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pagannatural · 1 month

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2.09 Croatoan

-my beloved

-The brothers go to Oregon because Sam has a vision of Dean shooting someone who pleads for his life.

-Sam thinks Dean is violent and out of control because of his grief but he’s actually violent and out of control because he’s losing his mind over Sam.

-Sam looks very Scared Little Brother when they realize the town has no phone signal. He stands really close to Dean. Sam is right. I forgot how scary this episode is.

-Sam hesitates to kill the son who had the mom tied up, and Dean berates him. Dean calls the son a “monster” and Sam says “it was a kid.” Dean likes a clean line between monster and human.

-Sam is always the one who comforts the victims and tells people everything will be okay, another way in which his role in the relationship is traditionally feminine. He’s the one women find non-threatening. (And he’s too distracted by Dean to be attracted to them).

-When the mom, Beverly, says “one minute they were my husband and my son and the next they had the devil in them” the camera cuts to Sam and Dean. This line could be Dean describing a blood-drinking Sam: one minute he was my husband and my son and the next he had the devil in him.

-One of the armed men blocking the road out of town asks Dean to get out of the car to “talk a little,” and Dean says “you are a handsome devil but I don’t swing that way, sorry.” It’s easy to forget that in the early 2000s, this kind of throwaway joke on network tv didn’t usually hint at a character’s hidden sexuality, it was just a vaguely biphobic little joke. But I do think there’s a reason it’s here.

The Croatoan virus is a demonic virus spread from blood infection that’s not visible just by looking at someone. So we have a little AIDS parallel. It’s also a similar concept to Sam’s demon blood. His blood represents choice and sin and the human mixed with the monstrous. Blood is also associated with family.

Incest and queerness are taboos that have often been conflated in fiction (and in history), and both have been strongly associated with monstrosity—think predatory sexuality, birth defects, infertility, rejection of the natural order. A desire that’s dangerous and wrong and destructive, that must stay hidden and can only survive in the shadows. The homoerotic incestuous monster hunters are the perfect storm of gothic queer horror.

Whether or not either brother is queer doesn’t affect the plot, and isn’t the point. I can see Dean grappling with being in love with Sam without questioning his sexuality at all. Sam is a category unto himself to Dean, and Sam doesn’t appear bothered about his sexuality aside from his feelings about Dean. But the confluence of these taboos—incest and queerness—with blood is central to the plot of the show and the question of what evil is. Really their love for each other and their shared blood is what saves them, keeps them human.

-Another of my absolute favorite underrated wincest moments is when Beverly is begging for her life from the utility room and Dean asks Sam “are you sure she’s one of them?” Sam barely nods and it’s enough for Dean to shoot her three times point blank. He doesn’t need any more information, just for Sam to nod slightly.

-Sam suggests that they need to leave to warn others of the virus and Dean tells him he has a good point. They respect each other’s input and work together well.

-Duane shows up and the situation becomes very tense. Sam is standing with his whole body facing Dean. In moments of extreme stress, Sam often seeks Dean’s protection rather than focusing on the threat.

-Dean has a gun on Duane with some urgency but Sam says “I gotta talk to you—now” and Dean leaves the room with him immediately.

Sam argues that they should wait and not kill Duane in case he isn’t infected. Dean says “what’s that buy us?”

“A clear conscience, for one.”

“Well it’s too late for that.” Is Dean talking about his guilt over John’s death? Or is this more about his general self hatred around never being enough to be everything for everyone, to give Sam everything that he needs and be the perfect son and soldier and brother and father and mother?

Sam tells him “you don’t act like yourself anymore, Dean. You’re acting like one of those things out there.” Dean does feel lost. He needs Sam to save him so that he can save Sam.

-Sam is so devoted to Dean this season. He spent season 1 gradually giving into his complete trust and commitment to Dean and now he’s been losing him or at risk of losing him in different ways all season. He fights tooth and nail for Dean every step of the way to get him to listen, to talk, to come back to him.

-Dean pushes Sam out of the way and locks him out, aiming to kill Duane. He says “it’s not him, not any more” and “I’ve got no choice.” But then Dean decides not to shoot him.

-When the doctor asks if it’s alright to untie Duane, Dean and Sam seem to have a wordless conversation in which Dean defers to Sam’s judgement, and Sam tells the doctor it’s okay to untie him.

-Sam is Dean’s morality. Dean is submitting to Sam, needing him to help him make the right choice. By doing this he’s also believing in Sam’s ability to stay good.

-Sam says about Dean not killing Duane “you know I’m gonna ask you why.”

Dean replies “yeah I know,” not looking up, focusing on keeping his hands busy making Molotov cocktails.

“So why? Why didn’t you do it?”

