Category: Season 3

Did Sammy Come Back Wrong? Supernatural 3.04 ‘Sin City’

Did Sammy Come Back Wrong? Supernatural 3.04 ‘Sin City’

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The fourth episode of Supernatural Season 3 is one that I sometimes forget about, but it’s actually very interesting not only in how it moves the main plot forward, but also in how it moves the evolution of Sam and Dean’s (and the show’s) understanding of “monsters” forward too. Plus it’s a beautiful episode, with director Charles Beeson and DP Serge Ladouceur creating some gorgeous scenes. The show was still quite dark in this season, though it was transitioning, so I relish all the episodes that still retained that early season darkness, both literally and metaphorically.

This is one of the episodes co-written by Bob Singer, along with Jeremy Carver, two eventual showrunners themselves. The script is punctuated with all kinds of pop culture references, from the title referring to a comic, film and AC/DC song and nods to everything from Donnie Brasco to Psycho, Dick Cheney to Margaritaville.

The “THEN” reminds us of the Yellow Eyed Demon’s provocative question to Dean: How certain are you that what you brought back is 100% pure Sam?

It’s a theme that was so intriguing and I was hoping they’d make more of, but Season 3 is the season that was cut short by the writer’s strike and changed course in multiple ways, so nothing ever really came of that question unless you want to look at it as foreshadowing of Sam eventually losing his soul. We’re also reminded of the Colt that can kill anything, and Ruby’s manipulation of Sam with the promise that she can help him save his brother, the only thing Sam cares about right now.

“NOW”…

The opening scene is beautiful and disturbing, a church lit by candles that suddenly flicker as a wind blows through. A parishioner in the choir loft insists that God isn’t with them anymore as a nun and priest look up – to see the man pull a gun and shoot himself, collapsing.

The nun screams bloody murder, and we get the title card in a perfect juxtaposition.

SUPERNATURAL

Cut to Bobby working on the Colt, Dean making bullets. It’s incongruously beautiful, as Supernatural often is even when it’s violent and dark.

Sam tells them he might have found some omens in Ohio.

Dean: Well that’s thrilling…

Sam goes on about the guy blowing his head off in a church and another guy going postal in a hobby shop. Dean’s still not entirely convinced and not very excited about going to Ohio.

Dean (hopefully): There’s gotta be a demon or two in South Beach…

Sam: Sorry, Hef, maybe next time.

Sam calling Dean Hugh Hefner, the infamous Playboy mansion owner, is kinda adorable. I bet Dean loved it.

He asks Bobby how it’s going with the Colt, and Bobby admits it’s going slowly.

Dean: I tell you, it’s a little sad seeing the Colt like that.

Bobby: The only thing it’s good for now is figuring out what makes it tick.

Sam: So what makes it tick?

Bobby: (bitchface)

Dean (taking his cue from Sam): So if we wanna go check out these omens in Ohio, you think you can have that thing ready by this afternoon?

Sam laughs, while Bobby….does not.

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A Season 3 Favorite – Bad Day At Black Rock

A Season 3 Favorite – Bad Day At Black Rock

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Our little rewatch of Supernatural has arrived at another favorite episode! I feel like I’ve been saying that almost constantly during this rewatch, but the first few seasons of this show were just SO amazing. Even watching sixteen years later, they hold up incredibly well – in fact, I think this show really has spoiled me. I stack every other new show up against this one, and few make the cut. Supernatural is THAT good.

Anyway… I love this episode for its humor, which Jared and Jensen carry out masterfully, but it comes during a dark time in the show’s canon. Kripke was particularly good at knowing when the audience needed a bit of comic relief from the darkness, because at this time Supernatural was very much still a horror show. The combination was compelling, like the best twists and turns and scares of a roller coaster, but I’m sure it was hard to pull off. But Supernatural? Did it every single time in the early years. Including in this episode. With brilliant writing by Ben Edlund and directing by Bob Singer, this episode is an all time favorite.

Let’s jump in!

‘THEN’ reminds us that this is, in fact, a horror genre show. That the boys’ dad is gone, and Dean is determined that they will carry out his legacy. That Dean sold his soul to save Sam and has a year to live before being sent to Hell.  That a mysterious chick named Ruby might have a blade that can kill a demon and insists she can save Dean. Oh, and a reminder of the hunter Gordon Walker, convinced that Sam Winchester is fighting on hell’s side in the upcoming war….

NOW.

Kubrick visits Gordon in prison, telling him that a devil’s gate was opened in Wyoming.   (Kubrick was a fascinating character played perfectly by Michael Massee, who sadly passed away in 2016.)

Gordon is immediately suspicious. He’s got a one track mind when it comes to Sam – an obsession really. Gordon is such an interesting character, both he and Kubrick in this episode vividly showing that hunters have a dark side. They’re obsessed, most of them, in one way or another. If they weren’t, would anyone do what they do? And that includes the Winchesters, all of them, eventually. I love that the show has never shied away from examining its heroes and pointing out their flaws – the ARE heroes, no doubt about it, but what they do skates the thin line between right and wrong and is almost always on the not-quite-legal side of things, especially in the early seasons. It made for a compelling narrative and characters.

