Supernatural: Hunteri Heroici
October 17, 2021 6:28 AM - Season 8, Episode 8 - Subscribe

Castiel decides to become a hunter like Sam and Dean, and his first case with them involves a series of murders that strongly resemble classic cartoon mishaps. Meanwhile, Sam thinks back to the evening he met Amelia's father.

Quotes

Dean: What's the word, Cass?
Castiel: It's the shortened version of my name.
Dean: Yes, it is. I mean what's the word on The Word?

Castiel: I'm gonna become a hunter.
Sam: Really?
Castiel: Yeah. I could be your third wheel.
Dean: You know that's not a good thing?
Castiel: Of course it is. A third wheel adds extra grip, greater stability...

Dean: If you want to play cowboys and bloodsuckers, that's fine. But you're gonna stick with us, okay? None of this zapping around crap. Capiche?
Castiel: Yeah, I capiche.
Dean: Alright then.
Castiel: Can I, uh... at least ride in the front seat?
Dean & Sam: No!

Dean: [frowning as he realizes that Cass is going through his toiletry kit] Cass, you gonna book a room or what?
Castiel: [holding toothpaste and a toothbrush in one hand and digging deeper with his other] No, I'll stay here.
Dean: Oh, okay. Yeah. We'll have a slumber party. You can braid Sam's hair. Where you gonna sleep?
Castiel: I don't sleep.
Dean: Okay, well, I need my four hours. So...
Castiel: I'll watch over you.
Dean: That's not gonna happen.

Castiel: [examining the victim's body] I can't sense any EMF or sulphur. Mr. Frieling's arterial health is, uh... excellent. [leans over and sniffs the body]
Castiel: Mm. He did recently suffer from a... mild, uh... what is that... bladder infection.
Dean: Cass. Stop smelling the dead guy.

Dean: Okay. Well, let's say that, uh, Gary here is on the prowl. But, he's playin' it safe because... [lifts the victim's left hand to reveal a wedding ring] dude's married. Doesn't want anyone to see his ride parked out in front of a by-the-hour fleabag...
Sam: So, he stashes his car at the park across the street and meets Olivia there.
Dean: His wife probably found out about it and it broke her heart.
Sam: So she breaks his. Sounds witchy.
Dean: Yes, it does. Guy was living a lie and it came back to bite him the ticker. [to Castiel] But, nice job on that bladder infection.

Mrs. Frieling: I don't understand. Gary had a heart attack. Why would the FBI...
Dean: Parks are government property. We've just got a few questions for you.
Castiel: [to Dean] I'll, uh, I'll handle this. I've done research. I can crack her [moves over to lean close to the widow] Now... Miss Frieling... I don't wanna bother you. I really don't. But, I do have just one question for you. [suddenly slams his hand on the table top, moves menacingly close to her and yells] WHY DID YOU KILL YOUR HUSBAND?
Dean: Agent Stills. A word, please.
Castiel: [moves over to Dean as Sam moves to comfort the now crying widow] What? I was being "bad cop".
Dean: You were being bad *everything*!

Mrs. Frieling: Gary and I... We had an arrangement. He was seeing Olivia... and I was spending some time with our neighbor PJ.
Dean: [after she leaves] Friggin' suburbs, man.
Castiel: So she's not a witch.
Dean: Just the best wife ever.

Jumper: [walks off building; is hovering in mid-air] It's a miracle! God wants me to live! [immediately plummets to his death]

Dean: The whole heart jumpin' out of a guy's chest. The, the delayed fall. That's straight up Bugs Bunny.
Castiel: So, we're looking for some sort of... insect rabbit hybrid? How do we kill it?
Sam: No. We don't, Cass. That's a character. Like uh, like Woody Woodpecker. Or Daffy Duck.
Dean: They're little animated movies. You know, uh, the coyote chases the roadrunner. And then the anvil gets dropped on his head.
Castiel: And that's supposed to be funny?
Dean: No. It's hilarious.

Castiel: [turns off the TV after watching a Looney Toons cartoon] I understand. The bird represents God, Coyote is Man, endlessly chasing the divine and yet never able to catch him.
Dean & Sam: ...
Castiel: It's hilarious.

