Mannequin 3: The Reckoning

I'm way too tired and must go to bex. All I'll say for now is it was pretty weak. *SIGH* I guess we really did need Eric and the writers who've left us. I still love the show, will be forever addicted, loyal and owned by it, unless they do something WAY wrong (and damned if next week's episode doesn't look to have that potential), but this season has just fallen flat. I've only loved 2 eps. T.V.D. just keeps kicking its ass. I'm hoping, though, that it'll be like Rocky and just keep getting up again and win in the end.

Jared was the best thing about this ep. It was wonderful to see Sammy being Sammy and, even after the hell flashback, taking care of business competently.

It did have some good moments, pretty much every Sammy moment was good. I certainly felt for Dean and his situation, but they really messed the whole Lisa & Ben thing up. Unlike, apparently, most people, I never had a huge problem with her. There's so much hating on her and I don't get it. I do get it when it comes to the Destiel people. They hate anyone Dean is romantically/sexually involved with who isn't Cas. I mean, seriously, I'm friends with some of these people and they truly do seem to think that Cas/Dean is real and are going to end up together or screw or something. It's strange, because they all seem like really intelligent, clever people. Somehow, however, they seem to have a bit of a brain glitch when it comes to Destiel. Every intense look given/exchanged is "eye sex," every joke cracked that can be taken sexually in any way is flirting, etc. Sorry, bit of a ramble there, but my point was I can understand why THEY hate Lisa & Ben so much. I don't understand why the others do. She's not a bad person, she and Dean love each other, he's a normal, hetero male in his 30s, it just makes sense he'd click with someone at some point. However, she doesn't make sense to be that person. The only way I can excuse it in my mind is to think of it like their attraction was just so strong and there was so much trauma/stress, etc. that neither of them could see what a mistake it would be from the start. I mean, realistically (within the framework of this surrealistic show), any untrained, inexperienced (battle/monster-wise) woman and any child at all settled in one place with a Winchester would've been dead meat long ago. So, Dean playing Mr. Suburban Man was utterly uneralistic. Actually, I've never liked the fact that Dean really doesn't have some sort of affinity for his hunter lifestyle. In the first couple of seasons or so, when he'd make those comments about normal lives being lame, he really sold them and Sammy obviously believed him, so did I. I wish he'd stop with all the moping & only focusing on the negative and be the Dean he seemed to be in the first couple of seasons. I'd like to see him snap the hell out of his emo phase and realize that there are a lot of good things about his life, that he and his brother are amazing heroes and take some pride, contentment and, yes, even joy in his life. It's amazing the change of certain strong personality characteristics that've happened with them. In the beginning, Sammy only wanted out of it and Dean was trying to convince him at every turn what a good thing hunting was, now it's totally flipped. I think coming from Sammy, at this point, it's much more genuine than it was coming from Dean then, because he's done a lot of maturing and had a lot of experiences. I adore Sammy's attitude about it; he has great perspective. Of course he realizes that a lot of negativity is involved with their life's calling, but he's also very able to see all of the positive in it. He's been much more the calm, steady, responsible grown-up lately while Dean has been the emo kid. I want to see Dean where Sammy is. I think there'll always be plenty of angst to mine without our guys having to be dissatisfied with the very basics of their lives.

The woman situation will always be unrealistic on this show, though, because the majority of fans don't want either man to have a love interest of any kind. They can barely stand them having one-night stands. That's pretty damned unrealistic, if you ask me, but, mostly, what they want, they get. To me, it'd make the most sense for them to find women who are right for them: self-defense/weapons trained, no-ties-having, tough women. They don't even have to be hunters. They can be ex-military, tough-traveling-job-having, ex-police/FBI/CIA, etc. Before any of that happens, they should each get vasectomies. That'll never happen because that would ruin potential kid drama (it wouldn't have to, though; vasectomies sometimes fail), but that would be the smart thing to do. These girls, also, by virtue of their lifestyles, could easily not be able to just stay with them all the time and, voila! We'd have a realistic romantic situation and not have to be stuck seeing their girls all the time. Easy, yes?