Gordon: Sam Winchester was there, wasn’t he?

Kubrick is initially doubtful about Sam going darkside – Bobby Singer says the Winchesters were there, but they went in there to stop it.

Kubrick: He’s a hunter, that’s all.

Gordon laughs.

Gordon: Kubrick, I’m not even sure he’s human.  Track him down, Kubrick. Sam Winchester must die.

Gordon hangs up dramatically, and we all know the boys are in trouble.

The Supernatural Season 3 title card hits the screen, and then we’re with our boys. In the Impala at night on a quiet, dark road. Sam and Dean are arguing, and Dean is pissed that Sam is considering working with Ruby. Of course, the boys are keeping secrets, so he doesn’t know that Sam is considering it to save Dean. At this time in the show, we already know the lengths Dean will go to in order to ensure Sam is okay, but we’re now finding out that Sam will go every bit as far.

Dean: The second you find out this Ruby chick is a demon, you go for the holy water, you don’t chat!

Sam bristles, saying no one was chatting.

Dean demands to know why he didn’t send her back to hell then, and Sam reluctantly admits that she said she could help him out of his deal. Dean stares at Sam incredulously, while Sam sits silent and sullen.

Dean: What is wrong with you, huh? She’s lying, you gotta know that, don’t you? She knows what your weakness is – it’s me. What else did she say?

Sam doesn’t answer.

Dean: Dude!

Sam: Nothing. Look, I’m not an idiot, Dean, I’m not talking about trusting her, I’m talking about using her.

I forget sometimes how reasonable it all seemed at the beginning of the season. It’s probably what any of us would have done, if we wanted to save someone we loved and there was no other way to do it. Of course Sam desperately wanted to believe Ruby – and Dean’s right, she knew that.

Dean: You’re okay, right? I mean, you’re feeling okay?

Dean, of course, knows that if he tries to welsh on the deal, Sam will once again drop dead. Both of them are terrified that they’re about to lose the other.

Sam snaps back, saying he’s fine.

Sam: Why are you always asking me that?

Dean has not forgotten what his little brother looked like laid out on that old bed, lifeless. He can’t shake the fear that Sam really isn’t okay, that he’s going to be yanked out of Dean’s life once again just like that.

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Supernatural Rewatch ‘The Kids Are All Right’ – Or Are They?

Supernatural Rewatch ‘The Kids Are All Right’ – Or Are They?

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Season 3 continues in our Supernatural Rewatch with the second episode of the season, which introduces the character of Lisa Braeden and her son Ben. She’s part of Dean’s last-year-to-live tour of living it up that he’s insisting Sam support him going on, no matter how painful Sam might find the constant reminder of his brother’s upcoming death, but she turns out to be alot more than that. Lisa is a polarizing character, but I think many fans appreciate how the character is written and admire Cindy Sampson’s portrayal of her. I had the pleasure of meeting Cindy at a Supernatural convention in 2022 and she is absolutely lovely and seems to have a genuine appreciation for the Supernatural fandom.

I’m one of the people who liked her character from the jump, and at the same time did not think that Dean and her could really work – or Dean and anyone for that matter. Especially not in Season 3 with his trip to hell breathing down his neck! But Lisa is a nuanced character and a believable mom thanks to Sera Gamble’s writing and Cindy’s acting – which means the couple of things that didn’t make sense in this episode really bothered me.

Which brings me to…

Full disclosure: This episode is not one of my favorites. I know a lot of people like it, and it has moments that I also enjoy, but it also has things that don’t quite work for me. Also? Damn Kripke and Gamble, it is SCARY. And disturbing. And bloody and creepy and all those other things that Kripke and company love. I had to close my eyes a few times during this rewatch, ngl.

Written by Sera Gamble, who I love, and directed by the venerable Phil Sgriccia, there’s a lot that’s very well done in this episode, but changelings? Ewwwww. I guess that’s a testament to the fact that they came through just as creepy as they were supposed to!

THEN

Sam’s death, Dean’s deal, his tearful explanation to Bobby, the terms of the deal, the mysterious woman and her demon-killing knife. And…

NOW

In Cicero, Indiana, a truck pulls up, a dad dropping off his daughter from visitation. The child runs to the mom and hugs her, tearful, saying there are monsters at her dad’s house and begging not to have to go back. The mom is confused, saying she usually loves to go to her father’s. Later, we see the dad working in his garage, carving a wooden rocking horse for presumably his daughter. Poor guy, that whole begging not to go back must have been tough.

But his life is about to get much tougher – and shorter.

Suddenly as the guy goes to leave, the table saw starts up all on its own.  The man turns back and goes over to investigate, leaning in and getting his face up close and personal.

