In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Foreword

  Introduction

  “WE’RE NOT EXACTLY THE BRADYS”

  THE BURDEN OF BEING SAMMY - (A Parenthetical Discussion of Self-Perception …

  WHAT’S SUPERNATURAL ABOUT SUPERNATURAL?

  SUPERNATURAL AND THE SUPERNATURAL

  SUPERNATURAL AS HORROR

  HORROR, HUMANITY, AND THE DEMON IN THE MIRROR

  MONSTERS AND METAPHORS

  IS SUPERNATURAL ATHEISTIC?

  THE DEMON IN THE MIRROR

  “NOBODY’S KILLING ANY VIRGINS!”

  GOOD AND EVIL IN THE WORLD OF SUPERNATURAL

  “OF COURSE YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID OF THE DARK”: EVIL ON SUPERNATURAL

  “THEY’RE EVERYWHERE”: AZAZEL, LILITH, AND OTHER DEMONS

  “LUCIFER ACTUALLY MEANS LIGHT BRINGER”: SAM WINCHESTER AS THE MORNING STAR

  “IF YOU KNOW EVIL’S OUT THERE, HOW CAN YOU NOT BELIEVE GOOD’S OUT THERE, TOO?”

  “ANY FLUFFY WHITE WING FEATHERS?”: THE EXISTENCE OF ANGELS

  CONCLUSION

  SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVILS

  ALL ABOUT THE DRAMA

  METAPHORICALLY SPOOKING

  LUCIFER’S FALLEN, AND HE CAN’T GET UP

  REHAB FOR MONSTERS

  SUPERNATURAL EVOLUTION

  FRIENDS OF THE DEVILS

  DEAN WINCHESTER: BAD-ASS … OR SOCCER MOM?

  “WE’VE GOT WORK TO DO” - Sacrifice, Heroism, and Sam and Dean Winchester

  A POWERFUL NEED - Heroism, Winchester-Style

  BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, JO THE MONSTER KILLER - Supernatural’s Excluded Heroines

  THE GUY WITH A CAR, THE GIRL IN A GRAVE

  JO HARVELLE

  SPREADING DISASTER - Gender in the Supernatural Universe

  I: KANSAS

  II: THE CHALICE OF BLOOD

  III: THE DOUBLE

  IV: THE CAR, THE COLT, & THE KNIFE

  V: THE RUNAWAY & THE CROSSROADS

  WHO THREW MOMMA ON THE CEILING? - Analyzing Supernatural’s Primal Scene of Trauma

  A NOTE ABOUT MYTH AND PSYCHOLOGY

  “MOM ON FIRE ON THE CEILING”-A VIEW FROM THE CRIB

  BRAVE LITTLE SOLDIERS: SAM AND DEAN AS MOTHERLESS HEROES

  HUNTING: SUPERNATURAL’S QUEST FOR A NEW AMERICAN MYTHOLOGY

  CONCLUSION: YES, CHICK-FLICK MOMENTS

  SCARY JUST GOT SEXY - Transgression in Supernatural and Its Fanfiction

  BLUE COLLAR GHOST HUNTERS

  A LITTLE HISTORY

  HUNTING ON THE CHEAP

  HITTING THE ROAD

  A SUPERNATURAL LOVE STORY

  BACK IN BLACK

  RIDING DOWN THE HIGHWAY - Why the Impala Is the Third Main Character

  THE CONNECTION TO THE PAST

  THE IMPALA AS LEGACY

  THE CONNECTION TO THE JOB

  THE CONNECTION TO DEAN

  JOHN WINCHESTER AND THE MAGIC BULLET THEORY

  THE EVILS OF HATING … UM, EVIL - What Gordon Walker Did Wrong and Why We …

  BUT THEY’RE GOOD VAMPIRES!

  TARGETING A WINCHESTER WON’T WIN YOU FRIENDS

  BECOMING THE MONSTER (FOR REAL)

  ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION - The Role of the Trickster in Supernatural

  MAKING MISCHIEF

  TALES AND STORYTELLING

  NUGENT. TED NUGENT.

  IT’S NOT SUCH A WONDERFUL LIFE

  WHAT’S UP NEXT, DOC?

