1. It’s a meta title, referring to the book and film “Girl, Interrupted”.
3. Seriously, how come the guys have never been to a mental hospital yet, with their day-to-day living on the edge? What you call a nervous breakdown they call a minor headache. Frankly, after the tragedy in the previous episode, it seemed only natural that they should enroll in a nuthouse. Just in case.
4. So, code names for Sam and Dean when they are faking psychos should be Alex and Eddie. “Alex” could probably be inspired by the violent character of “A Clockwork Orange
5. God, our boys are rock stars manqué. I’m serious, I think Dean could’ve made an excellent rock artist – he’s got the right frame of mind, he’s always on the move like bands are, and if only Impala’s trunk was big enough to fit a guitar... And Sam could be writing the lyrics. What? He wouldn’t even have to make anything up. They could be the Gothic Simon & Garfunkel.
6. The guys are so much in interaction it never occurred to me upon the first viewing that it’s the first officially Sam-centered episode in Season 5.
7. It’s ironic that when Sam and Dean lie, they often get away with it, but now, when for once they are being, to reuse TWoP’s terminology, The Truth Tellers Who Tell The Truth, no one believes them. The honest description of their life makes other people take them for schizos. And they hadn’t even cry wolf.
8. The last time I can remember seeing the guys in such bright, non-military, non-religious uniform was probably “Folsom Prison Blues” with its orange colours. Another connection with that episode: Sam and Dean went to mental hospital as well as the prison of their own accord.
9. And just think how many sub- and countercultural environments the guys have already thrown themselves into?
10. It’s curious that they decided that Sam should play the crazy one to deceive the doctor, though Dean was excellent at playing along, too. Really, it’s very much like in their everyday life: if Sam’s going mental, it’s loud and everyone can see it, but Dean can conceal his madness pretty well. Dubious? Discuss!
11. Like in “Changing Channels”, there’s a focus on hospitals and doctors. Only it’s “Dr. Creepy, MD” they’ve found themselves in this time.
12. “I’m fine. I mean, okay, a little depressed, I guess”. Understatement, Sam, and underestimation.
13. It’s hard to tell if Dean and Sam really believe some of the things they reveal to Dr. Fuller or not. Does Dean really think Sam is crazy? Does he really believe it’s not Sam’s fault that he’d started the Apocalypse? Does he really think it happened because Sam was “high” rather than “evil”?
14. Dean’s not about to flirt with this nurse. Maybe his instincts tell him something. Or else he just doesn’t like it when girls have the upper hand.
15. So, does the wraith (disguised as the nurse) define her victims by touch? She senses Sam and Dean’s respective anger and fear and sets about enhancing these suppressed tendencies of theirs that can drive them mad, in the long run. Dean tends to whine and be self-miserable (cf. “The Curious Case Of Dean Winchester”), and she exaggerates that, and Sam’s got repressed anger inside, so she makes it unleash.
16. When the wraith/nurse asks Sam to take his pants down and makes a show of putting on this latex glove, do you guess what she’s up to? Does it qualify as a gay moment?
17. It’s never revealed what exactly happened to Martin.
18. The psychiatrist notes that Dean’s “relationship with [his] brother is dangerously co-dependent”. Why is this barely disguised moment of Wincest not in SupernaturalWiki’s eponymous page yet? See, even medical authorities confirm it. It must be embarrassing for the boys to know that everyone can clearly see this intimacy of theirs. Or are they past caring by now?
19. Dr. Erica Cartwright. Now this sexy doctor Dean will eagerly flirt with, and so he does. But when she announces, “You’re my paranoid schizophrenic with narcissistic personality disorder and religious psychosis”, his face all but falls for a moment – Dean seems to take her words seriously.
20. Then Sammy must be a manic depressive with masochistic personality disorder and suicidal tendencies, or what?
21. Dean and Ms. Cartwright cross-talk and aim tricky questions at each other as if they’re playing psycho-ball or something. Like a shrink would, she drags uncomfortably personal details out of him, managing to hit all the sore spots – from Dean’s love life to Dean’s relationship with his father – it’s only just that later he considers this talk to be an emotional violence. Thanks to her, we learn that Dean is a heavy drinker and insomniac – he sleeps 3 to 4 hours every other night.
