Supernatural Station

Mystery Spot

Supernatural Season 3, episode #11.
Airdate: Thursday Feb 14, 2008.
Written by Jeremy Carver & Emily McLaughlin.
Directed By Kim Manners.

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• Synopsis: Click here to read the episode summary.

  While investigating a disappearance, the brothers sneak into a local tourist spot, called the “Mystery Spot, where the laws of physics have no meaning” and are confronted with a shotgun wielding owner. The nervous owner misfires his weapon and shoots Dean. Dean dies in Sam’s arms. Then Sam wakes up, Dean is alive and it’s Tuesday again. Thinking he had a strange deja vu experience, he stops Dean from going to where he died before. But Dean is killed when he is struck by a car. Then Sam wakes up and it is Tueday again and Dean is alive.

  After 100 repeats of this cycle, Sam realizes that a trickster is responsible. He confronts the trickster disguised as a customer at the diner. Under threat of being staked through the neck, the trickster reveals himself and he is the same trickster that the brothers had tried to kill a year ago. When Sam decides to kill him, the trickster snaps his fingers. Sam wakes up and it’s Wednesday morning, and Dean is alive. The loop is broken. Packing up the impala to get out of town, Dean is robbed at gunpoint and shot. Sam rushes to Dean’s aid but Dean dies in his arms. This time Sam does not wake up and the day does not repeat.

  Months go by and Sam is hunting by himself and obsessively searching for the trickster. He gets a call from Bobby that he’s found the trickster and Sam rushes over. Thinking it is Bobby who is the trickster, Sam kills him. But he vanishes and the trickster walks into the room. Sam begs him to bring back his brother. The trickster relents and Sam wakes up, and it’s Wednesday morning, and Dean is alive. The end.

• Praises: Another great episode. That makes two in a row. Supernatural is stepping up its game. And finally we got what fans missed the most this season, Sam angst…loads of it. This episode was shocking, dramatic and funny all at the same time. The first death was sad, the second startling, the third outright funny, and I chuckled through all the other deaths, except the last one. When that occurred, I found myself crying right along with Sam. Jared is a versatile actor, but he really shines when doing angst. The scene of Sam mimicking Dean word for word was hysterical and so was Dean’s reaction when Sam told him he peed himself after being hit by the car. I also couldn’t help noticing Dean little dance to “Heat of the Moment” and was awed by Jensen’s natural grace (and beauty). No doubt about it, fans are going to be emulating that movement for some time to come.

  After a comedic first half, the show took a dark turn both literally and figuratively. Kim Manners trademark use of dramatic lighting and ground-level camera angles emphasized perfectly the incredible grief and sadness that surrounded a stony-faced Sam. Sam’s stark and joyless OCD-like lifestyle after Dean, gave fans a taste of what’s to come…and we definitely don’t want it to happen. This great episode had our boys and the audience swinging from one emotional extreme to another. When Sam hugged Dean at the end, I found myself sharing his happiness. I wanted to go up to the TV and give them a group hug. Fortunately my sanity kicked in before I did something silly. That hug clinched my love of this episode. It is so rarely given and so much more special because of it.

• Nags: I love Jensen and think he’s a great actor, but his dead was kinda stiff (no pun intended). I could tell that he was maintaining a pose. Does he know that rigor mortis does not kick in right away? Sam is supposed to be a smart man. So how come it took him so long to figure out that he was not trapped in an ordinary timeloop…not that timeloops are ordinary. Dean’s dying every single time was a dead giveaway that the timeloop was not a natural phenomena…ok that doesn’t sound right either. Anyway, this episode made Sam look kinda dumb. As for the deaths themselves, with over a 100 to choose from, how come there weren’t more good ones. Most of them were lame. Dean could have gone out with much more drama if he were…stabbed with fork, impaled, decapitated, disemboweled, hanged, bit by a snake, drowned, burned up, got rabies, had mad cow disease, got knifed by a jealous girlfriend, was run down a lovestruck fangirl…you name it. The writers should have had a field day with this one. Oh wait, this was filmed during the writers strike…so maybe they couldn’t. Lastly, what did the trickster say to Sam at the end. I couldn’t make it out even with a second viewing. Sam responded with a “what the hell does that mean?” so it seemed important.

• My Rating: Excellent episode. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

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