Crossroad Blues

[fairyd123]

So sadly I am lacking the energy to provide the kind of detailed analysis that this episode deserves but it was without a doubt one of my favourites of the series so far:

What I Liked

The cinematography especially in the 1930's sequences. As much as I love my show normally it looks precisely what it is - one of the cheapest shows to produce on network television. But the sepia toned cinematography in this episode was superb. The show looked much more expensive than I'm sure it is.

The music - granted you can't go far wrong with the blues but the music in this episode was wonderful and acted like an additional character adding depth to the proceedings.

Sam's jealousy at not being one of America's most wanted! Very funny although as Dean has an outstanding arrest warrant in St Louis it rather begs the question of what the authorities found when they exhumed "Dean's" body.

The paintings in the guy who'd summoned the demon's apartment. I thought they were absolutely fantastic - very dark, bleak - hell I'd put them up in my place in a heartbeat.

Evan's wife's morph into a creature from hell. Granted they stole the imagery (as they so often do) from the US remake of The Ring but it still completely and totally freaked me out. It was completely fucking horrible and actually made me turn away from the TV.

Dean's anger at John. When he was desperately projecting in his discussion with Evan I thought it was interesting that he essentially called John selfish, that he died acting the hero not thinking for a moment of the leagacy he'd leave behind. "I think you did it for you." John may have made the most noble of sacrifices - an eternity of torment for Dean's life but how is Dean supposed to live knowing that that sacrifice was made? For someone who worshipped his father as much as Dean did the level of self loathing that he must feel at knowing that John not only died for him but is spending ever second in eternal agony for him must be immense. It was one thing for Dean to believe that his father was finally at peace and reconciled with Mary, quite another to know that he's in hell. It's a miracle that Dean hasn't completely cracked up considering everything he's gone through.

Dean trapping the demon and being capable of performing the exorcism in Latin. One of the things that pissed me off so much in season 1 was all the "dumb Dean" moments when they would lower Dean's IQ in order to sell some exposition to the audience. There were a few times when Dean was made to seem as if he didn't know Latin - which was nonsense as it was bound to have been one ofthe first things John taught him. So I'm glad that in this ep we got sneaky, skilled Dean.

Dean's refusal to allay Sam's fears about trading himself for his father and Padalecki's reaction shot. Sam looked like he'd been punched in the stomach.

What I didn't Like

The demon chick. Granted she and Ackles had pretty sizzling chemistry but she was a spectacularly lousy actress. She said all her lines in the exact same way as if she'd never acted before in her life. She didn't vary her tone, her cadence - she said everything as if she didn't actually understand what the words meant. The revelation that John sold his soul for Dean should have been incredibly powerful (and the lines were suitably well written) but the actress just didn't sell it. Ackles tried his best but the scene wasn't anywhere near as effective as it could have been with a decent actress playing that role.

What was with the demon possessing the woman? I thought that the demon simply appeared in human form - that's certainly what the flashback sequence indicated, not that it had to actually physically possess a woman in order to communicate. Where did the girl Dean was speaking too come from? Very odd.

Given how hardcore Dean is this season (precious little empathy for anyone) why did he let the demon go? I can fanwank it that he did it because he wanted to have the option to summon her again and make the trade or that he respected that she stuck to the rules when it came to the bargains she made - but that's still fanwanking. I'm quite surprised that he didn't waste her - or that he let her out ofthe devil's trap when she could presumably have killed him on the spot or trying to trap her.

Dean interrogating an innocent person - again. I get that Dean is in a very hard place but this constant bearting of people he's questioning is getting very old.

Padalecki's lack of screentime - I'm assuming that his broken arm is significantly limiting what he can and can't do but this was another episode in which Sam felt pretty "absent".

Invisible hell hounds - as great as most of the cinematography in this episode was -having the hellhounds be invisible so that noone had to worry about creating a realistic hellhound was kinda cheap and tacky!