22. And none of Dean’s relationships lasted longer than two months. The man has never had a proper love affair ever. There is one connection in his life that lasts for whole 26 years, and definitely qualifies as a relationship, though. He’s had no real family, no real pals, no real girlfriends, so no wonder he channels part of his fatherly-motherly/buddy/romantic feelings towards one steady bond he’s got.
24. Mirrors make it possible for others to see the wraith’s real form. Mirrors are an excellent device for psychologically-themed episodes.
25. Wendy the nymphostalker. She sexually harasses both Sam and Dean, and it’s yet another sign of how passive and helpless the guys become when their own paper monsters begin to surround them.
26. When they hear this guy about to be killed by the wraith screaming, Dean and Sam rush to his room, Sam starts picking up the lock, and it’s then when his growing anger surfaces for the first time – his unreasonably harsh “Back off, Dean!” shows the wraith’s already working.
27. So, the wraith induces and increases wrath in Sam. It’s, like, a Lewis Carroll-level of cause-and-effect nonsense.
28. Morgue. Dean always seems to leave the forensic part of their work to Sam. Come on, Dean, you’re a hunter, and you’re afraid of human blood, dead bodies and disjointed organs? Princess. Somebody on YouTube commented that in this scene Sam’s being a real “brain surgeon”. Hell yes, do you remember how in “Changing Channels” this sexy yet melodramatic doctor called him a “brilliant… cerebrovascular neurosurgeon”? She knew it! And, frankly, you can’t blame Dean – the scene of Sam reaching up inside this dead guy’s neck with a cotton bud is gross. Sam, you’ve got the nerve.
29. Dean is not just a “paranoid schizophrenic” but a bit of an exhibitionist, too. And Castiel, as revealed in the previous episode, is a voyeur, so – a perfect odd couple. As far as I know, originally the script had Sam being the flasher, but I bet they reversed it because imagine how much longer it would’ve taken him to *cough* (a) take his pants down and (b) bend down and (c) pull them back up – probably as long as this point in my review already is. Screen time is precious, you know. And, dear writers of this episode, you just love making bawdy jokes on Dean, don’t you? First you made him jack off to a mental picture of a pretty nurse. Now you have him flashing before another nurse. What next? Next time you two write an episode, Messrs Dabb and Loflin, maybe you’re gonna let him sleep with a nurse already?
30. So, this monster sucks people’s brains dry – and soon after he’s learnt that from Martin, Dean falsely takes Dr. Fuller for a wraith – isn’t it an ironic contribution to the popular stereotype of psychiatrists being monsters “sucking” (or washing, or twisting) their clients’s brains? And I suddenly recollect the ghouls from “Jump The Shark” as well.
31. Dean sees his Dr. Anima Cartwright in the safety mirror. And she’s getting more and more clairvoyant, she sees through him with her X-ray brain – “I mean, apocalypse or no apocalypse... monsters or no monsters, that's a crushing weight to have on your shoulders. To feel like six billion lives depend on you... God... how do you get up in the morning?”
32. Martin refuses to help the boys – he’s done, he quit. In “Yellow Fever” Dean wanted to do exactly that – and, Dean, look what happens if you do – your monsters will come to haunt you anyway, and you’ll end up an emotional wreck like Martin, so there’s no way out of the game for you, I’m afraid. Ask Sam about “Free To Be You And Me”.
33. Sam’s second outburst of anger is much fiercer: he slashes a cut across Dr. Fuller’s forearm, sends two hunky orderlies crashing through the window glass and on the floor, picks up his stolen silver-plated knife and chases after the doctor. He shoves the psychiatrist to the floor, and as he’s about to stab the man in the heart, Martin (has he been secretly watching?) blocks his hand (and how could scrawny-looking Martin physically stop the enraged force that Sam was? Hunter skills never get rusty) and tells him the wound on Dr. Fuller’s forearm didn’t emit any steam or smoke but Sam failed to notice it, blinded by his anger. When Sam realizes he’s nearly killed an innocent person, he’s horrified and almost begs the doctor to forgive him, and his Puppy Dog Eyes start working, and, Sam, you’re gonna need them a lot in a little while, so practice, yeah.
