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Monday 9 July 2012

Supernatural - 1.19: "Provenance" Review


Sam and Dean look into the case of a killer coming alive from a portrait and killing. Sam meets a girl he likes and Dean encourages him to go for it, in Dean fashion.

A family portrait is seen and there's a knife on the table.   In the painting the father faces to his left.   A couple have bought it and the father has moved position in the painting.   The knife is missing from the table also in the painting.   The candle goes out in the bedroom.   The couple have been stabbed.

Dean (Jensen Ackles) gets the number of yet another chick in a bar and Sam (Jared Padalecki) reads the headlines in a newspaper about the couple having their throats slashed.   Dean talks of LA TV scouts, rock stars, army majors and Sam tells him he can get his own dates.   There aren't any prints or murder weapon found.   Dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) investigated three murders in 1912, 1945 and 1970 in Upstate New York.   They all had the same MO.

Dean is hung over and is asleep int the car wearing his shades.   Sam beeps the car horn and shocks him.   Sam doesn't find a thing to show it's a haunting, just that it's a violent crime and the house is empty.   They go to an art auctionhouse and outside are parked the cars of the wealthy, 'The Krip' is the number plate on a Rolls Royce.   Then we see Dean's Impala with a rusty number plate.

At the auction, Dean eats yet more food.  "I'd like champagne please."
Sam: "He's not a waiter."  The portrait is back to normal now.   They meet Sarah Blake ( Taylor Cole) and Dean has to get his hands on more mini quiches.   Sam wants to see the provenance of the painting and her father tells them to leave.   Sam is attracted to Sarah.   Sam's done an art history course which is good for meeting girls.   Back at their motel, Sam explains a provenance is a certificate of origin which is used to track the history of the object, in this case the painting.   Sam says Dean can get her to write it down on a cocktail napkin and Sam tells him "Pick ups are your thing."  He'd rather Dean go.   Dean: "It wasn't my butt she was checking out."

Sam needs to take one for the team.   Sam takes Sarah to dinner.   Sam found it difficult to find the words to ask her out.   The waiter gives Sam the wine list, showing just how difficult it is for Sam since he hasn't been with anyone since Jess.     She asks for beer and studied art in school.   She doesn't think he's a loser.   Her mother died a year ago and she went into a shell and she hasn't been on a date for a while.   Sarah: "What about you, you're a reasonably attractive guy, why aren't you out and about."  Like Deano, ha.

Sam tells Dean she gave him the provenances and he left, Dean is surprised he didn't con her.   Sam: "get your mind out of the gutter."  Dean knows he's into her.   It was painted in 1910 and the owners were murdered.   It could be haunted or cursed.   Dean: "either way it's toast." More foody references from Dean, okay not intentionally.   They break in and steal the painting and burn it, Dean calls it doing the art world a favour.   The painting reconstructs itself and goes back into the frame.   Dean can't find his wallet which will have his prints, his fake Ids etc.   Conveniently, he drops it more like, cos he's not clumsy.   Sarah watches them when they return.   Dean finds his wallet and says they're sticking around, leaving Sam alone with her.   Sam notices the painting and it freaks her out.   Sam doesn't want her to sell it again.

Dean suggests they need another way to get rid of it.   Sam mentions in the lore of haunted paintings it's always the subjects that haunt them.   'Father slaughters family' read the paper headlines.   He ruled the family with an iron fist and he was a barber, using a straight razor.   Isiah Merchant (Linden Banks) was his name and he had an adopted daughter, Millie (Jodelle Ferland) and it was rumoured his wife was leaving him.   All the family were cremated.   In the photos of the family, Isiah is facing forward.   Sarah's father is selling the painting and Sam notices the painting has changed, at least the position of the people.  Other things in the painting must have changed too.   Sam: "Like that DA Vinci code deal."
Dean: "I don't know, I'm still waiting for the movie on that that thing."