  KEEPERS OF THE LORE

  GHOULS IN CYBERSPACE - Supernatural Sources in the Modern, Demon-Blogging World

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Page

  OTHER TITLES IN THE SMART POP SERIES

  Taking the Red Pill

  Seven Seasons of Buffy

  Five Seasons of Angel

  What Would Sipowicz Do?

  Stepping through the Stargate

  The Anthology at the End of the Universe

  Finding Serenity

  The War of the Worlds

  Alias Assumed

  Navigating the Golden Compass

  Farscape Forever!

  Flirting with Pride and Prejudice

  Revisiting Narnia

  Totally Charmed

  King Kong Is Back!

  Mapping the World of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice

  The Unauthorized X-Men

  The Man from Krypton

  Welcome to Wisteria Lane

  Star Wars on Trial

  The Battle for Azeroth

  Boarding the Enterprise

  Getting Lost

  James Bond in the 21stCentury

  So Say We All

  Investigating CSI

  Literary Cash

  Webslinger

  Halo Effect

  Neptune Noir

  Coffee at Luke’s

  Perfectly Plum

  Grey’s Anatomy 101

  Serenity Found

  House Unauthorized

  Batman Unauthorized

  TO THE READER

  Because of the way the publishing industry works, the essays you’re about to read were written after season three of Supernatural ended and before season four began. As is usually the case with any show worth its proverbial rock salt, a lot will have changed by the time you read this. In just the first three episodes of season four, the show had already radically revised both its cosmology and its backstory … and rendered half a dozen carefully crafted essays not just out of date, but borderline incorrect.

  This leaves it to you, as the reader, to fill in the gaps: to take the theories and ideas we’ve compiled here and use them as a window through which to look at what’s happened since the essays were written. We hope you’ll read Avril Hannah-Jones’s essay and ask whether the now-verified existence of the heavenly host alters her basic thesis that the Winchesters are the show’s true angels; we want you to muse over what Jacob Clifton might have said about the timing of Dean and Sam discovering Mary’s family background-is it indicative of the show’s feminine Shadow finally coming to the fore?

  We expect there are more surprises yet to come. Heck, we’d be disappointed if there weren’t. And in the meantime? We hope In the Hunt helps you enjoy the ride.

  -THE PUBLISHER

  Foreword

  KEITH R. A. DECANDIDO

  NOT JUST A PRETTY FACE (OR TWO)

  Hello, my name is Keith, and I’m a heterosexual male who’s also a Supernatural fan.

  I realize that this may make me seem bizarre to some. If one wanders the Internet and peers at the audiences for Supernatural conventions, one observes a sea of female faces. Certainly most of the women I know who watch the show do so in part because they find Jensen Ackles and/or Jared Padalecki to be very easy on the eyes.

  Only in part, though, and that’s a critical aspect of Supernatural’s appeal: it’s much, much better than it needs to be.

  As a show on the CW, Supernatural could probably still be a successful fifth-network series if it just had two pretty men driving in a cool car, cracking wise and shooting demons in the head. And Supernatural does have all those things in abundance.

  But it’s got more besides. For starters, the show has a wonderful sense of family. And I don’t mean so-called “family values,” that rather nebulous attempt to revert to the nonexistent nuclear family exemplified by Leave It to Beaver, but rather the importance family has to a person. Family doesn’t necessarily mean blood relatives-look at the characters of Bobby and Ellen, for example-but the show has excelled at showing those connections and what they mean. There aren’t very many fictional siblings on television who cover all the aspects of t
hat relationship the way Sam and Dean do: not just the love and affection and dedication, but also the near-telepathic bond, the arguing, the pranking, the affectionate abuse.

  The show has often trotted out the cliché wherein the bad guys say that the brothers’ bond is a weakness, and the heroes insist that it’s a strength. But what Supernatural does so well is show that it’s both. Heck, brotherly love has managed to get both brothers killed.

  That complexity of family relationships also holds true with both father figures in the show: the boys’ biological father, John Winchester, and their surrogate father, Bobby Singer. The search for the former informed the entire first season, and the character’s death at the top of the second season in “In My Time of Dying” (2-1) has continued to resonate in the boys’ lives since. John’s relationship to his children could charitably be called complex (and perhaps more accurately, seriously messed up), as his influence has saved their lives and provided them with a source of love and comfort, but also left significant psychological scars on both boys that will probably never heal. (His last words to Dean sent him into a tizzy that lasted half the second season.)