All of us watching: NOOOOO!!!

He turns it off, walks away and turns out the light. It starts again. He goes BACK to it OMG.

All of us watching: NOOOOO why would you do that??? Run!!!

As he approaches, he stumbles and it snags his shirt and pulls him onto the saw – the blade slices right through him, blood splattering everywhere. Have I mentioned that in early seasons Supernatural truly was a horror show?? How did they get away with such a graphic bloody scene? Again, worthy of The Boys.

And then it was time for Sam and Dean! Yay!

Sam’s in a diner, chatting with Bobby on the phone about a demon dispelling ritual he found, and sounding more than a little desperate trying to find a way to save his brother. Dean walks by the window and waves a newspaper at Sam, as Sam hurriedly hangs up.

Dean: Who was that?

Sam: Uh, I was just ordering pizza.

Dean: Dude, you do realize you’re in a restaurant?

Sam (shrugs): Yeah, I just, I felt like pizza, you know?

Dean: Okay, Weirdy McWeirderton. So anyway, I think I’ve got something.

Who could resist that FACE though? Sam and those puppy dog eyes and those shaggy bangs and that SMILE?

Let’s pause for a second and just appreciate Sam and Dean circa 2007, with their beautiful baby faces and the way they still smile and joke around so much, even with Dean’s deal hanging over their heads. Let’s also appreciate that this was 2007 and they got their cases from the newspaper. One of the things I love the most about Supernatural is that it always seems timeless. Even when I was watching it in real time, it always had a sense of being in the past anyway, with its past-their-heydey motels and little Americana towns. So Sam and Dean reading a newspaper? Fits right in, even now.

When Sam is skeptical about it being a case, Dean admits there’s another reason he wants to go to Cicero – Lisa Braeden.

Sam: You want to drive all the way to Cicero just to hook up with some random chick?

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Supernatural Rewatch: Season 3 Kicks Off with The Magnificent Seven

Supernatural Rewatch: Season 3 Kicks Off with The Magnificent Seven

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This is one of those episodes that doesn’t stick in my head as being a favorite, yet when we rewatched it, I was struck by how solid it is – and how visually powerful. No wonder, since it’s directed by the brilliant Kim Manners and written by the equally brilliant Eric Kripke.

Season 3 was a season we weren’t guaranteed. The first four or five seasons of Supernatural were stressful for fandom – we were never sure the show would eke out another season’s renewal. It was a weirdly exciting time that had the benefit of bonding the fandom together in the shared goal of just keeping the little show we loved on the air. No time for ship wars or character (or actor) wank when the show’s very existence wasn’t assured. Sometimes, not gonna lie, I really miss those days.

As Season 3 began, we were all tremendously relieved and full of anticipation for a season that promised to be horrifying (in the best sense of the word) now that the YED was a) dead but b) had succeeded in opening the hell gate and releasing a whole bunch of demons. Little did we know there was about to be a writer’s strike that would alter the season (and as I write this rewatch in 2023, there is another, so there is still clearly alot of progress to be made!)

That upped the stakes considerably for the Winchester brothers – and that danger became crystal clear right away with this season premiere episode.

We get some vintage AC/DC to start with “Hell’s Bells”, a song I will forever associate with Supernatural.

The early seasons openers were often also truly horrifying in the best sense of the word, as some hapless red shirt person met a terrible fate. This time it’s in a quiet suburban development in Oak Park, Illinois. (Kripke has always known that quiet suburban neighborhoods are truly the most horrifying).  Scary music plays as a guy takes out the trash late at night. (Not gonna lie, every time I take out the trash late at night, I think about this episode). A dog barks as he puts in the bag, and then the trash cans start to rattle like there’s something in them, and instead of walking away like any sane person would, the guy goes BACK to investigate.

All of us watching: Why???

Street lamps flicker, then a big black cloud of smoke comes rolling through the night sky. The guy just stands there and stares at it as we’re all yelling at him to RUN, FOOL! He finally, belatedly, starts to run but it’s too late, it knocks him down and a tendril of smoke goes right in his mouth. Ewwww!

He opens his black eyes.

All the demons start to smoke down to Earth, presumably doing the same thing to more foolish people.

SUPERNATURAL, the title card reminds us – the new title card for Season 3! That was a big point of excitement every year, and they never disappointed.

One week later… and we know we’re about to see what the Winchester brothers are up to. We couldn’t have guessed this one, though!

Sam’s sitting in the Impala at night, reading about Dr. Faustus and his deal with the devil at the crossroads by flashlight – while Dean is inside a motel or house or something.

Sam is sitting in the car watching through the window for some reason.

Dean, in an undershirt, flashes Sam a big horny grin and gives his brother a thumbs up, Sam smiling indulgently.

Everyone at the time: Wha?

Then he closes the (transparent so why bother) curtains and helpfully takes off a woman’s shirt.

As Sam watches and smiles (affectionately, according to the transcript).

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