From MadCap's Couch - "Supernatural: Wendigo"

...umm, spoilers, show?! GAWD!

Something that is severely taken for granted in horror, particularly in horror films and television shows of today, is that the less you see of something (not more) the scarier it is. This is the episode that, to me, points out just how this show was just so damn good in the earlier seasons and one of the points on which it falls horribly, horribly flat later on in the show. But those are disappointments to come.  For the moment, we can enjoy the sweet, sweet wonderfulness that is "Wendigo", taking yet another bit of urban myth and lore and making something utterly spectacular out of it.

After a brief montage to recap the audience on what's been going on, we begin in Black Water Ridge, Colorado - the place where John's coordinates were to send Sam and Dean. However, we find neither father nor brothers as we apparently have stumbled onto some campers out in the woods. One of them sends out a video message to his family before they all get picked off one by one at the hand of unseen assailant.

We then cut to the next day in Palo Alto, California. Sam approaches a grave with flowers - Jessica's. He speaks at length to it, telling her how sorry he is for not protecting her. As he goes to place the flowers at her grave, however, a hand bursts from the grave and grabs at his wrist! Only a dream, alas, as he jerks up in the passenger seat of the Impala. Dean questions him about it, even offering to let Sam drive for a bit (something Sam finds shocking), but it goes nowhere before Sam wants to get on with the plot.

And on with it they get, being just outside of Grand Junction, Colorado. Dean mentions they dug around Stanford for a week with no answers as to what killed Jessica, so has made the decision that finding their Dad is the only way to figure out what they need to do, being that the thing that killed their mother reappearing and John's sudden disappearance can't be a coincidence. Sam checks the map and says there's nothing out at Black Water Ridge...just forests.

They check out the Ranger Station and while they try to pose as students working on a paper, they end up being pegged as friends of someone named Haley. Apparently, her brother Tommy - one of the men in the teaser - went out into the woods and hasn't come back yet. Being always looking for a hookup, Dean manages to get the permit off of the Rangers.  Outside, Sam takes a very "shoot first and ask questions later" approach, which surprises and even impresses Dean.

Heading to Haley's, they fake ID their way into her good graces and get some exposition about how Tommy would have never left them hanging for so long. They check the photo that Tommy sent in the teaser, and learn that Haley has hired a guide to head out and find Tommy herself - being that the authorities are completely useless in Supernatural as we will often see.

"Well, it started with picnic baskets, but then the bodies started to pile up and..."

At the bar, Sam has apparently done his research, and there have been may disappearances over the last few decades - every twenty-three years, like clockwork. He's also slowed down the video Tommy sent enough to show the shadow of something against the tent. And, Sam's learned of one of the survivors of a previous attack. An old man, who confirms to them via his story and a nasty looking set of claw marks across his chest that whatever attacked him and his parents...definitely wasn't a grizzly bear.

The brothers, in leaving, discuss what it could be. They narrow down the list, coming to the conclusion from the old man's story that it's corporeal, so they can kill it. Outside, Sam is pissed when Dean suggests that they tag along with Haley and her group to protect them. While it clearly unnerves Dean, he says nothing. The next morning, they meet up with Haley, her other brother, and their guide. There's some snark exchanged, particularly about Dean's attire (he doesn't do shorts), before they get under way.

Elsewhere, it seems Tommy and one of his friends have been hung up to die by a malevolent force that stalks through one of the old mines that were mentioned as being in the mountains. Despite his protests, Tommy is unable to do anything to save his friend as he suffers a grizzly off-screen death. Back at the plot, Dean and Roy - Haley's guide - have a dick measuring contest before Hayley finally calls Dean out on it, not believe that he and Sam are rangers as they say. He explains everything about what they're doing...leaving out the supernatural side of things...which seems to placate her.

He also mentions having brought provisions, holding a bag of M&Ms.

Remember this. It will be important later.

"Have I got something on my neck?"

They start heading off again, eventually finding Tommy's camp site from the teaser. Haley starts pulling a Tea Leoni in Jurassic Park III before Sam quiets her, reasoning that whatever did this is probably still out there. Dean pulls an Aragorn, figuring out from the tracks near the site that the creature dragged at least one person off for later. From that, he narrows down their list of potential supernatural suspects. Dean heads over to a grieving Haley, doing his best to give some hope, before they hear someone screaming for help in the distance.

They rush off, but soon the voice fades off and Sam urges everyone back to camp...where their packs have been taken. Roy tries to pawn it off as simply some nutjob out there trying to steal their gear and cut them off, Sam pulls Dean aside for a little heart to heart. Getting John's journal from Dean, Sam determines that they're up against a Wendigo. Sam resolves to get everyone the hell out of there, but they're not having it. Eventually, they decide to bunker down for the night, since a Wendigo is apparently even more Nightmare Fuel-worthy at night.

That night, Dean and Sam have put up symbols to block off the Wendigo, explaining to Haley and the others. And finally, when they have a moment alone together, Dean confronts Sam on his change in attitude since they left Stanford. Sam's upset because John's not here, and sees no reason why they should stay, saying they should get everyone back to town and then hit the road. To retort, Dean pulls out John's journal and says that he wants them to pick up where he left off.

Saving people, hunting things. The family business.

Behold Haley, awed as most heterosexual women are at the sight of Jensen Ackles...

Still, while Dean is very much up for doing just as John says, Sam refuses this, saying he has to find out about Jessica's killer. Dean promises him that they will find them, but that Sam can't let that anger keep fueling him, because it will eventually kill him.

