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2Previous: Recap/SupernaturalS04E07ItsTheGreatPumpkinSamWinchester\
3Next: Recap/SupernaturalS04E09IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer]
4
5'''[[Recap/{{Supernatural}} Recap]] of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'''''\
6'''Season 4, Episode 8:'''
7
8!Wishful Thinking
9
10->'''Wesley:''' Aren't you the guys from the Health Department?
11->'''Sam:''' Yeah. And florists on the side.
12->'''Dean:''' Plus FBI. And on Thursdays, we're teddy bear doctors.
13
14Written by Ben Edlund.
15
16Directed by Robert Singer.
17
18Air Date: November 6, 2008.
19
20Sam and Dean investigate [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concrete,_Washington Concrete, Washington]], where the wishing well really works. A teddy bear comes to life, a boy who is always bullied gets SuperStrength, someone wins the lottery, and the town geek gets a hot girlfriend. The brothers realize that while everyone is happy now, the end result will be disastrous. They find that the cause of the wishes is a magic coin that causes a fountain to become a real wishing well and that the only way to reverse the wishes is for the person who put the coin there to remove it.
21
22!!Body count
23For this episode = EverybodyLives.
24
25For the series so far = At least 276 humans (of which 5 were witches), 15 demons, 25 ghosts, 10 vampires, 6 changelings, 3 gods, 3 shapeshifters, 2 werewolves, 1 crocotta, 1 djinn, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shtriga, 1 wendigo, 3 zombies, 1 rugaru, and 1 dog.
26
27!Tropes
28------------
29* ArbitrarySkepticism: Every hunter worth their salt knows Bigfoot is a hoax.
30* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Todd uses his super strength to push over the SUV that his bullies have sought refuge in. Even with super strength, he's still just a little kid who weighs maybe 70 pounds. The SUV weighs 5000+ pounds, easy. In reality, without being properly braced he would have just pushed himself away from the vehicle. Even with support, his arms would have just punched through the sides of the SUV, since the panels can't take that kind of pressure.
31* AteHisGun[=/=]DrivenToSuicide: Poor teddy.
32* BadassBoast
33-->'''Dean''': If you don't stop it, something bad's gonna happen.
34-->'''Sam''': Something bad...''[[[ImpliedDeathThreat draws his pistol]]]''...like us.
35* BavarianFireDrill: This is their standard MO, but Sam and Dean really lay it on thick when pretending to be from the health department.
36* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The point of the episode. Dean even quotes the maxim to Wes when they're trying to convince him to end the curse.
37* BigEater: Given the chance to wish for anything, Dean picks a foot-long Italian sub with jalapeño.
38* BigWhy: The Toys/TeddyBear that Audrey brought to life tries to kill himself by [[AteHisGun blasting his head off with a shotgun]] and discovers that it won't kill him. Cue "WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHY?!"
39* BlatantLies:
40** According to Sam and Dean, they are teddy bear doctors, and Audrey's teddy bear has, uh, Lollipop Disease.
41** On a more serious note, Dean is obviously having a nightmare and when Sam wakes him up, his first act is to down a slug of liquor straight from the bottle. Despite this, he acts as if nothing is wrong and says he is "tan, rested, and ready." Sam calls him out on his obvious front.
42* BoltOfDivineRetribution: Sam is unexpectedly killed by a bolt of lightning from the sky - turns out [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Hope]] wished for his death to keep Wes from ending their "love."
43* BreatherEpisode
44* ComesGreatResponsibility: Dean starts quoting the trope to Todd, but he's interrupted by being PunchedAcrossTheRoom.
45* CuteBruiser: Todd.
46* DisneyDeath: Sam
47* DoubleStandardRapeSciFi: Wes basically brainwashes Hope Lynn into loving him, but it's treated more as "how the hell did she end up with this guy?" than rape.
48* DrowningMySorrows[=/=]TheAlcoholic: The teddy bear.
49** Sam notes that Dean has been hitting the bottle more than usual too.
50* EmbarrassinglyPainfulSunburn: Audrey's parents come back from vacation in Bali horribly sunburned.
51* EverybodyLives: One of the very few episodes where nobody dies.
52* TheFoodPoisoningIncident: The catch to using the wishing coin is that all the wishes eventually have unforeseen consequences. Dean's wish for an Italian sub results in him having really bad food poisoning complete with [[VomitDiscretionShot puking his guts out]].
53* GiveGeeksAChance: Wes' wish forces Hope Lynn to do this.
