 Just follow the road. You'll know where it goes. That's a hot mug guys. Hey guys, this is my review for episode 16 of Supernatural Season 5. This is Dark Side of the Moon. This is an episode I've been looking forward to because I remember having fond memories of this episode when it aired. I kind of had a good time watching it again when I did a rerun back on like 2013. So this was the first time I've seen this episode near on seven years and I still like the concept of it. But yes, there is this hollowness to the idea that you're just reliving these memories. It's a kind of an interesting concept. Just the idea of taking what we know something as heaven and then just turning it a little bit like not something major but still within the means of the production value that they can do it without having to be heavy effect or anything. Like that's what I love about this one. When they're listening to Knock Knock on Heaven's Door and they're doing the fireworks. I think that's one of the most heartfelt moments that Supernatural's had in a while. It's that moment that is the catalyst to how the episode ends because that's the last bit of brief happiness and hope that Dean has before it is absolutely shattered and not just by what Joshua says to them, but by also seeing that Sam's favorite memories are all about separation. Dean's feeling jealous. While his favorite memories are with Sam, Sam's favorite memories don't have anything to do with him. It's that selflessness in him that he wishes that something was different. It's kind of a contradiction considering what he was doing in the beginning of the show, right? That he was thinking that Sam and Dean should be separate, but then Sam is the one who wants to put them back together to work together so to work against Lucifer. So that element shows Dean just breaking his last hope, especially with how the episode ends. But going through the episode itself, I do like the oddity elements that they did. This is probably the closest to anything David Lynch that this show ever got and I will admit it is because the script is written by Andrew Dabin, David Loughlin. They do a very cool, very simplistic, but very intriguing means of having them work through heaven by following the road. At first it's driving, then it's walking, but then they're looking for a road inside a house and it's this old little track, this toy track that Dean would play with and he does it and all of a sudden they're in a different room. I liked that. The only maybe effect that I thought was a little bit handy is when they go outside through another door and they go out on the street where Sam left for Stanford and they do that quick around with the camera and they go like 180 around them. I kind of thought that was a little silly, but that's it. That's the cheesiest camera element that's done in this episode. I love when Castiel is talking to them through the TV. It gives me so many Alan Wake vibes. It's nuts. Dark Side of the Moon has a very intriguing concept throughout the entirety of the episode. Reliving these moments that these characters have had, we get to learn a little bit more about their pasts. It's when Zachariah finds them that things get a little bit hectic and get a little bit out of control where they're running away from him and these guys are pretty darn good jokes at this point. And then he's able to manipulate their mother, the memory version of their mother. We see him showing that he's become a joke now, that people feared him up in heaven and now he's starting to become the office clown. The lighting in this scene is pretty cool. We see a lot of green, kind of green with envy, green with malice reflected on Zachariah. Well, we already saw the beginning of the season that he's willing to do what it has to be done to do so, but then Joshua arrives and I really like this actor. As far as I know, I think he's retired. He hasn't done anything since 2015. He comes in and he takes the boys away and then they go to, I think it's the botanical gardens out in Vancouver. I've heard about these Van Dusen gardens. Maybe I might be wrong about it. I know that there is something like this out in Vancouver. There's one in Langley as well, but it's not this one because this one is dome shape. The fact that they were able to shoot in there is kind of a fucking miracle, I think, considering the film industry out here that I digress. This is probably the part that kind of disappoints me and I think it's meant to disappoint you, but more so I think it's the simplicity of what is said that disappoints me. Joshua has a message from God because he says God's living on earth. He doesn't care about anything going on and he tells them to back off. He's like, you know what? Stop trying to find him. He's not going to appear. You guys have to do what you have to do. It disappoints me, but it's also the point of the episode because that reflects onto being that the literal creator of all doesn't want to have to do anything. Their last effort, their last ditch effort wants nothing to do with them. It's crushing, not only for them, but also for Castiel when they go back. Oh wait, the part that I forgot. His ash appears. Ash helps them hide from Zachariah and I thought that was really cool. This is kind of cameo from him and he somehow still has the computer doing computer nerd shit up in heaven. I thought that was great. And then just talking about me and other people just hopping through dreams. I like that Ash had a good cameo in it. But then going back to the end of the episode after Castiel learns the truth, he looks up and says, you son of a bitch, I believe. And Castiel is broken. He flies off and then Dean takes the amulet, stands over that bucket and Sam is just heartbroken when he watches him drop it in because this is a family memento. Because not only