spn20rewatch: 1.08 bugs!! my BELOVED!!!
this episode gets a lot of hate. some of it is rightful: the depiction of indigenous people is lazy, stereotyped and racist. some of it is none of my business: case is stupid? bugs are... boring? idk i don't watch spn for the cases. i literally don't care im sorry.
but i love bugs for two main reasons. the first is the framing of the episode is literally - there was such intense colonial violence (and historical erasure of it) against indigenous people that it literally cursed the land and there is nothing to do but not have white people go there. ever. and especially not build housing developments. like that is a Powerful stance. if i am ever able i would like to write about the theme of colonialism itself haunting the narrative in spn.
the second is that though you get some of dean's first really staunch defending of john, the episodes climax actually shows that when it comes down to it, dean and sam already have reversed feelings about their father than shows on the surface.
dean spends most of the episode trying to get matt (read sam) to want to get along with his dad. but the moment it really matters - when they need matt to convince his dad to leave the house, sam tells matt to tell his dad the truth (to trust the deep familial bond that lies under the superficial tension). dean, on the other hand, doesn't even give a second to thinking the dad might listen.
MATT: My dad doesn't listen in the best of circumstances, what am I supposed to tell him? SAM: You've gotta make him listen, okay? DEAN: Give me the phone, give me the phone. (He grabs the phone from SAM.) Matt, under no circumstances are you to tell the truth, they'll just think you're nuts. MATT: But he's my DEAN: Tell him you have a sharp pain in your right side and you've gotta go to the hospital, okay? MATT: Yeah. Yeah, okay. DEAN: Make him listen? What are you thinkin'?
"make him listen? what are you thinkin'?" oh my beloved.
bonus this episode tells us john used to stop by stanford whenever he could to make sure sam was ok. "He was afraid of what could've happened to you if he wasn't around." im sure we'll all feel fine and normal about his information when we get to 14.12...
we also get a series of knock-out hits (to me personally): sam comments negatively about dean hustling pool for cash, dean watching oprah, dean wanting to get free food at the real estate event, and dean wanting to squat in the house with nice showers.