Supernatural - 1x3 "Dead in the Water" Rewatch
Added 2024-01-07 09:59:29 +0000 UTC
Comments
I don't like the over-reaching for parallells that aren't there. In this instance, however, Lucas and Dean are parallells to one another. Many times, however, it's annoying AF because NOT EVERYTHING IS A PARALLELL! Interestingly, today I was re-watching the Special that came out after S9 and Eric K stated he hates 'Wendigo'. He believes it's a terrible script, cheap practical effects for the wendigo, and no twists.
Amye Sabin
2024-01-15 07:34:21 +0000 UTCI'll be rewatching it this weekend. It's been a long time since I've seen that episode in full
Sharon Owen
2024-01-11 00:08:57 +0000 UTCDamn! I’m bummed about Bloody Mary not being reacted to, 1 of my personal favs from season 1. Looking forward to hear what you thought of it on rewatch :)
Amy Sinclair
2024-01-10 22:26:11 +0000 UTCI rewatched this on my channel too. Apart from the Dean character development I found this episode a bit dull and not that interesting. It was definitely solely MOTW and a look into Dean's trauma from Mary's death and Sam learning more about Dean.
Sharon Owen
2024-01-10 14:39:16 +0000 UTC100% this!
AdoptDontShopPets
2024-01-10 00:40:28 +0000 UTCFull cards on the table this episode is ALL about Dean's vulnerability and his sweet interactions and really sensitive and intuitive way of relating to Lucas for me. This is the episode that made me go oh this man has got a deep deep heart. Totally the moment during my first watch that made me realise he was so much more than the bravado and performance (though on rewatch I spotted those glimmers earlier.)
charlieinabook
2024-01-09 23:17:16 +0000 UTCYou are not.
SKK
2024-01-09 06:51:02 +0000 UTC*I might be wrong, so this one’s just a sidenote, but I think this might be the first episode in which we spend more time alone with Sam and Dean, just the two of them, as opposed to them being around other people and/or split up working the case? Deeper, subtler brotherly relationship building was a nice change of pace for an episode 3 as well. p.s. Love the intermediary episode recaps! Will pray for you as requested.
SKK
2024-01-09 06:49:30 +0000 UTCI voted for this episode vigorously and without self-doubt. 😉 Since I'm thinking about it now, I suppose a primary reason is that the scene with Lucas in the bathroom is the moment I made an emotional connection between the Dean standing before us and the little boy in the pilot's cold open. Until that moment, the fire was a horrible (emphasis on "horror") thing that'd happened to a family and turned the survivors into hunters, but it wasn't tragic... and hauntingly resonant... necessarily. I also really liked (and like) the stealth move by the writers of a seeming 'nother case that deftly turns into a nuanced character study.* We'd known what drives Sam (more or less) by this point. What drives Dean? — What’s that you say?… "Being brave" for his mom?? Since he was was that little boy?! Oh. Okay, thanks, no, I'm good here on the floor. Just give me a minute.
SKK
2024-01-09 06:49:17 +0000 UTCEnjoying this rewatch and everyone's comments but I'm late to the party so everyone's said it all better than me. My guess is that this and Skin won in the vote because they add such interesting layers to Dean's character, and there seem to be a lot of Dean girls here (me included). To get nerdy, Amy Acker is the first Whedonverse actor to appear in SPN, but I think she often gets overlooked because she's in Angel rather than Buffy; Julie Benz (from both Buffy and Angel) in Faith is the next, then Tara Benson in s2, Mercedes McNab in s3, James Marsters and Charisma Carpenter in that silly witch ep from s7, Keith Szarabajka (Angel) as Donatello from s11 on, Christian Kane (Angel) in s15 and I almost forgot Felicia Day was in Buffy s7 as one if the potential slayers. Did I miss anyone else? (Coincidentally I'm rewatching Person of Interest which features Amy Acker and Sarah Shahi, the woman in white from the Pilot, as two badass women who gradually fall for each other when they're not saving people or killing bad guys. I recommend it!)