does that mean that he's throwing away what was supposedly an item that could find God, but it's a personal connection between Sam and Dean. Dark Side of the Moon is a very personal episode. There's not really any action. I think actually, doesn't it? No one die. Oh well, technically speaking, the brothers do, but they get, you know, a respawn. But I remember the episode starting off pretty crazy with that, with that opening, then just getting shot. I'm like, oh shit, they're dying again. Clearly the promo before just them, how many times have you guys died? Anyway, it was kind of alluding to this. It was still a shock. So with a really good script, some pretty decent directing and a lot of personal moments. I can definitely say that Dark Side of the Moon is one of the more deeper meaning the philosophical episodes of the show. So in the end, I'm going to give it a six out of seven. It's a very intriguing concept. It's a very intriguing episode, very thought out. It's a really good script from Laughlin and Dab. I'm not going to deny that. They've had two real good bangers in this season. And the next one from them is Hammer of the Gods. So we all know that's a good episode too. So I'm very excited to look forward to that one. Anyways guys, I asked for your comments about this episode, so let's read those off now. The thought of constantly being stuck in past memories, never seeing anything new, always kind of terrified me. It's an issue I don't think they ever change. It's just the way it is. Not even the Winchesters can change something on that grand of a scale, considering I thought God was real when I first watched this episode. Gave me a bit of an existential crisis. Still does in a way. At first I thought it was actually kind of a cool idea, but then after a while I was like, yeah, you would constantly be stuck in your memories. Eventually you would outlive it. And it's something that the good place, if you've ever seen the show The Good Place, I would definitely suggest it. It actually kind of talks about what is an afterlife and a never ending afterlife and what to do after that. It's pretty good. I would definitely recommend it. This episode is one of the best of the season and it does something with the idea of the afterlife that later visits to heaven, purgatory, and hell struggle to recreate. It turns the focus of the visit not into what heaven is, but on who the characters are and what their idea of bliss means. The writers do such a good job of turning the focus onto the boys' lives, their relationships, their parents, and their fears and growing insecurity to keep you engaged without straining the budget. It's subverting our expectations, but it works. Here we see Zachariah starting to devolve into the madness over the past failures pursuing the boys. At this point, he has discarded all pretense and courtesy. He is no longer trying to convince the boys to change their minds. Kripke once said that Kurt Fuller is a very physically imposing person in means of height and posture, intimidating as a villain. You can really feel that in his last scene. His dialogue in the episode is very well written. Yes, I like how Zachariah is just like done with their bullshit. He is very much on the prowl in this episode. I always really liked Joshua and I was so disappointed when they brought him back on screen season 12 just to kill him within 10 seconds. I don't even remember that. I'm going to go back and re-watch that review I did. It wasn't necessary to bring Ash back, but it feels good to see his character get a happy ending after being abruptly written out in season 2. Same with Pamela in season 4. I really liked their cameos in this episode. I thought that it worked and it worked in the context. It wasn't just for bringing back sake, it actually helped with the plot. This is a pretty good episode that expands on the lore of supernatural. The lore is pretty simple. Sam and Dean are killed by hunters who are angry at Sam starting the apocalypse. In Heaven, Sam and Dean are told by Castiel to look for Joshua, an angel who talks to God. Meanwhile, the brothers are trying to run away from Zachariah, whose powers are much stronger on his own turf and who still hasn't gotten given up on forcing Dean to say yes to Michael. In Heaven, we see some familiar faces, Ash and Pamela, who helped Sam and Dean define Joshua. Unfortunately, the message from God is grim. God has no intention to help Sam and Dean in Castiel. Then Sam and Dean are brought back to Earth, but this time remembering that heaven because of God's will. The Heaven in Supernatural is presented as sort of a replay of one's greatest hits in a form of memories in happy places. As Ash explains it, really nice to see his character again here by the way. There isn't one heaven. There's like a billion heavens like Disneyland. It's an interesting yet depressing concept that we social beings at heart are meant to live on an eternity alone in our own little world when we die. The only nitpick I have with this episode is that I wish we could have seen Ellen and Joe meeting Sam and Dean in Heaven 2. That would have been a perfect final goodbye for those two characters as well. Overall, it gives us episode 6 out of 7. Yeah, I kind of find it odd that Ellen and Joe aren't in this episode too, but there is a lot that's happening. This is really the brothers' journey through Heaven trying to find Joshua, all the while trying to escape Zachariah. It is trying to put some fear and some tension and some danger into this episode, which is very thankful. I loved how bleak and hopeless Dark Side of the Moon ended. I remember thinking it can't get any worse than dying and getting Zachariah on your ass all the time when the episode air and I guess it can get worse. God with some sort of faith and it turns into disappointment and losing