Diary of a Supernatural Virgin – Darkness, death, clowns and vamps

(Season 2, Episodes 1-3)

Oh, Supernatural, how I have missed you so. My loyalties have been divided between my duties at CliqueClack, which require me keeping up with that pesky current television, and my new guilty pleasure, the Winchester boys. Well, tonight, duties be damned … I’m watching a Supernatural marathon, so bring on season two!

I seriously can’t believe I have let weeks go by without watching the resolution of the season one cliffhanger. I just knew if I started that I might not have the willpower to watch a reasonable amount of episodes. Here I am again, on the emotional roller-coaster of Supernatural, enjoying the heartbreaking dysfunction of the Winchester family, the comedic relief (thanks, Dean!) and the lessons learned along the way.

“In My Time of Dying”

The resolution to the season one cliffhanger finale did not disappoint. Leave it to Dean to make being in a coma and dying funny. Yeah, I get that his one-liners are a cover for his deeper fears and insecurities, but they are still entertaining.

This episode was about always having a choice, and you can choose to fight. And there were some tough choices presented, from Dean trying to decide whether or not he should go with the reaper, to John sacrificing himself for Dean, a life for a life. Oh, and the gun, darn it.

I love that we are left with the little tidbit that John knew what was going on with Sam, and had known for a while. I’m hoping that John passed this secret on to Dean, when he whispered to him at the end. Once again, John leaves Dean with a huge burden of responsibility on his shoulders, so for all his apologizing, he still leaves the tough stuff for Dean.

Some fun stuff:

• I love when Sam quotes what Dean said to him in the coma, about getting the voodoo priest to work his mojo on Dean. Just giving us a glimpse of Sam’s powers, methinks.
• Just after I typed into my notes that Dean lurking about was like Patrick Swayze in Ghost, Dean breaks the glass in John’s hospital room and says, “Dude, I full-on Swayze-ed that mother.”
• “Do you see me messing with crystals or listening to Yanni?” — Dean, when Tessa (the reaper in disguise) asks if he’s a new age-y guy.
• It was tongue-in-cheek to the fullest when Sam gets a Ouija board to communicate with the comatose Dean.

“Everybody Loves a Clown”

I commend Supernatural on drawing the line when it comes to killing kids. They’ve had a few shots now, and haven’t taken them. Granted, the clown killed their parents and left them orphaned in this episode, but I still think it’s a really important line not to cross when the show tries to keep a lighter side. I hope they continue to make that distinction.

Is the whole killer clown thing brilliant? I love that they did this episode, because like most people — and Sam! — clowns freak me out, and it is just so funny that they took on this topic.

For me, this episode was all about guilt.  Sam admits to Dean that he feels guilty about fighting with John before his death, but the irony is that Dean probably feels a whole lot guiltier than Sam, because he knows that John died for him. Dean is not handling this well, as we see when he smashes up his car in anger.

This and that:

• I love Ellen, her daughter, and the genius Ash, and hope we see more of them.
• Dean is really protecting Sam by not telling him what John did … what could the secret be about Sam?
• As if the soccer mom van wasn’t funny enough, playing “Do That to me One More Time” by The Captain and Tennille instead of the usual classic hard rock that we get was priceless.
• Ellen’s daughter called Dean’s pickup line bluff — do we finally have a match for Dean?
• My favorite scene was when Cooper the carnival owner invites the brothers to take a seat, and Dean runs and leaves Sam the clown chair.
• Hello, Brinks Home Security System, anyone? There were way too many children going and opening the door for clowns in the middle of the night when the rest of the family was sleeping. I’m thinking a door alarm would keep the killer clowns at bay…

“Bloodlust”

The opening, with the Impala cruising down the road once again and playing “Back in Black” from the first episode was fitting. The car is in full form again and so are the boys — or are they?

“Give you a couple of severed heads a and a pile of dead cows and you’re Mr. Sunshine,” says Sam to Dean, who is in a very good mood. But Dean is hiding some deep, dark feelings, the huge hole that John’s death left and the darkness that is filling it up.

And Sam is horrified at what Dean can do, still, after all this time. Is there even a new “bloodlust” to Dean’s killing? I think so. I don’t think the bloodlust was the vampires’ at all, which is the irony of the episode and its title; I think the bloodlust was in the hunters, Gordon and Dean. Dean could have let John’s death affect him like Gordon’s sister’s death ruined him. Instead, Sam was able to teach Dean that there are shades of gray, and that they fight evil things, not simply things that are supernatural.

This just brings out more guilt in Dean, though — “What if we killed things that didn’t need killing?” Glad that Sam is around to keep Dean from sliding into the abyss.

More good stuff:

• Loved seeing Amy Acker and Julie Benz last season, and now we get Amber Benson; it’s like a little Buffy / Angel reunion.
• The retractable vampire teeth: Did True Blood get the idea from SN, or did Charlaine Harris give the idea to SN through her books? I read them a while ago, so I don’t remember if the teeth are in the books. Anyone?

I didn’t quite finish the first disc, but I couldn’t resist posting! I’m anxious to see how Sam can continue to temper Dean’s dark side, and if Sam’s dark side (if only a mini-dark side!) from season one will rear its head again. And I can’t wait to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s first appearance as a dead guy!

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jan 25, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT