Yikes! I don’t think I’ve seen a scarier horror story in all my life. Supernatural takes on corporate America. Those tricky angels put both Dean and Sam in a situation so horrific, so vile, that hunting looks good. I could see Sera Gamble, this week’s writer, pitching the idea. “Oh, I got it, put them in an office!” Even the head angel is appalled, reminding Dean, “Look around. There are plenty of fates worse than yours.”
Considering I know a thing or two about a corporate job stripping away your humanity, plus I’m late to the party again this week (spring break travel this time), I’m doing the review differently this week. By using what we’ve learned from “It’s A Terrible Life,” you’re about to find out why corporate America will never be like Supernatural.
Killing Ghosts
In Supernatural, we know the rule that ghosts must be killed. So how does that happen for two guys that have supposedly never met (except for two uncomfortable exchanges in the elevator)? What do they do when one is behaving in the polar opposite of his nature and both have no memories of their ghost hunting past? Why, look up real actual ghost hunters on the Internet, of course!
Thanks to the Ghostfacers’ instructional video, Sam and Dean find the ghost driving tech support workers to suicide is the jerkish founder of their company, Sandover Bridge and Iron. He only does this in times of deep economic distress. Ha, where was he during the Carter administration? The suggestions aren’t without their challenges though. “Okay, this next part gets a little gross. Sometimes you have to dig up the body. Sorry. It’s illegal in some states. All states.” The rock salt idea becomes useless too, since it’s impossible to get a gun without the waiting period. Lucky for them, the body was cremated, so none of that matters.
Good thing Sam and Dean are there, for any company left to its own devices would take the wrong approach. A project team would be formed to define and implement the means to kill the ghost. First there would be the kickoff meeting for concepting, but it’s rescheduled because Janie from Marketing, the keeper of the vision, has a conflict. Steve from IT causes the next delay because he has a system down emergency that needs to be dealt with ASAP. Arnie from Project Management causes the third postponement because he’s on vacation.
Article comments
1 - J
If he has to look on the network, most company servers run on Unix or Linux
...uh. Clearly you don't live in my neighborhood.
(which would be within spitting distance of Redmond, hence the "...uh.")
2 - Alice Jester
J - lol! You got me there. I forgot the "except those masses of you in the general Redmond area." In the rest of the country, especially those of us that worked for AOL and other Time Warner properties (sworn enemies of Bill Gates), it was Unix.
3 - tash
I think I enjoyed your review as much as I did the episode. Fantastic. I have never worked in a corporate office it sounds hilariously awful, at least it does the way you write about. Great review, great episode.
4 - vichi
lol Alice you made my day! I loved the episode, and you know why? Because I worked in a corporation like that and now I am working in another one, and this one is american :)))
The first one was exactly as in your review, worse than in the Supernatural world, and man, it was a terrible life! Maybe if I had seen this episode before I would have quit sooner!
As for the guys, it was nice to see them so innocent and most of all, admiring the Ghostfacers! LOL, Dean would slap himself for those fine words he said about the Ghostfacers.
Can't wait for the next episode, I think it will be amazing!
5 - Julie
I love the approach you gave to the episode, but I still wonder about the B+... I had a lot of trouble the first few times I watched it, not because of the corporation aspects of it but because I really thought that both brothers would have been there when the moment of "meeting" Zachariah came. This can only mean one thing about Sam and angels: angels don't give a rat's ass about Sam. I think they are gonna regret that decision if something ever does happen to Sam...
You know I'm a fan of yours as always! I was kind of wondering where your review was since I hadn't seen it Monday or Tuesday, but it was worth the wait!
6 - Bevie
I think the angels are discovering that Dean is going to definitely need Sam in order to accomplish his task, and that was why they had Sam be the one to approach Dean in the A/U about ghosts and such.
It was Sam after all who got Dean to start the investigation with him.
So I definitely believe they are beginning to give a rat's ass about Sam after all! Just what I prefer to believe anyway.
Alice, I really do enjoy your reviews. Both yours and Bardicvoice's are really the only ones I enjoy lately. Too much vitriol being spewed in a lot of the others I used to enjoy reading.
7 - Bevie
Forgot to say
After working for decades in corporate cubicles, I really related to the depiction of the office in the episode.
Though, Alice, in my office we could access the internet in any way we liked (as long as the boss wasn't looking though LOL) I would have been able to access the sites that Sam did. We did have rules as to what desk top we were allowed to use though.
Dean Smith really was a nice boss, wasn't he? I wouldn't mind working for him at all!
8 - Alice Jester
Vichi - I can't wait for the next episode either. The Space promo in Canada always gives away more, and this one looks very intriguing.
Julie - I agree, Sam should have been there, if anything in the background, watching all this. There are some great fics on ff.net though that have filled in the blanks.
Bevie - You must work in the best office in the world! Every single employer I've run across over the last few years (I was an IT Consultant) had websense in place.
I would have died laughing if Sam tried to open that article and it was blocked by Websense. Then he could have given a defeated sigh and the mother of all bitchfaces. That would have been pure comedy gold, and the perfect inside joke for those of us that had to endure that same crap. Then they could have shown him looking it up on his lunch break at the library. I know, too much scene chewing. But oh so realistic!
9 - vichi
Alice, I agree with Bevie here, I can acces every site I want and I even can use yahoo messenger! But I can have any desktop I want so my pc has the boys on it and I even have a screensaver with a lot of pictures with the boys and from the show! that's one of the methods I use to convince people to give a chance to the show :)! already made 4 victims and now they are SPN addicted!
10 - Cleopatra
Anyone catch the Smith & Wesson reference? Last names, perfect!!
11 - Julie
Alice - I should check those out then... but before tonight's episode just in case. Thanks for letting me know.
12 - Kate
The impala was on holiday in Hawaii - Dean won't fly so she gets away whenever she can get the chance