Saturday, January 14, 2012

Time After Time After Time


Time After Time After Time already has a Cyndi Lauper song playing in my head. I miss the music from the old days. In fact, I heard Bad Company on the way to dinner and thought of Meg. Remember Meg? I liked her.

ANYWAY, tonight the boys are stalking something that looks like a priest from The Exorcist movie. They split up to follow him, and Dean comes upon the monster sucking the life force out of what looks like a homeless man. As Dean rushes forward, the creature dissolves into a ball of red light, taking Dean with it as Sam arrives, shouting his brother’s name.

TWO DAYS EARLIER

Dean is looking up Dick Roman info on the laptop when Sam’s phone rings. It’s Sheriff Jodi Mills, and she has a case for him, a mummified body in Canton Ohio. (OMG—credits, RAT BOY is going to be in this one!) Apparently the sheriff knows about Bobby because she’s choked up when she speaks his name, talking about all she went through with him and the Winchesters. Sam (who needs a hair cut, he’s about to be a dad , already!) tells Dean she caught a case for them. Dean replies with, “Aw, I feel bad. We didn’t get her anything.” Sam then chides Dean for reading Dick Roman stuff over and over, that he’s just punishing himself.

In the next scene, they pull up in what looks like a new car in front of a dilapidated house (from Ghost Facers?) The brothers do rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets the bedroom. Apparently Dean has moved on from scissors because he chose rock and Sam chose paper. “How does paper beat a rock?”

They show up at some guy’s house. Apparently he witnessed the victim being sucked dry. They go back to the house where they’re squatting, and can’t find anything about turning bodies into cryptkeepers, but Greater Canton is a magnet for weird bodies. Random years, but always in threes. Two bodies have already been found. Dean taps into local surveillance cameras, a trick he learned from Frank, impressing Sam. But they found pictures of the same man on local surveillance and in an old newspaper story about one of the strange bodies. They locate the girl who found the body in 1957 and ask if she recognizes the man. She does, and the boys go stake out the house.

And we’re back to the first scene, where Dean attacks and disappears into a ball of energy. He’s grappling with the creature—and finds himself in on a street in…the 1940s? The police see him and demand he drops the gun. He is arrested and learns he’s 68 years in the past. He takes a minute to do the math. “I’m stuck in 1944?”

The cop leaves him and another man in plainclothes comes in. Rat Boy!!! Wow, X-Files was a while back, huh? Dean figures he’s screwed anyway, so tells the truth, and is surprised when Rat Boy (OMG, Elliot Ness!) believes him. He accuses the man of being a hunter, but Ness rolls his shoulders and denies it, then introduces himself. Dean is suitably impressed.

Meanwhile, back in 2011, Sam is on the phone with the sheriff. BTW, those shirts he wears? Hella expensive, because I keep trying to buy them for my husband but don’t trust him in $70 shirts. Okay, now the sheriff wants to help find Dean since she got them into this mess.

Back in the ‘40s, Dean is going fanboy on Elliott Ness. Ness says they’re hunting the same thing in different centuries. Dean gets all excited to be an “untouchable” but Ness doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They go shopping to get Dean new clothes. Ness tells the seamstress Dean is from the future. Dean says, “Gas is $4 a gallon, you can get cheese from a spray can, and the president is a black guy.”

In 2011, the sheriff is bringing Sam paperwork from Bobby’s locker. She’s pretty sure something is alive in three of the boxes.

In the 40s, OMG, Dean looks GOOD. Goooooooooood. He keeps saying “awesome,” which makes the seamstress ask if he’s a religious kook. Then she calls he and Ness “idjits,” which amuses Dean. He tells her she reminds him of someone.

In 2011, Jodi is helping Sam on the internet. They are magically able to enhance a picture to see a ring on their suspect’s finger, which bears the symbol of Kronos, the god of time. He’s an old god, who used to get his power from people feeding him. Now he makes up for lack of power with being “twice as pissed, and a lot more hands on.” Sam decides they have to summon him.

In the 1940s, Dean and Ness go to find the house Sam and Dean had staked out. Dean quotes Sean Connery from The Untouchables, but Ness says, “Who talks like that?” Dean swears he’s never watching one of his favorite movies again. They break into the house and discover Kronos is laying bets on races where he already knows the outcome. So Ness and Dean go look for the bookie who places his bets. Dean plays muscle, loving every minute of it, but doesn’t have to do much to threaten him to get a location.

In 2011, Sam and Jodi find a way to call Kronos, but Dean has to be touching him when they do, or Dean will be stuck in another time forever. They find an old bottle in Bobby’s things and decide to drink it.

In the 1940s Dean and Ness stake out the bar where Kronos is drinking. Dean asks Ness who died in his life that made him become a hunter. Ness calls him morbid, and says he started because vampires were turning people and he caught the bug. Ness asks why Dean is doing it and Dean said because of his family, but they keep dying and he doesn’t know why he does anything anymore. Ness calls him a nancy and wants to know if all hunters are as soft as Dean in the future. Dean is taken aback—certainly Dean has never been soft. “At least you’re making a difference. Hunting’s the only clarity you’re going to find in this life. That makes you luckier than most.”

After Ness makes his speech, a lovely woman walks by the car, and Kronos follows her. Ness leads Dean to the trunk of his car—loaded with all manner of weaponry. “Sweet merciful awesome!” Dean exclaims.