Dean looks at Sam with his chin tucked, like it’s hard to meet his eyes. He doesn’t answer. He clears his throat and says “we need more alcohol,” basically asking Sam to leave for a moment so that he can pull it together. He gazes after Sam with this raw, shamed look.

It’s the first of two parallels in this episode to their conversation in 1.19 where Sam says his reticence to date is mostly not about Jessica, and Dean asks “then what is it about?” and Sam just looks at him, implying heavily that it’s about Dean.

The question Dean was asking Sam there was essentially, Why can’t you love anyone else?

The first question Sam asks Dean is why he didn’t kill someone, but it’s also why Dean wants to do the right thing and not lose himself, and the answer is because of Sam.

-After Sam is attacked, he reaches for Dean’s hand to help him up off the floor and then just leaves his hand outstretched after Sarge holds Dean back and tells him Sam is infected. It’s like his muscle memory of reach-out-hand, Dean-pulls-me-up hasn’t caught on.

-The whole time Dean argues with the others about Sam, Sam only looks at the floor or at Dean. He’s not watching the conversation, he’s watching Dean because he’s scared and he looks to Dean when he’s scared.

-Dean says “no one’s shooting my brother”

He’s so protective. He was about to kill someone who might be infected just in case, but when it’s Sam he would simply rather die in a murder suicide and that’s that on that.

-Sam asks for the gun so that he can shoot himself, saying “I’m not gonna become one of those things.” This episode is pure foreshadowing for the end of s5. Sam refuses to become a monster, Dean chooses to stand by him and die rather than kill him. Because of their faith in each other, because they waited, things work out.

-Dean hands over the keys to the impala. He’s not fucking around. He tells the doctor “oh actually we’re not really marshals.” He’s in a truth telling mood, fuck it.

-Sam asks Dean to leave him and keep living, looking at him with incredulity and gratitude and love and fear.

Dean leaving him alone to die or become a monster would fulfill Sam’s deepest fear—left behind, not belonging, because something is wrong with him. But he still asks Dean to go, he throws a fit, he tells him “this is the dumbest thing you’ve ever done.” It reminds me of that scene from Titanic, Jack telling Rose “you’re so stupid” for staying with him instead of saving herself.

He says “it’s over for me, it doesn’t have to be for you.”

“No?”

“No. You can keep going.”

“Who says I want to?”

This scene is so dramatic and romantic. Close shots of their faces, Sam looking up at Dean with his eyes full of tears, begging him. Dean tells Sam he doesn’t want to go on without him.

Sam asks, what?

For a moment it almost looks like he’s taking this as the confession that it is, before Dean puts some distance between them and leans against the wall. This is the second scene is this episode to parallel their conversation in 1.19, this time even more closely.

Sam thinks Dean doesn’t want to go on because their dad died, but Dean says “you’re wrong. It’s not about dad. I mean part of it is, sure, but-“

Sam interrupts to ask “then what is it about?” and Dean gives him this look,

this look of love and tenderness, like he’s willing Sam to understand.

This time Sam’s question is Why don’t you want to live? And the answer is that Dean doesn’t want to live without Sam.

I love how this scene makes clear that Sam’s romantic partners compare directly to Dean. It confirms what Sam was thinking about in 1.19, because for these scenes to rhyme they must have been thinking about each other.

-The brothers share a romantic beer at the lake. Sam asks Dean what he was talking about last night in a way that honest-to-god sounds like he’s referring to pillow talk. Dean doesn’t want to tell so Sam keeps pushing, but their tones are teasing and light. They really sound like they’re flirting. Dean suggests that they go to the Grand Canyon.

Sam keeps questioning him, gentle but insistent, as Dean talks about taking a break.

-Where is our Grand Canyon episode?

-Sam looks so scared when Dean says John told him something about Sam before he died. I wonder what’s running through his head. There’s this feeling that people with Sam’s negative core belief often get, which is a fear that something is deeply wrong or rotten in them and that eventually other people will find out. He’s probably thinking that’s finally happened.

#samdean #supernatural #spn meta #wincest #spn 2x09

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destielshippingnews · 1 year

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Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 2x09 Croatoan

The thirtieth episode of Supernatural is one of several in series two which both make references to Stephen King’s work and emulate many aspects of his stories. One thing he is keen on doing is putting a handful of characters into a dire situation and exploring the havoc it wreaks on their psyches. Misery, The Shining, IT, and Pet Sematary all feature characters forced into such situations and made to deal with the effects it has on their mental state. 2x02 Everybody Loves a Clown was reminiscent of IT, 2x04 Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things bore similarities to Pet Sematary, and in spite of the fact the novel takes place in a mountain hotel in Colorado during the winter, The Shining came most quickly to mind when watching this episode, and not simply because of the obvious reference to the town of Sidewinder.

