Recap of Supernatural
Season 6, Episode 6
You Can't Handle The Truth
Dean: I could've died! I could've killed Ben.
Sam: And that should stop me cold. But I — I just don't feel it.
Dean: You what?
Sam: Ever since I came back, I am a-a better hunter than I've ever been! Nothing scares me anymore! 'Cause I can't feel it. I don't know what's wrong with me. I think... I need help.
Story by David Reed, Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder; teleplay by Eric Charmelo and Nicole Snyder.
Directed by Jan Eliasberg.
Air Date: October 29, 2010.
When several people kill themselves under strange circumstances, Sam and Dean discover that they were driven insane by the Goddess of Truth, who cursed them to be told the truth against their will. However, when the brothers track down the goddess, Veritas, she uses her powers on Dean.
Body Count:
For this episode = 3 humans and 1 god.For the series so far = At least 427 humans (of which 6 were witches), 74 demons, 33 ghosts, 21 vampires, 19 zombies, 14 gods, 11 angels, 9 hellhounds, 6 changelings, 4 shapeshifters, 3 djinn, 2 ghouls, 2 werewolves, 2 dogs, 1 crocotta, 1 lamia, 1 okami, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 rugaru, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 wendigo, the Whore of Babylon, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Achilles' Heel: Veritas' is dogs. In fact, the only thing that can kill her is a knife dipped in dog's blood.
- Adaptational Villainy: Veritas in the original Roman myths was a Shrinking Violet who was partly meant to represent the "moral sense of rightness"
that was supposedly inherent in all Romans. Here, she's an Attention Whore who uses Brutal Honesty to kill off innocent people so she can devour their corpses. - Asshole Victim: The dental patient is "coerced" by Veritas/Ashley Frank over the T.V. to admit to raping the dentist's daughter. He's the second person affected by Veritas to die in the episode.
- Attention Whore: Dean's opinion of Veritas.
- Big Bad: Veritas, the roman goddess of truth, who has been causing deaths by forcing people to admit the truth.
- Bittersweet Ending: Oh, sure, Veritas is killed and her Brutal Honesty powers have been stopped from killing more innocent people...but those poor bastards are still dead, and it's been confirmed that Sam definitely Came Back Wrong as a Humanoid Abomination.
- Blood from the Mouth: The dental patient. A lot.
- Brutal Honesty: This is what Veritas forces on people; the first victim seen in the episode is told to commit suicide, and the second admits to his dentist that he raped the man's daughter and is murdered right away for it.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Lampshaded.Cleavage Girl: I'm sitting like this because I'm trying to get your attention. I just bought these breasts. I need a lot of attention.Dean: [taken aback] ...Good luck with that. [walks past her] [Beat] [walks back and takes an appreciative look]
- Call-Back: Devil's Shoestring is one of the ingredients necessary for summoning Veritas. This was previously seen in "Time Is On My Side" (S03, E15) as part of a ward Bela Talbot was using to keep hellhounds off her trail.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: Anyone interacting with Dean. Except Sam.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: While it was still fully justified, the dental patient gets a dentist's drill through the roof of his mouth.
- Classical Mythology: Veritas was originally the goddess of truth in ancient Roman mythology.
- Dysfunction Junction: While under the truth spell, Lisa tells Dean just how unhealthy his relationship with his brother is.
- Dirty Old Man: The dental patient, who is forced by Veritas' show playing in the room to smugly confess to raping the dentist's daughter.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Dean, of course.
- Driven to Suicide: Veritas' victims, except for the dentist patient, who admits he's a pedophile who raped the dentist's daughter. He's quickly killed by said dentist, who then hangs himself.
- Gone Horribly Right: Those that ask for the truth will get it.
- He Who Fights Monsters: After Sam convinces Dean he didn't come back wrong, Dean assumes his brother's behaviour is just Sam becoming more callous.
- Hollywood Homely: In-Universe, the girl at the beginning is called a "three", in contrast to "the new girl", who's apparently an "eight".
- Horrifying the Horror: Veritas freaks out completely when her powers fail to work on Sam, proving to Dean that something is indeed very, very wrong with his brother.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Veritas.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Veritas is skewered with a fireplace poker before she gets offed by Sam.
- Irony: "The Happy Place" is a cheery family-friendly restaurant...and is first affected by Veritas' Brutal Honesty, leading to one of its employees committing suicide in public.
- Kick the Dog: Near the beginning of the Winchesters' investigation, Sam goads the sister of Veritas' first victim to admit that she helped convince her own sister into killing herself. When she breaks down crying with remorse and grief, Sam just gives a cold smile of satisfaction. Dean is appropriately disturbed by this.
- Killed Offscreen: The dentist, who killed one of the people cursed by Veritas due to her Frank Talk program playing on a TV in his operating room, hangs himself between that scene and Sam going to the police station.
- Meaningful Name: Invoked with Frank Talk with Ashley Frank.
- Nightmare Face: Veritas makes one just before she's killed.
- No-Sell: Veritas' Brutal Honesty abilities don't work on Sam.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Dean gives one to Sam when he finds out he "isn't human".
- Papa Wolf: The dentist, who immediately kills the patient when he's told he's raped his daughter.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil/Pædo Hunt: An admission to this due to the Frank Talk with Ashley Frank (Veritas) playing in the background in the dentist's office claims the second victim of Veritas' magic seen in the episode.
- Red Herring: Gabriel's Horn of Truth.
- Smug Snake: The dental patient, who is coerced into being this by the Frank Talk show, and immediately gets a deadly root canal for it.
- That Thing Is Not My Brother!
- The Tooth Hurts: The second "truth" victim is a dentist patient who begins to confess, smugly, that he raped the dentist's daughter. Said dentist immediately drills right into his skull and kills him.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Sam continues to become more and more of a douche, which is a sign that he's Not Himself.
- Too Much Information: Veritas' ability forces people to be told the truth, and somehow, it leads to their deaths.
