Supernatural re-watch, Season 3

If you’re following along:
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
Season 8
Season 9
Season 10
Season 11
Season 12-15

Plus: my season recaps from back in the day:
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3

A truncated season but maybe even stronger for it because they have to get shit done, but they also don’t sacrifice what makes the show the show.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 1 “The Magnificent Seven”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners

It starts in Oak Park. Where Window-Boy grew up. Just FYI. Because it’s all about me. I love the switch-up from the end of Season 2: all those grim feelings and bleak compromises … to Dean having a threesome while Sam sits literally right outside the window? Dude, can you at least park the car in another spot? And then him sweet-talking the coroner’s tech in the cheesiest way but … it works. I love the idea of Dean being devil-may-care, wine/women/song, who cares about it all – which connects to Demon Dean so many seasons later – but will also be one of the main through-lines of season 3: Dean not caring whether he dies, and – deeper – not thinking he’s worth saving. (Cue Jessie Reyez). In my memory it literally takes half the (shortened) season for Dean to even admit to Sam that he’d like some help, that maybe it would be okay if he wanted to live. It’s so messed up and sad! This connects gorgeously with Season 4, episode 1, where he is saved in an even bigger way, and he’s been “marked” by a celestial being who thinks he’s worth something. Season 3 is really good for Dean pathos, and Dean being in trouble is a change-up to what was going on in season 2, where Sam was “at risk”. Enter Ruby and enter the demon-killing knife. Anyway, looking forward to this. Season 3 is a fave.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 2 “The Kids Are Alright”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Enter Lisa. This is going to be a long road, and it doesn’t quite add up – Lisa was a one-night hookup and then a season later Sam’s like “Go find Lisa”. I hate to bring this up because I know it is a sore point and the show wishes I didn’t remember: but there was a woman named Cassie. I know I’m supposed to erase Cassie but I’m sorry, it’s not MY fault you put her in the show.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 3 “Bad Day at Black Rock”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer
Bela! I love her arc and it doesn’t get much play in the fandom but I think it’s really well-constructed, and goes along with something I wrote about in re: Bela and Dean. “Takes one to know one” she says to him later. They are on the same journey. Their timeline is the same! Bela’s behavior is completely justified when you know what happened to her. This is an example of how a late reveal opens up the whole storyline for re-examination. Once you know what drives Bela – that it’s not solely greed – you can see exactly what she’s playing. It’s very satisfying. Even more satisfying though is this whole entire episode. The “photo” of Sam accepting the check at the restaurant, his frozen worried smile, makes me HOWL. Jared, in general, in this episode, just makes me so happy. Because he’s not just clumsy: it’s like his whole personality and sense of agency has drained from him, leaving him helpless. He can’t combat what’s happening and doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to even know he should. Which is so funny. Also funny: so many Jensen eyerolls.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 4 “Sin City”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Charles Beeson

There’s an odd un-Supernatural-ish vibe to this at times – Richie is not from this show at all, God love ‘im – but I so dig the Dean-Casey conversation – I went into it at unforgivable length in my re-cap. She’s an intense actress, and can actually meet him where he’s at. I also like how it’s not black and white: she’s not just a sneering evil entity: she’s got some backstory, and she’s also willing to play around with her tactics. Dean breaking down a little bit – or, more like, his resistance to her dissolving bit by bit – it’s more so like he’s slowly melting – is interesting to watch. Dean is processing what’s ahead for him – but he can’t do it with Sam (as much as we all want to see it, but it will be EPISODES before Dean allows Sam anywhere CLOSE to what he expresses here in that weird sex dungeon.)

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 5 “Bedtime Stories”
Written by Cathryn Humphris
Directed by Mike Rohl

I sure don’t miss lines like “Could you be any more gay?”

