Supernatural: Remember the Titans
October 25, 2021 5:56 AM - Season 8, Episode 16 - Subscribe
Sam and Dean come across a mysterious man who dies once every day.
Quotes
Sam: So you know who this is, Dean, walking us to our death?
Dean: Don't know. Don't care.
Sam: It's *our* God, Artemis -- the goddess of hunters.
Dean: Oh, that's fascinating.
Sam: See, she's who we'd pray to for courage when hunting the Gorgon or the Minotaur. Of course, she's not really worship-worthy anymore, uh, having lost a step and all.
Artemis: [slams them against a wall] The hell I have.
Dean: Really Sam? Trash-talking a God? Seriously?
Sam: Dean, what do we know of that has Jason Bourne fighting skills, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?
Dean: I don't know... you?
Sam: All you do is die? What's that supposed to mean?
Shane: Once a day, for as long as I can remember. After a few hours, I'm back.
Dean: What are you, like a real-life Kenny?
Shane: Who?
Dean: [about to track down a supposed zombie] If things go all Dawn of the Dead on us, you'll be our first call.
Deputy Jack Spradun: Boys... Aim for the head.
Dean: Why don't you just tell us what you saw?
Deputy Jack Spradun: Article said it all -- dead as dog poop, guts pecked out, face frozen. People don't walk away from that. Zombies do.
Dean: Whatever it was, the guy's dead now, all right? Remember what Bobby said, hmm? "Wood chipper beats everything"? Yeah, well, so does grizzly bear.
Dean: I got to say, I'm a little disappointed.
Sam: Yeah, because you wanted to shoot zombies.
Dean: Damn straight I wanted to shoot some zombies.
Dean: [waiting for Shane to resurrect] I feel like I'm sitting shiva.
Sam: Well, that's not... never mind.
Hayley: We spent the night together, and while we were, you know... he had a heart attack.
Dean: Awkward.
Dean: [researching ways to kill Zeus] Here we go.
Sam: What you got?
Dean: Dragon penis.
Sam: What?
Dean: Ancient Greek hunter by the name of Drakopoolos. Near as I can tell, he was a badass whose name, incidentally, is Greek for--
Sam: No, no, no. I got that.
Hayley: Okay, so Ollie's dad is a Greek God, who has been cursed to die every day by Zeus. And you guys are... Ghostbusters. Am I getting this right?
Dean: Well, you know, due to the fact that your son is currently, albeit temporarily, dead, I'm gonna let that one slide.
Dean: Drakopoolos tangled with Zeus back in the day, and the Men of Letters translated his journal.
Shane: The Men of Letters?
Dean Winchester: It's a secret society. This is actually their lair. [proudly] We're legacies.
Shane, Hayley & Sam: ...
Dean: No big deal.
Hayley: We're hanging our lives on the writings of a dead man who is named after genitalia?
Dean: ... It's a loose translation.
Hayley: [Rolls eyes] Experts.
Dean: You promised to live a long, Clark Griswold life, full of prostate exams and colonoscopies, all right? You're not welshing on that deal, not on my watch. If you die, it's gonna be because of something normal.
Sam: Like a heart attack?
Dean: Exactly. Now eat your burger.
Trivia
Dean comments that Shane is like a real-life Kenny. This is a reference to the show South Park, which features a running gag in which one of the main characters -- Kenny -- is killed off in each episode but returns to life in the next episode.
When the state trooper radios in to report finding the body he uses the unit ID Seven Mary Four. On the 1970s television show CHiPs, Seven Mary Four was the unit ID for Officer Frank Poncherello, played by Erik Estrada.
As Sam and Dean sit by Shane's body in the motel, Dean remarks: "I feel like I'm sitting shiva." A "shiv'a" (Hebrew for "seven") in Judaism is a seven-day mourning period during which the first-degree relatives of the deceased are gathered at one home to mourn and receive visitors who come to comfort them, usually while sitting on low chairs or on the ground (hence "sitting a shiv'a"). But a Jewish shiva starts immediately after burial, and not while the body isn't buried, as it was in this scene.
Sam and Dean use the aliases Bonham and Jones, a reference to John Bonham and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin.
This episode's title is from the 2000 Denzel Washington movie Remember the Titans.
Zeus says to Artemis, "I am your father," which is reminiscent of the famous line in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.
When Shane is seen dead on the side of the road in the beginning as the police car approaches, a bird is seen pecking into his abdomen. This fits in with the character being Prometheus as in the Greek legend, Zeus sent an eagle to eat his liver, which would grow back each night and the next day begin the torture anew.
The boys (and the credits) call Jack a Montana State Trooper, but he drives a car marked "Sheriff" and his uniform also says Sheriff, so he is in fact a Deputy Sheriff.