The main reason is that The Shining is about a man haunted by childhood trauma and the ghosts of the Overlook hotel when he is the custodian for the winter season. He and his family are almost completely isolated from the outside world for months, and the man is slowly driven further and further into psychosis and closer and closer to killing his wife and son. Likewise, Dean is forced into a claustrophobic situation where immense pressure in put on his psyche and he is driven to kill his brother. Note the parallels between Jack in The Shining and Dean here: childhood trauma of an abusive father and alcoholism.

That the story here focuses on Dean as much if not more than Sam is telling of a fundamental change underway. This is a new direction for The Show: Series one focused on Sam more than Dean, believing as it did that the audience would care about his story more than Dean’s, but Sam’s run-of-the-mill Chosen One narrative was not as interesting or relatable as Dean.

Unfortunately, the show will ALWAYS be split about the stories it wants to tell, and alas Dean’s stories will often be dropped, undermined, handed off to other characters, or repeated by other characters a year or two later. One of the only stories he gets which do not get taken from him are the Mark of Cain /Demon!Dean arc, but that got cut short for a bloody musical episode. Even the demon!Demon arc was underwhelming, as demon!Dean was not evil: he had just learnt to say ‘No!’ to people’s demands on him. It was not even really about Dean, anyway.

Even series three is not really about Dean. The events may be about saving him from his deal, but the story – the emotional journey etc – is about the effect on Sam of Dean’s deal and Sam’s coming to terms with losing Dean. Dean is sidelined in a story about his own death.

Speaking of Dean, the cold open of episodes is usually used to showcase the monster of the week killing a hapless innocent. This episode features Dean about to kill what looks like an innocent young man, framing Dean as the monster of the week. His story has taken him a long way from its starting point, and Dean undoubtedly hates the person he is forcing himself to become.

Dean shooting the man is shown to be one of Sam’s premonitions, and Dean walks into the motel room just as Sam snaps out of it, the former a stark contrast with the man from the latter’s vision as he blithely munches away on jerky or whatever with a six-pack of Larklair Texas beer under his arm. Jerky-eating Dean is easily recognisable as the affable, cocky, confident-seeming young man from 1x01 Pilot, and the man in Sam’s vision quite a different version.

As for Sam, I really hope he showered and washed his hair properly after waking up on a motel floor, especially a carpeted floor.

Cutting to Dean and Sam in the car on their way to Oregon, the next scene is part exposition dump for people who missed the cold open, and part set-up for the plot of the episode. Dean’s response to hearing Sam say he saw him shoot a man was ‘I’m not going to waste an innocent guy’, and this rises the question of whether or not he will. Of course he does kill three innocent people in this episode, but all of those were infected with the zombie demon virus so they were about as innocent as a zombie trying to eat your face.

The first kill of the episode is of course Dean’s shortly after arriving at Crater Lake, but before that he and Sam run into one of only two black-skinned men in the town. He is fiddling with a fishing rod outside what is presumably his house, and after a few questions and cagey answers, Dean eventually manages to get him to open up a bit by recognising the tattoo on his forearm as meaning he is a master sergeant. Seemingly put at ease by Dean being an army brat, the man informs them that the man Sam described is Duane Tanner who lives on Aspen Way. Dean and Sam had not introduced themselves as police officers or anything at this point, and had not flashed any kind of badge, but the man just gave out the Tanners' address to two strangers.

As for the description Sam gave, it was a dumb description. I understand John Shiban might not have had Diego Klattenhoff in mind when writing the script, but after he was cast as Duane, the script could have been edited to have Sam describe him as ‘a blond, blue-eyed man with a scar under his hairline’, rather than neglecting to mention his distinctive phenotypes at all. Even in the Nordic countries, men with straw-blond hair and blue eyes stand out, but scars easily covered by a fringe not so much.

Soon after their chat with the sergeant, the brothers come across the word ‘Croatoan’ carved into a telegraph pole. Because the writers cannot pass up an opportunity to make Dean look ‘stupid’, he conveniently does not know what this means which allows Sam to info-dump for those in the audience who also are ‘stupid’. Briefly, one of the very first English colonies in what is now Virginia, America was set up in 1597. It was called Roanoke. When more people from England went there in 1600, the colony had been utterly abandoned. No signs of violence were evident: it looked as though everybody had simply got up and left. The word ‘Croatoan’ was found carved into a nearby tree, but it is uncertain what this referred to.

It could have been the name of a local American tribe, and indeed there is evidence to suggest significant mixture with European DNA among some Natives in the area. It could be that the colonists sought refuge with the Natives during a hard winter and eventually became part of their tribe, as might have happened with the Norse settlers in Greenland and possibly Vinland. Whatever the case, hypotheses and conspiracies abound as to what happened, but there is a good chance the truth will never be known.