Dean: All right. Let's gear up. It's wabbit season.
Castiel: I don't think you pronounced that correctly.

Dean: I got no idea what we're hunting. Maybe it's a Tulpa. Maybe it's crazy god who watched too much Robot Chicken. I mean, there a link between "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Free Falling"?

Dean: [to Sam and Cass as they are about to question residents of the retirement home] Alright, let's do this. No flirting, you two.

Dean: [draws his gun on Dr. Mahoney as he catches him robbing the bank] What's up, Doc?

Dr. Dwight Mahoney: I've been dealin' with this crazy for months! And you... *idiot*! Bring a gun to a gag fight!

Castiel: [listening to police scanner] A bank has been robbed. It sounds loony.
Dean: Define loony.
Sam: [cut to scene at the bank, where an anvil has been dropped on guard] That's loony, all right.

Detective Glass: Gotta ask. Do you boys chase the crazy or does the crazy chase you?
Sam: Depends on the day.

Castiel: It's a direct link to Heaven. And I don't want anything to do with that place; not anymore.
Dean: So what now? Move to Vermont, open up a charming B&B?

Dean: [after cake explodes] What the hell happened?
Castiel: There was a pastry mishap.
Dean: Okay, and?
Castiel: And the frosting reached near-supersonic speeds.

Fred Jones: You want to know what's the worst thing that can happen to a guy that's got a mind like I got? Losing it.

Dean: Have you noticed anything strange lately -- uh, cold spots, smells?
Sheila: Well, there's the cat.
Dean: The cat?
Sheila: He talks sometimes. Really hates that mouse.
Castiel: I'll interrogate the cat.

Dean: Cass. Let's go.
Castiel: [interrogating a cat] I've almost cracked him.
Dean: Now.
Castiel: [to the cat] Hey. I'm not through with you. [leaves with Dean]
Cat: Dumbass.

Dean: Okay, so smashing the rent-a-cop, that was on purpose; but the rest of them, is that just collateral weird?

Amelia: [Sam is about to meet her father] Don't talk politics. Don't say anything bad about the Cowboys. And whatever you do, do not use the words "moist" or "irregardless".
Sam: There goes my opener.

Stan Thompson: So, Amelia tells me you never served.
Sam: No.
Stan Thompson: See, I find that hard to believe, 'cause I got to say, Sam, you got the look.
Sam: The look?
Stan Thompson: The one a lot of guys get after they've been through the meat grinder -- the one that lets you know they've seen a lot of crap they can't forget.

Trivia

Maxine Miller, who played Sheila, a resident at the assisted living facility, has provided the voice for multiple characters in several animated feature movies and cartoon series.

Gary Frieling, the first victim whose heart burst through his chest, is named after Friz Freleng, who directed hundreds of Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies cartoons.

Dean being captioned "Hunterus Heroicus" and Dr. Mahoney being "Grotesques Villainus" is a reference to Looney Tunes cartoons.

There is a character closely related to the cartoon phenomenon named Fred Jones. Fred Quimby and Chuck Jones were both directors of animation for a number of Tom & Jerry cartoons. Fred Jones was also the name of one of the members of the Scooby Doo gang.

Dean, Castiel and Sam use the names "Crosby, Stills and Nash" after members of the folk rock group of the same name.

Dean asks Sam, "Is there a link between 'Heartbreak Hotel' and 'Free Falling'?" Dean is, of course, referring to the two victims. Both those phrases are the titles of rock songs that are widely regarded as classics. The former is originally by Elvis Presley and the latter by Tom Petty. Petty, coincidentally, played with a band called the Heartbreakers, and also did a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" with Guns N Roses in 1989. Thus, Tom Petty is the link between "Heartbreak Hotel" and "Free Falling".

In the scene when Sam, Dean and Castiel are interrogating Mrs. Frieling (thinking that she did spell work to cause we husband's death), and discover that she knew about and had consented to her husband's affair, Castiel asks, "Then what killed her husband?" Dean responds with, "Who gives a --" and the scene switches immediately to a street with a car horn blaring, a stand in for the usual "bleep" that censors swear words in television. This happened because Jensen Ackles, in an effort to make Misha Collins and Jared Padalecki laugh, actually said, "Who gives a fuck?", and the editors decided to keep the outtake for comic relief.

