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Supernatural Fodder

Supernatural: Home

Impressions

Excellent episode that takes the brothers back to their childhood home. Some questions are answered, and others brought to light.

Recap and critique

Sam has nightmares of a family in danger. He admits to Dean that sometimes his nightmares come true. After examining a sketch of some details from his nightmare, they realize that the house in Sam's dream is the house where their mother died.

So off they drive to Lawrence, Kansas. They find the house, and the woman living there describes "rats in the basement," while her daughter talks about something evil in her closet. The brothers decide to check the history of the house. Dean phones their Dad, and leaves a voice mail describing their problem and strategy.

Meanwhile, a plumber trying to fix the sink in the house is chewed up by the garbage disposal, which turns itself on while he's working on it. These guys seem to have a thing for dangerous plumbing. This is the second time a bad drain has ended up being a precursor to occult danger ("Dead in the Water").

They track down an old friend of their father's, who explains that their dad claimed the fire was faulty wiring, then became obsessed with the paranormal. They track down the only psychic in town, improbably named Missouri, who just happens to be listed in their dad's address book. She's aware of what happened in the house, since John Winchester confided in her after the mother's death. She's been keeping an eye on the house since, but it's been quiet.

The strange events at the house continue. The toddler in the house is lured into the refrigerator, which traps him inside. The mom notices leaking milk and rescues him just in time. The brothers and Missouri show up, and convince the mom that the house is dangerous. Missouri, a true psychic, determines that there are 2 spirits, one a poltergeist that found an entry point into the house through the supernatural events that killed the Winchester mother. Ominously, she can't get a reading on the second spirit. The brothers and Missouri convince the current family to leave so they can perform an exorcism.

It goes badly. But Dean manages to place the required powder within the wall, and the emanations stop.

But all is not well, the poltergeist attacks again that night. The brothers, keeping watch outside just in case, burst into the house and hustle up the mom and children. Dean gets the mom outside to safety, but is blocked from returning to the house. Sam, meanwhile, has gotten the children out, but the poltergeist prevents him from leaving. As the spirit, wreathed in flames, advances on Sam, he suddenly recognizes it.

It's his mom. She apologizes to him and orders the poltergeist from the house and disappears.

Later, the rescued mom presents several pictures to the brothers. Missouri assures them the spirits are gone, because Sam and Dean's mom destroyed her spirit form to rid the house of the poltergeist. Sam sensed this, but none of them can explain what happened.

Missouri returns to her home, and speaks to an unseen visitor.

It's John Winchester. He refuses to see or speak to the brothers, until he knows "the truth."

This episode had some tense moments. Most of these were due to imminent danger to children. This is a classic writer's technique - put innocents and the defenseless in the danger area. Most audiences, even if they can't relate to the type or level of danger presented in a scene, can relate to a child in danger. For one thing, it's a parent's worst nightmare. For another reason, everyone has felt exposed at one time or another, and can at least relate to someone defenseless in danger.

So when a writer wants to "up the ante" on a suspense scene, they put a character into a position where they are extremely vulnerable (this is one reason there are so many scenes where characters are killed while showering or using the restroom), or they put a child in danger.

Because the brothers are basically sacrosanct in the series - at least physically - it's likely that we'll see more episodes with children as the victims.

Trivia

This episode was written by the series creator, Eric Kripke.

It was directed by Ken Girotti, who has directed several paranormal type shows, like: Mysterious Island, PSI Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal, Poltergeist: The Legacy, First Wave, Outer Limits, and ReGenesis. This is really interesting, because of both the emphasis on psychic powers in the episode, and the paranormal scenes that so much resembled the movie Poltergeist.


Posted by Miller on September 18, 2006 10:31 PM
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