Strange though it may seem, for the past couple of years, one source that continually challenges me spiritually is a television show. A primetime drama recounting the struggles of two brothers as they fight off the forces of evil, and those sources turn up in the most surprising forms and places, even from within. It also makes to look at my faith heritage from knew perspectives. Fittingly, the show is called Supernatural, and I have decided to incorporate recaps and thoughts about the episodes here.
An Introduction to Supernatural
This show is at the top of my not-to-be-missed list for a number of reasons. The story is amazing, and the mythology delves into the dark and frightening aspects of the ancient Judeo-Christian tradition, specifically angels and demons. This lore has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, but I have been profoundly dissatisfied with the portrayal of angels, and specifically Lucifer in most media.
The saccharine “Touched by an Angel” topped the list of offenders, in my book. I cannot imagine that beings whose only opening line throughout scripture was “Be not afraid,” would look like Roma Downey with a hair light. Angels are fierce, frightening, powerful, warriors. And Lucifer was the head of them. God’s most favored, the highest created being. The idea of the devil with horns and hooves and a tail is as equally absurd as the gowned, winged lovely ladies from the Renaissance. From the Bible, Lucifer was the head cherub, beautiful beyond measure. Evil, in my experience, never prances around shouting “I am evil!” It is seductive, masquerading as righteousness.
Supernatural hits every one of these notes precisely right, in my opinion. Further, it invokes the most compelling aspects of the monomyth. We have the heroes, two brothers: Sam and Dean Winchester. Horrible events have plagued their lives from their earliest memories. The forces of heaven and hell await them at every turn, trying to draw them into a cosmic power-play of which the brothers desire no part, and through it all, they choose to sacrifice their own happiness and comfort to save people from dark forces the likes of which the average citizen is utterly unaware.
In the first season of the show, as the writers and cast sought to find their footing, we had the brothers Winchester, their trusty 1967 Chevrolet Impala (in black, thank you very much), and a road trip to some burg or other with a monster problem. As the show’s creators saw the strength of the performances and chemistry between Sam, played by Jared Padalecki, and Dean, portrayed by Jensen Ackles, they saw the opportunity for much larger stories, spanning episodes and ultimately seasons.
The big question for this season hovers around whether or not they will succumb to seemingly suffocating pressure. And herein is the aspect of the show that I love and fear in equal measure: destiny.
I despise the very concept. Destiny has been romanticized, utterly ignoring the core of the idea: your life is not your own. No matter what choices you make, what struggles you fight, what pain you suffer, none of it matters, because you really have no say. You are the pawn of capricious powers. For five years, we have watched Sam and Dean fight and suffer to escape a supposed destiny, and the weight of that path is crushing.
I love that the show tosses the stupidly romantic idea of destiny on its ass, but I fear that the writers will ultimately choose to let destiny win. We shall see.
Beyond these items I will attempt to not spoil you to the major goings on in the show.
Better off Undead
This week’s offering, Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, in many regards represents the finest aspects of Supernatural. We had the monsters of the week, zombies, and who doesn’t love a good zombie apocalypse? Season 5 marks the wrap up of a story that began in the Pilot, but truly kicked into gear at the end of the first season. Dead Men is a great display of the writers ability to take a seemingly unconnected happening and weave it seamlessly into the larger arc.
We had the trademark Supernatural humor, an aspect of this show that always endears itself to me. I greatly appreciate a story that can take on the combined forces of heaven and hell and still laugh at itself. We also saw a great deal more about one of the primary supporting characters: Bobby Singer. The trucker cap-clad hunter has been a staple since season 1, and has functioned as a father to both Sam and Dean in a capacity that I feel even their biological father never did. We had seen in Season 3’s “Dream a Little Dream of Me” that Bobby, like most all hunters, got sucked into the dangerous and soul-crushing world of tackling the things that go bump in the night by the death of a loved one: his wife. Seeing no other option, he had killed her when a demon possessed her. The guilt and agony of ending the life of his beloved wears heavily on him still, especially that he now knows how he could have saved her with 50 words of Latin.
When the undead rise from their graves in the small South Dakota town where Bobby’s junkyard lies, the zombies don’t terrorize. They seek to resume their lives as they had known them before they died.
One thing this show does superbly well is to pose moral questions before its viewers. If someone that you had loved returned from the dead, would you question it? Even if you had the full knowledge of a hunter, knowledge dictating that this situation would only end bloody, would you sacrifice a few moments of reunion to end it before it heads south?
In this situation, for Bobby at least, that answer was “no.” This episode saw arguably Jim Beaver’s, the actor who portrays Bobby, finest performance in the series. This is no slight praise for an actor of Beaver’s calibre. In my opinion, season 5 has been particularly emotionally brutal. I suppose with an apocalypse afoot, Lucifer roaming the earth, the impact will be greater. Certainly Dead Men kept those stakes high.
I felt the script maintained a terrific balance, giving us insights into the heart ache of the people who had lost loved ones, and being reunited with them, the horror of watching the zombies turn, and the satisfying action of dispatching the undead.
In true Supernatural fashion, the final moments brought things to an emotional climax. We find out that all of this chaos happened to send Bobby a message: you will suffer if you continue to help the Winchesters. One of the saddest moments in the episode, for me, was how Sam and Dean tried to assure themselves and Bobby that they would all be alright. In the end, their closest friend an ally looked small and broken.
The only part of the episode I would criticize would be elements of the denouement felt forced and contrived. It’s a tightrope act for writers: how to include enough information from previous episodes in the dialog to clue new viewers in, but not so much as to alienate the faithful. In this situation, I felt they failed. However, the emotional gravitas was assuredly there.
This season has had a lot of criticism that the writers have not paid enough attention to the apocalypse. Supernatural does not draw the kind of massive ratings that shows like American Idol do. Obviously, an apocalypse is an expensive proposition to film. Personally, I rather like this approach. Lucifer and Michael have waited eons to face off once again. I imagine that for immortal beings, their timelines would be dramatically different than our own. Also, we know that the stubbornness of the Brothers Winchester have put the evil one’s plans on hold.
I am very interested to see how the writers unfold the final act of the apocalypse. I only hope they make the same bold, courageous choices they have made throughout the show’s course. The final moment’s of Dead Men leave us with an image of Dean, Bobby and Sam staring into the funeral pyre for Bobby’s wife. The expressions on their faces paint a picture of loss, pain, sadness, suffering, and weariness. For their sakes, and ours, I hope that they emerge from the final conflict intact.
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