In the scene where Sam, Dean and Castiel are investigating the first death (victim with heart burst open), Castiel sniffs the corpse to get more info regarding the victim to which Dean replies, "Nice job on the bladder infection, Sherlock." In BBC's Sherlock, Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) does the same thing in "A Study in Pink" (ep. 1.1) to gather further details regarding the death of the victim.

In the morgue, Dean holds up the hand of the dead body to show the wedding ring. When medical examiner staff receive a body they remove all of the clothing and personal effects so an autopsy can be performed. Since the clothing had been removed from the body, the staff would have removed the wedding ring also.
posted by orange swan (5 comments total)
 
Amelia's dad was SUCH an asshole. Maybe don't be a dick to someone you don't actually know anything bad about even if he is moving in with your daughter very soon after meeting her, hmm?

How often does the military declare someone dead by mistake these days? It seems to me they would need some kind of definitive evidence for that, and otherwise the combatant's status would be "missing in action".

The irony of Amelia and Sam's situation is that they were drawn together through grief over two people who weren't dead only, um, misplaced.

Castiel does make a great third wheel. He may not know how to act like an FBI agent, but he has skills Sam and Dean can only dream of.

The freeze frame and captions for Dean and the robber doctor were hilarious.

Nice to see Mike Farrell pop up in this episode.
posted by orange swan at 6:35 AM on October 17, 2021 [1 favorite]


If you think something is going to explode (like your boyfriend’s heart) shut you mouth and stop screaming if you don’t want to be tasting human organs or blood.

I think Cas being a hunter makes perfect sense. He’s got the skills, he understands the players and what else is he going to do? I don’t think the boys should be so quick to pooh-pooh him. Sure, he’s got a lot to learn about dealing with people, but he does learn and he’s adaptable. It’s not the worst idea out there.
posted by sardonyx at 9:37 AM on October 17, 2021


This was really silly, especially Dean's one liners, but that helped leaven the grimness of the theme of age-related dementia.

Farrell sounds like a really standup person; co-chair of Human Rights Watch, board member of the Cult Awareness Network, president of Death Penalty Focus, helping refugees in El Salvadore. And winning a PETA Humanitarian Award - without being part of PETA.

My hesitancy over Cas identifying as a hunter is - he's an angel, and there's that slippery slope of what actually defines a "monster" given his history of boutique and personal smiting of personages that we consider - no matter how rightly - as human monsters.

But I liked the humanism of Cas staying behind with Fred Jones after "gentling" him.
posted by porpoise at 5:22 PM on October 17, 2021


As a retcon I don't love Sam and Dean growing up familiar with Uncle Psychokinetic, I think a lot of the first few seasons work because the world gets so much weirder the more they learn about it and eight years ago reading someone's mind or seeing the future was way high up on their weirdness scale. But I guess that let the story just take the premise of reality-warping cartoon-flavored dementia and get on with it.

I prefer Castiel as an angel who wants to be an angel, and thinks of that as being really fundamentally different from a human, even if he sometimes lives as as a human and deeply loves and admires individual humans and humanity as a whole. That said, Dean is having a legit great time and the grumping at Castiel if anything enhances the experience.

Amelia's dad is needlessly aggro, as a person but also as a functional part of the narrative. But he makes explicit in a way Amelia doesn't that, even to a biased casual observer, whatever it was that used to let Sam blend in with normal people is maxed way out, maybe forever, and he's not only messed up but now messed up in a way that regular people can tell.

The Coyote Gospel is way too obscure a reference for this show but I can imagine Castiel also vibing with Wile E. Coyote as one whose remote, unfathomable creator granted him perfect clarity of focus and then sent into the wilderness to suffer an endless cycle of death and resurrection for the entertainment of a remote, unfathomable audience.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:30 PM on October 17, 2021 [3 favorites]


You're right that angelic Castiel is the best version of himself, but if he's having a crisis of faith and identity, then hunting makes a lot of sense. It's also the part of humanity he knows best just through his interactions with Sam and Dean, so he would naturally gravitate towards that.
posted by sardonyx at 10:33 AM on October 18, 2021 [1 favorite]


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