In the thirteenth episode of the eighth season of Supernatural, zombie Nazi necromancers. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.Â
Trigger Warning: For discussion of Nazism, anti-Semitism, genocide, the Holocaust, and queerbaiting.
What a weird episode.
The content is obviously going to make this episode uncomfortable and bizarre, and I think any creator who decides to use the Nazis and the Holocaust as a framework for their work needs to be EXTREMELY careful about how they choose to represent this history. But this episode has pacing that’s all over the place. And there’s that weird scene in the pub. And… actually, let me just discuss each of these points separately.
Men of Letters
I will say that “Everybody Hates Hitler†answers a whole lot of questions I had about the Men of Letters, and getting to see their headquarters fills in a lot of the details for me. It’s perhaps the best aspect of this episode, especially since it holds a lot of potential for the series. With the loss of Bobby and with nearly all their contacts dead or scattered, this headquarters really IS a break for the Winchesters. There’s a wealth of knowledge in this place. (And a shower with wonderful water pressure, which is an absolutely essential requirement in my own life. Good on you, Dean.) It’s relatively safe from the outside world. There are probably a ton of weapons and resources that could help them against their everyday cases and maybe even Crowley.
And goddamn, does Sam ever fit in to this place. That’s something I don’t think I could have appreciated without seeing the headquarters. Sam’s always handled the vast majority of the research required for hunts, and I can only imagine what his life would have been life if the Men of Letters weren’t destroyed. It takes him only a few minutes to settle into a routine here, and by the end of the episode, it looks like he belongs in that place.
That means something is going to ruin all of this because THIS ISÂ SUPERNATURAL. NO ONE CAN HAVE NICE THINGS.
The Golem
Again, using the backdrop of Nazism is a rough thing to watch, but I appreciated that the show didn’t try to say that the rise of Nazism was some supernatural thing. Like the Marvel universe, the development of the Thule Society was parallel to what really happened. At the same time, there’s a detachment here. We hear brief mentions of experimentation and genocide, but the action here feels years and miles away from history. We understand the players because the show relies on us being familiar with the Nazis, but is there any real worldbuilding done here? No, not particularly, but that’s a thin line anyway. Too much, and you risk denigrating and disrespecting history. Too little, and it makes it seem like the Holocaust means nothing.
I was fascinated by the idea that a Golem would be given to someone who wasn’t practicing their religion anymore, and that clash is a large part of this episode. Some of it is funny, but most of “Everybody Hates Hitler†is painfully uncomfortable. Aaron has had to live his life with this gigantic clay man following him around, destroying shit randomly, urging him to believe in a world of supernatural nonsense. There’s an unspoken parallel here, since Aaron’s life is strikingly similar to what the Winchesters went through. His grandfather passed this life on to him, whether he wanted it or not. And he fought it, so hard, for YEARS.
I wish the pacing of this story, though, wasn’t so all over the place. The big confrontation between the Golem and Torvald is set so early within “Everybody Hates Hitler†that I was left wondering how this was going to last forty minutes. There’s a lot of exposition here. It’s great information, the story is interesting, but it’s placed after a lot of the action. And then, by the end of the episode, we find out that there never was going to be a resolution to this story. The Thule are still out there, and now, Aaron is the sole Judah Initiative left alive. I don’t mind the idea that this is the start of Aaron’s journey, and I’m glad the show is willing to toy with their own narrative patterns. I didn’t need a neat end to this episode, but it was just an odd experience to watch because all the dramatic beats were so… erratic? If that makes sense.
The Bar Scene
No one is surprised I’m pissed.
This show appears to have no actual plans to introduce Dean’s queerness, and it’s downright cowardly. HOW? HOW DO YOU WRITE THAT BAR SCENE AND THEN WAVE IT AWAY WITH THAT BULLSHIT EXCUSE THAT AARON WAS TAILING DEAN? That makes absolutely no fucking sense. Why reveal that he’s following Dean? Why do that when you’ve put these characters in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania? I don’t actually believe that this is the kind of city known for it’s out and proud gay population, so why would Aaron pretend to be gay? What purpose does that serve? Why would you also have Dean react the way he does? Like… y’all, I’m SUPER GAY, and Dean reacted like someone who was curious or happy to be hit on and it’s just such a waste because I can’t have faith in the writers. I can’t believe they’d genuinely introduce this, and it sucks. How does the same show that gives us Charlie write this?
BOO.
The video for “Everybody Hates Hitler†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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