  As for Bobby, he himself said in the third-season finale, “No Rest for the Wicked” (3-16), how family goes beyond blood. Both that episode and “Dream a Little Dream of Me” (3-10), in which we learned some of Bobby’s background, made it clear that Bobby is as much a father to Sam and Dean as John was (some could argue more so).

  There are other aspects of the show that are immensely appealing. While Supernatural isn’t as heavily serialized as, say, Heroes or Lost, the show is aggressively aware of its own continuity. When something is established in one episode, it remains true thenceforth. A prominent example: the Key of Solomon, introduced at the end of the first season in “Devil’s Trap” (1-22), has remained a useful method of trapping demons in the two seasons since. Mystical creatures like reapers and demons and vampires have all remained consistent through multiple appearances.

  The characters have grown and developed-not just Sam and Dean, but several of the supporting players as well. More importantly, the plots have moved forward. While the basic background of blowing into town and shooting demons in the head remains, the writers wisely didn’t try to drag out the fight against Azazel, the demon who killed the boys’ mother, longer than two seasons.

  In addition, the show is hilariously funny. The best dramas are often the ones that make you laugh. I’ve probably chortled more at any random episode of The West Wing or House or The Shield or Deadwood or Supernatural than at any so-called comedy. From Dean’s wiseass remarks and the brotherly banter to the general snottiness of the demons and “Don’t play with my Jesus” (“Bad Day at Black Rock,” 3-3), the show is always good for many a chuckle. Then again, the best horror always has you laughing just long enough for the laugh to catch in your throat when the icky stuff hits. And when the show does flat-out comedy, it’s usually gold: the self-referential satire of “Hollywood Babylon” (2-18), the glorious slapstick of the bad-luck sufferers in “Bad Day at Black Rock,” the tabloid-inspired goofiness of “Tall Tales” (2-15), the Groundhog Day riff in “Mystery Spot” (3-11), and the gleeful spoofs of supernatural reality shows and Web sites in “Hell House” (1-17) and “Ghostfacers” (3-13).

  But perhaps what I personally find particularly appealing about Supernatural is their superlative use of music-compounded by the emphasis on classic rock, which is some of my favorite kind of music. But even if there wasn’t a ton of overlap between Dean’s tape collection and my iTunes library, I love how the show uses music to supplement and enhance what’s happening on screen, mainly because it’s something no other show on the air currently does (and too few have done in the past). The revelation that Sam and Dean were dealing with reapers in “Faith” (1-12) was made infinitely more satisfying by the use of Blue Öyster Cult’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” The spellcasting in “Malleus Maleficarum” (3-9) was far cooler with the addition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’s “I Put a Spell on You.” The tension of the “Hunted” (2-10) teaser was enhanced a thousandfold by the slow build of Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit.” The “Then”/“The Road So Far” scene selections in each of the season finales (as well as several late first-season and early second-season episodes) worked infinitely better with soundtracks (“Fight the Good Fight” by Triumph, “Time Has Come Today” by the Chambers Brothers, “Stranglehold” by Ted Nugent, “Wheel in the Sky” by Journey, and the incredibly apt “Carry on, Wayward Son” by Kansas). And rarely has a piece of music more perfectly suited a scene than “Renegade” by Styx at the conclusion of “Nightshifter” (2-12), especially with Dean uttering “We’re so screwed” in the pause between the intro and when the main part of the song kicked in.

  Plus, Sam and Dean singing “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi very, very, very badly in “No Rest for the Wicked” is perhaps one of the finest brother moments in the show’s three seasons.

  Finally, if Supernatural was just some show about two hot guys fighting demons, BenBella probably wouldn’t have decided to do a Smart Pop book about it.

  So bravo to Eric Kripke, Robert Singer, Ben Edlund, Sera Gamble, McG, and all the other folks involved in Supernatural for making it far more than just another CW show with good-looking young people in it.