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Supernatural puts its own twist on this by heavily implying that it was the demon virus which wiped out the English colonists at Roanoke. Indeed all the townsfolk at the end of this episode vanish along with all traces of the virus, and it could be the case that this also occurred in the Superverse’s version of the Roanoke colony. This is all well and good, but once again I am disappointed that an opportunity to include Native Americans and their stories has not been taken.

I am currently writing a novel which begins in Finnish Lapland, but I have chosen not to draw from Scandinavian, Finnish, or Sámi mythology or folklore in it. This is partly because I do not know much about Sámi myths or legends, but also because those mythologies already exist and I want to make my own thing like Buffy and Angel or even The Winchesters did, rather than – sorry Jensen – ripping off Abrahamic and European mythologies. Supernatural has given us a wendigo (in Colorado for some reason) as well as a Native American curse in 1x08 Bugs, but other than that there will be nothing relating to Native Americans until 14x16 Don’t Go into the Woods which is just a rehash of 1x02 Wendigo.

Buffy incorporated the Roanoke colony and the disappearance into its mythology in the short story collection Tales of the Slayer Vol 1. The story titled ‘White Doe’ (click link for synopsis) tells the tale of a Native American slayer named White Doe during the time of the Roanoke colony, and gives its own version of what transpired before the colony vanished. This story included many Native Americans as well as Europeans.

Alas, they do not figure into this episode, not even in John’s note where reference is made to Dever and Reshef from Abrahamic demonology rather than anything to do with Native Americans. Paula R. Stiles made reference to vanishing Inuit settlements from the Arctic regions of Canada which could have been a relevant and interesting link to make, but once again the writers take us straight to folklore and mythology which is already a comfortable, established part of western culture. Why go looking for links to Native American stories when European, Middle Eastern, and North African legendariums are so much easier to access and so much safer to work with?

But Dean would definitely know Native Americans and would definitely be well-versed in all kinds of myths, legends, and stories from Native American people. If the Powhatan, for example, have any stories about the Roanoke colony, there is a good chance Dean would know, and somebody like him who has lived on the periphery of American society his whole life would definitely feel at home with First Nations people.

After an attempt to contact Bobby or Ellen by phone reveals that mobile coverage is down in the town, the brothers go to the Tanner residence. The house in question is an idyllic log-cabin affair surrounded by greenery which would not look too out of place in a small Scandiwegian village. Dean and Sam are met by Jake Tanner who seems unnatural and almost robotic in his attempts to appear as if nothing is wrong. This clearly sets alarms bells off in Dean and Sam’s heads, particularly Jake and his dad’s conflicting claims of where the mother is.

The following scene is perhaps used as evidence of Dean’s willingness to kill humans: after sneaking around to the back of the house, Dean and Sam espy the Tanner men having tied Mummy Tanner up and are doing infecting her with a virus by cutting her and bleeding on the wound (though Dean and Sam do not find out about the virus until later). Seeing that this is all kinds of whack, Dean and Sam smash the door down. Daddy Tanner rushes Dean but gets shot in the chest and killed, but Jake gets away.

Like earlier scenes in series two such as dispatching the vampire with the chainsaw, the situation does not paint Dean in a negative light. In fact, Dean’s actions were fully justified and wholly relatable, though perhaps aiming for the knees might have been an idea. Sam, on the other hand, shows he still has not learnt from past mistakes by once again hesitating to shoot a baddie and letting the baddie get away. In 1x21 Salvation he hesitated to shoot Azazel, and in 1x22 Devil’s Trap he made exactly the same mistake.

Sam’s later comment that hunting is not supposed to be easy, that they are supposed to struggle with killing people and that doing so affords them a clean conscience seems incredibly unsuitable for a man on the frontier between the demonic otherworld and the human world. Perhaps I, like Dean, am too much of a Sith kinnie, but letting Jake get away because ‘he’s just a kid’ is privileging Sam’s own clarity of conscience over other people’s safety. Jedi propaganda aside, the Sith commit acts of necessary evil regardless of how bad the acts make them feel. To them, strength is embracing the fact that doing certain things make us feel horrendous, but also embracing the necessity of doing so. Back in Supernatural, Samhad just seen Jake cutting and doing some kind of blood ritual on his mother in the company of his father. The father then proceeded to attack Dean. Letting Jake go was allowing a known ‘baddie’ to go free. Sam did not even have to kill Jake: a shot or two to the leg would have incapacitated him. Sam looks very bad in this scene. Sam’s ‘bleedin heart’ probably got more than a few people killed.

That said, it does not necessarily seem in character. A normal person would have learnt from his mistakes, and seen that Jake was not ‘just a kid’, and would have acted appropriately. Sam’s hesitancy to do so made the writer visible: the writer was trying to clearly delineate Dean’s behaviour from Sam’s in this episode, so Sam necessarily had to be excessively gun shy in order to make Dean seem too ready to shoot. On the former count, John Shiban (the writer for this episode) failed, but on the latter he succeeded with Dean’s second kill. More on that later.

