Supernatural - Season 1, Episode 2: "Wendigo"

As the pilot episode episode showed us, Supernatural has a lot of potential to be a chilling, charming, supernaturally-charged good time. This episode shows an opposite, and less exciting possibility. Just as easily, or likely even easier, the show can look an awful lot like a disposable horror flick.

While I don't necessarily have any problem with the freak-of-the-week formula (hell, it's kind of a necessity this early in the series), especially when there are efforts made to tie the episode into a larger narrative frame, I do have a problem when it so closely follows the been-there-done-that of modern horror story-telling. You've got campers being attacked; a gruff, know-it-all, skeptic hunter, who might as well have a neon sign over his head saying "EAT ME FIRST"; the brothers conveniently finding the tools they need to destroy the monster in its own lair; and the list goes on.

Quite possibly the worst infraction is at the very end when the Wendigo, who, throughout the episode, has demonstrated immeasurable strength and speed, runs up to Sam and a couple of cowering survivors, then stops for a good few seconds, for no discernible reason other than 1) its own sense of drama or 2) for the sake of giving Dean enough time to sneak up behind it, and, after a brief quip, shoot it with a flaregun.

As for tying the episode in with the rest of the story, "Wendigo" barely does, aside from delving slightly into Sam's grieving process. We know from seeing him in the pilot episode, that Sam is generally more reserved and well-balanced than Dean. In this episode, though, we see this inverted, helped out a lot by Dean repeatedly saying "I'm supposed to be the (insert adjective suggesting erratic behaviour here) one." Sam's upset about his girlfriend being killed and is on the warpath, wanting to ignore everything that doesn't help him exact revenge. This allows Dean the chance to further indoctrinate Sam to Dean's own lifestyle (aka the narrative of the show) of keeping focused on the ultimate goal, but not ignoring opportunities to kill monsters and flirt with random campers. In these discussions, there is the possibility for a conversation about the nature of violence, but it never happens. Both brothers work on the unspoken principle that there are being out there that are evil and that the only way to deal with them is to kill them. Then again, I shouldn't be too disappointed, as that kind of debate is probably better reserved for later, once the patterns are structure are better established.

The episode doesn't entirely lack in the charm we saw so much of in the pilot. Since Sam's working on his re-dedication to the serial murder of supernatural beings, Jensen Ackles (Dean) is left to carry the torch of wit and levity, a task he's certainly up for. Whether it's brother-brother banter, or demonstrating the ability to suggest (without saying or doing anything) sex as an appropriate reward for saving a girl's life, there's opportunity for a chuckle.

The episode's creators essentially took a campground horror movie but then added some fins to lower wind resistance. And this racing stripe here, I feel, is rather sharp.

Rating: 2.75