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Provenance - Recap
Episode nineteen opens in upstate New York, with a couple hanging a painting they purchased in a charity auction. It is a portrait of a family that doesn't look quite right. As the couple head to bed the father in the painting turns his head to look out at the audience. The husband is busy downstairs making sure the house is secured while the wife is upstairs, as we pan by the painting we see that the straight razor that was in the picture is missing. With the lights out the husband can't see that his wife has been murdered and doesn't realize anything is amiss until he puts his hand in blood. Turning on the light he sees that her throat is cut and as we fade out the murderer has come up behind him, he turns startled and the lights go out.
We join up with Sam and Dean at a bar, with Dean making moves on a girl and Dean researching. Dean isn't too thrilled about being interrupted in a different kind of hunt to talk about a potential job but he quickly finds that suggesting Sam have a little fun are met with a cold shoulder. Sam has found a newspaper story of our couple from the opening being murdered inside a locked house, which wouldn't be something to look into if their father hadn't noted three other murders of the same MO spanning almost a century.
Dean goes back to his girls and leaves Sam to his research.
The next morning Sam and a very hung over, but happy, Dean are looking into the murders. The eEMF meter comes up clean and the history of the couple doesn't show any thing that would make them a subject for haunting so they assume it's something that was inside the house. Unfortunately the couple's house has been emptied of all furniture and belongings so if they are looking for a cursed object, they will need to track them down.
They find them at an estate sale, posing as art dealers they look for the object that caused the deaths. The painting stands out and catches their attention. That's where they meet Sarah, the daughter of the man who runs the auction house, who tries to catch them out on their knowledge of art but surprisingly Sam has some knowledge in the area. Sam is talking with Sarah and asking about the paintings when the owner throws them out of the sale for not having an invitation.
Back in their hotel, and an interesting room it is, Dean convinces Sam to call Sarah to see if he can get the provenances for the painting. After an awkward start at dinner he and Sarah actually have a good time, despite a few parts of his life being glossed over by Sam while they talk. Sarah tells Sam about the shell she put herself in after her mom died but when she asks why Sam hasn't been dating he just can't bring himself to say.
Sam comes back to the hotel with the provenances on the painting but Dean is disappointed that there was nothing more between the two. It turns out the portrait of Isaiah Merchants family painted in 1910 was owned by all of the people murdered behind locked doors. Knowing what they have to do the brothers disable the security and break into the auction house, steal the painting and burn it. The only problem is as they burn it, the painting reappears in it's frame back at the auction house.
Dean tells Sam the next morning he lost his wallet while they were stealing the painting and when they run into Sarah shows Sam that he still has his wallet and leaves them alone together. Sam starts to tell her that they are leaving town, until he sees that the painting is still there. In an awkward moment he tells her he's staying and not to sell the painting.
The one thing that haunted paintings have in common is that it is the subject of the painting that is doing the haunting. It seems it's time to research the Merchant family. It turns out that Isaiah Merchant killed his entire family and then himself with a straight razor, common tool of the barber trade, when it looked like his wife was going to take their two sons and adopted daughter and leave.
A copy of the painting shows that there have been changes to it over the years. Isaiah isn't looking down but instead straight out at the onlookers. Deciding they need to have another look at the original Sam calls Sarah, only to find out that her father sold the painting.
The new owner of the painting is enjoying a cup of tea at home, but unfortunately it's not going to last. Isaiah looks up and we cut out just before the new owner can scream.
Sarah is starting to see that the brothers are not exactly who they seem to be as they expertly break into the second victim's house. She also sees the painting move when she's there. After lying to the police about what she saw she goes to get answers from Sam and Dean. They tell her that the painting is haunted and after a brief struggle with disbelief she insists on helping.
They break back into the house where the murder occurred to look at the painting and compare it with the photo from the book. In the original version the razor is closed and now it is open, and the painting in the painting is now a crypt with the family name on it. After looking through several graveyards they find the crypt and break in.
There are displays with the children's favorite toys in them like a doll and a baseball glove. But there are only and four urns. That means that one of the five family members was not cremated. Sam and Sarah share a moment outside while Dean looks for death records to see who is missing. Sarah asks him if there is something between them, and Sam admits there is but that there shouldn't be anything more.
It turns out Isaiah Merchant was buried in a pauper's grave by his embarrassed family so there are bones to burn after all. Digging up the body they use salt and fire to settle the restless spirit.
