Daddy’s Back! Supernatural S1 E16 Analysis: Shadow

Supernatural starts out with a missing father, and spends the majority of the season giving us glimpses of just how badly he fucked up his sons before they’re (briefly) reunited as a family. On a show that’s rather notable for its toxic masculinity and toxic relationships, this one really stands out as messed up. Let’s have a look.

To briefly recap: when his wife was killed, John took their boys and started a life of hunting for the demon that killed her. We’ve seen glimpses of his sons’ lives, left behind to fend for themselves for days at a time in hotel rooms while Daddy’s off chasing evil things. Dean’s been forced to grow up and shoulder the responsibilities of keeping Sam fed, clothed, entertained, and safe. We’ll see much more of that in the future, but we’ve been given enough glimpses to know that Dean got the lion’s share of the responsibility. And he’s the one who always toed Daddy’s line, who never questioned orders, while Sam got it into his head to live his own damned life. While Dean stayed in the family business, Sam went off to college, and his dad stopped talking to him altogether.

When Dad goes missing, Dean goes to Sam for help – but doesn’t get it until Sam’s girlfriend is fridged by the same demon that killed their mother. Sam’s got a dual quest: find the demon and find their dad. Dean’s pretty focused on just finding Dad. They came quite close in Home, when we finally glimpse John Winchester. We learn in that episode that before Mary’s death, John was a stubborn man who doted on his family. We know Mary’s death changed him. And when he calls his sons in Scarecrow, we see that he still has that deep caring, but it’s overlain by a drill-sergeant demeanor that rises up when they don’t do exactly as they’re told. We see how Sam fights it, while Dean falls immediately into line.

We’ve seen in the boys’ behavior how each of them has been messed up by their dad in different ways. Sam loves his dad and is desperate to be loved in turn, but rejects his authority and asserts his independence. Dean is the good soldier, and if he had any rebellious spirit when it came to their father, it was beaten out of him by circumstances and a fair amount of emotional abuse.

But even if you didn’t know that history, you’d be able to guess it just from this scene in Episode 16, Shadow. Continue reading “Daddy’s Back! Supernatural S1 E16 Analysis: Shadow”

Daddy’s Back! Supernatural S1 E16 Analysis: Shadow
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Supernatural S1 E16 Summary: “Shadow”

We open with a young woman walking alone down dark city streets. You know nothing good can come of this. She ends up in an alley, with her iPod broken and a creepy voice whispering at her. She’s chased all the way home by a big old shadow. And just when we think she’s safe inside her apartment with the alarm set, a shadowy demon substance brutally murders her.

Screenshot shows a gray wall with black shadows projected against it. A woman's shadow has her back arched and her mouth open. There is an indistinct figure behind it, stabbing her in the back. There is a red spray of blood on the wall.
Death by Monstrosity: 1

Blood and Gore: 1

The following week, the boys show up in alarm company uniforms to investigate. See, poor dead Meredith is the second person to die so mysteriously. Dean, of course, whines endlessly about the uniforms. Dad never needed a disguise. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E16 Summary: “Shadow””

Supernatural S1 E16 Summary: “Shadow”

Supernatural Summary S1 E15: “The Benders”

Our adventure starts in Hibbing, Montana. Ja, you betcha. Note the town: this will become important in later seasons.

There’s an adorable little boy watching scary teevee in his bed. Something catches his attention, and he ends up at his window, which overlooks a seedy parking lot outside of a tavern. There’s a dude taking out the trash, all very calm and normal. At least, until the dude gets yanked under a car by an invisible something.

Death by Monstrosity: 1

The scene changes to Mom standing with the kid, talking to two dudes in state trooper’s uniforms. She’s complaining about her kiddo being questioned again – the more often he tells the story, the more he believes it. The deputies remove their hats, and we discover dundunDUN it’s Sam and Dean. Obvs.

Screenshot shows Sam and Dean's faces clearly revealed. They are wearing brown state trooper uniforms.
The kid tells them he thought he heard a monster whilst watching Godzilla vs. Mothra, which delights Dean and leads to him and the kid having a lively exchange, until Sam gets them back on track. He tells them the monster made a “whining growl” as it left after snatching Mr. Jenkins.

