The Ghostfacers, Ed and Harry, are back! And where they travel, trouble follows. But this time, they are also used to teach. Or as I like to think of it: Ghostfacers = Winchesters for Dummies.
**********CAUTION********** SPOILERS DEAD AHEAD **********CAUTION**********
A teenage girl (Ali Webb) is killed and the final selfie she took before the attack shows a ghostly figure in the background. Dean picks up on the case and Sam decides to tag along with him to Washington to find the ghost. While the two interview the girl’s mother, Betty (Maria Marlow), they are surprised when she starts talking about cold spots and fritzing. When they ask her about bringing up paranormal signs, Betty replies that the “supernaturalists” who called earlier brought it up. Enter Harry (Travis Wester) and Ed (A.J. Buckley), the famous supernaturalists – or as we’ve come to know them: The Ghostfacers!
And just as before, Harry and Ed annoy while Dean and Sam threaten. Harry tells the guys that the murderer is a legend they have been tracking called the Thinman – they have even written a book about it (“Amazon me, bitches!”). But, then another person is murdered and the same ghostly figure appears by the victim in security footage. Now that the situation is escalating, Ed decides to make a confession to the Winchesters – Thinman is a lie. He made it up to give Harry some purpose and too keep him interested in the Ghostfacers. Harry is devastated to find out about Ed’s betrayal and even though they work together to save Sam and Dean from the real murderers (Deputy Norbert and Busboy Roger), Harry is not ready to forgive and forget (sound familiar?). Is this the end of the Ghostfacers?
Ghostfacers aka Winchesters for Dummies aka The Idiots Guide to How Lies Ruin Relationships
I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about this episode as I was watching it. I love the Ghostfacers and look forward to any episode they are in, but it became clear once Ed made his big confession (THINMAN is a lie!), that the Ghostfacers were not just here to cramp Sam and Dean’s style like they usually do. No, they were also here to teach – to make a point – to draw a parallel. And I’ll be honest, my first reaction was anger. It’s bad enough that we have to see the brothers divided and apart, now we have to watch Ed and Harry implode too! Not to mention simplifying the complex relationship between the brothers Winchester and the life altering decisions that they are faced with everyday. Why do we have to see this story played out (at times almost word for word) again with another set of brotherly types?
So I watched the episode again… and again (since I had to write this review). Harry and Ed are pretty funny. And their interactions with Dean and Sam (especially Dean) are priceless. Harry was really, really confident and psyched about hunting before he found out about the lie. And then Harry confesses and the fallout begins. And as I watch the Winchesters watch Harry and Ed, I see how the parallel affects the brothers. Sam sympathizes with Harry while Dean sympathizes with Ed. But Sam also gets to see the pain that Ed feels for the mistake he has made and Dean gets to see how the breakdown of trust really hurts Harry. They get to see how the split up of the Ghostfacers destroys both guys, but from a distance. Will this help the brothers see their own division differently? Will each be able to sympathize with the other’s pain better now?
So far, the boys have been so focused on defending their own feelings that they have not really examined how the other guy feels or is affected. They each have been so busy trying to get the other to validate their feelings they can’t move forward. My goodness, you’d think they could also remember a little situation around a demon named Ruby that almost destroyed them before – and where they were each on opposite sides of the betrayal they are facing now. Hopefully, something about the Ghostfacers will snap them out of this funk. We can only hope.
Batman and Superman
The best part of the episode was the scene when Dean reminds Sam of the Batman/Superman jumping off the shed incident when they were kids. What a wonderful brotherly memory, complete with Dean racing Sam to the emergency room on his handlebars; Sam following Dean with not very good results and Dean racing to save Sam. A reminder that this bond between them is too rich and has too much history to just go away or be ignored or let go. A special thank you goes to episode writer, Jenny Klein, for including this in the script — and a request to other writers to give us more Winchester memories like this in the future.
Supernatural airs on The CW on Tuesdays at 9/8c. Full episodes are also available at the http://www.cwtv.com/shows/supernatural/ and On Demand (check your cable listings) as well as on iTunes, Amazon, Hulu and Google Play.
