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Wednesday 30 May 2012

Supernatural - 6.18: "Frontierland" Review


Supernatural does Westerns as Sam and Dean are transported back to the West to find some Phoenix ash which can be used on Eve. It's a dream come true for Dean.

Sunrise, Wyoming March 5 1861  Two men engage in a showdown and one is Dean (Jensen Ackles) in cowboy attire.   The clock strikes high noon.   The Supernatural opening is similar to Bonanza.

48 Hours earlier  Sam (Jared Padalecki) searches the cellar for books etc for anything to help them with Eve.   Bobby (Jim Beaver) mentions Phoenix and Dean asks, "Is that River, Joaquin or the flaming bird."  "Ashes of the mother can burn the mother."  "...killed a phoenix today and left a pile of flaming ash."  That's from Samuel Colt's journal.   Dean doesn't share the journal and he actually found what they needed too.   So much for Sam being the geek, ha.  "Star Trek IV the bitch," is Dean's suggestion.  "Save the whales, go back in time and hunt the Phoenix."

Obviously no one knows the plot of the film.   Dean knows someone who can do it.   Cas - "I dream of Jeannie your ass down here pronto."  Rachel (Sonya Salomaa) comes instead as Cas (Misha Collins) is busy.  Dean adds they get stuck with Miss Moneypenny.   Yet he didn't fancy her, huh, what's happening with Dean and chicks this season?   She thinks they all only call on Cas when they need him.   Cas arrives and stops her from ranting.  She's his lieutenant.

Cas can only give them 24 hours.   The further back he sends them - the harder it is to bring them back.   Dean went shopping, ha for the whole kitten caboodle.   Dean has a fetish and recites all Clint Eastwood movies.   Bobby asks even the monkey ones.  Sam: "Especially the monkey one."  That's orangutan.   His name's Clyde.   Cas didn't know they wear blankets.   They can use the gold Dean stole form the dragon's lair.    Sam calls Dean "Sundance."  Dean wants to hit on the saloon chicks.   Sam steps in poop.

March 4 1861.   Elias Finch (Matthew John Armstrong) is being hanged.   He declares they will all burn for this.   A man notices Dean's blanket and he becomes self conscious and removes it.   Dean names himself Marshall Eastwood and Sam is Walker, Texas Ranger.   Elkins is meant to be a barkeep at the saloon, as in an ancestor of Daniel? Dean is shocked at the appearance of the saloon chicks!  "This is not awesome."  Sam has sarsaparilla.   Samuel Colt is building a railroad.   Dean: "It's so much more germier than I pictured." Darla makes a move on him and he's saved by the judge (Scott Hylands).   Dean says there's a Phoenix walking around in the form of Finch.   Sam is sent to get the colt.   Dean will put together a posse, he's "a posse magnet."  Sam has to ride a horse.   Dean's into westerns, well we'd never have guessed.   Just like the movies.   Finch returns for the sheriff (Dean Wray).

Rachel doesn't believe what she's hearing and asks if Cas's dirty secret is true.   Cas must defeat Raphael and has no choice.  She attacks him with a knife.   Did she think she could kill Cas?   Cas is wounded and heads for Bobby's, everyone bastion of refuge.   Dean comments on his new hat. "I look good."  There's no posse and Dean's the new sheriff now.   Sam finds Samuel Colt (Sam Hennings) after two demons have paid him a visit wanting the Devil's Gate to be opened.   Dean: "Howdy pilgrim."  The deputy (Gordon Michael Woolvett) is the bait.   Sam tells Samuel to throw holy water on him, he's not a demon and shows Samuel his phone.  He's going to shoot a demon in three hours and shows him the journal.   Sam tells him there's no such thing as a retired hunter.   Samuel's a hero in Sam's time.   Yes but not everyone knows about him.  He calls the colt a curse.   Sam wants it.

