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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #5 (Final)

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the final section of my rewatch review of "Faith" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

"The episode is showing us a variety of examples of characters who think they’re people of faith. At one extreme we have the dark priest and a preacher’s wife who have delved into black magic and murder while still believing they’re doing God’s work. At the other end of the scale Sam has faith but is disillusioned, Roy believes God is doing the healing but is taken in by Sue Ann, then there’s Layla who makes no claims for herself but quietly practices Christian principles. Between them all there is Dean, who isn’t a believer but who may actually be doing God’s work."

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #5 (Final)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #4

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the next section of my rewatch review of "Faith" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

"Sam remembers the Coptic cross from the service and finds the same symbol on an old tarot card. This is the first reference to Tarot in the series; it won’t be the last. It’s always intrigued me that there are 22 Major Acana cards in Tarot, which just happens to be the number of episodes in the season. I can’t help wondering if any effort was made to match episodes to certain cards. I can see a few possible correlations: this episode, for example, is an obvious match for Death; I suggested last episode might be referencing the Hanged Man; and the finale would, of course, allude to the Devil. Alternatively (or, possibly, additionally) key characters in the series might relate to Tarot characters. For example, I’ve always associated Bobby with the Hierophant. I have a few other ideas but if there are any Tarot practitioners out there, I’d love to hear any thoughts you might have on the subject."

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #4

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #3

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #2

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the next section of my rewatch review of "Faith" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

The next scene opens with a panning shot over Sam’s research: chakra maps, medical journals, diagrams and photos of hearts and cardiac anatomy. Again, I’m reminded of John’s motel wall. Now, more than ever, we see John’s obsessive search for answers after Mary’s death reflected in his son’s behaviour now that Dean’s life is on the line.

It's significant that Dean has suffered a heart attack. As we’ve seen before, the attacks and injuries the brothers receive tend to reflect the body/heart vs mind/soul dichotomy they respectively represent. In “Home”, for example, the poltergeist attacked Sam’s throat, cutting off his breath (a traditional symbol for the soul), and in “Asylum” the spirit attacked his brain. Dean typically takes the brunt of physical attacks to his body and now he has sustained major damage to his heart, and does again in “Devil’s Trap”.

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #2

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #1

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the first section of my rewatch review of "Faith" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

Remember the shots in the Pilot where we were shown the wall of John’s motel room? On that wall were hints of several themes that would come to dominate the show, including a reference to the Danse Mortis (Dance of Death) ominously marked with a circled “1”. We don’t know it yet, but the dance has begun, and it starts here with Sam’s refusal to accept Dean’s imminent demise. From here on in the brothers join hands and lead each other in an increasingly destructive waltz that pivots around their mutual inability to come to terms with one simple, painful fact of life: everybody dies.

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #1

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #5 (final)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #4

"Despite the young couple’s reservations, and the townsfolk’s machinations, Dean rescues the prospective victims from death by scarecrow and the next scene opens with Sam at the bus stop, and a phone call between the brothers is already in progress. It’s a clever device because we don’t know who made the first move. We’re not meant to know; we’re meant to imagine a universe in which it’s possible for both of them to call and be connected at the exact same moment. The dramatic intent is that we should understand there has been no moral victory or defeat on either side, only the mutual desire to reconcile fulfilled."

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #4

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #3

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the next section of my rewatch review of "Scarecrow" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

' “We’re famous for our apples,” says Scotty, plying a young couple with free pie as Dean enters the café.

“Oh, hey, Scotty. Can I get a coffee, black?” Dean asks. “Oh, and some of that pie, too, while you’re at it.” He never gets the coffee, or the pie, and Scotty seems keen to discourage him from talking to the young couple.

It becomes a running gag in Supernatural that Dean repeatedly asks for pie but, for various reasons, he never gets it. I believe it’s more than a simple gag though. Beginning with this episode where apples and apple pie are a clear symbol of the wholesome American lifestyle the town initially appears to represent, I believe the pie that Dean is continually denied symbolizes the “apple pie life” that he secretly craves but feels he can never have.'

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #3

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #2

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the next section of my rewatch review of "Scarecrow" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

'Meanwhile, Sam is hiking along a road when . . . he sees a girl sitting by the side of the road . . .
and so we have the introduction of Meg, SPN’s longest running female character. Looking back now, knowing who she is, we can almost admire the crafty tactics she uses to rope him in. To get his attention, she opens with the word she knows will needle him, but does it in a playful, flirty manner.

