Supernatural: The Horror of High School
Truman High in Indiana is like a whole bunch of other schools across the country -- i.e., a terrifying maelstrom of hormones and emotional savagery. But things get even scarier when one of the downtrodden masses strikes back at a tormenter (who was herself tormented moments before -- seriously, high school sucks) by administering a fatal swirly. What a way to go. Even more ominous, black goo leaks out of her eye after she does the deed.
The boys infiltrate the school, posing as a short-shorts wearing gym teacher (that's Dean) and a hulking janitor (that would be Sam). When no sulfur or EMF traces turn up, the guys are willing to dismiss this as simple teenage rage. Then another kid snaps, plunging a jock tormentor's hand into a whirring Cuisinart. Ick! Sam sees the black goo this time -- it's ectoplasm, which means there was a seriously pissed off ghost involved.
A records search indicates that one kid died in the school -- a kid named Barry, who committed suicide in the girls' bathroom, where the first attack took place. Sam is shaken -- he knew Barry, and tried to protect him from a bully named Dirk. Maybe if he'd stayed at the school longer, he would have been able to help him, and he would have lived. The boys salt and burn the bones, and prepare to hit the road.
But first, Sam wants to see Mr. Wyatt, a teacher who actually took an interest and encouraged him. He praised an essay Small Sam wrote about his most memorable family moment (although he thought the part about killing a werewolf was fiction), and asks Small Sam if he's thought about being a writer. I can't, Small Sam says -- I need to go into the family business. That leads to this exchange:
Wyatt: Do you want to go in the family business Sam?
Small Sam: No one's ever asked me that before.
Wyatt: Well?
Small Sam: More than anything, no.
Wyatt: Well.... I don't want to overstep my bounds here, but you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. There may be three or four big choices that shape someone's whole life, and you need to be the one who makes them, not anyone else. You seem like a great kid, Sam. Just live the life you want to live.
Oof. Heartbreaking. Because we know Sam tried, he really did, but he couldn't live the life he wanted.
That reverie is interrupted by another student, who asks Sam for directions, then stabs him with a compass and kicks the crap out of him. Sam expels the ghost by filling the girl's mouth with salt, but that begs the question -- if it's not spectral Barry striking out at bullies, who is it? No one else died in the school, so no one else can be haunting the building!
The guys discover that all of the possessed kids rode the same bus. What if the ghost was haunting the bus, and then "riding" the kids through the school? They search the bus, and discover that it has a new driver: Dirk Macgregor Sr. Yep, that's the father of the same Dirk who tormented Barry, who Sam eventually put in his place by thoroughly beating him and humiliating him, even giving him a new nickname -- Dirk the Jerk. But it turns out Dirk lashed out at other kids because he was going through hell at home, caring for his cancer-stricken mother, who died by inches over a number of years. After Sam defeated him, he was an outcast, bullied and tormented. He drank and drugged himself to death at age 19. His father cremated his son, but he keeps a lock of his hair in the bible he has in his bus.
The boys catch up with the bus, and discover Dirk "riding" the bus driver. As far as spectral Dirk is concerned, Sam was the bully, the popular one, the tormentor. He commences the beat-down, jumping to another body when Sam and Dean immobilize the first one. Sam tries to talk him down:
I'm not evil Dirk. I'm not. And neither were you. Trust me, I've seen real evil. We were scared and miserable and we took it out on each other. us and everybody else. that's high school. but you suffer through that and it get better. I'm just sorry you didn't get a chance to see that. You or Barry.
But Dirk doesn't want to hear it, so Dean has to burn the lock of hair and banish him for good.
Dean is thrilled to finally be getting out of town -- he has nothing but bad memories of this school See, they were there much longer than they anticipated, and Teen Dean started to make connections. He started dating -- well, making out with -- a girl named Amanda, who was actually a little nonplussed when she realized Teen Dean and Small Sam were living on their own in a hotel. Teen Dean skates through school knowing everyone thinks he's cool, but then Amanda catches him making out in the closet with another girl. That leads to this exchange:
Amanda: You spend so much time trying to convince people that you're cool, but it's just an act. We both know that you're just a sad, lonely little kid, and I feel sorry for you Dean.
Teen Dean: Don't feel sorry for me. You don't know anything about me. I save lives, I'm a hero. A hero!
