PigNaPoke
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Great acting in this one and very interesting insight into Dean’s issues, but over all it’s one of my least favorites of season.
I thought Becky was STUPID and quite a b#$@% . Happy enough to accept help, then kicking them out and then letting “Dean” back in…why?
Shifter’s are also not one of my favorite monsters. All that GOO….ICK! And I also think that the shifting process should make them really vulnerable at that time and that was never taken advantage off.
BUT I give it that…super freaking creepy effects with “Dean” ripping his skin off and loosing teeth and nails.Still the whole thing left me kinda cold.
Another REALLY nicely creepy one!
There were a few funny parts about it. Like Dean going out to find the UNMARKED grave. UUHHMM, how’d you do that?
Some of the lines were super clonky, so we (audience) could get some background on how to handle ghosts. HA.
I can honestly admit that I completely forgot about the ozone smell!!! SMELL a ghost? And EMF a demon?? I love seeing what they tried out and DIDN’T stick with.
KATE38, I do NOT know another episode where the ozone smell came to play.
I, too, thought the effects in this were great! The Hookman appearing and disappearing. The scrapes on the wall with the exploding plaster, the way he burned up at the end was cool, too.
I always loved the moment where Sam and Dean toss necklace and shotgun at each other so smoothly. NICE action and great chemistry between them.
YES, Kate38 I noticed the Bobby’s Mom actress, too. For once! HA.
Solid episode, nice case, good brother moments.
Thanks, Kate38!
Plot armor alert, noted.To me that’s just AWESOME DEAN WINCHESTER!!
Chuck wasn’t paying attention to them at this time, in my head. 🙂 But I get why it could seem like it.
PNP
LOVELY CREEPY episode!!! I never heard of Bloody Mary growing up in Germany, we obviously had different legends, so this was a new one for me back in the day and has remained a favorite Urban Legend for me ever since.
I also liked the continuation from Phantom Traveler of having another being revealing something to Sam about Sam!! I agree, JBB, it’s really unsettling having a stranger or a monster in their case knowing too much about you and revealing it to you like this. It also makes us as the audience get insight into Sam’s rising tension and stress about his secret that he’s carrying around and wondering when he’ll snap.
I agree with what both of you already said – great effects with Bloody Mary’s appearance and weird movement, great scenes in the Antique shop’s mirror room, great cooperation between the brothers to overpower Mary in the end, good quick thinking of Dean there at the end.
SOLID episode for me.
I, too, wondered why Dean would have been effected by Mary’s curse but I always thought is had to do with his overall tendency to carry the burden and guilt around for all of the people he COULDN’T save or felt died on his watch. He didn’t KILL them, but he feels responsible for them dying. That was logical enough for me.
I for one don’t hold it against Sam to keep his secret at this point. OF COURSE, I would have LOVED the brothers to always be on the same page and honest with each other, BUT that would have gotten pretty boring at some point. A dynamic back and forth of issues and secrets and stress and guilt and so on just makes for better storytelling. I can appreciate that. AND it makes the times that they ARE on the same level and work truly TOGETHER all the more sweet.
The way I see it here is that Sam feels guilty and horrible for NOT having had a chance to save Jessica. He beats himself up internally for having failed her. And he isn’t ready to ADMIT that out loud to the one person he always looked up to and who’s opinion of him actually matters to him. He doesn’t want to hear and see that Dean is disappointed in him, so he keeps it close to the vest for the time being. I can appreciate that.
BOTH had screwed up reasons for keeping secrets through the seasons. I do think it’s pretty evenly split between them on who lied to whom. I do believe that it was never done maliciously, but always with the OTHER’s best interest at heart. Often misled, YES, as they would have been so much better off dealing with most of the crap together, but understandable in the way that they always tried to protect each other.
PNP
SOOOO late to the party…sorry.
This was was a little rocky or “holy” storywise BUT I do like it a lot in retrospect because we get several firsts in this episode.
First demon….albeit looking more like a swarm of flies, but hey, I appreciate that we got to see the “character development” of demon smoke in later episodes. HA.
First time the guys were in suits. It always makes me laugh because Dean looks SO uncomfortable and I wonder why they made the choice not to have BOTH of them uncomfortable? I highly doubt that Sam had that much more experience with suits being a STUDENT in Stanford.