34. They must have given Sam a very powerful tranquilizer, as they didn’t even have to tie him to the bed. Sam’s just staring at the sky, and now he is high. Check out his words to Dean: “I mean, you've been at least... half crazy for a long time, and since you got back from hell, or since before that, even. I mean, we're in a – we're in a mental hospital. Maybe-maybe you finally cracked! You know, maybe now you are really... for real... crazy...” Good point, Sam. But still, logic. You don’t normally go to a mental hospital and become a psycho because of that, usually it’s vice versa.
35. “You’re my brother and I still love you”. Gay moment #2. And I bet Sam would never have said it had he been sober. And, however “awesome” he’s being, he’s telling the truth. It’s just not their way to confess to loving each other openly. It’s ironic that it’s the “spectacu-lacu-lar” Sam who gets to console Dean, like he thinks Dean is in a worse situation. They reverse the roles here. And I don’t think they shared “love” phrases with each other that often before Season 5. But in “The End” there was this “whatever we’ve got between us – love, family”, now it’s this, straightforward as a die. And how Sam clutches at his brother’s arm and asks Dean to look at him – god, it’s intense. And Dean just can’t find the words, because either he (a) wonders what gives, or (b) thinks his brother is going mad, or (c) (my favourite version) is so crushed by this confession that he loses the ability to speak.
36. And he’s also clearly crushed by Sam thinking him to be mad. It’s exactly after this assumption on Sam’s part – when the closest person you’ve got tells you this… – that Dean meets his shrink lady again, and then begins to flip out for real.
37. Dr. Cartwright reveals she knows his real name and that she’s merely a creation of his mind (come on, a girl in Dean’s head – one good reason to go crazy) – and she methodically exposes all his scars and fears to him and the curious audience: he’s scared that he’s not good or educated enough to fight the Devil, he couldn’t save Jo and Ellen, he couldn’t stop Sam from killing Lilith and on and on. “All this pressure that you're putting yourself under, all this guilt; it's killing you. You can't save everybody. You can't. Hell, these days, you can't save anybody, Dean”.
38. Dean, remember how your brother spent a few years at college, and what, could he kill the Devil? No, on the contrary, he even set him free, so don’t even take your lack of higher education seriously. After all, you’re in Supernatural, and it’s a modern day fairy tale, and do you know what kind of guys usually win over the biggest monsters in fairy tales? Usually the ones with zero education and even, hmm, zero common sense, so you go boy. Don’t even listen to what your scared little girl tells you.
39. Dean’s head is literally spinning and he’s spotting monsters in every corner, the real wraith including, as he stumbles his way along the hospital corridor until he, very symbolically, stops in front of a closed door that refuses to let him in or out, and then he slides to the floor, and he’s being paranoid.
40. Why all these inner monsters are represented by women? Is it because of (a) Supernatural’s tradition of using women as personification of the evilest creatures, or (b) women being a metaphor of the alien, the hostile within man’s psyche, something he can never understand?
41. Next day, Sam is a changed character: looking out of the window of his soft-padded cell, he’s longing to get out of there, and asks for Dr. Fuller to talk to him. Sam pleads, sensitive eyes full-on, to give him another chance (note how it’s exactly what he asked from Dean in “The End”), and the doctor tells him what Sam and Lucifer already know: “Monsters are the least of your problems. People can learn to live with delusions, but the anger I saw in you... […] The look in your eyes when you came after me, I... It was like you were barely even human... like a man possessed”. Hurts.
42. The first thing Sam does when he’s let out free is notice a “psyched” Dean and ask him if everything is all right, just like Dean did the day before. And Dean stands up and accuses him, except that Sam’s hallucinating again, and Dean, in fact, is silently sitting in the corner, and yet again it’s exactly at the point when his brother tells him he’s crazy that Sam starts to go mad for real and suddenly all these invisible inner monsters – like the lives he couldn’t save – are assaulting and accusing him.
43. Note how while Sam’s spinning around in one place punching his eerie visions, Dean is sitting at the table in the corner of the room with this catatonic, scared face, and won’t do a thing to help or stop his brother. See, he just can’t help Sam fight his inner monsters, Sam will have to tackle them himself. Scary.
