Supernatural -- "Playthings" -- 01/18/07
 

"Playthings"

Originally Aired: January 18, 2007

Just a fair episode, IMO, although the house itself was great. Amazing that it took Sam so long to break through what was essentially just glass (I know he has the injured hand and all - but come on!)

BTW, shouldn't the old lady have remained "old" as a ghost?

Anakkin Skywalker didn't.

A decent episode, if rather "The Shining" heavy in it's influence ("for ever ... and ever ... and ever ... ").

Only if you just watch the "Special Edition" DVDs (in which "Special" is the other meaning of the word).

Yeah, I noticed that too. (But I do have to admit that's a great source to emulate because, IMO, that's the scariest scene in that entire movie!)

They even had the lit up bar like The Shining, even though it clashed with the decor of the rest of the hotel.

High points: Several great lines, I cracked up when Dean talked about Sam liking to dress up his doll collection. And the backwards head dude with his twitching jaw.

Low points: Drunk Sam scene and the bulletproof glass door. I really didn't buy Sam's drunken Oscar Schindler routine. Just show us Evil Ava already so we can get a little juice behind this Sam Could Turn Evil!! storyline.

oh, another highlight was Dean's making fun of Sam's cliche "angst and droopy music and staring out the rainy windows" routine.

My thought is Maggie had some magical control over the poolhouse, which is why it was much harder to break the glass and bust open the door. When she started really drowning the girl, maybe her concentration waivered enough so they could both get in.

Correct. Her attention was shifted by her sister in the hotel's call. When she disappeared to go to her, everyone was able to get into the pool house. I mean you don't think the little girl locked the door behind herself, do you? That makes no sense.

Yeah, I thought they made it pretty clear that the ghost girl was keeping Sam and Dean out. The second she disappeared, they came crashing through the glass with no problem.

There were a lot of homage's to The Shining -- the movie in particular. Too many to be anything other than on purpose. Another thing was that they were staying in room 237 (where the ghost in the tub was in the movie; though it was room 217 in the book).

Thos.

Yeah, it was changed in movie version of The Shining because the hotel they filmed in actually had a room 217 and the hotel owners were afraid that no one would want to stay in that room again after the movie came out, so they asked Kubrick to change it to a room number they didn't have, and the number 237 was chosen instead.

I find picking out the influences is a large part of the fun of this show.