Previously: Our hearts died along with Ellen and Jo.
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Sam, Interrupted
Samantha: We open at a psychiatric hospital where a woman patient sits in the doctor’s office. He asks why she refuses to take her medication and she says that they make her sleepy and if she sleeps the monster will come. The doctor is all “yeah, but this monster is just a symptom of the schizophrenia that you have, let me describe it to you.” Susan says that she knows what she is, she can see her dead son, but this monster is real and killed Annie. He keeps psycho babbling and refuses to believe.
Next we see Susan in her room, at night, terrified as noises come from the ceiling. We pan to the empty hallway when Susan starts to scream for help, and the other patients join in. A nurse kind of shrugs that they’re “starting early tonight” and doesn’t go to check on her. This is where I sigh at how mental health is always portrayed in tv and movies. Susan looks out the little window in her door, screaming for help and another patient across the hall watches her from his little door window. He sees her get grabbed. Later, it’s unclear how much later, the nurse opens the door to her room and Susan is dead on the floor with her wrists slit. I haaaate the teasers. Someone always just dies. (I know, I know.)
Kirsti: And after the sob-fest that was the last episode, it just HAD to be a female character, didn’t it… -_-
Samantha: BLOOOOOD!
We end up back in the doctors office, only Sam and Dean are now the ones sitting across from him. This whole scene is fairly hilarious, so its going to be a lot of quoting and gifs. A lot of gifs of this conversation, you guys. The doctor says that they were recommended to him by a Dr. Babar and questions how there is also a children’s book about an elephant named Babar. Dean deadpans, “I don’t know. I don’t have any elephant books.” He says that they’re here because his brother is:
The doctor is not impressed by Dean’s lack of tact and asks Sam (“Alex”) to tell him how he’s feeling. Sam says that he’s just a little depressed because he started the apocalypse. Dean gives the doctor “I told you so” face and it’s excellent. Here, look.
Samantha: Sam goes on to describe killing Lilith and freeing Lucifer and how they’re trying to stop Satan. The doctor inquires who is trying to stop Lucifer and Sam says him, Dean, and this one angel named Castiel.
K: How they ever managed to get a usable take of this scene is totally beyond me because I’m pretty sure they’re both a split second from cracking up throughout.
Samantha: This has to be true.
Dean asks the doc to fix him up so they can get back on the road and hunt monsters. The doctor picks up his phone and asks his assistant to cancel his lunch. Dean pats Sam’s arm in a “we’ll get you fixed up little buddy” way.
I very much enjoy this scene. I think them telling the truth plays very nicely here and really works as the set up for this episode. I also love the idea of Sam and Dean in the Impala practicing all of that.
K: It’s also a much lighter version of that episode in season 2 where Sam went to a shrink for the case they were investigating and used it as an excuse to talk about how frustrating he finds Dean.
Samantha: Oh man, I forgot about that. This is better.
The next shot is a nurse walking the boys down a hallway and informing them that the doctor would like to keep them both here for observation for a few days. Dean feigns confusion at his being asked to stay too, but then smiles adorably at Sam ’cause their plan worked.
The nurse takes them one at a time into a room for a check up. While she is taking Dean’s blood pressure, he gives her a speech about how he’s seen Cuckoo’s Nest so authoritarian bullshit won’t work on him. She just smiles and says okie dokie. As you might remember, Dean Winchester likes people who say okie dokie.
K: Sam’s “OHGOD NO NOT A CAVITY SEARCH” face is so awkward and also kind of amazing.
Samantha: It is, because it’s basically that very specific facial expression, which, impressive.
Sam comes out and the boys awkward about the water pressure in the shower before awkwarding about the nurse’s thoroughness. Then it’s time for some exposition and Dean grumbles that he can’t believe Sam talked him into this. Sam insists that it was the right thing to do, because Martin saved Papa Winchester’s ass a lot. Until Albuqurque. Plus, Sam thinks it’s better that they keep busy. Dean gets defensive and Sam elaborates that the past couple of weeks he’s been worrying him because he can’t keep all his feels over Ellen and Jo bottled up. Dean insists that he can. Dean, sweetie, come join us on the Feels Couch, we have blankets and chocolate.
