Supernatural: Season 1, Episode 7: “Hook Man”

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Directed by David Jackson
Written by John Shiban

For a couple of episodes now, the “trail for Dad” has gone cold. We’ve seen the brothers start to get to know each other as men. “Skin”, episode 6, the one before this one, explored the theme of doubles and dark sides, the buried resentments that may be there between the Winchesters, especially from Dean’s side. Beautifully, Episode 7, written by John Shiban (who also wrote Episode 6) takes those themes which had been made explicit in Episode 6, and goes implicit with them.

That explicit-to-implicit (the reverse of how things normally go) is one of the greatest pleasures of Season 1, especially when you’ve seen the whole series. It’s not just peeling back the layers of an onion, because that implies that the characters become clearer with each episode, with each layer removed. They don’t. What they do is become deeper, MORE complex. If Sam and Dean became clearer with each episode, then there would be a point where the characters became static. In older episodics, like, say, CHiPs, we don’t learn a lot about Ponch and John. The characters were established from the get-go (Ponch is the ladies man, John is the more serious one) and the guys just kept playing those characters in episode after episode. Obviously it worked. Then there is something like Miami Vice (I’m picking “buddy” series): those two characters were not slowly revealed over the course of many seasons, because that was not what the show ultimately was about. The show was about its style, its music, its wardrobe, its striking cinematic visuals. We weren’t in it for “who the hell ARE these guys??” the way we are with Supernatural.

Without that Winchester brothers hook, we would have nothing.

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If I could pick an analogy, it wouldn’t be a layered onion. It would be a prism. The prism is angled differently, slightly, each episode. So that things we thought we understood, or were coming to understand, recede into the shadows, depending on the angle of the prism, and other elements, other aspects, reveal themselves. Supernatural becomes more complex as it goes on. Things aren’t just “one thing”. Qualities are not set in stone. Characteristics come and go, depending on the prism angle, and depending on the light source shining on it. This is the way it is in life too. None of us are just “one thing”. I wrote in one of my earlier pieces: Who is more rigid? Sam or Dean? Well, that depends entirely on the angle of the prism and the strength of the light source. It would have been so much easier to clearly delineate the characters: Sam is smart and sensitive, Dean is gruff and macho, and if the actors are good at it, you very well might have a hit show. I sure wouldn’t have been watching, though.

I love the prismatic aspect of the scriptwriting and the performances.

And here, in “Hook Man”, we see Sam’s college experience, as well as Dean’s (possible) resentment of said college experience, things that we very well may have expected we left behind in Episode 6 (“didn’t we just deal with this??”), through another angle of the prism. Because issues in life as big as “what if?” and resentment do not get “handled” in the length of an episode. They continue to bleed into our lives and there is a sense of frustration sometimes like, “THIS issue again? I thought we HANDLED this!”

My sense, in Season 9, is that the writers are finally dealing with Dean’s need to save Sam and sacrifice himself, at all costs. And they are dealing with it in a way that is earned, because we’ve seen the repercussions of his pattern so many times. Dean himself seems completely broken down by his own pattern. But we wouldn’t have the sense that a payoff of some kind is coming if they hadn’t set up that aspect of Dean’s character so carefully, so relentlessly, over so many seasons.

We’ve seen this part of Dean through every angle of the prism. We’ve seen its beauty, we’ve seen its courage, we’ve seen its willingness to lie, we’ve seen its heroism. And now we’re seeing its ugliness and the brokenness from which it really comes. I don’t think it’s an accident/coincidence that in Season 9 we were given an episode where we saw Dean in a reform school at age 16, where Sonny, the guy who runs the school basically likens Dean’s family to the gang he escaped from (after going to prison because of his dealings with said gang). Sonny tells 16-year-old Dean that eventually you have to make yourSELF happy, you have to choose for yourSELF. But Dean got sucked back into his family and forgot that lesson. He’s having to learn it now. Only he’s such a broken mess, how will it all play out? We’re at the end of the road with that arc, the prism can show us no more angles. It seems to me that where they are going is truly dealing with Dean’s pathological (totally pathological) fear of being alone. FINALLY, they’re getting to the heart of the matter. And the heart of the matter, as it usually is, is existential in nature.

This is the strength of the prism approach to screenwriting.

Episode 6 showed Sam cutting the ties, finally, with his old life, his friends from Stanford. (Interestingly, if you think of Dean showing up at Stanford in the pilot to pull Sam back in, that is just what John Winchester did to Dean when he pulled him out of the reform school, where Dean was flourishing, had his first kiss, was on the wrestling team, etc. Normal.) And remember, Episode 6 revealed to us, for the first time, that Sam had been having prophetic dreams about his girlfriend Jess being killed. This is something he has not shared with Dean. But the guilt of it is still operating. Issues from one episode bleed into the next. But writer John Shiban knows that there are things that have already been dealt with explicitly in Episode 6, so here he goes implicit. Episode 7 takes place on a college campus, for example. Coincidence? No. It involves a young girl in conflict with her father who won’t let her go. The connections are there, but not in the script. It’s left up to us to make those correlations.

And finally, I love it when urban legends I have in my DNA show up in Supernatural. I don’t know nothing about demons or Wendigos (although now I do), but I know all about the Hook Man, because it feels like it’s a story I have always known. Ghost stories told at Girl Scout camp, at sleepovers, Hook Man was the star of them all. And here he is, re-imagined, re-purposed, and it’s such a fun part of the show.

Teaser
Theta Sorority
Eastern Iowa University

The teaser here is quite elaborate. It is filled with information that will become relevant as the episode unfolds. It’s also CLASSIC horror-movie style. It couldn’t be darker and creepier. Has there ever been a creepier sorority house on film? Seriously, can’t these girls ever turn the lights on? In a pitch-black bedroom, a girl is getting dressed for a date and showing her outfit to her roommate. Maybe turn on the lights to see the outfit better? Oh, that’s right, you’re in a horror movie, you can’t! Laurie (Jane McGregor) shows her conservative outfit to her roommate, Taylor (Christie Laing), who shakes her head No, and goes and gets Laurie a sexy spaghetti-strap top. Laurie resists, but Taylor says, “There’s a hot chick buried in there somewhere.”

A simple scene but it sets up the relationship between the two girls, and it also sets up the struggle within Laurie. Taylor may be a sexy college girl but she is not unkind to her more mousy shy roommate. Her wardrobe suggestions seem supportive, rather than mean-spirited. This will get into one of the larger themes of the episode, as well as the series, which I’ll get into later, but I’ll mention it briefly here: Supernatural is on the side of fluidity, flexibility, and complexity. Anything black-and-white is inherently dangerous. Rigidity is dangerous, whether it be ideologically, politically, socially. Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we could all just cut each other a little bit of slack? Ghosts and demons cut NO slack, but Supernatural also deals with that on a human level. People who are rigid, who see things as black-and-white … well, they’re not “asking for it”, but they are setting themselves up for a big fall. Because life exists in the grey areas, and so do important human qualities such as compassion, empathy, and grace. Sam and Dean live in both worlds: they live in the black-and-white world, where evil things must be killed, and there is really no wiggle-room there. It’s cut and dry. But they also live in the grey world, when they deal with fellow humans and their foibles. You could say that Sam and Dean, by fighting tooth-and-nail against black-and-white thinking, are PROTECTING the grey areas of life. However, when you drill down into their personal lives, of course they are as black-and-white as the rest of us, they struggle with rigidity and polarizing thinking all the time. Their fight is ideological in nature. But to LIVE in the grey area? They may protect it for others, but they have a hard time with it for themselves.

Okay, so that wasn’t so brief. But I’ll re-visit it.

Laurie is excited for her date. She looks sexy. Taylor sends her off with “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”, to which Laurie responds, “There’s nothing you wouldn’t do.” She says it good-naturedly, though, and Taylor, flipping through a magazine, laughs in agreement. That, right there, is the grey area. Taylor is okay with flaunting her hot chick self, Laurie isn’t, and yet there, in that moment, they are in the same world, the same grey area, where they can cut each other some slack. That will change.

We can also see this relationship writ large in the relationship between Sam and Dean, if you want to search out those connections. Dean is on the Taylor side of the spectrum, and Sam is on the Laurie side. Dean uses sex for comfort and companionship, however brief, and he can separate out his “feelings” from it. Sam can’t, and he won’t. At least not at this point. Dean has no idea what it’s like to fall in love, at least not fully, and has no idea what Sam is going through with the loss of Jess. But something tells Dean that Sam needs to start trying to get over it, not to forget, but to move on. Maybe hook up with someone? Maybe kiss somebody? Whatever, it should be starting, because it’s not good for you to suppress those desires. None of this is in the script for Episode 7, but it’s all there.

Next, we see a truck parked under a big scary bridge (which, if I am not mistaken, is used no less than 742 times over the course of the series). It’s spooky, and dark, and we see the truck from through the bushes, which we know is a terrible sign.

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Laurie and her date, Rich (Brian Skala) sit in the truck and she’s a bit nervous. She thought they were going to a party. At one point, Laurie’s phone rings, she glances down and sees it’s her Dad calling. She doesn’t pick up. Rich moves in and they kiss for a while. Rich is sweet, but then moves to go under her shirt, and she pulls back saying, “No.” His response is bad news, no matter how sweet the guy is: “It’s okay.” Dude, she said “No.” Hence, it is not okay. I’m not saying he deserves to die. I also think there are grey areas in sex, and “No means No” doesn’t even begin to address the complexity of what goes on between two people, HOWEVER. She couldn’t have been more clear, Rich. “No.” Laurie succumbs, and they start kissing again, and then we see the truck being stalked through the bushes. Suddenly, we see a tall black figure, in a hat of some kind, and a long coat, standing at the end of the small road leading to the truck. Back in the truck, Laurie is still trying to cool things down, and who knows, it could end up pretty badly, this is how these things often go. In the darkness, we see a road sign: 9 MILE ROAD – and suddenly, the black figure reaches out and we see a hook scrape across the sign (fantastic sound effects, the noise is cringe-inducing). Laurie and Rich both hear it and look around them in the darkness. Rich gets out to investigate, because, of course, this is a horror movie and that’s what dumb boys do. Laurie, panicked, hyperventilates in the car. Suddenly, we see a hook scratch move its way down the side of the car. Rich is now nowhere to be found. The whole scene in the car is about sudden calm and silence being interrupted by sheer terror, when the hook crashes through the roof of the car. Laurie gets out of the car and starts to flee back towards the main road, before she stops, turns around, and sees Rich now strung up above the car, hanging there upside down, bloody and dead. Camera moves in on Laurie’s face and she screams at the top of her lungs. Laurie has no less than three AWESOME horror-movie screams in the episode. She puts her whole body into it.

It is difficult to avoid the implication that she is somehow being punished for being sexual.

1st scene
There was a longer version of this first scene, where we learn that Dean gave Sam a police badge that has a female’s name, Frances. Sam bitches to him about it. “Get me a badge with the right gender, please.” That’s cut, though, although the name “Frances” remains, and it’s a funny weird little moment. The brothers are at an outdoor coffee shop, Dean in the background at a table, on the laptop, with Sam at a nearby pay phone. Why a pay phone? Did something happen to his little blackberry with the stylus that we saw in Episode 6?

Anyway, Sam is on the pay phone, and frustrated, hanging up after some kind of “blah blah, well, thanks for your time” comment. Dean calls out to him, “Your half-caffe double vanilla latte’s getting cold over here, Frances.” One of the eternal moments where Dean makes fun of Sam for being girlie. There’s an episode later where Sam eats a “health shake” and the look of disgust on Dean’s face is one of the funniest moments in the entire series.

The search for Dad is rising in the narrative again. We’re 7 episodes in, and we’ve left the search for Dad for 5 episodes now. But he’ll be coming back, big-time, and soon. This small scene is a reminder that the brothers are busy. Yes, they’re looking for new cases, but in their spare time, they’re trying to find Dad. Sam reports back to Dean that he had someone check the FBI database for missing persons, and he even ran Dad’s license plates for any traffic violations. Nada. Dean says, “I don’t think Dad wants to be found.” And with that one line, we see, yet again, that Sam is the lead on the search for Dad, he feels more urgency about it. That unfinished business he has with the man.

I love the detail of the laptop. Of course the brothers would not have a spanking new one, and of course they would cover it in ominous band stickers.

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Dean has come across a news item about a mutilated fraternity brother in a college only 100 miles away. The witness said the attacker was “invisible”.

We then have an exchange which will be on eternal repeat, with variations, throughout the series:

Dean: Could be something interesting.
Sam: Could be nothing at all.
Dean: Dad would check it out.

Dean’s comment is the clincher for Sam, and the boys are off. All as “Bang Your Head” starts blaring.

