"Bugs" Supernatural S1: Ep 8

 Oh my, so much to unpack here. This was an amazing episode, even brought me to tears which normally they don't. Lots of the familial stuff and character development for Sam and a little bit for Dean. No damsel in distress in this one and no leachery so all-in-all, an excellent episode for me.

So it starts off with some construction guys working at a development of high-dollar houses. They are talking about how they wish they could afford something like this when one of them falls into a sinkhole. His leg is broken, and he hollers at his friend to help him get out, he's too far down to reach, so the friend goes for a rope. That's when the bugs start crawling on the guy in the hole. The friend rushes to the truck and reaches it just about the time the guy in the hole starts really freaking out and hollering for help even more as more bugs appear crawling up his shirt. By the time his friend (Travis, his part is really short-lived but his name is important because it shows up later) gets back, the guy in the hole is dead and he's bleeding from every orifice in his head. The title hints that the beetles had something to do with it, but the mystery element is really high here because you don't know why the bugs are attacking.

Cut to the Winchester boys. Sam is waiting outside a bar and Dean comes out proudly displaying his winnings from hustling pool. Sam expresses displeasure that they need to earn their money by scamming people. He asks Dean would it hurt to get a "day" job, to which Dean replies that hunting is their "day" job. Then Sam shows Dean the newspaper article he's been reading about a mysterious death a couple of towns over in Oklahoma. So they head that way.

Sam and Dean arrive to the site of the death armed with little information than that the authorities are crediting the death to "mad cow" disease even though it takes years to manifest. The boys talk to Travis to get the DL on his friend's death, posing as the guy's nephews. Once they learn everything they can from Travis, they head to the scene of the death. They find the hole, cordoned off with yellow caution tape, and they investigate. Sam comes out with a beetle and Dean gives him a "you're kidding me with this, right?" look and Sam proceeds to explain that beetles sometimes eat human tissue, the caveat being that it's usually dead tissue, not living, and that they would have had to work in a large group. The first thing they rule out is ghosts. If it were a vengeful spirit there would be evidence of activity, and they're not finding any. Plus, there's no precedent for ghosts using bugs. Dean asks if Sam thinks someone might be controlling the bugs. Sam says maybe. They need to talk to the locals.

They find an open house which is offering a free barbeque to prospective home buyers, so the brothers pose as interested parties to gain access. This is where things get a little interesting, because everyone they meet assumes they're a couple. Dean corrects the first person to make this mistake, and Sam claims they're trying to find a home for their elderly father. However, the next time the mistake is made, typically alpha-male Dean actually is the one to roll with it giving Sam a playful pat on the rear and calling him "honey". Later in the show, Dean comes out of the shower with a towel on his head, further breaking the "gender norm" and the norm for his character. I have to say, I liked seeing this side to Dean, although the part where he acts a bit self-righteous was less than ideal, but I'm getting ahead of myself. So, the boys talk to Larry, the developer who set this whole neighborhood's construction underway, and he introduces them to a woman whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember simply because the significance of her character was to point the boys towards the red-herring of the show, Larry's bug obsessed son Matt.

Right about the same time that Dean is figuring out that Larry's son has a thing for bugs, Sam is talking to the real-estate lady previously mentioned when Matt tries to scare her with a tarantula. Sam puts the nix on this operation and takes a liking to the boy who seems to think his father is ashamed of him (he's probably right, because Larry certainly acts like it). Sam tells Matt that things will get better, eventually and we can see that Sam identifies with the kid.

From the party they've gleaned that another person died the previous year from an allergic reaction to multiple bee stings. So they're pretty sure that someone is controlling the bugs and they're pretty sure that someone is Matt, but they need more. They get what they're looking for the next day (after squatting in one of the empty houses where Dean likes the shower a little bit too much, this is where we get the towel scene). The real-estate lady was attacked by spiders in the shower. The boys have a suspect. They follow Matt as he gets off the bus and heads into the woods. He asks them if they're serial killers. They respond in the negative and he seems to believe them because he immediately acts comfortable with them enough to show them what is going on with the bugs. He says he's been studying them since his family arrived at this place and they're acting strange. He brings the boys to a place where there are swarms of various insects and there they find several very old skeletons. During the conversation with Matt, Sam tells him he will eventually get away from his overbearing father when he goes off to college. Dean takes offense to this (this is where I think Dean gets a little bit self-righteous), because Sam has expressed that he feels a kindred spirit in Matt, which he confirms later as they walk to the anthropology department of a nearby college. Sam says their father was disappointed that Sam wanted a "normal" life instead of being a hunter. That he wishes his dad had been proud of him. Dean expresses displeasure that Sam told Matt to look forward to getting away from his family because Dean thinks family is the most important thing and that family should stick together. The anthropology professor tells the boys that the skeletons appear to be about 150 years old or older and that they are probably Native American judging from their structure. Dean asks if there have ever been any tribes that would have lived in this area and the professor stresses that "officially" there aren't, but that several tribes were relocated by white settlers and that the boys might find their answers by talking to some of the Native Americans that live about 60 miles away.

