In the eighth episode of the first season of Supernatural<\/i>, I HAVE NEVER WITNESSED A BIGGER NOPE IN MY LIFE. OH MY GOD, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO HUMANITY<\/i>. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Look, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even that I hate bugs. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t! I am fascinated by them, I adored them as a kid, and I am definitely the sort of person who squeals with delight when they come across bugs in nature. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so upsetting about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d No, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the idea of intelligent, revenge-driven swarms<\/i> that fucks me up, and this episode IS EVERY SINGLE NON-SCIENCE-BASED TROPE INVOLVING BUGS IN A SINGLE EPISODE, AND I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T. Again, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t apologize for the display of absurdity in the commission video attached to this. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever been so consistently vocal<\/i> in a commission before? This is me at my absolute most ridiculous, so at least y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all get that? For real, I can handle a lot<\/i> of things. I am not the kind of horror fan who turns their face away at gross things! And yet, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d made me squirm in a way that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t normally do.<\/p>\n
Given the reaction I received to Tweeting about seeing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I understand that this episode is one of fandom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s least favorite. And I get that. The ending is fucking awful<\/i>, the first example of truly abysmal writing that is unforgivable by any standard. Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the whole mystical Native American thing? Though I suspect fandom probably had less of an issue with that than other things, but you better believe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to talk about<\/i>. For me, though, I actually thought this was a decent tale! Daddy issues abound! Sam relates to Matt! The bug infestation is surprisingly not what we think it is! Indigenous cultures getting revenge on white people! There are<\/i> things to like about this episode, so I ultimately don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel as strongly against \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as the rest of the fandom does.<\/p>\n
LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GET INTO IT:<\/p>\n
The Good<\/b><\/p>\n
I just realized how frequent<\/i> daddy issues are on this show. Lori had issues with her father. So did Andrea in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dead in the Water,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largely defined by his rejection of his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expectations, and Dean reveres his father and what he does. Fathers fuel the character development of a lot of the characters in this show, so it was fascinating to see how Sam identified with Matt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disapproving father. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult for Dean to see his father in a less-than-positive light, especially since John Winchester was so instrumental in the development of Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s identity. I suspect that Dean and John are strikingly similar in more ways than we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen, most likely due to Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s imitation of his role model. But Sam wanted something else from his father, and I can certainly relate to that. I talked openly about my differences with my father while writing about Friday Night Lights<\/i>, but I think there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a neat parallel here that I was able to recognize. My father resented the fact that I was not typically masculine and that I was not interested in typically masculine, macho things. I could tell that he was disappointed in me at times, though not for everything. He was proud that I got a full ride into college, and he was proud that I was so independent. It was just always so difficult for him to express<\/i> that.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fascinating, then, to see how these brothers view their own father. Ultimately, I was a little disappointed that Sam came to agree with Dean about his treatment of John Winchester, though I know this is from my own personal bias more than anything else. Parental validation is a hell of a thing, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s painful to experience disappointment like Sam did. I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely valid for him not to look upon his father with complete acceptance. So it feels weird that Sam is so willing to apologize because it suggests that he<\/i> was the one who did everything wrong, which ignores whatever it was that John might have done. But I also recognize that I come to this with a very, very<\/i> personal bias, so I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say this is the same sort of criticism I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll offer of the writing later in this review.<\/p>\n
As for the actual story itself, this is one of the most relentlessly uncomfortable and genuinely frightening things that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen on a television show. The writers toy with our expectations by changing the insect that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s swarming these people at Oasis Plains. How is that possible? I mean, the cold open was awful and terrible because NO FOREVER<\/i>, but I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see how this was a supernatural occurrence. Then, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re given a bit of a red herring in Matt, the teenager obsessed with bugs, since we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re led to suspect that he<\/i> is controlling all of these insects as a way to work out the angst he feels towards his own father. HELLO, DADDY ISSUES. It still would have fit within the episode! But oh god, the answer is so much worse than that<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I will say that while I have about a thousand billion problems with the whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Native American curse\u00e2\u20ac\u009d trope, I am kinda here for the idea<\/i> of a plot that involves indigenous cultures getting revenge on the people who exploited them and<\/i> those who still benefit from the system of power that got them to where they are? The problem is that this is executed in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d poorly. REALLY POORLY.<\/p>\n
Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discuss that.<\/p>\n
The Bad<\/b><\/p>\n
Yeah, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fucking do this, white people. This is one of the most egregious uses of the mystical Native American that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen in my life. Literally, Joe White Tree is used here to spout off some ham-fisted crock of bullshit that was clearly<\/i> invented by white people, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s meant as some sort of mystical revenge narrative? Except there is absolutely no depth here, the text doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explore why<\/i> it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fucked up to build a development on this land aside<\/i> from the existence of a curse, and Joe White Tree fades back into irrelevance once the Winchesters are done with him. Also, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s with this guy just giving up this story with almost no prompting? He decides to talk simply because Sam doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lie? Oh my god, this is so, so horribly written that I can barely be offended since I feel that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even deserve the attention that offense brings.<\/p>\n
And then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 sigh. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know how the hell<\/i> the writers thought that we would believe that after spending three or four minutes in the attic, six hours passed in the show<\/i>. This is, without a doubt, one of the worst endings to any episode of television that I have ever seen. They were attacked for like 7 minutes! How the fuck do you expect me to believe that these people escaped largely unscathed from this? That is bullshit!!! BAD WRITING. BAD WRITING<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I surprisingly did not hate this episode as much as most people do. However, I hope that I live the rest of my life without ever seeing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d again. Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 no! So much nope that the word doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even look real now that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve typed it so many times.<\/p>\n
The ridiculous video commission for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bugs\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a> In the eighth episode of the first season of Supernatural, I HAVE NEVER WITNESSED A BIGGER NOPE IN MY LIFE. OH MY GOD, WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO HUMANITY. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[594,591],"class_list":["post-3007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supernatural","tag-i-am-captain-of-the-u-s-s-nope","tag-mark-watches-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– I will be traveling for many events! Check the Tour Dates\/Appearances page<\/a> for up-to-date tour events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"