First (and last time) of air travel…..I always appreciated (and still do) the setting of much of this episode on a plane!! As a travel professional and frequent traveler I find the idea of being confined in the air with something uncontrollable SUPER scary!!! And I think choosing a demon and therefore something the guys didn’t deal with before heightened the tension even more.
I also think setting much of the action on a plane set was super ballsy as it is hard to move around in and makes sweeping fights impossible. So that was ambitious for an episode so early in the run of the show.I love the scenes between Sam and Dean on the plane!! It is sweet how Sam suddenly becomes the “big brother” all logical and calm and helping Dean keep his head. This was a nice show of a different dynamic between them.
First time we hear John’s voice since the pilot. And see what it does to the boys – the very (for early seasons) typical raw, emotional response from Sam and a clamping down from Dean.
OF COURSE we ALL looooove the sleepy Dean shot!!!! YES, kate38, naked Dean feet! HHHMMM. And…other…lovely parts. It’s great.
PNP
Hey Kate38,
“I wonder about this point, though. Sam often defends himself by saying he left John and Dean to go to college, so he wasn’t running away. That makes me question whether he truly would’ve stayed away forever if things had gone differently. As close as he and Dean were, and as much as Sam must have known Dean cared about him, I doubt Sam would’ve walked away from Dean forever. That means that at some point, Jessica would’ve met Dean and Sam would’ve had to lie over and over again about who Dean was and what he did for a living. (Side note, it always saddens me when Dean says that he stayed away from Sam for two whole years and never even tried to call or contact him. That must have broken his heart. He loved Sam so much…)”
I often wished they had written that differently!!! I always had a hard time believing that the brothers were so close for all their youths and then Dean WOULDN’T have went to check on Sam at college – even if it was unseen. Having Dean say that he essentially was ok with ignoring Sam for two years did not do the character any service!! Same with John. He says that he didn’t want Sam to go because he was worried for his safety, but then he has no problem completely abandoning him at college? So which is it? Are you worried? Or are you pissed and convinced that Sam is ok on his own?
PNP
Hey Kate38,
I finally get some time to go back over your PILOT comments and love to keep the conversation going.
“I struggled to like Sam until about season 7, and it began with the Pilot. If he supposedly loved Jessica, why didn’t he tell her who he truly was? I know John had a “rule” about that, but since when did Sam obey ANY of John’s rules? Dean told Cassie who he was, and he was religiously obedient to John and his rules. Dean loved Cassie, even though he’d only known her for a short time. When you love someone, you tell them the truth about who you are — especially if you have a dark or dangerous past. Sam was supposedly going to propose to Jessica — BAH! I’ve often wondered if Sam initially left with Dean for his OWN reasons. He’d been having visions of Jessica burning up on the ceiling for days before she died. Maybe he wanted to find John to get answers to that, and not really to save John. I don’t know – I just found Sam selfish and unlikable for the first several seasons. Jared’s acting was clunky at times, which didn’t help. Jensen was already SO velvety smooth, that it just made Jared’s inexperience more apparent. And sorry, but it was kinda sleazy for Jessica to come into the room like that. If you hear a burglar breaking into your house, or you hear your boyfriend talking to another man in the middle of the night, by all means, enter the room wearing next to nothing. Classy. Enough of that.”
I’m not saying Sam wasn’t still very much a selfish child at times in the early seasons!! And rebellious as all hell. YES! But I can sympathize with it in many ways. Of course you are supposed to tell the person you love the truth….but in Sam’s specific case I simply think he was partially embarrassed by his strange and dangerous past and didn’t want to drive a new love interest away with it and partially he probably wanted to protect Jessica from possible danger. Was that smart? NO. Was that the right thing to do? NO. But Sam at that point was under the impression that his dad had thrown him out instead of being proud that his son got into a GREAT school on his own smarts AND he was probably under the impression that his brother wasn’t standing up for him to help him convince John. As we find out over time the Winchester Family also completely SUCKS at communicating emotional truths, so to me all this leads to the understandable as circumstance why Sam was looking for a “clean slate”. Obviously that action proofed foolish pretty quickly and deadly for Jessica…..and I do think that Sam carries that failure with him for a long long time.
I do find your point about Sam going with Dean to get answers from John about his visions VERY intriguing! I could totally see that as an additional motivator!!