54* GoryDiscretionShot: {{Subverted|Trope}} with the teddy bear's attempted suicide. He puts the gun in his mouth, the camera pans to the wall behind him, and then...there's a cloud of stuffing, because he's a teddy bear, after all.
55* GrotesqueCute: The [[DrowningMySorrows hard-drinking]] [[DrivenToSuicide suicidal]] animated teddy bear.
56* ICannotSelfTerminate[=/=]WhoWantsToLiveForever: After the teddy bear [[AteHisGun tries to commit suicide]], he discovers that being made of stuffing and felt means this isn't an option.
57* JackassGenie: The wishing well functions as this, granting wishes that are precisely what everyone wants, but that eventually turn sour.
58* KarmaHoudini: While admittedly Todd was just a bullied kid who probably didn't know better, he still attacks and terrifies the other children, punches and then outright ''tries to kill'' Dean (although he might have stopped of his own volition if the curse hadn't broken), and receives no punishment or retribution for his actions. Instead, Dean takes his attempted murder in stride and even helps Todd out with the bullies.
59* [[KneelBeforeZod Kneel Before Todd!]]
60* LargeHam: Todd and the teddy bear.
61-->'''Teddy bear:''' WHHHHHHHYYYYYYY????!!!
62* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: The "book" Sam claims he's "working" on? Its "working title" is ''[[TitleDrop Supernatural]]''.
63* LivingToys: Due to Audrey's wish.
64* MoodDissonance
65-->'''Teddy bear:''' It is a ''terrible'' world! Why am I here?
66-->'''Audrey:''' For tea parties!
67* NeckLift: Todd to Dean, only Todd is a lot shorter so he just chokes him.
68* NeverWinTheLottery: The lottery winner turns out to have a fake ticket after the wishing well is deactivated.
69* NonProtagonistResolver: With Sam dead and Dean some distance away being trounced by a super-powered eight year-old, it falls to Wes to realize the true consequences of his selfish wish and choose to remove the coin from the fountain. Though the brothers threatened him about reversing the wishes and did their best to talk him into it, Wes makes the decision on his own after seeing what Hope has become under the wish's influence.
70* ParentalNeglect: Audrey's parents wish themselves to Bali, leaving their daughter behind.
71* PowerPerversionPotential: The invisible kid in the women's shower.
72* RunningGag: The magazine Audrey drops is ''Busty Asian Beauties''.
73* SatelliteLoveInterest: Deconstructed. Wes uses a magic coin he inherited to create a wishing well, so he can make Hope Lynn (whom he's been in love with since high school, but who is oblivious to him) love him over anything else. At first, he's happy with the new situation, but eventually gets disheartened from the fact that she literally has no personality or needs of her own other than pleasing and loving him, even killing others for him to maintain their "love".
74* SeenItAll: Subverted. Sam and Dean clearly ''think'' they're this, but the giant living teddy bear shocks even them.
75* ShoutOut
76** "[[Film/ForrestGump Run, Forrest, run]]!"
77** "[[ComicBook/SpiderMan With great power comes great respo--ow!]]"
78** "Is this what Film/HarryAndTheHendersons do?
79** "[[Film/SupermanII Kneel before Todd]]!"
80** Subverted with the opening scene, which appears to be working up to a ''Film/HollowMan''-like attack on a woman by an invisible man, but quickly falls into BlackComedy.
81** Someone who wished himself invisible getting hit by traffic also happened in ''Series/TheXFiles''.
82* ShowerScene: The episode opens with a woman in the shower being spied on by what appears to be a ghost, but later turns out to be merely an invisible horny teenager.
83* ShutUpKirk[=/=]TalkToTheFist: The first time Dean tries to talk Todd out of crushing the bullies, the kid sends him flying.
84* SmolderingShoes: After Sam gets struck by lightning.
85* SoMuchForStealth: The invisible boy is revealed when the showering woman tosses a towel and it lands on his head.
86* StickyFingers: Dean helps himself to a flask in the liquor store.
87* StunnedSilence: Sam and Dean's reaction to seeing a giant talking teddy bear drinking booze.
88* SuicideAsComedy: Poor Teddy.
89* VisibleInvisibility: The footsteps of the invisible kid are visible on the floor.
90* WishingWell: And it works a little too [[{{Pun}} well]].
91* WrongBathroomIncident: The boys go to a town to investigate the apparent haunting of the women's locker room of a gym [[ChivalrousPervert (to Dean's delight)]]. In fact, the town is afflicted by a working wishing well, and people are being none too careful about what they wish for. The locker room "haunting" is actually a high school kid who [[PowerPerversionPotential wished he could turn invisible so he could spy on women in the shower]].

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