Jay
2024-01-09 00:50:08 +0000 UTCFor a quote, it has to be Sam asking " How you holdin' up" since it became so iconic, used in a huge number of episodes through all 15 seasons. I actually started laughing when I heard it. I haven't watched Windigo in a long time so maybe he said in that episode as well.....? Watching the layers of Dean Winchester build and take on texture and shading is like the portrait coming to life and I wanted to know more about this character ASAP. The tension between the brothers, the tone they took sold me. I think, because I spent about 3 years assisting with students with both mental and physical disabilities decades ago, that Lucas kept my interest more than the MOTW ( which I've always considered to be a vengeful spirit trapped within the water.) Dean's patience and gentle manner with the boy came to mean so much more as the episodes unroll and reveal glimpses of how extensive his looking after Sam really was. I also like how Sam reminds his brother that they can't save everyone. And I could already feel myself drawn into the orbit of big brother Dean.
ElysiaFields19
2024-01-08 07:57:24 +0000 UTCI like this episode better than Wendigo. I do enjoy this one because of Amy Acker, much like I enjoy Faith in part because of Julie Benz. I think Faith has more going for it, but I also really like this one because we start to see the real Dean, not just the image he projects.
KAREN GAUCK
2024-01-08 06:03:41 +0000 UTCI love Dean's interactions with Lucas in this episode and how much we learn about Dean's backstory. That's what makes the episode for me. - I really like the way you are always looking for themes and parallels. It's so interesting to see the things that you see, as no matter how many times I watch these episodes I tend to just watch them as is, as opposed to looking for parallels etc. - I had never thought of what Peter is! I had always just assumed he was a ghost :) - I prefer Wendigo, too. I think it's a fantastic second episode and has one of my favourite lines of the series, "Oh come on, wendigos are in the Minnesota woods or, or northern Michigan. I've never even heard of one this far west." Effortless setting up of the Winchesters' deep knowledge. Genius.
YazH
2024-01-07 21:03:53 +0000 UTCLove the guessing why we chose specific episodes. I guess I would have classified him as a ghost that possesses the water...? I guess. Yeah I mainly like this for the Dean side of it, but as an episode in total it's on my personal fave list of s1.
BexFangirl
2024-01-07 15:23:49 +0000 UTCDean’s connection to Lucas and learning about their parallel PTSD traumas are why this episode won in the poll. Otherwise, not a particularly fun MOTW. You are right that Jared’s delivery of the line, “Name three kids that you even know,” was pure genius. So funny. I also regretfully noticed Sam’s habit of whisper-talking to upset friends and family. I think it only lasts through season 1. Hopefully I am the only one irritated by it.
AdoptDontShopPets
2024-01-07 15:14:03 +0000 UTCReally great reaction Shelley 😄 cheers 👍🏻. Love the way you look for parallels and themes. And that’s an excellent point you made about how important MOTW episodes can be because that’s often where we get a lot of the character building blocks. I didn’t vote for this ep because it’s a standard MOTW episode to me, but I love how it still gives up character insights. I like the foreshadowing about Psychic abilities. And another bit of foreshadowing I only noticed here on this rewatch was the Sheriff giving up his life in exchange for his kid. I’m usually too busy thinking his past actions are too inexcusable to think any more on him. And when Andrea says he loved her and her kid, my response is more about the complicated situations of family members of serial killers who find themselves having to balance memories of a loving family member with someone who turned out to be a monster. But I never really thought about the fact that the sheriff walks freely into the water and offers his life in exchange for Lucas. (I don’t actually equate John directly with the Sheriff but a father exchanging his life for his son is still interesting foreshadowing.) . So I really enjoyed the themes of generational curses here. And sacrifice for family. Am looking forward to carrying on with these with you, and finding new insights. So glad you are doing this 🙌🏼😄 thanks!