The boys head there and find an old man playing cards. The first thing he does is call Dean a liar. I like this dude. Then Sam asks him if there were ever any NA who lived in the area of the deaths. The man asks why they want to know. Sam says bad things have been happening and he thinks it might be related to some NA skeletons they found. The old man weaves a tale which brought me to tears about how the Calvary came to relocate his peoples 200 years ago. Not everyone was willing to relocate, so the Calvary raped and pillaged and murdered for six nights and on the sixth, they killed everyone remaining in the village. As he was dying, the village chief cursed the land. He swore that the white man would never again set foot on that land and that if he did, when the sun and the moon were equal in the sky, nature would rise up against him for six nights. 

The boys figure out that this happens every year around this time, the curse takes effect. Sam ponders "how do you stop a curse?" but Dean says that you can't, "You get the hell out" or words to that effect. Anyway, they try to convince Larry to get his family out by claiming there's a gas leak, but he isn't buying it. He asks who's there and Dean claims to be Travis from earlier, but Larry has worked with Travis and he's not buying it. Sam then gets hold of Matt and tells him to get his family out, somehow he has to convince Larry. Dean says to tell him his side hurts and he needs to go to the ER, but when they get there the family is still there and Larry is yelling at them to get off his property. Matt apologizes, saying that he told Larry the truth. Dean tries to convince Larry, but he's not listening, not until it's too late to leave as the bug swarm approaches.

So the Winchesters hole everyone up in the house trying to seal off all the cracks, but they don't figure out the flue is open to the chimney until they hear the bugs coming through it, so everyone hauls ass upstairs. Dean holds off some of the bugs with bug-spray and a lighter. They make it into the attic, but then they see that there are termites eating through the wood. Eventually that part of the roof caves and the boys find something to block it off with a piece of metal and a beam, but that eventually fails and just when everyone thinks they're doomed, dawn breaks and all the bugs dissipate.

The boys show up to the house as Larry and his family are loading a moving van. Larry says he's going to make sure no one ever lives here again, and that the place has been shut down while the government investigates the bones the boys found. Larry says he's not really sad even though this turned out to be a really big financial disaster and he looks over to his son who's throwing out all his bug paraphernalia. Sam goes over to talk to him. Turns out the whole almost being killed by swarms of insects turned him off them. "Now they kind of creep me out" he confesses. Sam says he'd be disturbed if that weren't the case and laughs. After they say their goodbyes to the family, Sam and Dean talk some more about their father. Sam says he wants to find their dad so he can apologize for all the nasty things he said to him, and Dean says they'll find him, Sam will apologize and then five minutes later they'll be back to being at each other's throats.

Okay, so side characters in this were really interesting. Larry less so than Matt, but that might just be because I understand the "weird" kid syndrome far better than the "I'm just doing what I think is best for you" overbearing parent. I'm giving side characters a 9/10, creep element was also pretty high, but I really don't like bugs. So horror/suspense also gets a 9/10. I don't have to take any points off for misogyny, so yay! Sam and Deans development was also really high in this episode and I'm going to give that a high 8/10 as well. Mystery, well even though we knew it was bugs, there was a high mystery factor in figuring out why they were attacking and the reveal was all I could have hoped for so I'm giving that a perfect 10/10. So all-in-all, this episode rates a solid 9/10. And I believe that is the highest rating I've given one of these shows since I developed this system.

That's it for now, tune in next time... wait, how many episodes left in the first season? J/K see y'all later, thanks for reading.