2nd scene
The Impala barrels along the country roads (the boys seem to stay off the interstates), all to the rousing accompaniment of “Bang Your Head”, and then we get a rare helicopter shot of the small Iowa college town. Supernatural rarely goes up that far, visually. It’s interesting: The episode takes place on a college campus. Dean and Sam are so far outside the mainstream that they are on the level with criminals, drug dealers, hackers, and other outlaws. “Fitting in” in such a nice little town is already unheard of for them, although Sam did his level best not too long ago, and actually made friends, did his homework, etc. He may not have felt like he “fit in”, but he still gave it a shot. Giving us that helicopter shot of Americana highlights the brothers’ distance from anything even remotely normal. Especially in that damn Impala which seems like a fire-breathing dragon when it pulls up to the curb in front of the fraternity, belching smoke out of its gas-guzzling muffler.

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I mean, seriously, does that look so badass? It’s a sunny day but the way the shadows fall inside the car make them look like ominous black-hatted villains. Eric Kripke tells a funny story about why he chose an Impala for the car. He wanted it to be the kind of car that would pull up next to you at a stoplight and you would instinctively lock all your doors. Kripke went outside to talk to his next-door neighbor who was a car fanatic, went to car shows, etc. while neighbor was mowing his lawn, and Kripke said, “So I’m working on this pilot, blah blah, and I want the brothers to ride around in a vintage muscle car, the coolest car ever, the toughest car ever, and I was thinking a ’57 Mustang.” And the neighbor said, without missing a beat, “Yeah, the ’57 Mustang is tough …. if you’re a PUSSY.” Kripke was like, “Oh my God, really? No, no, that’s not what I’m going after at all!!! What kind of car should it be then??” And the neighbor said, without hesitation, “67 Chevy Impala.” Hysterical. Awesome.

In two or three lackadaisical atmospheric shots, we get a great feel for fraternity life: two guys working on their car, a beat-up couch out on the sidewalk, everyone just hanging around, probably hung over. Into this world stroll Sam and Dean. Every guy on that sidewalk is stopped dead in their tracks at the sight of the Impala, and Dean, trying to make chit-chat, says to one of the guys at the car, “Nice wheels,” and everyone looks at him weird. Because Dean, when he tries to be normal, comes off weird. Especially with other guys. But Dean doesn’t care. He knows he’s more Alpha Dog than anyone in a 5-mile radius, he is proud of his freak status because it means he’s tough, and these pudgy beer-fed boys got nothing on HIM. It’s funny, though, Dean and Sam stand there, and Dean says, “Hey, we’re transfers, we’re your new fraternity brothers, we’re moving in,” and just the looks on their faces … they BOTH look so incredibly sketch.

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They are shown to their room where they see a half-naked guy standing in front of the mirror painting himself purple. There’s a sticker saying “Purple Man” on the door. Production design, in its simple invisible way, does a great job here as they do everywhere, suggesting the reality of frat life, the posters, the totally random furniture, the chaos just outside the door. Purple Man is not surprised to hear he has new roommates. He has no feelings about it whatsoever, because he is probably still drunk from the night before, and totally obsessed on painting himself purple. He asks if one of his new roommates could finish up his back, and Sam and Dean both look grossed out, and Dean makes Sam do it, “He’s the artist. The things he can do with a brush.” And Sam TAKES this. I suppose he wouldn’t want to make a scene, and refuse to paint the guy’s back, but it’s such a funny older-bratty-bossy-brother moment. Dean strolls over to the couch, sits, picks up a magazine (which is called “BACKSIDE”, I mean, come on), and watches Sam paint the guy’s back. You can tell Dean is loving every second of it, even telling Sam he “missed a spot” at one point. The absurdity of their lives.

Meanwhile, Dean, with some subtle Batting-Eyelashes behavior (I go into Dean’s pan-sexual Eyelash-Batting here), questions Purple Man about the killed fraternity brother.

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Sam, sulking, paints Purple Man’s back, and Purple Man discloses that Rich was on a date with Laurie, who is a “local” and a “reverend’s daughter”, not to mention “hot”. I grew up in a university town. The whole “local” thing is so accurate in terms of the hierarchy in college life. “Locals” have a strange glamour, maybe a bit grittier, a bit mysterious, because they “come from there”. I was a local at my university so I know of what I speak. Dean, sensing that there is more to this Laurie person, who witnessed an “invisible” creature killing her boyfriend, asks Purple Man what church she goes to.

3rd scene
I’m thinking the church is an actual location and not a set. It’s superb, and they come back to it a couple of different times. Location shoots are rare in television (although they are getting more common), and Supernatural is all about location shoots. There are some sets, including “the bunker”, their most elaborate and expensive set, which they are now utilizing to the fullest. But for the most part, the show occurs out there in the real world.

Reverend Sorenson (Dan Butler) is up in the pulpit, speaking about the murder of Rich, ending with, “I believe he died trying to protect my daughter.” Technically, that is true, although before that Rich ignored Laurie’s very clear “No”, but moving on. Taylor and Laurie sit together in a pew, and everything is very solemn and holy and sad. The mood is totally interrupted by Sam and Dean barging in through the door in the back, mid-sermon, and letting the door slam behind them. The service goes on, Sam and Dean sitting in a back pew, and there’s a beautiful moment when Laurie, peering over her shoulder at the strange men in the back, makes eye contact with Sam. He smiles gently at her, across the space. When the Reverend asks the congregation to pray, Sam puts his head down, then notices that Dean is sitting there, still looking around, oblivious. Sam nudges him, a signal: “Pray, dude“, and poor Dean puts his head down.

The religious aspect of the show, the questions of faith and prayer, is really introduced here for the first time. The show always takes a pretty light touch with it, never tipping over into Christian-izing proselytizing (thank God), and it also takes Biblical entities like angels and turns them into psychopathic dicks, which is a lot of fun. The fact that Laurie is a reverend’s daughter, concerned with the Bible and with her own place in the modern world, seems incidental here, casual, but it’s our first glimpse of that stronger Arc coursing underneath the series, the apocalyptic Good vs. Evil Heaven vs. Hell arc.

After the service, Laurie and Taylor walk outside the church, the camera following them on a long dolly-track in a really cool and complicated shot. They’re in the dark church, and the outside world shows bright through the open door, the two of them in black-silhouette. The camera follows the two girls outside, into the light. That’s a tough trick to pull off, lighting-wise and camera-operator wise. It’s cool and symbolically potent as well, especially because Taylor, being sympathetic again, is inviting Laurie to hang out that night, do tequila shots and watch Reality Bites. (Do kids today have nostalgia for Reality Bites? That seems a bit old, but what do I know. I’m a bit old, too.) Laurie can’t, Sunday nights she has dinner with her Dad. Taylor says to her, “You are allowed to have fun,” almost the exact same words Dean said to Sam in episode 3. Taylor’s comment has great resonance for Sam right now, although, good Lord, as the series goes on, I don’t care that Dean drinks and fucks like there’s no tomorrow. None of that’s working for him anymore. He’s the one who needs to have fun. By fun I mean a break from existential aloneness and dread and guilt. But I digress.

The girls hug goodbye, Taylor takes off, and then Sam and Dean approach and introduce themselves. Sam takes the lead with Laurie, and I love when the brothers instinctively choose who is gonna go first, who is gonna talk to this person, that person. They both have strengths and weaknesses. (Humorously, in “The Purge”, the last episode – so far – in Season 9 – Dean insists on interviewing the hot chick at the gym by telling Sam, “You’re weird with girls. Sam-weird.” Dean, you’re weird with pretty much everyone, but thanks for sharing!)

They throw bullshit her way about being transfer students (they must have been held back multiple times in grade school), and she’s sweet and open but also clearly traumatized, and that is the part that Sam feels, Sam senses. Sam, in his quiet sensitive way, asks her what happened, and she shares that she feels like she’s going crazy, and the cops don’t believe her. Sam says to her, “I kinda know what you’re going through. I saw someone … get hurt once. It’s something you don’t forget.” As he speaks, watch Dean listening, and watch his quick glance over at his brother. It’s eloquent. The brothers do not confide in one another about their respective traumas, Mom and Jess. Just like with the kid Lucas in Episode 3, where Sam hears Dean’s memories of what it was like for him, here, Sam opens up to Laurie, and it’s something Dean hadn’t heard before. The fact that the brothers are capable (still) of being surprised by one another, of being vulnerable to one another, is one of the reasons the show works.

The reverend comes over to see who is talking to his daughter, and Laurie introduces them. Reverend says something like, “It’s so nice to find young people open to the Lord’s message” or some such thing which makes Sam and Dean squirm uncomfortably. They have to lie to nice people. It sucks.

There’s an absolutely gorgeous shot of the four of them talking. They’re outside but it looks like they are in a cathedral.

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Dean pulls the Reverend aside to ask about church groups, so that Sam can get Laurie alone. Sam, gently, conversationally, asks her what happened with Rich. She says, “I guess I was seeing things.” Sam replies, in that gentle insistent way he has, “That doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.”

I’ve mentioned before the times that “outsiders” look at Sam or Dean, suddenly perceiving who they are, and it is our way of understanding what they must look like to people outside their small world. They are both extraordinary creatures. They don’t feel that way, because their lives suck, and they’re the ones living it, trying to live up to their father’s expectations for them, but to someone like Laurie, Sam suddenly seems like the most amazing person who has ever lived. He believes her.

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4th scene
I wrote in the re-cap for the pilot about how much I love Supernatural for its implicit celebration of public librarians. “Hook Man” has some awesome library scenes, which show
1. Society still needs public libraries
2. Society still needs librarians.

And Sam and Dean Winchester USE their local libraries. They use them the way they are supposed to be used. They make the librarian earn her pay by asking for this and that court record. Public libraries are a service to any community, and Ben Franklin knew that when he set up the first lending library.

This is a personal issue for me, dear to my heart, as a librarian’s daughter, and “Hook Man” is a great example. Now that we’re in Season 9, with the bunker and all, there really are no more libraries to go to because of the extensive Men of Letters library they have at their command, but, in a way, the whole Men of Letters thing is just an extended celebration of archivists, knowledge, specialization, and organization, all things dear to librarians’ hearts.

Dean and Sam stroll through the library stacks, and it’s a crowded day, with fluorescent lights, but they show up in black silhouette at the end of each aisle, which is classic Supernatural. It’s apparently natural light here (although, of course, it takes a lot of artificial light to LOOK natural), and the boys look gorgeous in that moody shadowy light. As they walk, Dean says to Sam, “So you believe her,” and Sam says, “Yeah”, and Dean says, “I think she’s hot, too” which is so bratty and dismissive. BUT. Dean, in his normal bloodhound No-Boundaries self, senses Sam’s attraction to her, which hasn’t even been referenced, and is acknowledging it, just putting it out there into the open.

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They stop to talk about the case thus far, and it’s a great scene, albeit all “Lore” stuff. I love watching Ackles and Padalecki hash out “the lore” in episode after episode. Why do I love it so much? The variety they find in these repetitious scenes? I think it has to do with that thing I have mentioned before about the most interesting thing a human being can do on camera is THINK. Supernatural, with all its gore and action, is really about “thought”, and the “Lore” scenes show both these brothers with their minds working on overdrive. It’s fun.

Both brothers recognize the hook-scratches and upside-down-boyfriend as part of the famous “Hook Man legend”, but Dean is awestruck: “You don’t think we’re dealing with THE Hook Man?” Sam, cool and persuasive, tells Dean (and us): “Every urban legend has a source. A place where it all began.” So they discuss what it could be. A pissed-off spirit is the obvious choice, but they need to do more research before they can say for sure.

Librarian alert! A librarian plops down two dusty boxes in front of the brothers. I love how Dean blows dust off the top of the box and then chokes on it, in mild disgust, not only at the dust, but at the whole boring research part of his job. Behavior! Jensen Ackles never misses a beat, not one BEAT, to go specific, to go funny, to make something out of what could very well be nothing.

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In the boxes are arrest records for the town going back to 1851.

Dean thanks her, and she gives him a flustered flattered smile, which is one of the subtle ways the show acknowledges how gorgeous these guys are. It would be ridiculous to pretend that either of these gentlemen are not head-turners. Dean gets what’s happening, that he’s been checked out in a way, and turns his head to watch her walk away. It’s a small moment, but grounds us in reality. That’s how it would go.

A character aspect of Dean that I love is that even with the greasy burgers and porn, dude is hygienic. He gets seriously grossed out by germs, by filth, by sick people, by being contaminated. There’s that one hilarious scene in a later season where he steals a car, and sees that the front seat is filled with garbage. Dean mutters to himself, “Have some respect.” He’s stealing a car and he’s irritated and, frankly, grossed out that the person he is stealing from is a slob. He cannot STAND witches, or cases having to do with witches, because they are always “spewing their bodily fluids everywhere”, as he says, which just cracks me up, since in certain contexts, Dean obviously adores bodily fluids. But in a controlled consensual environment ONLY. Otherwise it’s just nasty and he needs to wash his hands. In the “Wizard of Oz” episode in Season 9, the Wicked Witch of the West, on a rampage through the bunker, tears apart the kitchen. Never mind that the Wicked Witch is deadly and can kill you with a zap of electricity. Dean looks at the ruined kitchen and moans, “I just cleaned in here!” Dean’s cleanliness (next to Godliness?) is not made into a bit, or schtick, but it shows up periodically and it’s an unexpected character thing I really like. The man has rarely had a proper hot shower in his whole life. He owns only a couple of pairs of jeans. He has grease and dirt under his fingernails at all times. He never feels clean. We can look at that metaphorically, too, in terms of guilt and shame and trauma. Sam, too, has a whole thing with “purity”, which will grow in import over the next couple of seasons, but it doesn’t manifest in Dean’s almost squicky devotion to hygiene.