Quotes
Sam: So you know who this is, Dean, walking us to our death?
Dean: Don't know. Don't care.
Sam: It's *our* God, Artemis -- the goddess of hunters.
Dean: Oh, that's fascinating.
Sam: See, she's who we'd pray to for courage when hunting the Gorgon or the Minotaur. Of course, she's not really worship-worthy anymore, uh, having lost a step and all.
Artemis: [slams them against a wall] The hell I have.
Dean: Really Sam? Trash-talking a God? Seriously?
Sam: Dean, what do we know of that has Jason Bourne fighting skills, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?
Dean: I don't know... you?
Sam: All you do is die? What's that supposed to mean?
Shane: Once a day, for as long as I can remember. After a few hours, I'm back.
Dean: What are you, like a real-life Kenny?
Shane: Who?
Dean: [about to track down a supposed zombie] If things go all Dawn of the Dead on us, you'll be our first call.
Deputy Jack Spradun: Boys... Aim for the head.
Dean: Why don't you just tell us what you saw?
Deputy Jack Spradun: Article said it all -- dead as dog poop, guts pecked out, face frozen. People don't walk away from that. Zombies do.
Dean: Whatever it was, the guy's dead now, all right? Remember what Bobby said, hmm? "Wood chipper beats everything"? Yeah, well, so does grizzly bear.
Dean: I got to say, I'm a little disappointed.
Sam: Yeah, because you wanted to shoot zombies.
Dean: Damn straight I wanted to shoot some zombies.
Dean: [waiting for Shane to resurrect] I feel like I'm sitting shiva.
Sam: Well, that's not... never mind.
Hayley: We spent the night together, and while we were, you know... he had a heart attack.
Dean: Awkward.
Dean: [researching ways to kill Zeus] Here we go.
Sam: What you got?
Dean: Dragon penis.
Sam: What?
Dean: Ancient Greek hunter by the name of Drakopoolos. Near as I can tell, he was a badass whose name, incidentally, is Greek for--
Sam: No, no, no. I got that.
Hayley: Okay, so Ollie's dad is a Greek God, who has been cursed to die every day by Zeus. And you guys are... Ghostbusters. Am I getting this right?
Dean: Well, you know, due to the fact that your son is currently, albeit temporarily, dead, I'm gonna let that one slide.
Dean: Drakopoolos tangled with Zeus back in the day, and the Men of Letters translated his journal.
Shane: The Men of Letters?
Dean Winchester: It's a secret society. This is actually their lair. [proudly] We're legacies.
Shane, Hayley & Sam: ...
Dean: No big deal.
Hayley: We're hanging our lives on the writings of a dead man who is named after genitalia?
Dean: ... It's a loose translation.
Hayley: [Rolls eyes] Experts.
Dean: You promised to live a long, Clark Griswold life, full of prostate exams and colonoscopies, all right? You're not welshing on that deal, not on my watch. If you die, it's gonna be because of something normal.
Sam: Like a heart attack?
Dean: Exactly. Now eat your burger.
Trivia
Dean comments that Shane is like a real-life Kenny. This is a reference to the show South Park, which features a running gag in which one of the main characters -- Kenny -- is killed off in each episode but returns to life in the next episode.
When the state trooper radios in to report finding the body he uses the unit ID Seven Mary Four. On the 1970s television show CHiPs, Seven Mary Four was the unit ID for Officer Frank Poncherello, played by Erik Estrada.
As Sam and Dean sit by Shane's body in the motel, Dean remarks: "I feel like I'm sitting shiva." A "shiv'a" (Hebrew for "seven") in Judaism is a seven-day mourning period during which the first-degree relatives of the deceased are gathered at one home to mourn and receive visitors who come to comfort them, usually while sitting on low chairs or on the ground (hence "sitting a shiv'a"). But a Jewish shiva starts immediately after burial, and not while the body isn't buried, as it was in this scene.
Sam and Dean use the aliases Bonham and Jones, a reference to John Bonham and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin.
This episode's title is from the 2000 Denzel Washington movie Remember the Titans.
Zeus says to Artemis, "I am your father," which is reminiscent of the famous line in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back.
When Shane is seen dead on the side of the road in the beginning as the police car approaches, a bird is seen pecking into his abdomen. This fits in with the character being Prometheus as in the Greek legend, Zeus sent an eagle to eat his liver, which would grow back each night and the next day begin the torture anew.
The boys (and the credits) call Jack a Montana State Trooper, but he drives a car marked "Sheriff" and his uniform also says Sheriff, so he is in fact a Deputy Sheriff.
