By: Sera Gamble & Raelle Tucker
**Spoilers**
If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.
When I first sat down to watch this episode I got really excited. Opening homage to Jaws aside, I was certain that I had sussed out the supernatural culprit to the drowning. Far from ruining the episode for me, though, I was looking forward to meeting the kelpie...or Nessie, I wasn't picky. Unfortunately, I was dead wrong as to the nature of the threat (good job I'm not a Hunter...) and so found this episode depressing and confusing once that initial excitement was debunked. They also had an odd sort of coloring and filters on.
I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about this episode, as you can probably tell. It just had too many things that felt clichéd and dull. Especially with Lucas - the kid who saw something terrible and stopped talking, but was skilfully brought out by our hero and to the point where he connects with and communicates only with that person? Um...it's been done to death. We all know how that is going to end out, so we don't particularly care about the 'mystery'. Also, forgive me for saying this, but Lucas looked entirely too old to really pull off the 'too traumatized to speak except through drawings' Creepy Child trope. It's probably the hair...
What the episode did do right, though, was capturing the fear of what lies beneath the surface of the water. Most of us, at some point in our lives, had some sort of horrified fascination with what may actually live down our drains and that is something that this episode capitalises on. Seriously...Steven Moffat could totally take lessons from these folks!
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- Blonds always die first. Poor Sophie should have considered dyeing her hair...
- This week the boys are in Lake Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
- Agents Ford and Hamill...I'm pretty sure that Dean is Hans Solo and Sam Luke Skywalker and that it was Dean who chose that order. Their aliases usually contain some sort of Easter Egg reference that are always fun to spot. This week was Star Wars actors.
- "Must be hard with your sense of direction never being able to find your way to a decent pick-up line." You tell him, Andrea!
- They ruled out Nessie (mentioning both Loch Ness and Lake Champlain as examples) and so this was where I started my kelpie theory. I still say that would have been cooler than what we got...
- You would know, wouldn't you, Dean?
- I think sometimes we forget that Dean was indeed just a child (four years old) whenever Mary Winchester burnt on the nursery ceiling and he raced out of the house with his baby brother in his arms.
- Dean may claim he isn't good with kids, but that's obviously a lie. Even though he never really interacts with them, he drew Lucas out like a pro. It probably has something to do with his spending most of his younger life helping to raise Sam.
- Dean with a kid is something extremely adorable!
- I just wanted to smack the guy who got pulled into that sink. Look, buddy, whenever your drain starts to regurgitate scummy water back at you, you don't stick your arm down in there. Haven't you ever seen a horror film? Haven't you heard of leeches?!
- It was about here when the story lost me. I know that tales like this have to have a certain element of mystery to them...but it just felt like it had no focus and a lack of pacing.
- As soon as Andrea got into that bathtub I cringed, knowing that something bad was going to happen to her. And sure enough - scummy water started to fill the tub up and drag her under.
- What is up with Lucas? I highly doubt that a child traumatised into silence like that would take a stroll down to the lake where his father died simply because he heard a voice calling him to play. Was he under hypnosis because of the evil spirit? Was he stupid? Or was this just badly written?
- It was wise of them to not show us the water spirit until the very end and then only hint at it. Human imagination is always ten times more scary than a CGI monster could even dream of being.
- I also found it interesting that nothing was really resolved here. Yes Dean saved the kid (with a rather impressive dive) and the killings stopped, but only because of the sacrifice of the remorseful grandfather that appeased the vengeful spirit. It just goes to show that, in a Hunter's life, things don't always wrap up all neat and tidy.
- One part that made me smile: Dean teaching Lucas that Led Zeppelin rules and giving him a high five as a co-conspirator.
This was definitely not Supernatural's best work. It is a creepy episode, I'll give you that...but really only good for the first-viewing-plot-mystery aspect. It certainly isn't one that I personally will be looking back on. Dead In The Water rates at a 2/4.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?
I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about this episode, as you can probably tell. It just had too many things that felt clichéd and dull. Especially with Lucas - the kid who saw something terrible and stopped talking, but was skilfully brought out by our hero and to the point where he connects with and communicates only with that person? Um...it's been done to death. We all know how that is going to end out, so we don't particularly care about the 'mystery'. Also, forgive me for saying this, but Lucas looked entirely too old to really pull off the 'too traumatized to speak except through drawings' Creepy Child trope. It's probably the hair...What the episode did do right, though, was capturing the fear of what lies beneath the surface of the water. Most of us, at some point in our lives, had some sort of horrified fascination with what may actually live down our drains and that is something that this episode capitalises on. Seriously...Steven Moffat could totally take lessons from these folks!
Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:
- Blonds always die first. Poor Sophie should have considered dyeing her hair...
- This week the boys are in Lake Manitowoc, Wisconsin.
- Agents Ford and Hamill...I'm pretty sure that Dean is Hans Solo and Sam Luke Skywalker and that it was Dean who chose that order. Their aliases usually contain some sort of Easter Egg reference that are always fun to spot. This week was Star Wars actors.
- "Must be hard with your sense of direction never being able to find your way to a decent pick-up line." You tell him, Andrea!
- They ruled out Nessie (mentioning both Loch Ness and Lake Champlain as examples) and so this was where I started my kelpie theory. I still say that would have been cooler than what we got...
- You would know, wouldn't you, Dean?
- I think sometimes we forget that Dean was indeed just a child (four years old) whenever Mary Winchester burnt on the nursery ceiling and he raced out of the house with his baby brother in his arms.
- Dean may claim he isn't good with kids, but that's obviously a lie. Even though he never really interacts with them, he drew Lucas out like a pro. It probably has something to do with his spending most of his younger life helping to raise Sam.- Dean with a kid is something extremely adorable!
- I just wanted to smack the guy who got pulled into that sink. Look, buddy, whenever your drain starts to regurgitate scummy water back at you, you don't stick your arm down in there. Haven't you ever seen a horror film? Haven't you heard of leeches?!
- It was about here when the story lost me. I know that tales like this have to have a certain element of mystery to them...but it just felt like it had no focus and a lack of pacing.
- As soon as Andrea got into that bathtub I cringed, knowing that something bad was going to happen to her. And sure enough - scummy water started to fill the tub up and drag her under.
- What is up with Lucas? I highly doubt that a child traumatised into silence like that would take a stroll down to the lake where his father died simply because he heard a voice calling him to play. Was he under hypnosis because of the evil spirit? Was he stupid? Or was this just badly written?
- It was wise of them to not show us the water spirit until the very end and then only hint at it. Human imagination is always ten times more scary than a CGI monster could even dream of being.
- I also found it interesting that nothing was really resolved here. Yes Dean saved the kid (with a rather impressive dive) and the killings stopped, but only because of the sacrifice of the remorseful grandfather that appeased the vengeful spirit. It just goes to show that, in a Hunter's life, things don't always wrap up all neat and tidy.
- One part that made me smile: Dean teaching Lucas that Led Zeppelin rules and giving him a high five as a co-conspirator.
This was definitely not Supernatural's best work. It is a creepy episode, I'll give you that...but really only good for the first-viewing-plot-mystery aspect. It certainly isn't one that I personally will be looking back on. Dead In The Water rates at a 2/4.
What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?
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