Supernatural - Season 1, Episode 5: "Bloody Mary"

So far, a lot of what I've had to say about Supernatural has been negative. I've ragged on an over-reliance on clichés, predictable story-telling, bad music choices, etc., but in the case of "Bloody Mary," I have to admit that I liked it because there wasn't anything I didn't like about it. Please note that I'm still where I was before I watched the episode (which is to say that I was in no way blown away), but this, the fifth entry into the first season makes for a solid, middle-of-the-road episode.

If the title didn't make it obviously, today's episode focuses on a fairly popular myth that you probably haven't thought about since you were thirteen. In case you're unfamiliar, the gist of the myth is that if you say "Bloody Mary" three times in front of a mirror, she will appear. According to the show, she'll also rupture your eyes, killing you in a way that will baffle a coroner until he just gives up and says that you died from a stroke.

The episode goes further, though. Sam and Dean know that kids have been playing "Bloody Mary" for ages, all across the country, so why, in Akron, are people actually dying from it? In investigating the case, they find the original Mary and are able to trace her path of righteous destruction. By grounding the myth in the show's version of reality, it allows the show to play around with it, creating a history behind the folklore. It adds a bit of depth to the episode, making the threat more comprehensible and its destruction possible.

The episode also teases us with the knowledge that there's a reason that Sam is so wracked with guilt about Jessica's guilt. As soon as he mentions that he's withholding a secret, we want to know exactly what it is. As soon as we find out, we shrug and go, "okay." There are certainly implications to what we discover, but its revelation (which comes about 6 minutes after we find out there is a secret) isn't earth-shattering, either in content or in its delivery (Bloody Mary, copying Sam's reflection states it straight-forwardly).

Otherwise, it's an episode. The slightly-better-than-okay stuff (all of which I think I've mentioned) it compensated for with its hampered execution, leaving me neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, rather ready to simply move along to the next one.

Rating: 3.0 stars