This was a bad episode. Or an episode that was lacking something, like maybe logic. It just seemed like they went from not having a clue who Josh Groban was to firmly believing he was Prometheus, without a lot of really good evidence. Yes, there was the bird at his entrails thing, but that’s almost to be expected if a body is out overnight: birds and animals will eat it. I really wasn’t buying the relationship between Artemis and Prometheus. The transferred curse and the means of breaking it seemed like another leap in logic that didn’t make a lot of sense. The whole thing just didn’t work for me, although I did kind of like the trooper who was convinced it was zombies.
posted by sardonyx at 7:08 AM on October 25, 2021
posted by sardonyx at 7:08 AM on October 25, 2021
I do not ask a lot of this show but what exactly did Sam find on his computer in ten minutes that let him go “yeah no not a zombie actually that’s the literal Prometheus and he’s definitely saved the world and does not eat people like every other god we’ve ever met.” I get they had to dredge up stakes from somewhere but they might as well have been fighting over a tasty sandwich for all the personality the kid gets. Everyone treating Shane (who I’m definitely calling Josh Groban now, thank you) like he literally saved the world by literally stealing fire from Zeus, therefore ending the reign of the Olympians so Zeus hates him, is just. VERY bizarre. It’s very bizarre! Also if we’re all taking Greek myths as factual history all of a sudden, a plan predicated on Zeus doing *their* idea of the right thing is not smart.
The bird eating his liver in the road was a pretty good visual.
Fulgurite does sound like a thing that should be rare and expensive. Maybe Sam and Dean don’t need it enough to know it’s not, I imagine whoever told them otherwise was trying to sell them some fulgurite. But Dean was pretty sad to miss his chance to heist lightning sand from a mansion again.
Sam’s whole thing with Artemis, and Dean’s face journey while he waits to find out if Sam is pulling this out of his ass and/or getting them killed, is a ludicrous stretch but pretty enjoyable to watch.
“Eat that burger so you can die of a heart attack someday you dick” is the kind of affection between them that does, actually, come across as quite sweet.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:25 AM on October 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
The bird eating his liver in the road was a pretty good visual.
Fulgurite does sound like a thing that should be rare and expensive. Maybe Sam and Dean don’t need it enough to know it’s not, I imagine whoever told them otherwise was trying to sell them some fulgurite. But Dean was pretty sad to miss his chance to heist lightning sand from a mansion again.
Sam’s whole thing with Artemis, and Dean’s face journey while he waits to find out if Sam is pulling this out of his ass and/or getting them killed, is a ludicrous stretch but pretty enjoyable to watch.
“Eat that burger so you can die of a heart attack someday you dick” is the kind of affection between them that does, actually, come across as quite sweet.
posted by jameaterblues at 7:25 AM on October 25, 2021 [2 favorites]
The bird eating his liver
Traditionally, yeah, it's an eagle eating Prometheus' liver - the interesting detail there is that it's explicit that it's only part of his liver - and it would grow back, and the eagle would return the next day.
The human liver is kind of neat; you can cut out 80% of it (for example, for a transplant) and it will grow back up to 80% of its original volume/ function. Not entirely sure how many times you can repeat that, though. The ancient Greeks seemed to have been aware of the liver's regenerative abilities.
Kudos for the show getting the location of the liver correct.
That MoL lighted-up world-desk would be awesome for a game of Risk.
John Reardon (Shane) is a good looking dude.
posted by porpoise at 6:31 PM on October 25, 2021
Traditionally, yeah, it's an eagle eating Prometheus' liver - the interesting detail there is that it's explicit that it's only part of his liver - and it would grow back, and the eagle would return the next day.
The human liver is kind of neat; you can cut out 80% of it (for example, for a transplant) and it will grow back up to 80% of its original volume/ function. Not entirely sure how many times you can repeat that, though. The ancient Greeks seemed to have been aware of the liver's regenerative abilities.
Kudos for the show getting the location of the liver correct.
That MoL lighted-up world-desk would be awesome for a game of Risk.
John Reardon (Shane) is a good looking dude.
posted by porpoise at 6:31 PM on October 25, 2021
Agreed that the whole "this is definitely Prometheus" narrative did not land. When Josh Groban said "it's the only thing that makes sense!" it seemed like he was trying to convince the viewers of that, because it was easier to just say that than to actually make it the only thing that made sense.
posted by solotoro at 9:20 PM on August 3, 2023
posted by solotoro at 9:20 PM on August 3, 2023
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Nice comedic moment with the sheriff believing Shayne was a zombie while Sam and Dean pretend they don't believe that, even though they totally do.
Hayley letting Zeus out of his trap was Not Smart.
Poor little Oliver's going to need some serious counselling, though I don't know what counsellor he's going to get who wouldn't diagnose him as having schizophrenia once they hear what he has to say.
posted by orange swan at 5:58 AM on October 25, 2021