Following the incident at the Tanners’ house (where Duane was absent), Dean and Sam take dead Daddy Tanner to the medical centre in town, as well as Mummy Tanner (named Beverley) for medical attention. She soon reveals herself to be infected after attacking the doctor on duty, but Sam soon whacks her unconscious with a fire extinguisher. And remember what I have said on many occasions: a blow to the head strong enough to knock a person out is strong enough to cause serious brain damage or death. She is then locked in a supply room.

Following this, the doctor reveals that she has discovered a sulphur residue in blood samples taken from the infected (presumably Beverley or Daddy Tanner), lead to the conclusion demonic involvement in the virus.

While this is happening, Dean is on his way to Sidewinder forty miles away (a subtle The Shining reference) to get help, but does not get far. After finding an ominous car abandoned at the roadside bearing signs of violence (a blood-soaked baby seat, smashed windows, and blood over the other seats), he comes across a group of infected have the road out of town barricaded. Among the infected is the Jake whom Sam failed to shoot.

It is at this point that one of the infected tried to get Dean to step out of the car, but even without the infected barricading the road, the man’s behaviour set all kinds of warning bells off. As such, Dean’s comment of ‘You are a handsome devil, but I don’t swing that way’ can only be interpreted as an attempt at a joke.

I wrote ‘can only’, but alas, this line has been used as evidence of Dean ‘not being bisexual’. Allow me a slight sidetrack before returning to infected townsfolk.

1) To believe Dean was being sincere here, one also has to believe Dean is utterly stupid and actually believed the man was propositioning him for sex.

2) I understand the majority of heterosexual people have never felt the need to hide their sexual orientation and so would not immediately recognise this, but almost all gay and bisexual men and women have had to conceal and lie about their sexuality. Dean saying ‘I am not into men’ does not prove anything either way, and certainly does not support an interpretation of Dean not being gay or bisexual.

3) Dean lies about his experiences and feelings all the time. He mostly does this because when he tells the truth, people in his life – read ‘Bobby, Sam, and John.. and sometimes Cas’ – belittle him for it (‘I’m sorry your feelings got hurt, princess’), throw it back in his face (Bobby), and even use it as a weapon against him (Sam). Dean’s ‘lies’ are so obvious when they happen that they cannot even be called lies. The point is we cannot always take Dean’s words at face value. ...You know, just like we cannot with most real-life people.

I interpret Dean as bisexual (possibly gay, but that is a whole other discussion) and I have a mountain of evidence and argumentation to support that analysis. What do people claiming he is not bisexual or gay have? Dean saying on a few occasions something to the effect that he is straight? The very fact he needs to keep saying that means the writers keep putting him into situations which bring his presentation as heterosexual into question. Why do they do that with Dean but no other character? Why do this if the writers do not intend to imply Dean is not heterosexual?

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For more on this, read my essay The Author is Dead! Long Live bi!Dean!

Anyway, after Dean’s quip, the infected man drops the act and Dean drives off with the man hanging onto the car for dear life until soon letting go as Dean disappears back towards town. Crater Lake is isolated from the outside world, and there is no cavalry coming.

However, Dean does run into the master sergeant in town in a scene which had me giggling to myself due to its resemblance to some scenes from Dragon Ball Abridged:

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They join forces, but still feel it prudent to keep their guns trained on each other in the car.

On the subject of MS being the only prominent black-skinned character in the episode, I have nothing to say. The British context I grew up in is not the same as the American one. My home-town is about 99.5% white British, but even growing up in a racially homogenous town, I barely even noticed that certain singers or actors were not white. It took me until about 2018 to recognise that Beyoncé is a black woman, and I was surprised recently to learn that Craig David is mixed race. My sisters watched a lot of music channels and I saw loads of men and women whom I only recognise in hindsight are anything ‘different’ than me. I saw that their skin was darker than mine, but it never registered that I was looking at a person who was not a white-skinned person. Representations of various ethnicities and races in American media is not my area of expertise, and to be honest the American racialisation of absolutely everything is alien to me. Paula R. Stiles, however, grew up in a North American context and had the following remarks in her analysis (click here to read her whole analysis):

One of the things I really like about Supernatural is that, unlike so much mainstream horror, fantasy and SF, it does not automatically equate minorities with “evil” or “uncivilized” Other characters (you know…those scary folks “out there”. Them not Us). Look at Drag Me to Hell, in which the gypsy is “bad”, even though her cause is entirely just. Why shouldn’t she fight back to save her house from the bankers? Or look at Stargate: Universe (which I call Stargate: Tits in Space, for fun and accuracy), where the women are eye-candy waiting in line to get a good shag (even the tough, amazon type) and the Angry Insubordinate Soldier Guy is (wait for it) African-American. Because, hey, as we all know, African-American guys have issues with their tempers and aren’t too bright, to boot.