So that tangent is based on the fact that Dean is grossed out by the dust on the box and that he has to deal with said dust. Sam is much more matter-of-fact, opening up his box, and Dean says, disgusted, “This is how you spent 4 good years of your life, huh.”

It will be the first of many “college” references thrown at Sam by Dean over the course of the episode, which reminds us of the Shape-shifter Dean’s pity party in the episode before this one, bemoaning the fact that Sam was the one who got to go to college. Of course that was an unreliable monster talking, but the constant digs about college here subtly let us know that the Monster was onto something.

5th scene

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Time has passed and the research continues. Sam and Dean have now taken over an entire table as well as the shelf behind them. Sam has come across an 1862 arrest record of a local preacher who was angry over the red light district and killed 13 prostitutes.

Shout out to the props department. These look like real archival material. The details!

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Sam reads aloud that some of the victims were hung upside down in trees “as a warning against sins of the flesh”, and, better yet, the deadly preacher had a hook for a hand because of an accident. Best of all, all of this happened on 9 Mile Road (Eminem? You there?), the scene of the frat boy’s murder. Dean looks over all of this and says to Sam, impressed, “Nice job, Dr. Venkman”, one of my favorite of Dean’s pop cultural references.

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6th scene
It’s about time for the “Hook Man” to strike again. Reverend Dad drops Laurie off at her sorority house, and they are in mid-fight. Laurie asserts that she’s 18 now, he needs to back off. Reverend Dad says he knows what goes on in that house, the partying, that ROOMMATE. Laurie is upset, but this young actress brings a totally conflicted energy to the table, something that will make sense by the end of the episode. She’s not a “good girl acting out”, she’s not a “bad girl pretending to be good” or vice versa. She is TRULY torn. Her father pulls her one way, her young adulthood pulls her the other way, and where she retreats is into that rigid black-and-white thinking that will bring about all of her problems. Like I said, Supernatural is on the side of gentleness, of cutting others slack, of not being too judgmental or hard about the complexities people face in life. Laurie is really struggling with that. Dean and Sam will struggle with it too.

Laurie goes into the sorority house which, again, is dark, terrifying, and ominous. I mean, do you want to walk up this stairway?

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The music is eerie and Laurie stands in the upper hallway, glancing around, freaked out. She’s sensing something. Maybe she’s just nervous. Maybe someone needs to turn on the lights. There’s a wonderful small shot, where Laurie peeks into an open doorway, and sees a girl at her desk studying. It is a benign image, it is what people do at college. But it looks strange. The shadows are too thick. Something’s off.

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She goes into her room, where Taylor lies asleep (passed out from those tequila shots, no doubt). Laurie, still freaked out, whispers Taylor’s name a couple of times. No response.

7th scene
Dean and Sam go down to 9 Mile Road to the crime scene to check things out. The lighting team pull out all the stops here. It’s a misty night, there’s a body of water, there’s a moon, and all of these natural elements are suggested in deep blue shadows, fuzzy lights, a silvery streak of moonlight in the water, with Dean and Sam moving around in the darkness. It’s gorgeous.

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Dean starts rummaging around in the arsenal in the trunk (I love how we can see a giant wooden cross just lying there), and here is where we are introduced to the concept of rock-salt bullets, which eventually becomes so much a part of the show that I want to stock up on them myself just in case a spirit ever comes out of my closet. Salt is supposed to “deter” spirits, it won’t kill them, “but it will sure slow them down”, and Dean and Sam carry salt with them everywhere by now. If you surround someone with a circle of salt, the spirit supposedly cannot break through (although, of course, that doesn’t work if there is any kind of breeze at all in the room, which breaks apart the circle, and in Supernatural there is ALWAYS a breeze.) We haven’t seen any rock salt behavior yet in the series. Dean pulls out a sawed-off shotgun and hands the bullets to Sam, who, looking truly terrifying in black silhouette, loads up the gun, all while saying, “You know bullets won’t do any good.” Dean informs him, “Rock salt.”

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Sam is impressed and says, as they start off down the shoreline, “You and Dad think of this?” Dean, swaggering in front, throws his second college barb at his brother: “I told you. You don’t have to be a college graduate to be a genius.”

Like I said, I love that Episode 6 makes us think that the resentment from Dean is just a product of a monster being mean and manipulative. Now we see there’s some truth to it, and the issue is NOT resolved.

A local cop emerges from out of the bushes (after we are made to believe, through stalker-ish camera angles that it is the Hook Man), and shouts at them to drop the gun and fall to their knees. Sam and Dean both obey, and in later episodes they would have had a much better cover story at the ready, FBI badges out, Bobby on speed dial. They’re not there yet. They get on their knees, hands in the air, and then the cop, pointing his gun at them, tells them to lie on their bellies, and as they do so, Dean mumbles petulantly, “He had the gun!!” So funny. So RUDE. Dean is going to let his brother take the fall there? It’s as though they’re talking about a toy gun and they’re in trouble with their dad, “He started it!”

8th scene
Back in the Sorority House called Sigma Doom and Dread, Laurie crawls into bed, and as she does so, slowly, the camera moves across the room and lands on the open closet door. Nothing comes out. Nothing needs to. All we need to do is look at that black space, remember the Hook Man legend, and run for our lives.

9th scene
Morning has broken, and Laurie and Taylor’s room is dimly lit with dawn through the Venetian blinds. Laurie rolls over, and stares across the room, and notices something weird. There is a huge dark puddle on the floor beneath Taylor’s bed, with something dripping down from the bed sheet.

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Horrified, Laurie’s eyes move up to Taylor, who is seen in fragments, a bloody wound here, her open scared eyes there, and we don’t see all of her but what we see lets us know that she has been slaughtered in her bed. Laurie bolts upright in bed, and screams at the top of her lungs. Then, even worse, her eyes are struck by something above Taylor’s bed, and there, on the wall, is a scratched blood-streaked message:

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We then get our third awesome horror-movie scream from Laurie.

10th scene
Sam and Dean clearly spent the night in jail and emerge into the morning light from the police station, Dean swaggering with pride about how he talked the Sheriff down to a fine by telling him that Sam was pledging a fraternity and the whole thing had been part of a Hell Week hazing ritual. Dean is so proud that he refers to himself as “Matlock”, which, I’m sorry, heart crack. They stroll up towards the Impala, and they both look like shit, and Dean says, glancing over at Sam, “Besides, you look like a dumbass pledge.” Dean, your nonexistent resentment is showing. Suddenly, before they can get into the car, what looks like the entire police force burst out of the station, race to their cars, and peel out, sirens blaring.

11th scene
Chaos at Theta Death-Dorm. Ambulances, cops, sorority girls wandering around in their pajamas. Laurie sits huddled in the back of an ambulance, wrapped in a blanket, looking completely cut off from the trauma she just experienced. At that point, there’s a great shot where the Impala drives by on the street below, slowly, and across the space, Laurie makes eye contact with the brothers. Dean only looks over briefly before turning back to the road, but Sam’s eyes are glued onto Laurie’s. This isn’t about her being “hot”. This is about Trauma recognizing Trauma, even in a crowded room. It’s a nice sequence, the camera angles, the pull-in to Laurie’s face. It’s emotional in nature, it’s connecting Laurie (black-and-white Laurie) to the world of compassionate grey areas, where people are allowed to be complex, although we don’t know that yet.

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Reverend Dad shows up and wants to take Laurie home. The cop there is apologetic, this is a small town and everyone knows everyone, but Laurie is now connected to two murders. Reverend Dad is firm: “Either arrest her now, or let me take her home.” The cop relents, and Dad goes to help Laurie back to the car, and he is very gentle with her, not scolding, not “I told you so”, which is a clue, if you think about it.

Dean has parked the Impala on the empty road behind the sorority and they sneak up to the house through the back yard, undetected by cops or hottie sorority sisters. Sam, behind Dean, is hissing his confusion at what is going on, always thinking, always analyzing. Ghosts stick to one location, and the sorority house is nowhere near 9 Mile Road. The brothers quickly hide against the side of the house at the sight of two sorority girls strolling by, and as Sam crawls up to the second-story balcony (with Dean’s help), Dean leers at the sorority girls and he seriously looks like a serial killer in that moment.

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“Think we’ll see a naked pillow fight??” he asks Sam’s body as it climbs up to the roof. I love that Dean’s conception of college is:
1. Dusty boring boxes
2. Naked pillow fights (i.e. Animal House)

The place is still crawling with cops, who somehow miss the fact that two grease-ball brothers are basically climbing up the side of the house and breaking into a second-story window.

As the brothers climb through the window, we hear Dean grunt as he lands, and then comes the following exchange (which we only hear):

Sam: “Be quiet.”
Dean: “You be quiet.”
Sam: “You be quiet.”
Dean: “You be quiet.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Supernatural would not work as well if the two lead characters were not brothers. If they had been un-related buddies, there still would have been character-chemistry, but it wouldn’t be brother-chemistry like that. It’s so ridiculous, it gives the show a ridiculous voice sometimes, and it’s awesome.

There are cops still in Laurie and Taylor’s room. Dean and Sam skulk in the closet waiting until the coast is clear. It’s great that a situation like this, which would give other people heart attacks (breaking into a crime scene) is so no big deal to both Dean and Sam that they don’t blink an eye. Their blood pressure probably doesn’t rise. They move into the room confidently, looking around. Dean points to his nose, indicating the stink, and Sam nods. They stare at the scratch on the wall, which, if you were scared out of your mind by a Hook Man story as a child, you will recognize.

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Sam, though, points to the weird symbol at the bottom of the message. What is that?

12th scene
Dean and Sam come back out to the Impala, which now has a parking ticket on the windshield. As Dean and Sam talk, Dean picks it up, looks at it, has no reaction. It’s not even mentioned, it’s not even included in the script. GREAT. The more behavioral and character stuff you can add without dialogue the better. Parking tickets mean nothing to Dean Winchester. They aren’t even annoying. Meanwhile, the brothers sit on the hood of the Impala and stare at the photocopy of the original hook on the preacher’s hand. There is that same symbol. So obviously they are dealing with a pissed-off spirit and Dean is practical, they need to go find the grave of the preacher and salt and burn his bones. Sam, still poring over the material, says he was buried in an unmarked grave. How many times does this happen on the show? How many unmarked graves ARE there in America? Since the spirit is obviously not attached to 9 Mile Road, they have no idea where he will manifest next, and that is worrying.

Dean, though, who has been thinking on his own independent track, says to Sam, “I think your little friend Laurie may have something to do with this.” Sam looks confused, taken aback. Both by the implication that innocent Laurie may be connected, and also, maybe Dean’s word choice: “your little friend”.

13th scene
Dean and Sam meet up that night at a frat party to do some re-con after whatever it is they’ve been doing separately all day. It’s chaos: dart boards, swirling lights, crowds of people, alcohol, mayhem. Dean makes his way through the crowd, overwhelmed by the girls/the partying. He says “Hey” to a couple of girls before coming up to Sam (and Dean can barely get through the following scene without being distracted by offscreen girls.) Sam is serious and almost somber, he already went through college, probably went to a couple of frat parties, realized it wasn’t for him, and moved on. But Dean is a kid in a candy store. Sam looks super uptight, as he stares around him, a kindred spirit with the conflicted Laurie, saying to his brother, “This wasn’t really my experience.” Meanwhile, Dean catches eyes with a girl off camera and says, “Hey”, smiling huge. It’s hilarious behavior. Especially when you consider that Jensen Ackles is reacting to someone who isn’t there at all. It’s offscreen. He’s making this shit up. So funny. Make-believe!!

Sam has been doing research on how the Hook Man might be tied up with Laurie and hands Dean a piece of paper, which Dean, distracted, horny, over-stimulated, can barely focus on for a second. They move through the crowd, Dean reading the paper, and Sam filling Dean in.

