This episode has a much more in-depth look at Dean's character and what makes him tick. He is also more personable for most of the episode, although he does do some eyeballing and failed pick-up lines near the beginning of the show. It focuses more on the mystery element of the show than on the horror, although the horror element is not missing, it is simply toned down. For these reasons, I particularly liked this episode and would rate it a surprising 9/10, higher than either of the two previous shows, despite the fact that the monster is similar (a vengeful spirit) to what we encountered in the first episode.
Now let's get to the meat of what makes this show so good in comparison to the others. First, the characters. The show gets off to a rocky start as a grown brother teases his sister that "guys don't like buff girls" as she's headed out to the lake to swim. She cuts back with a comment about girls not liking guys who still live at home and we're set with the gender stereotypes for the show. Then the girl goes swimming and something in the water is obviously watching her. She stops, glances to the shore, then starts swimming again. Whatever drags her under is not seen and we're not even showed her struggle, just the bubbles that rise to the surface when she doesn't. This ups the suspense but it's not as big of a horror element as some of the things on previous episodes.
The scene cuts to Sam and Dean discussing the disappearance as being one of three such "accidental" drownings this year where the body was never recovered. Dean flirts with the waitress and gives her a lecherous look telling Sam that they're "allowed to have fun". Then, the two of them argue about why they're hunting monsters instead of searching more diligently for their missing father. Sam finds their father's disappearance to be more pressing, but Dean argues back that he is just as worried since he has been the one fighting at their father's side for the past two years while Sam was off getting an education. Dean belittles the college experience (another thing that does not bode well for my feelings about his character). Then the two of them set off for the town.
When they show up to talk to the victim's brother (introducing themselves as wildlife specialists), he tells them what he saw, which wasn't much of anything. They ask to speak to the father (Ben), but they're given the brush off. The son says he's "been through hell" and he didn't see anything anyway. Then they talk to the sheriff, who insists that there's nothing in the lake, and they even brought in sonar equipment to prove it. There, they meet the sheriff's beautiful young daughter Andrea who catches Dean's eye, and her son Lucas. The sheriff tells the boys that his grandson has been through a lot. Dean tries to hit on Andrea, but she gives him the brush off and the boys head to their hotel room for a little research. It is there they they find out Andrea is the widow of one of the victims and that her son Lucas saw his father's death.
They head to the park where Andrea is watching Lucas from one of the benches. She tells Dean he is wasting his time, but he goes to talk to Lucas anyway. Andrea obviously thinks Dean is still trying to put the moves on her and she tells Sam that his "Jerry MacGuire" routine isn't going to work. The scene leaves the two of them and focuses instead on Dean talking to the mute Lucas. Dean can't seem to get Lucas to say anything but he suggests that Lucas could draw what he needs to say about his father's death. Dean draws some stick figures that he says are his father, his mother (he chokes on this word) himself, and his dumbass brother. Finally, he seems to give up and wanders back over to Andrea and Sam just as Andrea is explaining to Sam how Lucas has not spoken a word since his father's death. Just then, Lucas runs up and hands a drawing to Dean. It is of a house. Dean folds the drawing and pockets it.
Next we find a mournful Ben being attended by his son who is trying to convince him he needs to eat. The boy is fixing dinner when the sink starts filling up with a dark liquid which looks like lake water. Even after the guy pulls the plug it will not drain, so he sticks his hand in to try to plunge it or catch whatever is clogging it. Here the horror element comes in at the unseen force which pulls him beneath the water and holds him there long enough to drown before the sink drains itself and leaves his body in the sink. Sam and Dean find out about the drowning and go to follow up. Ben is beside himself as he sits in a chair by the lake. He tells Dean that both of his children are dead and that it is worse than dying. The boys go to leave and they agree that Ben is hiding something. That is when they notice, Ben's house is the same as the one in the picture Lucas gave Dean, down to the very last detail.
They go to question Lucas, but Andrea tells them they're wasting their time. Dean tells her if she really thinks these are all just coincidental drownings that they'll leave, but if she thinks that there's even a chance something else is going on, she needs to let them talk to Lucas. Dean is the one to talk to Lucas. This is the part where Dean really opens up. He tells Lucas that when he was a boy, he saw something "bad" happen to his mom and that he didn't want to talk after it happened either. He says that he knew his mom wanted him to be brave and suggests that Lucas' dad might want the same thing. Lucas hasn't looked up from his drawing this whole time, but he gives Dean another house drawing. This one is of a yellow house near a church with a red bike and a little boy standing out front. Sam and Dean hunt the house down and the inhabitant tells them that the boy "has not lived here in a very long time" she tells them of her son's disappearance and says that losing him 35 years ago was "worse than dying". There is a connection. That is when the lake disappearances started. Sam or Dean finds a picture of two boys, one of them is the boy that disappeared, the other is Ben.
