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The Case of the Missing Spotlights
All screencaps from Supernatural.tv

While I was in the midst of crazy-work hell, it was pointed out to me that the reason Sam doesn't use the Impala spotlights in 'Ghostfacers' to spotlight the ~~losers~~ lurkers in the shrubbery and has to use a weeny little flashlight, like so:

not the nice bright powerful spotlights like they used waaaay back in Hookman:

You know, the spotlights that have always been on the car, waiting patiently for their time to *koff* shine? Yeah those spotlights. The ones Sam isn't using. The reason he's not using them is that the Impala no longer has spotlights.

I repeat. The Impala's spotlights have been removed. They're gone, vanished, no longer connected, excised from the Impala completely. See?

No spotlights! How the hell did I miss this? Nevermind, I know. It's got four letters, starts with w and rhymes with 'jerk'. :-P

Apparently there is a set report out there somewhere that mentions a fan talking to the Impala-wranglers, who said that one of the directors ordered them removed, but the crew wouldn't say which director for fear of... reprisals....

So let's figure it out. After all, we need to know who to ~~lynch blame~~ thank for ~~defacing~~ altering the Impala. *koff* *hides rope*

So, going back to Bedtime Stories:

Still there.

Fresh Blood?

Yep. Still there too.

A Very Supernatural Christmas?

Absolutely.

Malleus Maleficarum?

Yep.

Dream a Little Dream?

A-HA! There are no spotlights in Dream a Little Dream! See?

And that is the 'actual' Impala, not the 'dream' Impala, or I'm sure there'd be a fine pile of meta about Dean's subconscious Impala lacking lights to find his way demonstrating how lost he really feels about all the deal stuff, but no. That's the "Driving up into the random clearing before naptime" Impala. No spotlights. Therefore it's a reasonable assumption that the director of this episode had them removed, yes?

Which makes the director responsible for removing the Impala's spotlights (according to IMDB) *drumroll*

Steve Boyum.

Mr. Boyum? You have defaced the Impala and this cannot be allowed to pass unremarked (Although probably other people have remarked on it I've just missed it because I was ~~in hell~~ at work). HOWEVER!!! You also directed a damn fine episode (actually two because Crossroad Blues was pretty awesome too). So in lieu of a lynching, have some retcon in the form of a poll:

Poll #1183896
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Somewhere between Malleus Malleficarum and Dream a Little Dream, the Impala lost its spotlights. Since it's on the show and part of canon that the Impala no longer has its trademark twin spotlights, how do you think it lost them?

View Answers

Ruby stole them when she poofed away at the end of Malleus Maleficarum for unknown nefarious purposes yet to be revealed, and that whole "Sorry, can't save you" thing was strictly to distract Dean from her theft of the spotlights.
9 (14.5%)

The Impala is actually a Transformer and just forgot to put them out the last morph and hasn't had a chance to fix it yet.
14 (22.6%)

It's not the Impala! It's the Impala's evil twin who has replaced the true Impala. The boys will discover this soon and have to rescue the true Impala from 'Pimp My Ride'.
13 (21.0%)

The boys removed them because they thought not having spotlights made the enormous glossy black classic car less conspicuous.
10 (16.1%)

Three words: Unfortunate Mothman Incident.
11 (17.7%)

Other, see comments.
5 (8.1%)

(I believe

kentawolf may have dibs on the Mothman one.)

Come on! Bring your explanations! Heck, fic them! The truth must be known!

ETA: SEE this thread in the comments for a first-hand account from

blacklid!

ETA Again: And you also may want to watch this space... (Brought to you by the awesome

noirbabalon)

Tags: blithering, crack, meta, poll, supernatural
Current Mood: crazy
Current Music: "Back in Black" ~ AC/DC

	From: spndpfrdcrck	Date: May 7th, 2008 06:47 am (UTC)		(Link)

What spotlights? Oh...those. I never noticed them before. I think Sam removed them cuz they were annoying. No seriously...I never noticed they had spotlights before so I never noticed they took them off so i do not have a theory on this

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 7th, 2008 06:54 am (UTC)		(Link)

I'm probably too detail-oriented for my own good on some of this stuff. I noticed them right from the pilot, so I'm totally shocked I missed their absence until Ghostfacers. They were like a kind of outward sign of the car's inner abnormality.