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 6 “Red Sky at Morning”
Written by Laurence Andries
Directed by Cliff Bole

I know the show itself disowned this episode but I don’t have to do what the show tells me to do. I get to make up my own mind. Red Sky at Morning is absolutely ridiculous and isn’t meant to be taken any other way. I don’t care about the ship, but I love the screwball comedy vibe, everywhere in the plot: there’s a rich old dowager, it’s the world of country clubs, at one point a man and a woman, sparking with sexual chemistry but also mutual contempt, pretend to be married, there are tuxedos and champagne … this is all the stuff of The Awful Truth, Bringing Up Baby, and etc. This is true even in some of the camera choices, like the isolated shot of the plaque outside the country club. It’s such a 1930s choice. So basically many people hate it for the very reasons I love it. Not to mention “Don’t objectify me” which launched me writing about this damn show in the first place. I will always stick up for Red Sky at Morning.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 7 “Fresh Blood”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Kim Manners

It’s hard not to feel sorry for Lucy. Vampire episode means sexual sickness and human trafficking, and it also means explicit (or subtextual) connections with Sam and Dean, their backgrounds. Vampires are “families”. And it’s harder to be like “they are MONSTERS, they’re not like us” when you’re dealing with vampires, and a “father” who is creating a new “family”. It’s really disturbing. Equally disturbing is Gordon’s return. Bela’s treachery is unforgivable and yet … let’s pretend the whole entire show is from her point of view. Let’s just follow her. Let’s prioritize her horrific backstory with her horrific family and what was done to her. It makes sense. The show, at any rate, is making that connection. Fans may not agree with it, but I think it’s more fun to consider that maybe, possibly, Bela has her reasons. The last scene of this episode is overwhelming.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 8 “A Very Supernatural Christmas”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by J. Miller Tobin

I hesitate to re-watch this one because it’s so perfect and almost delicate, in how it works. The sentimentality is off the charts, but by this point I feel it’s earned. Sam’s awkwardness about Christmas … the disconnect between them … Dean’s vulnerability in insisting they had some good Christmas memories … Sam being openly NOT into it … Some very real character information is being imparted in the midst of this television-Chritmas-movie. Dean seems so child-like in this episode. It’s almost too much to even watch. And finally: If Dean knows who Ozzie and Harriet are, then he would definitely know who Dick van Dyke is.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 9 “Malleus Maleficarum”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Robert Singer

The introduction of witches to the series is shocking, when you consider where witches would end up going and what they would end up being, thanks to Rowena. The witches here are just bored housewives weaving bitchy spells during their book club. They are just humans. Or, most of them are. One is possessed by a demon. Later, though, witches are more like supernatural monsters, with otherworldly powers, literally screaming “abracadabra” as they shoot purple lightning bolts out of their hands. The transformation of witches from the gross human women doing gross things with their bodily fluids to immortal beings who live for centuries is … basically the sign of so much that went wrong. The swerve in genre from horror to fantasy. Don’t even get me started on “witch killing bullets”. When did they come into play? I reject them from my world view.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 10 “Dream a Little Dream of Me”
Teleplay by Cathryn Humphris
Story by Sera Gamble and Cathryn Humphris
Directed by Steve Boyum

Top tier motel room. The whole storyline here works beautifully – on all the levels – going way deeper than you expect, until expanding out into something truly shocking in the final dream scene (especially when you consider what happens to Dean in season 10). By this point, Jensen’s acting chops are well-established, but even I sat up and took notice – in an even more pointed way – at the Dean-talking-to-himself scene. This is a harbinger of “The End” and has the same eeriness to it: you can tell, looking at each Dean, which one is which. And he doesn’t overdo it. My friend Dan Callahan said that so much of really good acting – what makes it good – is proportion. Bad acting often means that something is way out of proportion. (I’m thinking of Misha’s Cockney empty person, an unfair example perhaps, but it’s so obvious it helps make the point. All you are aware of in that character is the accent and how weird it is: you can barely hear what he’s saying. It’s TOTALLY out of proportion.) With Jensen, the proportions are always – ALWAYS – perfect. He’s very unusual.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 11 “Mystery Spot”
Written by Jeremy Carver and Emily McLaughlin
Directed by Kim Manners

Dean’s refusal to deal with what’s coming for him has a way of sucking up all the oxygen leaving Sam flailing in the wind. This is often the way the show tilts. Season 4 things are going to get messier, because Sam starts hiding things from Dean. But season 3 has been pretty much the Dean Show, since it’s Dean’s deal dominating. Here, though, in such an inventive episode, we see the cost of all of this on Sam. We see Dean almost totally from the outside – the Dean Burlesque is off the charts, especially since we see it on repeat – and Sam descends, Groundhog-Day-like, into an existential crisis. Jared has so much fun with this concept and the episode really tracks the disintegration through nearly identical takes, where Sam finds himself trapped. Dean gargling. Sam staring at him. Etc. The final section – where Sam goes off on his own, post-Dean’s death – doing God knows what to God knows who – is a deep pool of possibility. It shows the potential in Sam to go “off”. And this is coming, too. It’s like Sam somewhere knows. He knows more than Dean knows. It’s like soulless Sam, but this Sam has a soul, which is even more disturbing! This is probably one of the best episodes in the whole entire series.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 12 “Jus In Bello”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Phil Sgriccia