Keep those words in mind. There are many instances where that particular statement is going to hurt later.

Sam asks how Dean handles it, and Dean mentions people like Haley and her brother. Saving people from the monsters that live in their world is how Dean justifies his rather miserable existence, and is an integral part of his character that will be show many times over the next few seasons...and lampshaded to hell and back in later seasons as well, one episode in particular. Dean also adds the other way to deal with it is killing as many evil sons of bitches as he can.

Case in point when someone starts screaming for help in the darkness, Dean telling the civvies that it's just a trick. It's a rather tense scene as the camera pans around through the darkness and foliage of their campsite, the music adding to the tension as Roy takes potshots until he hits it...and then is stupid enough to leave the protective circle. Dean and Sam run after him, but are not witness to a pair of beast-like hands pulling him up into the trees.

The next morning, Dean gives Haley a lecture on the supernatural and some more of his and Sam's backstory gets dropped. Sam, resolving to kill this evil son of a bitch, works with Dean to drop some exposition on Wendigos. Once men, now monsters who have lived for centuries eating human flesh. Because, as the old saying goes, there ain't no party like a Donner Party.  Wendigos also keep vicitms alive in case of harsh or lean times. Haley asks how to stop it, and Dean begins prepping a molotov. With that, the party heads through the woods - Sam and Dean oddly taking the two civilians to fight the crazed death creature.

If you're a Wendigo, dealing with hunters is a snap!

Soon they realize that they've been following a trail set by the Wendigo and have fallen into a trap...demonstrated by the sounds of a roar from the foliage. Roy's body falls from the trees to spook the group, and they bail, Dean and Haley actually coming face to face with the thing and are...taken...Sam and Haley's other brother find Dean's molotov igniter. They find a trail of M&Ms left by Dean.

See? See? Didn't I tell you that would be important?

The trail leads them to an abandoned mine. They head in, sneaking around as the Wendigo mucks about with its daily routine of being creepy and just off camera. The duo, however, fall through one of the mine shafts and find...Haley and Dean having been hung up by their wrists! Luckily, they both seem to be alive and relatively well all things considered. Also in the cavern is Tommy, alive and well as we were led to believe and in good enough shape for a jump scare. Also, to replace their lost molotov plan, Dean has found flare guns that are apparently in fine working condition and they still have flares to fire - how convenient!

They head out, by realize that the Wendigo is home. Dean and Sam hatch a plan, Dean heading off after giving Haley merely a wink when she asks what he's about to do...and then goes off yelling at the top of his lungs, making himself the bait. It seems to be working...until Sam and Haley and her brothers are caught, Sam trying to hold it off while they run. It jump scares at Sam, but he responds by shooting at it and once more fleeing...though it quickly becomes clear that the four of them are cornered.

Burn, baby, burn! Wendigo inferno!

The creature lumbers toward them out of the dark, still never clearly seen as it prepares to devour them...and here, my readers, we have Part One in the ongoing series "Dean Winchester is a Motherfucking Badass". With a flare gun, Dean blasts it through the stomach. In the resulting inferno that erupts, the creature's entire body is reduced to ashes. Hell, yeah!

And for the wrap up, the group has returned to the Ranger Station and Haley's younger brother is telling the story of the grizzly that attacked them. Haley and Dean talk, Dean cheapening the moment as he does when Haley mentions she doesn't know how she could ever thank him. While we don't have the first of several of Dean's onscreen ladypleasings, Haley does tell Dean also that she hopes he and Sam find their father, and gives him a peck on the cheek before climbing into the ambulance that's taking Tommy off. And if fanfiction is any indication, that's all that shippers need for this sort of thing.

Alone at last, Dean tries to reassure Sam that they will find John. Sam says that he knows...but in the meantime, he's driving, which Dean allows and the two take off.

What I said before, I'll say again. "Wendigo" is a great episode, and it's probably one of the best in the entire series for a single reason - you barely see the creature in question. Granted, Supernatural didn't have the largest budget ever when it started, but instead of using that as an excuse to do bad costuming or to just be lazy, they instead put to use the horror trope of "the less you see of something, the scarier it is". The titular wendigo is never fully seen, either being only split second appearances that you actually have to pause the show to see or always glimpsed in shadow.

Of special note are the scenes that used the camera panning around to great effect, building up tension and dread of a malignant, unknowable force that was going to pick them all off one by one and there was virtually nothing they could do to stop it. Indeed, even when they know what the creature is, they know it's going to be a tall order killing it off.

Also, the appearance of the Wendigo when we do see it is pretty menacing, a nice payoff to all the build up of it barely being glimpsed. It looks beastial, alien, a hideous, twisted mockery of both man and beast. Kudos to the production team for the design and the work put into making it happen. It's really very, very good stuff.

Sam and Dean are great, as (almost) always, and their chemistry is really good here as Dean has to play the rational one to get Sam back on track and not on the road to self-destruction. It's really nice and I honestly would have loved to see more of this come out. Sam and Dean also allow for exposition to be told to Haley and her brothers in a way that doesn't feel so clunky. Very natural and fluid as they have to explain why these people are so hilariously out of their depth.

And really, that's all there is to it. This episode is pretty much the height of good monster work on Supernatural. This is the benchmark by which all other creatures will be judged, at least by me for the purposes of these recaps.  So, the verdict is - this episode is just fantastic. The creature is good, the chemistry between the two leads works to perfection, even the characters of the day aren't too bad. It's all really great. Really, really, really, great!

So...next week, water water everywhere...as long as it's not Hoenn again...

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