	From: spndpfrdcrck	Date: May 7th, 2008 06:56 am (UTC)		(Link)

*has spent the last 10 minutes looking at screen caps* Huh. I think I just thought those were mirrors or something.....weird. Where did they go?! AH *tries to come up with a feasible theory*

	From: anniehow	Date: May 7th, 2008 12:26 pm (UTC)		(Link)

It's totally for camouflage. Of course they removed them to make it less likely that the police might tag them. *blinks* Whatdaya mean hand-waving plot holes away? This is a perfectly legitimate explanation! ;-P

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 7th, 2008 03:28 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Yeah, it'll blend right in with all the other mint condition black '67 Impalas out on the road now. ;-)

	From: angieb5	Date: May 7th, 2008 02:06 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Words cannot express my anger! WHAT THE HELL KIND OF REASON COULD YOU HAVE FOR REMOVING THE SPOTLIGHTS!?

Honestly, Kripke or Kim Manners are the only people who have the right to ask that they be removed. Mostly because if they would have ordered it, there'd be a damn good reason!

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 7th, 2008 03:33 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Totally! I mean they even had Dean put them back on when he rebuilt the Impala, why the heck take them off now? And for a guest director?

	From: littlewings04	Date: May 7th, 2008 03:35 pm (UTC)		(Link)

They got popped by cops/game wardens for spotlighting deer and had to take the spotlights off.

(This may or may not have happened to someone I know...)

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 8th, 2008 04:01 am (UTC)		(Link)

Hm... Between roadside diners they decided to hunt up some venison steak for variety?

	From: malevolent73	Date: May 8th, 2008 03:23 am (UTC)		(Link)

OH MY GOD!!!11!!1!!!

I am thoroughly disgusted and appalled that the spotlights were removed from our baby and am actually really kinda pissed that someone can just walk in and do that without even asking our permission first!!!

I am also repulsed by the fact that I DIDN'T NOTICE. Shame the fuck on me.

I heard one person ask why the hell Sam didn't use the spotlight when they finally had a good reason too and I just blew it off for some reason but no one besides you went through this much investigation as far as I know and I'm glad you did! How do we fix this?!?!

I voted transformer by the way. :)

Edited at 2008-05-08 03:29 am (UTC)

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 8th, 2008 04:15 am (UTC)		(Link)

I know! Dude! It's heinous! If it was Kripke or Kim Manners, it'd be more palatable, but it was a guy who only directed two (admittedly kickass) episodes! What the hell?!

I didn't notice at first either and I think it might be (besides Mystery Spot and Jus-in-Bello being incredibly distracting episodes(although I remember a brief 'hey where's the spotlight?) before being distracted by the psycho-Sammy in the Mystery Spot Wednesday montage) that they didn't have any decent, clear, indisputable shots of the front end of the Impala in those episodes. Not that I could find anyways. Call me paranoid, but it's like they were hiding that they'd been taken off.

Fixing or explaining in fic is one thing, on the show? I have no idea. Letter-writing? Add it to the "Bring back KAZ 2Y5" lobbying which is probably going on? Spread the word?

What annoys me about it on a real-world level is that prior to them being removed, show could easily save a bit of budget money by re-using Impala driving shots from prior seasons. Now if they do, the spotlights will be on the drive-by shot, and not on the car in the episode, and look like sloppy editing work. :-P

	From: malevolent73	Date: May 8th, 2008 01:31 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I know they've already re-used Impala shots and you're totally right. It will seem kind of dumb to have them there one second and not the next.

Dean: "Sam, I can't see out of that corner of the windshiled, take off that spotlight over there while I'm driving 85mph down this stretch..."
Sam: "Uhhhhh....."
Dean: "Just shut up and do it!"

And then a few weeks later when Sam is bitching that a flashlight just won't cut it, Dean has him put the spotlights back on while he's driving 90mph down some stretch, and it's raining to boot. HAHA

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 8th, 2008 03:53 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I've got an image now of Sam with his head hanging out the window like a dog, only with a massive bitchface, messing with the spotlights and grumbling.

	From: malevolent73	Date: May 9th, 2008 02:43 am (UTC)		(Link)

Hee! I like that image! Poor Sam.

	From: malevolent73	Date: May 8th, 2008 01:42 pm (UTC)		(Link)

PS I hope you don't mind but I linked to this in the Metallicar thread at TWoP. I can edit my post if you want. Sorry I didn't ask first!

	From: caffienekitty	Date: May 8th, 2008 03:50 pm (UTC)		(Link)

I don't mind at all. I was looking for the Metallicar thread last night and couldn't find it.

	From: malevolent73	Date: May 9th, 2008 03:05 am (UTC)		(Link)

I believe it's always in the boys will be boys area since she is a main charcter in her own right. :)

	From: luu_alita	Date: May 8th, 2008 04:13 pm (UTC)		(Link)