The Winchesters Go To Jail in Supernatural Season 2’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’

We’re finally getting back to the Supernatural rewatch after a break for life being too damn busy – oh OG Supernatural, I have missed you! We pick up with Season 2’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, written by John Shiban and directed by Mike Rohl, which aired in April 2007. I had fallen madly in love with the show earlier in Season 2, so by the time this episode aired, I was glued to my TV screen, probably with a piece of pie and a whole lot of excitement as I sat down to watch, having shooed the kids out of the living room so I could squee to my heart’s content.

This is a great episode – it’s Sam and Dean for the entire episode, something that seems like an absolute feast after Jared and Jensen needed to share the burden of constant filming in later episodes (understandably). It’s directed and filmed beautifully, the prison scenes darkly lit, spooky and gritty just like the show itself in these early seasons. Rohl plays with perspective throughout, using it to evoke the claustrophobic feel of being incarcerated, unable to escape or even see clearly the dangers around you. And of course, the acting is incredible. Jared and Jensen were so young, and already so damn good.

The Road So Far reminds us that Agent Henriksen is onto the Winchesters, telling Dean on the phone that he knows about the desecrations and the thefts, that he knows about Sam too, and about their dad. Mention of his family is what gets to Dean, as always.

Dean: You don’t know crap about my Dad.

And then we see Sam and Dean at the end of the job that saw Henriksen almost catching them.

Dean: We are so screwed…

And… NOW

Workers in a dark eerie prison, using a blowtorch to open up an old cell block. We see their breath come out as visible steam, and uh oh. Something invisible blows by them, freaking them out. The lights flicker. All of us experienced Supernatural viewers know that’s trouble. A prisoner calls to the guards, the lights flickering, the clock on the wall stopping at 10 o’clock.

The guard tells him to cool it and go to sleep, but he keeps calling, the guard ignoring Randall’s insistence that he saw something. The lights go out and the guard goes to walk away when suddenly something slams the door on his arm and he’s attacked by something invisible, Randall watching from his cell as the guard screams.

The title card appears, and we jump to three months later as Sam and Dean break into a dark building at the Arkansas Museum of Anthropology at night. It’s a beautifully filmed typical Supernatural scene, lit by the brothers’ flashlights. The brothers are not in agreement.

Sam: I hate this plan, Dean.

Dean: I got that the first ten times I heard it.

They walk right past a motion sensor, open up a glass case and take out an artifact or two – a dagger, an axe – then put them down as they hear a noise and the command ‘Freeze! Down on your  knees now!’

As a viewer, it’s confusing because the Winchesters are never this careless, and they do make a half hearted attempt to evade capture, but then comply and get on their knees.

Sam is annoyed (which seems to make sense because who wouldn’t be annoyed while getting arrested)  but Dean actually gives him a little smile, which… huh?

Sam is cranky doing mug shots too, and again, who wouldn’t be? Though he can’t help but look handsome anyway because that’s just Sam.

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Dean, however, is almost enjoying himself in a scene which is now iconic for the series.

Dean: I call this one the Blue Steel.

He purses his lips and cocks an eyebrow, and somehow because he’s Dean Winchester he still looks hot.

Dean: Who looks better, me or Nick Nolte?

A little pop culture reference of the time there.

Dean stays cocky when an agent comes in who we recognize as Henriksen, asking for a cheeseburger with extra onions. (Dean does not recognize him, having not seen his face yet).

Henriksen: You think you’re funny.

Dean: I think I’m adorable.

(He is)

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The Trickster Messes With Sam and Dean for the First Time in Season 2’s ‘Tall Tales’

Tall Tales is one of those episodes that felt like FUN, despite some typical Supernatural monstrous happenings and, of course, people dying. But still, FUN. It was also a great episode to showcase Sam and Dean’s relationship as brothers. For better or worse! And, of course, it introduced us to Richard Speight, Jr. as the Trickster.

The ‘Then’ segment reminds us that Sam and Dean have pranked each other in the past, as brothers do, from Nair in the hair to Dean’s hand stuck to his beer bottle, Sam and Dean taunting each other with “That’s all you got?” and “Bring it on, Baldy!”  And lots of calling each other ‘bitch’ and ‘jerk’ which at this point (rewatching the series after it has ended), just makes me tear up because we know now exactly what those words mean when the Winchesters say them to each other.

Sigh. I miss my Show.

This episode opens with a professor walking to his office building at night, encountering an attractive young woman hanging out waiting for him, inexplicably dressed in a little sundress even though it’s cold and other people have jackets on.

