Supernatural: Atomic Monsters
November 7, 2019 7:12 PM - Season 15, Episode 4 - Subscribe

Sam and Dean investigate the mysterious death of a girl and the disappearance of another.
posted by oh yeah! (12 comments total)
 
lol Meat Man
posted by numaner at 11:23 AM on November 8, 2019 [1 favorite]


Trivia:
- Alison Araya, who plays Vice Principal Bailey, previously played Jolene in 6.11 Appointment in Samarra.
- Becky's Sam and Dean dolls appear to be the same ones Crowley received for Christmas in Rowena's nightmare in 11.10 The Devil in the Details.
- Jensen with stunt coordinator Rob Hayter working out moves for a fight scene.

per this Variety article:
- This was Jensen Ackle's sixth and final time directing an episode of Supernatural.
- Ty Olsson's appearance as Benny at the start of the episode was not originally scripted, and was suggested at the behest of Jensen.
- The song playing over the climax is "Sounds of Someday" by Jensen Acklles' band, Radio Company. That's Jensen singing.
posted by numaner at 12:19 PM on November 8, 2019


I wish they hadn't switched to Thursdays because it's really disorienting ruminating over how much Chuck is a dick while getting ready for Shabbat. Because seriously, Chuck is such is a dick. I can see his invisible fedora.

I am really disappointed they skipped Halloween though. One, because Dean said last season that they were going to go all out next year and two, because I had completely forgotten what had happened to Belphegor and had to look it up when I saw that Alex Calvert wasn't in the credits.
posted by Ruki at 2:29 PM on November 8, 2019


When I saw that they were doing an episode at Beaverdale High with a brunette named Veronica I was worried we were in for a cheesy Riverdale parody, but fortunately they didn't go down that road. I also thought the mascot might be the monster, which was a good red herring when you had those pushy parents around doing everything but wearing shirts that said WE ARE THIS WEEK'S BADDIES.

Some really interesting meta stuff with Chuck and Becky. (When he was trying to talk up the Leviathans it felt like the show conceding that while the Leviathans looked cool they were ultimately not that great.) Lately Chuck had been regressing into the lovable, sad sack shnook we thought we knew, but here we were reminded that he has this whole other side. Man, he REALLY doesn't handle criticism well! It sounds like he was all set to give Sam and Dean a happy ending of sorts, until Becky said it needed a little jeopardy and he turned into Mr. Scary real quick. They did take pains to point out that Becky and her family aren't dead, that Chuck just sent them away somehow, so hopefully they'll come back when all the craziness is over.

Hasn't the show established that if Chuck dies, the universe dies? If that's the case I don't know how our guys can beat him. Maybe they'll reach some understanding with him... although I kind of doubt it. Maybe they'll have to banish him to some void, like what happened to Chuck's sister. Maybe Amara will take over as the new God? I don't know. It's weird to make your big bad the guy who built the universe and keeps it running. I have a feeling this all ends with Chuck suffering a pretty ghastly defeat, dying or being banished or something, but I don't know how that could work.

I also have a feeling it ends with normal people finally finding out about the monsters. The show's been making vague swings in that direction for a while. If the monsters are common knowledge, it's not really Sam and Dean's burden to fight this big secret fight anymore. My bet would be that Dean gives up monster hunting to tend a bar and Sam continues hunting, like in that Michael visions last season. It'd be a nice flip from how the show started, with Dean leading a normal life and Sam embracing the "family business."

What was up with Sam's demonic dream? (Hey, Benny!) Was that a glimpse of an alternate universe where he was possessed by Lucifer? It did have a "dark timeline" feeling, but Sam's gone evil once or twice over the course of the series and I was a little confused about what we were seeing there.

I raised an eyebrow when Sam and Dean were talking about the vampire kid's parents and they said they would have done the same thing for Jack. They loved Jack, but if he'd become a vampire I really doubt they would have actually brought him teenage girls to feast on!

I didn't know that Ackles was directing, or that he had a band. The direction seemed fine and the song was inoffensive enough that it barely registered with me, but dude, if you're directing the show you're starring in, don't put a song from your band in there. C'mon!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:25 AM on November 9, 2019


I don't even remember a band song?

Wow, Becky has vastly improved like WHOA. I was so impressed by her shaping up....and then Chuck zapped her and her family into Janet's void or whatever. OUUUUUUUUUUUCH.

I thought the twist was going to be that Chuck was writing the current case that Sam and Dean were going on. I guess not though.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:31 AM on November 9, 2019


What was up with Sam's demonic dream?

Well, it did give Ackles an excuse to showcase Dean channeling John Wick. Though I didn't hate it.
posted by Pryde at 5:49 PM on November 9, 2019


I'm wondering if this one will make more sense later in the season, because I agree, there were a bunch of elements here that seemed cool that don't totally make sense on their own yet. I guess Sam's dream could be there to show the stuff he says out loud at the end, that it's one thing to "be free" and another to be able to sleep without vivid dreams about going crazy on demon blood and murdering your brother. But I dunno, and anyway, it wouldn't explain the voiceover.

