Thursday May 3, 2007
3T5520
Dean is attacked by a Djinn... and finds himself in a new reality where his mother is still alive and a mysterious woman holds the key to everything.
Read Full Recap » (warning: possible spoilers!)Supernatural Season 2 Episode 20 What is and What Should Never Be
Sam and Dean follow the lead of a djin, who transports Dean to a reality where his mother is alive, his father was a baseball player, Sam and Dean were never hunters... and a misterious woman may hold the key to everything.
This episode was awesome. Was so amazing. So great. The plotline was amazingly brilliant! Dean discovers that if his mother would still be alive, he and Sam would never had been hunters and all the people they saved would be dead. This makes him preffer his old hunter life than his new "perfect" life.
Season Two pre-finale is one of the most accomplished ever. hide show
I can't stress enough how much I love this episode. It starts out like our usual Monster of the Week show and it quickly turns in an alternate reality episode that is both incredibly entertaining to watch and undeniably deep and meaningful.
First things first, I have to say that Eric Kripke, at his first directing job, achieved a great result: the direction of "What Is and What Should Never Be" is smooth and sassy, frightening and subtly ominous from time to time, without forgetting a good, occasional humorous injection. Furthermore, being a huge fan of David Lynch, I was beyond pleased to see a clear homage to "Blue Velvet" (the picket fence with yellow and red roses), and even more pleased to see that the same poetic that was conveyed by the movie (the evil lurking beneath the shiny surfaces of the bourgeois, Mid-American lifestyle) was in the episode too, with Dean catching menacing glimpse of the dirt and malevolent forces that toss about under the outward appearance).
The script - the last one wrote by the excellent Raelle Tucker - was incredibly deep and profound and it painfully shows how a normal life could be useless and pointless if you are not with the one you love the most, and Sam and Dean not getting along and being forced by the wish-verse to live different, separate lives was a sad anticipation of their division in "All Hell Breaks Loose". Seeing them reunite in the end was not only touching but also meaningful in terms of the overarching storyline: Dean has Sam's back, and we know this from a long time, but Sam has got Dean's back too and the two of them coming together is really powerful. Plus, the script raises an interesting moral question: what would you do if you can choose between the easy path and the hard one? Supernatural has always been a lay show, and this episode is a secular adaptation of a classical Biblical image, and the Djinn - at least in my opinion - is even a more effective gimmick to pose this question, because his mythical existence is basically a twisted version of what each and everyone of us had hoped for at least once in our lives: a genie able to answer our questions and fulfill our desires. In the end, I must say that Jensen Ackles delivered an outstanding performance throughout the whole episode, and particularly during the grave monologue (a mirror of another monologue Dean will pronounce in front of another dead, in "All Hell Breaks Loose - Part 2").
An interesting episode that's just as emotional as it is intense. hide show
This episode was all Dean. In a majority of episodes, Dean seems to be laying on the humor pretty thick and using humor as a defense mechanism. But in this one, seeing him as he realizes that maybe he's not meant to be happy but instead is meant to destroy evil and keep protecting others was amazing.
The djinn was an interesting choice for a villain, since he never really attacks or goes after the brothers. Instead, he uses illusions and false images in order to trick them and they end up just dying out in the meantime. Everything that was happening in Dean's dream world seemed a little off, and it was interesting to see how even in a dream, things still weren't completely happy. His dad was still dead, and things were still not good between him and Sam. That's probably what helped him make the ultimate decision to stab himself.
It was really good to see Mary and Jessica back, even if it wasn't real. Seeing what life would've been like was cool, but obviously would've been worse for Dean. Hunting is his one purpose in life, and not doing it would make him less happy.
This was a great lead-up to the finale and was a good way to view things in a different perspective.
Dean gets trapped by a djinn, and we get an answer to the SN question, "What if Mary Winchester never died?" And the answer is quite different. hide show
Although the episode is fantastic, it was the last few minutes that made the episode for me. From when the "family" crowded around Dean, and the pain and anguish on his face when he went to break himself from the djinn's dream to the end and the conversation between the brothers in the hotel room. That last part, where Dean has his moment (and didn't cross into emo-chick, so well done Jensen) was flawless. The acting (both Jensen and Jared) and the subtle music made that ending perfect. This is definitely a highlight- not just of the season, but of the series.
We get to see Dean's true hopes and desires that may never really be fulfilled. hide show
This episode is great simply because we get to see Dean's inner hopes and dreams without all the bravado. He wants a family, wants normalcy, and wants to love and be loved. It's very simple. Unlike many other people he's simply happy to see his mom and have a sandwich with her.
Dean never asks for anything, even in this reality he only asks for the basic things. He doesn't care about success, money, or fame. He just wants a chance at life.
Sam and Dean are not close in this reality and I think that this was/is a glimpse into how the brothers will be in the future. It could be foreshadowing. They weren't close when Sam went off to school and I think they probably won't be close in future episodes. I love how Dean is so...'Dean' in this episode. He sits on the front porch, has a beer, enjoying just being 'home'. He's thrilled to see his brother happy. And even in his dream state Dean is being completely selfless and thinking of others. He worries about the victims he had once saved but were now dead in the alternate reality. He puts aside his own happiness yet again.
I also enjoyed this episode for another reason. Carmen. Though she wasn't real and we barely saw her, I found her character engaging. Actually, of the series, I find Carmen is the one girl (or type of girl) that I think I want to see Dean with if he ever gets to settle with one person. They also had chemistry. Many of the love interests in the show seemed to fit the fun/flirtatious angle more and seemed more like one-night-stands that the writers were trying to force into a relationship with Dean. It was good to see Dean with someone who he seemed to like and could really care for outside of the bedroom.
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