Jailhouse rock

[astri13]

Lets not kid ourselves here, the premise of this ep is just stupid - "hey lets get ourselves thrown behind bars so can we have a cool prison ep" - BUT I enjoyed it greatly nevertheless.

Whee for Jeff Kober. I seem to be the lone person remembering him mostly from Kindred and not Buffy/other show.

Spoiled-me knew about Henriksen of course and I did enjoy to see him back. He always seems so amused despite himself when they disappear at the end. Is it a "woohoo, the hunt is back on"-thing or is he possibly a Celine-minion?

Gotta say I didn`t care for the PD too much. I found the actress to have very little screen presence and her character lacked gusto as a lawyer. She let Henriksen bully her all over the place when he really couldn`t do anything to her. She had a consult with her client and no show, I`m pretty sure she didn`t need to divulge the matter of their discussion. Still, what can he charge her with?
Liked her small smile at the end though. But it`s getting curious how always the women of the legal system fall for them in the end. I know they are sweet and good-looking boys but it`s getting a bit cliché there.

And poor, poor Tiny, I really felt bad for him but he got a nice bonding moment with Dean.

Oh, and it`s Navim. He totally survived the last Goa`uld attack on the Tollan homeworld and made life as a prison guard in Arkansas. Hee. Interesting how Daddy Win must have kept in contact with some of his old army buddies even after what happened to Mary. Clearly Deacon was not a hunter but knew about what was going on and he was chummy with the boys. Aww. Now I picture him bouncing little Dean and Sammy on his knees.

Now as for the boys in prison. Teehee. Dean just works the system like an old pro and Sammy slumps his way through it. Not that I blame him but if ever a time was right to stretch yourself to your full height, it was now. Don`t you watch wildtime documentaries, Sam? Animals pump themselves up to appear larger and more dangerous.

So much funny little moments there:
"I won`t trade you for smokes" Uhm Dean, my dear, you would be PRIME CURRENCY yourself. *g*
The look his cellmate gave him when he called top-bunk, this little "no way" pfft. Great.
Sam`s little look when his cellmate stood up. After Sam gave him this agreeable nod in greeting. Hee.
Dean still tryin to feed Sam but it`s STILL not working.
Dean going in to stop the schoolyard bully. And kicking inmate ass.
Sam`s hilarious - and mountingly cranky - bitchfaces. I found it terribly cute how he was all "we`re getting out, really we do" like a kid that really, really wants to go home from the camping trip.
"Are you from Texas all of a sudden?"
Sam mopping a square-inch of floor and trying to break the ice.
I even loved the Dean/Tiny fight because Tiny clearly was Gargantuan the way he threw that guard on the table.

Really all around we got some good character moments and the brotherly interaction was sweet and funny. And Dean WORKS the orange jumpsuit look. Sam too. They were by fat the prettiest inmates that jail will ever see.

The ghost story was adequate and nicely executed.

So yeah, the nits are there to be picked - like I hope to hell Deacon had the Impala waiting outside specifically and the Metallicar didn`t sit in front of the prison for all this time - but I`m feeling generous. Compared to how in Croatoan the set-up screwed up the characters over too, this was gold.
With a little more work they could have avoided that nasty "we know it`s stupid but we`re doing it anyway" thing. Lots of shows have the characters do stupid things but they make the effort to present them as smart.

I did like though how the guys flipped around the thing from Star Wars where Luke wants to go to the detention block and Han has to be dragged kicking and screaming. It made sense because Luke is the naive young hero and Han the jaded con-man.
Here, the cocky smartass takes the innocent farmboy position and Sam the wide-eyed Captain Empathy takes the grumbling hard-ass stance and YET it makes sense. Dean is all about loyalty and honour to his father`s buddies, especially seeing as Deacon had saved John`s life and John Dean`s so it was like an "inherited" personal debt, and he can also be shortsighted and have little sense of self-preservation in this. Sam is the thinker, the guy who takes two steps back and says "wait a minute, if we do this and it goes to hell, WE`re screwed."
Nice balance as sometimes they need the quick thinking on their feet - Hell House for example - and sometimes they need the long-term planning.


All in all, well played show. I`m sure numerous fanfics will fill in some of the blank spots in this episode. :-p


As for next week, I hope and pray they will get it right. I like "what if" stories but they are a tricky thing to do so as not to screw with the characters we know.