Jensen Ackles as Dean. |
All the bad things that one can recall about the 80’s are remembered in Mannequin 3: The Reckoning. If the episode title is not a dead giveaway, then what happens within is. Audiences old enough to remember the movie Mannequin, starring Kim Cattral and Andrew McCarthy finding love centuries apart, may get the joke. But for Stephen King fans, there is a touch of good old-fashioned mass-market style terror to fill the episode with.
But does that formula work? Love is a bitch, even for the dead.
And in what Dean has to face—to deal with his feelings—he has to finally face up to it. This latest episode is all about Dean and it skips Sam’s problems as though his fainting spell meant nothing.
There is a brief ‘I told you so’ moment, but it does not look like it had any affect. The rest of the episode bounces between the two brothers; Sam has to deal with a female spirit who is possessing mannequins and Dean has to go back to Lisa Braedon at the behest of her son, Ben.
Before reuniting with Sam, Dean was living a normal happy life. He was with Lisa and has become something of a father to Ben. But when he left to resume the Hunter lifestyle with Sam, it was jarring for the young boy.
Lisa tried to call Dean many times throughout the series, usually off-camera, perhaps to ask when he is coming back. However, when considering what he does, if the monsters start tracking him down, his new family is in trouble. Dean cares for them too much by not getting them involved. But that comes at a price.
Sadly that is going to mean separation. And he gets a good idea about what Sam must be going through by the episode’s end—it is tough to block off the past.
But for Sam, he doesn’t have time to think about his short trip to Hell and back. He has to find out what is causing the mysterious death of several males who once worked together. Eventually, he learns that the female spirit is out for revenge on the boys who played a cruel joke on her.
Unfortunately, the creep factor doesn’t quite work when what the victims encounter are faceless minions. If you blink, they are going to attack. If you don’t, they are frozen in time. The scenes in question looked like they were taking a cue from the episode Blink, than Rose (with the Nestine Intelligence) from Doctor Who.
The scene with the ghost possessing Dean’s Impala, however, is perfect. Stephen King's Christine reference is great. Dean puts on a classic, 'you got to be kidding' look when his own car is chasing after him like a lover scorned. And at the end, there’s a moment of realization on what the series' writers are after: Love is about the choices and sacrifices one has to make in order for it to work.
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