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Supernatural (opens in new tab) Season Eight Episode Sixteen “Remember The Titans” TV REVIEW
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Episode 8.16
Writer: Daniel Loflin
Director: Steve Boyum
THE ONE WHERE The brothers stumble across the curious case of the Greek Titan Prometheus.
VERDICT The gods haven’t had much of a presence on Supernatural of late so their return here, in a story that filters an ancient fable through a modern lens, is a welcome treat.
It’s the story of Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods for humanity, complete with liver-pecking eagles and daily resurrections. Instead of crafting men from clay, however, we get a hefty dollop of family drama, with Shane’s son inheriting his father’s curse and his wife on hand to triple the tragedy.
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From the god-highlighting pre-credit montage to grisly sight of Shane having his insides made outsides by a hungry bird on the roadside, the episode leaves plenty of clues as to Shane’s true identity, but somehow it still took me by surprise. It’s one of those great ideas that you can’t quite believe no-one has done before, and even though it replaces the Caucasus Mountains with a decidedly less epic string of morgues, motel rooms and generic warehouses it feels suitably legendary.
This is helped by the fact that it’s one of those rare episodes where the Winchesters don’t actually do anything. They pull Shane out of a morgue and help summon Zeus, but otherwise their role is to observe as the Titans have at it. In what little screentime they have, Zeus and Artemis make a disproportionately large impression. Artemis because of that striking castsuit (and an even more striking fringe) and Zeus because he’s an utter git. Shame his death feels a little anti-climactic, would have loved to see him suffer!
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Despite a generally dour tone, unlike last week’s episode it’s driven by a script with flair (Dragon Penis, anyone?) and some season-best work by composer Jay Gruska (the ominous tones that play as Sam spits blood in the sink at the start of the episode is shiver-inducing stuff). Heart-wrenching closing monlogues are par-for-the-course on Supernatural now, but Jensen Ackles still manages to impress with this week’s impassioned plea. An episode worth remembering.
DEAN WISECRACKING
Sam: “Uhh… we need to think. Dean, what do we know of that has…uh, Jason Bourne fighting skills, dies a lot, and has a history with violent women?
Dean: “I don’t know – you?”
NITPICK Prometheus doesn’t remember Artemis so they fight to the death and she declares herself his “worst enemy”? Seems a little harsh, unless she was simply keeping up appearances for daddy.
SAM’S HANGDOG EXPRESSION OF THE WEEK
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IT’S WOSSISNAME! Fans of Canadian-TV may recognise John Reardon (Prometheus) as the husband of main character Kiera Cameron in Continuum .
TITLE TRIVIA Remember The Titans is the name of a 2000 American Football film starring Denzel Washington, sadly featuring zero Greek gods.
THE SMALL PRINT In the newspaper featuring the article about Shane (probably Weekly World News ) there’s a story below about a polar bear attacking a nuclear submarine at the North Pole. THAT EPISODE NEXT WEEK PLEASE.
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BEHIND THE SCENES Twitter comes good again, this week writer Daniel Loflin offers up this tidbit:
Factoid: @ jarpad & I butchered several pronunciations of “Herodotus” before this video saved us: youtube.com/watch?v=BYCtXS… #RememberTheTitans March 1, 2013
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BEST LINE Was obviously Dean’s final plea to Cas, but that’s too long to repeat here so we’ve gone for:
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.”
Jordan Farley (opens in new tab)
Read all our Supernatural Season Eight reviews so far here. (opens in new tab)
Jayne Nelson on Supernatural’s season eight renaissance. (opens in new tab)
