Supernatural re-watch, Season 1

I watched Season 1 in reverse order, last to pilot. I am sorry to have come to the end. I don’t know that I’ll watch Seasons 12-15 again but the rest I will revisit again and again.

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

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

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 22 “Devil’s Trap”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners
“This family? They don’t need you. Not like you need them.” It’s season 1. LOOK at the mileage they got out of one damn line. Ten seasons. It could have gone on longer if the show hadn’t stopped exploring the brother dynamic. Still though. 10 seasons is pretty damn good.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 21 “Salvation”
Written by Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker
Directed by Robert Singer
I find watching John, Sam and Dean together so uncomfortable. The “family system” is trauma-driven, not to mention authoritarian. Feeling discomfort drives home the beautiful structured of season 1. Dad being missing brings Sam and Dean back together, and he takes on mythic proportions due to his absence. The brothers talk about him all the time and fight about him, so he takes shape in our heads. And then … here he is in the flesh. And it’s so destabilizing because we’ve gotten to know Sam and Dean on their own, we respect them, we see how smart and capable they are, we see their emotions. All of this is then bottled up the second John arrives. John is the only one who gets to have all these BIG feelings. He’s just feeling all over the place, and Sam and Dean retreat, watching him closely, trying to read the signs, hiding their own feelings. Or, not even hiding them. It’s like their own feelings plunge into hibernation, because there’s only room for John to have feelings. Watching Sam and Dean just accept these “rules” is painful. I think this is why I love the moment when Dean literally swoons at the sight of the friendly pretty nurse. It could have been played as Dean-as-Horndog, and a lesser actor would have gone that route, like “things may be tense but you can’t stop this guy from flirting!” But in context, what goes on there is not exactly that. Yes, she’s pretty, but it’s more that she represents a space where Dean gets to be soft and receptive. This is why Dean and Sex is important, and why pleasure is a big deal and has meaning beyond the momentary, particularly for Dean. This is not AS true for Sam, maybe because Sam has boundaries.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 20 “Dead Man’s Blood”
Written by Cathryn Humphris and John Shiban
Directed by Tony Wharmby
Our first vampire episode. (“I thought there was no such thing,” says Dean.) It establishes the way these eps will go, generally, the parallels drawn between vampires and the Winchesters. It’s twisted and upsetting. Dean dangled as bait. Dean being groped. John’s self-centered emotions, and Sam and Dean just riding the waves of it … The final shots of first Sam, then Dean, looking at their Dad … honestly it turns my stomach. They both look so inspired and pumped, but what I’m seeing is two very capable people who have subordinated themselves, unwillingly, often, and are ceding their power, happily, to the stronger. It’s interesting. Look for those close-ups. Sam and Dean NEVER look like that. I don’t think Dean ever had that look on his face again in the rest of the whole entire series.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 19 “Provenance”
Written by David Ehrman
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
“That’s my boy.” Stop it. When seeing the gag reel, it is, honestly, amazing that they ever got a clean take of the date scene.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 18 “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
Written by Daniel Knauf
Directed by Whitney Ransick
This is such a crucial episode. The first glimpse into the childhood, particularly Dean’s role, and how it continues to play out in current day. And how John just sends coordinates and has Dean figure it out, a passive-aggressive reminder: “You fucked this one up. Make it right.” Jensen’s behavior is so fascinating: he’s avoiding avoiding avoiding, he wants Sam to stop asking, he’s so filled with shame. The final exchange is so heartbreaking:
Sam: “I wish I could have that kind of innocence.”
Dean: [after a long LONG pause] “If it means anything sometimes I wish you could too.”
The End.
But look at what’s not said. It’s such a great example of what’s NOT said being more important than what’s SAID. What’s not said is Sam (or Dean, but more likely Sam) saying, “Dean, you deserved to have innocence too.” But nobody says that. Nobody even seems to be thinking it. Dean is disposable. Dean’s innocence was never gonna be a “thing”. Only Sammy had a chance. At least this is how it’s viewed in the Belljar. Even after what they just went through in this episode, what Dean remembered, what Sam learns about the past event … even after all that, still nobody says, “Dean, it was unfair what was put on you. You deserved to have a childhood too.” I LOVE it when things AREN’T said.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 17 “Hell House”
Written by Trey Callaway
Directed by Chris Long
The only thing that matters here is that Sam is a centaur.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 16 “Shadow”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Kim Manners
I had forgotten how upsetting it was, seeing Sam and Dean suddenly turn submissive when John shows up, and say “Yes, sir” in unison. Such subtle (yet obvious) story-telling. It’s before episode 18, where we finally get the full picture.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 15 “The Benders”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Peter Ellis
