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Thursday 21 June 2012

Supernatural - 1.10: "Asylum" Review


Sam and Dean investigate the goings-on at an abandoned asylum, where Sam is attacked by the spirit of a doctor who worked there. Several patients were treated badly and now they're out for revenge.

Roosevelt Asylum, Rockford, Illinois:  some teens break into an asylum and the police are called out.   One of them talks about the legend which states the place is haunted by the ghosts of patients...  "If you spend the night, the spirits will drive you insane."   They split up, Walter Kelly's (Peter benson III) flashlight conks out.   Later at home, Kelly shoots his wife and himself.

Sam (Jared Padalecki) thinks Dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is in California, he calls Caleb but he's not heard from him.   There's nothing in the journal, at least nothing that Dean (Jensen Ackles) can make out, "I love the guy, but I swear he writes like freakin' Yoda."  Well Yoda never wrote a thing.   Sam thinks they should call the police and file a missing persons report.   Dean thinks he'd freak and Sam doesn't care.   He should have been in Kansas but wasn't.   Sam: "he could be dead for all we know."  But we know he's not. Dean doesn't want Sam saying that.   Just like Sam didn't want Dean talking about Mom the way he did in the Pilot episode.  Clearly Dean's Dad's son and Sam's more Mom's son.   There's a message on Dean's phone from "Unavailable: Subject Msg:42-89."  The text message gives them co ordinates.

Sam comments Dad can barely use a toaster, but this confirms he's alive.   But anyone could have sent the message though.   Checking the local paper they find a Walter Kelly killed himself after responding to a call at an asylum.   Dad marked the asylum in the journal.   Sam thinks this is just a job and maybe Dad's not there.   Dean puts his foot down as big brother, it's good enough for him since Dad told them to go and that's what they're going to do.   Dean talks to the other policeman Tom Pickett) as Nigel Tufnell, he's from the Chicago Tribune and on a story.   He refuses to talk to him, so Sam throws Dean out to get on his good side.   Sam was method acting.

They break into the asylum.   In Dad's journal he wrote about three teens breaking into the South wing of the asylum in 1972.  One survived, his friend went crazy.   (When Dean opens up the journal, the wendigo pis is gone, but it was there before.)  Dean thinks something was being kept out or kept in.   Dean: "Let me know if you see any dead people Hayley Joel...ghosts are attracted to that whole ESP thing." Sam doesn't think it's ESP, he has 'strange vibes and weird dreams'.   Dean uses his EMF.   Dean: "Whatever, don't ask, don't tell."  Sam says spirits appear at certain times of the day and Dean adds "the freaks come out at night."  Like them, ha.  

Dean: "Sam who do you think is the hottest psychic, Trish Arquette, Jennifer Love Hewitt or you."  (Sam of course, cos the others are chicks and aren't real psychics, but just actors names he mentions!) Sam hits him.   Dean: "Kind of like my man Jack in Cuckoo's Nest." (1975)  Where they had a lobotomy and did twisted stuff to people.   Sam thinks it's more like Amityville or the Smurl Haunting.   Spirits drive them insane.   Then Dean mentions Jack again, "kind of like my man Jack in The Shining." (1980)

Sam wonders when they're going to talk about Dad not being here.   It doesn't matter what he wants since Dad could be in trouble.   Dean: "See that attitude right there, that's why I always got the extra cookie." That and the fact Deano is just plain greedy when it comes to food! Sam retorts they deserve answers since it's their family.   Dean has to harp on about being given an order.   Sam hates orders, "so what, we've always gotta follow Dad's orders."  For Dean they have to.  Sam thinks they need to find out more about the South wing and Dr Sanford Ellicott, Chief of Staff (Norman Armour) at the asylum.   Sam sees a shrink, Dr James Ellicott (James Purcell) he wants to talk about Sam who's on a road trip with his brother, they met lots of interesting people.   He's avoiding answering the question and Sam asks about the Roosevelt riot.   The asylum housed the criminally insane and psychotic, they attacked the staff and each other.