True that Dean was honest with Cassie!! And I always applaud him for that, however, he obviously also lacked communication skill in that confession because we find out that Cassie thought he was nuts or lying to get rid of her and he didn’t seemed to have followed up and tried to smooth the situation over or keep a relationship going. You KNOW I love Dean, but he is not exactly emotionally mature at the beginning of the show either. Telling a girl he spends a few months with the truth about who he really is when he knew very well that he wouldn’t stay with her was in a way not much of an emotional risk. And after all even after reconnecting with her SHE is the one realistic about their impossible future….and he obviously doesn’t try to show her differently.
All I’m saying is that both brothers have their issues with relation ships and lack the ability to navigate the necessary emotional give and take successfully.
But it’s exactly THAT which makes them such interesting and relatable characters to me. So I forgive them.
PNP
My perception has changed over the years. I remember on my first watch of the early seasons that I (like JBB) thought Dean to be a little too cocky and reckless but with a huge heart and excellent skill to back that up. I found Sam whiny and immature the first time around – especially during the first two seasons.
Since then, every time I watch it again, their characters make more and more sense to me and I love them just the way they are.
I agree with Karen on the assessment of Dean completely.
Sam on the other hand seems just as insecure to me as Dean in many ways. Where Dean wasn’t allowed to be afraid or weak, Sam was so overprotected at the beginning and shielded from the realities of the hunting life that he was very much alone in his struggles to fit anywhere. Dad wanted Sam out of the action for his own protection and Dean wanted Sam out of the hunting life so he would not have to deal and suffer the same way he had to. To me that leaves young Sam very much alone and socially disconnected. It is no surprise to me that Sam in this case became the “researcher”, no one restricted him from reading and learning and he had to spent much time on his own, amusing himself. We know that he always tried to prove his worth to Dean and Dad – like in the flashback in “Just My Imagination” episode – wanting to be part of the family team and being shot down. I can totally understand how the Sam found his value in being the smart one and the educated one, where the other two were leagues ahead in practical skill. Overtime it all evened out a little, of course, but Sam always stayed more of an introvert and attached to learning.
Even if he comes across as slightly cocky or “know-it-all” at times (I honestly think they both do here and there….they ARE two young alpha males after all AND competitive brothers) in the early episodes, I do feel that Sam defers to Dean when it’s important. He still wants to prove himself to Dean.
So, I think, for myself I am gaining more understanding and acceptance for Sam with every rewatch I do, but Dean will always be my first love.
PNP
Whoohoo! ALWAYS liked this one a lot.
First off as I was an avid Buffy and Angel fan before SPN I was THRILLED with every guest actor appearance by previous B/A alumni and AMY ACKERS in this episode as the mom was perfect and a welcome sight. She did really well as the no nonsense young singly mother who called out Dean on his lame attempt at flirting! HA! Amy always brought a great mix of strength and vulnerability on Angel as well and I always enjoyed watching her.
All of the guest actors were again compelling and believable which made the show so darn watchable and relatable since the very beginning.
I had forgotten that Sera Gamble was involved from the start and wrote this episode.
The opening sequence was a little too long, I thought, as the underwater shots foreshadowed pretty clearly what would happen next (an attack from the deep) so there was not need to drag that out so much.
I love the fact that you can hear whispers but don’t understand them at the beginning. They only become clear when mom almost drowns in the bathtub. VERY creepy.
Sam’s puppy dog face and soft voice sure do wonders with the witnesses, huh? I am glad that they toned that down just a little bit later on. Sam is always lovely and empathetic with the witnesses but I like it better when it’s not too “sensitive”. Although, I have to say the fabulously beautiful close up of his face and gorgeous eyes when he talks to Andrea after her almost drowning is wonderful.
I just love SO MUCH all over again how complicated Dean is from the very start! He can be so understanding and smart about getting into Lucas’ defenses; we get a glimpse his own pain when describing how he is trying to be brave for his mom and then he behaves more like the rough big brother when he sets Sam straight about not running after John right this moment and about “ugh, we don’t have to hug or anything, right?” at the end. I also really like the little moment at the beginning where Dean flirts with the waitress and complains to Sam that they are allowed to have some fun, but then he seems to read in Sam’s face that it’s WAY to early after Jessica’s death for him to have any interest in another girl and suddenly Dean lets the subject drop and shows Sam a possible new case instead. Shows how tuned into his brother Dean is. And Jensen portrays it with so much finesse, it’s just completely draws you in and doesn’t let you go.
