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Supernatural: Bloodlust

Sam: "I thought you said he was a good hunter."
Ellen: "And Hannibal Lector's a good psychiatrist."

One of these vamp nests is not like the others. Not everything supernatural is evil. Got it.

At first it seemed that Dean had more in common with Gordon Walker than he did with his own brother. Dean and Gordon, high on adrenaline, were bonding big time over vampire decapitation and stories about their first kills. Dean was starting to emotionally substitute Gordon for John, which Sam helpfully pointed out to the audience.

But the title, "Bloodlust," turned out to be all about Gordon, not the vamps. Gordon saw hunting in terms of good and evil, black and white with no shades of gray. Gordon took pleasure in torturing Lenore. He admitted, with a complete lack of emotion, that he had tracked down and killed his own vamped sister. Would Dean ever be able to do that to Sam under the same circumstances? No freaking way.

Gordon is a sociopath. He loves hunting because he gets to torture and kill without going to jail for it. Even though Dean clearly got a charge out of beheading that vampire with a chainsaw, he is not a sociopath. By the end of the episode, he was even fretting about the possibility that not everything he had killed in the past was evil, like that vampire in the opening scene. Gordon is not going to be happy about how they left him. The Winchesters have a serious and dangerous enemy now.

The vamp story was less successful than the Gordon story. I think they were trying to make the vamps more interesting by casting a Buffy actress. But unfortunately, aside from the fact that it was great to see Amber Benson in anything, it didn't work for me. I thought the vamps were semi-dull in last season's "Dead Man's Blood," and making them twelve steppy resulted in making them even less interesting. Too bad.


Bits and (ew) pieces:

— An opening beheading. Bleah.

— It was great to have the Impala back. I noticed that the scar on Dean's forehead was gone. Maybe it took awhile to rebuild that car from the ground up. Gordon Walker apparently had a classic car, too, an El Camino. Maybe it's a hunter thing.

— I could finally see the name on the sign: Harvelle's Roadhouse. I assume "Harvelle" was for Harvey and Ellen?

— Dean punched Sam out. Later, he tried to make Sam hit him. Sam wouldn't hit him.

— Early spoiler for the series Angel, skip if you plan to watch the show someday but haven't yet. Gunn on Angel also had to kill his own sister when she became a vampire. But those vamps were less ambiguous; they were soulless and evil, and she would have sucked him dry without a second thought. Plus, it tore him up.

— This week, the Winchester brothers went to Red Lodge, Montana. We got those nice suits again when they masqueraded as reporters and as doctors. And Sam did something almost stylish with his hair. He has a widow's peak and everything.

Note from much later: When this episode aired, I remember how impressed I was with Sterling K. Brown, who did a terrific job as Gordon. He has since acquired some serious star power. Very nice.

Quotes:

Dean: "Got my car, got a case, things are looking up."
Sam: "Wow. Give you a couple of severed heads and a pile of dead cows, and you're Mister Sunshine."

Sheriff: "But hey, it could be Satan. What newspaper did you say you work for?"
Dean: "World Weekly News."
Sam: "Weekly World News."
Dean: "Weekly World..."
Sam: "Weekly World..."
Dean: "Week... I'm new."
Sheriff: "Get out of my office."
The sheriff was a hoot. Good performance there.

Gordon: "Lighten up a little, Sammy."
Sam: "He's the only one who gets to call me that."

Clever, witty script, great story. I suspect this was a four star episode,

Billie
---
Billie Doux adores Supernatural which is a good thing since apparently, it's eternal.

7 comments:

  1. I am not a fan of the vamps here but I liked this one a lot. Gordon Walker is just awesome.
    What amazes me more in season two is that they focus a lot on the brothers and I love it.

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  2. 'Twelve steppy'? LOL

    Billie - you sound almost Whedonesque. Guess Amber and the vamps really got to you. :-)

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  3. Amber Benson will always be Tara. When she was getting tortured I just kept thinking "Stop hurting Tara! Hasn't she been bloodied enough!?" I also trusted her implicitly and would have even if Gordon hadn't had "TROUBLE" stamped across his face.

    Loved this episode. It reminded me of "That Old Gang of Mine," one of my all time favorite Angel eps. I like shades of grey in my supernatural TV. So yay :)

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  4. Gordon is one of those characters that reminds me of the feeling I get around Professor Dolores Umbridge: I want to pull out someone (or something's) hair...preferably theirs. Good job he didn't really have any for me to pull.

    He's so sociopathic, so psychotic, and so set in his ways that nothing you say will make more of an impact that a feather flicked against a brick wall. It's an infuriating, maddening, annoying personality because you know that nothing the boys say will convince him otherwise. In fact, it'll probably just put them on his 'to-eliminate' radar.

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  5. So wow, I am finally giving Supernatural a try after having gotten hooked on so many shows due to your site, Billie. Up until the last 13 minutes or so of this episode, I hated it. I just thought it would be so cliched, and I would have hated it had it played out the way it usually does. But then, something changed, particularly Dean's responses, that made me absolutely love it and also understand why Supernatural may be a great show. I was so satisfied with Dean's final interactions with Gordon and Sam - they were clever, hilarious, and unexpected. I'm totally sold on this show now.

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  6. Wow Gordon was actually taken aback when Lenore finally restrained herself. But I guess there's no rule that says sociopaths can't be surprised.
    The opening credit shot finally sounds right. The first 2 episodes (of this season) had it sound slightly different... check it out if you're interested.

    ReplyDelete

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