Supernatural Hits the Easy Button

by Cynthia on October 5th, 2008

As you already know, this past week’s episode of Supernatural was one of my all-time favorites. I thought it was well-written, exciting, well-acted and a real love letter to the fans who have been with the show since day one.

However, there are a number of fans who don’t feel the way I do and it has sparked a great deal of debate not just here but all across the fandom.

So, in the spirit of the great political debates of the past weeks, I give you a Supernatural rebuttal written by Jen M.

* * * *

Supernatural Hits the Easy Button

This episode reminded me of those Staples commercials, with the Easy button. Don’t feel like doing things the way they should be done? Too lazy to actually fix things? Slap the big red button and your problems are solved. I have a sneaking suspicion that a similar line of thinking lead to the finished product of “In the Beginning”.

I hated it. Hands down the worst episode of the series. Worse than “Bugs” with its ‘instadawn’. Worse than “Route 666” with its killer racist truck and the total lack of chemistry between Dean and Cassie. Worse even than “No Exit”, despite the abundance of Jo in that episode, and the mishandling of what could have been an amazing story.

It was aimless, plotless, and then at the end they slapped a big fat “to be continued” on it. To be continued when? Why not just label it “Oops, we didn’t feel like writing an ending for this one so we’re taking the easy way out”? So next week we get tossed an average monster of the week episode, which appears to have nothing to do with this episode we just sat through. When do we get answers? The other half of the episode? Why on earth would they do that and then just skip off to save some random person next week?

TO BE CONTINUED

This is poor planning, poor timelining, and half-hearted storytelling. There is no reason for the episode to just dangle like this. If it needs its second half to be complete, then it should be aired the week before the second half airs. Or better yet, take it back to the writers and tell them that you won’t accept an episode that isn’t strong enough to at least limp along on its own. I’m not sure this episode was capable of sitting up without assistance, much less standing.

If next week is the second half to this episode, why wasn’t it billed that way? It would make sense that the audience would want to know the resolution to the cliffhanger they gave us, so why not make it clear to us that we would get at least some of the answers in the next episode?

LET’S MAKE A DEAL

Another demon deal. Is that the only way to fix problems in the Supernatural universe? I would call it a Deus ex machina, except that the definition of that term states that it is “an improbable contrivance in a story characterized by a sudden unexpected solution to a seemingly intractable problem”. What I have a problem with here is the word “improbable”. At this point, a Winchester (or soon to be Winchester in Mary’s case), making a deal for their loved one’s life is hardly an unlikely event. Neither is it “sudden” or “unexpected”. It’s almost a guarantee. If they had revealed something about the deal at the time that “Home” aired, to explain the apology in that episode, it would have been a shocking and heartbreaking moment. With two Winchester deals already under our belts, however, it smacks of laziness to me.

Mary’s deal left a sour taste in my mouth on more than just a convenience front. Up to this point, she was a tragic figure, the cause for our heroes’ crusade. Now I can’t help but feel like her death was nothing more than what she deserved. If she had been ignorant to the machinations of demons there might be some excuse for her choice. Having been raised a hunter, and given her assumption that Azazel wanted her soul as payment for the deal, which would have been correct had she been dealing with a different demon, it seems that she had a fair idea of how these things work. She had to have known that whatever he wanted from her in ten years time would be big, and something that she likely would not want to give up when the time came. I have a very hard time finding her death a tragedy when she sacrificed her youngest son, unknowingly or not, just because she couldn’t bear to be alone.

It is nice to finally know what Mary was apologizing to Sam for in “Home”. She owed him more than just an “I’m sorry” if you ask me, since every single thing he’s gone through since the day she died has been a direct result of the deal she made. She was young, and scared, and confused, I get that. Those are reasons for what she did, but they’re not excuses. Everyone she loved wound up paying a very high price for the choice she made that night, and I can’t help but wonder how it could possibly be worth it.

WHO’S RUNNING THIS SHOW?