I fully admitted in my re-cap that the power of this one escaped me almost totally on my first frenzied binge. When I revisited, it blew my hair back (particularly in light of the episode that will follow, where the patriarch returns). The parallels between the Benders and the Winchesters are everywhere – even though Sam and Dean, of course, can’t see it, and make parallels with the monster foes. But the sick family system – no outsiders – a family of killers, who trap and kill “outsiders” – the dead mother – etc. Even down to the camera angle of the stairs up into the house, with Dean tiptoeing up there: it’s the exact same angle (with shafts of light) of the staircase in the Winchester home, which Mary is seen descending. It was all there, right in front of me. I just couldn’t see it.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 14 “Nightmare”
Written by Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
In my opinion, this is when Jared found his sea legs. There’s nothing wrong with what he was doing before this, and we have to factor in that the characters were written a little broad at first. Jared’s instincts as an actor are excellent (his audition tape for Sam is eloquent: it’s all there, already. He’s not trying or pushing or even giving a performance.) But here is where I feel Jared really settled into Sam. I spent a lot of my re-cap talking about that, and how it’s immediately apparent here what an incredible listener Jared is: a crucial part of Sam but – I have to say, to be fair – difficult to write. Or to convey in writing. It takes an actor – like Jared – to listen as powerfully as he does, so that what he doesn’t say is as important as what he does say. This is Jared’s ace in the hole as an actor – and up until this episode he wasn’t given much of a chance to show it off. But I also think Sam challenged Jared: the whole thing challenged him. He was more than ready and there are glimpses of the complexities of Sam before this – him in “Faith”, definitely what he was doing in “Asylum” – however, what he was doing THERE is not what he does HERE. Here it’s about how he listens. It totally got my attention.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 13 “Route 666
Written by Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming
Directed by Phil Sgriccia
Oh God. Teapots. I cannot even watch this episode now without remembering the hilarity of the thread about it here. My first time watching this episode I was riveted, because I hadn’t factored in the possibility that Dean might have fallen for someone. I liked that they floated it out there, although some of the soap opera qualities make Dean seem not like Dean. “Maybe this goodbye won’t be permanent.” What?
Takeaways:
The lighting in the newspaper office.
Sam and Dean tying their ties in the mirror, side by side. There’s no other scene like it in the history of Supernatural and I treasure it.
The fact that Sam was able to date Jessica for years without divulging the secret and Dean could barely make it a week. This is important. I know we’re supposed to forget that Cassie ever existed but sorry you put her in the show. (I realize I am inconsistent because i refuse to incorporate Chuck-as-God into my Supernatural worldview. Listen. A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.) But I love how revealing this little nugget is, even though it’s never mentioned again because we’re supposed to ignore the existence of Cassie. The fact remains: Sam somehow internalized “the rule” more than Dean did. Even when Sam was “free”, he followed the family rule. Dean was still full-on indoctrinated and he broke the rule.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 12 “Faith”
Written by Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker
Directed by Allan Kroeker
One of my favorite episodes in the whole entire series. Kroeker didn’t direct again I don’t think? It’s hard to attribute style to anyone other than Kim Manners, who is a damn auteur, but the style here is not Supernatural’s regular style. I compared some of it to Robert Altman. It takes a lot of work to shoot something like this because you have to care about the whole world, not just the main characters. The faith healer tent vibe was distinct: the shots of the audience, glimpses of hands in the air, the camera floating through the room almost, capturing fragments of behavior, moving on: it’s collage-style. In this re-watch I fell in love with the isolation of Sam and Dean: John isn’t present yet, neither is Bobby, they literally have no one. They have to figure it out on their own. Or, Sam does, because Dean has given up hope. Look at how quickly Dean gives up hope! So there are lots of conversations about what might be going on. It could be boring. It’s not at all! These conversations show their BRAINS at work. I think it was Steven Spielberg who said the movie camera was made to capture people thinking, that nothing is more interesting than watching a person think. This is also a unique episode, showing what Sam is willing to do to save Dean, when normally it’s the opposite.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 11 “Scarecrow”
Written by John Shiban and Patrick Sean Smith
Directed by Kim Manners
Just noticed the echo of Dean’s “yes, sir” in the first scene with Meg’s “Yes, Father” in the last scene. So good. I think this is one of the best episodes of the series. Cigarette Smoking Man from X-Files appearance. The second he showed up you knew he was bad. RIP Nicky Aycox.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 10 “Asylum”
Written by John Shiban and Patrick Sean Smith
Directed by Kim Manners