And Sam isn’t far behind in being a layered character, we just don’t get as immediate of a deeper insight as we gain with Dean.
This episodes sets into canon truth that ghost children are one of THE CREEPIEST things ever!!! Even if you see so very little of them like in this episode! It’s enough. It’s really scary. It was well-done.
I very much appreciated the mini-cliffhanger between Dean dragging Lucas out of the water, cutting to black, and the next shot where they walk to the car and Sam says “we can’t save everybody”. For a moment there – or really for five minutes to those of us who originally watched it with commercial breaks on TV…. – you didn’t know if they were successful in saving Lucas or not. Nice tension builder.
There was a lot of great things about this episode and I think it’s holding up very well even after watching it numerous times.
PNP
I am trying hard to watch the episodes this time around with the intent NOT to let “God’s plan” or “God’s writing” color my view.
I want to watch it discovering things I might have overlooked in the past. I want to watch the Winchesters grow and change and have their horizons expand.
I do not believe that all that was GOD’s doing!! I will stick with that opinion through out. God might have set the general outline and scenarios, God might have played the long story arc of getting the Winchester brothers born and put on the playing field for the apocalypse. He might have put road blocks in place that forced the brothers’ hand BUT I truly believe that their actual actions, their growth and their gained experience is THEIR OWN.
In my opinion they influenced their story as much if not more than God ever did.
PNP
I know Eric Kripke always cringes at this episode….I don’t know why? I LOVE IT!
Maybe it’s the Wendigo itself? Ok, maybe….kinda rubbery and awkward looking, but I thought they did a good job hiding it in half light and fast movement.
I, for one, am a sucker for Native American legends and mythology and I remember I was excited back in 2005 that they used such well known creature early in the series. SADLY other than in “BUGS” that was it for many seasons, which I am still sad about. There’s such wealth of folklore and myths that they could have played with.
But back to the positive.
Creepy camping in a far away location – always a good start. HA. I am with Dean : I HATE camping!
Especially with monsters in the woods and no Winchesters on speed dial.To my point from last week, again, great guest actor casting – shout out to Alden Ehrenreich and R.I.P. Corey Monteith – all around.
So between the set up, the monster, the outdoorsy nature, which to me always translates into no protection and vulnerability, I like the episode a lot.
Aside from all that we learn a lot new things about the brothers! We hear from Dean that Sam is not behaving like is usual self – Sam seems to be more hot headed and and charge-in-first-ask-questions later at the moment, which sets up future character development nicely, because we see Sam already in two possible ways.
In this episode it becomes even more apparent that Dean is the concerned, protective big brother. First in the car after Sam wakes up from the nightmare (establishing the BRO-MENT in the car concept!!) and especially through the talk by the camp fire where one of our most central catch phrases is coined (“Saving people, hunting things, the family business”)! Yes, he comes across as cocky and a little devil-may-care at first, but we see already in espisode 2 of 327 that there is a big heart and selfless willingness to help and sacrifice of himself behind the facade. That is great writing AND incredible acting so early on.
We also learn about the importance of John’s Journal and Dean’s view of “the job” and his duty to fulfill it.
We see Dean’s love for PEANUT M&M’s – another thing I agree with him on!! hehehe
We find out that Sam might be upset and anxious to revenge Jessica’s death and find his dad, but when it counts he is smart and resourceful and when the chips are down he is just as focused on saving the people in his care and getting the job done as Dean is.
I loved ALL of that.
To me the episode keeps up it’s tense feeling all the way through. The woods seem spooky, the labyrinth tunnels of the mine are oppressive, the monster is menacing especially because you DON’T see much of it.
The score also helps a lot to get your heart pounding and worry for our boys and their charges.AND this episode marks the first real SAVE for the Winchester Brothers. In the pilot they destroyed the ghost, yes, but they didn’t directly save a person. HERE they do BOTH. It’s feels great at the end that they were able to at least save the brother and keep the siblings together even if all involved are a little worse for wear at the conclusion.
One thing:
I noticed before when rewatching the series that in the early seasons the focus is sometimes off. Like when you have a close up of a person’s face and only the ear or shirt or something other than the face is in focus. I often wondered if that was on purpose? It’s weird.
