It took quite a while, but here is finally a good episode of Supernatural. Though not a perfect episode, it is the most I have enjoyed this show for a long time. Of course I have a few small criticisms, but they did not stop this being a lot of fun. Jensen also made his directorial debut with this episode and, in my amateur opinion, he did a great job. In total, he directed six episodes of the show, with the final being 15x04 Atomic Monsters, but for some reason never took on a more permanent role as producer on the show.
Perhaps one of the things which made this episode work so well is the focus on somebody who is not Dean or Sam. The show has been struggling to find its feet again this series, so having Dean and Sam be supporting characters in this one provided an opportunity to do something fresh, fun, and interesting. In doing so, it also allowed Bobby to become a more 3D character with an actual life outside being Dean and Sam's crotchety mentor figure. Having Crowley finally return, and as King of Hell no less, livened up proceedings, especially considering he has not yet been reduced to just another idiotic demon. His presence also allowed the Bobby's Sold His Soul plot to be wrapped up before the story moves on. This is the kind of thing which would have happened in Buffy and I appreciate the continuity.
To briefly summarise, the episode focuses on Bobby's attempts to get possession of his soul back from Crowley after Crowley used a weaselly loophole in the contract to keep said soul. While doing this, Bobby has to juggle coördinating other hunters, researching for Dean and Sam's hunt, as well as dealing with Rufus and an 'okami' while trying to eat his peach pie. Bobby learns from a demon that Crowley's birth name was Fergus Rodric Macleod. By using this information and the help of Crowley's son's ghost (thanks to Rufus), Bobby tracks him to a graveyard in Caithness, northernmost Scotland. This episode establishes that burning a demon's bones vanquishes it in the same manner as ghosts, as demons are essentially just ghosts anyway. Dean and Sam fly to Scotland to locate and dig up Crowley's bones, and Bobby uses this leverage to force Crowley to give him his soul back.
A thought which occurred to me when writing my notes is that there is a very good change Crowley was a native speaker of Scots Gaelic, as the area of Scotland he grew up in had a strong Gaelic presence during his life. If so, this might also account for the fact that he speaks with a London accent rather than any kind of Scottish accent as one might expect. Monolingual speakers of Celtic languages are almost non-existent nowadays, but would have been fairly common a few hundred years ago. If Crowley was therefore a native Gaelic speaker and learnt English later in life, it makes sense he does not have the same accent his mother Rowena does.
Rowena's accent is a modern Falkirk accent, the same as her actress Ruth Connell's, but Falkirk is in the south of Scotland roughly equidistant between Glasgow and Edinburgh. This is quite a long way from her home is Canisbay in Caithness, the aforementioned Gaelic-speaking area where Crowley grew up and was buried. If Rowena were a monolingual Gaelic speaker in her youth, she might have learnt to speak English further south and learnt to imitate those accents. She could have been bilingual or monolingual English/Scots-speaking, however, and changed the way she spoke as time went by. I doubt that even 100 years ago people in Falkirk spoke exactly the same as they do now. From much further south in Britain, my natural accent is slightly different than my mum's (and her sister's) natural accent, even though she is from a village only two or three miles outside my hometown. If I were to compare the way I naturally speak with a native resident of Shrewsbury from 100 years ago, it would be very difficult for outsiders to believe we are from the same place.
The point of that was to illustrate the work Rowena might have had to put in to avoid sounding like a relic from hundreds of years ago. Whatever his linguistic background as a child, it would have taken some work to keep up to date like she has. In contrast, Crowley was not afforded the same unbroken time on Earth, but rather got whisked away to Hell where he would have been surrounded by myriad languages, accents, and dialects from everywhere through time. It would have been extremely difficult to hang onto his 'native' accent in such an environment. Even in the real world, I occasionally catch myself pronouncing something in an American way if because of all the American media I consume, even though I am extremely aware of my language use. It is understandable that Crowley's accent would be so different than his mum's given all that happened to them since she abandoned him.