In Supernatural, though, guess who our Noble (sometimes) Savage is? Yup. He’s a white guy named Dean Winchester. This is especially notable in “Croatoan” (and in terms of this week’s theme, Hidden Histories) because Dean is very much the Native Son in this “desperate land” (as the Doors put it). In “Croatoan” he even hooks up with another “feral” character, Sarge. Sarge is African-American in a lily-white town (a favourite motif of the writers), but the main influence on his personality is that he’s a war vet. Sarge was not born and raised in the hunting life the way Dean is. He’s scarred, but not truly feral. Dean (and Sam) is the one we need to keep an eye on, who might “revert” and turn on us at any time. The show may not get everything right (Oh. God. Ruby), but it’s nice to see people who aren’t white, privileged men get to be something besides the Other. Even better to have the show be about two versions of the Other and not kill them off.

Upon their arrival back at the medical centre, Dean and Sarge soon find out about infected!Beverley locked in a storage cupboard. After asking whether the doctor can cure the virus, the gang discovers she does not even know what the virus is. After hearing Sarge’s anecdotal evidence that the infected grow stronger with time and his insistence that the take care of infected!Beverley before she gets stronger and breaks the door, Dean takes it upon himself to take care of the problem. Beverley appears to be a normal woman again, terrified and begging for her life, but Dean is dead to her pleas. After asking Sam for confirmation that Beverley is ‘really one of them [the infected]), he shoots her three times at close range, presumably killing her.

The actress who portrayed Beverley appears in the show a few more times in the future. She appears in 8x06 Southern Comfort, and twice as Nanny Klein (Kelly's mum and Jack's nan) in 14x02 Gods and Monsters as well as 14x20 Moriah. Beverley is gone, but the actress will be back.

As though to allow the impact of what Dean did sink in, the next scene begins with approximately thirty seconds of Sarge (whom Beverley called ‘Mark’, which I will call him from now on) peering outside through the blinds like the guy in Night of the Living Dead and Dean and Sam preparing guns without speaking. The protracted silence allows a glimpse into the tense atmosphere of the setting, a small group of beleagured people awaiting an attack from an overwhelming enemy. The episode 3x11 Jus in Bello will feature something similar. ...And will also feature another black-skinned man who dies.

Yep, I might not agree with every accusation of racism hurled at the show, but I can certainly see the grounds for some of them. While it is true that people of all skin colours die in the show and that most of the brutal, gory, bloody, on-screen deaths are men, not all men in the show die like that, but almost all black-skinned men outside of cold opens do: Gordon, Henriksen, Mark (spoilers for the end of this episode), Isaac (3x01 The Magnificent Seven), and Rufus whose death was utterly stupid and unjustifiable. White-skinned men also die stupid, gory pointless deaths in the show, but they are usually more important characters with more developed stories than their black-skinned counterparts.

Once more: it is perfectly fine to have a story focusing on one demographic, but if others are included they really should be treated fairly. Charmed and Sex and the City both focus on (chiefly heterosexual) women which is no problem whatsoever, but their treatment of men in those shows is awful. Supernatural is doing something similar here with black-skinned men, and it does not get much better until Joshua Banes (biracial, but looks more black than white) in 12x20 Twigs and Twine and Tasha Banes, but with him there is the issue of him being yet another gay man who is so lonely, hopeless, and miserable that his sister seems to be his only friend. Until he met Dean, but that is a story for ten years’ time or whenever I get to that episode.

The long silence is broken when the nurse drops a sample of infected blood and fears that she has been infected. The doctor reassures her than she got none on her and is thus safe, whereupon Duane Tanner knocks on the door pleading to be let in. That he managed to get through so many infected seemingly unscathed and that they left him alone even though he was banging loudly on the door should have been a clue that something was off, but hindsight is 20/20.

Duane soon finds himself tied to a chair: he has a cut on his leg which the others fear could be from one of the infected in spite of Duane’s protestations. In another room, Sam tries to talk Dean out of killing Duane at least until they can ascertain whether he is infected or not, but Dean is having none of it. As far as he is concerned, it is blindingly obvious that Duane is infected and he should be ganked post-haste. Dean deafens himself to Sam’s castigations of him ‘behaving like one of those things out there’, pushes Sam aside, then locks him in the room.

My thoughts on this scene are that I have not been shown enough of Dean ‘bad scary behaviour’ to really understand why Sam has such a problem with it. Given the situation and the evidence available to them, it is safe to conclude Duane is likely infected and that killing him is a safe option. It is not the option I would take because the utility room Beverley was locked in is now vacant, but it is an understandable course of action. Sam’s focus on Dean’s ‘bad scary behaviour’ feels unwarranted by what the episode has shown me. Sam could have suggested a blood test on Duane, or just waiting with loaded guns.

