By: Richard Hatem
**Spoilers**
If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.
And the angst is upped a notch this week as the boys receive a mysterious text message with coordinates from their still-absentee father. Dean, of course, immediately asks how high John wants them to jump while Sam wants more information first. It is at this point that the picture of the Winchester family dynamic really begins to come together. You've got John - the stern taskmaster and leader. You've got Dean - the loyal soldier. And then you've got Sam - the rebellious questioner who is never quite happy to blindly follow daddy's plans. I don't blame him. Why is it that John can text but can't call? You can track a text message just as easily as a normal phone-call, you know. That just doesn't make any sense.
At least it gave us the rather hilarious revelation that John Winchester, hardcore hunter, can barely work a toaster. I really want to know the story behind that comment...
True to the title, this episode is set almost entirely in the old Roosevelt Asylum of Rockford Illinois. It's a dark and gloomy episode with a grey colour palate and some of the best jump-scares and creepy moments that the show has ever produced. If SPN was begun with the intention of bringing horror themes to the small screen and putting them into a suburban atmosphere, this is a place where they succeed. Majorly succeed. There were a few points in this episode where I found myself squirming and looking away. Not because it was particularly gross or anything like that (I think the worst thing we ever see is the old formaldehyde bottles in the doctor's office), but because the atmosphere is so overwhelming. The empty corridors, the ghosts that sometimes even Sam and Dean don't notice, the constant whispers and creaks, the shadows, the way the shots are set up, the whole bloody package is just wonderful.
I don't know why anyone would ever try to spend the night at a place like that. Even on a dare. As Dean observes - doesn't anyone ever watch horror films? Even if you're not a blond, petite female it's probably wise to avoid any place marked 'Caution' and with a reputation for possible paranormal activity.
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- That cop was afflicted with what I like to call the Bloody Nose of Doom! It's that single trickle of blood from the old hooter that generally symbolizes something is wrong.
- We are given an indicator that not all is right between the Winchester boys within the first ten minutes of the episode whenever Sam and Dean have to play good cop, bad cop in a bar. They stage a bar fight that might not have been so staged after all. Dean jokingly calls Sam out on it and Sam, disturbingly enough, doesn't even try to deny it. Oh yeah...he's angry.
- "Lemme know if you see any dead people, Haley Joel." Somehow I feel like Dean is having way too much fun with jokes about Sam having 'The Shining'...
- And I repeat: why would anyone want to break into an old asylum? I've done many rash and foolish things in my life, but I just don't see the attraction. It's dirty and derelict and creepy. Besides, I know that in this universe, whenever local legend says a place is haunted you really should listen and stay away. Or at least take a supply of salt with you.
- Dean sending Sam to the psychiatrist's on a reconnaissance mission made me laugh. What did they talk about the whole time in there? Sam's clown phobia?
- That boy was a real jerk to take his girlfriend on a date to the old asylum like that. Not romantic or cool at all. Doesn't he know that blonds always die first?
- Sam gets the Bloody Nose of Doom too.
- I jumped a bit whenever Sam shot Dean. I had been waiting for the almighty power of brotherly love to overtake the mad ghost's programming...but it never happened. And I'm glad that it didn't because that would have been the fake-out of all fake-outs and would have been to the episode's detriment. It wouldn't even have been a fake-out. It would have been a COP-out.
- Good job the guns were unloaded or only carrying rock salt.
- I like the way Dean deals with Sam's affliction. You can tell that he's hurt (physically and emotionally) but he puts that aside in favor of torching Ellicot and taking care of the problem once and for all.
- And the episode ends on a cliffhanger with John finally taking Missouri's advice and phoning his boys. It's about time!
This episode was a bit of a mixed bag. I loved the atmosphere, all of the references, and a few of the twists and turns - but at other times the story seemed frightfully generic and predictable. It was also kind of boring to just walk around an abandoned asylum for the majority of the episode. I enjoyed all the bits with Sam and Dean interacting and it was good to see John finally get in touch with them. Ten episodes is long enough to draw out the AWOL father plot-line. They needed to do something new with it. Asylum is a 4/5.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?
