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Houses of the Holy (Touched)
The Winchester boys investigate the appearance of what seems to be an angel that imbues people with a strange homicidal bliss, and Sam is one of the people who falls under its spell.
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NotesWriterSera GambleDirectorKim MannersGuest Stars:Denis Arndt(Father Reynolds) David Monahan (Father Gregory) Other Guests:Heather DoerksenDan Mellor Wesley Salter Filming Locations:St. Andrew's-Wesley ChurchUnion Street Princess Ave Completely Useless Trivia:The boys bought their seance supplies from Kevin Keefer's Korner Grocery |
ReviewDue to severe time constraints over the next few days, I will limit this review to a few short thoughts until I have time to type up my usual synopsis. My apologies to those who are used to my customary verbosity! (remember though, "short" is a relative term!) Hopefully I'll have the full synopsis up by Tuesday.First of all, I have to say that while I liked this episode and it's subject matter, I feel that there was so much more they could have done with it but didn't. I'm a little disappointed that they didn't explore the full depth of possibilities and I'm not sure whether that choice was made out of fear or simply to keep things within the one-hour timeslot. Some of the things I particularly liked were Dean's obsession with the Magic Fingers, with his longing looks at the coin-operated mechanism as if it were pure ecstasy that was just out of reach, and including Sam's line "Dude, I'm not enabling your sick habit!" Also, Dean's description of unicorns and Sam's "Wait - there's no such thing as unicorns?" That's got to be one of my favourite lines of the entire episode! I appreciated Dean and Sam's opposing viewpoints on the issue of whether or not angels exist, and the partial reversal at the end where Sam almost admits that he's lost his faith, and Dean almost admits that he believes there is a God up there somewhere. It's a nice first step to a compromise, where both boys can respect the other's point of view even though they're not willing to change their own views just yet. One thing I don't get is why an angel would appear with an earthquake effect. Was that to be sure he had the full attention of his audience, or just some random effect of a spirit appearing? Perhaps it was meant to show God's indignation at Father Gregory's spirit appearing? I don't know, but it seems somewhat cruel to appear to some random person and ask them to kill for you, then break all their stuff while you're at it! Also, how could so much wormwood grow in only two months, and why would nobody notice this strange plant growing inside the building and prune it back? One other thing I particularly object to is the use of a priest as the "avenging angel". Part of the reason is because the priest is always the guilty party in any and every suspense or horror show with the exception of the occasional butler, and I get tired of screenwriters haranguing the poor priests! The other part of the reason is because a priest would have studied the scriptures in depth before becoming ordained, and would therefore know that God would never demand a person commit murder to further His will and His plan. I would have preferred it if the "angel" were some random parishioner who was killed, that way I could forgive them any lack in their knowledge of spiritual things. Even the fact that Father Gregory was so easily misled by what I can only assume is a demon gives the impression that priests aren't spiritually prepared to deal with evil when, in fact, they are actually very highly trained in this regard. He should have been able to resist the words of the demon. Strictly from an esthetic point of view, I have to say I like the way the spirit appeared, with the brilliant light behind the vague outline of the figure within, and the way each person looked terrified at first before an expression of peace settled over their features. Also, the fact that we never actually hear the spirit speak lends credence to the illusion. At the end, where Father Gregory appears in his own likeness, I approve wholeheartedly of the lighting used! His hair is lit by a golden glow that reminds us of the Touched by and Angel series. Assuming he controls his own appearance, this is how he would think that angels would look. I love that someone thought to include that little touch of fictional "reality"! It concerns me to see that Dean has taken to carrying alcohol with him at all times, especially after he lectured Sam about being drunk on the job during the Playthings episode. Nice of Dean to "save" Sam and stop him from killing the bad guy by not letting him get in the car. Very classy move on his part. Also, nice bait and switch when the blue car turns the corner and disappears. It gives us that little moment of tension wondering whether or not Dean will arrive in time to save the girl. It also surprises me that the rapist didn't work a little harder at his plan. I would think that he would have taken her to the movie first and wooed her a little so she'd invite him back home to be raped, rather than just jumping on her 5 minutes into their date. Maybe he didn't want to waste his hard-earned cash on a movie? Chase scene was a stroke of brilliance, although I don't see why Dean would have to chase him when the girl would surely press charges. He could have let the police do their job for a change. And even though we already decided that God is not a God of vengeance and wasn't behind the murders, still this guy manages to get stabbed through the heart. I'll admit thought that it was a wonderful way to tie the episode together and give Dean his moment of pause. I'm really surprised that they showed both ends of the pipe after it impaled the poor guy. That was very graphic for the CW! Effective, though. Again, I'll express my appreciation for the hardworking CGFX guys, I always appreciate a nice piece of artwork; I almost believed the pipe was really free-falling off the truck. The death shot was completely convincing too, so kudos to the makeup crew responsible for the pipe-through-the-heart shot. LOVE that they used "knocking on heaven's door" to end the episode! That's one of my all-time favourite songs, it's so emotional and it really fit well with the feeling of this episode. Will Sam be welcomed into heaven even though his destiny is tainted with evil? In the end, I find this episode to be a reasonably fair offering. Not as good as Faith, but better than Playthings and Bugs. Sera Gamble has a nice flair for writing this kind of material and handling it in a sensitive way, I think the reason this particular episode fell a little flat is because there simply wasn't enough time to fully explore such deep subject matter. Perhaps the faith (or lack thereof) of the brothers can be explored more intimately over the remainder of the season so we can get a feeling of closure to the question of their beliefs. |