#sprntrl

this is the blatantly american gods one. also i went ahead and finished season 1 without taking notes on the latter half of the season. now im going back to justify another rewatch to myself. 

probably the contrast with the time-ambiguous apple pie midwestern styling of the town but my god is the guy who gets sacrificed in the cold open the strongest visual indicator of early-mid 2000s we’ve seen so far? well probably not actually but it slapped me in the face here. 

i like that the episode in which sam and dean split up for the first time since reuniting in the pilot is marked by car trouble, even if it’s not them having it. the set-dressing of the orchard wants to remind you that they grow apples specifically. and lots of them! and i love the “architecture” of the orchard too (the trees arching towards each other, sort of claustrophobic, sort of alluring and creepy as tunnels  are, also sort of alluding to some kind of covered altar/chuppah/canopy/arch under which you get married. oh basically an aisle. anyway maybe this is not commensurate for the cultural background of the pagan entity in this episode but i mention this all because they sacrifice couples. we can’t get into wedding death stuff right now. i don’t have time to reenact the contrapoints twilight video essay. 

also i feel like the feature of the vanir skinning and wearing its victims gets lost aside from it adding to the horror in the beginning and then the tattoo serving as a clue for dean later. it’s a gross and intriguing detail that could have been in conversation with my beloved skin episode but the vanir has no interiority and the developed antagonists in the episode are, of course, the people murdering to serve it. anyway. this is going to be a long entry. we haven’t even hit the title card yet. and i think this marks a stretch in the season that explores monstrous behavior from humans (this is a series-long theme, but it really comes to a head with the woman controlling the reaper for her own religious crusade in faith, the benders, max’s family in nightmare and what their abuse drives him to do in response…plus vengeful spirits of hateful people, like the doctor in asylum, the racist guy whose spirit powers the truck in route 666, etc.). i’d like to think more about thematic and tonal blocks in this season and the series as i go forward, but i think that has to be done retrospectively.

i know i mentioned this at the end of the prior episode but sam being the one to pick up when john finally calls is sooooo. it gets you right in the gut. sam being more vigilant, easier to wake, more restless at the motels was established as early as in episode 4 (we learn about sam’s mental state in the wake of jess’s murder and also have a notably drawn-out and glute-centric shot of dean’s sleeping body) anyway that was then and this is now and sam is the one who hears the phone ring. sam chafes at being told to stop looking for john, obviously, and dean, once he takes over the call, follows orders without hesitation. 

they start driving to indiana. sam is driving! it’s always so interesting to me (genuinely; not ‘interesting’ as ‘contradictory’ or ‘nonsensical’) that the current dean is both 1. deeply committed to their solitary, secretive family as a son, brother, soldier, etc. and 2. largely exercises his commitment by serving the particular family mission (not tracking down the demon, nor avenging mary, but saving people and hunting things) by turning outward from the family to help what are, to the winchesters, civilians, which they deem worth saving but also threatening to the familiar structure if they become too close to the winchesters. so, dean simultaneously reinforces and destabilizes the family by following john’s orders and going on hunts that lie at least partially outside the direct mission of hunting the demon. sam, on the other hand, positions himself within the narrower scope of the family mission (the demon) with the ostensible goal of leaving hunting (the family) behind after they find and kill it. so, when sam is less willing to go on hunts to save others in favor of only pursuing the demon, he turns his back on those that represent the life he wants to join when this is “all over” and of course the allure and tragedy is that it never is. or won’t be for a very long time. this feels harsh on sam. in fairness to him he really does try to think for himself. he is skeptical and demands answers and proof and i appreciate the empirical attitude. he raises the fair point that he is so fresh in grief. he is john in 1983!!!. he so resents being a soldier. i don’t think john would take orders well (post mary’s death) either. but i just really like the contrast in their attitudes and roles within/outside the family and i love season one of this stupid show  things get so flipped around in the last couple of episodes too. delicious.  (except by this point in the season it’s exhausting how fleeting the women are, and meg’s appearance really emphasizes this to me. a lot of the women sam and dean meet on the road are smart, capable, brave, etc. but they are largely static, and they stay where they were found*, like landmarks, while the brothers move on to the next hunt. but, when we meet meg, she’s also on the road! she’s mobile, she appears in multiple episodes, although i still think she is underdeveloped. and it’s interesting that the most prominent on-screen female character halfway through the season is 1. traveling and 2. An antagonist. i wish we got more exploration into the tensions between meg and her father! it would have added even more texture/foil to the development of the winchester family dynamics in the last few episodes. anyway we haven’t even seen her yet.

