• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Supernatural 6x12 "Like A Virgin" spoilers/discussion

D

Dorian Thompson

Admiral
Admiral
After making the inexplicable and last minute decision (after sending out advance screeners of tonight's eppy to many positive reviews) last Friday to pull Supernatural (and Smallville) for repeats of Vampire Diaries and Nikita that had aired the previous night--we FINALLY have a new episode of Supernatural. :rolleyes:

It picks up literally right where they left off. It's about damn time. Matt Roush of TV Guide repeated SPN as his weekend pick. God, the CW is dumb.
 
And here's the new opening for the show: ;)

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6sJY4r4IZg[/yt]
 
I can't wait to see what Sam is like after his re-souling. I don't think he'll be completely the Sam he was before he went into the pit last season.
 
That opening sequence is awesome. :)

I can't wait to see re-souled Sam either. Buddy TV says we'll have a real appreciation for how well Padalecki played soulless Sam after this episode.
 
Finally I think I forgot this show (I kid), and while I liked souless Sam, I really, really miss Sam, not to mention the connection between the two. Hell even when they were coming to blows they had great chemistry. I miss that.
 
I love Dr. Viziak. She was made of awesome.

I can't believe they had a dragon flying around stealing actual virgins. :rommie: Hell yeah, women with experience rock. Dean is right. Worshipping virginity is crap. The girl who did the nasty survived and wasn't kidnapped. I like that. :evil:

I loved that Bobby pointed out that yes, it was part of Sam that came after him and now we see that he doesn't trust him while he probably would have cut Dean some slack. So--who is Mother?
 
Good episode. Nothing extraordinary. I'm really interested in this "Mother" bad guy and I'm liking how re-souled Sam wants to make up for the things he's done which is a step in the right direction. But there's still the matter of the wall in his head which I think will break completely late in the season, leaving the rest of the season to deal with the emotional fallout.
 
Well certainly as some things he does need to make amends for, but really his time without a soul, isn't one of them. Its like blaming Dean for breaking in hell when he had a moral compass.

The whole point of no soul is not having any filters to say this is wrong, or I shouldn't do it.

Of course being Sam, he is of course going to want to make up for that, but it isn't really legitimate.
 
Not a great episode, but so very solid.

THe little touches of Seeing Sam being Sam, seeing Dean's joy in seeing his brother acting like his brother. Boy I missed that a lot. I like that the characters understand that it Sam wouldn't have done those things, even if it was his knowledge and body doing them, but that Dean understands he would also try and make things better even if it was him (A parallel with his own Hell experience).

I like the drug analogy, Sam used. Something that was done to him that removed his own sense of judgement (though it truth this was far, far more). And I like the specific drug used as it is often consume without knowledge of doing so. As what did happen to Sam wasn't his choice.

Still a little bothered by Bobby's reaction (to a small degree) after all he himself knows whats its like to be the instrument out to murder your surrogate family, to have another take your choice away and to use your form and knowledge against those you care about.

Loved the camera angles on this one, and while it was obvious after the 2nd vampire episode that the "mother" would be the bad guy, funny that some beliefs list Lilith as the mother of monsters (clearly that isn't going to be the case her, I would guess). I wonder if they will go with the Greek myth, I kind of doubt it after all the cheap shots Lucy took towards those types of pantheons.
 
I think she supposed to be the Mother of all the Alphas, the one who started off the entire chain of supernatural monsters.
 
Watched this one this morning. Just more of the average fare we've gotten all season. The virgin/dragon supernatural plot wasn't anything we hadn't seen before and it really wasn't that compelling even with the intriguing payoff at the end involving the emergence of Mother.

It seems SN is just on autopilot--I knew they'd go investigate it. They question the girl who was attacked in their suits. They go back to the motel. They throw a few lowbrow quips at each other--this time involving virgins. They go and get a magical weapon to slay the monster--although I found waaaaay too much time was spent on Dean's attempts to remove the sword and the comedy bit surrounding it fell totally flat--it felt like they were just padding out the episode. Then we got the obligatory monster/Winchesters showdown that holds no suspense in who will survive. Then we have the nice brief final act scene with the brothers reflecting.

And for whatever reason Sam's "return" did very little for me. I don't know if it was because they didn't have him soulless long enough to make me miss his other persona or what but it just didn't effect me like it needed to. Plus the whole Bobby/Sam angst felt like the writers addressing relevant character conflict because it was expected of them given the events from the previous episode--which is a good idea in theory but when it came to actual execution it wasn't that gripping--very ho-hum.

I was also disappointed how the dragons were just used as another monster plot device who are trying to get to Purgatory rather than using them also as an interesting creature rarely explored in supernatural type shows. And while I get the budget preventing seeing a CGI dragon I was still disappointed we didn't see one.

I give it a C--very very average. The only moment where I sat up and was fully engaged in the hour was the release of Mother--that's unacceptable I should be involved the whole time and I don't know how Roushh chose this as a must see pick.

Both Fringe and SN had very middling underwhelming outings last night.
 
See some of the things you disliked are what I enjoyed. People have learned behaviors that do repeat over and over again. Thats realistic. From both your daily routine, in home life and work, and in your personal relations people perform the jobs in the same pattern, they have the same type of conversations and banters with the same people. Thats realistic.

To break people's routines it can't be another day at the office, and while their job is much more out there then ours (I assume) it's still business as usually in 90% of the episodes, because that is their daily life. The banter, teh concern, the lies, and the humor are all completely consistent to how the characters have been drawn since the very beginning. And thats how people actually are. One of my favorite things about this show from the very first episode I watched (Home) is the very believable interactions that Sam and Dean have.

