Part one: Summary
When the Winchester boys find their selves in San Francisco after they get news of an office murder that mirrors an animal attack, they learn, to Dean’s delight, that they’re hunting a werewolf. Their initial suspect, a stalker ex of the girl who found the first body, turns out to be a dead end and the real werewolf is the girl herself. The conflict begins when Sam realizes she isn’t even aware of what she’s doing, muddling the line between “saving people and hunting things.” Sammy, emulating his own insecurity of being a monster onto her, tries desperately to save her but when she still turns after the Winchesters’ last ditch effort, Sam has to pull the trigger.
Part two: Review
Initially, the show buys into all of the horror/monster tropes like the girl feeling like she's being followed by an invisible pursuer in a dark, sketchy area of town, and when she finds the body the next morning, she follows the trail of blood to the murder scene to add tension and finally, dropping the glass coffee pot and it shattering in slow motion while she lets out a blood curdling scream. Also, the score for the good first half of the episode is completely void of any classic rock and instead plays into the stereotypical suspense-building horror music.
When Sam goes to check the body with the coroner, in civilian clothes and no badge for his access to make complete sense, he asks if the victim looked to be attacked by a wolf and she intelligently replies, “How did you know that?” Cut to the motel and you see the brothers playing into their one-dimensional character types of Dean being childish and crude and Sam being end-game focused and mature. This back and forth interaction continues most of the episode and at one point they do rock, paper, scissors, to see who gets to stay with the girl and Dean keeps losing because he always picks scissors (which is admittedly cute).
After Sam is left with Madison (the witness), some soap opera music and incredibly awkward flirting ensues, including: Madison dumping her delicates on the table Sam was sitting at to fold, them both watching a soap opera and Sam getting really involved in the drama which eventually leads them to flirting up close and personal, which invariably gets interrupted by a phone call.
The latter half of the episode is led by the discovery that Madison is the werewolf and not her creepy stalker ex, as you were led to believe. Madison, now tied up and being heckled by an angry moose, reveals that she doesn’t know she’s a werewolf, stating “monsters aren’t real” to the collective sigh of critics everywhere.
This creates an interesting outlet for Sam to humanize and possibly save an individual they would've dubbed a monster and killed off without a thought in the past. Dean, on the other hand, sees that line between “people” and “thing” being blurred when he sees the fear and confusion in the eyes of the original werewolf, the harmless christian neighbor, when he shoots him to “cure” Madison. After a traumatizing night for all parties, Sammy and Madison “celebrate” their supposed victory over their own monsters.
One could see this connection as a romantic relationship between Sam and Madison and criticize the weak writing that made them fall in love or whatever in such a short span of time but it seems to be more like two scared people who want to feel normal and loved. When she comes to terms with her fate, Madison asks Sam to pull the trigger, killing both of their hopes of being normal and being loved. Dean tries to spare Sam the weight of pulling the trigger but Sam insists and walks out of frame. The camera pans in on Deans face as he lets out a single tear and flinches at the gun fire before the screen cuts to black. Seeing this moment of weakness and sincerity in Dean emphasizes all the moments before when he made a quip or pointed something out to lighten the mood but he really resonated with what was going on.
Part three: Questions, problems, concerns
One of my problems with this episode is the character loose ends. The stalker ex and the christian neighbor were very obviously plot devices but they were poorly thought out as characters. There was no proof that the christian neighbor guy was the one who turned Madison, in fact it would make more sense for him to also be a victim seeing as he was also unaware of his murderous night job. Judging from Madison’s boss’s accident, they also weren't exactly clean kills so there must’ve been blood all over them as well. Unless their werewolf selves were conscious of this fact and took a shower before bed, I don’t know how they got this far with no knowledge. As for the stalker ex, I understand he was meant to draw the attention away from Madison as the culprit but they could’ve eased up on their depiction of him. Being creepy and having all signs point to you as a werewolf are two different things.
As for this episode’s place in the season, I think it did a good job with Sam having to face his fears of being a monster that can’t be saved. I just think the story could’ve been thought through a bit more before they decided to shoot.
(And a gif for good measure.)
No comments:
Post a Comment