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In his research, Sam found evidence in the past of preachers who were busted for murder, and all the witnesses had said it was done by an invisible man. Each preacher committed murder in the name of upholding/protecting Morality. (This entire conversation takes place with a pool table in the background, a nice snarky ironic detail.) Being obsessed with the Immorality of others has clearly led these preachers down a horrible path, and Sam wonders if somehow the spirit has latched onto Laurie’s father. Maybe he is trying to save his daughter from immoral choices (and we know that’s true, we’ve already seen it.) As the brothers talk, there are a couple of gorgeous shots of them, surrounded in black, barely emerging from the shadows. Supernatural is now in a groove with how to light these two extraordinary-looking men. (Unfortunately, by season 3 or 4, the network put the kibosh on the darkness and de-saturation. You can feel the difference on a visceral level.) But, in the meantime, revel in the beauty of this lighting.

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I like this scene a lot. It’s just a scene of the two of them discussing all of this, thinking about it, speaking out their thoughts. They are open to one another’s thoughts, as they throw ideas out there. Sam says, “You know how a poltergeist can haunt a person, instead of a place?” No, Sam, I didn’t know that but thanks for enlightening me. Dean takes this in, and thinks about it, nodding, putting some of the pieces together, saying, “Yeah, the spirit latches on to the reverend’s repressed emotions, feeds off them, yeah, okay.” Sam adds the final catcher: “Without the Reverend even knowing it.”

Now that is a scary concept and brings us (subtly) into Supernatural‘s ongoing “consent” theme. People need to be allowed to police their own boundaries, to not be over-taken, compromised, against their will, by a spirit, a demon, an angel, whatever. But consent is taken away time and time again. The brothers are almost used to it. Dean is certainly used to it, since he’s more susceptible, more vulnerable to it. Sam, with the secret in his blood that he is not even aware of yet at this point, is also “susceptible”, and in many ways it is far more dark than Dean’s susceptibility. Dean’s susceptibility merely comes out of his innocence (strange word, considering his life style, but true), openness, and that strange sexuality that is so intense that it gives off a super-sonic sound wave without him being conscious of it (for the most part). Not to mention the fact that everyone, male, female, angel, demon, wants a piece of him. Sexually, spiritually, physically. They want a piece of him so much they lick their chops while having a conversation with him. It’s so rude. At least wait until his back is turned before drooling right in his face. This is the objectifying/non-consensual air Dean Winchester breathes. There’s a moment with Abaddon in Season 9, where she is basically snarling right into his face about all the things she can’t wait to do once she’s “inside” him, and how she’s dreamt of that moment, and it’s super-sexual, and super-violent, and Dean almost rolls his eyes in response, saying, “Are we gonna make out or are you gonna kill me, because I’m getting mixed signals here.” It’s a tired response from him, an over-it response, rather than an alarmed one. “You want to get inside me, bitch? Step in line, I’ve been hearing this shit since I was 12.”

So. The brothers now feel that Reverend Dad is somehow involved. The night is young, they still have work to do. Dean, again handing the Laurie responsibility over to his brother (I love how they never once have a conversation about it), says Sam should “keep an eye on Laurie” tonight. Dean so wants to just stay at the party and hang out and flirt that you actually can feel that it pains him, it hurts him, but he tells Sam he’s gonna go see if he can track down the unmarked grave of the Hooked Preacher. At this moment, a blonde steps into the frame over by the pool table, coming in between the brothers visually, and she is smiling over at Dean. An inviting sweet smile. Dean is frozen in his tracks for a second and then turns away, and he is literally wincing with repression. It’s funny.

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14th scene
Dean walks through a graveyard at night, shining his flashlight beam ahead of him. It’s night and all you can hear are the crickets. It’s a beautiful sequence. Dean is seen through the trees, which, of course, is par for the course, making us feel that he is in danger, vulnerable somehow. And, what a shock, the grave actually was NOT unmarked. That pesky symbol, on the wall and on the hook, is a dead give-away and when Dean comes across it he knows he’s found the spot.

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15th scene

Meanwhile, Sam stands in Laurie’s front lawn, with the church behind him and it’s a beautiful and evocative shot, the byproduct of filming on location.

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Laurie and her father are seen through the windows of their home, and Sam watches a really intense fight go down. We can’t hear what they are saying, and we assume that Sam can’t either, but he just watches, that protective part of him in overdrive, that empathetic part of him operating. The connections aren’t made for us, not here, but I can’t help but think of the constant fighting between Sam and his dad, and the final fight which had to be horrible, leaving Sam scarred with that unfinished business. If Dad is dead, then the final thing he would have heard from his son would have been anger. Thank goodness John Shiban held back from making these connections explicit, because it would have been too sappy to be believed. Here, it all works as subtext. And Padalecki plays subtext like nobody’s business.

16th scene
Grave desecration will become something we get totally used to in the show. Such a huge cultural taboo, and Supernatural makes it as casual as going to a McDonalds drive thru. Oh, whatever, yeah, digging up a skeleton again, no biggie. This is our first time witnessing the salt-and-burn ritual so the episode lingers on it, taking us through it, Dean digging up dirt, standing in the hole in the dark graveyard. In future episodes, all we need to see is a shovel being taken out of the trunk, and Dean lighting a match, and we know everything. Dean is filthy, heaving dirt up out of the hole, and talking to himself. He clearly got the bum deal on this case: “Next time I get to watch the cute girls’ house.”

There’s a cool overhead crane shot of Dean crashing his shovel into the revealed coffin, and it’s a wonderful reminder of how GROSS their line of work really is. You could never get the stink off you. Not fully.

17th scene
Sam is the kind watching stranger in the night, and he sits outside Laurie’s house, quietly. She has seen him from inside and comes out to talk to him. Sam is so sympathetic. He’s certainly not a-sexual but he is able to hide his sex drive better than Dean is. Besides, his sex drive is all wrapped up with his dead girlfriend, and he can’t let it go. But these two are kindred spirits in many ways, and Sam is intuitive about stuff like that. Also, he is able to talk to a young attractive woman without sexing her up, and Dean is not really able to do that. Laurie jokes that she has called the cops on him, and then sits beside him, saying, “I think you’re sweet, which is probably why you should run away from me as fast as you can.”

Her dilemma becomes the brothers’ dilemma as the series continues. People who get close to them die. They feel cursed. Marked. It is perilous to get close to anyone. The situation in Season 9 has become dire, for both of them, and here we see it in its infancy.

18th scene
As Sam quietly talks with his college-self kindred-spirit, dirty Dean crawls out of the grave, and goes back to his duffel bag for the supplies. He’s stripped down so he looks like a totally sick Greek God, and that mysterious necklace gleams, being pointed up without all those layers. He pours lighter fluid down onto the revealed skeleton below, and the camera is over his shoulder looking down into the grave, and maybe I’m gross, but the perspective makes it looks like he’s pissing on the grave. That has to be deliberate. The show really wants you to be implicated in loving these really morally-questionable guys, they really want you to get on board with them, and then ask yourself questions about what you are willing to tolerate. Very provocative shot.

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He looks both gorgeous and scary. An amoral angel.

Deadpan Dean lights a book of matches, and tosses it down onto the bones, and we see them burning, from close-up and then from the omniscient point of view, the “God view”.

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19th scene
Sam listens as Laurie opens up about how she is now a pariah. Nobody will talk to her anymore, “except you”. Sam doesn’t say anything, just leans in to the listening. Jared Padalecki is amazing in these scenes. They could be repetitious. They never are. He makes them not so. Laurie is angry with her father, who keeps telling her to “pray” and “have faith”. She sneers, and it is startling seeing that sneer on such a sweet young girl, “What does he know about faith?”

Faith (broken and whole) is going to be key to Supernatural. It will come up again in Season 1, and of course will explode to celestial proportions over the next four seasons. There are certainly some questions to be had about all of it. While the Christian religion explodes, what are the Muslims and Buddhists and everybody else up to? Is it only one apocalypse that goes down, the Christian one? Are the Buddhists laughing behind their hands, like, “Ah-ha-ha, those SUCKERS”? Supernatural sometimes explores this, but usually in less controversial ways than that, by having “old gods” trying to take over the world again now that that whole Christian thing is done for. It’s fun. But in an ecumenical sense, Jesus is rarely mentioned (maybe 5 times does he come up). God is the one everyone is looking for, angry with, etc. The question becomes: Is anyone up there listening? Are we alone in this world? What if it just feels good to pray? Does that make us dumb sheep? Dean is a conflicted atheist at the beginning, not a believer. He only believes in what he can see. That will change. When Dean prays, and he does, you know he is desperate, and it hurts, to admit he is helpless. Dean is furious at God, and has no use for God. If God was all-powerful, then why does it suck so much down here? Who needs Him?

The angel war in Heaven (which we never see) is reflective of the battles going on down on earth, the battle between obedience and free will, destiny and choice. The problem with fanatical religion is that it wants to remove choice from the equation. And yes, humans, overwhelmed with choices, seek situations where that choice will be eradicated. Everything that happens, with Dean, Sam, Bobby, Jody Mills, Castiel, the whole bunch, has to do with making choices, deciding on your own path, and doing what you believe is right, not what someone has told you is right.

Sounds pretty simple, right? The difficulty comes when you start to drill down into the implications of that on a personal level. Can Sam have the choice to go his own way? Can Dean choose to leave hunting and be a husband/dad? Can they have one foot in and one foot out? Can they make their own way? In many ways, Dean and Sam act like fanatical religious leaders to one another: Do it my way or take a hike (Dean more so than Sam, although Sam has his moments.)

Laurie confides in Sam that she found out her dad is seeing a married woman who goes to their church. His hypocrisy is infuriating to her. It is in such moments that people lose their faith. Sam doesn’t say a word, just listens, and she leans over and hugs him. We see him take the hug. The touch of a human being, a tender touch, is something he now lives without, and you can see all that conflict in his face as she hugs him. Padalecki is so good at portraying “still waters run deep”. Dean is not shallow, as a matter of fact he goes DEEP, but the water is pretty clear, you can look right down into him. At every moment Dean is showing where he’s at, which is why he is a bad liar. But Sam is thoughtful and still. At first he doesn’t move, and then you see him hug her back, putting his arms around her.

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Without a word said, you know this is the first time he’s touched anyone since Jess. This is all on Padalecki to play, and he does. They kiss, and it is tender for a second, and then more passionate, before Sam pulls back, telling her, “I can’t” and the look on his face breaks my heart.

Reverend Dad comes to the door and calls Laurie in, and he does not sound casual, he sounds angry. He is clearly afraid for his daughter’s soul/virginity/morality. Laurie calls back at him, in a rage, “I’ll come in when I’m ready” and it is at that moment that a dark figure appears behind Reverend Dad in the doorway, a hook flashes out, and Dad is dragged back into the house like a vaudeville act being given the cane-treatment. Sam, pulling out his gun, runs into the house and charges up the stairs where he can hear the Dad screaming. Laurie follows, screaming herself. There’s a lot of screaming going on. Sam bursts into the room at the end of the hallway, and sees Dad on the floor, cowering beneath a tall looming black figure with hooked hand raised high. Sam blasts at it with his gun and it de-materializes in a whose of angry black particles.

20th scene
At the hospital, Sam stares in at Laurie and her dad, who lies in a bed, all bandaged up. A cop (the same one who arrested them for being “dumbass pledges” down by the river) interviews Sam, and Sam calls the cop “Sir”, and his energy is gentle and sincere (unlike Dean when cops get in his way or get too close), but the cop says, “Son, seems every time I turn around I’m seeing you. I suggest you stay out of trouble.” “Yes, sir.” says Sam, which is in direct contrast to what happens in the final scene when the same cop confronts Dean. Sam and Dean are there to help, they are on the good side of things, but as we learn, hunters bring with them mess, destruction, chaos. They are often accused of murder, of breaking and entering, all kinds of things, because there is no reason for them to keep showing up the way they do. Sam and Dean are already used to this kind of thing.

And then Dean appears at the end of the hallway, and he’s trying to come see Sam but two cops are holding him back. Dean, classic Batting Eyelashes, says to the cops, all friendly and buddy-buddy (and they are having none of it, as per usual), “Oh, it’s okay – it’s my brother.” He waves at Dean, huge grin, calling out, “BROTHER!”

He looks insane.

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And then of course the second he is allowed through, the big smile vanishes and he rolls his eyes at Sam as he trudges towards him. The brothers both seem so suspicious. They don’t even seem to care. They know they won’t have to actually LIVE in that town afterwards and get along with people. They will be long gone. Their game-faces will get better as they move forward, at least in terms of the outfits and the cloud of plausible deniability they put around themselves. It makes it easier on them to maneuver if their cover stories are airtight.

As they walk away they have a hissed and urgent conversation. Sam says, “I saw the Hook Man – why didn’t you torch the bones?” Dean says, “What are you talking about? I did.” So it’s NOT the spirit of the hooked-preacher then? Sam, though, has some other thoughts, based on his talk with Laurie. He fills Dean in. The Hook Man attacked the Reverend, so he’s obviously not latching onto the reverend because why would he sic the spirit on himself? Sam thinks the spirit is latching onto Laurie.

And here comes a great exchange:

Sam: (urgent, he totally gets it) “Last night she found out her father is having an affair with a married woman.”
Dean: (blank faced, shrugging) “So what.”

