Monsters of Television

Well don’t you guys few folks who read this like making me look foolish? I spill some digital ink on how unbalanced I feel the show has become and then disc three is a mini Sam trilogy (well, “Playthings” is more of a epilogue to a duology, but you get my point). You could’ve warned me, left a comment, told me that things shape up a little bit, or that I had some stuff to look froward to! But nooooo. Silence. I see how it is.

As you can imagine, I was pretty happy with the disc on a Sam-level, and I was very happy with each on an episode-by-episode basis as well. Each episode hit on certain types of stories that appeal to me, or on nice big questions that have been surrounding the season so far. On the whole, enjoyed this disc far more than disc 2, and leaves me eager for disc 3 (though I was sad that there wasn’t a little preview attached to this one; the one on disc 2 has me spoiled now).

“Croatoan” – “No, it was an ‘it’. Not the best time for a bleeding heart, Sam.”

When I was in high school, I was fascinated by the story of the Roanoke colony. It was one of those incidents in textbooks that would get a quick mention, with Roanoke in bold letters so you knew to look for it on a vocabulary exam. And while I wasn’t steeped in hypotheses or anything, I found it incredibly interesting that we just don’t know what happened to the colony.

Perhaps as a result of this, I like stories about towns just up and disappearing. I even liked Phantoms (“Ben Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms.”). So I was pretty excited when I started the episode up, and remained fairly engrossed in the story throughout,  it’s not as good as it could be.

The overwhelming sense of urgency and danger doesn’t come through as clearly as I would have liked. A lot of this is short-circuited because of the use of a virus, something that you can’t really kill in the traditional Supernatural ways, makes for a very difficult obstacle to overcome. Likewise, the paranoia in the episode isn’t terribly high. But I did stay interested in it, if only because of my attachment to the type of story being told.

I dug both endings to the episode, the episode’s main mystery and the talk over the Impala. That Azazel is willing to wipe out an entire town just to see if Dean’s immune to a particular disease is deliciously deranged and evil, and I really love how casually Azazel’s hand in this episode delivers the news.

And I doubly appreciate that what John whispered to Dean is resolved fairly quickly. I was worried it would just drag on and on and on. Happy to see that it isn’t. Plus: really gorgeous location for it, too. Beautiful area.

“Hunted” – “Do it. Do it! Show your brother the killer you really are, Sammy.”

It’s one of the things I like about the show that it doesn’t allow the reveal, that John told Dean he may have to kill Sam, to be swept away from the episode’s focus, or to exist on the periphery of the episode, dipping in and out during down times in the action. Instead, the reveal motivates the entire episode from Sam’s actions to Gordon’s reappearance. It’s an well-constructed episode on the whole.

Gordon’s return, and at this junction especially, provides a nice spiritual sequel to “Bloodlust” as Dean’s morally black and white world of hunting, already challenged in a little bit in “Croatoa”, is brought back in a real way as he must rationalize to Gordon, and to himself, why killing Sam is wrong and unacceptable, even though there’s a clear precedent for these psychics turning bad. The struggle could have been played a little stronger, but it would’ve shifted the episode’s focus away from Sam.

And Sam’s stuff in the episode is meaty. I love that he has an opportunity to shine (stealing the shrink’s files), save Dean, and take care of Gordon, and all in his way. Likewise, his interplay with Ava (oh, Katherine Isabelle. You’re so delightful) doesn’t feel unnecessarily rushed or forced, and instead works naturally. Which allows the episode to stick its gruesome ending really nicely.

With this, I hope the show pushes forward with this idea that Sam could become evil. Some less than good actions, some temptations, to push him in a direction, feel like beats that would be needed to really sell this idea. I don’t think all the psychics can driven to evil, but I’d certainly like to see Azazel put Sam in a situation that leaves him little or no choice but to defy his deep-rooted sense of morality.

“Playthings” – “Old-school haunted houses. Secret passageways, sissy British accents. We might even get to run into Fred and Daphne while we’re inside. Mmm, Daphne…love her.”

Dean was pushing to lay low for a while, so a little quality time with Sam at a nice bed and breakfast seems like just the idea! Maybe take in some antiquing. Because, you know, they look like the type.

Like Dean, I enjoyed the idea of a haunted house episode (another one of my favorite types of stories), and this episode works really well. Even the fake out about the spirit as a daughter caught me off guard, I was so quickly engage in the story that my typical genre awareness got away from me. So it all unfolded at a nice clip and was very pleased with the episode.

Sam getting drunk after the company man hangs himself was a little odd. While I get the motivation, it happens really quickly for me (even though it is amusing), but I love that Sam gets to save everyone, gets the mother’s hug, and has a little moment in which to reaffirm to the commitment to hunting. It’s a nice conclusion to the episode, and the arc of the three episodes as a whole.

Now when do I get some Evil!Sam?

Earlier thoughts on disc 1, disc 2.