Dean and Ness follow Kronos, weapons at the ready (could that BE any hotter?) only to see Kronos and the girl embrace. They’re stunned.


Ness and Dean split up, Ness going to watch Kronos, I guess, who went home with the girl. Dean goes back to the seamstress. She’s found a way to kill Kronos, with an olive branch carved by vestal virgins and dipped in the blood of you-don’t-wanna-know-what. Dean realizes if he kills Kronos he’s stuck in 1944. The seamstress tells him there’s lots of ways to pass the time and lays a kiss on him. As he’s leaving he remembers Back to the Future 3 (is that the western one?) and decides to write himself a letter—at least I think so.

Okay, I JUST recognized Kronos as Logan from Veronica Mars. Holy smokes, I love Logan. I didn’t recognize him until he spoke, before beating up Ness. He’s interrupted by the girl telling him he forgot to take out the trash, apparently his excuse for going out. Ness disappears. Kronos tells his girl to pack a bag, she’s going with him. When she hesitates, he snaps at her, which surprises her.

Dean pulls up in front the house Sam and Dean were squatting in. He tells the owner he’s the head of homeland termite inspection. He finds the bedroom where Sam made his bed, lays on the floor and looks for the perfect spot to hide his message to Sam.

Back in 2011, Jodi sends Sam to bed, and he sees the message from Dean—his name carved into the baseboard and Dean’s note behind it. He runs down to show Jodi the letter which has the name of the woman, Lila, and the exact date Dean had contact with him. Sam and Jodi find Lila at a rest home and ask her about Ethan. She hadn’t seen him since 1944, the night the clocks stopped at 11:34, when he said awful things, and strangled that poor man. Sam shows her a picture of Dean and she said Ethan choked the life out of him.

In 1944, Dean goes back to the house looking for Ness and breaks in. He and Kronos fight. Ness holds Lila hostage with a gun pointed at her belly. Kronos said he does his sacrifices so he can get back to Lila because he loves her. He used to wander but now he has her. When she calls him a monster, you can feel his heart breaking.

Meanwhile, Sam and Jodi call Kronos, who slides back to 2011. Ness tosses the olive branch to Dean just as he and Kronos disappears in a ball of light. Once back in the house, Sam stabs Kronos, who dies after telling the brothers their future is covered in a thick black ooze. They’re everywhere. And then Kronos dies. The end.

Now, I’m not a fan of the drawn-out ending but THAT was a little abrupt. But awesome.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great write-up, MJ. I enjoyed the episode. Love Jason Dohring, I know him from Moonlight. Looooved Jensen in his 40's sexiness. Delish. And I was so happy to see Sheriff Mills. The only thing missing was Bobby.

Pat C. said...

I'm a Cas girl first and foremost and a Sam girl on the side. But Dean in that suit -- Ohhhh Lordy.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

I love your recaps, MJ!

I watched the episode late (just finished!) and by the second paragraph of this post, I had to start taking notes. I'm the only commenter who always writes a tome.

It says "Time After Time After Time" all over the Internet but the episode title during the show just said "Time After Time." Weird.

I like Sam's haircut, but those sideburns have. got. to. go.

There were so many great lines in this episode. "It's called anime." "I learned that from you." And the accompanying facial expressions or reactions!

Dean's smugness when he did the camera feed thing was awesome.

There are no words to describe how fantastic Dean looked in a 1944 custom-tailored suit. *drool*

Bringing back Sheriff Mills was fantastic. I wondered if she knew about Bobby, and having her being more interested in their world makes a helluva lotta sense, since she lost him right when things were starting to percolate a little. I loved that she was the one who helped Sam on his end. Nice change from having a random character doing it.

I liked Ness's taunting of Dean. Stop his typical spiral into self-pitying despair before it goes on too long.

I knew Jason Dohring was in the episode but they kept him pretty well disguised until that moment when he attacks Ness. He was pretty hot, too. Lots of hotness in this episode! And his acting was excellent, too. I hope he gets more work.

The way Dean found a spot for his note for Sam was inspired. Sam collapsing on the pallet was hot, and then his double-take when he saw his name was fantastic, and...well, I'm overdosing now. LOL

I loved that they gave Kronos a sympathetic motivation, even though he was still obviously a monster. It touched the romantic in me that he was time-jumping to get back to her.

A lot of people are complaining about the writers killing Bobby. A friend mentioned last night how Jeffrey Dean Morgan was on the show so few times, but John Winchester's presence permeates seven entire seasons. It's the same with Bobby. I almost (but not really) prefer his unseen presence in every episode to having a lot of episodes that he's not in, or where he does his standard Bobby things but is more of a prop than instrumental in the actual storyline of the episodes. We got the moment when Jodi found the whiskey from Rufus, and she talks about their lives being a puzzle and they keep coming across pieces of it. I miss Bobby, I hate that he died, but I think the writing is beautiful.

JustinJohnson said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Maureen Child said...

Okay, I was sooooo sure that Dean was going to write a letter to Bobby and have it delivered in time to have him DUCK when Dick shot him....really bummed I was wrong.

I thought they set it up so well, with Samuel Colt arranging for a delivery of the Phoenix ashes and everything...

sigh. can't have everything though!

The episode was fabulous and I agree. Dean in 1944 was amazing...

JustinJohnson said...

That would've been an amazing idea Maureen. Now I'm just mad that they didn't write that into the episode. C'mon Dean...think!