Supernatural - Season 1, Episode 3: "Dead In The Water"

In the series' third episode, something extraordinary kills some people and the Winchesters swoop in to indirectly save the day. There's definitely a formula a-brewin' and I'm a little worried about how long it's going to go on for. However, there are some things that stand out in "Dead In The Water."

The first doesn't actually only occur in this episode, but I have forgotten to mention it in previous reviews. Supernatural provides a delightful little pleasure from its placement within the real world (or at least a world that has identical popular culture to our own). The showmakers seem to be aware of, and fans of, the genre and mediums they are working within, and have no problem dropping references left, right, and centre. Two for-instances from this episode include the fact that the entire opening sequence is nearly identical to the beginning of Jaws, as well as Dean's introduction of himself and Sam as "agent Ford and this is agent Hamill" (think Harrison Ford and Mark Hammil). In the latter case, it feels like an easter egg, rewarding those who pay attention, however, in the former, so many people have borrowed from big, important films like Jaws, that the homage runs the risk of seeming like it's just following the clichés that have been born out of the original source material's success.

This episode is also notable because it's the first one where Dean doesn't yell at the monster-of-the-week, taunting it by calling it a bitch. Consider those potential points lost forever.

Second lastly, and lastly, since the two ideas mesh together, there's another cliché used in this episode, that of the silent child. In the episode, there's a kid who saw something horrible, and now doesn't talk. Enter hero (in this case, Dean), who despite having only known the kid for about a minute and a half, makes a connection, prompting the kid to communicate to him through crayon drawings. On first glance, the kid is just fulfilling a trope, there for the sake of making the big bad seem scary, but also to reluctantly offer solutions for its defeat. Pretty quickly, though, we realize that he's also serving the purpose of giving Dean's character to deepen. His swift connection with creepy kid has to do with the trauma that Dean suffered in seeing his mother's death. For the first time, he semi-openly discusses the impact that this has had on his life. And, possibly most importantly, we feel like the new information and insight doesn't imply that there "the real Dean" underneath his tough exterior. No, he's still the Zeppelin-worshiping, broad-banging cowboy we've gotten to know, there's just some other stuff going on behind the scenes. So yeah, the kid's still a narrative shortcut, but he manages to push both the episode's story and one of the characters' forward at the same time. If it didn't seem to contrived, I'd probably be impressed.

Oh, and there's a pretty cool boat crash.

Rating: 2.75 stars