But no one is listening to him. The mystique is gone.
Sam returns to the school again, and this time really does talk to Mr. Wyatt. Wyatt remembers him eventually, and asks if Sam was able to do his own thing
Sam: Yeah, for a while. I think I went to college because of you. But, you know, people grow up, have responsibilities.... but still, you took an interest in me when no one else did, so thank you.
Wyatt: The only thing that matters is you're happy. Are you happy Sam?
And Sam has no response to that. Again, oof.
Comments
I really liked this episode! Perfect mixture of comedy, drama and scares. And the new director was amazing!!!!!!
Posted by: cassi | February 5, 2009 7:30 AM
I have to agree with some of the other comments, this episode wasn't the best, maybe it was even the worst episode of Season 4. Too many missed opportunities to impart new information about the brothers history, and I'm sorry, little Sam may have been a good actor, but he did not look like a high school freshman, and because Teen Dean looked older, it actually made Dean and Sam look almost like father-son.
Posted by: Anonymous | February 3, 2009 12:59 PM
Meh!
Posted by: DeanFTW | February 2, 2009 10:08 PM
Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful!
I loved it!
Pure and SImply!
One of the Greatest Episodes ever!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 2, 2009 6:59 PM
Fabulous episode, young Colin Ford is awesome as Sam!
Jared broke my heart yet again, lord it's good to see him coming back into the storyline more!
Thought Brock was good, but he was always gonna have an uphill battle on his hands, cause no one plays Dean like Jensen!
Great episode, definately going on top of the list for me!
Posted by: magaret | February 2, 2009 5:30 PM
Kim Manners RIP
You will be missed.
I thought Jared was great in this episode - not overplayed at all. Really nuanced. Sam was really interesting both as an adult and a kid - they lucked out with that child actor. He is perfect.
Teen Dean? Not so much. In fact to be honest there is only one way to describe Teen Dean: beyond crap. Or perhaps that he sucked out loud.
He got all of the superficial stuff about Dean like the bluster and the smirks and none of his heart or his humour. It just shows how lucky we are to have Jensen as the real Dean - you need an actor as good as Jensen to play the subtlety and the layers of the character.
Teen Dean came off as cruel, stupid and mean. And he looked about 5 years too old for high school. PLEASE never use that actor again. The other little actor- the one who played Dean in A Very Supernatural Christmas was really good. Why on earth did you not use him?
The episode was OK - can't wait for the mythology stuff to start paying off though.
Posted by: freefalling | February 2, 2009 4:17 PM
This episode had nothing new to offer. It was the 500th time in the series that I had to hear Sam state how much he hated hunting. I got it writers!!! Having said that, Colin Ford did an amazing job as young Sam.
I was very disappointed to see that at 14 Sam already had such contempt for Dean. And that attitude continued throughout the first season (off and on throughout the 2nd and 3rd) and is stronger than ever this season. The brotherly bond no longer exists because of this and that makes me sad and takes away much of my enjoyment of this show.
Poor Brock Kelly, he really tried to do a good job. But all he ended up doing was a very bad imitation of Ackles. The writers set the poor guy up with some of the worse cliche'd writing I have ever seen on the show.
Anyway I thought the episode was total crap and a huge lost opportunity to tell us something new about both boys. I was hoping we would find out what the shapeshifter was referring to when he talked about Dean's dreams in Skin and how Dean denied them to stick with his family. Huuuuge lost opportunity!!!
Posted by: Con | February 2, 2009 12:15 PM
It's episodes like this that make me realize what made me fall in love with Supernatural in the first place. Funny, touching, heartbreaking, sweet. There's no other show like it. And there never will be. <3
Posted by: sadie | February 1, 2009 6:57 PM
I really like this episode, definitely one of my favorites for this season.
My favorite parts were with little Sam and Coach Dean. Young Dean was okay I guess.
Posted by: Jennybean | January 31, 2009 5:17 PM
I thought, at first, that Brock Kelly was absolutely terrible. I didn't warm to him at all, and thought he was just over the top, and that accent didn't help things at all. (What, did John move the kids deep into the Bronx when Dean was 14? Dean magically picked up an east coast twang in a couple of years? If the Canadian extras are able to say "about" rather than "aboot", I can't believe he couldn't firm up his "r"'s.)
