Season Recap:
Trying to recover from the loss of their father, Sam and Dean Winchester take it to the road as they continue the mission of "the family business" and take on supernatural cases across the map. All the while, they are also still hunting down the yellow-eyed demon who killed their mother and has gifted Sam with psychic abilities. Along their way the brothers gain more allies, like Bobby Singer and Ellen Harvelle, who help them when they get stuck on a case. As they get closer and closer, Sam and Dean figure out that they need the Colt to get rid of the demon before he succeeds in his plans to open the gates of hell. But before that, an unforeseen death occurs, prompting a life-threatening decision from someone, as Sam gets whisked away by the yellow-eyed demon to be featured in a ultimate showdown between him and all the kids the demon gifted.
What Worked:
The main plot that drives this season would be Sam and Dean hunting down Azazel as Sam develops more of his psychic powers. But in between the exposition and the climax, other episodes of this season involve tropes such as the "monster-of-the-week" where subplot is used to develop the arch. Technically, fourteen out of the twenty-two episodes in this season are strictly monster-of-the-week episodes. This means that whole episode is about Sam and Dean showing up in a random U.S. town, dressing up, going out and solving a "strange" case. For this season, it started with vampires and ended with djinn. The trope works for this season because during this time of year in Television a lot of shows, such as Bones (they actually aired on the same date), used the same trope to develop their plots and it garnered a lot of ratings. This strategy of repetition is rather a simple one as all they have to do is fill-in-the-blanks on a writing board and they have an episode. But what makes it so intricate is the challenge of making each episode different from the last while using the same formula. Season 2 is successful at this by expanding the mythology of the Supernatural world with the introduction of unusual lore. Take for instance the djinn (or genie) (2X20). It's a ghastly monster, only fought against twice in the series, yet talked about numerous times. It is found in much of Middle Eastern lore. This type of oddball myth keeps audience wanting more. People love wandering into the unknown, which is exactly what Supernatural capitalizes on.
One question this season raises is "What constitutes a monster?" This question isn't necessarily answered in the season, which works and has worked up until the current season, mainly because of the fact that both Sam and Dean share qualities of what it is to be a "monster" and what it takes to make the decision whether to "kill" or "save" one. This season openly showcases the "monster within" trope as Sam and Dean meet other humans and monsters who are either the same or drastically different, in surprising ways, which causes a rift in their world and opens up opportunities to develop more of the Supernatural canon and meta. An example of this happens in the beginning of the season with 2X3 "Blood Lust" (this title is suggestive of the movie which is about a crazed hunter). In this episode Sam and Dean are involved with a case that centers around vampires, but it is not that vampires they end up hunting. While at a bar, they meet another hunter, Gordon Walker, who seems friendly at first but ends up being a bloodthirsty psychopathic murderer. What causes this change is the fact that the vampires they were after ended up being a moderately calm and friendly clan. They claimed that they fed off of the animals on the farms. Gordon knew of this but was hunting them merely for sport.
From the beginning, Sam showed his disdain of excessive killing when Dean saws a vampire in half which prompts Gordon to buy him drinks afterwards. In Sam's absence Gordon has a talk with Dean which is when he says, "You know why I love this life? It's all black and white. There's no maybe. You find the bad thing- kill it. Most people spend their lives in shades of grey, "Is this right? Is that wrong?' Not us," to which Dean makes a remark about Sam's deviant views, and Gordon responds with, "You and me. We were born to do this. It's in our blood." This "black-and-white" perspective proves to be a challenge for the brothers as they see more of "humanity" in the vampires than they do "monsters" which Gordon fights saying, "You're a killer," suggesting that that's all there is to this life, but it doesn't make you a bad person because of what you're killing. This theme works for the season as it helps center the main plot arch, which is curing same of his psychic abilities and killing Azazel, and helps shape Sam and Dean to be more dynamic as they are posed with this existential crisis, making them more "realistic" to the audience and more "dramatic" to draw in viewership. The debate of what is a "monster" is a never-ending one and very real in our eyes as we are exposed to 24-hour news that shows the horrors that are happening the world around us. For this year, 2006, the theme was perhaps used to help distract people from what was going on in the world so that they could subconsciously face their fear of monsters in the show. Living a fantasy, per se.
