Destiny
Destiny often comes up in this show, and did again this week. Sam’s focus is on how he’s supposed to be doing something else, something greater. Dean doesn’t believe his destiny, preferring to react to what is right in front of him. That’s not just the long differing points of view between these two. That’s also the difference between a worker bee and management. Anyone ever see Antz?
“Most folks live and die without moving anything more than the dirt it takes to bury them.” Sadly, Zachariah hit the nail on the head. Offices are about futility. It’s not all bad though. A corporate ghost can only be in the form of tyrannical boss that worked himself into an early grave. A normal dead employee would be tap dancing all the way to the pearly gates if it meant they didn’t have to spend another second in that cesspool of decaying humanity. At work in Heaven, every minute is a coffee break and the donuts are in endless supply. You can download all the porn you want too.
Too bad Corporate America can’t be like Supernatural. It would suck a lot less.
The Other Stuff
The quotes were off the chart. Here are a few of my favorites that I haven’t mentioned yet:
“You don’t want to go fighting ghosts without any health insurance.”
“So you’re telling me that your dreams are special visions and you’re some sort of psychic?” “No, I mean, that would be nuts.”
“I see big things in your future, maybe even Senior VP Eastern Great Lakes division. Don’t get me wrong, you’ll have to work for it, seven days a week, lunch at your desk, but in 8-10 short years, that could be you.”
“My portfolio’s in the sewer, I don’t even want to talk about it.”
“It’s like we’ve done this before.” “What do you mean before? Like Shirley MacLaine before?”
“Call you back.”
“I’m Dean Smith, a Director of Sales and Marketing. I went to Stanford, my father’s name is Bob, my mother’s name is Ellen and my sister’s name is Jo.”
“I only moved here because I broke up with my fiancée Madison but I called her and got a damned animal hospital.”
“Okay, did you just call me Sammy?” “Did I?” “I think you did. Yeah, don’t.”
“Whoa, that’s a lot of blood.” “Yeah, I know.”
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