faith on Cass and Dean's part. Even though the boys are going through the best memories, while it does show their happiest memories, it goes back to Sam having to face family. He's always ran away and wanted out, but it would end with him eventually facing his family. So by the time the episode ends, it's like why even try and fight back when they have nothing else to lose and God himself doesn't even think it's his problem. Yeah, actually, I like the bleakness of this episode. I very much enjoy that. What's the point at this point? As much as I like Dark Side of the Moon for some reason, seeing such a seeing Ash and having it knowing he's cool with it, I was troubled by others Sam getting pummeled in this episode. How dare he start the apocalypse? How dare he not appreciate that Dean gets the crust off his PB&J? How dare he disrespect Dean and have a heaven that contains some memories that don't worship Dean? Then Dean throws the amulet Sam gave him into the trash. As though the episode and Dean are saying to Sam should go to hell. Oh, that's right. He did go to hell. Your point here, Shannon, I think is going to correspond with Nico's. There is a bit of childish kind of activity from Dean in this episode. I think Dean has been so dead set on being Sam's protector that nothing in Sam's happiest memories include Dean. And I admit I could understand his jealousy of that. And then also just seeing there's no point. It's a bit of a dramatic drop into the bucket, I guess you could say. But I still like it, but I can understand where you're coming from here. Dark Side of the Moon is an interesting episode. They both died at the start was not what I was expecting. I like that Zachariah was pursuing them saying you're on night turf now boys. I like that he uses their mom against them. So God is an interesting. If we go on season 15, logic God is watching with a popcorn. Dark Side of the Moon is my fourth favorite episode of this season. It really shows how the boys don't really feel like they belong in heaven or hell. It's an interesting concept that the angels create multiple heavens of memories when righteous souls felt the happiest. For Sam, it's heartbreaking. His heaven is made from the memories that don't involve his family. And naturally Dean's happiest memories is with his family. It's one of the three things that really puts into perspective that one man's heaven is another man's hell. Ooh, good one Joe. The thing that really has stuck with me throughout this episode in the entire show, one is that we see one of Dean's memories that we see John and Mary did not have the perfect marriage that Sam and Dean made us assume that they had. As Dean put it, Mary and John had the perfect marriage when Mary died. The second is the concept of how Eric Kripke and the production team characterized God. Rather than making him a hero or a villain, it was a really smart move for this season for God to be an observer of free will of the universe more than a delegator of getting things done with the angels. I was one of the fans then not wanting God to have a physical appearance on the show for the sole reason knowing that if they introduced God, it's to be another villain that the Winchesters wouldn't have ever had to fight and kill. You and me are in the exact same boat. I was really happy we never saw him for a long time. For a time, I could accept God in supernatural as a lawful neutral character like Death the Horseman because we had a father figure who was characterized by the children of I.S. Children and we didn't know whether God was good or bad. And it just existed for allowing free will for his creations. It made the situation more heartbreaking for team free will, but the apocalypse looked like it was an inevitable conclusion for humanity. But also made it more satisfying to see Sam and Dean overcame it by their will and love for each other. Needless to say, when season 11 came around, I knew God and his sister would end up being villains. At some point, since the main theme of supernatural is putting family first, to literally and figuratively everything. The boys go to heaven. Again, Dark Side of the Moon is an interesting episode for me, and one I am personally split on. I remember being a bit underwhelmed when finding out that heaven truly, what heaven truly was, reliving your greatest hits for all eternity would kind of get old after a while, you know. I did always imagine heaven having a kind of euphoria filter, so on so no matter what you would be happy and feel great, but it never is talked about in the show, so I guess that's just me thinking too much about it. I actually like it in this episode because of how it is applied to the boys, where Dean is all about his family and Sam is more about his freedom, because the lack of the standard family unit. Thinking about it, I'm curious if this was at all manipulated by the archangels or God himself to further crush Dean's spirit, because that would for sure be good memories Sam could pick from his childhood. The problem I more so have with this episode is that it's a precedent of showing heaven and hell, and the first five, it's not so bad, but later on heaven is an office building and hell is standing in line. The hell line I kind of can forgive because it's more used for comedy, and that would probably be the first level of hell, so no fun, but not the worst, but my God and I hate season 8's heaven office building. Returning characters of Ash and Pamela are always welcome like how to traverse heaven, and I actually really like Joshua, being on the brother on the boys side, not being able to help them really at all. Not to mention the totally awesome opening and closing scenes where the boys get blasted in the chest with shotguns and wake up in the exact spot. I would have liked to see Dean catch up with those