For all the indistinguishable I Get It talks we've seen Sam and Dean have over the years, that one felt like a conversation they couldn't have had a few years ago. I could see a case that Chuck and Sam's shared bullet wound is on some subconscious level telling Sam they're still very much not safe, but even if that's true, it feels real to where Sam's been at for a couple seasons that he's kind of out of juice emotionally, and that's always looked different on him than Dean.

We already know that Chuck has inflicted unimaginable horrors on reality after reality for his own entertainment, so it's hard to just now be like "oh I guess Chuck is really bad." But dropping in to mooch some free emotional labor off his ex and then terrorize her in her living room because he didn't like her feedback on his fanfic is really doing wonders to make him a stone cold scumbag too. His wrath is so petty.

I hope Davy Perez gets in another episode or two this year, his stories always feel like they bring something new.
posted by jameaterblues at 8:05 PM on November 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


Does anyone understand the meaning of the episode title? The only thing I could come up with is 'Atomic Monsters' being some kind of pun on 'Nuclear Family'
posted by oh yeah! at 8:12 PM on November 11, 2019


@ohyeah I was JUST coming back to ask that. Normally the titles are either totally straightforward or a pop culture reference I don't recognize, but I got nothing here.

(I don't know if you'd properly call "Back and to the Future" a pun or a mashup or even what it really means in context, but it's such a bizarre pairing of references that I adored it anyway.)
posted by jameaterblues at 8:16 PM on November 11, 2019


The wiki says that is the reference. It's a bit of a stretch but it works.
posted by numaner at 1:35 PM on November 12, 2019


Quotes

Dean: Why don’t you eat something? You’ll feel better.
Sam: Dean, you know I don’t eat –
Dean: It’s veggie bacon.
Sam: What?
Dean: You’ve been asking for it.
Sam: Yeah. But every time I ask for it, you say, and I’m quoting, “I don’t want any of that hippie Sarah McLachlan grass-eater crap in the Meat Man’s kitchen”. Which, by the way, for what it’s worth, you got to stop calling yourself "The Meat Man". It doesn’t mean what you think it means.
Dean: Yeah it does!

Sam: [spits out bacon] That's real bacon, Dean.
Dean: You're damn right it is. Meat Man!

Trivia

Jensen Ackles coordinated the beginning fight scene. After posting a video on Instagram of himself and a stunt man practicing a move in the scene, he wrote, "Directing this fight was a highlight for me."

Anne Marie DeLuise and Andrew Airlie, the Whitmans, also played Larry and Joanie Pike in the episode "Bugs" in 2005. Anne Marie DeLuise is married to director Peter DeLuise and is an in-law to the Deluise acting family: Dom DeLuise (father), David DeLuise, and Michael DeLuise (brothers)

AU, as in AU fan Fiction, is short for Alternative Universe.

Beaverdale High School is the same location used for Smallville High on Smallville which Jensen Ackles starred on during Season 4. The Exterior is Templeton Secondary School at 727 Templeton in East Vancouver.

Beaverdale High School could be a reference to Jim Beaver, the actor who plays Bobby. There is no town called Beaverdale nor a high school named Beaverdale High in Iowa, though there is a neighborhood called Beaverdale in the city of Des Moines, Iowa.

In one scene, the Impala drives through the Iowa countryside with a farm in the background and a sign painted on the side of the barn that reads "Michigan's Finest Livestock".

Becky Rosen shows up in this episode eight years after the episode where she drugs Sam and gets him to marry her while under the influence. In this one, she is now married with children, and one of the kids is 11 years old, which seems a little improbable, although she might be their stepmother.
posted by orange swan at 1:20 PM on April 21, 2022


The Radio Company song on the soundtrack for this episode was "Sounds of Someday". This seems like as good as any a thread to mention that Jensen Ackles has recorded two albums with Steve Carlson. They're... not bad. I think the lyrics could maybe have done with a little polishing, but the sound reminds me of Blue Rodeo's and Ackles has a very decent voice with a surprising upper range and good breath control.

If you want to give Ackles' music a listen, here are some links:

Radio Company Volume 1;
Radio Company Volume 2;
his cover of "Simple Man";
his cover of "Angeles"; and
a cute duet with his daughter JJ Ackles.

There are lots of videos of Ackles singing at fan conventions on YouTube, but the sound quality is usually really poor, so I won't bother linking to any of them.

I had to look up what "meat man" means, and for the benefit of anyone else who also doesn't know, it's a slang term for a man with a big dick.

It was rather nice to see Becky again, and see that though she is still very much a part of the Supernatural fandom, she is, or um, was partaking in it in a much more balanced way, as a writer and crafter and businessperson, and seems to be in a good place psychologically.

And Chuck is a loser/scary ex who turns to Becky to get her to solve her problems for him, because of course he is.

If that kid had known that vampires could be turned back before they drink human blood, he could have been saved. So tragic. But his parents are insane.

Sam's nightmare was really awful! And he still thinks about Jessica, fifteen years after her death. I would not want to be in that guy's head.
posted by orange swan at 1:36 PM on April 21, 2022


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