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| "Put the lotion in the basket!" |
Twitter poll time. What TV series should I review for #HorrorMonth2020?— MadCapMunchkin (@MadCapMunchkin) August 22, 2020
Nevertheless, with the lion's share of the votes, it looks like I'll be heading back into Supernatural for Horror Month 2020. At the very least, I can take comfort in the fact that this is still Season 1 when the show was good.
...so, let's take a look at what is considered by many to be the worst episode of Season 1!
...no, not the one with the racist semi-truck. That comes later.
So a quick recap, last time we were with our friends Sam and Dean, they had just taken on the Hook Man with the power of the "Was it good for you, too?" urban legend. Thanks to early Supernatural being more geared as a monster of the week, that meant we got something new every week.
...this week, it happened to be ripping off Poltergeist, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
After a brief recap of the show's premise - Sam and Dean hunting monsters and saving people while looking for their day - we open on a housing development in the process of being built. A member of the work crew falls into a hole and breaks his ankle. While a co-workers goes to fetch a rope, he finds himself covered by bugs in a scene of sheer nightmare fuel...and is found dead bleeding from the eyes, ears, and mouth soon after.
Meanwhile, Sam and Dean have made some money from hustling pool and Sam has a job for them: namely the death of the man in the teaser, who is believed to have died from human mad cow disease. We also find that, like Josh of Drake and Josh fame, Dean's an Oprah fan.
Clearly, she's an inspiration.
The boys arrive on scene and question the co-worker. They quickly rule out a more logical cause and head out to the site where the man died. They don't find anything down in the hole, however, which casts some doubt. Thus, it's time for the research! ...oops, nope! It's time to be talking to the locals because Dean wants free barbecue.
...yes, I'm serious.
Also, Dean and Sam being a gay couple jokes. Because topical.
Besides the lead realtor's (a man named Larry) son - Matthew - being big into insects and arachnids, there's not much to be had otherwise. Dean does get some information about the death at the construction site and some deaths earlier in the year...getting this offscreen, that is.
Also, Sam and Dean throw some quips about John.
They pick up on Matthew's insect fixation and think that he might be responsible due to some sort of psychic connection. They squat in an empty house for the night while some of the bugs claim another victim, one of the other realtors.
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| Oh, Dean, you so wacky! |
The boys break in to check the place out once the cops have left and they do indeed confirm that spiders are the culprit. They stalk Matthew as he leaves the school bus, conspicuously not going to his home and instead heading off into the woods. They question him, but it quickly becomes clear that Matthew is not the one responsible...in fact, he's noticed that something is strange, demonstrating this by showing Sam and Dean a clearing and explaining that there's been a massive uptick in the insect population recently - everything from bees to earthworms.
It's in a pit of the latter that the pair find...a human skull.
It's off to the university to research amid some further banter about John with Dean doing some rather backhanded justification for their father's actions. Afterward, to get on with the plot they meet...Joe Dawson! Just kidding, it's just actor Jim Byrnes, but it's still pretty awesome to see him in something non-Highlander related.
...note to self. Need to review Highlander: The Series.
Joe Dawson is undercover as an anthropology professor who examines the remains and points the boys in the direction of a Native American tribe nearby. Finding an elder there, he tells them a story that was told to him by his grandfather - insert U.S. cavalry raided the village during an eclipse and then repeated this process by six nights until everyone who hadn't left was dead. The chieftain put a curse on the land that whenever any white man tried to claim the land, nature would rise up against them.
Realizing that tonight would be the sixth night of the Spring Equinox, the boys move to get Larry's family out of the house. That night, Matthew finds roaches coming out in droves in a way most foreboding. He gets contacted by Sam after Dean fails to bluff Larry into getting the family out of the house, Dean giving him the means to buy more time. When they arrive, though, Matthew has told Larry the truth...and Larry thinks that his son and the brothers are both crazy.
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| "Back! Back, fangirls! Get back, I say!" |
Here's where we start to see a few problems with the episode...namely that the CGI is really, really bad. Jensen Ackles is clearly trying to act through it as he uses a lit can of bug spray, but the blurry flying insects that should by all rights be overwhelming him and the others...is really, really just laughable at best.
I'm aware this was back in the early days when Supernatural had next to no budget (hence why everyone else in the neighborhood is gone for the finale), but if you look at examples like the Wendigo back in...well, Wendigo...being done so well without the use of over gratuitous CGI, it really does make this look even more hilariously bad.
Also, a pacing issue. In one scene, it's the stroke of midnight and they're barring up the house to keep the insects out. With seemingly no transition, it's suddenly sunrise.
Shortest. Night. EVER.
No, I'm not even kidding. It is a hilariously short time and I don't even think there's a proper transition. We literally just go from the stroke of midnight to dawn within minutes. Who knows? Maybe the leprechauns did it...sure, let's go with that.
Larry thanks the boys for their help, promising that he plans to make sure no one lives on this land ever again. Sam finds Matthew getting rid of his insect collection (they kind of weird him out now) and we get some last minute parallels to Larry's relationship with Matthew and Sam's relationship with John. Sam resolves to find John, wanting to apologize to him now for what he said to him. Dean assures him that they'll find John and that he and Sam will be arguing again within minutes. Just like the minutes they were in that attic between midnight and sunrise.
In a better mood overall, the boys hit the road.
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| "Thank Chuck, the episode's over!" |
Bugs is an episode that could have worked much better, given Supernatural's blue collar reworking of various mythologies and legends. It's ambition, unfortunately, outstripped reality by leaps and bounds. Up until the climax, it works fine more or less. We get some good parallels to Sam's relationship with John (something which forms much of the first Season) through Larry and Matthew, and we actually have a (mostly) respectful portrayal of Native Americans.
Mind you, this is also ripping off Poltergeist as I said before. This wouldn't be a problem...except that the execution really isn't that great. The Sam and Dean drawing parallels to their real life through the medium of Matthew and Larry's relationship can get tiring at times, but I remind myself that this was Season 1 where it felt more meaningful and not as though the writers were just repackaging Sam and Dean arguments and just using Find and Replace in Microsoft Word to swap who was saying what and changing a few of the proper nouns.
Bugs is just not a great episode. It's not as objectionable as some episodes are, but it's definitely not good. Even the series creator Eric Kripke has gone on record as saying he didn't like it, and the show later makes meta jokes about it when we're introduced to Chuck...though that's a long way off from here.
There are much better episodes ahead, yes, even in Season 1. Next time, Sam and Dean go to Missouri...and learn the truth. See you then!
Supernatural is the property of the CW and Warner Brothers.
For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.
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