Or a simpler explanation could be that Crowley's London accent is something he has chosen to put on like a costume, and if he wanted he could easily switch back to whatever Scottish accent is his natural one.
Although once again, I cringe every time a character from Britain says something no British person would naturally say. Crowley did not go 'to grade school' as we do not have 'grade schools' in Britain. We just have schools. I am aware that the characters have been all over the world and might have spent far more time in America than they ever did in Britain in life, but it really does read as American writers either not knowing or not caring to learn the differences between the two varieties. This is not restricted to Supernatural, but is also an issue in Dead Boy Detectives for example, both the show and the graphic novels. It drags me out of the viewing experience and reminds me I am watching or reading a character written by somebody with insufficient knowledge of their characters. The first few Dead Boys comics written by Neil Gaiman were fine; a few Americanisms here and there since he has lived in America since the 80s, but nothing too eye-catching. Then others took over and I could tell instantly they were Americans from the sheer proliferation of out-of-character phrases and words. Edwin would never say 'What's gotten into you?' for example, but rather 'What's the matter with you?'
It got so bad that, in a fit of exasperation, I once put the volume down and thought 'Americans just shouldn't write British characters'. We are very different peoples both in character and language, and I am yet to find an American writer who has written a convincing British person. Their understanding of Britain seems to be entirely based on stereotypes, caricatures, and exoticisation. Thank Allah George (Edwin) was anal about removing as many Americanisms from his dialogue as he could spot in Dead Boys scripts, but even so some things slipped under the radar. Charles would never say 'Not for nothing...' nor would he talk about how his friends were beating on somebody. 'Beating on' is specifically American and Canadian. Charles would say his friends were beating the Pakistani guy up. ...Neither of them would be talking about a 'backpack', they would just call it a bag, and 'mate' comes out of Charles mouth way too often because the writers think it sounds 'Bridish'.
I am aware that the differences between varieties of English can seem trivial to second-language speakers, and most North Americans would not notice and would not think it matters, the result is that the language use feels fake and inappropriate to the characters, and makes the graphic novels and the show feel inauthentic.
Anyway, since the overlap between linguists and Supernatural fans is probably fairly small, I will move on, but expect a reprise of this when the god-awful British Men of Letters is introduced.
In her review, Paula commented on Dean and Sam having distant Scottish ancestry through Mary, i.e. Mary Campbell. She wondered whether it is possible that, since Crowley was born in Scotland shortly after some of the Campbells moved to America on the Mayflower, he might be distantly related to Dean and Sam. Not nearly enough information is given about either clan's ancestry to draw any conclusions, but there is a non-zero chance, small though it may be. However, assuming the ancestors who were 'beheading vampires on the Mayflower were Campbells (and we have no reason to assume they were), they are from southwest Scotland whereas the MacLeod clan is from the western Highlands and Hebrides. A character in a novel I unfortunately have to start again from scratch is a Gaelic speaker from Stornoway, Lewis, and belongs to the MacLeod clan.
However, Lewis is the other side of the country from Caithness where Crowley and Rowena MacLeod are from. So it is possible that Crowley and Rowena are very distantly related to the Winchesters, but if you go back 400 years in the British Isles and Ireland, everybody ends up being fourth and fifth cousins once or twice removed (no, that is not inbreeding). I have a half-Welsh, half Roma gypsy student in Finland with a very uncommon surname. I also had a Gaelic teacher with the same highly uncommon surname who is American but whose grandmother was born on the ship from England to Canada. Both my student and my teacher originate from the same part of Britain and share the same uncommon surname, so they are possibly not-too-distantly related to each other, even though they have never met and live on opposite sides of the world. Even my own parents might share a great-great-great-great grandmother from a village in northern Wales about two hundred years ago. Which demonstrates the fact in a country with a relatively stable population over several centuries, a native from any given area will be distantly related to a native from the same area through at least one set of their 5x great-grandparents.
