John wrestles Yellow Eyes, who leaves his body and easily fights him off. As Yellow Eyes works his way back, he’s distracted enough to where Dean takes the Colt and fires. A sudden shot in the shoulder and then a cut to Dean with the smoking gun would have worked way better than what we got — Dean firing in slo-mo, with fiery bullet hanging in the air before entering Yellow Eyes. That was contrived, and this show is above such stunts.
Sparks fly and ding dong, the witch is dead. Ellen and Bobby close the gate, and John, who can’t speak, weeps and holds Dean’s shoulder, showing pride for his boy. I guess Hell changed his perspective. What’s weird is Sam off to the side, only getting a nod and tearful smile from his dad. Come on Sam, rush over and hug him. Oh yeah, green screen. John disappears in a golden sparkling flash. Oh come on, this isn’t Disneyland.
The score in the entire graveyard sequence is terrible, especially in the moments to come. It should have gone for less over-the-top sentiment (go climb that mountain!) and more looming angst. It was out of character for this show. See "Devil's Trap" and "No Rest For The Wicked" for better examples.
Here’s where a bored evening of random channel flipping introduced me to a show that I now can’t imagine life without. Dean and Sam look over the body of Yellow Eyes, and Dean gets in the best line of this entire two season demon arc. “Well, check that off the to-do list”. Sam's appropriately at a loss for words. Dean isn’t. “That was for our mom… you son of a bitch”. Yes, that came across as hokey (mostly because of the score), but that’s okay. What else could Dean have said?
This part inspired me the next day to join Netflix and check out this show from the beginning, all because of the actor chemistry and the cool car. A fully aware Sam in front of the Impala asks Dean what happened after he was stabbed. Dean avoids, but Sam won’t back down. “Did I die? Did you sell your soul for me like Dad did for you?” Dean keeps avoiding while Sam demands the truth, and his eyes water when he realizes Dean is lying. He chokes out, “How long did you get?” Dean gives up the charade, and tells him one year. “How could you do that?” We asked the same thing thirty minutes ago. Dean defends his reasoning, inspiring Sam to declare, “Guess I gotta save your ass for a change.” I got teary when I saw this the first time, but watching this now, knowing Sam failed, I’m crushed.
Article comments
1 - vichi
thank Alice for another great review. As I said before I liked a lot the 2nd part of AHBL1 and the first part of AHBL2. I found the death of Sam and the reactions that Dean had so hearthbreaking...Sam's death was tragic but what blow me away was the way Dean acted, you could feel his pain, his despair. That's what make it so tragic! Jensen was perfect here, this man can make even a stone move with his acting, he has something special I never seen before, he practically live and breath as Dean Winchester. He's Dean winchester all the way and not just a character. He put so much passion in this show (Jared too, he's great but here, Dean was the amazing one)and after the episode ends you only wish to go back and watch over and over again that part(that's what I did, at least:)))
When Sam died I was sad but seeing Dean's reactions, feeling his pain, was heartbreaking. Then he made the deal, the same deal his father did and got only a year of life. That shows how much Sam means in his life. He rather spend one year with Sam and the rest of his life in hell than to live a lot of years without his brother. I can understand this. Sam was his reason to live, his duty was to protect him, he did that since he was four.And to see his face when he saw Sammy alive again!God,I was trembling with emotions. I was sorry to see that John was so little in this finale and he did't said anything to Sam, but now I understand why. I didn't knew about the green screen and that only he was filming with Jensen. I always found the cemetery part a little awkard, something didn't fit, now I know what and why.
Thanks and really waiting for your surprise:))
September, 18, here we come!
2 - Eliza
Reading this got me all teary-eyed. Gah. One of the worst episode for me emotionally. A lot of tears...
Anyway, love the review. Yeah, the graveyard scene could have been better but with all the trouble they had to face, it came out pretty good.
Oh and I was sure that the whole graveyard scene was a set. I have to go check that again...
3 - Huppy
I really liked your reviews of AHBL 1 & 2, Alice. You really hit the nail on the head on the good and bad in these episodes.
The green screen scenes in the cemetery were just so painfully awkward and so obviously green screened that I fast forward through them. Which is too bad, because I would have loved seeing JDM actually act with Jared and Jensen.
4 - Anna
AHBL2 is definitely in the top 5 episodes for me. Yes, the scene with JDM was awkward but he wasn't available to film it at the time the rest of the episode was filmed so they had to do it a few weeks prior. Then they changed Jared's storyline a little and had to change the way he appeared so they had to film him separately too. Then, we also have to remember that Kripke had not gotten the green light for season 3 yet so he had to close out season 2 somehow so that if it wound up being the series finale, the viewers would be satisfied but still open enough in case there was a season 3.
Jensen's performance was exceptional, as it was in WIAWSNB. It angers me greatly that the man never gets the recognition he so greatly deserves. He is a much better actor than any "big name" stars out there and makes Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise look like amateurs in a high school theater outing. It's a shame the old farts in Hollywood bypass him merely because this is a genre show.
5 - cassi
Yeah, the review of AHBL II!
I was waiting for this review and you did another great job. Thanks! I might disagree with you on a few points but it's always fun to read your opinion.
AHBL II was my first SPN episode ever. I never saw a SPN promo before, I didn't know Jensen Ackles, never heard the names of Jeffrey or Jared. Yes, I watched Gilmore Girls but Jared didn't impress me so I didn't now the name of the actor that played Dean Forrester. For the record,I was a Jess fan! I saw AHBL II and Jensen's performance blew me away. I was instantly hooked, I didn't fully understand everything but I was interested and did everything to find out about this series. I saw this episode on a website so at the beginning I thought that the "Carry on my wayward son"-recap was the work of fan who had too much to drink. ;)
The first time I watched this episode, I wondered why Sam was just standing there and didn't go to this dad but it didn't really trouble me. I thought Sam was more the supressed feelings-guy. Of course, after buying the DVD box and watching the Making of, I do know that Jeffrey D. Morgan was busy and they had to do a little CG but I don't really mind, it's just a few seconds.
I like "Don't look back", maybe they thought of Dean not looking back at what he has done and the consquences but looking forward to fighting when he says: "we got work to do". I love that scene. The ending of "shadow" is my own muscial trauma (Aweful music choice!) The score wasn't that bad, honestly I didn't notice much of the music because I payed more attention to to the lines of the actors. Besides I'm not really a Classic Rock fan, SPN mad me listen to the songs they use for the show.I agree "Hells Bells" is awesome in the promo for "The magnifcient seven" but I can live with "Don't look back".
The cut between emotional scenes and demon war stuff was okay with me, didn't really feel akward. I have to agree the pinning Winchester to objects thing gets annoying but not in this episode. In "Malleus Malificarum" it really annoyed the crap out of me. Why Dean wasn't knocked unconcious is beyond me but I thought he used his arm to protect his head a bit.
I'm a fan of the two part season ending AHBL and was a little bit dissapointed with "NRFTW". It was just too short for me!
6 - Heather
Although I did disagree with a lot of what you wrote for this review (I found the scene between John and Dean absolutely heartbreaking) I'm write with you there on the opening scene. Jensen is stunning isn't he?