i can’t hear it but the subtitles say a wolf howls right when sam tells dean he wants to be left on the side of the road. ok lone wolf. we’ll see you soon. 

ok now we get to see dean hunting by himself and learn a little bit about Dean and his Relationship to Small-Town Mid-American Community Life. first, scotty sees right thru his alias. disarmed! “we don’t get many strangers around here” close-to-surface subtext: dean = stranger. Oh i miss my trc adam ronan strange/stranger/estrangement unheimlich theory…i’ll go back and write the essay one day because it’s never too late. maybe we can tie in the winchesters too. it centers on magic and family and domestic vs. public spheres sooooooo

dean is still talking to scotty, absolutely impervious to the dean charisma and possibly all outsiders. 

meanwhile, sam is, by various sources of design, doing better at socializing. we meet meg, briefly!

dean makes some progress on his solo hunt because emily recognizes the prior victim’s tattoo. she is the only young resident of the town (that we see, if i remember correctly). she is also the closest thing to an outsider they have (adopted into a resident family), and she is later deemed disposable. raises a lot of questions about the security and prosperity of the town vs. its presumably aging (or stagnant; do these people die?) population. do they not keep young people around/have kids so they won’t have to sacrifice them in a pinch? ok per a later scene, the sacrificed people might have to be outsiders.

there are so many apples on the ground. oh emily lost her parents in a car accident. i….have seen this episode 3 or 4 times and never occurred to me to doubt this. but it’s of no consequence to the rest of the episode so i’ll move on. she also reminds us that dean and sam are orphans now. 

meg again! says a lot about sam’s current state that he is 1. so understandably affected by grief and anger and 2. so unsuspecting of and open to meg. it marks a difference between john and sam; john’s grief moves him to become more isolated, suspicious, pulling the family unit tighter and tighter; sam’s grief (in this episode at least) moves him to strike out on his own and connect with someone outside the family, who (conveniently) understands and empathizes with his woes. i need to consider meg as a brief anti-dean…. at the bus terminal, sam debates calling dean but puts his phone away when he sees her, and she’s sitting on the floor in a highly staged “cool/casual” posture, light(er)-haired, dark open jacket, necklace(s), jeans… but she listens to sam! she hears him out wrt his frustrations with his family. it has to be deliberate.

ok back to dean absolutely floundering at trying to save the next sacrifices and coming off as a creep (though scotty and the cop do him no favors in that regard). we are told “hey if sam was here he could handle this easily because he’s better at small talk and being normal”  which is emphasized via his easy connection with meg, which is made possibly only by his naivete and her ulterior motives; dean’s knowledge and inability to share the complete truth alienates him. oh i think he resents that so bad. ronan looming in the distance, secrets and lies!

oh this episode also posits the car as a [fallible] refuge (car breaks down, couple has to exit, they get killed walking through the orchard while trying to find help).

the brothers are on speaking terms again. it’s been a day-ish. unclear who called whom, but they’re talking as if they parted ways cheerfully. sam doesn’t even grimace at getting called a sidekick. they’re so content discussing the facts of the case, hypothesizing about the monster’s lore, etc. for all the strife involved, they love the problem solving and the research. by the end of the phone call i have to believe dean called sam (to apologize, which sam has to actually say for him [sam also apologizes to dean in the same breath], and to say sam was right about needing to do his own thing and go his own way. the limited bus schedule is saying otherwise but that’s ok don’t worry about it). dean also implies he wishes he could stand up to john like sam can and does and always has, etc. but again, it’s something he can’t say out loud. is this the first crack in the soldier facade? i don’t remember. 

then, some dialogue re: a morbid interpretation of sacrifice for family/the common good, sam sacrificing his independence and own motives by returning to dean, etc. these are not equivalent but they sure are presented together deliberately. also, because the prior sacrifices are all couples, and dean passes through alone and is haphazardly paired with emily due to a lack of other options, we are reminded how uncoupled he is. this bears a variety of implications that i won't explore here. and in the end this saves the protagonists, since the vanir kills emily’s aunt and uncle anyway. hmmm

*emily does leave her town in this episode, a noticeable departure from the established pattern. she leaves the dying town and gets on a bus to boston, and sam gets back in the car with dean (who is not in the mood to show any emotional vulnerability whatsoever re: sam deciding to stick with him)