Dean truly does not get the big deal.

This reminds me of his scornful moment in the episode with the haunted house and Helen Slater, where Sam reveals that one of the occupants of the house had had a baby out of wedlock. Dean replies, “Rent Juno. Get over it.” Which is hysterical and so insensitive, but he kind of has a point, too.

As I said, Supernatural is on the side of compassion, acceptance of grey areas and complexity. People sometimes do bad things, or “immoral” things, but they are not bad PEOPLE. Ghosts/angels/demons don’t see it that way. They are the enemies. They see things in black and white. Dean, as amoral as he is, is a grey-area kind of guy. Sleeping with a married woman? Oh well. It happens. No need to go all HOOK MAN for over 150 years, douchebag. In the world of Supernatural, Dean’s attitude is the right kind of attitude to have towards our fellow humans.

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But still, Dean’s casual acceptance of an affair with a married woman is missing the point, and that is that Laurie has unwittingly become an avenging angel. So Sam explains the situation to Dean, in a “Duh” kind of tone, but also with that urgency beneath it. Both actors are great at playing objective throughout these “figuring out the Lore” scenes. If you didn’t have an objective driving these scenes, then you’d just have a book report. Sam understands now that Laurie is furious at immorality, because her father is a hypocrite. Dean needs this spelled out for him.

Sam says, “She’s upset about it. She’s upset about the immorality of it.” It all makes sense now, all of the victims: “Rich comes on too strong, Taylor tries to turn her into a party girl, Dad has an affair.” Sam actually has empathy towards her position, but Dean looks a bit freaked out. His response is: “Remind me not to piss this girl off.”

Hahaha.

Sam and Dean were never allowed innocence in their childhood and yet they encounter it every day in the people they meet during these cases. The brothers are at their best when they don’t have contempt for innocence. It is, I imagine, one of the most challenging things about being a hunter. How do you keep doing your job and not let it completely take over your personality? How can you see ANY good in ANYthing? In “Freaks and Geeks” in Season 8, Dean takes the teenage hunter aside and reminds her, in no uncertain terms, that hunting is not about revenge, and sometimes it’s not even about killing. A difficult balance. Their responses towards innocence are sometimes mixed with regret, that bubbles up unbidden, spontaneously: why should others be allowed innocence when it was denied them? Self-pity is not in their makeup – it comes out more as rage – and here, they are able to see that Laurie’s innocence has now turned into rage. They just get it, they don’t even need to speak about it. Dean doesn’t understand why salting and burning didn’t stop the guy. Now, I am not a hunter, but I admit I thought to myself, “Did you get the hook though, Dean?” I’m wicked smaht.

Sam asks Dean, “Did you get the hook?” and then follows more talking. This is a long-ass talking “piecing together the bits of the story” scene, and it’s such a pleasure to watch these two guys work together, onscreen together, thinking, listening, talking, that I don’t care that it’s just about the “Lore”. This is what actors do. They make fake conversations seem real, they breathe life into fictional characters. It’s all in the details.

Sam and Dean are now totally in sync, throwing ideas around, and finishing each other’s sentences. The whole scene ends with them saying, “we stop the Hook Man” in unison (I am glad they don’t do the “unison” thing too much, only twice so far, it’s enough to give us a taste of it, of their relationship, but it’s not so much that it becomes cutesy schtick).

21st scene
Oh my God, they go back to the library. I am in heaven. This late in the game, this late in the episode, and John Shiban sends them back to the LIBRARY? For more RESEARCH? That’s bold! Supernatural, I love you.

The library is dark, again, the overhead lights off, love it, and Dean and Sam pore over big old ledgers and old court records.

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When did Dean lose his silver ring, by the way? I miss it. Just like I miss the leather jacket and the necklace. The plan now is: to find the original hook of that preacher-man, who clearly had not been buried with it, otherwise it would have burnt up when Dean pissed in the grave. Dean and Sam follow the trail of the preacher as much as they can, and Dean has come across a log book of the Iowa State Penitentiary which lists the personal effects for each prisoner. Hooked-Preacher man’s effects were given back to St. Barnabus’ Church. Laurie’s church. Where she lives. Sam is confused. He wonders what the hell happened to it? Why wouldn’t anyone have mentioned seeing a bloody weird hook over all of these years?

Dean says, now totally in the zone, “Gonna go check the church records.” You go with your nerd-self, Dean Winchester.

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I love these guys as researchers. It makes me happy. I know the Men of Letters thing was not plotted out at this early point, but it works so well, it makes so much make sense, it FITS. Hours seem to have passed. The guys have now moved to nearby chairs with all their research spread out. Sam has found out that the hook had been melted down and re-forged.

22nd scene
It’s night and the Impala drives up to the church. I love how conspicuous the car is, first of all in what it looks like, and also in how LOUD it is. There are so many scenes when they need to be undercover and yet they still drive that chugging snorting gigantic thing. And then, in my opinion, the sexiest moment in the entire series is when Dean finally goes to get the Impala out of storage. I mean, not to be graphic, but I need some alone-time after that scene.

Okay. Moving on. I guess the plan is to find everything silver, in the house as well as in the church, and burn it all down. Who knows if the hook was made into a communion wafer platter, a candlestick, whatever, it all has to go. They split up, Sam choosing to “take the house”, while Dean takes the church. Dean, again sort of pushing the “you like her, Sammy” thing, which is obnoxious, but also kind of sweet because it shows … oh, I don’t know, he cares … and that Sam may feel like his heart is dead and he’ll never have sex again, but Dean knows better, and it’s okay, you can crush on her if you want to. But what Dean SAYS is: “Hey. Stay out of her underwear drawer.”

In the last re-cap, I talked about the whole women’s underwear thing and Dean Winchester. So Dean, we all know you’d not only be totally up in that drawer if you “took the house”, but you might even swipe a couple pairs for your own use, so just stop it.

Next, we see Dean in the church basement, heaving silver things into the fire in the furnace. Sam, carrying a big bag filled with clanking stuff, comes down the stairs, and starts hauling it all into the furnace. The music is tense now, cliffhanger stuff. There won’t be any more library scenes, there won’t be any more sweet confessional talks with Laurie. We’re in full-on Third Act Horror Movie now.

Suddenly, the floorboards creak above them and they both freeze, looking up. Drawing their guns, they run up the stairs. Keeping silent, they push open the door that leads into the church, which is dark and beautiful, with candles lit, and the stained-glass windows glowing. But all the rest in shadow.

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One detail I noticed that I find totally delightful: As Dean and Sam peek into the church, take a look at the big whiteboard in the foreground, and take a look at the words we see there.

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So silly and funny and snarky, and has all kinds of echoes in the series as we meet actual reapers. “Reaping With Joy.” Brill.

When they see Laurie sitting in a pew up front, crying, Dean gives Sam a look (“This one’s yours”) and goes off back down the stairs. Sam makes his way down the aisle towards Laurie. Laurie is sobbing. She tells Sam she is praying for forgiveness because she now understands that she is somehow doing this. She says, “I read in the Bible about avenging angels …” And with that one phrase, the Christian iconography of the series starts to clank into place, only it’s done almost invisibly. As the two talk quietly, a dark cloaked figure materializes at the back of the aisle, and suddenly all the candles are snuffed out.

Sam and Laurie both sense something, and Sam leaps into action, grabbing her and running down the aisle. When they try to go through the door near the Reaping with Joy sign, the Hook Man is suddenly there, the hook comes crashing through the wood. They run down the aisle again towards the altar, their fleeing figures captured in a great tracking shot, and once in the room behind the altar, the Hook Man reappears and swipes at Sam’s arm, injuring him.

Then, in a thrilling shot, very Exorcist-inspired, Laurie, who has fallen to the ground, is then grabbed under the arms (by a totally invisible being) and whizzed down the long hallway into the room at the end of it. It’s horrifying. It looks like the hallway will never end. Sam runs down after her, and he gets tossed across the room by the invisible Hooked Man. With the amount of times these giant guys who each stand over 6 feet are thrown across the room like rag dolls, you’d think they’d have more broken bones. Excellent stunt-work. The bookshelf collapses on Sam’s body, leaving Laurie unprotected as the Hook Man looms over her. Sam staggers up behind the Hook Man.

Now comes a badass moment, beautifully imagined and perfectly executed, which puts Dean Winchester in great heroic company: Dean appears at the end of the hallway, running at top speed, holding his gun. He sees the scene at the end of the hall, shouts, “SAM! DROP!” Sam drops to the ground, leaving the Hook Man in view and Dean blasts him away with rock-salt. It’s fucking awesome. “SAM! DROP!” And Sam does. It just shows how well John Winchester trained them.

As the gun blasts go off, plaster explodes from the walls. Sam is upset and injured and screaming up at Dean about the silver. Why is the Hook Man still there? What did they miss? Both brothers are screaming at one another, and then Sam sees Laurie’s silver cross, and he points at it, still screaming, “WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?” Poor Laurie. She tries to answer, but both Winchester brothers are screaming at her now: “WHERE’D YOUR DAD GET IT?” “IS IT SILVER?”

As this screaming fest goes on, a hook scratch starts appearing in the wall down at the end of the hallway, and it proceeds on, leaving a scratch-mark, and powdery residue filling the air. It’s a wonderful effect, and there’s a great shot of Dean looking over his shoulder at it. He looks freakin’ terrifying.

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Sam yanks it off her neck, and, in another beautifully choreographed moment (would love to see how many times they had to do it to get it right), tosses the necklace to Dean, who, at the same moment, tosses the gun to Sam. Who, remember, must catch it with his un-injured arm. These actors are both so wonderful physically.

Dean tears off down the hall and now it is up to Sam, lying on the floor, with one bum arm, to hold off the Hook Man. Scratches appear in the walls up near the ceilings. Sam points the gun, fires. The room is totally destroyed. Sam has to re-load the gun, with his one good arm, and it’s just great physical character-work from Padalecki. Dean pounds down the stairs into the basement and tosses the necklace in. Waits. Stares at the damn thing as it hovers over the red embers. Upstairs, Hook Man appears and knocks the gun out of Sam’s hands, and it annoys me that they do not take the “bungee cord” suggestion from the convention, even though they discuss it as a good idea. Honestly: almost every fight scene involves Sam or Dean getting a weapon knocked out of their hands. Guys: handle this. Velcro, Bungee, something. It’s a problem. So now Sam has no weapon, and the Hook Man looms over him and Laurie, and downstairs Dean, impatient, frenzied, watches the cross in the embers, waiting for it to start melting. Finally, the damn thing melts, and upstairs the Hook Man sort of dissolves into charred embers embers himself. I love the effects: not too much, not too slick. Just enough.

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Dean comes running back upstairs and down the hallway, out of breath, looking at Sam. There is a lot going on in his face, but he doesn’t say anything. They just share a long moment of eye contact, similar to the final moment on the plane in “Phantom Traveler”. No words necessary. They both know what a close call this one was.

23rd scene
It’s morning now, and we have another scene of chaos, with ambulances and cops, only now it’s outside the church. Dean is in the process of being questioned by the cop, the same cop who found them by the river, and questioned Sam at the hospital. Dean, unlike Sam, is not afraid of the cop, not submissive, and takes on this casual “Yeah, man, we saw the guy with the hook, and then he ran …” attitude as he tells his tory. He is telling the truth (mostly), but he seems like he is lying.

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Humorous moment and my favorite in the episode. The cop can tell that this whole situation stinks somehow, and yet he can’t figure out why, but he knows these two suspicious brothers are up to no good. So once he finishes questioning Dean, he gets all authoritative and starts to say: “Listen. You and your brother–” Dean interrupts him, tiredly, “Oh, don’t worry. We’re leavin’ town” and walks away. It is so funny, you just can tell that Dean has had this same confrontation about 500 times in his life and he’s cutting to the chase for the cop, he knows the drill, they’re outta here.

Sam’s arm is getting patched up at the ambulance, and Laurie, now in a sheer white shirt, looking vulnerable and angelic, goes over to him.

Now comes a masterpiece sequence, simple, full, and beautifully put together. The genius of it is in the editing. The way the scene is pieced together, the collage of it, says it all, with no language (well, there’s only one line). We see Laurie approach Sam. We then see Dean, at the Impala, getting into the driver’s seat, after a quick glance back at his brother and Laurie at the ambulance. Dean looks into his side mirror, watching what is going on back there through the mirror.

It’s strangely sad, showing the lives these young men have chosen to live. The sacrifice Dean has made is on his face, but he seems okay with it, and now he’s also thinking about the sacrifice his brother has made, and is still making.

The masterpiece sequence continues, briefly going back to Laurie and Sam, Laurie still dazed, but thanking Sam. Sam smiling down at her.