I thought the posessed mannequins & sex doll (!!! Please.) were pretty lame. I actually watched the ep. twice and it was a lamer ep. on second viewing. I don't hate it, but it's mediocre. I give it a 5; maybe a 6 just for seeing such a competent, good-attitude-having Sammy. Speaking of which, ya know what? I'm on his side about the wall. I know, that sounds horrible. Of course I don't want my Sammy to suffer, however, he clearly can't live with knowing he's not been himself and has done horrible things. He knows the risks, and is in his right mind. He has the right to choose which hell he can deal with. I actually love it that he's such a stand-up guy that the hell of knowing he's done a lot of wrongs that he hasn't made right seems worse to him than the hell of remembering hell and suffering the tortures of it. He's clearly thought it through, he's a grown man, it's his choice. Obviously, this is going to happen, so I like it going this way--Sammy actually being strong and saying, "bring it on." I understand it. I can imagine being in his shoes and I don't think I could deal with knowing I'd been so awful and haven't fixed it, either. This is not soulless Sammy, this is the complete Sammy and the complete Sammy is sensitive and caring; of course he cannot let this go. I dread the consequences, but I'm in his corner. Besides, I'm confident his family (including his angel) will take care of him and figure out a way to fix him. You go, Sammy!

Yeah, the whole ghost story was idiotic. Grown men don't do shit like that and grown women aren't stupid enough to fall for such a stupid prank. I mean, it's one thing to get gifts and wonder if you really have a secret admirer, it's another thing to actually go to some strange address not knowing who's luring you there. No sane person--however "shy" or "awkward" (and I ought to know!)--would do something that stupid. As for myself, I wouldn't even eat candies left for me by a stranger. What kind of idiot would? There could be anything in those! Also, what idiot can't tell the difference between a mannequin sitting at a table and a person? If NOTHING else, if a person with genuinely good intentions had lured you there, he wouldn't just sit there with his back to you, not saying a word when you walked in. Also, her wound didn't look fatal to me. She took a glancing blow to the forhead from the corner of a coffee table. She got a deep gash there. Woo. I'm no med. pro., but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't kill someone. They'd most likely just need some stitches and pain meds and then go on home. At worst, they may get knocked out. And it was super stupid that those men didn't call the cops. Puh-leeze. If something was truly an accident, most any cop/detective worth his or her salt will be able to determine that. Super easy to tell how she died; there'd be blood on the coffee table, most likely; at least DNA. People don't premeditate coffee table murders. Yes, they would've been charged with some minor offenses, but that's hardly a good enough reason to decide to keep her death a secret. Yeah, involuntary manslaugher probably gets one a decent amount of jail time, but probably only the guy who grabbed her would've been charged with that. Totally unbelievable that they all went along with covering it up. And that guy having a sex doll? Oh, come on!

The interactions with Lisa and Ben were less than satisfying. The acting was good (not as much on the kid's part) and it was important, I guess, to get a glimpse of what was happening with them, but they didn't really make a lot of sense or resolve anything. I was ticked off that she kept asking Dean what he wanted when he was only there because her kid called him and tricked him into coming! And that he asked her to ask him for something when he hadn't even been willing to answer her calls! (Also, how could he not answer the calls from the woman he's in love with?! She could've been in trouble!) Uhhh, what?! Did any of that make sense to you? It sure didn't to me. I don't even understand what the problem was here, exactly. They'd had an arrangement, then, through no fault of Dean's own, he got vamped and made a mistake. Why the hell couldn't he just explain what happened, that, of course, under normal circumstances, he'd NEVER have shoved Ben, and then they go back to their arrangement? What did I miss, here? Did he never even explain what happened? Apparently not. Duh, Dean! In any case, I do think he should keep in touch with Ben. He's at an age where a strong bond with a father figure is important, and he's clearly made that with Dean. If he just completely abandons him forever, that's gonna almost definitely scar the kid to some degree. He should call/e-mail him as regularly as possible and maybe visit a few times a year. We need not ever see these visits or calls; we can just hear about 'em in passing, but it is pretty awful for him to abandon the kid, esp. at such an impressionable age.