But on to the monsters of the episode. Much is made in this episode of monsters not being where they are supposed to be; the 'okami' whom Bobby kills with the woodchipper is a Japanese 'okami' which supposedly never appears outside of Japan, and Dean and Sam likewise hunt a lamia which supposedly never appears outside Greece. What exactly classifies as 'Greece' is not explained. If monsters only generally turn up in areas appropriate to their folklore and mythology, then lamia would only turn up in what is now Greece. However, this also implies that once upon a time lamia would have appeared in Anatolia which had huge Greek settlements until the Turkish invasion and colonisation of Anatolia. Even up until the end of WWI, there was a significant Greek population in Turkey, so would there have been lamia there too?
If not, this might imply that monsters in the Superverse behave more like animals in our world, in which case it would indeed be surprising to find a specifically Greek or Japanese monster in America, but not unheard of. After all, the Finnish Natural history Museum has a small population of recluse spiders which hitched a ride in a shipment from South America and have set up home since. There is even a population of scorpions in a town in southeast England which travelled with a shipment of marble from Italy over 100 years ago. Am I rambling? The point is given the ease with which monsters can travel across the world in the 21st century, it should not be too weird for humanoid monsters to get on an aeroplane across the ocean.
Of course, monsters in the Superverse are acting weird this year, and the appearance of Greek and Japanese monsters in America is supposed to be a part of this. ...But a 'Vanir' i.e. a god from Norse mythology appeared in 1x10 Scarecrow, and gods from loads of mythologies appeared in 5x19 Hammer of the Gods so is it really that strange? And then there was the Slavic leshi which appeared as Paris Hilton is 5x05 Fallen Idols. The show is once again telling us one thing but showing us another.
In the show's defence, the writers at least restrained themselves from once again taking ideas straight from Neil Gaiman. In American Gods, gods exist because people believe in them, and different versions of gods can exist in different places in the world. They are essentially like tulpas which were introduced in Supernatural 1x17 Hell House.
European gods exist in the America of American Gods because European settlers took their ideas and beliefs to the New World with them. It has been about twelve years since I read American Gods, but unless I am mistaken the prologue is about Norsemen from Greenland landing in Vinland and finding that Odin was there too. The Norsemen's belief in Odin had brought a new version of him to life in the New World. In modern times, there is the American 'Mr Wednesday' (Wednesday = Woden's Day, i.e. Woden = Odin) and the Icelandic Odin who are both Odin but not the same person.
(Apparently this scene also made it into the American Gods show. The scribe also looks a lot like the actor who played Raphael in Supernatural. I am not a huge fan of the scene: it gives away Mr Wednesday's plan right at the beginning, and why on Earth would they sacrifice to Odin in the hopes of a fair wind? Would that not be more Njörd's jurisdiction, since they are sailors? Gaiman's version of Norse gods always strike me as rather flanderised, but this scene felt like somebody has taken that to an extreme.)
One of the best parts of this episode is definitely the return of Rufus. He adds a lot of comedy to the episode and his relationship with Bobby is one of the best in the show. if Dean and Sam were like Bobby and Rufus, what a show this would be. But Rufus is not just a comedy relief character in this episode: he gets Bobby the ring he needs to summon Gavin's ghost and get information about where Crowley's bones are. It really is a shame Rufus's time on this show is growing short.
And before moving on from Rufus, there are now two prominent actors from The X-Files in supporting roles in the show. Mitch Pileggi (Samuel) was Assistant Skinner, and Steven Williams (Rufus) was Mr X. If only Kim Manners had survived his cancer...
