A Season 3 Favorite – Bad Day At Black Rock

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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Sam Learns the Truth (and has a VERY Close Call) in Supernatural Season 2’s ‘Hunted’

This episode was written by Raelle Tucker, who I really wish had stuck around longer, and directed by Rachel Talalay, one of the first women to direct Supernatural. And they both did an amazing job! Also special shout out to the music cues that make the episode haunting and creepy, as much as its subject matter does.

The THEN reminds us that the Winchesters are still out there saving people, hunting things. That John Winchester knew the truth about Sammy and didn’t tell his sons. That he whispered something to Dean before he died and Dean lied about it. That Sam knows the demon said he has plans for Sam and other children like him. Like Max, like the ‘others’….

I love the huge mystery that the show was spooling out at the time, leaving me always feeling like I was on the edge of my seat desperately wanting to know what the hell was going on, and knowing that my boys were right at the center of it. It was so compelling, it’s no wonder I fell so hard for this show!

NOW…

The opening is a gut punch right away, a psychiatrist talking to his patient, a young man who’s hesitant to confide in the doctor about what he refers to as his ‘ability’.

Scott: When I touch something…I can electrocute it, if I want.

As if that isn’t chilling enough, he gives an example – the neighbor’s cat.

Scott: Its insides fried up like a hamburger.

The haunting sounds of ‘White Rabbit’ by Jefferson Airplane play in the background as Scott tells his disturbing tale, “One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small…”

Scott knows the doc doesn’t believe him, and holds his hand out ominously.

Scott: Wanna shake on it?

I think I started screaming NOOOOO don’t do it the first time I saw this, as the doctor calmly asks why he wanted to kill the neighbor’s cat, but Scott says he didn’t – that “he” wants him to.

Doc: Who?

Scott: The yellow eyed man. He comes to me in my dreams… he has plans for me…

Everyone watching: OHMYGOD

I can’t even describe now, almost 15 years later, how chilling that reveal was. How just the words “yellow eyed man” struck fear into our hearts as viewers, because we knew Sam and Dean were in serious danger and we didn’t yet know just what it meant.

Scott leaves the doctor’s office and walks out into the dark, clouds of mist hanging over the deserted street as he rushes down a hill, hunched over, looking scared.

He looks around, calls out “Hello?” thinking someone’s following him, as the music grows louder and a train rushes overhead. We see the shadow of a man behind him in his car window as he finally gets there and then he’s stabbed, brutally. Blood spills out of his mouth as he dies and it’s brutal, graphic, so much more sinister because of the cinematography and the music and damn this show is so well done.

From that disturbing beginning, we’re back at the iconic fence with the Winchesters, Sam and Dean drinking beer next to the river.

Dean: Before Dad died, he told me something. Something about you.

Sam: What? Dean, what did he tell you?

Dean: He said that he wanted me to watch out for you, to take care of you…

Sam points out that their dad said that a million times, but Dean insists this time was different, increasingly agitated as he tries to confide in Sam this burden that he’s been carrying.

Dean: This time was different. He said that I had to save you…that nothing else mattered, and that if I couldn’t, I’d…

He falters, anguished, and Sam presses him, fully aware that this is bad, very bad.

Sam: You’d what, Dean?

Dean is looking at Sam almost begging him to make this all go away, and yet he pushes on, knows he has to come clean to Sam.

Dean: That I’d have to kill you. He said that I might have to kill you, Sammy.

Sam looks as anguished as Dean, the two of them facing off in this beautiful spot over this horrific reveal.

Sam: Kill me?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?

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Supernatural Leaves the Black and White Behind with Season 2’s ‘Bloodlust’

And our Supernatural rewatch continues…

The third episode of Supernatural’s second season is hard hitting, thanks to not only Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles’ acting skills, but several very talented (and well known now if they weren’t then) guest stars. Amber Benson was already a fan favorite from her time on Buffy, and Ty Olsson would become  a Supernatural fan favorite when he returns to team up with Dean in Purgatory as Benny. And of course the amazing Sterling K. Brown as Gordon Walker makes this episode powerful – it’s not surprising that he’s gone on to more mainstream fame on This Is Us.

As I’ve said many many many times, someone really needs to buy Supernatural’s casting agency a fruit basket. A really big one.

This episode is written by Sera Gamble and directed by Robert Singer, who both have been integral to Supernatural and went on to become showrunners. No wonder it’s so damn good.

These early episodes are enriched so much by the music cues, and this one is no exception. The recap gives us ‘Wheel in the Sky’ with strikingly appropriate lyrics for what the brothers are experiencing. “The wheel in the sky keeps on turning, I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow…”

We revisit John’s funeral, and Sam’s question to Dean – did he say anything to you?

And Dean’s stoic ‘no’, followed by his breakdown at the Impala’s expense. It still hurts.

And then we’re off – to Red Lodge, Montana.

A woman runs through the woods, falling down and then scrambling up, desperate and terrified. She finally hides behind a tree, and of course we’re all rooting for her, thinking a monster is after her. She finally thinks she’s eluded it and looks around the tree – and a large knife slices her head clean off.

Oof.  Little do we know, she’s a vampire – but our first instincts turn out to be right. What was hunting her was the real monster.

Cut to our boys, and one of the most iconic Supernatural songs ever, AC/DC’s ‘Back In Black’. The car roars down the road, Dean behind the wheel, enjoying his (now restored to her full beauty) baby. By this time, the show knew how much the fandom loved what we at the time called “the Metallicar” and lingers on her shiny chrome and sleek black exterior. We know what Dean sees in her; we see it too.

And Sam, though he loves to tease his brother about it, loves and values that car almost as much. She’s home, after all.

Dean: Wooh, listen to her purr!

Sam makes a face, trying for grumpy but a smile trying to break through.

Sam: You know, if you two wanna get a room, just let me know.

Dean hears it for the affectionate nudge that it is and plays along.

Dean: Aw, don’t listen to him, baby, he doesn’t understand us.

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