But then I realized that I'm just spoiled by Jensen Ackles' portrayal of Dean, and that it doesn't matter who gets chosen to play him, they're never going to be good enough, sadly.
...and also, Brock just wasn't good. Sorry.
The episode was awesome, though. I loved the season 2 feel of it, what with the angst and the brother bonding and the focus on the Winchesters, rather than on the myth-arc with the angels and the demons and the who gives a crap, just give me more man pain and I'm good to go.
That little twist at the end with Sam and Dean switching teams (Sam from loser to hero, Dean from The Man to pitiable player) was smooth and surprising. It broke my heart for Dean, especially upon remembering how, in the beginning of the episode, he tried to dissuade Sam from going back to the school on the pretext that Sam suffered there, when it was Dean who was afraid of it the whole time. Poor boys.
Posted by: Miss M. | January 31, 2009 9:30 AM
Superb ep from start to finish. I was crying like a baby several times--when Sam waved goodbye to a despondent Barry; when the teacher spoke to him about choosing his own path; and at the end, when Mr. White asked Sam, "Are you happy?" We all know the answer, and my heart broke for Sam! Love, Robin
Posted by: Robin Vogel | January 31, 2009 6:43 AM
This episode made me sad but not b/c of the reasons you listed. 1) i missed Ridge ... this guy was fine but he wasnt weeDean to me 2) the boys get dropped off by Dad but we missed out on a JDM moment 3) the 21 Jump Street line made me think of Kim - he left a mark in this world and thats a life well lived, RIP.
Posted by: Elaine | January 30, 2009 8:15 PM
I really liked this episode. It was one of the really good ones. The J's were awesome as usual. Colin Ford absolutely rocked as Small Sam. And I thought Brock Kelly did a really good job as Dean - and imo, it has to be the more difficult of the two roles to really capture.
Jensen has done so much for Dean with both physical mannerisms and speech inflections .. and then also Brock was playing him as a high school senior .. a lot closer to their grown-up versions .. but still, a lot will happen to them both between then and when we first see them about 8 years later in the pilot (so there WILL be differences - it should be expected).
And I'm not trying to say that emulating Jared as Sam is "easy" .. but Sam is the less extreme of the two characters. I do think Jared has been doing a wonderful job playing Sam (Sam is NOT Jared and vice-versa) - and like I said, Colin really rocks as a young Sam (he is a talented young man).
On to other bits and pieces .. Sam's exchanges with the teacher were great. In amongst all the "horrors" of school - it was great that they pointed out that teachers can and do make a difference in the lives of their students. (extra points that the teacher was the 'black sheep' from a family of surgeons -- Jared's mom is a teacher and his brother is a doctor/surgeon).
The cancer-stricken mother of course reminded me of Kim (several things in the episode did .. and yes, when it did I got teary). Obviously the timing that this episode aired was coincidental .. and cancer touches us all from more than one direction .. but to me, what was going on with Kim when the episode was written had to be part of why they included it - even if it wasn't necessarily intentionally done for that reason.
I always love seeing the guys when they're not buried underneath layers and layers .. so Sam in scrubs and the janitor uniform .. and Dean in the gym shorts (LMAO at the headband) and then the track/jogging outfit .. *sigh* yes - I'm allowed shallow moments too ;-)
Oh - I almost forgot (and sorry for the length of my post, btw) .. the hand in the cuisinart .. OMG .. scenes like THOSE .. things that I believe could really happen to me at home (like the plumber's hand in the garbage disposal in the Season 1 'Home' episode) .. are the ones that I find incredibly difficult to watch. Funnily enough, guns & knives (also potentially a real-life danger), THOSE don't really bother me. But, household appliances, power tools .. the BBQ Fork in BDABR .. THOSE bother me.
Posted by: CandyMaize | January 30, 2009 7:21 PM
supernatural is the best. although i do hope they return to the pivotal heaven and hell war soon.
but it was still a good episode. i felt really bad for dean though (sam of course too) because that girl just told him he's sad and lonely in front of everyone. i guess that would maybe be my initial reaction when finding out he's making out with another girl in the janitor's closet. although dean really is a hero. he has to suffer through so much, holding all the responsibility of his family on his shoulders, and she throws that at him as if it were a whim.
haha loved that 'pot' line that dean said at the bus. hehe i laughed so hard.
Posted by: allison | January 30, 2009 7:15 PM