Season 2, episodes 4 – 8
Yeah, that’s right — I spent Valentine’s Day with Sam and Dean. Am I the envy of every fangirl out there, or what? It’s just a good thing my husband enjoys Supernatural too.
And oh, what a Valentine’s Day it was! Some of my favorite episodes so far were included in this batch — I laughed, I was touched and we found out some great new tidbits from the story arc. Plus, the writers played around a bit with some different styles and it worked.
“Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things”
It’s revealed that Dean is still bitter and angry about dad’s death. Well, duh, but the clincher here is that he finally admits he’s been acting like an ass, and confesses why. Did going to their mom’s grave just bring it all up front for him?
The scene when Dean pulls over and apologizes to Sam, not only for the way he’s been acting, but because it is his fault that Dad is gone, is really poignant. When Dean says, “You wanted to know how I was feeling? I should have stayed dead,” my heart just about broke for all Dean has had to go through. And I get that this is only the tip of the iceberg….
“Simon Said”
I loved everything about this episode. It was deep without feeling deep, because we got a lot of information about Sam’s, uh, affliction, but it was also one of the funniest episodes to date. And we got to see Ash again… I mean Dr. Badass.
So now we couple Sam’s premonitions with Andy’s (and the evil twin’s) mind control skills, we head back to that guy from season one who could move things with his mind (as we saw Sam do but that sort of dropped) and now we’re getting some real information on these kids who acquired these skills at their 22nd birthday. But not all of them had their moms die in a fiery mess when they were babies, so that’s a new twist.
It does Sam good to find Andy, who has powers, but is not killing people with them.
Just an aside, but Sam’s WTF face is fast becoming one of my favorite faces on TV (Jeffrey Donovan’s dick-smile is up there too). We saw it when he saw the hot chick the geeky Andy was with, and we’ve seen it multiple times when Dean pulls a Dean during an investigation and Sam throws him “the look.”
And can I just say, Dean:
“No Exit”
“It’s the Stay-Puft marshmallow man.” — Dean, upon finding ectoplasm.
We finally find out why Ellen and John were on the outs — John got her husband killed during a hunt. I wonder if we’ll get any more information about this? Was John reckless? I think we knew he was, but we didn’t know their were consequences beyond putting himself in danger.
I’m wondering if there’s a purpose to Jo joining the boys on this hunt, and if she’ll turn to hunting herself. Dean and Jo are pretty cute together. I said when they first met that Dean had met his match, but since Jo only has one or two episodes left in her IMDb credits, I’m thinking they might just drop this, which is too bad.
“The Usual Suspects”
I’m old enough to think it was cool seeing Jason Gedrick, but not old enough to appreciate Linda Blair, beyond loving The Exorcist long after its time. Classic “pea soup” comment from Dean, though.
I loved what the writers did with this episode. You almost got to see what Sam and Dean are like through someone else’s eyes, and Linda Blair played a very cool character. It actually brought me back to Supernatural season one a bit, where the people Sam and Dean would meet just believed it was demons and weren’t all “no way, they don’t exist.”
And it was like watching a well-done procedural, with a good mystery, a bad cop and a death omen spirit. Every procedural’s got one of those, right?
“Crossroad Blues”
This episode was about consequences to me. We got to see how the different people who summoned the demon dealt with the consequences of it: running from their fate, facing their demons, so to speak, and just wanting to be with their loved ones.
But really, this episode was about the deal that John made with the demon, and the consequences that had on Dean. Um, John, Dean kinda feels like shit because of what you did, and now knowing that you’re in Hell suffering for eternity just to spare Dean’s life makes him want to make a pact with the demon himself. What kind of role model are you? Just when we didn’t think Dean could feel any worse….
OK, what was with those previews? I’m just about crying that I won’t have time to watch any more Supernatural this week, because it looks like Sam’s going to get all the psychic friends together for a retreat of sorts, and we’re going to find out what John told Dean about Sam. Without spoiling me, can you all tell me if the previews live up to what’s to come, or were they just kind of hypey?
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Feb 15, 2009 @ 13:02 EST5EDT
It lives up to the hype. In fact, the rest of this season is the best Supernatural ever was IMO. While I enjoyed season 1, season 2 is when I started to love the show. The quality is high, and remains high for the rest of its run. The only problem is. after this season the show becomes more and more like “the dean show”.
I love Supernatural. I have always been drawn to shows that have a lot of character development, humor and an interesting scifi/otherworldly element. Supernatural has all of these plus a fabulous mythology that keeps peeling back layers without getting too complex coupled with a the intricate exploration of family ties. The next episode Croatoan was really the one that really hooked me into the pain of Dean’s and Sam’s situation and the path their father put them on. I am not a fan of message boards or the war that goes on between Dean and Sam girls so I take exception to the previous reviewer’s Dean show comment. I trust that Eric Kripke is exposing the necessary elements of each brother’s character when needed. I have never felt that it was too heavy on either side and when one brother has had a lot of mythology devoted to them it usually comes with a vary satisfying pay-off. So enjoy without getting involved with the wars
I agree. I don’t hang out on message boards for the show for this very reason. Too many fangirls arguing about which brother gets more storylines/screentime, and bitching about any character who shows the slightest romantic interest in Dean. Jo was a casualty of that nonsense, unfortunately.
I definitely don’t feel that the show ever becomes “the Dean show”. Yes, they often have to deal with Dean’s emotional fallout in a very overt way, but in my view that’s because Dean is a much more emotionally vulnerable character than Sam. Sam is much more internal about his conflicts and he seems to have an emotional strength that Dean does not have. I appreciate that the show underlines the fact that although these two are brothers and extremely close, they are very different people emotionally.
Yes, Season 2 does live up to the hype. It is one of my favorite seasons of any show of all time. As far as Jo goes, unfortunately No Exit probably sealed her fate. Fandom was made leery when Jo was announced as a potential love interest. She might have worked as a character had she continued to be introduced slowly into the storyline and had she been brought on as a would be hunter in training instead of a love interest. Then Jared Padalecki broke his arm while filming Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things and he had to take time off to get it set. This was done during the filming of No Exit and therefore Jo was placed in a very prominent role before the audience was ready to accept her. I always felt bad about losing Jo. I never felt she had romantic chemistry with Dean (I actually thought she had more chemistry with Sam), but if the show had been willing to go with a sister/brother relationship, I think the character could have added a lot to the Supernatural world.
marenamoo, while I understand what you are saying, I do still feel that the show does become oriented around Dean. I wouldn’t consider a fanboy, and I definitely don’t have a preference when it comes to the brothers, but I do feel as though Kripke is always quick to explore how Dean is feeling regarding what is going on around them, while insight into Sam takes a little bit more time. For the past two seasons, I do personally consider Dean “the lead” in the show, while at the start perhaps it was a little more balanced. But the stuff they do with Dean is still excellent, and when Sam is given an opportunity to explore his feelings it’s pretty good as well, so I shouldn’t be complaining.
And Debbie, if you’re anything like me the rest of the season should convince you that Supernatural is one of the best things on at the moment. The 2nd season took me completely by surprise, and it just builds on it as it goes on.