Speaking of the late Kim Manners, in the book The Essential Supernatural (page 18), Jensen mentioned Kim's having encouraged him to direct the show, and of his years of paying attention to Kim's directorial style. He also said in the same section that he had been reading the script with a director's eye since series one. Due to my lack of a director's eye, I cannot point out anything specific in Jensen's directorial style which reminds me of Kim's, but Paula praised the brutality and lack of sentimentality in the episode. I noticed a lot of movement in the cameras, and particularly enjoyed only ever seeing the shadow of the lamia, including when it was killed. This implied violence and gore without showing it, a style of horror which I feel works better than showing loads of blood and guts.
Slight sidetrack, but I have recently watched the 2017-2019 version of IT after realising when watching Welcome to Derry that I had forgotten a lot of what I read in the book in 2011. I found that the horror in the films (especially in IT: Chapter One) works better than the show because it is less explicit (which incidentally feels more like Stephen King). While I am enjoying the prequel series Welcome to Derry, I find that the more explicit violence and gore demystifies Pennywise and reduces the horror to just shock and grossness. A scene in last night's episode (1x07 The Black Spot) where Pennywise eats a man's severed head was so OTT that I almost found it funny like My Bloody Valentine.
The point of that aside was that Jensen's choice to only have the lamia's shadow shown was a good idea, and also reminded me of the scene in Gremlins when Billy's mum hears noises in the house and the gremlin's shadow is shown against the wall. ...Which is of course inspired by Nosferatu, but moving on...
Generally speaking, this was a good episode for Bobby. Had I seen more of this Bobby earlier on, I might have actively liked him at some point. I recently watched 7x10 Death's Door for the first time in about four years, and I had completely forgotten the reason why Bobby did not want to have children and that telling Karen (his wife) that was one of his biggest regrets. That really should have come sooner to flesh Bobby out. But at least in this episode he gets to be an actual person with a life.
However, the parts of Bobby I dislike made an appearance at the end of the episode. Dean calls Bobby late at night to voice his concerns about Sam, but since Bobby is busy with other things he is not free to listen to Dean uninterrupted. This then elicits a very out-of-character line from Dean to the effect of Bobby was being a bit selfish and that not everything is about him, whereupon Bobby proceeds to prove that in fact, yes, it is all about him and everybody else better shut up and let Bobby bitch because only Bobby is allowed to have problems. Last series he would not stop yammering about being in a wheelchair, now he gripes about having sold his soul. Bitch, bitch, bitch.
My problems with this are several. first up is how out of character it is for Dean to whine about Bobby being 'selfish' etc, and this can be chalked up to Andrew Dabb once more writing Dean as if he were Xander writing about Angel. Second is Bobby shouting at Dean and Sam (primarily the former) as if they were recalcitrant teenagers caught smoking rather than men in their 30s dealing with real-life, serious adult issues (primarily the former, IDGAF about Sam's soul because what even in a soul in this show?) and being messy like real adults. Third is neither Dean nor Sam giving out in retaliation. Bobby is not their dad and they are not naughty little boys, so why does neither of them call Bobby out for being the same kind of whiny little bitch he accuses them of being (primarily the former).
One thing I find frustrating about this show is the unwillingness of characters (especially Dean) to have actual ugly adult arguments. They certainly have their fallings out and disagreements, but this is almost always Cas or Sam blaming Dean for something and Dean saying 'Yes, this is my fault entirely. I apologise, even though I didn't do anything, so please don't leave me because I can't bear to be abandoned by people who treat me like turd.' For once Dean should clap back and give somebody a verbal bruising. Oh wait, is that not what happened at the end of series 14, and beginning of 15? Yeah, and yet he was still made out to be the bad guy.
Compare this with Buffy where all the main characters bitch and give out at each other at different points of the show. Sometimes they gang up on somebody (usually Buffy herself, e.g. 3x02 Dead Man's Party or 7x19 Empty Places) but she gives as good as she gets. The writing does not reduce her to a punchbag. In fact, in spite of being friends with Willow and Xander, she holds a certain grievance with them for years which finally comes out towards the end of the show in 7x05 Selfless. 'Kick his ass.' Such writing.