Just to be on the safe side they return to bury the painting. Dean lets Sam and Sarah go into the house, telling Sam to make his move, but when they get inside the painting has changed again. The adopted daughter has left the painting along with the straight razor and the door is slamming and locking them in.
Isaiah had been looking down at the girl in the painting, it seems he was trying to warn people whom the real killer was all the time. Pursued by the ghostly girl he tells Dean they manage to hold her off with an iron poker and give Dean time to make his way to the crypt. Sarah tells them that in antique dolls sometimes they used the child's hair for realism, so he speeds to the cemetery while Sam and Sarah fight to stay alive inside the house.
Dean manages to break out the doll and burn it, saving Sam and Sarah who look all too happy to just sit there and rest for a moment.
It turns out that the Merchant's adopted daughter was up for adoption because her family was murdered in their beds. Sarah tells the workers packaging up the painting to take it out back and burn it. Dean says his goodbyes and goes to wait for Sam in the car. Sam says he'll come back and see Sarah someday and he leaves, but the exit doesn't last for very long as he turns around to knock on the door and kisses Sarah goodbye. He's finally let someone besides Dean in, it's a step forward.
There were several hints over the course of the episode at who the real spirit was but it was done low key enough that they were easy to overlook. Isaiah was looking at the daughter with his hand on her shoulder, since he moved in the painting as well it is probably that his spirit was trying to hold her in the painting but she was stronger than him in death as in real life.
Review :
There were a couple of really nice shots in this episode that stood out. The reflection of the straight razor in the second victim's glasses as she enjoys her tea and book takes an otherwise comforting scene and makes it tense. The shots with Dean in the grave are done with a nice angle to give it a claustrophobic angle. I also liked the scene switches between the crypt and the fight in the house, the breaking of the glass and the cut to Sarah being thrown against the wall as well as the final cut between doll catching on fire and spirit going up in flames and returning to it's painting.
I was disappointed with last weeks Striga but you can never go wrong with a creepy kid, I liked the visual feel of the spirit this week much better. Everything from the general creepiness of the painting itself to the movement of Isaiah's head and the final shots with the little girl dragging her doll while coming after Sam and Sarah worked much better and gave a general unsettling feeling to the episode. The ghostly laughter of a child is a nice touch as well.
This episode was more Sam centric than the last couple, a chance to see him work through some of the issues he has been carrying with him since Jessica died. Dean works on getting Sam to let his defenses down and meet up with a girl, to relax and have fun. And Sam admits that Jessica would want him to have fun but that isn't what holds him back.
He gives out the information in dribs and drabs through the episode but it's Sarah and not Dean that provides the catalyst to his admitting how he feels. “I don't want you to get hurt” is the first clue, and yes they are pursuing a homicidal spirit in a painting there is that possibility, but once again that is only part of the story.
When they talk outside the hall of records Sam finally admits about Jessica's death, and how he feels that anyone around him will get hurt. He feels like he's cursed and that death follows him around. Sarah understands, having been through something similar after losing her mother. Sam says he just can't go through the pain again and shuts her out.
It takes her making it through the encounter with the killer spirit to finally break that last bit of resolve to let her in. It's a step in healing that hopefully won't be regretted down the road.
It is also nice to throw in a moment where panic can throw off anyone, including Dean, who overlooks that he has a gun and he can use it for more than a hammer to break into the container where the doll is kept to burn it. It was a perfect illustration how adrenaline can override your higher functions as well as a moment where the watcher is yelling at the screen to use the gun. It pulled you into the sense of danger and made you laugh at the same time.
Trivia
The Krip – license plates at the auction. A reference to Eric Kripke the executive producer maybe?
The front-page story sharing the limelight with the Merchant family murders is the sinking of the Titanic, which occurred on April 15 th , 1912. The painting was created in 1910 so the murders occur two years after is creation. The price of the paper is three cents.
The song Dean plays to set the mood for Sam and Sarah is “Bad Time” by the Jayhawks.
Salt is part of the funeral rituals of many cultures, in the Orkney Islands they placed salt on the chest of the deceased to keep them in their grave. In Haitian folklore the taste of salt will recall a zombie to it's personality so it remembers that it is dead and it will return to the grave immediately.
Sam and Dean Connors – Alibi as art dealers
