Monsters of Television

“Does this look like swimming-pool weather to you, Dean? It’s practically Canadian!“

"There's a demon here. Named Jess. Also, it's going to be easier for us to kill it if you call me Dean."

I’m afraid I don’t have a unifying theory about this disc. I know, I know!

But there’s a lot going on in this disc, with all sorts of nice stories of varying stripes, from the poignant “Roadkill” to the gut-wrenching “Heart” to the meta-awareness seed planting of “Hollywood Babylon” to the slightly too quickly resolved FBI hunt in “Folsom City Blues.”

All the episodes are good (though “Heart” felt like it went on a for a while, despite liking it a lot), but I do feel a little anxious in that I have no idea where we’re going as the show enters its last three hours. Azazel’s been lying low, and there hasn’t been much on the psychic front. Getting worried we’re heading for a fall.

“Roadkill” – “You are like a walking encyclopedia of weirdness.”

I really liked “Roadkill.” In fact, “Roadkill” is perhaps the first episode this season that I would show to someone to convince them to watch Supernatural. It’s not the episode is that great, but that it encapsulates so much of what Supernatural is as a show. It benefits from using Molly as an outsider, largely allowing the episode to function from her perspective, which makes everything fresh and new since it’s fresh and new to her. As a result, it’s an ideal episode to come in on for a new viewer.

Despite this, the episode still pays off for regular viewers by telling a smart story with a very elegant ending. Sure, I had Molly pegged as a ghost when Sam started in on his “J. Love Hewitt” moment, but it didn’t make the episode any less strong (I had been waiting for a “ghost who doesn’t know it’s a ghost” story for  a while now).

Likewise, the episode plays back into earlier themes about the afterlife and who/what deserves to be exorcised and hunted. It doesn’t expand on these points very much, but serves to reinforce them as important concerns of the season (and the show, I hope, as it goes forward).

“Heart” – “Maybe there’s some human hearts behind the Häagen–Dazs or something.”

Now here’s a juicy episode, albeit a little oddly paced for me.

One of these things I’ve really enjoyed about Supernatural since I started watching was that they seemed to be making the conscious decision to avoid the big monsters. Vampires were held back for a big moment in season 1, and werewolves were held back until now for a big moment in Sam’s life. Even better, for me, is that these creatures are rare in Supernatural‘s world period. Vampire don’t seem all that prevalent, and werewolves seem even less common, with Dean having gone without seeing one since he and Sam were both kids, hunting with John.

But back to the juicy stuff. This was a big moment for Sam! I’m pretty sure this is the first woman he’s slept with Jessica’s death in season 1 (someone correct me if I’m wrong), and she was all but throwing herself at him (seriously, Madison, folding your unmentionables in front of a cute “police officer” is not really kosher). I enjoyed his clear discomfort at the situation and then their mutual bonding over All My Children (Kendall was a “total bitch”), and even liked how it came about from Dean and Sam’s dynamics and then a rock-paper-scissors game (“Oh, Dean. Always with the scissors.”)

The sex scene between Sam and Madison was nice and steamy, and I appreciated how the sequence paid more attention to Padalecki’s physique (dude was ripped, and you’d have no idea because of they dress him) than to Emmanuelle Vaugier’s. It’s a refreshing change of pace (especially after watching Game of Thrones recently), and demonstrates where the emphasis should really be: this is Sam’s moment, not Madison’s, so it makes sense for him to be focus of the scene. And it reminds us that while attractive women come and go on Supernatural, the Winchester boys are forever.

Which is capped off by Sam having to shoot Madison.  A predictable enough development (Sam is never going to have sex ever again), but still one that was remarkably well-played by all those involved. I loved Dean willing to do this for his little brother, but the degree of maturity Sam demonstrates in that episode shows off his growth as a character. It likewise makes a nice gesture, again, to the season’s on-going concerns about who deserves to die, and who makes that choice.

That Supernatural has continued to tackle these issues likewise demonstrates its growth as a show, and that it trusts it audience to care about these issues. I’m curious as to how fans reacted to these moral questions during this season, so if someone would like to enlighten me, I would appreciate it.

I hope this episode comes forward in the finale as Sam’s destiny will no doubt be faced.

“Hollywood Babylon” – “That makes even less sense than salt.”

I do not need to know how fans reacted to “Hollywood Babylon” however. Given that Supernatural has made a number of self-reflexive episodes since this one (like “The Real Ghostbusters” or this past season’s “The French Mistake”), I can only assume that the episode was a big success.

As well it should have been. I loved the Gilmore Girls nod, the reference to Canadian weather, and then just all the behind the scenes stuff surrounding the movie. Despite its meta fun times, the episode still digs into an urban legend — haunted/cursed film productions — to tell its story. And I like that. The show doesn’t divorce itself from its basic premise or source materials to make fun of itself (a little) and film and TV productions in general, and instead using that premise of curse productions as a jumping off point.

I don’t have much more to say about the episode. Like “Tall Tales” on the last disc, “Hollywood Babylon” feels likes a quick breather, a lighter episode, before moving into the last few hours of its season.

“Folsom Prison Blues” – “I thought we were screwed before.”

Had I not known that this episode was coming, I’d be worried that Henriksen was a one-off appearance, something the show introduced to give “Nightshifter” some extra threat, and then dropped. Instead, he gets to appear here, serving a pretty significant role in allowing Sam and Dean to get into the prison and get enough information and rid the prison of a spirit.

I do relish how arrogant and smart Henriksen thinks he is, believing that he caught Sam and Dean because they were sloppy and not, in fact, playing him so they could get into the prison. Even worse, however, is his complete contempt for the public defender the Winchester boys get assigned (the required attractive woman for the episode). It fills in his character as an antagonist for the series a bit more: he’s a prick, and there’s no getting around that. I imagine that his partner doesn’t talk for exactly this reason.

The case was kind of routine, so not a lot going on for me. It riffs nicely on prison narratives, and like “Hollywood Babylon” before it, Ackles is allowed to shine again after multiple big showcases for Padalecki. In the end, despite my initial concerns, the show provided a nice balance of performance time for both.

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Disc 6 is up next, and we’re going to do something a little different since it’s the finale. “What Is and What Should Never Be” will receive a single entry (I’ve heard great things about it), and the finale, both parts, will receive its own entry.

So while that doesn’t seem like too big of a change, I have invited a few veteran Supernatural viewers (and burgeoning scholars who have written about the show) to contribute their thoughts about Supernatural‘s second season, and its finale. So I hope you’ll welcome Cory Barker and Charlotte Howell when they join me for the season’s finale. I may have one or two  more joining them as well, so be sure to check it out!

Earlier thoughts on disc 1, disc 2, disc 3, disc 4.