**Spoilers**
If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.
This episode scares me. No...honestly it does. Wendigo really, properly scares me. Funnily enough it is hardly the darkest or most frightening of the stories from Supernatural, but it still manages to scare the crap out of me. Why, you may ask? Well it's entirely my own fault. As a child and young teen I was a bit of a mythology buff (still am, if I'm being honest) and so one day I was perusing the library in search of something new to read and came across an anthology of Native American Mythology. Well like a dummy I sat down to read it before bed and the first story I came across was that of the Wendigo. It was told from the POV of a young boy reciting the legend to a couple of his friends. He describes how the creature smells like rotten meat, feeds on human flesh, and will attack faster than you can blink. The story describes the boys getting trapped outside after dark and how before the Wendigo strikes it will hunt you down and call out your name. That is how you know you have been marked for attack. The tale ends with this line: "...some of you may not believe that the Wendigo exists, but I know better. I'd seen the eyes, I'd smelled the smell, and I'd heard the scream that was probably the last sound Boomer Briggs ever made."
So, of course, whenever I saw the title of this episode, I shuddered and almost shut it off. Now that I knew what the terrifying creature from the beginning of the episode was I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to watch it. Still, it wasn't so bad. This show knows how to go just scary enough to raise the stakes and get you glued to the screen, but it never goes overboard with the gore or trauma just for the sake of being scary.
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- I'm very glad that they didn't just gloss over the effect that Jess' death must have had on Sam (and, by extension, Dean). All too often a drama will set up a tragedy and make you cry at the climax...but by the time the next episode has started things have all but been reset. Or the next episode sort of deals with the fallout, but then everything is hunky-dory after that. Not so with Supernatural.
- Dean's rather bumbling lying to that ranger is hilarious. Or perhaps a bit tragic...
- Dean doesn't do shorts...
- At last I know how to properly pronounce the name of the creature. Silly me, it's pronounced just like it's written: Wen-dEE-go.
- A Wendigo emerges every 23 years? Huh. Guess I need to start moving every 20...
- "Did Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?"
- What I didn't see coming was Dean being grabbed by the Wendigo and both he and Haley's brother making it out alive. I knew Dean would...but my money was really on Tommy croaking it by the end of the episode. I love it when a show can play on my expectations and then subvert them entirely.
- It was wise of them not to show us the monster until the very end (and then only in shadows) because nothing could ever live up to our expectations and the imagination always creates the best horrors anyway.
There's really nothing else much to say about this episode. It had a solid story, fairly likeable characters, and the Wendigo's den made me nauseous. Overall it was a great experience. The writing was good, Dean and Sam were adorable, and I can't wait for the next one. Wendigo, despite the spoilerish title, is a solid 3/5.
So, of course, whenever I saw the title of this episode, I shuddered and almost shut it off. Now that I knew what the terrifying creature from the beginning of the episode was I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to watch it. Still, it wasn't so bad. This show knows how to go just scary enough to raise the stakes and get you glued to the screen, but it never goes overboard with the gore or trauma just for the sake of being scary.
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- Dean's rather bumbling lying to that ranger is hilarious. Or perhaps a bit tragic...
- Haley and her brothers are obviously set up to be relatable in terms of the Winchester's plight in that they've lost their parents and can only rely on each other. I have a question about the youngest brother, though. Does he ever actually have a line to say? I just watched the episode and I honestly don't know. Talk about an under-developed scene-filler!
- Authorities ruled the attacks out as a rogue grizzly. Of course they did.
- Dean doesn't do shorts...
- At last I know how to properly pronounce the name of the creature. Silly me, it's pronounced just like it's written: Wen-dEE-go.
- A Wendigo emerges every 23 years? Huh. Guess I need to start moving every 20...
- "Did Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?" - What I didn't see coming was Dean being grabbed by the Wendigo and both he and Haley's brother making it out alive. I knew Dean would...but my money was really on Tommy croaking it by the end of the episode. I love it when a show can play on my expectations and then subvert them entirely.
- It was wise of them not to show us the monster until the very end (and then only in shadows) because nothing could ever live up to our expectations and the imagination always creates the best horrors anyway.
There's really nothing else much to say about this episode. It had a solid story, fairly likeable characters, and the Wendigo's den made me nauseous. Overall it was a great experience. The writing was good, Dean and Sam were adorable, and I can't wait for the next one. Wendigo, despite the spoilerish title, is a solid 3/5.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not -
what would you say differently?
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