“You are hitchhiking,” she points out.

“Well, so are you,” Sam retorts. The irony, of course, is that she’s almost admitting that she’s untrustworthy herself, but she’s using reverse psychology: by feigning distrust of Sam she distracts him from questioning her credibility and makes him eager to win her over instead. Not that any of us had any reason to harbour suspicion about her, any more than Sam did. I mean, we all instantly liked the cute, flirty girl, didn’t we?'

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #2

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Scarecrow #1

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the first section of my rewatch review of "Scarecrow" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

"Like “Phantom Traveler”, “Scarecrow” is a season arc episode masquerading as a standard monster of the week. John’s appearance early in the episode should have been a clue since he has had some form of presence in each of the demon arc stories so far, even if only as a voicemail, but the episode’s status is only fully confirmed in the final scene when Meg Masters is revealed to be more than a chance meeting for Sam, and actually a part of some sinister plot against the brothers.

The episode represents a major point in the hero’s journey myth, where the hero is tempted from his true quest by the seductress and must choose between two paths: whether to follow the temptress or to commit to the quest."

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #6 (Conclusion)

"For the brothers, however, the episode ends more equivocally. Sam apologizes for the things he said to Dean and insists he didn’t mean them. It’s interesting that his concern is to deny the “awful things” he said, rather than apologize for attempting to shoot Dean. Perhaps he feels it goes without saying that he didn’t genuinely want to kill his brother whereas he feels bad about what he said because he knows, deep down, there was a grain of truth in it."

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #5

"Now we come to the juicy filling in the pie: the big confrontation that the episode has been building to. For Sam, Ellicott’s spell works in a similar fashion to the way the shape shifter did for Dean in “Skin”: it’s a truth-telling device that reveals the darker thoughts that Sam would never normally express out loud."

Read more at Live Journal.

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Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #4

The supernatural forces this week are targeting Sam’s brain. Similar to the regular throttlings that mark Sam as the soul part of the soul/heart partnership, this marks him as the mind part of the mind/body partnership. As I’ve mentioned before, historically our culture has tended to privilege mind over body. Classical literature often equates mind with soul and sees it as the source of all that elevates the human spirit, while the body with all its sensual needs and demands is represented as a burden, the source of all the impure urges that drag us down to Hell. This mindset is relevant to the upcoming confrontation that takes place between the brothers.

Read more at Live Journal.

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #3

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #2

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the next section of my rewatch review of "Asylum" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion.

"As soon as they enter the south wing, they start a conversation that initially seems like just another example of their typical sibling wrangling, but now it takes on a more disturbing quality as the subject of Sam’s psychic abilities enters the mix . . .

It’s significant that a whole scene is devoted to a conversation that neither moves the plot forward, nor supplies essential exposition to the audience; this conversation is all about the brothers’ relationship, and it’s important. I’ve spoken before about the show’s equivocal use of humour; running gags that initially seem lighthearted often acquire a much darker undertone as the seasons progress. Under the banter of this scene there is evidence of growing tensions in the brothers’ relationship, particularly with reference to Sam’s powers, that may contribute to the confrontation at the climax of this episode and also the breakup that comes in the next episode, “Scarecrow”. Furthermore, it highlights the issues at the seat of the brother conflict that dominates the whole story arc of the first five seasons, so it’s worth unpacking this conversation in detail."

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #2

Things I Love About SPN Season 1 (Masterpost)

Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Asylum #1

Continuing my series examining the themes, tropes and meta of Supernatural season one, here is a link to the first section of my rewatch review of "Asylum" at my journal, in case anyone here is interested in sharing my celebration of the early episodes with me. And also to a masterpost I've created for the collection. I welcome comments and discussion:

Supernatural, Season 1
Episode 10, “Asylum”
Written by Richard Hatem
Directed by Guy Bee

We open with a spooky shot of the asylum that will become the main focus of the action.

The episode was actually filmed in an abandoned mental health facility in Vancouver, though the building looks a lot more attractive in real life, at least in broad daylight:

https://www.fangirlquest.com/travel/supernatural-location-riverview-hospital/

The building became a favourite location, used several times over the show’s run, and it’s easy to see why. It certainly provided a chillingly atmospheric backdrop for the action in this episode. I don’t know if they filmed all the scenes in the facility, or whether we’re sometimes seeing studio sets; either way the settings for the episode are super creepy.

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