Supernatural Hunter’s Wisdom
I always like to include some of my favorite quotes and exchanges from the episode. If you have some quotes or moments you liked, please share in the comments section.
#1 Sam to Dean as Dean is leaving bunker: “Wait. Where you headed?” Dean: “Washington. I caught a case.” Sam: “You want me to come with?” Dean: “Do you want to come?” Sam: “On a hunt?? Why wouldn’t I?” Dean: “I don’t know, man. “Cause lately with you, up is down and… down is sideways, you know? So, I-I don’t know what you want?” #2 Dean to victim’s mother, regarding guys who offered to investigate daughter’s murder: “And did these ‘Supernaturalists’ give you a name?” Cut to the ‘Ghostfacers’ van with the Ghostfacers theme music blasting as Sam and Dean approach the vehicle. Dean: “Son of a bitch.” #3 Harry to Ed, Sam and Dean as the Winchesters force themselves into diner booth next to the Ghostfacers: “Ah, the Winchesters. Yay.” Ed: “Says nobody.” Harry: “Ever.” #4 Harry to Sam and Dean: “First of all, you guys don’t scare us.” Ed: “Not at all.” Harry: “Say ‘hola’ to my little pistol.” [He lifts shirt to reveal pearl handled pistol in his waistband.] Dean: “Am I supposed to be impressed with that treasure trail or the lady gun you got hiding in your, uh, pants, there?” Harry: “Uh… both?” #5 Harry to Sam and Dean: [chuckles] “Oh my God, Menudo! Will you guys relax? We know what we’re doing.” Ed: “Yup.” #6 Harry, boasting to Sam and Dean: “Amazon me, bitches!” Dean: “I will shoot you… bitches.” Sam: “Like we were saying, you were just going, right? Great.” [Dean smacks Ed in the chest.] Dean: “Good talk.” [They get up and leave the Ghostfacers.] Harry: [Looking as Winchesters leave.} “50 shades of way too much protein.” #7 Ed to Harry: “Come on, man, would you please stop Facebook stalking your ex-girlfriend?!” Harry: “I was right. Hmph! She changed her relationship status to ‘It’s Complicated.’ What does that even mean?” Ed: “Who cares? You broke up with her. Everything about that girl is complicated. Okay, I mean, she gets the cream puffs, she tells you to take out the filling – they’re just puffs!” Harry: [contemplating] “Yeah… that was some pretty messed-up stuff…” #8 Harry to Ed: “We’re so close to finding THINMAN, Ed. I can smell him. [sniffs] I can smell his musk.” Ed: “Mm-hmm. [almost to himself] Closer than ever… [to Harry] This is really serious, Harry. I mean, the Winchesters are here, and, you know, I don’t want my knees blown off by Sam and Dean. [Harry is sniffing bra in the victim’s closet] Have you ever thought that we might just, you know, bail on this?” Harry: “What?! What the – what the hell is wrong with you?! We can’t let those jockstraps steal our glory. No one cares what they think. They don’t even have a Twitter…” #9 Dean to Ed and Harry at new crime scene: “OK, all right, all right. Right here, right now — cut the crap – do either of you actually know what THINMAN is?” Ed: [sarcastic] “No. We just play Supernaturalists on TV.” Harry: “We have no idea what we’re doing. [laughs] Of course we do!” Ed: “THINMAN is part man, part tree. [He starts talking into camera Harry is holding]” Harry: [Joining in with Ed for ‘selfie’ style camera shot] “Some people believe that he emerged from the nightmare of an autistic boy –“ Dean: “All right, so you have no idea.” #10 Harry to Ed: “And – and quit raining on my rainbow.” Ed: “Rainbows can’t happen without rain.” Harry: “Don’t try to use science with me!” #11 Ed to Sam and Dean, confessing: “All right, either you bleed Ghostfacers red or you don’t. If Spruce wanted to start a startup and Maggie’s heart was in the roller derby, who am I to stop them? But Harry – I—I couldn’t let him