Dean says they need to see the painting again so Sam can get some "more crush on your girlfriend." Sam tells him to drop it. Dean comments they're both consenting adults and then Sam wouldn't be so cranky.   It's about Jess, Dean doesn't know what it's like to lose someone like that, but he wants to see Sam happy.  "God forbid, have fun once in a while."  And we all know what Dean's definition of 'fun' is.  i.e.  chicks.   Sam says there's no point since they'll leave anyway and it's only partly about Jess.

He calls Sarah but the painting is already sold;  the buyer, Evelyn is also killed.   Sarah turns up at her house and they break in.  Isiah is facing forward in the painting again.   Sarah saw the painting move and Sam is trying to stop what's killing.   He doesn't want to see her hurt, she's scared but won't hide.   Dean: "Sam, marry that girl."  Isiah's head is facing sideways again.   Of course he's not the one doing the killing and it's almost as if Isiah is trying to point to who is.   Sam thinks the killing is done at night.   In the painting the razor is closed, but in the book copy, it's open.   Sam calls it a painting in a painting.   Dean has to go to the family crypt alone and finds the one with the Merchant name.   Sam tells her they don't get paid for what they do.

It's a tradition that when a child dies, their favourite toy is preserved.   Dean only finds four jars but he had three children so Isiah is missing.   Dean searches the death certificates for Isiah.   Sam removes an eyelash from her face and tells her to make a wish, hey we used to do that when younger, didn't know people still did that.   Sarah believes there's something between them but Sam doesn't think it's a good idea, "when people are around me they get hurt."  Physically.   He tells her about Jess and Mom.   Sam: "It's like I'm cursed or something - like death follows me around."  She calls him sweet and archaic.   Sam can't go through that pain again.

Dean finds people were ashamed of Isiah and he was buried somewhere else.   Finding out where, he digs up his bones and Sarah comments, "They're uncomfortably comfortable with this."  Dean salts and burns his bones and will stay here so Sam can make a move on her.   Dean turns on the radio to the song lines, "I'm in love with a girl...I can't do without."  Sam and Sarah go for the painting and the little girl and the razor are missing from the painting.   They get locked in the room.

 It was her all along and Isiah was looking down at her as a warning, which is what I said.   Dean says he needs to repel her with something pure, like a poker and Sam attacks her with it.   Sam says there's nothing left to burn.   Sarah mentions at the auctionhouse they handle antique dolls, dolls were made in the child's image back then and used real hair.   Dean goes back to the crypt and finds it difficult to shatter the glass so shoots it, which would've been quicker.   But who needs quicker when Sam can play hero and save Sarah, or at least attempt to save her.   Then Dean's lighter stalls, as usual.   He finally gets to burn her doll and she returns to the painting.  

Dean found the country archives, Millie was adopted and her real family were killed in their beds.   Sam: "Some people are just born tortured." A personal reference perhaps. "So when they die their spirits are just as dark."  Well this part wasn't.   Sarah wants the painting burned.   Dean: "I'm the one who burned the doll, destroyed the spirit, but don't thank me."  Ahh, well we'll thank him.   Sarah doesn't believe Sam is cursed.   He may come back and see her.   Sam goes back to kiss her.   Dean: "That's my boy."

So they find a haunted painting and Sam finds a girl he thinks he could be happy with and Dean pushes him into it, seeing as it's a long time since Jess.   Sam tells Sarah what they do and that he thinks he's cursed, so much for the whole Dean told a chick what he did back in 1.13 Route 666.   Now Sam's done the same and she wasn't even shocked by any of it.   Guess it's better to experience first hand, what they do as it's more believable, than just talking about hunting.   The question of what they'd do if they found someone and wanted to settle down naturally arise, only it wasn't mentioned here by anyone, as Sam asked back in 1.13 Route 666.   Sam will never go back to see Sarah and don't expect she would have waited for him anyway.

'The Krip' on the licene plate was an allusion to Eric Kripke of course.

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