% rm God
rm: God nonexistent
Ha! I know! How funny is that? Anyway, all the tech support people I know stay away from yellow as much as possible, won’t hunt ghosts unless it’s part of a gaming thing, and will usually make ignorant users jump through hoops for fun to get a printer to work before resorting to the “turn it off and then on,” bit. Also, all companies and institutions have Websense implemented, so there’s no way Sam would have been able to open a site about Vampires, let alone get away with checking it out in close quarters with snooping co-workers all around. Oh, but they do love their coffee breaks.
Co-Workers
In the Supernatural world, it’s simple. Trust no one but your brother, and even then it’s shaky considering he lies. All Sam and Dean have is each other, and being thrown into the strange situation without their memories doesn’t affect their natural instinct to conquer the unknown together. It’s a golden moment for these two, who have been at odds for months, and they reconnect without the knowledge of all the baggage prior. They instinctively draw from one another’s strengths, and together get the job done. It’s refreshing to see the brothers this way again.
For those of you office dwellers, please name all co-workers in which you have this trusting relationship. [crickets chirp] Okay, name a co-worker that you’d trust to consult about hunting the supernatural. Okay, how about someone that’ll help you fix paperwork or problem with Vista? Um, running copies? Oh heck, you can’t even trust a co-worker to make coffee, can you? Even Sam took the last of it and didn’t make more. There’s no “I” in team, but there’s no “we” either. If Sam and Dean had to rely on co-workers to get them out of jams from the beginning, they would have been dead by episode three.
Safety Issues
The reactions are mild around the office over all the strange occurrences. Why aren’t Dean and Sam questioned the next day for destroying a store room, being there when the guard split in half in the elevator shaft, or how they smashed a glass case and burned the gloves of the beloved founder? They show up at work the next day and everything is business as usual.
In the corporate world, security guards would be swarming the lobby, the culprits would be identified on the video cameras and escorted out by security before the first coffee break. HR would have memos posted, grief counselors would be on site, and meetings would be scheduled to communicate new security procedures. Employees would be now warned via email, “Don’t microwave your head” or “Don’t carry pencils in your pocket” or “Don’t wedge your body in the doorway of a moving elevator” or “Don’t pound the living crap out of the phone with a blunt instrument.” They can never be too careful.
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