Cut back to No Boundaries Dean, who is still watching through the side mirror. It will become explicit in the “antiques dealer episode” coming up soon, but it’s starting here. Dean is concerned about his brother. Dean thinks Sam should maybe … date again? Or at least try to crush on someone? Get laid? Dean would never say so. It’s kind of against their code, and it’s also kind of embarrassing because, you know, feelings and sex are involved. But you can see it in how he watches his brother say goodbye to Laurie. The way the shot is set up is great: We don’t stay back there with Sam and Laurie. We stay on Dean, looking into the side mirror, and we can see their two blurry figures through the back window. Sam and Laurie don’t hug, we can see that, and Sam walks away back to the car. Dean watches all of this, with a couple of different expressions on his face. Great moment from Ackles, and then we see him from the side of the car again, as his brother approaches the passenger seat.

We don’t see Jared Padalecki’s head, it is not in the shot. We just see his body through the passenger side window. And, and, he hesitates before opening the car door.

My heart almost stops with Sam’s hesitation. It’s subtle, brief, but an entire world of regret is in that pause.

It’s hard to accept the life. He is doing it, but it still takes him a second. He is only 22 years old.

Sam gets into the car, and they both sit there for a moment. We still can see Laurie, glowing almost white, blurry, through the back window. The camera is on Dean, who is looking over at Sam, with a fresh open expression that also almost breaks my heart. He loves his brother. And what Dean says is, “We could stay.”

That Dean would make that offer is extraordinary. We already know how threatened Dean is by anything that threatens to rock the boat of the Winchester family. It’s a huge concession he’s making here, and he makes it simply and openly. And Dean would stay. At this point in the series, he would. Because he loves his brother.

Meanwhile, there hasn’t been ONE CONVERSATION about “I like Laurie” or “She’s cute” or anything. It’s all been subtext. Pretty great.

After Dean says his one line, the camera pans over to Sam, whose face is bruised and bloody and almost stern. He is staring straight ahead. He does not look at Dean. He shakes his head. No. Let’s go.

It’s really sad.

Dean, once again, glances into the side mirror back at Laurie. We see her standing there alone now.

Back to Dean, who shakes his head a little bit, regret, sadness, resolution, and drives the car off. End of episode.

But here’s that last sequence, broken down into its beautiful parts. It’s my favorite “ending” so far in the series. Way to do it with mostly visuals, camera angles, and almost no dialogue. Gorgeous.

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58 Responses to Supernatural: Season 1, Episode 7: “Hook Man”

  1. Helena says:

    Great recap, as always.

    I love the ‘No, you be quiet’ bit, and the feet disappearing through the window. You can imagine one of them has stepped on the other.

    //(the boys seem to stay off the interstates),// Those country roads – even if the are basically Canadian – make me think of Willin’ by Little Feat, not least because Tucumcari is mentioned in one episode:

    I been warped by the rain, driven by the snow
    I’m drunk and dirty don’t ya know, and I’m still, willin’
    Out on the road late at night, Seen my pretty Alice in every head light
    Alice, Dallas Alice

    I’ve been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
    Tehachapi to Tonapah
    Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
    Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
    And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
    And you show me a sign
    I’ll be willin’, to be movin’

    And now that we’ve got finally got to the old salt and burn, I can now quote Sir Thomas Browne from his Urne Buriall:

    But who knows the fate of his bones, or how often he is to be buried? Who hath the oracle of his ashes, or whither they are to be scattered?

    • sheila says:

      Wow, that Thomas Browne quote. Incredible!!

      Yes, and Dean’s big boots going through the window. Crash. “Oops. Sorry.” “Be quiet.” “You be quiet.” “You be quiet.”

      Imagine how humorless and charm-less the show could be without moments like that!

  2. Maureen says:

    I watched this episode again a few days ago (need to be prepared for a possible Sheila recap!), and I loved it even more than the first time I saw it.

    The libraries, the research-I am a huge fan of libraries, and I love they way they are used in the series, especially at the beginning. My husband knows whenever we visit a new town, I always have to check out the library, that is one of our stops.

    I think what I love so much about your recaps-the scenes I watch over and over-like the “Sam, drop!”, the throwing exchange of the silver cross and the shotgun, and of course that final scene with Dean’s tiny head gesture of regret and Sam’s stoic face-that you are able to put into words so beautifully WHY I watch them over and over.

    It is so enjoyable to me, I basically sit here saying “YES, that is exactly it!” when I read these.

    The Hook man isn’t an urban legend I was familiar with. But the Bloody Mary-I’m not ashamed to say I was scared to look in the mirror in the bathroom for a few days. I know it sounds silly, but I would actually think “don’t say or think Bloody Mary”, which of course made me think of it even more.

    This show!!

    • sheila says:

      // I would actually think “don’t say or think Bloody Mary”, which of course made me think of it even more. //

      hahahahahaha “or think”

      Dying.

      I know, the time they spent in libraries – the fact that there are two lengthy research scenes that basically just show these two hot guys … reading??? I’m in heaven. I am so pro-library, and this show is a mini advertisement/love letter to them.

      Well, that and cheese-ball motels.

      “Sam! Drop!” I mean, Jensen Ackles is a freakin’ action star with a line-reading like that. Amazing. He just has it in him. And it’s so early in the game here with the series, he’s so confident, so in it.

      I am dreading the next episode. Due to the monster in question and one scene in particular which took me by surprise in my first viewing, and I still have not recovered. This ain’t a fear I have, it’s a phobia. I don’t want to see it again. But I will!!

      Thanks for reading and commenting – it’s so fun!

  3. Jessie says:

    I literally said out loud, oh, yay! when I saw this was up :-D

    You are mistaken, that bridge is actually used 917 times.

    It is SO HILARIOUS that they would just rock up and be like, yeah, we’re staying here now. They are the dodgiest people in the world.

    I love that “Nice job, Dr Venkman” line, and how afterwards you can see Sam kind of kindle a bit of inner pride at the praise. It’s like what you say about prisms (super great way of describing this mode of storytelling). That self-contained, inward-directing unit of feedback, good and bad, they have going, it’s special, it’s sweet and lovely. And it’s also claustrophobic and weird and toxic as hell. And it’s both of these things at once. You want them to have it, so much, because they’ve had a terrible life and you want them to have nice things, and at the same time you’re like JESUS, HIT THE BRAKES DUDES. Thank god S9 really seems to be getting to the bottom of this. I love the parallels you draw between S9/Bad Boys and S1/Pilot.

    I also love your note about Dean and cleanliness; and cars. The Impala is pretty much the most highly-polished object in the universe. Oof, does it hurt when she’s looking so grim in the first episode of season 2. Dean obviously projects a whole heap onto that car. If only he could bring some of it back inside and start caring for himself that well.

    “What a geek,” Dean says, at the party, and then follows that up with “all right, did you do your homework?” Ha ha.

    I think way too much about the mechanics of the grave desecration. How the hell do they dig such neat holes, by themselves, in an hour or two? What if the ground is too hard? How do they dig out so much of the grave, and down past the sides of the coffin? Forget resurrections and vessels and blood corruption and killing monsters without breathing hard. This is the clearest sign of all that they are superhuman.

    Dean goes, “well yeah, the guy wouldn’t send Hook Man after himself,” but that ends up being exactly what happens with Laurie. Some kinds of people are messed up and need to punish themselves in the most unproductive ways. These guys should know that pretty well.

    You pulled out so much cool stuff out of this episode which I tend to think of as one of the trio of weak S1 eps, along with Bugs and Route 666. But even the weakest episodes always have multiple somethings to recommend them: the chemistry, the humour, the little moments that JA and JP find, the cinematography, sequences like the one at the end here. And of course the subtext and themes, because the show is always, to torture a metaphor, dredging these incredibly rich swamps of masculinity, family, repression, love, just bringing up the blackest, scariest shit and depositing it in the stories and in those two wonderful embodied thoughtful performances.

    Thanks again!

    • sheila says:

      What is wrong with the episodes you mentioned, Jessie? I could barely get through Bugs, due to the topic – I had to watch the whole thing with my hands over my eyes.

      And yeah, what, you’re gonna just STAY in this town, boys? How will THAT work?

      // That self-contained, inward-directing unit of feedback, good and bad, they have going, it’s special, it’s sweet and lovely. And it’s also claustrophobic and weird and toxic as hell. And it’s both of these things at once. //

      So true – and only the prism way of storytelling would let us examine it from all angles. There’s that great moment in Rock and a Hard Place, where Jody Mills, bless her heart, says to Sam, “What you and your brother have is special.” And the LOOK on Jared Padalecki’s face in response. He is so DISTURBED by what she said. And he doesn’t even know at that point about Dean’s betrayal. So that’s a deep look, and I kind of see it saying, “Sure, we’re close, great, but the only primary relationship I’m supposed to have is with my brother? You just talked about us like we were a great ROMANCE. Doesn’t anyone see how SICK this is??”

      and seriously, about grave desecration. Can’t they rent a little bull dozer when they need to and save themselves the trouble?

      and good point about how the Hook Man goes after Laurie – dammit, I missed that! She is so conflicted, so torn between influences – her desire to be punished, her NEED to be punished is then made manifest.

      • Jessie says:

        Ha ha, well I certainly wouldn’t begrudge anyone loving those three episodes. I just mean least successful for me in the context of the season. Hookman has some good moments but no standout memorable scenes/characters for me, unlike every other episode of the season. Route 666, as much as I like the idea of Carrie, is kind of leaden, and the MOTW is pretty rough.

        As for Bugs, I actually kind of love Bugs; I love its first half whole-heartedly; I love its hilarious schizophrenic weather; I even find its complete lack of subtlety and awkward effects and its ridiculous second-half plot failures kind of endearing. But there is definitely something broken at the end of that one :-D And I dunno, they go and talk to a NA elder and the scene opens on a dog rooting through rubbish? Tacky.

        But I look forward to going through them all with you because as Maureen says you bring stuff to the table that is endlessly interesting and illuminating and the love is palpable so it all works for me. Although I feel for you having to dissect Bugs! Insects and spiders don’t bother me so I didn’t find it very scary.

        I am sure the Impala has room for one of those little ride-on diggers. She is practically a TARDIS already to fit Sam and Dean’s asses in there at the same time.

        I could go on for quite some time about how the Sam and Dean relationship reads as romance! Melodramatic and gothic romance are definitely part of the generic heritage of the show. As you’ve said the show is really interested in looking at masculinity, so I am fascinated by the ways it uses romance tropes to both build this relationship between men (create stakes, plot points, the cinematography, etc) and critique it.

        • sheila says:

          It seems to me that the most successful episodes have a certain elegance to how they connect the Arcs of Monster of the Week and the deeper relationship Arcs – If it were too obvious, then we’d be in “And here is the important lesson we all learned this week” land. I definitely feel that in “Bugs” – which basically seems to be an excuse to bring up Dad again and Sam’s ambivalence about how they were raised. Dad, of course, is going to show up in the episode following “Bugs” – so it’s a way maybe to prepare the ground for that. But it feels contrived to me. The script feels contrived. “The way we were raised was jacked,” says Sam, a propos of nothing. And the Dad of the insect-boy (Samandriel!!!) – you know, of course he’s a bossy pants dad, and of course Sam relates, sees himself in that situation – but it still doesn’t have the subtlety of other episodes. It feels too on-the-nose, or one-to-one correlation – when the show is usually more elegant with those interlacing themes. I have no idea if this makes sense.

          “Route 666” too is basically a romantic episode – with a monster thrown in. But you can tell that the REAL point of the episode is to deepen Dean’s character, fill in some blanks, and see who he is in a vulnerable romantic context, after seeing him only in one-night hook-up contexts. And that is clearly what everyone was interested in exploring in that episode – and then, almost as an afterthought, remembered they had to throw in a monster. Hahaha. “Oh yeah, wait … we need a monster in here in between all the lovey-dovey stuff …”

          • Jessie says:

            Yes, the stuff Bugs wants to talk about is really interesting (oh man, Sam saying “hey, it gets better, you’ll be off to college soon and be free,” right in front of Dean, that hurts!), but the dialogue and parallels are waaaaaay too on the nose.

            Ha ha yes the MOTW in Route 666. Can’t wait to have a laugh while rewatching that one!

          • sheila says:

            Oooh it’s a ….. Monster Racist Truck!!

            Really??

            Hmmm. Let’s just get back to what we really care about, which is Dean dealing with romance and love, and Sam looking on in amazement.

            Really lop-sided episode. And – ironically – it makes the racism suggested seem secondary, boring. Not a good look!!

            Still, do love that romance plot – and Sam’s basic reaction to the whole thing. Sam looking on as Dean deals with a girlfriend (Dean?? A girlfriend??) is fascinating character stuff.

  4. mutecypher says:

    It’s interesting how one’s sympathies for characters in well-done series can change over time. I recall identifying more with Sam during the first 2 seasons. I loved Dean, but he dragged Sam out of a good life to try to find a father that had rejected him. So my sympathies were more on Sam. But beginning in Season 3 when Dean had to deal with his pact, and then seasons 4+ with the aftermath of his time in Hell, he became the emotional focus for me.

