In the seventh episode of the eleventh season of Supernatural, I will not apologize for the fool I made of myself on video. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.
Trigger Warning: For talk of consent, molestation/child abuse, coulrophobia (fear of clowns).
I’m glad I’m at a point where I don’t have to feel ashamed for being ridiculous for all of you. Thank you for acceptance.
Prayers
Let’s start with what bookends “Plush,” which makes this the only think that connects it to the rest of this season’s arc. I do actually like that this is a monster-of-the-week episode, and it’s interesting that the main theme relates to Sam’s predicament, too. His visions seem to be pushing him towards a confrontation or an answer. He either needs to confront Lucifer or someone is showing Sam his future. Which is full of torture? You know, I honestly spent most of the time thinking the same thing of Sam’s vision: WHY CAN’T GOD SEND A CLEARER MESSAGE? What’s the point of random, debilitating glimpses of Hell? Of course, I’m assuming that God sent those visions and that they’re not the work of someone or something else.
All I know is that Sam is afraid of them. He’s afraid he’s missing the point of them; he’s afraid they’re worthless and he’s making a big deal of them; he’s that once again, he can’t trust his own mind. I imagine that there must be some form of comfort in his prayers, at least in the sense that they allow him to know that he’s trying to do something about them.
Plush
WOW, I DON’T CARE. NOPE TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE MASKED ABOMINATIONS. And I feel compelled to give Supernatural credit for coming up with something as openly absurd as “Plush” because on paper, it’s too silly. A man in a bunny suit kills someone? Meh. Who cares? Oh, it’s just a regular dude who only wears the mask part of the costume and never says anything and is so far gone into a possession that he becomes nothing more than a murder machine?
N O P E.
Clowns?
n o p e forever.
Look, no one here is surprised that an episode about a creepy clown would turn me into a shrieking mess. NO ONE. But I found every single one of the silent, masked killers in this episode to be utterly unnerving and terrifying. Part of it was from the opening scenes. THAT DUDE IN THE BUNNY SUIT WAS THE WORST THING EVER. But it was made a million times more unsettling once we found out that an innocent, uninvolved third party was possessed beneath the mask. These people had no control over what Chester’s ghost did to them, and they did HORRIBLE THINGS.
Well… sort of? I suppose it’s relative? I’m a bit confused on that point. I think that by the end of this episode, we’re meant to understand that Chester was wrongfully killed, hence the creation of a vengeful spirit. I think if I have a criticism for this episode, it’s that the invocation of child molestation ends up being kind of flippant. The characters all dance around even saying what Chester was accused of, no one ever asks any of the kids what actually happened, and we get a tale of hearsay more than anything else. Which I understand as part of the point: Rita’s fear over the unknown motivated her to turn her brother over to the two fathers who suspected their children had been victims of Chester. And hell, I thought her monologue to the Winchesters about fear was one of the best-written parts of the episodes.
I just think that they should have been more clear about what happened here. This is a very serious issue to bring up in any work of fiction, and it’s treated very superficially here.
Sheriff Donna
My god, I just love her so much. I love that she’s given the space to experience romance again, that it’s not done in a way to say that she can’t balance that with her job. I love that she’s now a part of the world of the supernatural, but it doesn’t dampen her cheery sense of kindness and humor. I JUST WANT EVERY EPISODE TO HAVE DONNA AND JODY MILLS IN IT, WHERE IS OUR SPIN-OFF?
The video for “Plush” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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