And its one of the things I missed in the first 11 episodes of this season because it didn't exist, as a different character was there. Thats something significant to break someone out of their daily patterns.
 
I thought it was an OK episode, not great, but good. I liked Dr. Viziak; I hope we see her again. I would love to find out about her history with Bobby.

The climax of the plot fell a bit flat, but I did appreciate Dean's approach to removing the sword from the stone. "You're insured, right?"
 
mswood said:
See some of the things you disliked are what I enjoyed. People have learned behaviors that do repeat over and over again. Thats realistic. From both your daily routine, in home life and work, and in your personal relations people perform the jobs in the same pattern, they have the same type of conversations and banters with the same people. Thats realistic.
Click to expand...
Well from an entertainment perspect it leads to very formulaic storytelling for a viewer to sit through. That's why I can't watch shows like NCIS, CSI. There is a difference between episodic and formulaic storytelling.

TNG was a show that had the same basic mission and did standalone stories but the key to its success was it wisely varied the dynamic so it didn't fall into a predictable rut the way SN or CSI has. They did this through telling a variety of stories and not having the same familiar pattern as far as story structure the way SN is doing or the way Law & Order did in its storytelling.
 
This was my first episode of Supernatural literally since September....I haven't watched my DVDs, I don't get expanded cable so no TNT, and haven't watched the episodes I have on iTunes since Exile on Main Street. I heard what had happened in the last episode and was curious to see what was going to happen.

In general it was...alright I suppose. I'd compare it with most 'filler' episodes of season 4 and 5, it moved the plot along and introduced a new supernatural creature which was cool. It was nice to see real, normal Winchester banter rather than whatever the heck that was that was going on in Exile. I did enjoy the sequence of Dean trying to get the sword out of the stone, actually. The ending scene actually did have me intrigued as well and I will probably give the show another shot next week.

But...from what I gathered from the 'before' flash of the episode I'm not so sure I like the overall arc of the season anyway. Have they really given a reason WHY all these baddies want access to purgatory? WHY these Supernatural creatures suddenly, after 20 some odd years of hunting, changed pattern and need 'Alphas'?

Again, though...it seems like either the writers don't trust Padalecki with heavy acting or they just don't know how to handle the 'real' Sam. They almost always gloss over any real emotional reaction for him, he just pops up after Castiel's announcement and is like "Hey! I'm ready! Let's hunt!" as if it's completely normal to find out you're missing a year and a half of memories. I suppose it's just a matter of 'the other shoe dropping' so to speak and we'll see it in the coming weeks...but it's disappointing to just see another "Dean, I'm sorry" half-assed apology like after Lucifer Rising.

That...and this is going to sound really silly, but why are father figures always so...difficult in their relationship with Sam? I mean I totally get WHY Bobby would be distrustful of Sam at this point, but it kind of runs counter when he didn't treat Sam like that after Born Under A Bad Sign. Of course Meg didn't get nearly as far as Sam did in the attempt to kill him, but the principle is the same. It just seems like Sam can never win with most authority figures come to think of it...Castiel's on better terms with Dean, Dean is Bobby's favorite, and while it's arguable I'd say John had a better relationship with Dean as well. It's just continuing the pattern I saw the last two seasons of Dean being propped as the 'good' or 'better' of the two. That and the latest promo poster all points towards the fact that we're supposed to see Dean as better (seriously...a halo?!). It's just so...opposite of how it used to be in the early seasons, where Sam was the moral center, the one that was more virtuous of the two (so to speak)...and now? It just seems wrong to this Sam girl.

The other silly nit, and perhaps this comes from spending all last summer watching episodes on DVD and iTunes and forgetting just how it is to watch the show 'live' but the amount of commercial breaks compared with other shows I watch was...frustrating. It's like I'd just start to get into what's happening and suddenly a commercial for Gossip Girl is on again. Uggh...CW.
 
AliciaD496 said:
But...from what I gathered from the 'before' flash of the episode I'm not so sure I like the overall arc of the season anyway. Have they really given a reason WHY all these baddies want access to purgatory? WHY these Supernatural creatures suddenly, after 20 some odd years of hunting, changed pattern and need 'Alphas'?
Click to expand...
They havn't come out and explicitly stated exactly although last night's episode hinted the creatures were wanting Mother freed from Purgatory--but for what that is still unknown.
 
Bizarre seeing dragons opening the door to Purgatory, it was like "you got your chocolate in my peanut butter", kind of an odd mix of elements.

I think this episode suffered from coming so long after the last one. It kind of blunted the eerie effect of Sam suddenly being back, I think it would've worked much better had it immediately followed the previous episode.

I loved Bobby's delivery of the "Who? Hogwarts?" comment. I thought the humor hear worked pretty well though Dean blasting the rock apart with C4 while *inside* struck me as ham-fisted. I don't know, maybe a jackhammer might have been over-the-top yet still a bit more reasonable?

I think Cas really wanted a hug. :lol:

Whoever thought up the Catholic schoolgirl uniform really should be excommunicated because it really should be discouraging such evil thoughts instead of provoking them! Or is that just me.....

I understand the previous comments about being formulaic and what not but I still enjoy these episodes generally. I guess the formula still works for me generally.
 
Have they really given a reason WHY all these baddies want access to purgatory? WHY these Supernatural creatures suddenly, after 20 some odd years of hunting, changed pattern and need 'Alphas'?
Click to expand...

Patience, Alicia. Patience. ;) I promise, answers forthcoming. There is a reason.

Yeah, the #$%^#@ commercials really interrupt the flow. Alicia, the reason Bobby is so much less forgiving this time is that Meg wasn't possessing Sam. It was Sam who was willing to murder him. Part of Sam. No demonic entity was driving his actions. Just instinct and lack of moral filter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top