As to the T.V.D. comparisons, the thing is, the Winchesters felt like family almost right off the bat. I didn't need these 6 years for it to happen, they drew me in very quickly. I definitely already felt this way by the second season. For that matter, Cas felt like family even in season 4! I don't think T.V.D.'s characters will ever touch me in quite the same way. Understand, I ADORE them, but just in a different way. They seem like awesome people that I really care about, but not like family, exactly, if that makes any sense. Also, sure, shows tend to slump some in later seasons, but that doesn't give them a pass. Either you're loving what you're seeing or you're not. Again, I still love the show. Whatever lame stories & ridiculous, angel-wasting humor they throw at me, these characters own my heart and I'll tune in to see them and learn what happens to them. Also, even a bad episode tends to have its good moments. When I see the Winchesters, Cas and Bobby, I feel happy, so they've got me for however long they're around. Again, I hope we get at least one more season. I also hope, in that one or more season(s) that they handle Cas with the proper care and respect. He's barely been on the show this season, and him being in every ep. from here on out doesn't make up for it. I forgave in the beginning because I thought they were giving Misha paternity leave. Turns out that wasn't the case; they'd just never planned to put him in the show! I'd have MUCH rather seen Cas and his battle play out than most of the lame monster stuff we've had this season. There's no reason they couldn't have focused on the brothers and Cas rather than the brothers and lame monsters. They found a real gem in Misha and have been wasting him and ill-using him for tasteless humor unbecoming of an angel (and being illogical & unrealistic), while having him be abused and under-appreciated by his only human friends, and that's disappointing. (Ummm, why is the name of that smiley "fag?!")

I agree with you about the slow-moving/insubstantial storyline this season, too. It's very strange, isn't it? There are these two (related somehow, I assume) epic things happening: WAR IN HEAVEN and some monster mom, and yet about all we keep seeing is the brothers working monster cases and arguing about Sammy's health. confused:

*Whew* I'm done!

Oh I agree it wasn't very strong episode, but I thought it was okey. I mean, there was some good stuff,too. I kind of enjoyed family storyline although before I couldn't care less. In this episode it felt more natural, I don't know. I also thought it was quite good idea w/ dolls and stuff, but I hate when people die for nothing - I mean, this is typical for example for Cold Case tv show. I guess, you're not watching it/havent seen it, but it's awesome, always tells different story, but God many of victims were killed for silly things. Killing this girl because she was ugly and then accidentally drop her on the table... Come on! That's so lame. Do those things happen in real life,too I wonder. I mean, no one can be so stupid?! Lol.
Also both boys were great, I loved Dean saying that "doll" was creepy. The face he made Hilarious.
BUT one thing bothers me a lot. We're in second half of the season and maybe the last season at all and NOTHING MAJOR is happening. I mean, no interesting plot being told. They should have kept old writers, that's for sure.
Though, I don't like comparing TVD and , because in certain aspects it's unfair to both shows. WHen we talked about SPN being our family and that we don't feel the same about TVD, I thought, damn but SPN has been around for 6 years. It's understandable we take them as part of our lives. THEN saying SPN is worse this year - YEP, I agree, but then again it's 6th year of SPN. When they were shooting 2nd season, SPN rocked ass. So i suppose, we shouldn't be that hard on SPN. Still I feel your disappointment. But to be honest, I didn't enjoy this week's TVD as much as I expected. I blame my high expectations, but the flashback wasn't that long and that cool as I thought it'd be. LOL, i'll stop my ramble over here... I might write more on TVD later in right thread. I'm way too tired today