A quick rant completely unrelated to the topic at hand

So I was on Facebook. I know, I know, stop doing that. Anyway, I was reading the comment section of this post. It was a post about the absurdity that women's breasts are sexualized and criminalized while men's chests aren't. A lot of people pointed out that post-op trans men can be topless and cis men with "man boobs" are also allowed that luxury. Anyway, there was one comment about the misogynistic nature of our society and I read the replies and there was a lot of back and forth about a "not all men" comment. One person was trying to explain (and not doing a very good job) why the phrase "not all men" is problematic. To me it's the same as the "not all white people" comment. The reason it exists is that the privileged want a way to pretend to be allies without having to actually acknowledge the problem. They want it both ways. They don't want to be hated, but they don't want to fix a system that rewards them just for existing. The problem with that is, when you say "not all men" or "not all white people" you're not helping. Misogyny and racism still exist and the oppressed group is still being oppressed whether allies exist or not. Only by acknowledging the problem can the privileged help and change it. So, by saying "not all men" or "not all white people" you are insulting those who suffer at the hands of an unjust system. It is, in effect rubbing your privilege in their faces. That is why the comments are met with disdain. It is not because we believe that there are no male allies (or white allies for people of color), it is because whether those allies exist or not, the oppression continues and refusal to acknowledge it just perpetuates it. 

Okay, rant over. Thank you for indulging me. See you next week probably for another episode of Supernatural (maybe sooner if I feel like doing one this weekend).

"Hook Man" Supernatural S1: ep:7

Okay this episode is rife with that Dean Winchester lechery I hate so much. Not much in the way of character growth for our main duo, although Sam is presented with a conflict of sorts. The side characters in this one are a little interesting, but there is still the whole "damsel in distress" trope that seems to pop up quite often in this show. So here's the DL.

The show opens with a girl (Lori) getting ready for a date. She starts out in a very conservative outfit, which her party girl roommate (who just happens to be black, seems a tad like a racial stereotype) thinks is too stuffy and of course she lends her something a little more revealing to wear. Lori and her date park on a deserted road because he insists they can't show up early. She knows he's up to something and doesn't seem to mind at first. Then he tries to slip his hand inside her shirt, she tells him no, he tells her it's okay (seem a bit rapey to you? It did to me too). He tries again, but they begin hearing some kind of metal scraping against another metal. The guy goes out to investigate and the car is scratched by an invisible hook and the tires slashed. The guy disappears and the girl, frightened out of her mind, locks the door and rolls up the window. Then she hears scratching on the roof. Eventually, she decides to make a run for it and that's when she sees the mutilated corpse of her date hanging above the car. The horror element here is pretty high. With the hook scraping and only getting glimpses of the killer, the ambiance of the lonely deserted road also plays into this well. After seeing the body, she does the characteristic "damsel in distress" scream. I guess that's a common trope in horror too.

We cut to Sam and Dean. Sam is still trying to find their father. Dean reminds him that "Dad probably doesn't want to be found" then redirects his brother's attention to a news story from a nearby town about a college girl who witnessed a murder by an invisible assailant. The boys decide to investigate. This time they pose as new fraternity brothers as they investigate the murder. A frat boy is painting himself purple and asks for help which Dean defers to Sam while giving a kind of disgusted look (seems a bit homophobic). He tells them about the guy that was murdered and how he was taking out a hot sorority girl named Lori who is also a preacher's daughter the way he says this is dripping with innuendo (what did you expect from a show centered on frat boys and sorority girls?).

Sam and Dean go to Lori's dad's church as he's giving a sermon about the tragic death of one who has only begun to live and to my very pleasant surprise I recognize the actor. It is Bob Bulldog Briscoe from Frasier. Although I hated his character in the show Frasier, it is cool to see him playing an altogether different and much more nuanced character (albeit a short lived one) in this show. The boys talk to Lori to get a feel for what happened. Sam believes her, so they hit the books. They are looking through old arrest records and they find one that seems to fit the bill. A preacher about 200 years ago butchered a bunch of prostitutes and he used a hook, not to mention the red light district where he committed the crime is in the same vicinity as the attack. The boys think they're on to something and go to find the ghost, carrying a shotgun filled with salt. Meanwhile, daddy dearest tells Lori he doesn't think she should go back to the sorority, and that he knows what goes on in that type of place and what kind of a person her roommate is.

Lori gets in and the lights are off. She sees that her roommate is already asleep so she doesn't turn them on. She cuddles into bed. Cut to the boys off to fight the ghost only to run into a sheriff who's patrolling the area. Sam, who's holding the shotgun is in a lot of trouble. The next day, Lori awakens to find blood dripping from her roommate's bed. Her eyes roam up to find a mutilated corpse and the words "aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light" along with a symbol carved into the wall above the bed. Lori screams her "damsel in distress" scream one more time. The scene then changes to the Winchesters who are leaving the sheriff's office. Dean has somehow convinced the sheriff that Sam was just being hazed into the fraternity by being forced to "hunt ghosts" because salt repels them. I should mention that Dean makes several remarks about sorority girls during their time in this town especially once they find out that a murder was committed in a sorority house. The boys break in, which isn't hard because the small town police security is pretty bad, and see the message. Sam recognizes the symbol and they check it out. It matches a symbol they saw on the poster about the murderous reverend 200 years ago. So they have their hookman. Now all they need to do is salt and burn the bones. Too bad the guy was buried in an unmarked grave.