    It’s similar to the X-Files, where my sympathies began with Mulder, but in season 2 with the Duane Barry arc that changed. With Scully getting kidnapped (at a time when Gillian Anderson was pregnant, so she needed to be off screen for a while) I began to feel more of an attachment to her, or to treat her and Mulder as equals for my emotional investment. And with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, I recall loving Giles and Oz and Willow even more than Buffy for a while, each in their turn. Though I always loved Spike, especially once he became smitten with Buffy. And Buffy and Buffy and Buffy (to the last syllable of recorded time).

    Dean is clearly your focus – was that the case from when you began watching?

    And I’m curious about the other Supernatural regular commenters, was Dean always the fave?

    • sheila says:

      One of the best parts of Supernatural is how sympathies flow back and forth – it kind of forces you to see both sides. I certainly like Sam more, and I relate to him more, especially once his secret is out and he starts struggling with the fact that something is “wrong” with him. I said in an earlier post that if I had started watching this show pre-diagnosis, I would have probably stopped watching it because Sam’s journey was so close to my own.

      Both are superb actors but I think Jensen Ackles is actually a genius – what he is DOING (in terms of acting) was one of my real ways in – and the focus of the first post I wrote. http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=72302

    • Jessie says:

      In answer to your question — it took me half a season to click, with Dean; to get him. But Something Wicked sealed the deal for me. It’s hard to say he’s my favourite — Sam breaks my heart like clockwork and JP is one of the funniest people I have ever seen work a gag reel — but there is something ineluctable about Dean and JA. It’s magic. And there are times, especially in season 2, when he’s one of the most beautiful things that’s been photographed since Taylor and Newman in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

      I think the seeds were planted in this episode for the shift from Sam being our entry point to Dean being our entry point (dirty!). We don’t stay with Sam, at the end here. We watch Dean watch Sam. That’s gonna be a big part of how we go from here on in.

      • sheila says:

        There are moments when Sam is so open that you can honestly see why Dean feels the need to protect him. JP is so good at that – and he does have a moment at the end of “Bugs” which is heart-catching – you know, when tears suddenly well up. He really is heartbreaking, and very early on – like, pilot early-on – we totally love him. Dean seems a bit scary, a wild card … but for me it was the deepening of his character that was the real hook. Maybe because he seems so forbidding, so certain – that when those cracks start opening, you are like, “Oh my God, who IS this guy?”

        And I am STILL feeling that, 8 seasons later. The look on his face that ends “Sharp Teeth” in season 9. I mean, it was heart-stopping.

        Like I said in one of the earlier posts: Supernatural wants you to WORRY about Dean. You worry about Sam too – but not the way you worry about Dean. The worry for Dean goes into spiritual levels – at least it does for me. Sam has been lost, Sam has been down dark paths – but he has Dean to pull him back. Who does Dean have? Sam says at the end of Sharp Teeth that no, he would NOT have done what Dean did. He would NOT have made the same choice.

        and so that tells Dean he is alone. He looked almost like an infant in that final shot of him in Sharp Teeth. An abandoned infant. He couldn’t comprehend ANYthing. How does JA do it?

        Ironically, Sam is right when he says he wouldn’t do what Dean did – he is healthier about their relationship – he has boundaries. Dean has none.

        It’ll be very interesting to see how it plays out.

        I am very curious about the connection with Cain, and how that will play out. It seems potentially redemptive, but also – to put it mildly – potentially NOT.

        • Jessie says:

          Oh, Dean at the end of the last few episodes, my god. You can practically feel the knot in his throat after Sam’s last line in Sharp Teeth. You can see it on his face. He needs to respond but he is just physically incapable. Genius.

          But are you talking about The Purge? Because yes, that too. Going from that defensive, incredulous laugh (what a grace note) to utter certainty to going kind of soft and lost with that devastation. Ugh he’s so GOOD I hate him.

          And Sam knows exactly the effect his words will have, but he doesn’t say it to wound — he just has to say it. Because there is no way Sam, with all he’s been through, would do that to Dean. I love how quiet and firm and almost sympathetic JP went with that. Sam has changed, but the loveable and open Sam we have in these episodes is not lost. That’s still there.

          • sheila says:

            // Ugh he’s so GOOD I hate him. //

            hahaha I know.

            Oops – yes, you’re right – The Purge – back at the bunker.

            And yes, Jared P. played it so well – it’s not that he’s not angry, it’s just that there can be no more lies, no more bullshit for him … The dance step has TOTALLY changed for him. He has left Dean in the dust. Dean doesn’t even know what end is up anymore. He doesn’t realize the rules have changed. He’s lost.

            The stakes are so high right now, emotionally, and I couldn’t be happier about it!!

          • Jessie says:

            I’m excited too about all this new way of working through the emotional stakes of their relationship! Just, you know, in the way where you hug your teddy bear and chant break it down to build it up like a mantra throughout the whole episode.

          • sheila says:

            Right. It’s awful, but they have GOT to go through this, not around it.

            Thinking of the story of Cain (at least in Supernatural’s version) makes me afraid of where they’re going to go – the direct connection between the first murderer on the planet and Dean – but then also the fact that Cain couldn’t take it anymore, “got out”, found love, and is now retired. These are all bread crumbs through the forest – clues of how it could go. Ominous clues, hopeful clues. Dean, obviously, isn’t seeing it that way – he just wants to kill Abaddon.

            But I imagine we will re-visit all of those elements through the prism in the rest of the season. The seeds have been planted.

            And the whole Cain thing is something Dean went into alone – Sam isn’t involved in it at all. “What’s that mark on your arm?”

          • Jessie says:

            I’m nervous about the Cain thing, because it seems set to derail whatever growth they manage through another perilous situation. But there’re quite a few directions they can go with it. I mean they’ve set up a basic comparisons, of course, but it’s still ambiguous whether it would be a good thing for Dean to follow Cain’s example.

            I mean, Cain took choice away from his brother, as Dean did; but to kill him, not to save him. It’ll be interesting (perhaps infuriating) to see how they work through the parallels there.

            And the Mark of Cain thing is especially scary, because of the way Dean has so much trouble seeing himself as worthy of being anything but Daddy’s good little soldier. AND because he took it on without reading the fine print (dammit Dean!) My guess is he was hoping the fine print was about self-obliteration. But it’ll probably be something about harming Sam :-(

          • sheila says:

            Jessie – Yes, you put it all very succinctly. I share those concerns. Because it could very well be just a re-tread of what we have seen before. But I hope … I hope it won’t go that way. I don’t know how I want it to go – but I want there to be something NEW for Dean – even if it’s a new challenge, a new world of understanding – we need a breakthrough. We’re going into Season 10 now – the character is well-established – letting him have a break-through (as Sam seems to have done in Season 9) will not kill the tension on the show.

            Jensen Ackles is clearly playing “end of the road” here – from the look on his face, to how he can barely hold back tears every time Kevin is mentioned. The guy is not gonna make it at this rate. So … I’m hopeful.

            Cain retired. Cain found love. It didn’t last long. But maybe there’s something there as well.

            And right – no fine print for dumbass Dean!! Put that brand on my arm and let’s go down swinging!

    • mutecypher says:

      Thanks for the replies!

      I’m not as responsive to JA’s looks as many of the commenters, so I was curious to see if my warming to Sam first was “a guy thing” or not. Seems like its just a consequence of the setup.

      I’m re-watching Season 1 and a little ahead of Sheila’s recaps. I’m looking forward to “Scarecrow” if you recap it. The brothers separating, Dean doing the flirting thing with Scotty (“you’ve got a smile that could light up a room”), Dean getting caught out on the fake names…

      Sheila, you’re like Hellen Vendler telling us how to read Shakespeare’s sonnets. Thanks for the lessons!

      • mutecypher says:

        oops, one L in Helen.

      • sheila says:

        I love Scarecrow so much! It feels like it could have been written by Shirley Jackson.

        “Isn’t that the drummer for Led Zeppelin?”

        hahahaha

        “Dude, you fugly.”

        Great episode. AND – SUPER important because it introduces us to Meg, one of the most important characters in the whole damn series. I miss Meg.

        • mutecypher says:

          Meg, in Shadows, climbing over Sam. She’s naughty. I think she enjoys being a girl/demon.

          I like the Shirley Jackson comparison.

          • sheila says:

            I like the last Meg better than the first Meg – not a fan of the first Meg (the actress, I mean). But the last Meg kind of broke my heart a little bit. And I LOVED her performance, it had a level of camp to it (even with all the violence) that she seemed to relish and really inhabit beautifully. The way she placed her voice, the expressions on her face – I have no idea who that actress is, or what she’s really like – but she was fascinating in the role. The first Meg (the one who shows up in Scarecrow) seemed stiff to me, unsure. Ironically, when she shows up a couple of seasons later – as the real girl who had been inhabited by a demon – I didn’t mind her as much. I think she was intimidated by the style of the role – she didn’t seem to know how to do it. My two cents.

            But still: great character and I miss her a lot!!

          • mutecypher says:

            Interesting. She worked for me, but I”ll have to compare when the “new” Meg shows up. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the later seasons.

            As far as characters I miss, I really miss Loki/Gabriel. He brought a certain joie de manipulation.

          • sheila says:

            Oh man, the Trickster episodes!! Masterful, so much fun – Changing Channels may very well be my favorite Supernatural episode ever.

  5. Maureen says:

    Sam was my favorite at the beginning, in large part because I loved JP since Gilmore Girls. In fact I actually found it confusing for a while, since his name was Dean on GG. I would be all “wait, but Dean, no-wrong show…”.

    I love them both, but Dean has that vulnerability under the cockiness that I adore in a character. I can’t remember the title of the episode-but the one where his mom is alive, and Sam is married? Anyway, his mom is making him a sandwich, and the look on his face is so damn touching, I think she even asks if he wants the crusts cut off? Heartbreaking.

    (I may have confused this episode with another one, but I think I have the scene correct-I binge watched these seasons, so they tend to run together after a bit!)

    • sheila says:

      I know that episode you mean. His mom touches his face, and he leans into it, almost unconsciously. It’s details like that that hook me into Dean – it’s grand-scale stuff, reminding me of the Cain and Abel story and East of Eden – which is where the series is now headed. It’s directly addressing those archetypes and what happens to the favorite son, the good son.

      The show certainly wouldn’t be as successful if there weren’t two of them – there needs to be two brothers, and the chemistry between these actors is the Stuff of Dreams. But, for me, Dean’s journey is the really tragic one – and that doesn’t kick in for a couple of seasons yet – but, best part, Jensen Ackles is already playing it. He has thought out the character so well, filled in the blanks for himself, all that. It’s such a deep character.

  6. Helena says:

    //I love the prismatic aspect of the scriptwriting and the performances. //

    I love this idea, Sheila, and as I was thinking about it it occured to me that maybe the most prismatic character of all is John Winchester, which is not bad for someone who is on view for just a handful of scenes. But he dominates season 1, haunts season 2 and the brothers encounter him again and again throughout the series. I don’t have a fixed idea of him as an out and out villain – and that may be due to the immensely attractive and sympathetic performance of the actors concerned (both old and young John), a genius touch, really. But who he is, and what has he done to his sons is the question we are confronted with over and over as the brothers go from young manhood to maturity, and obviously how they process why he did what he did changes through time. They both ‘get’ what he had to do, because they end up doing it themselves: there is something tragically ineluctable about the consequences of the hunter’s life. Sam actually takes after him more, and part of his journey to maturity is accepting that. But it’s through Dean, the ‘good son,’ that these consequences are most fully traced. For me it’s in those scenes in which his words fail where you get the hairs-on-the-back-of-the neck sense of catastrophic damage – again, a brilliant tactic, to never fully spell out what happened between father and son. I can think of a couple of scenes like this – one in Series Two where Jo asks Dean about his father. He tells a story about hitting all the targets his father set up for shooting practice. Jo says something like ‘he must have been very proud.’ Dean’s response – a plunge into silence, basically – reveals more than words ever could. Also in a much later episode where Sam and Dean are shot and go to heaven. When they get to the moment in Sam’s heaven where he has run away for two weeks, Dean begins to tell Sam how John reacted, and there’s the same stopping short – and the fact that it isn’t articulated speaks volumes.

    • sheila says:

      Fantastic point about John Winchester being the biggest prism of all!! Think about when Sam and Dean realize he had other girlfriends, friends with benefits, whole other lives they knew nothing about …

      I just re-watched Bugs and I realized that that episode is where Sam and Dean start to fight (again) about their upbringing – something they hadn’t done for a couple of episodes. Sam sees college as a way out, Dean thinks families should stick together. Dad raised them right, he gave them the right values, blah blah …

      But think of where Dean eventually goes in his relationship to his Dad and his own childhood. Season 4, Season 5 – the rage, the pain, the acknowledgement that his Dad basically took away his personhood, his sense of agency in his own life … it’s hard for him to come to that realization and he still hasn’t made peace with it.