We are really getting back to the roots now. Dean is still basically brainwashed, and Sam is “rebellious”, and there’s a lot of conflict, which will then explode in “Scarecrow”. But it really continues through the rest of this season: Dean the “good son”, Sam the rebel, the clash of that. Going back to this first season drives home my underlying feeling that the family reunion in the last season was just a bunch of missed opportunities. The writing team seemed to become conflict-averse, somehow: they chose easy solutions, everyone said whatever was on their mind, John bursts into sobs and says, “I’m sorry …” Like, only a fan who never really liked the show in the first place and wished it was something else – would find this satisfying. There’s all this COMPLEXITY early on. Even though Sam and Dean talk about things all the time, they are unaccustomed to sharing. Much of this is Dean’s fault. He won’t allow it. At this point in the game, Jensen is a subtler actor. Jared was still finding his way, and sometimes pushed the emotions. This vanished by season 2, although “Nightmare” was the real breakthrough. Something happened to Jared in “Nightmare”, there was his mix of openness and firmness – a very unusual combination, which is so very HIM. Up until then, Jared was playing all his moments, and committing to them, and there was nothing “off” or false, but sometimes his foot pressed down on the gas when it was not needed. We are only ten episodes in. No one had any idea this thing would go for as long as it did. It’s a weird situation. But at this VERY early stage, Jensen is already playing the subtext louder than the text. (This is what stranded both actors a decade and a half later: there was no subtext to play). At this early stage, Jensen basically made UP his subtext, because there was so much we – and they – didn’t know. Whatever it was he made up, he played it. His pauses were full of WORLDS. He added all of these intriguing shades, glimpses of damage and survival, and he was very careful about when he showed Dean losing control. He’s also very good at playing a person who refuses to look at or deal with certain things. Dean avoids like nobody’s business. So Jensen actively plays someone who really isn’t aware of how fucked up his relationship with his dad is. Dean truly doesn’t see it. Yet. Sam pushing back on Dean here is a thrilling glimpse of what’s to come: I remember being really excited by it, in the same way I was excited by “Dead in the Water”, when I realized the show wasn’t REALLY about killing monsters, it was primarily about exploring Sam and Dean’s relationship.
Takeaways:
The set is phenomenal.
I love the young girl cocking the rifle.
Jensen climbing over the fence.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 9 “Home”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Ken Girotti
Such a powerful important episode, establishing so many things the show will rely on in the years to come. I still remember watching this one for the first time, and just being FLOORED by that final scene. Because Samantha Smith can’t act the “You get out of my house” line sounds like it’s being said by a mildly irritated suburban soccer mom. It doesn’t land at all the way it should. These types of things – her limitations – are obvious in retrospect, but it wasn’t until Mary came topside in season 12 that it became obvious the problem. The LOOK on Jensen’s face when he sees her, and every moment afterwards – he’s blasted open, he looks like he’s 4 years old again. There’s a real mood of strangeness in this episode, so many questions, not many answers. And the final shot … !! Loretta Devine makes everything better just by showing up.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 8 “Bugs”
Written by Rachel Nave and Bill Coakley
Directed by Kim Manners
It took TWO writers to write “Bugs”. For sooo long this was generally considered the worst episode of Supernatural. In the Paley center panel, Kim Manners pretended to shoot himself when it came up. ! And that panel took place in the hiatus between season 1 and season 2. He didn’t need retrospect! Sadly, there are so many more contenders for worse episode in seasons 12-15, “Bugs” wouldn’t even crack the top 10. Besides, “Bugs” gives me one of my favorite shots of Dean in the whole entire series.

“Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him, Horatio …”

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 7 “Hook Man”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by David Jackson
We are firmly back in the land of public libraries. I think there are THREE library scenes in this one. They go BACK to the library in the THIRD ACT. This is from the era when Supernatural was basically an unofficial PSA about the importance of public libraries AND the librarians who work there. Not everything can be found on your little laptop, powered up in the bunker as you drink a latte. It’s not a great episode, and the parallels between rebellious child / controlling dad are pretty obvious, and will be obvious again in Bugs. Sam is introduced to the concept of rock-salt bullets. What the hell were they doing before that? We’re really in ancient history now. There’s a lot of dialogue in early episodes that sounds like the dialogue in the fake movie in Hollywood Babylon, where they explain to each other what’s happening. “so the spirit latches on to her …” “and if we do THIS then that should put the spirit at rest because of such and such”… “Faith” has a lot of that too.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 6 “Skin”
Written by John Shiban
Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill
Jensen does some really excellent work, blanking himself out into predatory beauty as the shifter. It’s subtle. He doesn’t push it or pressure himself to “show” us the difference explicitly. He COULD still be Dean, but it feels “off”, something’s not quite right. Dean doesn’t have to be self-pitying to get a girl into bed. A pity fuck would be abhorrent to him. But here … he tells his sob story to soften her up. It’s gross. I love the continuity too: what goes on here in St. Louis will be dogging Sam and Dean for seasons to come. It won’t ever go away. Side note: I don’t believe Sam was friends with these nondescript people. Is this the first real big fight scene between Sam and Dean? Well, besides the pilot. Because it’s a great one. And it’s such a weird cramped furniture-y place to have a fight which makes it feel real. There’s pool table, couches, some cabinet thing – they really use the space in the choreography. In this first shifter episode, they really explore the shifter not just as a slimy monster but as an actual doppelganger – or at least that the shifter isn’t just taking on the face/body, but the memory/brain of the one they’ve taken over. So there’s some good exploration of Dean’s real feelings, Dean being “occupied” without his consent … this is all PRE-demon possession, the show doesn’t really start playing around with that until season 2. So this is the first time someone is “occupied” like this. We finally get to see Dean’s naked body. Unfortunately, he is NOT a centaur.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 5 “Bloody Mary”
Written by Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes Burton with Eric Kripke
Directed by Peter Ellis
Netflix has some generic song playing in the crucial final scene, not the haunting Rolling Stones song. I know this happens because of licensing rights – there’s a key scene in season 2 of Quantum Leap where Ray Charles’ Georgia is played – and you’ll just never hear that episode the way it was supposed to be heard because of the damn music rights. It makes me want to pull out the DVD and watch this scene the way it’s supposed to be seen, because that needle-drop CRUSHES it.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 4 “Phantom Traveler”
Written by Richard Hatem
Directed by Robert Singer
The episode begins with a long lingering slightly skeevy and yet totally welcome pan up Dean’s sleeping body. He’s wearing SHORTS, too. WHAT is this camera move!!

