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Supernatural: Dead in the Water

Dean: "No wonder that kid was so freaked out. Watching one of your parents die isn't something you just get over."

I wasn't all that wild about this episode. The kid who sees something terrible and stops talking, but is skillfully brought out by our hero and starts talking again? Done so many times that it's an uncomfortable cliche.

But fear of what lies in the darkness under the water, or down the drain? That was done really well. And why? Because they didn't show us the monster. (Well, just a little. Enough to freak us out.) The scene where the guy got pulled into the sink was so well done that I was cringing and yelling, "Don't put your arm in the sink! Haven't you ever seen a horror movie?" And when Amy Acker got in the bathtub, we all knew she was in serious crap. (Although she did get rescued, stark naked in Sam's arms. It would almost be worth it.)


In the sibling relationship department, Sam was obviously not amused by Dean actively flirting with a waitress as well as Andrea. Although that didn't make much sense. Sam may be in mourning, but Dean wasn't engaged to Jessica, after all. The strongest scene in the episode was Dean telling young Lucas that he thought about his mother's death every day, and the expression on Sam's face as he listened. Sam had probably never considered that Dean experienced trauma that Sam did not.

And even though it was a cliched plotline, Dean's uncomfortable but ultimately successful attempts to relate to Andrea's traumatized son Lucas were kind of fun.

Bits and pieces:

— Great episode title. And the opening scene was a deliberate homage to the opening scenes of Jaws.

— I could swear that I've seen that particular lake before in episodes of Smallville and The Dead Zone. Closest lake to Vancouver available for filming?

— Sam's hair was actually obscuring his face. Product, people. Scissors. Something!

— Amy Acker (Andrea) was a cast member on one of my favorite series, Angel. I got to talk with her at a fundraiser for ten minutes once. There, I name-dropped. Couldn't resist.


— This week's itinerary: Lake Manitoc, Wisconsin.

— The guys masqueraded as Agent Ford (Dean) and Agent Hamill (Sam) of the U.S. Wildlife Service. I don't need to point out the Starwarsian reference, do I? Or that Dean thinks of himself more as Solo than Skywalker?

Quotes:

Andrea: "Must be hard with your sense of direction never being able to find your way to a decent pick-up line."

Sam: "Kids are the best? You don't even like kids."
Dean: "I love kids."
Sam: "Name three children that you even know."
Dean: (long silence) "I'm thinking."

Dean: "I just don't want to leave this town until I know that kid's okay."
Sam: "Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?"

Dean: "If you're going to be talking now, it's a very important phrase and I want you to repeat it back to me one more time."
Lucas: "Zeppelin rules!"

Two out of four stars,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

12 comments:

  1. Amy Acker is amazing in everything she does!
    Dean flirting with the waitress and Sam not liking it actually made me think how the tables will turn in a couple of years. Sam is completely different in season 6 than he is here. Again, awesome development.

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  2. all i can say is that kid needed a haircut badly.

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  3. Hopping on the Supernatural bandwagon. I avoided this show for years because people said it was scary and I'm not a horror movie kind of girl.

    This show should be in a textbook somewhere about how to do low budget horror correctly. You don't need to shell out for awesome CGI monsters. Not seeing the big bad is always worse. The least scary parts of Jaws are when you can see the damn shark because at least then you know where it is. Also, because it's clearly plastic. But I digress.

    Amy Acker should be in everything ever, but that's not news to anyone.

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  4. sunbunny -- you are in for a treat! Enjoy!

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  5. obviously very early into the show, the best character so far has been Andrea Barr played by Amy Acker who has the advantage of being awesome. Will give it until the end of the season before deciding if i will continue, does it take a while before going into the main plot?

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  6. Martin, I usually tell people new to Supernatural to try and hang on until episode 1.11, "Scarecrow", and 1.12, "Faith". They both give us a glimpse of how good the show can be.

    Supernatural's first season is IMO its worst because they were finding their way and pretty much doing only "monster of the week" episode. It starts improving relatively early.

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  7. I loved your little comment about the boys using Star Wars names. Did you know that, in the beginning, the Dean role was explained as being a Han Solo type? Also one of the reasons that Jensen preferred Dean, despite originally reading for Sam.

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  8. As a monster of a week case, I liked this episode, but from a chronological standpoint, I have to wince. I keep thinking hypothermia if this takes place in Nov. The upper Midwest (MN, WI & Michigan U.P.) starts seeing their first snow around Halloween.

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  9. I liked this episode. The whole drowning in the sink thing was freaky, and the not knowing what was going on created a nice level of tension. There was a whole lot of yelling at the tv on my part. I'm not one to over think things. If I pay attention through the whole episode and don't roll my eyes so much I get a headache, it's good for me. :D I think I'm in for the long hall. I love the banter and the snark. It doesn't take much to get me hooked. :)

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  10. Watched this one randomly for Halloween. Haven't seen it in many years. I chose it since Amy Acker is one of the few people I'd die for despite never meeting her! She's great in it, but it's not a particularly inspired episode overall. Even so, the feel and seriousness of the early years is much preferable to me than the one-note silliness of later years when I found the show hardly watchable at all. It's still nice to check in on an episode every now and then when the occasion calls for it.

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