All of this is to say that Dean should have clapped back with a 'I'm sorry your feelings got hurt. Now such it up, princess' before ending the call and refusing to pick up the phone for a while. That would feel real, not like the writers trying to get a laugh out of the audience at the protagonists' expense.
The fourth issue, and one which likely slips under most viewers' radar more than the first three, is the fact that Dean actually tried once more to open up to somebody and get help with his troubles, only to get shot down and shut up again. Far be it from me to sound as if Dean is the only character in the show I actually care about, but given he spent the last year grieving the loss of his last surviving family member (who is Adam?), the disregard the rest of the cast has for his wellbeing is shocking. Why am I supposed to be rooting for these guys again?
In the hopes long-time readers do not think I sound like a broken record, this also puts me very much in mind of the issue I have raised many a time, that being the fact that nobody listens when men talk about our issues. 'Men need to talk more', they say, as if the idea of talking about problems is alien to men (clue: it isn't) and that the rest of humanity is just waiting with bated breath for us to tell them what is wrong so that they can rush to our aid. Pfft, please. Nobody cares, nobody is listening, and nobody is coming to help.
Other than that, Bobby was actually enjoyable in this episode. Jodie also made a reappearance as the town sheriff and played an important role in getting Rufus out of jail so he could help Bobby. Unfortunately, she will not be making much of an appearance for a little while. Bobby's new neighbour Marcie almost made her first and only appearance in the show as she tried her hardest to get Bobby into her knickers. I liked her, and she brought a different energy to the show which, unfortunately, was doomed to be short-lived.
The other monster in the episode is a werewolf-like creature from Japanese folklore. The okami is a yo-kai i.e. spirit or supernatural being who can take human form. The okami is also knows as okuri-inu meaning 'escort wolf', and it is known to stalk, attack, and eat travellers in the countryside. It can also keep travellers safe from harm if treated right. Like other yo-kai, or elves and the like in Germanic folklore, they are seen as creatures to be respected and given gifts in order to win their favour and keep them happy and benefit from their good-will, but best avoided and treated with caution.
None of this information is presented in the episode, nor does it elaborate on the fox yo-kai kitsune which will appear in 7x03 The Girl Next Door, so the viewer will be forgiven for not having a clue what an okami is. Paula was nonplussed and thought they meant 'kami', and I only found out what I wrote above by spending ten minutes on wikipedia. None of the folklore surrounding the okami is also used in the show, except the need to stab it seven times in the chest with a certain kind of wood which might be the show's own invention. This is fine, and perhaps time constraints necessitated the bare-bones nature of this subplot, but my few minutes reading about the okami informed me that they can be placated with gifts of food such as rice, beans, or salt. It might have been nice to see Bobby try to keep the okami away and keep Marcie safe with folksy methods like that to actually justify including the okami specifically rather than any other monster which could have been killed with a wood-chipper.
One of the things I appreciated about Dead Boy Detectives was that the characters did not solve all their problems with violence, but instead had to use their brains a bit more. Even the final conflict in 1x08 The Case of the Hungry Snake was solved using quick thinking. A bit more of this from Supernatural would have been to its benefit.
One last comment is that the characters really do not care any more about demons' vessels, i.e. the people possessed by demons, and have not for a long time. Paula remarked that Bobby had to kill his wife because she was possessed by a demon, but in this episode he blithely burns the demon's host body along with the demon. That woman's family and friends are probably never going to know where she went or what happened to her but this is all just brushed under the rug.
In spite of my critique and criticism here and there, I did enjoy this episode a lot and would definitely rank it among the show's best. It reminded me rather of Buffy 3x13 The Zeppo which is entirely from Xander's perspective.
You can read more of my analyses here:
Series 1
Series 2
Series 3
Series 4
Series 5
Series 6
Sundry
You can read Paula’s review here and Demian’s here.