Cas can't bring Sam and Dean back cos he's weak.   He needs to touch Bobby's soul for energy.   Cas using the word 'gingerly,'  he needs to do it carefully or Bobby will explode.   Finch is exacting revenge for his wife's killing and wants the deputy.   Dean mentions the iron shackles and bars.   Dean's a hunter/sheriff.   Dean must kill Finch cos he knows what he is.   Finch shoots the deputy but Dean didn't see that coming.

Sam returns with the Colt and they head for the showdown.    Dean manages to dispatch Finch but they stand around and don't bother going for the ashes as Cas brings them back and Dean left the colt behind too.   Cas can't send them back.   Dean: "screwed the pooch."  Sam gets a package from Samuel with the ashes.   It was lying in the post office and it had to be delivered today.   Samuel got Bobby's address from Sam's phone, what would Sam be doing with Bobby's address in his phone.   He'd have his number that's more common since he knows where Bobby lives and why would he want to advertize it.   Dean says they can now take the fight to Eve.   Where was the colt?

A fun filled episode of the show - even if it was meant to be serious in their objective of heading back to the Old West, in the hopes of finding a weapon to use on Eve.   It was also something Dean was excited about, with his love of the West, thus the chick shopping trip for mostly wrong accessories, but he felt satisfied.    Shame then that Dean failed at the end considering he did everything else right: handled the supernatural element of the Phoenix; took him down in the showdown and yet managed to not retrieve any ashes.   Could say the same for Sam - hey he's meant to be more on the ball than Dean, you know, keep his head when Dean was sort of losing his over the thrill of where he was.

Jim Beaver got a line about Deadwood as he was in that.   Perhaps Supernatural took a note out of Deadwood's saloon chick appearance, but not as grotesque.   Cas kills again - this time an old friend and lieutenant of his.   He appears to be hiding plenty and doing an awful lot of killing and other sneaky stuff you wouldn't normally expect to Cas to do.   Granted he's fighting a war and war is dirty and hell, but sometimes wonder why he's really fighting for and why.   Rachel was a friend and he turned on her; so would he do the same as far as Sam and Dean go?   (Just thought I'd mention Anna while I'm at it too. He killed her to stop her from going back and killing Sam and Dean's parents.)  So the outlook for our Winchesters does not bode well with the path Cas is on.   Believe that to Cas, the ends justify the means.

Finally got to meet Samuel Colt and he didn't do much, aside from sussing out Sam's phone and mailing the parcel.   Considering Dean was coveting his journal at the beginning, thought he would've wanted to meet him - okay his love for the West overtook everything, playing sheriff and he fitted into that role - a shame they only had 24 hours to do all this.   Otherwise pretty sure Dean may have accompanied Sam, then again Samuel Colt wasn't really a big hero of his or anything.   Or no one thought of that angle.

Also in the previous episode Cas mentions he can bend time occasionally it's fluid.   Here that's what he does.   However in 4.3 In The Beginning, when he sends Dean home, it's said angels can 'bend' time but not change destinies.   See this in conjunction with the previous episode and the entire continuing argument over determining your own destinies later.

Lots of Back to the Future references and allusions here.   Cas was used to send them back instead of a Delorean and then Back to the Future III when the parcel arrived with the ashes.    However this allusion wasn't a new concept as it was alluded to in the 4.3 In the Beginning episode when Dean went back in time to meet their parents.   The Colt was also left behind in this episode as it was here, and back then it turned out to be in the possession of Daniel Elkins in 1.20 Dead Man's Blood.   Also here Samuel is building the Devil's Gate, located in Wyoming and in the season 2 finale, All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2, they have already been to the gate and had to stop it from opening.

Bobby has watched Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Jim's late wife, Cecily Adams had a recurring role in this  from 1997-1999.  Jensen always wanted to make a cowboy movie so this is the closest he's come so far.   Jensen and Jared would make great Butch Cassidy and Sundance in a movie.



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