Synopsis:
The episode I had this week was Season 3 Episode 3, Bad Day
at Black Rock. In this episode Sam and
Dean receive a call that their father’s storage facility has been broken
into. The boys go to investigate and
find that a curse box is missing. They
track down the thieves and find out that they’ve opened the box that contains a
rabbit’s foot. The thieves try to cross
Bela (the woman to who paid them to steal the box) and reap the rewards for
themselves. Sam and Dean learn that the
rabbit foot awards outrageously good luck that results in horribly bad luck and
ultimately death as soon as the holder loses it. Dean tricks Bela into touching the rabbit’s
foot which results in them destroying it to free Bela, Dean, and Sam from the
curse.
My review:
I think I must have gotten a rabbit’s foot this week because
this is one of the most quoted episodes in the show. Lines like, “Wow you suck!”,
“I lost my shoe.”, and “I’m batman.” Became an instant hit among fans and frequently
surface through Tumblr posts in gif form.
In terms of writing I believe this episode is great in the
little moments it has. One example was when Sam find’s his old soccer trophy
and Dean finds his first sawed-off. Sam
exclaims, “I can’t believe he kept it.”
I believe they used this as a tool to humanize John Winchester. Many viewers had a distaste for his parenting
style and many still do. I think this
little line goes a long way in showing that although John was a serious hunter he
was still a father who loved his sons, the writers accomplish this by introducing
these key items in their development that were still kept by him. This is also evident in the fact that he kept
these mementos among very important life / death related items.
I think the director does well in having the camera angles
convey what he wants the viewer to experience.
This is seen when Dean gives his infamous “you’re not a killer” speech
to Grossman, one of the thieves. The
camera closes up and allows you the feel the moment between Dean and Grossman
as if you yourself are being lectured on doing the right thing. When Dean tries to use the speech again on
Bela the shots (no pun intended) for the scene were kept less serious and as a
regular establishing shot. Another
instance is where Sam struggles to put out the A/C fire and knocks himself out
in the process the ending angle results in the viewer realizing that they are
watching from Kubrick’s point of view.
This episode was the first episode to introduce Bela, who
will be a reoccurring antagonist throughout the season. I like Bela because there are different categories
that people fall into on Supernatural. There are those who know about the
supernatural and those who don’t. There
are hunters and there are monsters. Bela
on the other hand is human and knows about the supernatural but decides to
exploit it. One thing that disappoints
me about Bela is she is never truly compared to Sam in the way that she should’ve
been. For instance, Sam was a hunter,
got out of the life and then was thrusted back into it after his father went
missing. All Sam yearned for was a
normal life. Bela knows about “the
things that go bump in the night”, most people would be freaked out and move on
but Bela is different. She has the
opportunity to go on living a normal life but decides to instead use this
knowledge of the supernatural to make money.
I enjoy her interactions with Dean as although Dean doesn’t make money
in the most legitimate fashion possible, he doesn’t expect payment from saving
people. He says it many times: “Hunting
doesn’t pay the bills.” So the fact that
Dean immediately scrutinizes her business ventures is in line with his character.
Overall I just feel Sam should have far
more animosity and frustration towards Bela than he ever shows in the
series. I know it’s not in Sam’s
character to just hate anybody but I do believe the writers could’ve explored
these emotions and interactions a little bit more.
Going back to Bela, I really enjoy her character as she is
human but she is a bad person. This is
different from the “Saving people, hunting things” mantra as she is a person who
is supposed to be saved but she’s doing bad things that sometimes lead to death
which means she should be hunted like any other monster. I love Bela because she is a shade of grey we
have yet to really (see as far as season 1-3 goes). I also wanted to take this moment to applaud
supernatural casting directors and make-up artists. Bela is a beautiful woman, however- she is a
realistic beautiful woman. She looks
like she would be an art teacher not an art thief (in the sense that she doesn’t
follow the typical looking woman-thief trope).
She doesn’t wear globs of make-up and her imperfections are easily seen. I think this is important in terms of the
younger female viewers of supernatural.
Her looks are of course commented on, but it’s more of her personality
that comes through to create Bela. Younger
girls can watch her and notice that you don’t need super-model beauty to take on
the Winchesters, just intelligence and wit.
Overall I enjoyed this episode’s writing, directing, and character
introduction. There were purposeful
lines, meaning full shots, and a powerful character was introduced. This episode kept it light after coming off
of season 2’s finale where Dean sells his soul to bring back Sam and demons are
unleashed. I find it humorous that when
this season first started it seemed the goal was for Sam and Dean to get rid of
all the demons. Well it seems as though
they never really got around to that. All
jokes aside I feel like the season’s goal for Sam and Dean wasn’t exactly as
defined as every other season’s objective was.
Eventually it revealed its goal but I believe the presentation in this
aspect was a little lacking. With that
being said, this was a great second episode to review and it was fun getting to
squee over my favorite quotes as they were being said.
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