And the angst is upped a notch this week as the boys receive a mysterious text message with coordinates from their still-absentee father. Dean, of course, immediately asks how high John wants them to jump while Sam wants more information first. It is at this point that the picture of the Winchester family dynamic really begins to come together. You've got John - the stern taskmaster and leader. You've got Dean - the loyal soldier. And then you've got Sam - the rebellious questioner who is never quite happy to blindly follow daddy's plans. I don't blame him. Why is it that John can text but can't call? You can track a text message just as easily as a normal phone-call, you know. That just doesn't make any sense.
At least it gave us the rather hilarious revelation that John Winchester, hardcore hunter, can barely work a toaster. I really want to know the story behind that comment...
I don't know why anyone would ever try to spend the night at a place like that. Even on a dare. As Dean observes - doesn't anyone ever watch horror films? Even if you're not a blond, petite female it's probably wise to avoid any place marked 'Caution' and with a reputation for possible paranormal activity.
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- That cop was afflicted with what I like to call the Bloody Nose of Doom! It's that single trickle of blood from the old hooter that generally symbolizes something is wrong.
- We are given an indicator that not all is right between the Winchester boys within the first ten minutes of the episode whenever Sam and Dean have to play good cop, bad cop in a bar. They stage a bar fight that might not have been so staged after all. Dean jokingly calls Sam out on it and Sam, disturbingly enough, doesn't even try to deny it. Oh yeah...he's angry.- "Lemme know if you see any dead people, Haley Joel." Somehow I feel like Dean is having way too much fun with jokes about Sam having 'The Shining'...
- And I repeat: why would anyone want to break into an old asylum? I've done many rash and foolish things in my life, but I just don't see the attraction. It's dirty and derelict and creepy. Besides, I know that in this universe, whenever local legend says a place is haunted you really should listen and stay away. Or at least take a supply of salt with you.
- Dean sending Sam to the psychiatrist's on a reconnaissance mission made me laugh. What did they talk about the whole time in there? Sam's clown phobia?
- So the south wing of Roosevelt is where everything started. Dean's line about how the chains were probably more to keep something in rather than keep someone out was creepy...but I want to know who thought of putting pure iron chains on that door. Did John do that? Did another hunter? Because the chains would have to be iron in order to keep a ghost contained, right?
- An asylum riot. Now there's a nasty thought right there!
- "If there's only one thing that makes me more nervous than a pissed off spirit, it's the pissed off spirit of a psycho killer." Well said, Dean!
- That boy was a real jerk to take his girlfriend on a date to the old asylum like that. Not romantic or cool at all. Doesn't he know that blonds always die first?
- The young couple (Gavin and Kat) were interesting. Though it was Gavin who initially wanted to explore the asylum, in the end he turns into a gibbering pile of mush and Kat, the blond who in normal films would be the first to shriek and get killed, is backing up Sam and Dean with the rock salt shotgun. Nice little roll reversal there.
- I also laughed whenever she told him that "If we get out of here alive, we are SO breaking up!"
- Of course the big kicker to the episode happened whenever all of the wandering around corridors just started to get old and Sam gets a phone-call from who he thinks is Dean and heads to the cellar where he is caught and possessed/brainwashed by Dr. Ellicot.
- Sam gets the Bloody Nose of Doom too.
- I jumped a bit whenever Sam shot Dean. I had been waiting for the almighty power of brotherly love to overtake the mad ghost's programming...but it never happened. And I'm glad that it didn't because that would have been the fake-out of all fake-outs and would have been to the episode's detriment. It wouldn't even have been a fake-out. It would have been a COP-out.
- Good job the guns were unloaded or only carrying rock salt.
- I like the way Dean deals with Sam's affliction. You can tell that he's hurt (physically and emotionally) but he puts that aside in favor of torching Ellicot and taking care of the problem once and for all.
- And the episode ends on a cliffhanger with John finally taking Missouri's advice and phoning his boys. It's about time!
This episode was a bit of a mixed bag. I loved the atmosphere, all of the references, and a few of the twists and turns - but at other times the story seemed frightfully generic and predictable. It was also kind of boring to just walk around an abandoned asylum for the majority of the episode. I enjoyed all the bits with Sam and Dean interacting and it was good to see John finally get in touch with them. Ten episodes is long enough to draw out the AWOL father plot-line. They needed to do something new with it. Asylum is a 4/5.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?
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