MidnightSilver
2024-01-07 13:33:35 +0000 UTCDean telling Sam to have fun pointing to the waitress 🤦🏻♀️ Sam literally just lost his girlfriend, dean! Not everyone deals with grief by getting black out drunk and having sex, that's your coping mechanism not sam's!!! Sam like john gets obsessive, unhinged and vengeful when losing a loved one, we saw it after Jess, after dean died etc... While dean gets self destructive after losing a loved one. I always find the kiss to be super odd and unnecessary, but I guess it's the genre, the hero saving the day and getting the girl, typical 2000s tv trope
Hasnaa
2024-01-07 12:59:03 +0000 UTCIt's all about Mary. This episode and the pilot share a theme of secrets causing the kids to be punished and I definitely believe they are planting the seeds of Mary's secret. Sam's and Jess relationship has the same secret that Mary has with John. He mentions how he will never tell her anything in the pilot. In this episode the secret a parent had caused their kids and family to be punished. We know that many of Mary's friends and family were killed by yellow eyes after her deal as well. Lucas actually embodies the results of Mary's deal on Sam and Dean. He is traumatized like Dean shut down emotionally and I don't think this was intentional but he was nearly killed reaching for soldier. Dean trying to be a soldier for his father causes all kinds of issues for him later on. Then we have the gifts Lucas had which is the trauma Sam got from the deal.
Christopher simeon
2024-01-07 12:46:03 +0000 UTCCompletely same! It’s such an interesting (and good imo) choice by the creators to immediately see through Dean’s facade of bravado only 3 episodes in. Normally these are really slow burns where eventually near the end of the series we see that the badass character actually cares, but I love that in the case of dean we find out pretty much immediately how much of a softie he is lol
Kit
2024-01-07 12:17:41 +0000 UTCI like this episode okay ... also most of the early episodes too, because I like horror shows. Some of my thoughts about this one in this rewatch: - At first, we thought this was gonna be a typical scary monster episode like previous ones, but the two SPN powerhouse writers - Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker - twisted our expectations and gave us a story that was more about grief and family secrets. - Both grief experiences exhibited by these characters manifested in similar ways. When we first meet Bill Charlton, he is so distraught over the loss of his daughter that he is unable to speak. And so did Lucas, and we found out, so did Dean ... - That "...it's worse than dying" from Bill that was repeated later by Peter's mother to Sam and Dean, most likely Bill was quoting her. He probably heard her when she said it in the past when Peter went missing. He now knew and understood how she felt then ... - I also noticed that when Will was pulled into the sink, there was a "come play with me" too embedded in the background noise during that scene, but not as clearly as when with Andrea in the bathtub... - When Lucas exhibited his psychic tendencies through his drawings, it was not chalked up to be this monumental, typical common horror trope thing like in a typical horror show. Instead, it is just part of how he deals with what happened to him. - Yeah, Sam already exhibited his psychic ability via his dreams - he knew about Jess dying even before her death, and he will reveal to Dean this in a later episode ... So the secret hidden from family applies to him too. - Lucas felt terribly, miserably alone, and the psychic visions he was getting probably didn't make him feel better. And then here comes this man, this adult man who can talk about being scared and it was okay not wanting to talk, and then he suggests that there is still a way to stay brave. Dean provides the empathy that no one else could have given him. This trauma will similarly be revisited in 14.05 Advanced Thanatology by Steve Yockey. - I don't necessarily think that this story suggested that Andrea couldn't provide for her son. In fact, this episode showed us how close they were. But there is a power to the sort of personal understanding that Dean gives Lucas, that is special in its own right. - This is the first episode that established that sometimes, unfortunately, the Winchesters cannot save every one whom they came to a particular town for the case of the week to save. People are going to die along the way, and the best these brothers can do is save who they can ....
