5.11 Sam, Interrupted

               Sam and Dean hear about a monster that has been attacking people in a mental hospital, they decide to check themselves in by telling their real stories which of course sound absurd. An old friend of their dad’s is there, Martin, and helps them figure out the monster is a wraith. The boys think they have the wraith pinned as one of the doctors but after attacking they realize it is not the wraith. It ends up being Nurse Foreman. Dean kills her and the brothers escape the mental hospital.

                This monster-of-the-week episode strays from the storyline of season five but it hones in on Sam and Dean facing their own demons. The writing in this episode has a lot of comedy intertwined within it. One of the most comical parts about this episode was the fact that the boys used their real stories to get admitted into the psychiatric facility and of course it worked. It is also interesting to see how Dean has to go someplace to talk about his feelings since he is not used to dealing with that. Dr. Cartwright (a figment of his imagination) bashes him about Ellen and Jo dying telling him it was his fault, telling him that he could not even kill the devil, he could not stop Sam from killing Lillith, and the fact that he broke the first seal. But since it is just Dean imagining her, which means that those are all things that he believes about himself. A lot more of Dean and his inner thoughts is revealed in this episode. As to Sam, he is used to sharing his feelings but he finally shared that he is angry all the time. This could be an explanation for a lot of things but could also bring up more issues.

                The directing in this episode gave way for Sam and Dean to be seen in a new light. The brothers losing their minds is something that had never occurred before and it is shown that without them the monsters would freely roam around causing chaos. It is eye caching when at the end Sam is tied up on the bed, there is a sense of parallelism to season four episode twenty-one “When The Levee Breaks”, when Sam is also tied up in a bed and in the middle of the room because he cannot be controlled otherwise.

                The acting was well done, but the actress that played the wraith had a look on her face that kind of gave her away from the beginning. It was very interesting to see both Sam and Dean lose their minds even if it was for just part of one episode. Seeing Dean pretend to be crazy to get out of trouble and Sam being drugged were also quite funny scenes. It would have been interesting to see Martin get more involved with the boys or for Sam to have an existential crisis like Dean had.

                This episode was more of a break from the storyline of the season so it does not quite fit in, but it helps the audience get a glimpse at what is going on underneath the tough facades Sam and Dean both put forth. The answer that Dean gave to Sam about his anger was quite underwhelming and it will be interesting to see if it comes into play later on in the season maybe with Sam not being able to control his rage.