I saw Sam physically working at the knots, but his declaration that the panic room couldn't hold him... lies? Maybe the basic point being that Dean would have to be prison guard 24/7 in order to hold Sam, and then there'd be no spare time left to try and fix him? (Shoot, Dean and Cas were right there and he still got free). "You can't hold me, but I'm willing to stay with you if you'll work with me"?

The BB seems to have broken all the writers, and I've run out of fic. So I'm going back and reading what I really wasn't all that interested in. Have just been scarred by Zacchariah making out with Gabriel.

Sam's now Superman to Dean's Batman.

I loved the moment where Sam was going to shoot Sampa, and Dean stopped him with baerely a glance, and Sam stops even though he doesn't get it.

Also very hot was the boys being disarmed. Always a pleasure.

Julie. I remember that fic. I'm sure I would have read it if I had seen it, but Zach/anyone needs to be heavily warnjed for.

I loved Sam's "I was hoping it wouldn't have to be this way," standing up and shrugging off the rope. He'd been sitting there obediently the whole time because Dean and Castiel wanted him restrained. And possibly because he didn't want to tip his hand that he had rope-slipping ability. But they weren't listening, and he got tired of sitting that way, so he just--got up.

And the bit with Dean stopping Sam from shooting Grampa was wonderfully played by both of them, sort of a fallback on previous behavior, whether ingrained or instinctive or a mixture of both, but for different reasons now.

Dean was more solidly Dean this ep than he has been since S3. The flash of actual happiness on his face when Sam came back to the car was a reminder of who Dean was, and who I hope he'll have the chance to be once Sam's restored.

I'm excited to see where the show goes from here.

Sam didn't really do anything with the ropes that Barry Bostwick's character didn't do faster in "Criss Angel Is a Douchebag."

In terms of fighting a poltergeist, though, I would imagine it's like any mother protecting her children -- in the face of danger, you've got more strength.

That brings back one of my complaints about the remake of 13 Ghosts. The ghost of the kids' mother was hanging around and conscious of what was going on while her children were being attacked by other ghosts. But all she did was give faint warnings that everyone ignored, whereas the Juggernaut was energetic enough to rip people apart and move junked cars. I wanted to see her go ballistic when her daughter was attacked and start smacking the Jackal into walls until it ran away.

For all that Sam's instincts are fucked, that was a good show of trust and goodwill.

Has anyone else noticed little props that seem to forshadow a characters prenence in an ep? In 6x01 there was a poster for DJ Sammy. In "You Can't Handle the Truth" in the dentist's office the name on the lamp was Castle or something (which always makes me think of Castiel) and I swear there was one other.

If there's anything that I'm lamenting this season, it's the downgrade in lighting, filming, and editing. I don't recall a season where I found any faults in the timing, placement, movement of the camera. One of those "you don't know how skilled it is until it's not", where you're not noticing the technique because it's doing it's job in telling a good story. "Family Matters" had more of the clumsy moments that struck me, where the beats were off in the cuts or something.

"The Third Man" and "Live Free or Twihard" both struck me as excellently directed and filmed (and edited, for the former), and while "Weekend at Bobby's" didn't have the same level of inventiveness I thought it was capably done. This last one is the only episode of the season I can recall looking amateurish, or being unclear about what's happening onscreen.

Was this one by a rookie director?

Guy Bee. He directed Asylum back in 2005.

What was amateurish to you, Matt and Julie? Nothing jumped out at me, but having just watched this week's Criminal Minds, I may be innoculated for dizzying crap visual storytelling for a while.

For the latest ep, what jumps to mind is the scene where Cas turns to stare out the window, and then the cut to him being gone. Even on the third rewatch, that felt awkward and clumsy. And of course the shots where Cas "cleans up" Sam.

And I'm not saying that the eps are chock full of film-school blunders every minute, they're not. But the one, three or five in a couple of eps far outweighs the almost perfect zero for the last five seasons.

I remember the episode with the baby being clumsy. Two and a Half Men. I only noticed when they ruined the Guttenberg line.

"Dean's into printing? Oh, they showed a baby, they meant Steve Guttenburg. Yeah, now it's not funny."

eta:

I just realized that this Sam would have poked the old lady with a stick where season two Sam was, "Dude! You're not gonna poke her with a stick!” He had more of a sense of right and wrong than Dean did back then.