K: And booze. Don’t forget the booze.
Samantha: They spot Martin sitting at a table and head over to him. He’s pretty excited to see them and how big they’ve gotten. He admits that once upon a time he could have handled this alone, but not anymore. He has 0 ideas as to what the monster is but there’s been 5 “suicides” in the past 4 months. That’s… terrible. That should probably be investigated just for non paranormal reasons. (K: SERIOUSLY.) Martin hasn’t seen it but he wouldn’t have called them if he wasn’t sure that something was here. Sam asks if he’s checked out the bodies but Martin gets twitchy and says he doesn’t go around bodies anymore.
Just then, the doctor comes up and addresses Sam and Dean as “Alex and Eddie” and I realize they’re doing the Van Halen brothers. He invites Sam and Martin to group therapy but stops Dean as he makes to follow. He’s putting Dean in the afternoon session because the brothers are dangerously codependant. I mean. Probably accurate even if it is the point of the show and necessary. Sam makes wtf face and Dean makes lost puppy face.
Samantha: Group therapy. The guy that witnessed Susan being grabbed in the opening is the first to volunteer to start. The doctor seems reluctant but lets him talk. He immediately starts talking about the monster that killed Susan. He claims to have seen it but the doctor dramatically takes off his glasses and insists that there is no monster.
Dean is playing checkers by himself when a doctor named Erica Cartwright interrupts to tell him that she’s been assigned his case. Dean turns on the charm a little because she’s pretty and she responds, “And you’re my paranoid schizophrenic with narcissistic personality disorder and religious psychosis? Lucky me.” Also she’s Nora Allen on The Flash. She sits down and they have a back and forth of questions, Dean’s focusing on hunting down the monster and her’s on his habits. Here is a gifset of her questions to Dean.
K: All of this is making me super sad because it once again serves as a stark contrast to Season 1 Dean, who thought his life was the greatest thing of all time.
Samantha: If you need me, I’ll be napping on the Feels Couch.
Next we see Dean shuffling down the hallway, when Sam comes up to him. Dean claims to have been “thraped” and I feel weird about that word. Sam says that there’s a guy who claims to have seen the thing and they should question him. Dean is on board because he wants to get out of here because this place is creepy. He turns around and a young woman is standing right behind him. She leans forward and kisses him and of course Dean goes right for it and kisses her back. After some macking she introduces herself as Wendy and smacks dat ass as she walks away. Dean is now feeling more positive toward this place, but Sam insists that he cannot hit that.
Later, presumably after lights out, the boys break out of their rooms and go sleuthing. They head towards the patient-who-saw-the-monster’s room but just as they near it, he starts screaming. We see little shots of him being tossed around the room as Sam frantically tries to get the door open. He gets ragey face at Dean for telling him to hurry up and by the time he gets the door open, the guy is dead, hanged from the ceiling pipe thing.
K: …does this place have ANY staff?!
Samantha: They are all exhausted and annoyed at having to deal with crazy people all day. Woe is them.
After the Not Commercial Break, the boys are in the mortuary room, inspecting dead guy’s body. They find a hole on the side of his head that Sam goes poking around with a Q Tip and it makes squicky noises. He finds out that the hole goes all the way to dead guy’s brain and grabs a nearby handy brain saw to find out more. Dean goes outside to keep watch while Sam REMOVES THE TOP OF DEAD GUYS SKULL and discovers that his brain is black and shriveled. Dean hears someone coming so hurries inside to tell Sam. They frantically put the body back together as the nurse who did their physicals comes down the hallway. They get everything put away just as she walks in, and questions wtf their doing. Dean drops his pants, puts his hands in the air, and yells “PUDDING!” It has become a staple Supernatural gif.
