I know I've been away for awhile. Mostly, because it took this long to Clorox the taste of "Hook Man" out of my mouth. Well now that's probably a little too unkind, but it sounds more "critical" than whining about too many closing shifts during the ol' day job. Regardless, I'm back, with a few review to write, so let's get it started.
The best episodes of Supernatural have accomplished two things: presenting an intriguing, unique, mystical enemy while still making headway with the overarching story of the hunt for Daddy Winchester. This episode sort of succeeds at both.
The villain, in this case, is bugs. At first, the premise is intriguing, with a man being essentially eaten from the inside out by beetles. The mystery continues (but worsens) as a woman is killed by tons of rubbery and ill-CG'd spiders. Finally, it's revealed that the cause of all of naturalistic chaos is an ancient American Indian curse that prevents anyone from settling on a tract of land that was raped and pillaged away from a local tribe. So what do we do about it? According to Dean, the only way to beat a curse is to stay away from it. So, naturally, the place to go is right into its path so that a local family can be saved.
Now here's where things get especially dicey. The boys show up around midnight (we know this because Sam says something like "It's almost midnight, we need to get you and your family out of here" but, it's already too late (we know this because of the enormous swarm of locusts that has come to eradicate all human life from the land). So, they run inside, boarding up windows and doors, so that they can do the only thing left, which is, according to Sam, to "ride it out." So up to the attic they go, with Dean protecting them by spraying bug spray into a lighter. Then, once in the attic, termites chew through the roof, spilling thousands, if not millions of bugs into the room. Considering the intensity of the onslaught, and the potential venomous capabilities of the bugs, the attack could maybe have lasted for about 10 minutes before everyone was overwhelmed and killed. Instead, sunshine begins to seep through one of the holes the termites have dug, signalling an end to this round of the curse, leaving the land safe until next year. Apparently the sun rises at about 12:15am in Oklahoma.
The whole bug thing shows initial promise, but loses its credibility and intensity thanks to hokey delivery and its ridiculous conclusion. So that leaves the series' larger narrative to fill in the gaps. This is done with a beat-it-over-your-head theme of Daddy issues. Aside from the series' opening scene, we've never seen John Winchester, only heard about him from hearing Sam, Dean, and others talk about him. In "Bugs," we see how intensely divisive the brothers see their relationship with their father. This duality is demonstrated in the brothers' reactions to a "weird kid" whose father is clearly disappointed by his son's oddness. Sam sympathizes, understanding what it's like to feel like a failure in his father's eyes for following his own interests. Dean, on the other hand, finds the kid to be insolent and disrespectful.
Even though it's assumed that the three lived together up until Sam's departure for college, the two have apparently never discussed Sam and John's relationship before. Dean seems surprised that Sam finds similarities between their father and the weird kid's. He ends up making a revelation to Sam that makes Sam regret his disrespectful behaviour, and when Sam announces that he "really wants to find Dad," we long to as well so that we can get our own picture of exactly who this character is. Then again, maybe John himself isn't actually all that important. There is no question that he has been the main shaping factor in the Winchester boys' development since infancy, and it is their responses to this upbringing that define who they have become as men. Still, it'll be interesting to see exactly what'll happen if they all do meet up. Things may come to blows, but there's little doubt that a whole lot of monsters will get caught in the crossfire.
Rating: 3.0
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