Sam and Dean go to confront Ben, just as he has decided he knows what the vengeful spirit wants from him. It is too late to stop him from propelling his boat out onto the lake where it is promptly upended by an unseen entity and he is pulled beneath the surface.
Next they are in the sheriff's office where Andrea calls them by their first names and the sheriff seems angry about this. Before Andrea takes Lucas away, Lucas seems frightened and clings onto Dean. The sheriff tells them he knows they aren't who they were pretending to be and gives them two options. He can arrest them for impersonating federal officers, or they can leave town and never be seen again. They pick option 2, but as they are in the car, headed for the interstate, Dean hesitates. He turns in the wrong direction. He has a bad feeling about Lucas' fearful clinging earlier that day. If the vengeful spirit has been satiated by Ben's death as Sam thinks, then why was Lucas so afraid.
The scene cuts to Andrea running bathwater. We all see the attack coming before the water even begins to run out muddy, we just don't know if Sam and Dean will be there on time. She has time to scream before she gets pulled under and a frantic Lucas answers the door and leads the boys into the bathroom where Sam is able to pull Andrea from the clutches of whatever is trying to drown her, albeit with some difficulty. They ask Andrea to tell them what happened and Andrea begins to tell Sam a tale of hearing someone say "come play with me" just before being pulled under. Dean finds a picture which links the sheriff to the boy who went missing. Now we know why this family is under attack. Lucas then leads Dean to a spot where they begin to dig and unearth the red bike the missing kid used to ride.
The sheriff shows up and has a gun on Dean and Sam while Andrea comes out from the house to find out what's going on. Dean explains that he knows that the sheriff and Ben killed the boy 35 years ago and that the spirit is going to take everyone he loves away until he knows what the boy's mom felt and then it will take him too. He tells the man that if he wants to have a chance, they have to destroy the remains. As this scene plays out, we see Lucas, we hear the voice "come play with me" an eerie faraway child's voice, and we see him leave the safety of the house. Andrea confronts her father telling him to look her in the eyes and say he didn't murder anyone, but he can't and so his confession is heard. He and Ben were both bigger than the missing boy. They used to bully him. That is what they were doing that day, holding his head under water, only this time, they held it too long and the boy drowned. They let the body go and it sank to the bottom. This part does take away some from my suspension of disbelief because the body was never found and it is pretty well known that decomposing bodies fill with gas and become more buoyant. That is why gangsters would give their victims "cement shoes" before sending them to "sleep with the fishes". Okay, but I can get past that. Maybe some algae grew over the body before it became buoyant.
Anyway, just in time to watch Lucas get pulled into the water Sam, Dean, Andrea and the sheriff notice that Lucas is near the edge of the pier. Then the sheriff sees what he's been denying. The ghost of the boy he drowned. As Sam and Dean desperately search the water for Lucas, the sheriff wades in and begs the ghost to take him instead and leave the boy alone. The ghost obliges, and Dean surfaces with Lucas, but he's limp. The next scene shows Sam consoling Dean that "we can't save everyone" and for a moment the audience believes that Lucas drowned as well. Lucas and his mom, however, show up moments later. Lucas has even begun to talk. They say goodbye, Dean seems especially sad to leave because of the bond he's formed with this kid and then Andrea kisses him. Dean seems to linger before they get in the car and drive off, indicating that he'd much rather stay and explore a relationship with Andrea and Lucas.
A few notes -- I loved the mystery element to this episode. Most of them have at least some mystery to be solved, but this one really took it to the next level. It was on par with "What lies Beneath" down to the vengeful spirit punishing its murderer(s). I didn't even mind that the monster was another ghost. We will meet other kinds of monsters down the road.
I also loved the vulnerability Dean showed in this episode. If there were more moments like this throughout the show, instead of portraying him as the picture of toxic masculinity, I might be more prone to like his character. I'm not entirely certain, but this mom and son might be the same ones that feature in Season 5, if that is true, this is good foreshadowing of what is to come. I have not decided if I will continue these reviews past season 5 (where I believe the show should have ended) even though I have watched the more recent seasons (to a point).
Andrea is a good character, despite eventually falling into the category of "damsel in distress". Lucas is also an interesting character, although it is never explicitly explained why he suddenly became able to speak after the ghost got its vengeance. Perhaps what was stopping him was fear because he knew the thing that killed his father was still out there. I do also wonder about the 7 drowning victims which were never named and what their relationship to Ben and the sheriff might have been. Still, I rate this episode high because it did a good job with character development and execution.
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