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Supernatural: The Chitters

"What is this? Spanish fly gone bad?"

A mostly satisfying monster of the week episode, with a twist.

From the moment we met hunters Jesse and Cesar, I was waiting for one or both of them to die. But in fact, their survival and ultimate retirement was the point of the episode. Jesse became a hunter in order to search out and destroy the monster that killed his brother 27 years ago, and he actually did achieve his goal and take his revenge, found his brother's body and put him to rest. Jesse and Cesar were able to hang up their spurs, retire to their place in New Mexico, and leave the hunting life behind. I particularly loved that they were a gay couple, making it even sweeter and more of a relief that they both came out of the hunt unscathed.

This, of course, was a great big reminder that Dean and Sam probably won't ever get to that finish line themselves. Each time they've left the hunting life, something has pulled them back. Even with Amara bringing on the possible end of the world, the Winchesters were unwilling to take a chance at happiness away from Jesse and Cesar.


The monsters themselves were "Bisaan," cicada spirits usually found in Malaysia; the "chitters" was just the sounds they made when they mated. At least they registered fairly high on the creepy meter, because I kept expecting them to jump out and get someone, or for either Jesse or Cesar to turn into one and attack the boys. Although I kept getting confused about exactly what the Bisaan were doing. Possessing people, having a whole lot of orgiastic sex, and then dying pregnant? How did they end up "junkless"? Why the emerald eyes?

In fact, while I liked the gay hunter couple and their story, I thought this episode missed clicking into some interesting plot possibilities. All that talk about pot, and neither Winchester got stoned. I would have loved watching Dean and Sam together and stoned out of their minds. Plus, all that talk about orgies and this week's sheriff was the gorgeous Kandyse McClure from Battlestar Galactica, and neither Winchester got lucky. She even has green eyes and was wearing a green uniform, which I thought was a deliberate nod to the emerald eyes thing. Oh, well.

Bits:

— Dean and Cesar went into an abandoned mine shaft full of monsters, in the dark. Why didn't they wait for Sam and Jesse?

— Jesse and his brother Matty were the same age difference as Sam and Dean. I'm sure that was deliberate.

— Jesse and Cesar had heard of the Winchesters but thought they died a couple of years ago. What happened a couple of years ago to make them think so? Forgive me if I'm blanking out. I've been reviewing this show for eleven years and I love it, but seasons are starting to run together.

— This week: Near Gunnison, Colorado, 1989 and the present. Dean was Agent Lewis. As in Huey and the News, I suppose.

Quotes:

Sam: "You even move since last night?"
Dean: "Sleeping is the new smoking."
Sam: "What? No it's not. It's sitting. Sitting is the new smoking."

Dean: "Are you saying it was junkless?"

Dean: "Weed alone doesn't conjure up that kind of scenario. Isn't that right, Sam?"
Sam: "Dude, I was eighteen."
Dean: "Sinner."
Sam: "It was college. It was probably oregano, anyways."
Dean: "Rebel."
Sam: "You're an idiot."

Sam: "We're not actually gonna go with 'junkless' on this, are we?"

Dean: "You mean they actually saw him in the act?"
Etta: "What does 'diddling' mean to you?"
And then Etta looked directly at Sam. Lol.

Cesar: "What is this place?"
Dean: "It's a maternity ward slash subway station."

Entertaining, even if it wasn't a classic episode. Two out of four buffalo nickels,

Billie
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Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

10 comments:

  1. I am so sick and tired of the usual speech "can't find anything on Amara and Cass so let's work on a case" that it put me in a bad mood for the all episode.
    And the send Sam away scenes, OOC Sam smoking weed, not canon at the grand canyon style "while you were hunting vamps and rugaru"didn't help.
    The pointless scene of Sam and Jessy with the old sheriff and when they arrived the hunt was over added fuel. Jessy should have been the one to discover the nest and at least help clean it.
    All in all, I thought it was dull but as I said, without the scene of Sam and Dean having the exact same talk for the last two seasons in every single episode (almost) (just the name changing), I may have enjoyed it more.

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  2. Supernatural can be a great show, but this one was barely mediocre. The death they were referring to was when Metatron killed Dean at the end of season 9, I believe. Sam could have went way off the grid to find Demon Dean, so maybe they thought they were both dead?

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  3. This was a great episode. I really enjoyed watching the two pairs of hunters working smoothly--and not so smoothly--together. They even showed Rufus and Bobby in the THEN segment as yet another pair of hunters who worked together once upon a time. It kinda choked me up to realize the weight of the hunting world once again sits squarely on only the shoulders of Dean and Sam. I sensed both of them were hoping for experienced help for a change, but didn't want to spoil the chances for ANY hunters to leave their terrible life. Sniffle. This had a meh Monster of the Week, I guess, but the story was still a really good one, and I plan to watch it again. Love, Robin

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  4. As monsters of the week go, this was good. Tense and straightforward. I just think it's too late in the season to have an episode like this.

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  5. As a separate installment following the standard Supernatural formula, sure, I bought it, but I couldn't help feeling very disappointed that they didn't immediately follow up on the huge cliffhanger from last episode. Now I have to wait one more week.

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  6. The MoTw was weird af. The folklore sounded iffy and they weren't really scary, more like rabid vampires really. It also seemed strange to throw in a filler episode at this point in the season, even though I'm one of the strange spn fans who enjoys standalones more. I was impressed that the hunter couple were gay. Is supernatural finally becoming more progressive? Nah. They still got the blatant sexism and racism thing going for them. Sigh. The scene with the old sheriff was pointless drama, but I did think the actor did a really good job selling it. Also, how can anyone be pissed about the stupid "let's work in the meanwhile as our end-of-the-world bringers just chill, sit up and let us do our thing for filler reasons" thing at this point? That's like every supernatural episode ever, people. Jeez. Finally, would've LOVED to see Sam/Dean high on some pot. It would've elevated the episode, or at least part of it, to classic standards imo.

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  7. I took a couple of days to think about how I felt about this episode. I felt very meh about it in retrospect. The MotW was mediocre and not all that well fleshed out. The guest characters were weak and not that engaging. And most importantly, we sat in neutral for another week on the Darkness who is supposed to be the biggest bad in Supernatural history, but is in danger of falling into Leviathan territory. This episode was obvious filler and it felt like the writers want us to love the episode simply because it had a gay couple whose backstory had parallels with Sam and Dean. Given that Jessy and Caesar were a gay couple, I'm actually not sure what the take away message was supposed to be. Was this cheap Wincest/ Destiel baiting? Regardless, I was disappointed simply because we're four episodes from the finale and we're on our 6th filler episode in the last nine episodes. Coming back from a hiatus, I just wanted more myth arc.

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  8. Loved Jesse and Cesar! Totally see them raising horses somewhere. I think the whole episode was just a feel-good see-don't-we-fit-together thing, so it was cute, but after the last episode and the progress on the Amara front I just felt somewhat let down.

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  9. I enjoyed the episode, mostly because I knew it would be a MOTW, as it always is the standard in the last seasons (or maybe in every seasons, I don't remember). The monsters were not so impressives, but I liked Jesse and Cesar and, even if I'm glad they can retire and have normal lives, I would have like to see them team up with the Winchesters and help them, or even just be a part of the extended family.

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  10. I liked the episode as well and I saw the similarities between Dean/Sam and Jesse/ Cesare in terms of backstories and also the actor playing Jesse reminds me of Sam with some of his mannerisms. I too was worried about someone being infected and happy it didn't. All in all, I say 3 Buffalo heads.

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