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 3 “Dead in the Water”
Written by Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker
Directed by Kim Manners
The episode where I gave up the idea of writing about the fandom and just started watching for myself, knowing I was “in” until the end. It happened early. I don’t care about monsters. I care about aesthetics – and the aesthetics of early Supernatural are bananas – and I care about characters. Here, we got the first glimpse of Dean’s sensitivity and – more important – we got to see Sam see it. It was Sam’s quizzical “I never knew Dean felt like that” which drove the points home. Catnip. Plus Amy Acker. Imagine if she had been cast as Mary. Never mind. That way madness lies. And finally: Jensen and Jared running and Jensen and Jared diving into the water. Too much.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 2 “Wendigo”
Written by Eric Kripke with Ron Milbauer and Terri Hughes Burton
Directed by David Nutter
One can see why Eric Kripke was like “What even is this episode”. But there are a couple of things here which I leaned on later in my writing about Dean.
1. The way he shouted sexual come-ons at the monster.
2. The sexualized moment with Roy. That’s alllll Jensen. I’ve gone on and on about this before. Dean was established a certain way. We’re only on episode 2, so it wasn’t apparent yet to them what they had in Jensen. Dean was still the stereotype. The way he grins rakishly at whatshername in the final scene, suggesting she thank him by … fucking him? Really? Watch how Jensen does it though. He’s magic. “This is the most honest I’ve ever been with a woman.” Oh, please. Jensen just would not be contained by the cliche. It’s an example of an actor having an insight into the character beyond its conception. But the most obvious and wildest example of this is how Dean (but it’s really Jensen at this point) goes all soft submissive and sexual when Roy gets aggressive and alpha. It’s absolutely fascinating. The moment is gone in a flash but I have to reiterate: this is all Jensen. Jensen weirded Dean up almost immediately.

Supernatural, Season 1, episode 1 “Pilot”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by David Nutter
Curious to hear from people who actually sat down and watched the pilot – in real time – in 2005 – and what were your thoughts? Were you hooked instantly? Did you think “oh, this is definitely going to go the distance?” I can only relate my response. There is an eerieness in mood, from moment one, which I think is the real hook. There’s just a strange can’t-put-my-finger-on-it other-ness which makes me want to keep watching, even with some of the ham-fisted ways exposition is handled, etc. Much of this has to do with how it’s filmed, the lighting, the darkness, evident in every scene: the meeting with the goth girls in the cafe, the damn-near-Caravaggio-style shot of Dean hiding in the police station … I was like, “Oh, these people are committed to the LOOK of this thing.” And let me be bitchy for a minute: the tapes in Dean’s little cigar box are Motorhead, Metallica. A long long way from freakin’ Kansas and Bob Seger, with not a lot of crossover in audience. But John is a much different kind of character if he’s listening to MOTORHEAD, instead of Bob Seger. Same with Dean, who snuck out to CBGB’s as a teenage kid. The land of punk rock. Listen, they established in the pilot the kinds of music Dean listened to. Maybe it’s better, ultimately, to have Dean – a Gen X guy – listening to boomer Dad Rock. I am assuming the music rights were prohibitive – Metallica never and I mean never licenses the rights. You NEVER hear a Metallica song on a soundtrack (the Paradise Lost trilogy is an exception and that was because they were a part of the story). So I am imagining Bob Seger and freakin’ Kansas are CHEAP and Motorhead/Metallica are NOT. Even Dean’s ringtone … it’s a Metallica knockoff not a Bob Seger knockoff. Again, I won’t make a big deal out of it because I understand financial problems with music but it still bugs me a little bit, especially since it’s a character thing.