This post is to record more thoughts about 5.11 Sam, Interrupted. I did watch the new episode Thurdsay night, but have found my brain wasn’t finished with Sam, Interrupted. (It is utterly ridiculous to come even this close to complaining about not having enough time to process one episode before being given more story. I blame it on being sick after having to put in extra hours at school.)

There are a couple points I wanted to elaborate on from my last entry.

I forgot to explicitly state the reason I’m pointing out the sleep deprivation going on for Dean and for Susan. Even Martin wakes so quickly, it couldn’t have been restful sleep. Sure it’s interesting and helps to illustrate the fragile mental states in the hospital. However, I can’t forget the near constant sleep and dream motif running throughout season four. Maybe this flip on the theme – too little rather than ever-present – is intended to show a new chapter in the story?

It’s for that same reason that I like the episode’s questioning of reality and sanity. I speculated over a year ago that they were setting up to go there. I realize that’s no big feat, but I still find the confirmation satisfying. It does mean that this is more than a one-off, stand-alone story. The groundwork has long been in the works though I expected we’d get here much sooner.

I still haven’t found time to go around reading other reactions to the episode except for the episode thread at televisionwithoutpity. There, I saw one mention of Nurse Ratched’s eyes turning demon-black as she escorted the boys to the exam room.

writh_nurse_demoneyes (link to full-size version which is quite different from her normal eye color.)

I’m sure it happened but am not sure what that means. This demon-eye flash would have been solely for the audience’s benefit. The boys were both following behind her along the hall (one of many hallways) meaning we have information Sam and Dean don’t. This nurse is eventually revealed as the wraith. To speculate: does the eye-flash hint she was a demon but the boys working through the case forced her into the monster-we-can-kill role?

Personally, her “Sugar” directed early at the boys and later the way she anticipated the deliciousness of Sam’s brains had me thinking of Lilith’s personal chef who was a demon able to take a siesta inside the nurse Sam and Ruby drained. The wraith creature reminds me of changelings and sirens (revealing their true forms in mirrors) and of ghouls (given the taste-testing).

While much of the episode’s staging takes advantage of hallways (bigger than, but reminiscent of, the crawlspaces Dean was forced into during season four), we also have more than one notable door. We get Dean cowering at a couple of doors and finally charging to the rescue through Sam’s padded room’s door. We get the episode ending with the boys bursting out of the asylum’s side door. We get Sam’s angry outburst as Dean is urging him to hurry at picking the lock to Jed’s room. I’m still picturing the helplessness of Susan and Jed watching each other through their door windows while she’s killed.

Then it occurred to me that these faces at the windows (a forelorn image we’ve seen often) actually have doors! Yes, they are locked, but if there’s one thing the show has made clear, it’s that Sam and Dean can open doors. Doors aren’t new and windows aren’t new (though my favorite may be the window used as a door in the leap of faith taken in 4.09 I Know What You Did Last Summer). In fact, as I think back, I can remember a few other instances of the two combined. The screen door for interviewing the housekeeper in 4.11 Family Remains and the curtain-screened door to Jimmy Novak’s home in 4.20 The Rapture come to mind first.

I’m putting off discussing Sam’s hallucination of Dean ripping into him and Dean’s hallucination doctor turning from sympathetic to accusatory. I don’t quite know what I want to say except neither of these guys can win for long, can he?

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