Next scene, the boys are conferring with Martin about what they know. Martin realizes that they’re dealing with a Wraith. They can be killed by silver but can also disguise themselves as humans so, it could be anyone. However, it shows its true form in a mirror. They realize that a mental hospital is the perfect hunting ground, because no one will believe it when someone cries monster.
Dean is chilling in the hallway, watching everyone who walks by in a high wall mirror. His doctor lady comes over (she passes the mirror test) and he informs her that he’s hunting a wraith. She asks him why he has to hunt monsters. Why not let someone else? He says that it’s his job and someone has to do it. She asks how many people he has to save. “All of them,” he says, a total Dean answer.
That night, Sam hands out silver plated letter openers that he raided the nurse stations for. Wendy heads down the hallway and Dean tells her that he doesn’t have time to taste each others Lip Smackers right now. However, she kisses Sam, who is hella uncomfortable, because “he’s larger.” The boys tell Martin that they need his help but Martin is not interested, because he can’t because of some legit Albuquerque trauma.
K: Also probably because EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS PLAN IS 100% TERRIBLE.
Samantha: The boys hit the doctor’s office but he’s not there. His car keys are though, so they split up to check the building. Sam stumbles upon him and slices his arm with the letter opener and he begins to bleed. Two orderlies come out of nowhere and grab Sam. He breaks out of their hold and goes after the doc with the letter opener. It’s pretty scary to watch Sammy in action, especially since Jared got all bulky this season. Just as he’s about to stab him, Martin grabs Sam’s arm and points out that the cut isn’t burning, so he can’t be the Wraith. Sam overacts his horror at what has just happened.
Dean creeps into a room where Sam is sitting up in bed. Dean asks how Sam is and Sam responds in a high manner. “They give you something?” Dean big brothers. We get some fun Sam-Is-Highly-Intoxicated dialogue before they start wondering why Dean saw the doc as the wraith. Sam drunk wonders if Dean is going crazy, because he’s been half crazy at least since Hell and maybe now he’s full blown. Dean insists that he just made a mistake and Sam delivers the amazing line, “It’s okay. Cause you’re my brother. And I still love ya. BOOP.” Here, here are the gifs.
Samantha: Ahem. Yes.
Dean leaves Sam’s room and bumps into his doctor. She tells him that he missed their session and that people die all the time. All this pressure he’s putting on himself is killing him and he can’t save everybody. Then the tone of her voice changes and she says, “Hell, these days you can’t save anybody, Dean.” He’s all like “Huh?” and she goes on the blame him for Ellen and Jo and the Colt not working on Lucifer. She lists some other screw ups and mocks him for thinking that he could save the world. He starts growl yelling at her about how she knows that stuff. An orderly eye rolls and tells him to settle down. We pan back and see that Dean has been talking to no one, his lady doc isn’t real. She tells him that he’s going crazy and he looks suitably freaked out. He passes the nurse from earlier and another doctor and sees them as wraiths in the mirror. Suddenly, everyone looks like a wraith in the mirror. He sinks to the floor in the corner and has a panic attack.
K: All of this reminds me of the Buffy episode, Normal Again, only it causes a lot less feelings.
Samantha: Head doctor guy enters Sam’s room with an orderly. Sam apologizes and insists that he had a moment of clarity after attacking the doc. He realized that there’s no such thing as monsters. The doctor is basically like, “Neat but that’s not your big problem. You’ve got some serious rage issues, bro,” Sam gets teary and asks for a second chance. Doc says that if there is one more outburst he will be transferred to a facility that deals with violent patients.
Sam finds Dean in the rec room and Dean just stands up and starts monologuing at him about how he (Sam) was always the problem. He gets meaner and says that Sam has a “black spot on his soul.” I always know immediately when it’s not really Dean talking to Sam, because 9.9 times out of 10, no matter what Sam’s subconscious thinks, Dean would never say things like this to his little brother. Sure enough, the other patients are suddenly surrounding him and telling him that they are all going to die because of him. They start pushing Sam and calling him names. Sam starts punching them and when we pan out to reality, we see Sam punching thin air. Orderlies run and grab him, while Dean sits at a table looking completely vacant. They drag Sam kicking and yelling from the room. Dean wonders what’s happening in a scared voice.
