Watching Supernatural

Dean: I mean, I’m not blind. I see what you’re going through with this whole deal. Me going away and all that. But you’re going to be okay.
Sam: You think so?

To read a recap of this episode, check out BuddyTV

This episode featured a good storyline with some very fun references to old movies, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and The Grudge. There was even a literary reference in Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations. In that story, which I highly encourage you read as it’s a true classic, Mrs. Havisham was a woman who lived her entire life from the day of her wedding to her death in her wedding dress. Her entire home was set out for the wedding as it was years ago, with the wedding cake rotting away on the dining table and the drooping decorations. As you can tell, it was particularly spot-on in reference to Gertie.

Sam’s character development in this episode was interesting to see. I like that he doesn’t care about the missing bullet and that he doesn’t want an apology from Dean. Sam’s showing an inner strength in this episode that the audience always suspected was there, but never really saw in the open until now. Now that his brother’s life is on the line and he’s himself was resurrected from the dead, it’s understandable that he would drop the pretenses and focus on accomplishing his goal. In fact, if Sam were always this persistent, it’s no real wonder that he was able to get into Stanford.

That said, I still don’t believe that Sam is ‘changed,’ as the Yellow-Eyed Demon Azazel claimed in the season 2 finale. It seems to me that Sam’s obsession with saving Dean is really occupying his time. Although we never really see it on the screen when Sam and Dean question Gertie or when they’re at the party, I daresay this issue is like an itch in the back of his mind as time goes on. In that perspective, I can see how Sam was determined enough to kill the Crossroads Demon in the last episode, and not even flinch.

Dean’s development, however, seems to be woefully lacking. It’s nice that we finally know Dean hasn’t turned into a zombie and that he finally notices the toll this deal is taking on Sam, but why haven’t we seen more about what Dean is feeling? In the last episode, Dean asked Bobby if the resurrected Sam is 100% Sam. I don’t think Dean would have forgotten that at all in this episode. So why haven’t we seen a chink in the emotional armor around Dean? He’s not a “drama queen” as Bela puts it, but he’s never hidden any doubts he’s had of Sam before. In fact, the only time he did that was when he was waiting for Sam to turn out evil in the beginning of the second season. Even then, we saw a great deal of Dean freaking out over it, even if he only did it when alone. So why aren’t we getting that view here?

This episode also showed that Bela is truly becoming a foil to Dean. Their interaction holds an underlying sexual element to it that is understandable, since I’ve yet to find any female that Dean hasn’t wanted at some point, other than his mother. Even though Dean consistently tells her that she doesn’t have a heart, they both relate to each other in a way that Sam can’t seem to understand.

While I’m very interested to learn why Bela saw the ghost ship, I’m rather disappointed in her inclusion in this episode. The audience was more preoccupied with Bela and her involvement in the plot than they were in the true story behind the story, Dean’s impending death and the interactions between the brothers. In fact, as I showed previously, the air between them is rich with dramatic material, enough for perhaps two episodes at this point. So why haven’t we seen it yet?

As fellow fan Emanuela told me, “I still remember how bad it was when [Sam and Dean] had a minor argument last season. This season, Sam suddenly brings up Dean’s deal without actually making any new good points besides ‘Dean, you’re a selfish little bastard.’ They argue a little bit… rather, Dean just ignores Sam and they go on like nothing happened. Now everything is okay?”

There are very large gaps in the interactions between the brothers that are just patched together with different stories that involve extraneous characters. I hope that the next episode brings about some development in Sam and Dean’s stances on the ‘elephant in the room,’ because this is getting really old, really fast. At least the destruction of the ghost in this episode was a nice allusion to a possible head-on collision that could be coming up soon.

TAGS: supernatural, episode 3×06, red sky at morning, episode review