Duane begs and pleads with Dean not to kill him, trying his best to convince Dean he is not infected. Dean points his pistol at Duane as he faces a challenge greater than killing infected!Beverley, and it is a test of how far he is able to push himself to do what he believes he must do. Ultimately he cannot shoot, and Duane breathes a sigh of relief as Dean leaves him be. Dean eventually proved himself correct: he cannot kill an innocent man.

Before continuing, Diego Klattenhoff (the actor who portrayed Duane) appeared alongside Jensen in Smallville 4x14 Krypto where he portrayed a villain using kryptonite dogs to help commit crimes. This is what he looks like nowadays, by the way...

I really need to start watching The Blacklist...

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Sam is next to get infected. It is never made explicit how the nurse contracted the virus, but it might be the case that she got it after dropping the infected blood sample. However it happened, she locks herself and Sam in a room, then infects him with the virus by cutting his chest and infecting him with her blood.

At which point I have to point out that it would be very difficult to infect a person with a normal virus by doing that. People bleed out, not in, so blood is not being drawn into the body through cuts like that. What would have to happen for contraction of a blood-borne virus is lengthy exposure on a large, fresh wound like a scrape or a cut where the virus has time to enter the bloodstream. However, some viruses such as HIV are surprisingly sensitive to not being inside a body and are destroyed within about two minutes of being exposed to fresh air. Oral contraction might be easier, or rubbing it into the victim’s eyes, but since this is a demonic virus it is safe to conclude it does whatever it wants.

Sam’s infection leads to Dean sending the others away while he and Sam stay behind in the medical centre. After the others leave to try to escape, Dean locks the door and is alone in the room with an infected Sam. Sam urges Dean to leave, but Dean refuses. Sam says he is as good as dead, but Dean could still live. Dean, however, implies he does not want to live, and states clearly that he is tired of the burden on his shoulders. Sam does not know what this burden is, but the viewer does. It is not simply the possibility of having to kill Sam, but the weight of everything Dean has been forced to endure in his twenty eight years on the planet. The alloyed pain, shame, guilt and despair of these things together is too much for Dean to bear. Hearing him say this so early in the show is almost comical given how long his journey is going to be and everything he will have to endure before he gets there.

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I wanted to write something along the lines of ‘how people can say Dean was never suicidal is beyond me’, but people with no first- or second-hand of either suicide or suicidal ideations appear to be simply incapable of seeing it. I and people in my life have lost men to suicide, so I can see that in him. However, people who have not claim ‘he is just depressed’ and laugh at my insistence that his malaise is much deeper than ‘depression’. Depression is indeed serious, but it has become a banality in my life.

But hearing him say this so early in the show is almost comical given how long his journey is going to be and everything he will have to endure before he gets to visit the Grand Canyon or have cocktails on a beach. Of course in the canonical ending he never does 'get there', but as far as I am concerned the last two episodes of the show have not been aired: one day there will be a beach, Hawaiian shirts, and drinks with little umbrellas in them.

It has been quite a while since I last did this, so I believe I can be allowed the indulgence of Jensen’s Acting, Dear Reader! Dear Reader, Jensen’s Acting! The words given Dean in the script are one thing, but Jensen’s delivery of them, his body language, his expression etc are something else. He begins the scene with Sam trying to put on a façade with light conversation to enjoy what might be his last few minutes before a) his brother dies and b) Dean kills him. Soon, though, Sam’s insistence he leave brings out Dean’s severe resolve which brooks no further argument from Sam, followed by Dean’s masking coming off just as it did in 1x18 Something Wicked to reveal vulnerability and fatalism almost reminiscent of 1x12 Faith. All of this is done without raising his voice or theatrical displays of emotion.

This scene raises two questions: what would Dean have done after killing Sam? Dean can and has lived without Sam, but after all Dean’s been through, losing Sam might be too much for him. Whether he would have put a bullet in his brain, drunk himself to death, or ‘accidentally’ slipped up during a hunt, there is a good chance he might have got himself killed. At this point in the show, he has nobody he can rely: Ellen is essentially a stranger who drove him away, and Bobby is a non-entity who has hardly been mentioned at all. Dean has nobody, so there is nobody to save him from what he might have done to or let happen to himself.

And second: was there another purpose to this test other than seeing whether or not Sam (AND Dean) were immune to the virus? Considering the plot of the show is God trying to work through his betrayal of his sister and his abandonment of his children, I wonder whether part of this was an attempt to see how far Dean and Sam could be pushed, and whether Dean would actually kill Sam. But why would Azazel – if indeed it is him – send Sam a vision of Dean killing Duane if that was the point?

