Supernatural Rewatch: 4.03 In the Beginning, Mum Was a Babe

You should read this blog with Ramblin' Man by The Allman Brothers Band.

To get ready for 5.13 The Song Remains the Same, KaraLambo and I did a TwitCom on 4.03 In the Beginning, which is one of our favorite episodes. In the Beginning was written by two of my favorite writers Eric Kripke and Jeremy Carver. This episode was directed by Steve Boyum.

Instead of re-posting the tweets from the TwitCom, I've decided to treat this blog post like a blog post. Before I get started, I just want to get this out there. While I was twitter-drunk, I wouldn't stop calling episode 5.13 Back to The Future II or In the Middle, and I think at one stage, I called it In the Middle of the Same Song. My apologies to the Eric Kripke.

First up, Previously on! I think sometimes, people underestimate the power of the Previously on. Supernatural does very very good Previously on. When a Previously on was awesome, 10 out of 10 times the episode is epic. Like Home and In the Beginning, the Previously on really set the tone of the episode.

I was listening to the DVD commentary of this episode by Eric Kripke and Jeremy Carver, when talking about how awesome Misha is as Castiel, Jeremy mentioned that when he wrote this episode, he hasn't seen Misha before and the season premier hasn't even been filmed, so there was no rushes for him to view. To see Misha nails this role perfectly is a pure joy! Both Eric and Jeremy were very complimentary about Misha. At one stage, Jeremy called Misha 'a hottie in a body'.

I love it when a Supernatural episode surprises me, especially when an episode appears to be a filler. I guess that's why I enjoyed Monster at the End of the Book and Changing Channels. As you know, yours truly don't watch spoiler clips, so apart from the photos and official synopsis, I really don't know too much about an episode before it aired. I was really expecting In the Beginning to be a funny-filler-Back to the Future style episode. But In the Beginning is so mytho heavy and sad (I think I cried twice - when Dean was asking Mary not to get out of bed on November 2, 1983 and when Dean found out Mary made the deal with YED.)

In the diner scene in 1973, when Dean walked into the diner, The Power of Love by Huey Lewis was playing in my head! Jeremy said he was going to make everyone in the diner to dress like Rich (the dude who works there..). He also joked that he was going to write Dean roller skated into the diner. I'd love to see that! There was this McFly moment when Dean and young John were responding to the old man who walked in and said "Winchester!" (McFly!) I love that scene.

I was listening to a classic episode of the Crossroads Podcast, Tim mentioned that the song that was playing in the diner was Ramblin' Man by The Allman Brothers Band. Same song that was played in the Pilot when Dean was filling up the Impala. I love it when a later episode of Supernatural paid homage of the Pilot. Ramblin' Man is one of the most played songs on my iPod. It's interesting to listen to the classic Crossroads, I always love listening to Tim's theory.

Another thing I love about Supernatural is that they do really good casting. I guess apart from the Lillith in Monster at the End of the Book and Lucifer Rising, every single guest star is very well-cast. Why I don't think this Lillith was good? I think Lillith has always been a creepy little 8 years girl, even when she possessed a grown up body, Ruby 1.0 (Katie Cassidy in No Rest for the Wicked). So when I saw the performance by the actress who played Lillith in Monster at the End of the Book and Lucifer Rising, I was like where is Lillith? She didn't channel the mannerism, not so much Katie's mannerism, but Lillith's mannerism. All actors who played YED, Alastair and Meg, they all channeled the same mannerism. So.. there!

Anyway, I went way off track. RIGHT! Back to casting! Supernatural does really good casting, Mitch Pileggi was excellent as Grandpa Samuel. I am really pleased with the casting of Matthew Cohen and Amy Gumenick as young John and Mary. I cannot think of anyone else who could play the roles better. Not only they look like JDM and Samatha Smith, they are really convincing as young John and Mary. Not only Matthew Cohen and Amy Gumenick have great chemistry, they also have great chemistry with Jensen Ackles. Mitch Pileggi and Jensen also have great chemistry, the scene between YED and Dean was really cool.

Now that we've seen the back story of Mary, we understand her character a bit more, as Kara pointed out you can really see there is a little bit of Mary in Dean and Sam, it's something you couldn't see in previous episodes because we simple didn't know anything about Mary. Too bad the writers decided to leave Sam out of this episode for creative reasons. But do not worry! Sam is in the next episode.

Before I forget, I have a wish for 5.13! I want Dean and Sam to say out loud to Mary:

"MUM, I LOVE YOU"
And then Dean and Sam to hug Mary before they are back to 2010 (bring out the Kleenex)

While I am on the subject of Mary and John, I know this will NEVER happen! (OK, may be in a fan fiction), but I really want to see Mary and John hunt together. I wonder how it would be like.

Do you think this episode (with Dean going back) changed the course of history? I mean, the YED knew Dean would be the one who killed him. On one hand, whatever happened, happened. But people are the variables, perhaps somehow somewhere they did change the course of history? Time traveling is a complex concept. I wish Daniel Faraday was on the show!

We found out through Dean, that Mary was a hunter. A big revelation! And no one knew about it. Not even John. If Dean didn't go back, we would've never known this. I know Kara called it! She knew! But to me, it was a total surprise. Even when Mary walked up to Dean in the alleyway and asked him why was he following her and John, I thought perhaps she was possessed by a demon and knew things. But NO, she knew because she has a good sense of surroundings.

While I am on the subject, I just want to list a number of seriously big revelations in the Winchester Gospel:

1.) Mary was a hunter and she made the deal with YED
2.) Dean broke the first seal and he is Michael's vessel
3.) Sam broke the last seal and he is Lucifer's vessel
4.) John was sweet?
5.) God has left the building
6.) Gabriel is Trickster
7.) Dean's amulet was a God EMF

Anything missing here??

There are certainly weird questions while I was watching this episode:

- Is it me or is it weird that Mary and John stayed in Lawrence after what Mary's been through with the YED. Like, ok.. I'll just wait here... for the YED to come back in 10 years time. Did she do any research on the YED and why he would come back?

- Dean told Mary to not get out of bed on November 2, 1983. Why didn't she remember it or write it down? (Kripke asked the same thing during the commentary.)

- Did John ever question what happened to himself? Surely he knew he was dead, his neck got snapped. Did he ever question what happened to Samuel and Deanna? According to the Comic, John never find out Mary was a hunter.

- So the angels knew what Azazel did to Sam, but they didn't know why. What his end game was. Surely they know! His end game was to prepare Sam for Lucifer! Surely they know if Dean is Michael's vessel, there is a possibility of Sam being Lucifer's vessel.

- Castiel told Dean to stop Sam or they will. OK so, clearly they changed their mind later, because the angels didn't want Dean to stop Sam anyway, because the angels want Lucifer to rise and start the War.

I guess it's just that the angel senior management didn't tell the troops much.

In the Beginning was a very very very awesome episode. I absolutely love it! It's well written, it's awesome to see Dean interacting with his parents. It's just one of those episodes you can watch over and over again. It's one of those episodes that make you fall in love with Supernatural all over again. I am calling it now, The Song Remains the Same is going to be one of my favorite episodes. I have sky high expectation on this episode. I somehow wish this is the 100th episode (having the four members of the Winchester family in the same episode and scenes), but it's not gonna happen. But that's ok. I'll live.

When The Song Remains the Same comes out, I am going to have another marathon - Home, In the Beginning and The Song Remains the Same.