Geez! Will poor Sam Winchester EVER catch a break? You know you're completely doomed while starting your new life when your dead girlfriend keeps showing up in the middle of the night, telling you things are hopeless and she was dead the second you both said hello. Or when hunters stop by and force feed you demon blood so you'll go back to your demon killing with your mind ways. Or when the dead girlfriend is really Lucifer who is ready to be fitted with his own ginormotron meat suit. Even Dean doesn't want Sam back, although taking on the task of trying to get a fallen angel laid isn't as easy as it sounds.
Besides the fact that the plot twisting I just described will make anyone not familiar with the show say "WTF?" "Free To Be You and Me" so far is the best episode of season five. Considering Sam and Dean didn't have a single scene together, that's saying a lot. Again, just like last year's "In the Beginning," Jeremy Carver delivers a well-plotted and balanced script that ups the stakes for everyone (yes, Mr. Carver, you still own me). J. Miller Tobin ("Born Under A Bad Sign", "A Very Supernatural Christmas") is back to direct and manages to bridge the two very different settings seamlessly.
For both Sam and Dean, the hope of finding a way out of their grim destinies is getting slimmer. While both are still hidden from those forces that pursue them, the inevitability of becoming vessels for opposing foes in the greatest war ever told brings to question just how powerful the free will of man can be. Castiel too is hitting some major bumps in his quest for God and the quest for his own faith. All in all, epic doesn’t begin to describe it.
Synopsis
What a better way to chronicle the brothers' parting of ways than with a brilliant montage set to "Simple Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I'm getting really spoiled by three episodes in a row of great classic rock setting the mood for the story. Sam is in Garber, Oklahoma and Dean is in Greeley, Pennsylvania. Sam takes a job as a busboy at a bar while Dean is hunting "twilight." Sam burns his fake IDs, Dean shows them. Sam carves up lemons, Dean carves up a vampire. Both settle into their cheap motel rooms and their separate lives are set.
Article comments
1 - Emma
Hey Alice, loved the review. I agree this episode was fantastic, had my in stitches with almost every Dean and Castiel scene and although I saw the Sam as Lucifer's vessel coming I was still in awe of Lu's charm and sympathetic shoulder. Very chilling. He's not this huge powerful guy shouting orders, he's the kind guy next door- Ned Flanders!! The whorehouse will go down in Supernatural history as one of the funniest scenes of all time. Castiel looked terrified there and seemed to rather go round 2 with Raphael then talk to a girl. Adorable! That innocent little angel of ours is growing up.
Dean was defiantly lying to himself when he said he's happy without Sam, those sorrowful looks at the empty seat beside him, he's really missing that Gi-normo brother of his. P.S. Loved the Ginormotron mention lol. Ginormotron: can take down Megatron with a single punch hahaha
So proud of Sam for spitting out the demon blood, really shows just how guilty he feels and how much he wants to make things right for himself, Dean and the world.
I really loved this episode and I knew I would what with Jeremy Carver penning the ep and J. Miller Tobin at the helm it was one hell of a ride.
2 - Gaussian
Loved the review. I do watch it live....but alas I don't have a Neilson box. But, then I do record it for watching over and over and over and over again...so that, at least gets counted. I don't know about anyone else, but I have to rewatch it immediately.
3 - elenaM
Alice, loved the review, as ever. "fitted with his own Ginormotron meat suit"-ROFL. Gaussian, I'm with you--I have to rewatch immediately as well. Thought the brothel was out of character for Castiel (it didn't seem like the "keep your opinions to yourself" guy would let Dean drag him into a den of iniquity); I know some folks on TWFB have felt this way...but it was funny.
Wonder if anyone besides me thought that Cas disappearing on Dean while he was talking at the end was his way of saying "Dean, you're so full of it"? After all, it was Dean who persuaded Castiel to rebel against heaven on humanity's behalf, saying "people are what matter, families."
4 - Jasminka
Hi Alice,
first time commenting here, so allow me to say that I’ve relished your reviews for a while now, ever since I kind of stumbled on them via a search for interesting and smart articles on my favourite tv-show. Hard enough to keep track over here in Germany.
I agree with you " this episode was undoubtedly the best so far and will probably remain on of my ever-faves for many reasons: the wonderful opening montage of the brothers, essentially showing how both are two sides of the same coin, they have just chosen to forget that for the time being " for obvious reasons. Yet the first minutes of Sam’s encounter with illusion-Jess had me standing knee deep in Kleenex in no time. She laid a finger on Sam’s in all likelihood obscure and old knowledge of his dark side always being there, even in Stanford when still everything seemed that they would soon pick out their favourite white picket fence design. That did strike home. Even though I love the storyline and its multi-faceted development I do hope for a break for the Winchester brothers. It has been one hypothesis of mine watching season 4 that Sam would eventually turn out to be the antichrist, while Dean would be the personification of the archangel Michael. There were so many hints… and now it seems as if the story would travel down that road…With what we’ve been able to see in the clips of the upcoming episode, the brothers will be further apart than ever " Dean going all John Connor and Sam in Lucifer’s white suit, evil and stylish… Damn you, Eric Kripke. And praise you. Whatever Kripke and his massively creative team are cooking up, it’s looking big. And I’m looking forward to it, although it already is heartbreakingly cruel. Again. Luckily we’ve had some hilarious scenes here to allow us to breathe… Dean being happy without Sam? Come on, Dean, lying to yourself again? We have a saying where my mother came from: “whose brains are you trying to salt”? I believe that he believes it in the moment he utters the words, but a split second later even he supposably realises that he cannot believe himself.
But Sam really breaks my heart, again, in this episode. Fate just doesn’t leave him alone, and on the other hand he can’t stay away from what he does best " detecting danger, researching it, doing what needs to be done (in this case calling Bobby), thus putting himself eventually in trouble. And I find so tremendously moving how Jessica " even her clearly unreal persona " brings out a tenderness in Sam which is even sexier than the other man we’ve seen him be. He is becoming more appealing by the minute, if that be possible. Okay, I’ve always had a weak spot for the tortured and seemingly lost causes. They are the ones worth fighting for.
High praises for all the actors here, the concept of the episode, the whole caboodle. There is no better show on tv today, indeed.
Thanks for reading, take care and best wishes, Jas
5 - elenaM
They're torturing us by torturing Sam...and we love it (sigh). Jas, it's got to where I settle in to watch Supernatural armed with a box of tissues. And my kid sister won't watch with me anymore because it's too stressful.
warning: truly horrendous pun to follow. That suit Lucifer's wearing really is beautiful--the fabric suit, and the meat suit. Please groan now, so sorry, I just couldn't resist.
I'm finding Lucifer to be, er, kind of seductive. I don't mean lure-into-bed seductive, I mean charismatic, dangerously persuasive, "stop listening now or I'll have you following me like the Pied Piper and thinking it's all your own idea" seductive...which is exactly what the Devil should be. Nice continuity between the actress playing Nick's wife/Lucifer, Adrianne Palicki & Mark Pellegrino, btw, I really felt like they were all Lucifer.
6 - Sahar
Another great review Alice!
And Elena: I also find Lucifer easy to like. Dang him!
7 - rechelle austria
this series is cool, i love it so much...
8 - rechelle austria
i wish im their little sister...i was looking for a copy of season 5 wher can i buy that?