rose mnor
2024-01-07 11:54:09 +0000 UTCSome highlights from Superwiki for this episode:- - the monster of the week, Peter, is a vengeful spirit. - Dean is Agent Ford, and Sam is Agent Hamill. The same aliases will be re-used in 15.05 Proverb 17:3 where we will meet the new version of Lilith. Sam refers to themselves as "deep cuts" due to how young they look in their photos, though Dean insists that he looks the same. - Recycled actor - Lucas actor will also play another but unnamed character in 7.03 The Girl Next Door in a flashback sequence with Young Sam. - Jared's hand/wrist was broken while filming this episode because he and Jensen got into a barfight. The way they tell it, they came into the bar after there already had been a fight and were then mistaken for the troublemakers. Another version of the story says that some guy wasn't very happy when his girlfriend approached either Jensen or Jared. - this hand injury will be exacerbated in S2. While filming 2.03 Bloodlust, in the scene where he was attacked by vampires, Jared landed awkwardly on his hand re-injuring it. Which then needed to be plastered but they had already started filming the next episode - 2.04 Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things - so he couldn't wear a cast until the following episode. They wrote in the line for Sam, "I think she broke my hand" after his fight with the zombie, Angela Mason, to explain Sam wearing a cast on his right arm in the episodes from 2.05 Simon Said until 2.11 Playthings. Jared had surgery on it during the filming of 2.06 No Exit, when Alona Tal as the character Jo Harvelle, played a significant role in covering many scenes, enabling him some time off for the treatment of his wrist. - Kripke said about coping with Jared's injury and working that into the story: "Ah, Jared. We're making it work. Luckily, he gets in fights every episode so it is easy for him to break his hand. It turns out the zombie breaks his hand. I'm glad he's OK, and I'm glad it all worked out, but I do have to say there is a part of me that wished he broke his hand a little earlier because it would have made so much more sense to come out of the car crash with the broken arm. He survived getting T-boned by a semi going full speed, but a zombie broke his hand? We do what we always do — we made a joke out of it and we had Dean give a funny reaction. Not once does it get in the way of the story." - Guest star Amy Acker is, like Jared and Jensen, also from Texas. She attended Lake Highlands High School, bitter rival of Jensen's high school which made for many on-set jokes between the two. - Jensen has cited this episode many times as one of his favorites. He especially points out the scene in which he had to erupt from the waters of Lake Manitoc while holding a child actor in his arms as one of the most "surreal" experiences he's had on the show. This was due to the stunt scuba divers that held both actors beneath the water's surface until the director yelled "Action!"
rose mnor
2024-01-07 11:27:43 +0000 UTCMy relationship with season 1 is a bit rocky, I liked a lot of episodes but I also was not invested in quite a few particularly in the first half of the season. It was in this episode I became a Dean girl, seeing some of the layers to his character, seeing past the bravado really hooked me in and kept me going through the first part of the season until it took off.
Kim Rigg
2024-01-07 11:23:33 +0000 UTCok hopefully I’m commenting on the right video now lol 😂 Just before I start watching I thought I’d drop a comment about Eric kripke’s recent answer to a question on Twitter about this episode. Someone tagged him and asked: “A lot of us fell in love with Dean when we saw him interacting with Lucas in these scenes. Was Dean’s affinity for children already written into the character, did the writer come up with it or Jensen perhaps?” And Kripke sent all the Dean stans of Twitter into a frenzy when he responded: “Combo of both! Started with script (1st by @serathegamble & @RaelleTucker). Dean's core is a hurt child with a thick shell of bravado, so we figured he'd connect with kids. Then @JensenAckles made it sing with gruffness & warmth, so we kept doing it.” DEANS CORE IS A HURT CHILD WITH A THICK SHELL OF BRAVADO 😭 obviously we all knew this but having dean og creator say this publicly caused a fandom wide meltdown
Kit
2024-01-07 10:38:31 +0000 UTC