Anyway, the conversation between Dean and Sam is cut short as the doctor comes back and tells them to come and have a look outside. Everybody has vanished without a trace and the town is silent.

The camera then zooms into the word Croatoan carved into the telegraph pole, but if this was the cause of the disappearance at Roanoke, what was the purpose? The episode 5x04 The End shows the viewer thantthe virus was the means Lucifer & co. intended to use to wipe out humanity, but how did this correlate with the Roanoke colonists? Was that an early test of the virus in the Superverse? If it was, then the events of this episode were almost definitely about Sam’s (and Dean’s) immunity rather than testing the virus.

Which raises another question: did Azazel do something similar for the other psychic children? Or were the tests specifically for Sam?

Whatever the case, Sam is soon found to be free of the virus, and as day breaks Duane and Mark leave together in Mark’s truck. Although it appeared to be dawn when Duane and Mark left, it is apparently night when they are next shown and are either hundreds of miles away in an area without phone reception, or are still within the black-out zone around the town. Either way, Duane kills Mark and uses his blood to make a ‘phone call’, presumably to Azazel and in exactly the same way Meg made a ‘phone call’ to Azazel in 1x11 Scarecrow. I wonder which demon it might be possessing Duane’s body…

The phone call in question regards events in the town. Duane’s comments imply there have indeed been previous tests, but only imply. He also comments that ‘the Winchester boy is immune as expected’, but it is never made clear which Winchester he is talking about, what he was immune to, or what precisely the ‘test’ was. Who or what was being tested? There is the obvious answer – the virus – but also less obvious answers.

The final scene of the episode shows Dean and Sam stopped in what appears to be a picnic area somewhere by a river. Dean wants to visit the Grand Canyon and is trying to convince Sam of the idea in what looks to me like Dean wanting to make some final memories with Sam before he – or they – die. A last huzzah, as it were. Sam, however, pushes Dean to talk about what exactly he meant by ‘the weight on my shoulders’ the previous night in another little gesture which shows me what their relationship could and should have been. Family relations are always going to be disputatious at times, but beneath that should be a foundation of respect, love, care, and concern. I see disputatiousness but little of those other things from Sam, making the disputatiousness between him and Dean seem not like normal sibling shenanigans but actual resentment and even hatred.

If Sam had lightly pushed Dean to talk more and showed him more understanding and support, I would not spend my time watching this show trying to pretend one brother does not exist. Sam’s actions in this scene were, however, what one should do in such a situation: see through the façade, gently push, and offer support when the person talks. Sam is less understanding and supportive when he actually finds out what Dean has to say in 2x10 Hunted, but forget that for now. Dean tries to avoid the subject at first, caves just as the scene cuts to black and the end credits roll. People watching this live had to wait a few weeks between this episode and 2x10 Hunted thanks to the Christmas break, making for quite a painful hiatus for those invested in the show.

I joke about this show a lot, and I do pull it to pieces and bring its negative aspects under close scrutiny. But certain aspects aside, I do have great affection for the little show that could. This episode is not the best the show has to offer, but it is certainly another example of the show succeeding at doing horror on a low television show budget. It had a big advertising campaign in 2005, and was met with critical acclaim, but it was nowhere near as popular as Buffy or The X-Files, even when those shows were at their lowest, they were two or three times more popular than Supernatural. Until Superwholock and tumblr, that is, but the show endured more than a few lean years before getting to that point and I cannot help admiring it, even as I curse the bad *Bucklemming* parts *Robert Singer* of *queerbaiting* it. Admittedly a lot of my affection for the show comes from being a Jensen stannie, but even without him it would have revived some of the aesthetics, vibes, and atmosphere of The X-Files and Buffy. I am a fan of the show, but alas not a blind one. It has a little guy with a coat and a car who kills things and eventually falls in love with a gay angel. What is there not to like about that? That brings me almost to the end of this analysis. One of the first things I noticed when rewatching this was the strong atmospheric resemblance to The X-Files, a tired comparison but fitting praise. It evoked a very 1990s/2000s sci-fi/horror feel with its music, camerawork, dull colouration, the small town, small cast of characters and the Vancouver setting. Letting the classic rock mostly fall by the wayside has worked in the show's favour; it served its purpose as a gimmick at the beginning, but I do not miss it. The synthy sound is far more atmospheric. River Grove is also pure Stephen King territory: a small, homogenous town in rural America, the American ideal. 3000 miles away from Maine it may be, but the spirit remains the same.

#Youtube #edvard's supernatural guide #spn meta #spn analysis #s02e09 #spn 2x09 #2x09 croatoan #croatoan #bi!dean #dean winchester #sam winchester #supernatural #diego klattenhoff #the shining

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