode. Jewel Staite of Firefly has a guest starring role. Great advance reviews and sneak peeks. Have fun.

[Joe Washington]

I really don't like Dean right now. I mean, a part of me understands why he killed the girl but he just made that kid an orphan and he will likely keep this a secret from Sam which won't help matters since them keeping secrets from each other always leads to something disastrous down the line. I have a feeling that Sam is going to find out, maybe during his trial in next week's episode. I think Dean often use Sam and his issues as a buffer behind him and his issues, and Cas's betrayal seem to have dampered his trust in supernaturals which Sam partially belong to, fearing that eventually they'll let you down. Dean seriously needs therapy. Years and years of therapy.

[Skywalker]

We all know that Dean's messed up. Even he admits it. But he also sees the world in a much more black-and-white light than Sam does. He sees a monster, he kills it before it can kill him or another human. I thought it was very in-character for him.

Also, as a Doctor Who fan, I loved the Amy Pond reference.

[Dorian Thompson]

I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the Amy Pond bit. Yes, Dean killed her. I'm loving this season to bits. Excellent stuff right now. And no, cake isn't pie. Yes, Dean needs a shrink in the worst way possible but I love that they went there.

[Joe Washington]

I hope what Dean did has some consequences for the season between him and Sam.

[mswood]

I liked it. So far this season is shaping up to be my 2nd favorite (season 4 just Rocked sorry all other seasons), and this really had a metamorphosis feel to it. Slow, more sedate passing, but a lot of character moments and a lot of mirroring. The only part I wasn't feeling great about was the flashbacks. Just seemed average to me, nothing bad, but nothing to make them stand out either.

[mswood]

Lord Vader wrote:

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We all know that Dean's messed up. Even he admits it. But he also sees the world in a much more black-and-white light than Sam does. He sees a monster, he kills it before it can kill him or another human. I thought it was very in-character for him.

Also, as a Doctor Who fan, I loved the Amy Pond reference.

Well Dean can and has made distinction about monsters before. You kill a human you die. So yeah I agree very in character.

Lenore didn't kill to his knowledge (she lives), non spirits who don't harm, he doesn't remove. You kill (pretty much for whatever reasons) your going to die.

Hell even Ruby, he wants her dead, so dead. But Ruby goes to great lengths to never harm a human, and with her "helping" Sam he lets her live. He finds out she is playing his brother she is very, very much toast.

It's very consistent for the character.

[Skywalker]

I actually started to type out an "if he knows that monster has killed and probably will kill again" qualifier when I was writing that post, but I decided not to keep it for some reason.

[Mutenroshi]

I laughed my ass off with Lemmy Kilmister!

[DarKush]

Good to see Jewel Staite but this episode was boring up until the end. The end sold it for me and I do think it was in character for Dean. However, I think the show hamstrung it by not having him kill the kid. It could've been off screen, or implied. I'm getting a little tired of the something is wrong with Sam plot that seems to be a recurring one in Supernatural, at least for the last two-three seasons. Perhaps they need to introduce another character into the mix so something can be wrong with them for a change.

[Captain Mike]

A good episode, not great mind you, and just a little above average for me. I almost didn't recognize Colin Ford(?) as Young Sam at first.
And yes it was very "Dean-ish" for him to "gank" Amy. She killed for her kid, but she still she killed people. I especially loved the interaction between Dean and the kid.....Sounds like a story down the road!!

And PLEASE tell me that I wasn't the only one to scream when:

Bobby showed up alive!!!!Or hope it turned out to be a drug hallucination...LOL

I know a spoiler tag probably wasn't necessary but just in case.

[Mr. Adventure]

Bobby looked pretty good in a suit. I'm surprised the Leviathan doctor hasn't raised any eyebrows at the hospital, they're not very subtle.

Majin Roshi wrote:

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I laughed my ass off with Lemmy Kilmister!

You just know Dean cane up with that one.

Lord Vader wrote:

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Also, as a Doctor Who fan, I loved the Amy Pond reference.

The Girl Next Door even sounds like a Doctor Who episode.

[mswood]

It does have a Who like title.

Giving this one a B-. Would have been a B or perhaps B+ with a tighter flashback.

As for Dean killing the kid, clearly he would have if the kid said yes. But to show a bigger change in Dean (how his life has changed him) I think it would have been interesting for them to have Dean gut the kid. Could you just imagine TWOP if they did?

Also some very nice subtile changes for Sam. We see him becoming back from hell and his demon blood fueled all out hunting days, to who he started out as.

Not driven to avenge Dean's death or Jessica, not driven by trying to save himself from what be fear's he might be, not driven by trying to control his malefic destiny.

Just calm and accepting that yes he is a freak. That Dean can say it because it is true. But that fact doesn't mean he can't be himself. He can show compassion, he can kill if he needs to, it doesn't make him evil.

I love that the producers can cheat and have Sam hearing previously recording words of Lucifer. Great way to save money, but to also show how he is still impacted. It doesn't cheat the audience.

I do wish we could have gotten Jeffrey Dean Morgan to do some ADR fir the phone calls though. Little touches like that really help sell flashbacks. It certainly helped third seasons long distance caller.

As for Dean's actions I wonder if one we hear about it next week/ and or we find out Sam's reaction. He knows Dean doesn't trust his judgement (and we know Dean has good reasons) but I also think it will piss Sam off. Always good to see.

Yes part of the show's history is Dean wondering what's wrong with Sam. This has been a part of season one (my brothers a freak psychic), two (my brother is going evil), three (how far will Sam go to try and save me from Hell), four (my brothers is a demonic blood infused freak), five (my brother is addicted to demon blood, oh and is Satans meat suit), six (my brother is a cold blooded monster to my brother is literally going to go nuts).

Yes it's been done, and done. But it's also a huge part ofDean's character being Sam's protector. I think he might be 90 and still be worried about how Sam deals with old age.

But it is also true that they have Sam deal With worrying about Dean. Though Sam's are much more about Dean trying to live his own life and finding happiness.

[hyzmarca]

Captain Mike wrote:

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A good episode, not great mind you, and just a little above average for me. I almost didn't recognize Colin Ford(?) as Young Sam at first.
And yes it was very "Dean-ish" for him to "gank" Amy. She killed for her kid, but she still she killed people. I especially loved the interaction between Dean and the kid.....Sounds like a story down the road!!

And PLEASE tell me that I wasn't the only one to scream when:

Bobby showed up alive!!!!Or hope it turned out to be a drug hallucination...LOL

I know a spoiler tag probably wasn't necessary but just in case.

Given what Dean knows, (heaven exists and it's a pretty nice place to live if you aren't being railroaded by the celestial bureaucracy) merely murdering a bunch of people shouldn't be that big a deal to him anymore.

Amy, on the other hand, is going to a place that's hell-lite at the very best (and given the number of angry monsters it contains, probably much worse). From a purely utilitarian perspective, what he did was much worse than what she did, by a very long way.



About Bobby, I do find it interesting that we didn't see him bleed in this episode.

[Dream]

I thought the episode was okay.

Didn't really like the flashbacks. They reallly slowed the entire episode down. The stand out scene of the episode was that part with Dean and Amy at the end.