She shows off her legs and he doesn’t notice, and he initially does try to get her to come back during office hours. He’s reluctant to respond to her flirty advances and hero worship until she finally says okay, I should go, and turns to leave. Then he changes his tune, saying he understands what she’s feeling. He shows his true narcissist colors by saying it’s natural, since he’s “somewhat of a celeb around here”. I had to cringe on behalf of professors everywhere when he said that. Nice touch of what his latest book is about though.

He kisses her even as he says it would be wrong for him to take advantage of her, and then… her face starts to disintegrate. Because this is Supernatural. He recoils in horror.

Zombie woman: What, you don’t like me anymore?

Outside the building, a janitor played by Richard Speight, Jr. watches as the professor’s body falls from the window high above, head splattered on the stones in a pool of blood.

Of course at the time that was not newsworthy (the janitor, that is). But now, on rewatch, we all squealed because Richard has joined Supernatural! He will become an integral part of the SPNFamily over the next 15 going on forever years.

ONE WEEK LATER

Sam is researching, as a Joe Walsh song plays on the radio. He’s clearly annoyed at his brother, who’s munching on something on Sam’s bed.

Sam: Dude, you mind not eating those on MY bed?

Dean (as he stuffs more in his mouth and licks his fingers enthusiastically): No, I don’t mind.

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Boys. I love how Supernatural always gets it so right. They are such brothers.

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Everybody Loves A Clown – Except Sam Winchester (Supernatural Rewatch)

The second episode of Season 2 starts out with a bang – or rather a tick tock tick tock. The haunting lyrics ‘Tick tock tick tock time has come today…’ mark the recap montage and remind us of the great loss that has just happened to the Winchesters. As the ticking of the clock slows down in the song, we hear “Time of death, 10:41 am…” and then the last word of the song, ‘Time.’

Not on the Winchesters’ side.

And then: NOW

In Medford, Wisconsin, kids enjoy an old fashioned fair and carnival that’s come to town, laughing at a sword swallower and fire breather and some clowns.

A very relatable dad: God, I hate clowns, they always creep me out.

All of us watching: SAME.

A young girl (though not young enough to be acting the way she is, actually) sees the creepiest looking clown in the history of ever, and for some unknown reason happily waves back at him. Then it disappears.

I guess I’m glad the show didn’t hire five year old actors to be traumatized for life by being in this episode, but that girl was definitely old enough to realize there is something very off about this clown! (Interestingly, she was played by Nicole Munoz, who returns as an adult guest actor in the final season)

Driving home, she looks out the window and sees the creepy clown standing on the side of the road, and all of us watching start exclaiming ‘child, you’re old enough to know that’s just weird!”

Alas, she does not.  Instead she wakes up in the middle of the night and sees the creepy clown outsider her window, smiles and goes downstairs to let him in. What the hell??

Intro over, we switch to our boys, and instantly I’m emotional.

One of the most memorable and heartbreaking scenes in the series is in this episode, as Sam and Dean give their father a hunter’s funeral. Sam is sobbing, tears rolling down his face. Dean is stoic, eyes shining with unshed tears.

Sam: Before he… before he… did he say anything to you?

There’s a long beat. We know he did, though we don’t yet know what.

Dean: No. nothing.

A single man tear rolls down Dean’s face, and breaks all our hearts.

This is a Phil Sgriccia directed episode, and it shows. The shots are gorgeous, and full of emotional impact, with early seasons Supernatural trademark close ups on strikingly beautiful Sam and Dean (ditto young Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles).  Director of photography Serge Ladouceur once told us that they were so attractive that he could light them like he would light a beautiful woman, and this episode really shows just how true that is. The close ups allow the emotion to come through loud and clear, and director Sgriccia is as talented at showing us what the brothers are feeling as Jared and Jensen are at showing it.

The episode was written by John Shiban, who came from the X Files along with Kim Manners (Mr. Cooper in this episode was also a character from that show, which many Supernatural crew members also worked on).

That scene hits harder now than ever, after having to watch Sam Winchester build a similar pyre for his brother in the series finale. There’s something in my eye now and it isn’t smoke…

One Week Later.

As Three Dog Night sings about the road to Shambala and what the Winchesters would give anything for right now, to ‘wash away my troubles, wash away my pain…’, Dean works on the broken Impala. The brothers can’t fix that their father is gone, or that the demon is out there, so Dean works on what he can.

Throughout this episode, the Impala stands in for so many things, and if we all didn’t realize she was special to us before (we did), we would have known with this episode.

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