44. Remember how in “Dream A Little Dream Of Me” the guys had a chance to roam around the insides of their minds, too, and there were beautiful, deserted lands, with only one crazy whacko around, but look how many more personal ghosts they have acquired since then. They, like, burst open their own “containment unit” and unlocked their monsters.
45. It’s completely in character that Sam’s shrink is a real doctor, while Dean’s shrink is a hallucination, the one only he sees. Though both are surely professional. It’s like Sam would often prefer to externalize his emotional issues (his need to “talk”), while Dean would always fight his monsters alone (his last words in this episode are a perfect testimony to that).
46. Dean and Martin. It’s ironic that suddenly Martin, who was officially the crazy one among the three turns out to be the soundest one.
47. Dean saw a ghost of his father. Wasn’t it in “Changing Channels” yet?
48. Why does Dean think going mad is a blessing for Sam? “He went crazy! Thank God”.
49. Wendy’s room, and Martin and Dean find the wraith, who’s cleverly fooled them using these two women as a shield to turn away the boys’ suspicions.
50. Martin gets his hunterhood back!
51. The wraith sends Dean into the wall, so that he probably ends up with a minor concussion, because everything is blurring and twisting before his eyes, but his duty is duty, so under Martin’s urges, Dean awkwardly, like bread crumbs, follows the blood spots that dropped to the floor from the monster’s injured palm.
52. Like the anima, the reverse cross imagery in this episode harks back to “When The Levee Breaks”, too. It’s a very bright shot, unlike then. And Sam’s arms are tied for real this time. And, Sam, your anger proves totally futile when you’re in these leather straps.
53. Why would the wraith go after Sam immediately after she had been caught by Martin and Dean? That was risky. Maybe she needed her brain supplies regularly, like a vampire needs blood. Or maybe she wanted to separate the boys, as they are nothing without each other. Or (my favourite version) she probably thought if she kills Sam, then Dean would finally go mad for real real – could he have a choice?
54. The wraith tells Sam the same words Ruby told him (she even looks a wee alike) – that she only helped his innate evil and anger to unfurl.
55. The crazier the brains are the tastier they are? Hmm.
56. The wraith uses this spike moving out of her hand to penetrate her victims’ brains and then suck them dry – how filthy is this?
57. So, she’s about to mentally violate the smart guy. Just like Dr. Cartwright had subjected Dean to emotional violence. Dean’s all emotion, Sam’s all brain. Their most vulnerable spots.
58. Sam turns his head away in disgust the way he did to escape the contact with the Dean hallucination in “When The Levee Breaks”. And how I wanted then that when the Alastair hallucination was torturing him for the Dean hallucination (or the real Dean) to appear and chase the hellish monster away but it never happened, but it happens now!
59. The real Dean saves Sammy. He just cracks the wraith’s spike before she could rape his own crazy brain, and its stub spurts out a fountain of blood, and she screams, and he sporks her with the silver knife, and upon that his madness and shaking and Sam’s anger and twitches slip away. We’re normal again.
60. Touching! Unbondaging! Gay moment # 3.
61. Dean even cares to read Tom Cruise interviews? And, Dean, shrinks proper had nothing to do with your madness.
62. Congratulations, boys, now you’re on mental hospitals’ “wanted” lists, too.
63. Sharing. Basically, both Dr. Fuller and the wraith told Sam the same thing. And he’s in terrible need of talking to Dean again, and Dean again refuses to listen to his chick-flicking brother, and it terribly reminds of the late Season 4, and this emotional regression is nothing good, as it probably hints at an emerging emotional gap that again starts to form between them, and it’s sure to end in tears some time soon. When and whose? Really, these guys are never gonna learn from their mistakes. And, Dean, it’s not “crap”, it’s your brother’s precious and fragile feelings. And, Sam, you don’t mean to stay in the nuthouse and nurse your soul pain for keeps, do you?
64. I’ll say it again: this episode is one big role reversal – scared Dean, angry Sam.
65. Sam was angry at Dad and Dean, then he was angry at Lilith, then at Lucifer – ha, Sam’s angry at the Devil. Dad and Lilith I understand, but Dean? What’s his fault?
66. Sam’s voice breaks when he says to Dean he doesn’t know why he’s angry. Poignant.
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