In the fourth episode of the second season of Supernatural, Sam’s insistence that they visit their mother’s grave releases one of the most intense waves of Winchester angst yet. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.
GODDAMN IT. I DIDN’T REALIZE WHAT WAS HAPPENING. I DIDN’T KNOW, AND WOW, THAT HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS.
As exhausting as it is to watch the Winchesters constantly in pain forever and ever, this is such a huge improvement over season one. The show’s decision to create an underlying serialized narrative in season two gives these episodes a lot more emotional weight, despite that these are all technically monster-of-the-week style scripts. I mean, the cold open suggesting nothing of what was to come, least of all that this was going to be a ZOMBIE EPISODE. Well, a zombie episode that has virtually nothing in common with popular lore surrounding zombies, which made this a damn fun episode when I wasn’t ready to tear my hair out over all the emotional turmoil that Dean was going through. Which was half of this goddamn episode OH MY GOD.
I love it when this show gives us a story that isn’t readily supernatural in nature, and “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things” keeps the truth of Angela’s return from us for nearly half of the episode. We know she died in grief over something her boyfriend had done, but how does that account for all of the things that Dean observes in the cemetery? But this mystery also forces Sam to question whether or not Dean is onto something or if he’s still refusing to deal with his own grief. It’s not like it’s entirely out of the question that Dean is not coping well. CLEARLY HE HASN’T BEEN, though to be fair, Sam’s been a mess himself, too. However, Dean is the one who won’t come near his mother’s grave and who immediately latches on to a bit of weirdness as a possible hunt. I get why Sam assumes his brother isn’t dealing with his grief. As we’ve seen over the past twenty-five episodes, Dean isn’t one to address his own feelings as readily as Sam is.
Well… okay, obviously there’s more to it than that, and I don’t want to be reductive here because I think Dean’s characterization is deliberately more complex than it is on the surface. Yeah, he often feels like a stereotypical male hero in some senses, but you know, I feel a more personal connection to Dean in this episode than I have in the past. While I did cry a lot in the first day or so after my father died, I found that it was only in front of my family that I allowed myself to ever have emotional breakdowns. To the rest of the world, even my close friends, I appeared pretty steely and cold, and I know that there were people close to me who were concerned that I wasn’t coping with my father’s death. They were right in some sense, but it was such a bizarre and new thing for me to experience. I didn’t exactly know what to do, and you never really do until it happens. So yeah, Dean lost his mother all those years ago, but he was a child when that happened. It’s Sam who lost someone he loved when he was older, and I think that’s why he was better prepared for John’s death (in terms of possessing coping mechanisms) than Dean was. Dean hadn’t had to mourn in years, and it’s all compounded by the horrible, constricting guilt that is suffocating him.
More on that at the end. Throughout “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things,” the audience knows there’s something sinister at work, so we know that Dean is technically right. Well, up to a point, that is. He’s perfectly on the trail of Angela right up until he accuses her father of being the one to resurrect her. (And for the record, bravo to the writers for keeping the audience in the dark as to what was actually going on here because I COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW IT WAS FUCKING POSSIBLE THAT ANGELA’S BODY WASN’T IN THAT COFFIN. I thought she was a vengeful spirit at first because that totally made sense, but OH NO. NOT EVEN CLOSE.) As he viciously criticized Dr. Mason, I honestly thought Dean was trying to work through his father’s death by unequivocally accepting that his father was gone and there was no way to bring him back. THAT IS THE ACTUAL REASONING THAT WENT ON IN MY HEAD. And I don’t think that was a terrible bit of guessing on my part because it is part of what’s going on with Dean. He’s not entertaining the notion of his father being around anymore. No, he’s very aware that John Winchester is gone forever, which is actually a healthy way to cope with loss!
So this is what was going through my mind as I watched the Winchesters try to come up with a way to get rid of Angela. I really loved the idea that zombie lore was confusing and inconsistent, as it made for an entertaining set of chase sequences. Plus, it’s more worldbuilding for Supernatural! There’s not always going to be a dependable legend or myth at the heart of what these boys are hunting, you know? The writers could have just relied on.. well, Romero zombie lore. Seriously! Instead, they have to constantly adapt and try out different techniques on Angela, including silver bullets and staking. Which gave us that really neat and subtle bit I was talking about in the video where Sam shoots Angela. After the events in “Bloodlust,” I found it fascinating that Sam hesitated to shoot Angela, but once she said she was still a person, that was the moment Sam shot her. He knew that in this case, there wasn’t a gray area. I LOVED THAT. WAY AWESOME.
Of course, this episode was resolved with five minutes still left, and that means SOMETHING IS GOING TO HAPPEN. I knew that once Dean pulled off the side of the road that this was going to be significant, but I still had no idea. See, I found it really satisfying that Dean, earlier in this episode, admitted to Sam that he was being an asshole about this case. Dean’s not one to apologize this clearly, and I was thankful that the writers kept him honest, despite how hard it was for him to confess to his issues. But y’all. Y’all. I was honestly expecting that he was going to finally reveal what it was that John told him before he died. I was ready for that. I WAS READY TO HEAR.
Instead, Dean confesses that he figured out that John did something to trade his life for Dean’s, most likely involving the demon that killed their mother and Jess. Dean hasn’t been struggling with his father’s death; HE HAS BEEN SUFFERING FROM EXTREME GUILT BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE SHOULD HAVE DIED INSTEAD OF HIS FATHER. OH MY GOD. WHICH IS WHY HE WAS SO FURIOUS WITH DR. MASON ABOUT RESURRECTING ANGELA. WHAT IS DEAD SHOULD STAY DEAD.
HE WAS TALKING ABOUT HIMSELF.
NO. NO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING TO ME. Oh my god, the ending to this episode is just undeniably crushing, especially since Sam is silent when Dean begs him to come up with a response to this that’ll make him feel better. THERE’S NOTHING TO MAKE HIM FEEL BETTER. Fuck y’all, I WASN’T READY FOR THIS. DAMN YOU ALL.
The video commission for “Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things” can be downloaded right here for just $0.99.
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