Hi JBB,
I love all of your points about watching the Pilot without trying to be influenced by the end of the road. I was worried, too. And just like you I found the worry unnecessary in the end.
I have watched the entire series several times over the years, but I STILL find new things each time and enjoy it every time. This time was no different.
I always wondered why the pilot never got a episode name. It’s just PILOT. Huh.
From the start I was pulled into the episode. Captivated by what was unfolding. It never lost it’s grip on me.
What immediately got me was the feel of the show. It was dark, gritty, pretty brutal straight from the beginning, but also had a distinct tone of relatability. These were NORMAL people with screwed up problems and the grit to try and solve them.
To me, as an immigrant to this country AND as a travel professional, the AMERICANA the show exuded right from the start was another HUGE point of interest. The back roads, motels, smaller towns, classic car, classic rock….I mean, wow, what’s NOT to like??
And then there was the brother’s connection. It never even occurred to me that they looked nothing alike, the completely natural way they were interacting with each other made me believe they were brothers. The head slapping, bumping each other, stomping on a foot, glaring at each other….it was all there and all seemed to speak of YEARS of knowing each other. For two young actors to pull that off so immediately was IMPRESSIVE and still gets me today.
But there was also immediately the impression that both of them had layers and depth and a vulnerability that promised for very interesting character development.
BECAUSE of all of that the story made sense. The dialogue wasn’t strange, the situations seemed believable. It was MAGIC.
I thought at first that Dean was a pretty cocky jerk, BUT that there had to be more to it than that. Here was a 26 year old “kid” hunting monsters on his own, reluctantly asking his brother for help? And there is the younger brother, in Stanford of all places, reluctantly going off with his older bro to find their dad and figure out what might have gotten him? WOW. there had to be so much more to the story.
Nowadays I get the biggest smile on my face looking at the two of them being so young!! Their voices were much higher! Jared seemed almost like a teen still, puppy fat and lack of definition. And Jensen….well, of course, he was completely STUNNING from the start. HAHA.
One thing I had kinda forgotten is how many catch phrases were immediately coined in the Pilot! All things that became immediately t-shirt worthy like the “Driver picks the music….”; “Jerk” & “Bitch” and others.
Another thing that was immediately apparent is that the guest actors casting was well done. There was no wasted character in this episode, from the teenagers to the police officers to the creepy motel clerk to the actual “monster”. I love Sarah Shahi, the actress playing the Woman in White, in many of her future projects and love to be able to always know that she was in the pilot.
The horror aspect of this show was also great. The special effects seemed pretty elaborate for a TV show – before special effects were easy and cheap to achieve. The case was spooky. The action from the first fight in the dark to the driverless car attack to the fight with the Woman in White at the end including crashing a car into a house….WOW….nicely done and exciting.
Watching it again now the pilot has not lost any of it appeal or special fascination for me. Even aside from my love for the show I think it holds up as one fine episode of TV all these years later!!
CAN’T WAIT FOR MORE!!!
LOVE THIS!!! Thanks for setting this up, JBB!!!
From the first promo I found Supernatural intriguing! I had looked for another dark AND funny, scary AND touching, intense AND engaging show ever since Buffy and Angel ended and THIS new show about two brothers looked promising.
And once the pilot aired I stopped looking, never looked back and stuck with it through 15 incredibly wonderful years full of EVERYTHING I had looked for. Plus I gained a whole bunch of things that I could have NEVER even imagined – FRIENDS that I will love and be with for the rest of my life; EXPERIENCES I never knew are available like Conventions and road trips and scene and promo shot recreations and so much more.
In short what started out as a new little horror show that fascinated me Supernatural quickly became a huge part of my life. I will never be more grateful for anything than I am for Eric Kripke’s creation of this show and for Jared’s and Jensen’s portrayal of these characters who have become REAL for me.
ANYHOW – ON WITH THE SHOW…..AGAIN!
I’m tired of crying my eyes out at every meme and gif of the scenes in the finale and I am READY to relive the whole ride….at least once more.
PNP
THAT was awesome!!!
I have to say the “LONG ROAD HOME” episode was not very impressive!! It was nice, but it felt like a bonus extra on the season bluray. There wasn’t really anything new to be gained from it.
I fully expected some behind the scenes of the last season footage or maybe some “what are they doing now” thing.
But again, it was nice.
PNP
Hehe, I said the same thing, JBB.
I agree with you.PNP