Dean reluctantly agrees, because he sees how riled Sam is, and goes out to find the werewolf that bit Madison while Sam stays with her, promising Dean in unconvincing fashion that he'll kill her if she can't be stopped. They wait for the moon to rise, Madison still tied to the chair, while Sam looks out the window, eyes anxiously fixed on the moon. The full moon is a constant symbol throughout this episode and all I could come up with was something simple; the moon has a bright side and a dark side. The full moon is beautiful and creepy at the same time, for it reveals the best and worst of every person, or good and evil. Yeah, I might be stretching a bit, but it makes sense to me.
Of course the moon also means one very hulked out werewolf Madison gets to slash Sam in the face, but Sam recovers from his carelessness and gets Madison in the closet. He moves the heavy entertainment center with TV in front of the door, and I’m asking how he can do that but not take on a werewolf?
Next we get a common trick from Kim Manners and Sera Gamble — push the emotional threshold beyond its limits. Dean shoots werewolf Glen, the neighbor who turned Madison. He dies in front of Dean with no idea what’s going on. Dean’s adrenaline drops to outright compassion, and thanks the Jensen’s unbelievable acting, we experience every gut-wrenching bit of it. This is another crushing blow to Dean’s black and white world, for even monsters are victims. For such a simple moment, it took us to a place we never expected, pure sympathy for the villain.
Then Jared gets his turn, and it’s just as powerful. The somber music plays as a glum Sam opens the closet door, revealing a normal Madison and the intense damage within. He sadly delivers the line “You’ll never see me again” and disappears. At first, I didn’t get why Sam was so emotional, aside from the heartbreak on his face killing me. After some pondering though, I got it. Instead of getting to know this incredible woman to whom he’s deeply attracted, he has to leave her, and as he said earlier, “I’ll just be a bad memory.” Sam’s facing his dark side, and even though what he did was right, it doesn’t sit well with him. He wishes he could be someone else. Hmm, he’s wished that his whole life, hasn’t he? See, I told you there was more to this episode than what was on the surface.
Article comments
1 - cassi
"He looked like dog food to me from the first appearance." I couldn't agree more.
2 - Rosewood
Nice choice for a review!
To me, the way Dean and Sam cry in this episode, (and in general) is so reflective of their personalities. Sam lets his messy emotions out nearly involuntarily. He's got goo and tears all over. Dean holds his emotions all in so tight he will barely let one drop fall down. Blink and Dean removes all traces behind his mask.
I agree that most of Sam's emotion at the end is not for Madison, it's for himself. He couldn't save her, and because he failed, he has to kill her. Maybe he can't be saved and how do you face that? Maybe whatever's happening to him can't be stopped. Not only does he have to kill someone in cold blood (for I believe the first time?), but he has to kill someone he cares about more than a regular victim-of-the week.
Dean's not ready to kill Sam if he can't save him. (We saw this in Croatoan and BUABS.) He knows what it's like to have to kill someone. Dean wants to protect Sam from having to kill Madison, because that's another awful act that there's no going back from. When Sam looks back at him, Dean must be crushed by how much he hasn't been able to protect Sam from. Now here's another terrible milestone for Sam - killing someone he cares about and couldn't save. And maybe Dean's looking at Sam, thinking someday Sam will be looking at him just this way this right before Dean has to shoot him (Kripke! don't go there....)
Thanks for writing these reviews. They've been a great distraction waiting for Season 4 (since I avoid the spoilers).
3 - heraldtalia
Thanks for another great review Alice! I loved this ep the first time I saw it and was surprised to learn that this is such a divisive episode in the fandom.
I'm also surprised to learn that people think Jared over-acted at having to kill Madison. While I agree with your deeper analysis regarding the complete reasons behind Sam's sobbing, I really don't understand why people couldn't understand why Sam would be that upset over having to kill an innocent person who was not responsible for what she was doing, even if we leave the parallels with Sam out of it. I mean, Sam had always been the one who didn't want to kill humans (at least until AHBL2), so is it so hard to believe he'd have this much difficulty murdering a woman he was fond of? I know I'd be a wreck over it, but maybe that's just me. ^_~
Anyway, thanks for the insightful review and I'm looking forward to your overall S3 and DVD commentary next week.
4 - Kat
What a great review, thanks for writing it. i don't think it was overacted at all, it was obvious sam was at breaking point and dean was worried he might have to do the same thing to sam.
5 - Tigershire
I also don't get the whole "overacting" thing that some people thought. To me it was very believable. He had to shoot Madison when she was a person, all normal and sad and scared. I would think that if any one of us were in that position we'd be in tears and distressed too.
Now if Madison had been in full werewolf rage when he had to shoot her I'm sure he wouldn't have been quite so emo.
Heart is one of my favourite episodes for all the heartbreaking reasons.