It seems that Kripke didn’t even care enough to write this one himself. If this was the big payoff to his story so far, why didn’t he write this one? Putting myself in his shoes, it would have been hard to let something that was supposed to be pivotal to the whole series out of my hands. Or why not at least give it to Sera Gamble, who can write a solid episode, or Cathryn Humphris, who has delivered some good, deep scripts. Carver was all over the place. It reminds me of a first grader’s art project, with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in just because it’s shiny and fun to play with. There was no coherency, no cohesion, no nothing. I knew I recognized the writer’s name when it first popped up on screen, but I had to look him up to see what episodes he had written before.

It was no surprise to me to find “Sin City” as one of his credits. Once I saw the connection, I realized that a lot of the issues I had with “In the Beginning”, I had also had with Carver’s first credit in this series. The difference was that “Sin City” didn’t suffer from the same delusions of grandeur that this latest effort did. The strange, aimless wandering of the plot, and the completely disjointed feeling were a lot easier to forgive when it was an episode that, though it did have salient points, wasn’t claiming to be the episode to end all episodes. “In the Beginning” wanted so desperately to be ground breaking, to be amazing, almost, dare I say, cosmic. It had all the wrappings and trappings of an awesome episode, but inside it was hollow.

Carver is capable of more, evidenced by “A Very Supernatural Christmas”, which was an enjoyable, fairly solid episode. There were a few holes in the plot, but it was a satisfying installment. That has been one of the most consistently frustrating things about Supernatural to me. Like the old nursery rhyme, when they’re good, they are very good, but when they are bad, they’re horrid. The audience is spoiled by knowing what awesome heights they are capable of, making us even tougher critics when things go awry.

Fortunately they soar more often than they fall.

WE’RE ONLY ACTING!

One place that the fault does not lie is with the cast. Everyone in this one was excellent. Jensen Ackles was stunning, as is almost always the case. His scene with Mary, particularly the bit where he begged her not to even get out of bed on that fateful night, was heartbreakingly beautiful. Mitch Pileggi was stellar, especially when his character was possessed. The one flat note I had found in the cast earlier in the episode was with the actor playing the possessed doctor. He failed to act anything even remotely like Azazel has been presented to us over the course of the series. Pileggi, on the other hand, nailed it. Nuances of Fred Lehne’s performance were there, but not enough to make it seem like an impersonation, just a solid nod to the actor who had the longest run in the role. I was amazed by the familiar expressions that found their way across Samuel Campbell’s face, an excellent, quiet reminder of his connection to Sam and Dean. Both Amy Gumenick and Matt Cohen handled their roles very well, though I would have to argue that this young version of John Winchester seemed awfully naïve and a bit clueless. That fault most likely lies in the script, and perhaps the direction, not with the actors themselves.

It would be nice to know what lead to the decision to nearly completely exclude Sam, and by obvious extension, Jared Padalecki from this episode. Various explanations have been tossed around between fans, but I don’t think we’ve gotten an actual answer for that from anyone in the know, besides the quote from that interview with Mitch Pileggi, and that particular version of events seems exceedingly odd. Whatever the reason, I don’t think it was a good choice, and I know it was one that hit home with a lot of fans, and hurt them.

BROTHER, BROTHER, BROTHER. . .

This show has always been about two brothers, something that it seems the people in charge might need to be reminded of. I don’t like seeing either brother shoved aside, dumbed down, or made superfluous, and it needs to stop. Less Castiel, more brothers.
Hopefully it’s just an aberration, and all will be well soon.

I just…I’m at a loss. I feel like someone has torn my show to shreds and danced on the remains. This fandom attracts people who are very passionate about their show, and I’m proud to count myself among their numbers. But seeing this travesty splashed across my screen as an episode of Supernatural almost makes me heartsick.

I have one tiny, nearly guttered flame of hope left. One last wish that may still be granted. We all know that Kripke loves to tease the fans, to watch us react as he jerks our chains. Perhaps this is just a rather hard pull on our collective legs? Is he hiding the second half to this episode up his sleeve, and behind a misleading promo just to watch us squeal?

Improbable. But not impossible. And right now that’s enough for me.

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Supernatural Hits the Easy Button

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