Dean comments the patients took over the asylum.   Some of the bodies weren't recovered, including Ellacott.  The bodies were put somewhere meaning angry spirits are about.   They return at night and two more teens break in.  Gavin (Nicholas D'Agosto) wanders off and a woman kisses him, but it's not his girlfriend, Kat (Brooke Nevin).   Dean uses the EMF and Sam films using his camera.   They need to find and burn the bodies.   A figure walks in front of them but they don't see it.   Sam sees a bloodied woman on the camera and Dean shoots salt at it.   She didn't attack them so what did she want.   They come across Kat hiding.  They split up and Dean says when it's said don't enter the place in a horror movie it means just that.  

Sam finds Gavin.   The woman whispered in his ear but he ran.   Dean's torch conks out and someone grabs Kat's arm, taking her into a locked room.   Sam tells her to face it and listen.   It whispers "137." A room number.   They find it and Kat asks if Dean is Sam's boss.  Sam: "No."  (yes.)  The doors of the asylum don't open so they're stuck here.  Something doesn't want them leaving.   Dean finds a patient's journal (Dean utters the all work and no play line again.)   Kat can handle a gun.  Dean didn't call Sam.  Who is attacked by Ellacott.   Dean finds Sam who was lured down there into the basement.   Spirits telling them about Ellicott, extreme rage therapy made them worse.   His logbook shows a hidden room where he worked on the patients.

Sam isn't himself and Dean can hear the wind through the wall.   Sam pulls a gun on Dean and he's tired of taking orders from him.   The salt gun won't kill him but hurt him and fires the gun at Dean.  Sam is normal, he's being honest for the first time.   Dean follows Dad's orders and does what he asks without questions.   Sam: "Are you that desperate for his approval.   That's the difference between you and me, I have a mind of my own.   I'm not pathetic like you."  Dean gives Sam the real gun to use on him which he takes.   Dean: "You hate me that much.   You think you can kill your own brother."  Sam fires but the gun's empty.   Dean knocks him down, like he'd give Sam a loaded gun.  Ellicott lurks in the frame again.   He attacks him, Ellicott will make Dean better.

He throws the lighter into the cupboard and the fire starts; yet Ellacott's body still lurks and doesn't vanish when it's set alight.   Dean asks if Sam's going to try and kill him, "cos that would be awkward."  Sam's sorry for saying those awful things - he remembers what he said and didn't mean any of it.   Sam tells him they need to talk about this but Dean isn't in a "sharing or caring mood."  Well that's Dean for you, he never talks about the deep and meaningful.   Sam answers Dad's phonecall.

Ahh, poor Sam wants to talk about what happened but Dean doesn't and that's cos Dean never wants to talk about anything serious, he just dismisses it or changes the subject.   When clearly Sam needs to get what he said off his chest.   Strangely enough these two only share when they're possessed by something, or not themselves, especially Dean, who did plenty of sharing as the shapeshifter in 1.6 Skin.   Now it was Sam's turn to tell him his thoughts of Dean and his orders, as well as Dad's orders.   Sam doesn't want to follow them.   Also Sam says he didn't mean what he said to Dean, but we know really deep down he does feel that way.   He said as much in 1.8 Bugs, particularly what he thought about Dad and now it was Dean's turn to bite the bullet.  In the sense that everything Dean does or did was just to please Dad cos he's not his own man.   That would irk anyone, let alone Dean.   So he hands him the gun but obviously he wouldn't load it, but Sam goes ahead and shoots it even if he wasn't himself.   There was no hesitation.

At the shrink's, Sam was doing an impression of Dean, not wanting to talk about himself and changing the subject, was it method acting, ha.

The Roosevelt asylum is a real asylum which has been abandoned as it's thought to be really haunted by violent spirits.   Dean calls himself Nigel Tufnell, the name of the lead singer of Spinal Tap.   Hayley Joel is the actor from the movie the Sixth Sense.  Referring to Dad writing as Yoda, from Star Wars (1977) he spoke English in a funny backwards manner.   Lots of references to Jack Nicholson for whom Dean has a penchant and it's not the last we'll hear of him again.   Last episode Dean mentioned the Shining in the context of Sam and his visions and here he mentions it in the context of what the movie was about.

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