  KEITH R. A. DECANDIDO is the author of two of the three Supernatural novels published by HarperEntertainment to date: Nevermore (2007) and Bone Key (2008). Those are but two of the forty-odd (some very odd) novels he’s written, in addition to a mess of short stories, comic books, novellas, eBooks, and nonfiction. He has contributed to six previous Smart Pop volumes: Webslinger, Star Wars on Trial, The Man from Krypton, The Unauthorized X-Men, Finding Serenity, and King Kong Is Back! Find out less at Keith’s Web site at DeCandido.net or read his inane ramblings at kradical.livejournal. com.

  INTRODUCTION

  When Supernatural first burst onto our screens in September 2005, no one could have imagined what an impact it would have on viewers. It was one of many similar genre shows to air that fall, and given the smaller WB network it aired on, it seemed doomed never to achieve a large audience.

  And yet, despite its uphill battle, Supernatural was the only new genre show to survive when the following year’s network schedules were announced. It may not have huge ratings, but it has grown a loyal fan-base that will stop at nothing to protect it.

  So what makes Supernatural so different?

  What makes ordinary people like myself turn into obsessed, overly passionate fans who think nothing of rearranging vacations, work plans, and much more just to fit the show into our lives?

  Some might say it’s the irresistible looks of Supernatural’s two main stars-and I will agree, Jensen and Jared are very appealing to the eye. But there’s so much more to it than that, so much more that we can learn about within the covers of this book.

  Join me for a preview of what I know you will find some fascinating insights into the CW’s best kept secret.

  I think he wants us to pick up where he left off, you know, saving people, hunting things. The family business.

  -DEAN WINCHESTER, “Wendigo” (1-2)

  To embrace Supernatural, you first have to understand that, while Supernatural’s a show about heroism, heroism isn’t always about fighting evil and saving the damsel in distress. While we all love to see Dean and Sam rock-salting a spirit or exorcizing a demon, those moments really only scrape the surface. Sometimes our hunters need saving too, and it’s this element that grips fans, often to the point where we actually don’t want to draw a line between fantasy and reality. When Jensen Ackles jokingly pleaded with viewers to write to Eric Kripke, the show’s creator, and ask to save Dean from his demonic deal, you just knew that the CW’s mailbox was going to be full for a few weeks to come.

  We love to see the brothers’ inner turmoil play out.

  We love to see Dean and Sam struggling with their “inner demons.”

  Why?

&nb
sp; Because heroism on this show is all about what the Winchester family will sacrifice for each other. It’s about the unshakable faith they have in one another-a faith that carries them through possessions, near-death experiences, and ultimately the threat of Hell itself. This is the kind of family bond most people can only ever dream of. Would your father or brother die for you? Would they go to Hell for you, facing unimaginable pain and suffering?

  These are the kind of heroics that attract us fans, just as much as the Winchesters battling rabid Rakshasas or soul-hungry demons.

  When someone says a place is haunted, don’t go in.

  -DEAN WINCHESTER, “Asylum” (1-10)

  We Supernatural fans like our heroes to be angsty, but we do still like them to be heroes. We like them to be fighting external demons, too. We still need our fix of all things freaky to get us through the night, after all.

  And in this department, Supernatural excels, giving us a weekly mix of urban folklore and ancient legends played out in various backwater locations across the U.S. Usually, these myths have been tantalizingly re-imagined for our viewing delight by such talented writers as Sera Gamble and Jeremy Carver, to name but two. While some of these legends are eerily familiar to us, it’s easily apparent that a massive amount of research goes into bringing us the more unheard of stories-stories that give the audience a chance to not only sink into the macabre plots but actually have fun with folklore that otherwise would have remained sunken in obscurity.

  Forget history 101 and anthropology. It’s much more fun to tag along with the Winchesters in the back seat of the Impala!

  Hey, you better take care of that car, or I swear I’ll haunt your ass.

  -DEAN WINCHESTER, “Faith” (1-12)

  And of course, speaking of the raven metal behemoth, the boys riding in the Impala is something we love to see on Supernatural. For true fans, the classic Chevy has become more than just an aging motor. Over three seasons, she has become a character in her own right, one we can’t bear to see harmed any more than we can the Winchesters themselves. There was a time when most TV shows had a cool car, and Dean’s “baby” is right up there with the best of them. Forget KITT and the General Lee-the Impala is big, she’s black, and it appears she’s more indestructible than Superman … at least if “In My Time of Dying” (2-1) is to be believed.