Agent Henrikksen! Nooooo! Such a hero. Such a great character. I love Nancy. “It’s a choice!” She deserved better.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 13 “Ghostfacers”
Written by Ben Edlund
Directed by Phil Sgriccia

One of the most gratifying parts of this episode is the confirmation we receive of how much Sam and Dean actually swear “in real life”. Enough of this “rhymes with itch” nonsense from the show’s puritanical post-social-media era.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 14 “Long Distance Call”
Written by Jeremy Carver
Directed by Robert Singer

Jensen is so open. This is still early on in Dean’s grieving process, where he’s still really in thrall to his father. There’s this “breakthrough” in “Dream a Little Dream” where Dean finally expresses his hurt and rage at being treated that way as a child, but there’s no real catharsis because it ends with black eyes. Here, Dean comes when calls (literally). He’s still so susceptible. You’re always susceptible, to some degree. If you’ve been hurt, then you are forever marked by that hurt. (Which is why Dean carries around more damage than Sam does, even though Sam has the dark side, the demon blood, the blah blah. There are ways, though, that Sam is healthy in a way Dean will never be. And you can really feel that in this season, with Dean’s blatant denial that he even cares if he lives or dies, his refusal of help, his anger when people try to help him … etc. That’s damage, not pride or toughness. That’s the little boy screaming at his dad at the end of “Dream a Little Dream”. Anyway, it’s all very twisted. I don’t really get scared by the monsters on this show but I make an exception for this one. This one – and the Shtriga – freaks me out.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 15 “Time Is On My Side”
Written by Sera Gamble
Directed by Charles Beeson
Rufus arrives! I wasn’t around on the first run of the show, I came to it way late, so I was unaware of fan “consensus” around Bela (or if there even was one). I LOVE Bela. My top 3 character entrances: Death, Benny and Bela. Bela is from another world entirely, but the overlap is interesting (and it makes sense: there really IS an active black market for occult objects. Parasites like Bela would definitely be ALL OVER this). But a lot of thought was given to Bela and her purpose in the story. A new character is only as good as their purpose in the story and how they reflect the main characters’ arcs. Here, a clear connection is made between Dean and Bela from early on. “Takes one to know one”. etc. They are from two totally different worlds but the background and the effect is the same. They maneuver similarly. He’s got his Burlesque, she’s got Hers. Not everybody sashays through life relying on a Burlesque Act. But they both do. He tries to shame her by saying “Daddy didn’t hug you enough?” She throws it right back at him. You’re no one to talk, Dean. Meanwhile, though, as revealed here, her “daddy issues” are so so much worse, and I think if she hadn’t been so treacherous towards Dean he might have guessed. He would have realized earlier what was going on. In Season 3, there is really only one person who truly understands what Dean is going through. And that’s Bela. Once you get the reveal, you look back over every interaction with her, and you can SEE it. He’s trying to save himself, so is she. Their countdowns are identical. And, just in terms of story, I love that Bela takes her ultimate secret to the grave with her. It’s tragic. I understand Bela. I would have loved to see her come back, although I really think her arc is perfect in its completion.

Supernatural, Season 3, episode 16 “No Rest for the Wicked”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners
This is when death really meant something. Also, look how desperate they were allowed to get in these early seasons. They had no one. It was Sam, Dean and Bobby trying to figure out how to keep Dean alive. And that’s it. Episodes go on with no movement forward. Half the season is spent trying to find Bela. There’s so much ROOM when their backs are against the wall (room in terms of story development). In later seasons, with Rowena, every problem could be solved with some spell. Boring as fuck. Here, they literally cannot figure out a way to stop Dean’s dying. They have no bargaining chips. There’s no Crowley. There’s no Castiel. Ruby is their only contact and her “help” is inconsistent and suspicious (even more so when you think of Season 4. Ruby’s con is LONG.) So nothing really HAPPENS in Season 3, except that Dean marches towards his death, and Bobby and Sam try to stave it off. It’s so cool, when they only have themselves to rely on, and it’s not enough. There are limits to human intervention. They’ve reached theirs. How much the show lost when all the limits were removed.