Supernatural Rewatch - 2.03

Date watched: Tuesday, July 28
Episode: 2.03 Bloodlust

In the episode Bloodlust Dean’s still not dealing well with his father’s death. He dives back into hunting with gusto, taking comfort in the violence by killing vampires. He relishes what he sees as black and white, clearcut hunts and uses the violence as an outlet. He actually acknowledges that he enjoys it in this episode. It reminds me of his statements in season 8 about Purgatory being “pure.”

Unfortunately for Dean this is the episode that really changes things up by revealing that not all monsters are actually monsters. Lenore and the other vampires are complex people trying their best to live without hurting anyone. Suddenly the morality of hunters is thrown into question—at least if they are killing things just because they are THINGS and not because they’ve hurt people.

I vaguely remember back when I first saw this ep (a hazy ten years ago) that somehow I didn’t love Dean as much as I do now (I really can’t fathom it) and he angered me more at the time. Now his story here just makes me sad. I hate seeing him try to make Gordon fill the void his father left in his life. One of the things I love about Dean later in the show is that he’s a leader, but he hasn’t grown into that role yet. Right now he’s still struggling to find someone worthy of following without much luck.

Random Thoughts:

-Baby’s back and playing AC/DC’s Back in Black while they drove down the road in her was the perfect moment.
-I see you Benny—er I mean random vampire! Is Ty Olsson just destined to play vampires on this show?
-The show often paints Dean as "right" when it comes to the big picture battles, but as this episode shows Sam is usually right when it comes to really seeing and understanding individual people (manipulative demons aside).

Supernatural Rewatch - 2.04

Date watched: Tuesday, July 28
Episode: 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things

Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things digs deeper into the effect their father’s death had on Dean. The ep focuses on Sam trying talk to Dean about it.

Sam means well and is right that Dean isn’t dealing well with their dad’s death, but he’s really bad at approaching these things with Dean. It certainly doesn’t help that he dismisses Dean’s hunting instincts as him projecting. Dean’s hunting skills are the thing he values most about himself—one of the only things he actually values because of his epic self-worth issues. Lucky for them the plot of the episode forces Dean to face some things.

When Dean confronts the zombie with an impassioned “what’s dead should stay dead” my first instinct is to call him a hypocrite, after all I’m coming at this after 10 seasons of none of them staying dead. However, I need to check that at the door, because in the context of this episode its heartbreaking. When he tells that to the zombie he’s really directing it at himself. He knows that his father died so that he would live and it’s eating him up inside. It’s affecting him so much that he actually talks to Sam about it and expresses his belief that he should have been the one to die. His guilt is epic and it absolutely plays into his decision to make the crossroads deal later. After all, Dean sees his entire life from this point on as ill gotten gains.

Watching this episode got me thinking about zombies and what makes them come back wrong. The zombie in this ep is obviously still intelligent and emotionally savvy enough to manipulate others. It makes me wonder if they come back without a soul and that accounts for their wrongness. Like is the soul still in the afterlife but the body is animated similar to Soulless!Sam? Add to that a traumatic death and rebirth, being forced to stay secluded, super powers, invulnerability, and no real motivation to try to blend in like Sam had and you get selfish actions and general disregard for human life without the filter of a soul. She just did whatever she wanted and she wanted revenge. Does that sound plausible? Of course that theory doesn’t necessarily apply to future zombie situations on the show, but the situations aren’t always consistent anyway. I’ll have to pay attention to the other eps and see.

Random Thoughts:

-Lmao at Sam sitting on the edge of the bed watching Casa Erotica. He’s so adorably guilty as he hurriedly turns the porn off when Dean comes in.

-“Our lives are weird, man.” - Sam, truer words were never spoken.

-Jensen Ackles is truly the king of the single man tear. How does he cry so pretty?