The boys attend a party (who knows why because all they do while there is talk about the murder and the likelihood that the ghost has attached itself to the reverend Bob Briscoe [sorry I couldn't resist]) and Dean agrees reluctantly to find the spirit's grave and get rid of the bones while Sam keeps an eye on Lori. Sam is sitting outside of Lori's house and witnesses her fighting with her dad about some relationship he's in. Dean, digging to unearth the bones after he sees the same symbol on a gravestone, laments that he didn't get to watch the "cute" girl's house. Lori comes out of the house to where Sam is. She tells him how her father is having an affair with a married woman and how she thinks that when people do immoral things they should be punished. Then she tries to kiss Sam but he tells her no. She guesses correctly that the person he lost was his lover. Then her father is attacked by the hookman, but Sam is able to chase it off with the salt packed shotgun. At the hospital the next day Sam asks Dean why he didn't burn the bones and Dean says he did. They decide the ghost is attached to the hook so they need to find it. Going over the execution record tells them it was given to the church and going over the church record says it was re-forged. The boys need to find whatever object the silver hook was repurposed into and melt it in a salty fire. They also realize that the ghost is not attached to the reverend at all, but to his daughter Lori.

The mystery element in this is pretty high because it surrounds not exactly who the spirit is, or why he's vengeful (obviously he's a self-righteous prick who wants to kill anyone he deems unworthy) but whose emotions he has attached to and what is keeping him tethered to this world. Lori comes back to the church to pray as the Winchester boys are burning everything silver they can find. Sam hears her and goes to investigate. Lori tells him she thinks the murders are her fault and that she deserves to be punished at which point the hookman makes his appearance. Sam fend him off, but gets hurt. Dean comes up after melting all the silver then they realize that the necklace Lori is wearing is silver. It was a church keepsake that her father gave her. Dean leaves Sam with the shotgun while he runs to throw the necklace in the fire. The necklace melts and just as Sam and Lori are about to be hacked to pieces, the hook begins to melt and hookman burns away.

The sheriff doesn't seem to believe Deans story about the hookman which they all saw but who got away, but he doesn't act like he thinks he can do anything about it. He gives Dean a warning but Dean tells him not to worry, they're leaving town. Sam is at the back of the ambulance just having gotten his arm bandaged from the hook's gash. Lori thanks Sam but he leaves her and it shows her in the rearview as they drive away. Dean tells Sam they can stay, but Sam shakes his head not quite ready to move on from Jess.

I didn't mind certain elements of this show, but others were extremely distasteful to me. Here's my rating: For horror this one gets a solid 9/10, mystery suspense is also pretty high at 8/10, the misogyny is there and undeniable so I have to take -3 points off this for that, not a lot of character growth for our main duo I give that part a 5/10 for showing just a bit of Sam frustrated about not being able to find their dad and his hesitation to move on from Jess. The side characters were pretty interesting, especially reverend Briscoe (lol, you can't stop me from calling him that). Lori was interesting in her own right, but not quite as nuanced. I give the side characters a solid 8/10 for this episode. Overall this episode nets a 6.75/10.

"Skin" Supernatural S:1 Ep:6

This was a really good episode story wise. It had some really vomit inducing effects though and that is because the monster is a shapeshifter (someone who can change shape to look like someone else) and the way that he shapeshifts is he sheds and it really shows a lot more than it has to. I'm going to rate this one a little lower on the horror scale even though it has really good special effects because there's more of a slasher feel to this one. I also don't really like gore horror as much. It feels a little cheaper I think to just show revolting things to elicit a reaction. Mystery element is not so high either. It's pretty obvious what the monster is pretty early on and it's just a matter of catching it. Interestingly enough, the girl they're helping doesn't end up really being a damsel in distress, instead it is Sam who needs rescuing in this one. For that reason I'm not going to take points away for misogyny even though Dean does spend a little time ogling the main girl (Becky).