hunters at some point in the series, all the actual scenes in heaven are great and either funny or aimed right for the feels. From Dean's I Love Hugs t-shirt to Grown Sam's dinner date, to Dean needing an extra few moments with his mom to help cleaning up John's mess with his from a younger age. It's heartbreaking to see at the end of the episode, Dean having lost faith in his brother and throwing the necklace in the trash on the way out the door. Everything from episode 10 onward is meant to drive home the hopeless aspect of fighting Lucifer with this being when Dean is truly broken. All in all I do really like this episode, just have a problem for where it was taken later on. The office building of heaven, I always thought that was like the top floor. I think it was again in terms of like reusing sets, it's cheaper to reuse sets than trying to build new ones and whatnot and use different locations. So I kind of got where they were going with the heaven thing, especially since heaven was supposed to be an adversary, so giving them that office building. Sure it's a little bit of a cheap means but I do kind of get where they were going for it. I haven't seen the heaven room since season 13 I think or 14, whichever was the one where they said heaven was dying and they totally dropped that aspect of the storyline so I guess we'll find out about it later. I'll start with the pros, I love the concept of for heaven, it's extremely unique and thus it stands out from our other representations of it. I don't see the multiple heavens as a prison like Dean says, honestly it's the best way to contain 47 billion souls. And of course seeing Zachariah is always pleasing, I love this villain and how much of a dick he is making us love to hate him. However, and I don't care if I come across as way too critical, this is a dab episode and his usual garbage is here as present, the biggest of which is making John seem unlikable in order for Mary to look good and Dean instantly whining about God and comparing him to another deadbeat dad. I can't stand this garbage, you have defended dab for not being lazy in the early day of the show and I'm sorry I don't buy it, he is not a good writer. Almost every bad episode of the Cricky Era is him in buck glimmings. Even this early on, you can see this terrible mentality that he used when writing characters. In order to make a character seem likable, he makes another look more unlikable by comparison, even though it contradicts previous stories. Once again like Jump the Shark, John comes off as a terrible father and a husband in favor of marrying the boys. Does this remind you of a certain Jack and Chuck storyline? Thought so. Even Dean's whiny nature is featured here, why would I sympathize with Dean when he and Sam are both responsible for the apocalypse? God literally says to them no you whiny brat, I'm not going to clean up your mess. For once in your self righteous life, understand and accept the responsibility of your actions. Jeremy Carver fought to fix this in his own era only to see dab devolve Dean into the exact whiny climb up my high horse brat we see here in season 13 and onwards. You can even see then that dab was a terrible writer that he is now. For the episode itself I like it, I don't think it's bad, however those aspects that I mentioned have become increasingly more noticeable and annoying for me upon rewatch. I do admit Dean's nature in this episode is a bit haphazardly, I guess they're really trying to hammer home the whole aspect of him being hopeless. And then your point about dab using one character to make another character look good, I do see that there. I don't think he's terrible yet though, he still has some decent parts in his earlier career was supernatural, but that's also because he had David, he had Laughlin on his side as well. And I don't know what you're going to go when we go to Hammer of the Gods, because that's one of his episodes and that's a flawless episode near on. But I can see where you're talking about here and I can definitely see the little dab is here early on. Dark Side of the Moon was an interesting episode, it was interesting seeing the happiest moments in Sam and Dean's life in heaven. I'm not surprised that Sam seems to see family differently than Dean, he's right, he didn't need a normal childhood like Dean has had as a child because of what happens to Mary. It was great seeing Ash and Pamela back in this episode suck so that they couldn't appear in season 15. And I'm glad that Pamela found peace in heaven, I forgot that they replaced Joshua with another actor in season 12. I wasn't surprised that God would refuse to help Sam and Dean with the apocalypse, I truly felt sorry for Castiel because he had so much faith that his father would help and stop the apocalypse when everyone told him that he wouldn't. And it was sad to see Dean throw the necklace away and that Sam gave him into the trash. I do like Castiel's moments in this episode, it's probably one of my favorite bits of this episode as we see Cass' faith break, his own reliance on his father just completely falls apart and I do like that aspect, it's probably one of my favorite bits of this episode. Alright, thank you guys for your comments and now we're going to talk about 99 problems, I just remember Castiel saying she's a whore and the whole whore Babylon thing. It's going to be a fun episode from what memory serves me but I guess we'll see, give me your guys comments about that episode and I'll read those off in the next review. Otherwise, hope you enjoyed, if you did leave a like and if you're interested in more subscribe and then I'll see you guys next week. Thanks for watching the video, my name is Knitz and you might remember me from the animated cult classic TV show Undergrads. 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