Martin lays in bed when someone creeps into his room. He whips around with the silver letter opener but it’s just Dean. Dean tells him that him and Sam are both going crazy. Crazy is the clue. He says that him and Sam will probably lose it eventually, but for them to both lose it on the same day, it has to be the monster. Throughout the scene Dean is twitchy and paranoid. He says that the wraith must make people insane and then wonders if it’s the ghost of his dad. I snorted. He remembers how Wendy kissed both of them. He hypothesizes that that was how they got infected.
Martin and Dean head down the hallway, Dean taking care not to step on the cracks. Always worried about his mama that boy.
Meanwhile, Nurse Wraith finds some orderlies (I did not expect to be typing the word orderly so often) and tells them that there are two patients in Wendy’s room and they attacked her.
Martin is yelling at Dean to go kill the thing but Dean’s vision is all distorted and….crazy, I guess. Martin pep talks him and then distracts the orderlies so that Dean can slip out.
Dean has a hard time getting down the hallway, but he follows the blood trail.
K: Thank God for that super convenient blood trail!
Samantha: Nurse Wraith enters Sam’s room, which has white padded walls and he’s restrained to the bed. Sam sees her in the mirror and realizes that she is the wraith. She takes the opportunity to talk about how the hunters aren’t really living up to their rep. She infected them during their physical and loves it in here, because crazy brains are delicious. This whole time Sam’s been vaguely ragey and Hulk-like. He accuses her of making him like this and she insists that she just cranks up what is already there. The rage is his. She sits down next to him and her spikey wrist brain straw pops out. Before she can get her drink on, Dean stumbles into the room. They start fighting and she’s clearly got the upper hand for awhile (Dean drops the silver letter opener. Think about those bungees, kids.) Just as she has Dean choked up against the wall with her spikey straw out, he snaps it in half. (K: His look of disgust when it happens is kind of hilarious.) She screams in agony and he stabs her in the chest. She dies and the boys go back to normal. Dean unstraps Sam as the alarms go off.
They boys run across the parking lot in their robes, to the Impala. When they near it, Sam slows down and Dean asks if he is okay. Sam full on stops and gets Sammymotional and oh my god is now really the time? He says that the wraith was right, usually he can hide it, but he is angry. He’s mad at everything always and he doesn’t know why. Dean tells him that it doesn’t matter and he needs to bury it and blah blah blah “I’m Dean Winchester and I refuse to learn anything from this episode.” They’re both annoying here. Dean pleads, “Are you with me?” and Sam says yes and they leave.
I mosty really like this episode, aside from the obvious “Hollywood tends to not do mental health right” stuff. I love exploring Sam and Dean’s psyche and legit issues. I love them getting to be fairly honest with themselves and each other, at least for a little bit. It’s also pretty funny, which is so needed after the murderous mid season finale. It figures that Dean would get trapped and tormented by his own guilt over letting down the people he loves and the world and that Sam would just get super ragey. It also feels a little reminiscent of when they were wanted fugitives because of what being a hunter calls for.
K: I have mixed feelings about this episode. On the one hand, the cases where they go undercover into some kind of institution – whether it be a psych ward or a prison – are always full of amusing moments and plenty of twists. But on the other hand, I REALLY WANTED THEM TO COME OUT OF IT AND ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR FUCKING PROBLEMS. I mean, between this and Yellow Fever, Dean’s anxiety issues have been A Thing for at least a season. But noooo, real men don’t talk about their mental health. They just drink the pain away. Ugh.
Samantha: Ugh, indeed.
Next time on Supernatural: Sam body swaps with a teen in S05 E12 – Swap Meat.
I'm a 28 year old graduated English major and almost librarian. I can often be found singing too loudly (poorly) in the car or spending some time (hours) on Tumblr. I am a lover of Harry Potter, the Spice Girls, and too many other things.
I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.