Turns out the boys are in the area because their dad marked it as the possible hunting grounds of a phantom attacker. Otherwise, they would’ve just written this off as normal disappearance stuff. They discuss it a bit while Dean plays darts in the tavern. Then Sam gets attacked by a cat under a car while Dean’s in the bathroom. Psych! But when Dean comes out to the parking lot to join his bro, there’s no bro. Oh, dear. Continue reading “Supernatural Summary S1 E15: “The Benders””

Supernatural Summary S1 E15: “The Benders”

Supernatural Summary S1 E14 – “Nightmare”

Today’s summary comes courtesy of Zeroth, who kindly took over the task for me. I’ve added counts, but if you want all the luscious screenshots, you gotta click the link.

Thank you, Zeroth!

Content note: suicide, interpersonal violence, child physical abuse

This week,  Sam’s nightmares are coming true, people are dying, and Dean gets shot.

The cold open starts with an ordinary oldish car being driven at night through a suburban neighborhood. The middle-aged man driving the car pulls into his garage. As the garage door closes, the doors suddenly get locked and will not let him out.

The engine turns back on and the exhaust starts suffocating the man. He struggles to get out of the car, eventually succumbing to the fumes.

Death by Monstrosity: 1

After a flash of light, Sam wakes up, sweaty, in yet another seedy motel room. He pushes Dean to get up and get to the victim Sam just dreamed about.

In the Impala, Sam pretends to be a Michigan state trooper and calls in the license plate details he saw in his dream. Continue reading “Supernatural Summary S1 E14 – “Nightmare””

Supernatural Summary S1 E14 – “Nightmare”

SPN Analysis – S1E13 – “Route 666” – Representing Supremacy

Zeroth has come through with one of his most powerful analyses of a Supernatural episode to date. See, this is why I don’t mind the bad ones: he makes something good out of them!

Yeah, this is Racist Ghost Truck. Not one of our favorites, although it has its good points (even some great moments!). Zeroth shows us where it really falls down.

Content note for racism and white supremacy. Continue reading “SPN Analysis – S1E13 – “Route 666” – Representing Supremacy”

SPN Analysis – S1E13 – “Route 666” – Representing Supremacy

Supernatural S1 E13 Summary: “Route 666”

Oh, joy, everybody! It’s the Racist Truck episode! Obvious content note is obvious: here be racism.

We begin with a car driving through the darkness on a remote highway. The driver is a black man in a suit. His radio starts to cut in and out, so you know there’s ghostly activity going on. They don’t have issues with the signal getting degraded by terrain or anything, y’know: it’s always ghosts. Headlights suddenly appear behind him. And then there’s a huge monster truck riding his ass.

Screen capture shows a car chase by night. A monster truck with a huge rack of headlights is tailgating and about to ram a tan sedan.

It rams him, and then suddenly it vanishes and the radio’s working properly again, until it appears in front of him. Eek! He turns around, there’s a big chase, and he gets dramatically run off the road.

Revenge from Beyond the Grave: 1

The truck acts like a bull that’s just gored a matador, and then it backs away and vanishes like a mirage.

Cut to the boys, where Dean’s getting off the phone with the victim’s daughter. Sam’s flummoxed that his bro is just willing to drop everything and go help this Cassie chicka over a car accident. We find out that of course she and Dean had a thing. Sam’s shocked and rightly pissed to realize Dean told her they’re hunters. And after all this time he spent lying to Jessica!

Now we’re in a newspaper office with Cassie, the (white) mayor, and an older black editor named Jimmy. The mayor is trying to talk Cassie and Jimmy out of running with the story of TWO black men being killed the same way on the same stretch of road within a few weeks of each other. I’m going to add a special count for this episode for all the ways white supremacy and racist assholery appear. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E13 Summary: “Route 666””

Supernatural S1 E13 Summary: “Route 666”

SPN Analysis – S1E12 – “Faith” – Long Term Investments

Zeroth has once again hit the ball out of the park and across the interstate. He sees a pattern, and he breaks your heart exploring it. Well, he’ll break it if your heart’s invested in these characters at all.

