Eric Charmello & Nicole Snyder
**Spoilers**
If you have not yet seen this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.
So we had an honest-to-Chuck ghost hunt this week and it started out with a pre-credits scene that reminded me very much of the opening to The Sontaran Stratagem. Except instead of ATMOS going rogue, it was apparently a ghost-influenced GPS system.
This isn't the first truck they've had to burn, though. This episode called back shades of Route 666 in my mind...and a little bit of Mean Girls in places. Mean Girls: The College Years. Or maybe that new social media horror film that is coming out. Unfriended? I definitely felt a bit of the trailers for that whenever that one girl was on her computer and the unfriendly friend requests started popping up.
Though technically this episode is a standalone adventure, Sam and Dean and the MoC was never far from our minds. And Dean, at the end, had a frankly beautiful speech about how he's going to deal with this curse he brought on himself. They're working together, come what may, and it's wonderful. I love the dynamic they're striking this season.
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- I love how Dean just found out how to poke on Facebook.
- "So are you saying that if you died and I drove your car, you'd kill me?" "If you stunk her up with taquitos, yes. Probably." Lies, Dean. We know that's all lies.You didn't even kill Sam when he put an iPod jack in Baby.
- I have to say that the scene where that girl's computer turned against her and then strangled her with the cord was incredibly creepy.
- Dean going gaga over the menu at the college cafeteria (and teasing Sam over his fondness for lattes) will never not be funny. But it is interesting that Dean has been eating a lot recently, going between health food binges and pizza. Is this one of his ways to help 'sate' the Mark?
- "Nothing ever really gets deleted from the Internet. You knew that, right?" *Dean looks uncomfortable* Okay, Dean. Cough up. What did you do?
- One of the clues to the mystery is 810 and, about the time that the third victim is killed (by an over-loud stereo, no less), we've figured out that SOMETHING happened at 8:10 that is seriously upsetting the ghost.
- I do think the stereo death scene was drawn out a bit too long, though.
- The bloody eyeballs reminded me of the corpse's from Bloody Mary. In fact, there are a LOT of Season 1-ish parallels in this episode. Hmmmm...
- Delilah (the red-headed girl) knows something, which takes us into the flashback of the episode. There's a lot of (mostly good-natured) ribbing of the selfie culture going on here. I really feel like this entire episode was a jab at the social media age a la Long Distance Call or #THINMAN. It was a lot of fun, though.
- I suspected that maybe the teens had something to do with the death of that young husband as soon as I heard the wife's story. But I didn't realize that they had ALL been in the wreck together!
- Haha! Dean took out an iron crowbar and then nonchalantly handed a tissue to Delilah. His talk with her was really sweet too. And sad. It's almost like we've got the old Dean back...all self-denial, junk food, and snarkiness.
- Okay...so the ghost was surfing through the wi-fi? You know, as soon as Sam said that, I cringed because he and Dean were talking on smart phones. Phones connected to wi-fi. Didn't they consider that possibly the ghost might be overhearing them?
- The burn make-up on Andrew's ghosts looked appropriately gross and painful.
- Moral of the story, boys and girls...Don't Text & Drive.
If Supernatural has a stock episode, this would be it. We've got a complicated ghost story with unexpected twists and turns, a terrific climax, a sad story about humanity and grief, and a broment tying up the end of the episode. Ghosts on this show are fascinating spirits. Some of them (like the mother from Bad Boys or Bobby) stay behind because they honestly can't bear to leave their loved ones alone. They have unfinished business. They have people to protect and answers to seek out. So they run from their Reaper and they stay on earth as a spirit. But eventually this state of half-way living is too much for the ghosts and they're consumed by the need for revenge or to continue living out their lives again and again. It's really a tragic story and I like how this one was solved in the end by Andrew's wife convincing him that she still loved him but that it was time for him to move on. Halt & Catch Fire 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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