      Like you say: catastrophic damage.

      With all of Sam’s darkness, he always seems more complete than Dean does. He’s not as cracked. It’s interesting to watch Season 9 – which I know you haven’t seen yet – where we get a lot of scenes where Sam really realizes how broken his brother is – and how far past him he has gone … it completely destabilizes the relationship. It’s tragic – almost like in a family when you know a family member is in trouble, with drugs, alcohol, abusive relationships – and you kind of have to let them go. You have to make peace with the fact that they might not make it. That’s where Sam’s at now with Dean.

      It’s a hell of a hook. I feel for Sam, and I ache for Dean.

      • Helena says:

        //It’s tragic – almost like in a family when you know a family member is in trouble, with drugs, alcohol, abusive relationships – and you kind of have to let them go.//

        Season 9 sounds very depressing, to be honest :-( Can’t wait.

        On a related tangent, sort of, it’s interesting to me how in ‘what would have happened if Mom had never died’ scenarios the scriptwriters never entertained the idea that Dean would have followed Dad into the Marines.

        • sheila says:

          Season 9, so far, is DARK. But there are also some hilarious episodes – one (my favorite) where a spell makes Dean start to display dog-like behavior. Watching Jensen Ackles “fetch” a piece of crumpled paper out of the trash can over and over again, all as Sam looks on, annoyed – like, “Dude, I threw that out – why are you bringing it back to me?” … what can I say, it has made me so happy!!

          But yeah: I’m not sure where they are going – they are halfway through the season now – and, as far as I can tell, the real main Arc is the relationship of the brothers and Dean’s general fucked-up-ness and how it has got to change. Dean is a mess. He is so much of a mess that he currently has a beard. hahaha

          Great acting!!

          And Helena – I thought the same thing about the military. It seems like that would have been a no-brainer for Dean.

          • Helena says:

            //It seems like that would have been a no-brainer for Dean.//

            Yep, and it’s never even entertained – the only possible ‘real’ – as opposed to PA, FBI agent, vicar – career paths are hunter (doomed) or mechanic (loser). It’s like Dean’s character has never envisaged a life that doesn’t encompass failure and disappointment at some deep level – again, traceable that back to the relationship with dad.

            I’m kind of already hating the fact that at the beginning of Season 8 which I’m rewatching, Dean has turned more or less into dad (there’s that prism again), the basically kind, empathetic, mercurial nutcase of Season 1 and 2 is long gone, and yeah, I have to admit, it’s sad to see.

          • Helena says:

            A beard? OMG.

          • sheila says:

            I know. And it’s a ginger beard, and his eyes are always a little bit watery, and he looks like SHIT. But a beard? Pitter-pat, and also OMG, Dean, please shave.

          • sheila says:

            // I’m kind of already hating the fact that at the beginning of Season 8 which I’m rewatching, Dean has turned more or less into dad (there’s that prism again), the basically kind, empathetic, mercurial nutcase of Season 1 and 2 is long gone, and yeah, I have to admit, it’s sad to see. //

            I know. Watching it in order again you can see how that was an inevitable path in some ways – there were glimpses of it with Lisa and Ben, keeping them on lockdown – and he realized that Dad did this to him when he was a kid – only he hadn’t made the connection. Because he feels like what he is doing is right – locking them up keeps them safe – and Dad obviously felt he was doing the right thing too.

            The man is wrecked. Hell wrecked him, destroyed whatever boundaries he may have had (not many as it was), and Purgatory – he’s never really been the same since then. Season 9, unlike, say, Season 7 – with the push to “get Dick Roman” – doesn’t have that same underlying one-themed drive to get one particular monster. Season 9 is about the brothers and that relationship being shattered.

            They just were renewed for Season 10, which is good news, because as it stands, I feel like Dean wouldn’t last out this season. Shit is bad!!

            But maybe that actually means there’s light at the end of the tunnel for him? That this is his “bottom”? SO curious (and fearful) to see how it will go.

            And good point that Dean never really considered what he might have “done” otherwise in his life. There’s that one line from Dad, later in Season 1 – where Dad says, something like, “All of this could be over … you could go to school … and Dean could have a home …”

            That line always struck me. The concern is that Sam could actually get an education – but Dean needs the safety of a home. There is never any talk about what he might want to do, or any goals, or anything. It doesn’t even seem to exist for him.

            I love in the episode where Jo and Ellen die (AWFUL) – the Iraq war vet takes one look at Dean and says, “Where did you serve?” He’s got that LOOK. Battle-scarred. It takes one to know one.

          • sheila says:

            and as Dean crumbles, Sam grows in strength. You can actually SEE it happening. Sam is at the point where he has actually let Dean go, and Dean is not handling it well. Like I said, he looks like a baffled infant half the time – an infant with a beard, that is.

  7. Helena says:

    Ha, knew that beard would be red.

      • Helena says:

        //There’s that one line from Dad, later in Season 1 – where Dad says, something like, “All of this could be over … you could go to school … and Dean could have a home …”//

        Following on from yours and Jessie’s excellent exchange about Bugs and bringing up the conflict with Dad again, Bugs is also literally about ‘home,’ – very close to but not exactly synonymous with family: the idea of the perfect home or place, before Home literally takes us back to that place and trashes it for us. Interesting that in Bugs Dean outright rejects the kind of homes – and thereby lives – he sees being built in that new development. The next thing you know he’s broken into one and won’t get out of the steam shower. Season 6 opens with a montage of life in that very same sort of place. Sam sees the conflict between himself and Dad in the situation and relates to the kid more – interesting how many times he delivers that ‘it gets better speech’ throughout the series and how downright insincere it can be sometimes.

        I don’t mind clunky signposting or stuff being on the nose sometimes – the kind of thing I object to is syrupy background music (worst kind of signposting, in my book. And coupled with montages – bleh. ) With Route 666 it was more the chronology that bothered me – seemed slightly out of whack, so I’d be interested to know what you think. But hey, family secrets galore, so all good stuff.

        • sheila says:

          Helena – Yes, I noticed that too – that Lisa basically lives in a gated community (how on earth does a yoga teacher afford it? Her finances baffled me) – and Dean (sort of) fits right in.

          And when the Djinn “gets” him in Season 4 and he goes into the alternate reality, his alternate life – what is he doing? Mowing the lawn, macking on his girlfriend after she brings him a beer, and hanging out at his mom’s house. You know, that’s his greatest wish. Suburban life. Family. Nice girlfriend who’s a nurse.

          I can understand why he would reject it – “our way of being raised was better, more honest – and I am a total freak and would never fit in in a place like this” – but of course, what one dreams about often doesn’t line up perfectly with what you say about yourself.

          This all goes along with Dean falling in love with being a homemaker, of all things, and “nesting” in the bunker. Making gourmet burgers, and setting up his room, and cleaning the kitchen and going gaga over the different kinds of tomatoes …. Dean wants a home. Dad sensed it. That’s what Dean needs. His “job” would be irrelevant – what Dean needs is to feel safe and secure.

          Meanwhile, Sam doesn’t care about those things. He never had a home in the first place. I love when Sam “fills Dean in” on what he was up to during Dean’s stint in Hell – and he’s in that abandoned house with Ruby – and it’s a PIT. Empty pizza boxes, beer bottles lying around …. When Sam sees Dean’s nice clean room at the bunker, what does he do? Tosses his gum wrapper towards the trash can and MISSES.

          It’s interesting – one of those subtle dynamics they keep exploring – what home means, blah blah blah. And yes, Dean has to go try out the steam shower in the gated community and has probably been in there for half an hour when Sam calls him out.

          • Helena says:

            That towel round the head is a great touch.

          • Helena says:

            //Suburban life. Family. Nice girlfriend who’s a nurse. //

            The returning veteran’s dream: you walk back to the ‘perfect’ home and family and the most safe and boring life imaginable.

            In fact, isn’t that how Harry Potter ends up at the end of the books?

          • sheila says:

            I know – his hair is so short that the towel round his head is so super-ridiculous. Makes me laugh.

    • Jessie says:

      you guys and the beard are killing me

  8. Helena says:

    //And Helena – I thought the same thing about the military.//

    Did you ever read War, by Sebastian Jungr?

    • sheila says:

      I haven’t! Should I? I like his writing.

      • Helena says:

        The way you write about Renner in the Hurt Locker made me think you already had. It’s the descriptions of some of the soldiers in the unit in the Korengal valley I find resonant – quite a few can’t really function in normal life, and would be headed straight for jail but for army life. But in the army they actively volunteer for the most dangerous battalions or whatever and, well, not exactly thrive there, but function in a way I can’t imagine. When they are force out they tend to fall to pieces. Jungr writes a lot about one or two of that kind of type of soldier, also the kind of relationship the men have with eachother – they might not like eachother, some of them are downright dangerous towards eachother when not fighting, but they are all prepared to give their lives for anyone in that small unit. There’s the more level headed officer type too – but they don’t tend to end up as train wrecks after service.

        • sheila says:

          Fascinating. I’ll have to read it. Thank you.

          I know a guy like that in my real life, with war experience in Iraq and Afghanistan – he’s a test pilot – so he’s done crazy dangerous things – like …. craaaazeeeee … and he is wonderful, and rare, and strange, and intense – Out for drinks with him once – I said, “So. Lemme guess. You have a roll of duct tape on your person as we speak.” Deadpan, he reached into the inner pocket of his bomber jacket and drew out a roll of duct tape. We laughed – he knew I was teasing, he thought it was funny too – but you know, it takes a certain mindset to be ready for the zombie apocalypse when meeting a girl for a drink. He told me that he never went anywhere, without scoping the space for possible exits. Walk into a crowded restaurant, he’d pick a table close to the exit, or request one. He always had an escape hatch. In many ways, it’s a stereotypically female kind of thing: to always be aware of potential threats in public spaces. Regular civilian guys are often oblivious to this kind of thing.

          This guy was brave, and had done unbelievably brave and heroic things. But … it was locked away in a part of him that didn’t want to be congratulated. He is a total “freak”, in other words – hard for him to negotiate with civilians, definitely. He’s on some other level.

          Not AS strange as Jeremy Renner in Hurt Locker – but definitely an odd bird. Part of a warrior class. No correlation in civilian life.

          • Helena says:

            Thank you, Sheila, amazing. You’ve written about this guy before, I think, in connection with Supernatural and The Hurt Locker?

          • sheila says:

            Yes! He’s a warrior. He’s extremely intelligent. He is totally independent (which is rare in military men – member Eric Bana in Black Hawk Down? This guy is like that). His stories post 9/11 made my jaw drop. He loves Prairie Home Companion. He loves Elvis. He loves old movies and Maureen O’Hara (mainly because of her connection with the aviation business). He lives on an island. He is obsessed with UFOs and has actually been inside Area 51. He never wears his seat belt and is furious at modern cars that beep at him incessantly to put on his seat belt. He drives an old beat-up Mustang that doesn’t hen-peck him about a seat belt he won’t wear. Fascinating guy. Half of the shit he told me is classified information. Which, naturally, I have never told anyone. He’s gentle, Southern accent, I watched him almost charm our waitress out of her damn clothes – seriously – and it was so natural to him, so sweet, engaging her in conversation – saying “Yes, ma’am” when she asked him a question requiring an affirmative – But couple that with what he saw in Afghanistan (he was one of the first people on the ground there, he was there in October 2001) – He’s amazing and I’m proud to know him. But he disappears for years at a time. I know he’s back in the shit when I don’t hear from him for a year and a half. But if anyone could survive an apocalypse it would be this guy. I said to him once, “I need you on speed dial for when shit gets really bad. You’ll know what to do.”

            Funniest moment: I said to him, “So at some really high level, though, people have to know what’s going on, right? I want to be on THAT level.”

            He drawled, “Sheila, nobody knows what the fuck is going on.”

            Not comforting!!

          • sheila says:

            Oh, and he’s on the level. It’s all true. He’s not some sociopath telling tales. This is an actual guy who lives this life.

            He found my blog because of my posts about Lauren Bacall, interestingly enough. That was years ago and we’ve been friends ever since.

  9. Apex says:

    I know it’s about 3 years since this thread was active, but I wanted to offer some thoughts on the “Dean if he wasn’t ever a hunter” thing. He DID see himself following in his dad’s footsteps. John was a mechanic. He was a marine during the war — and probably ONLY because of the war — but he worked as a mechanic when he came back stateside. He was working (co-owner, I think) in a garage when Mary died. Certainly something you could classify as “blue-collar” work, but still a vocation you could make a living at. I don’t think in a million years that Dean would view that career path as being a “loser” or anything of that nature. Sure, not the teen dream that being a rock star would be. But good, honest work with a subject matter close to his heart.

  10. Lyrie says:

    Spotted in Justified Primeval (not a spoiler): some dude reading BACKSIDE . I immediately yelled “just like in Hookman!” like a completely normal person. So I thought I’d share this bit of trivia with, uh… other normal people.

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