give in to his girl. I mean, sh-she called the Ghostfacers stupid. Stupid! Can you believe that? You know, I-I don’t care how much money her daddy’s hedge fund has, I just couldn’t watch Harry become a corporate stooge.” Dean: “Okay, this all sound like sad times at Bitchmont High. What does this have to do with the case?” Ed: “Harry was gonna leave, so I needed to give him a reason to stay… I-I made up THINMAN.” #12 Ed to Sam and Dean as they tell him he has to tell Harry the truth: “You don’t get it. We were the THINMAN guys. Without the THINMAN, we’re just… guys – just — we’re just puffs.” Sam and Dean (together): “What?” Ed: “If I tell Harry, he’s gonna leave the Ghostfacers.” Sam: “Listen, if you don’t tell him, he’s gonna leave anyway. Trust me here: secrets ruin relationships.” [Dean looks over at Sam] #13 Harry to Ed: “You crashed the Jenga tower of our lives.” #14 Harry to Sam: “I just got punched right in the feels.” #15 Dean to Deputy, who has him and Sam captive: “So you’re THINMAN, huh. That would make sense if it didn’t look like you just ate a fat camp.” #16 Dean to Deputy and his crime partner, Roger: “So there was no teleporting — just a couple of douchebags doing the ‘Scream’ thing.” #17 Dean to Deputy Norwood and Roger, stalling: “So, how did you two meet? Wackjob.com?” #18 Ed to Roger, as he holds gun to Roger: “It’s Scooby-Doo time, douchebag. Take off the mask. I know you’re not THINMAN. You’re just a ‘me-me.’” Harry: “Ed, it’s pronounced ‘meme.’” Ed: “It’s spell m-e-m-e, though.” Harry: “The second ‘E’ is silent. Yeah.” Ed: You’re a me-me – a-a ‘man-meme,’ and I invented you.” #19 Ed to Harry: “S-so, are we cool?” Harry: [scoffs] “I don’t think we ever will be.” [Sam and Dean hear them talking from a distance and look over.] Ed: [chuckles] “I mean, you know, we made it right. We, uh—we beat the guys. This could be our shot to start the old Ghostfacers again.” Harry: “I came here with you to finish this thing with THINMAN. I wasn’t just closing a chapter, Ed. It was the whole dang book.” Ed: “But you saved my life back there.” Harry: “I killed a guy, Ed.” Ed: “He was a bad guy, Harry.” Harry: “He was a guy, Ed. Too many people have died ‘cause of your crap.” Ed: “I’ve done all this crap for us. And I-I don’t know why you don’t see that.” Harry: “No. [scoffs] No. You did this for you.” [Cut to Sam and Dean watching – focus shifts from Sam to Dean] Harry: “Ed, there’s a lot of things I can forgive, but this isn’t one of them.” Ed: “So, what does this mean about us?” Harry: “It means… it’s complicated.”And there is a tie for my final favorite quote/exchange of the episode: one is in the Impala at the end from Harry; and the other is between Sam and Dean as they reminisce about jumping off of sheds:
#1 – Favorite
Dean to Sam: “You know what video would have gone viral, if we still had it? When you were five and you got dressed up as Batman and you jumped off the shed ‘cause you thought you could fly.” Sam: “After you jumped first.” Dean: “Hey, I was nine, and I was dressed up like Superman, okay? Everybody knows that Batman can’t fly.” Sam: “Well, I didn’t know that. I broke my arm.” Dean: [chuckling] “I know you did. Man, I drove you to the E.R. on my handlebars. [Sam laughs] Well, good times.” #2 – Favorite Dean: “Harry, you okay?” Harry: “Yeah… I mean, no. You roll with a guy so many years, you start to think he’s always gonna be next to you. Like, when you’re old and you’re drinking on the porch, he’ll be in that other rocking chair. And then something happens, and you realize that other chair has gone empty. [Sam and Dean silently react to the sting of the words] You know what I mean?” Sam and Dean are silent.