So I’ll break with tradition a little bit here. I’m going to write assuming you’ve seen to at least the end of season five of Supernatural. If you haven’t, this will likely spoil you on a lot of things.

Yep, spoilers! I will kindly cut them out for those who are watching along for the first time. Here’s your take-away from this episode, courtesy of Zeroth, who sees all. Well, lots.

Continue reading “SPN Analysis – S1E12 – “Faith” – Long Term Investments”

SPN Analysis – S1E12 – “Faith” – Long Term Investments

Supernatural S1 E12 Summary: “Faith”

We open with the Impala pulling up to a spooky, run-down house. The brothers dig into the trunk, and Dean pulls out two Tasers he’s amped to 100,000 volts. We find out the boys are hunting a raw-head. This is an interesting monster we haven’t seen so far, but alas, it’s only a brief set-up for our main conflict.

The boys go inside, find two children stored in a cupboard for later eating, and start to take them to safety. The raw-head grabs Sam’s ankle through the stairs, kids scream, Dean shoots his Taser and misses, and the raw-head takes off. Dean tells Sam to get the kids out, so Sam gives him his Taser and exits while Dean goes hunting. The raw-head ambushes him and punches him in the head, which knocks him onto the waterlogged floor of the basement. He’s not knocked out, but he’s clearly dazed, so I’m giving him one o’ these:

What Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy?

Dean: 5

Congratulations, Dean! You’ve caught up to your brother.

The raw-head comes after Dean, who shoots it with the Taser. The good news: it gets fried! The bad news: it’s standing in the same puddle, so Dean gets fried, too. Since Tasers do at least briefly impair cognitive functioning and he got hit with at least twice the normal amount of juice, rendering him unconscious, let’s give him another. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E12 Summary: “Faith””

Supernatural S1 E12 Summary: “Faith”

Supernatural S1 E11 Summary: “Scarecrow”

We begin in Burkitsville, IN a year ago, and I already hate this episode. I despise Indiana. I was born there, so I know what I’m talking about. It has got tornadoes and unapologetically racist people and endless cornfields and it’s flat and hopeless. I know there are good parts to it, but I only ever saw one part of the state that didn’t make me want to jump off a cliff due to existential despair. Unfortunately, my relatives live in a terrible part of the state with no cliffs or adequately tall buildings, so I’d just spend every visit stewing in anger while feeling bits of my soul dying by the minute.

It’s an unhappy place for me, is what I’m saying. So I can believe any amount of evil about it. And the writers know whereof they speak, because look! There’s a wholesome older couple giving an apple pie to a sweet young tourist couple, and everybody’s way nice, and it’s all phoney as a four dollar bill.

The sweet young tourist couple ends up stranded just out of car with an inexplicably dead cell phone and car. They go through a creepy orchard toward a creepy house and find a creepy scarecrow. All of this is 100% authentic. I have been there and done that. I even know what it smells like. It smells like sickly-sweet rotting apples and moldering leaves and dead souls.

So of course grisly murder courtesy the monster scarecrow finds our two travelers. Continue reading “Supernatural S1 E11 Summary: “Scarecrow””

Supernatural S1 E11 Summary: “Scarecrow”

SPN Analysis – S1E11 – “Scarecrow” aka HOLY HELL WHAT THE HELL

I am seriously badly behind on my Supernatural summaries, not to mention my analyses – an unhappy state o’ affairs which I hope to begin remedying this weekend. But you do not have to go without! For my SPN partner Zeroth has been keeping up, and has this week’s analysis for you. (If you need a summary of Episode 11 before you can read his analysis of this bit, Snark Squad has a good ‘un here.) Continue reading “SPN Analysis – S1E11 – “Scarecrow” aka HOLY HELL WHAT THE HELL”

SPN Analysis – S1E11 – “Scarecrow” aka HOLY HELL WHAT THE HELL