What Didn't Work
There are two things that didn't work in this season. One is a downside to the "monster-of-the-week" trope and the other is the overall appearance of women in the show (which fans have taken and made into a on-going joke). Even though the Supernatural universe is expanded upon by the boys solving cases, when they do the actual research required for the monster they are hunting their usually isn't a solid culturally accurate representation of where it came from. Most of the people used for more humanoid monsters were typically white and even if there is some type of culturally inclusion it was typically from a white person (an example would be 2X11 "Playthings" with a white women practicing hoodoo which is rooted in Congo and Native American traditions). Even with the Rakshasa, who is depicted in the show as a white male dressed as a clown who must feed on human flesh, is actually a wicked human from Hindu mythology that are birthed from a different reincarnation and were known to possess humans and desecrate holy ground. And when you look at the Djinn, which originates from Arab culture and is said to have been created by Allah, this season turns it into a Westernized being that is tattooed and poisons people. Although this season seems to be diverse in terms of quests within the story line it stays within the conformity of a typical American horror/thriller of predominately white and Westernized structure.
The other hindrance for this season was its representation of women. Although they do appear in a lot of episodes, most of the roles of women were to either be a victims of a monster attack, a passive victim of misogyny, love interests who become targets because of it, or have the potential to be a strong female lad but are undermined but an unforeseen event. Indeed, the death toll of women compared to men is astronomical (even though some diagrams show otherwise that is because it is showing male characters who developed farther than one episode). Female college students, an elderly woman, a crazed psychic, mothers, and a female werewolf are among those who are killed in this season. Besides these "secondary" characters, there are some women who assume the passive role, such as a waitress in a bar, to be the target of a sexist comment either from Dean or another male character. Then there is Madison. Coming from 2X17 "Heart", Madison is a werewolf that Sam falls for and sleeps with. This is perhaps one of the most talked-about episodes in the series, but Madison isn't displayed as a strong female lead. Instead, they see her as a damsel in distress and she stands-by doing nothing to help herself from what she has become, but is eventually shot by Dean anyway. It seems like a lot of these episodes end with a dramatic female death. And lastly, the introduction of Ellen and Jo Harvelle seems like a great move for this season. Here we have a look at females inside the hunter society. And yet nothing happens with them until season 4. They only appear a few times in this season, and one of the bigger times is on a case (2X6 "No Exit") when Jo joins them and is kidnapped by the ghost who was hunting "petite, blonde women." Therefore, undermined. Ellen just ends up playing a protective mother role until the season finale when she helps to close the gates, but both girls are then forgotten.
Final Thoughts and Observations:
Overall, season two if Supernatural is what sets the ball rolling for the dramatic events that are to happen to the Winchester brothers. Now that the audience has been introduced to the world in the first season, the second season is all about continuing the road trip and settling into the hunting life. What I personally enjoyed about this season is the familiarity of the "monster-of-the-week" trope, the way it was written, the cinematography, and the old partnership between Sam and Dean. This project came around the time I was doing a cinematography analysis so while I re-watched the season I paid attention to lighting, camera angles, and so direction. I would have to say in comparison to more recent seasons, this one in particular takes the cake for me in this field. The camera angles are perfect for medium long shots (2X3 "Bloodlust" scene of Gordon and Dean at the table) and close-up shots in conversations (2X22 "All Hell Breaks Loose Pt.2 conversation between Dean and the crossroads demon). I love had washed-out everything is, how the music plays at the right time for suspense like in a horror movie, or when it is absent in times of reflection. I also enjoy the way the partnership between Sam and Dean flourishes in this season. From "ganking" monsters together to having sentimental talks by the Impala. Things were much simpler in this season compared to the confusing chaos that is to come.
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