The show actually opens up with a swat team zeroing in on a crime in progress. They find the victim who is being tortured tied to a chair and she directs them to the perpetrator who is about to escape out the window. We get a good look at the guy's face and it is Dean. Then the scene cuts to a week earlier. Even though it isn't obviously a shapeshifter at first, the mystery element doesn't last long because Sam and Dean go to help Becky with her brother Zack who was charged with his (wife/girlfriend)'s murder. Becky insists that Zack was with her at the time of the murder and he'd have to have been in two places at once, but police have him on surveillance entering the apartment before the murder.

First let me talk about how this is such a good episode for Dean's character. At the start he's telling Sam he needs to cut ties because the stuff they do isn't conducive to maintaining friendships. Sam says he'd rather not be a loner like Dean. Then they backtrack 400 miles to help one of Sam's college friends. Sam lies to Becky and tells her that Dean is a policeman so that she will let them look at the crime scene. When Sam's lie comes out later, Dean tells him that's why he should cut ties. Then the shapeshifter takes Dean's body and seems to take his memories as well. Then we start getting some of the emotional turmoil Dean has been holding inside in the form of what the shapeshifter says while he is Dean. 

Before becoming Dean, the shapeshifter attacks another woman as her husband but the husband comes home and catches him. Well, not catches him so much as finds his wife tied to a chair bloody and gagged and when he tries to release her she begs him not to hurt her anymore. Then the shapeshifter jumps out and knocks the guy out and we see him being hauled off while Sam and Dean hunt for clues in the Zack murder case. They decide they're looking for a shapeshifter after hearing the story the man told police of coming home to find himself attacking his wife. They also figure out how the shapeshifter is disappearing and that he sheds his skin when he changes because they find piles of human flesh in the sewer (I know, pretty gross).

After chasing it through the sewer, it gets away. Then Sam and Dean get separated and that is the first time it appears as Dean. Sam catches on pretty quick but still hesitates to shoot which results in him getting captured and hauled to the shifter's lair. While at the lair the shifter comments on how messed up Sam and Dean's lives are and talks to Sam about how Dean resents the fact that he got to go off to college and how Dean is afraid that everyone will leave him and he'll end up alone. The shifter then announces that he's going to pay a visit to Becky.

He knocks on her door as Dean and uses the old lady charmer trait to worm his way into her good graces. He tells her that they think it is a shapeshifter and says he identifies with the shifter. He talks about how lonely it must be, and how everyone else must think it's a freak. He then comes on to Becky and Becky turns him down. Then he whispers something in her ear and she calls him a freak. He then attacks. He tells him it's too bad, that he kind of liked her and he proceeds to begin her torture. Meanwhile, Sam and Dean who are tied up in the shifter's lair escape and call the police who are able to get there before Becky is killed, but who now think Dean is the attacker. The shifter does not get caught by police and escapes to the sewers where it sheds (the whole thing is super gross, I recommend fast forwarding if you're at all squeamish). They go to get their car, but there are police so Dean has to make himself scarce. Sam makes him promise not to go to the sewers alone, but Dean is Dean and he goes anyway. Sam is going to see Becky because the shifter didn't finish the job so he thinks she might be still be in danger.

Dean, however, finds Becky in the sewer. She has been bound and gagged. She tells Dean she wouldn't have believed it until she saw the shifter transform into her. Meanwhile, "Becky" is talking to Sam and he's completely off his guard when it attacks. It then transforms into Dean so it can kill Sam as him. Apparently this thing gets off on having family attack family. Of course, Dean is on time to rescue Sam and put down the shifter (who doesn't stop looking like him when it dies). The story concludes with Becky sending the boys off still in disbelief that this is what they do for a living. Dean asks about Zack Sam says that they're pinning it all on Dean Winchester because they found Zack's (girlfriend/wife)'s DNA or blood or something on Dean's clothing and so the police now think the tape has been tampered with. They expect Zack to be exonerated. On this note, the boys drive off. Dean laments that he didn't stay because "how many times am I going to have the chance to attend my own funeral".

So this episode is rated 7/10 for horror, 6/10 for mystery/suspense, (no points deducted for misogyny), side character development is very minimal. Becky's character isn't really explored a whole lot and she's really the only side character we see so I give it a 6/10 for that but another 10/10 for Dean's character development. Overall a solid 7.25/10. It would have been higher if the mystery element had been better or if the horror element wasn't mostly gore. I really liked the Dean character development in this episode, as I've said and I hope we get another good Sam episode soon as well. (Although I know there are some really interesting developments with his character as the show progresses).

Thanks for sticking with me through this review. If you liked it, check out my other reviews. Stay tuned for more (I'll try to get this season finished by the year's end but we'll see how it goes).