Supernatural Review: Season 6 Episode 5 "Live Free Or TwiHard"

By: Brett Matthews

**Spoilers**
If you have not yet watched this episode, please go and do so before proceeding.


              And the award for Best Title of the Season goes to...Live Free Or TwiHard! I cackled with glee whenever I saw this because Twilight may be becoming passée as both a fad and a joke (Thank GOD!), but that doesn't stop me from making fun of them to myself. There's just SO much comedic potential there, between the laughable romance and the 'hot' vampire who sparkles like a bottle of pre-teen girl body wash that you almost hate to let it go. And that's not even starting on the whiny lead...


          But I'm not here to rag on Twilight, much as I would like to. That ship has pretty much sailed, because (happily enough) with the end of the film releases the mainstream popularity is somewhat dying out. Like I said: Thank GOD!

         Whenever this episode first aired, though, it was 2010 and right in the heart of the Twilight craze. Needless to say, this is what Vampires Suck should have been - a parody that relied on satire and debunking ridiculousness rather than slapstick and shoe-horned references for its humor. In true fashion, Supernatural goes above and beyond the call of duty, not just making fun of a ridiculous 'saga', but also debunking many of the things that people find so attractive about it.

       Edward watching Bella sleep? Termed 'creepy' and 'rapey' by the Brothers Winchester. Being a vampire is something desirable? Disproved by the naive young girls that are lured back to the nest and infected for all of eternity, never to see the light of day or their loved ones again. Vampires are sexy and awesome? NO WAY! Dean himself is turned fairly early on in the episode and spends the rest of the time struggling to fight off the bloodlust that threatens to overcome him. Yeah...sorry, girls. No newborn vampire just comes out with porcelain skin and the ability to control their hunger. Not even the great Dean Winchester who has laughed in Satan's face and fought back the forces of Hell can do that.


          So yes, this episode is a real gem. Not only is it a wonderful parody of a (thankfully dying) YA romance fad, but it is also a deeply sad story of betrayal and tragedy. This episode is also perhaps the trope of Mood Whiplash personified. One minute it's perfectly-done satire and Cullen jokes, and then the next Dean is turned and we're down the road to psychological horror festival. If it had been handled a little bit differently, I'd be calling foul on the abrupt change of direction, but as it is I feel that it all played into the overall purpose of the episode which was to debunk some common misconceptions about vampires, further the Dean/Lisa storyline, and to let us know that something is seriously wrong with Sam. Oh...and the nest of vamps that are using the pop culture obsession with their species to gather new recruits? Hilariously sad.


Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- The episode opens with a picture-perfect, mannerism by mannerism parody of a typical meeting between Bella and Edward. I don't know where they found the actors for this, but they embody the nervous ticks and dead-eyed stares of the Twilight leading couple. They even manage to slip in a very pointed joke towards the iconic 'apple' scene. I laughed my way through this with no regrets.

- To be fair, though, the girl playing 'Bella' does manage to show a wider range of emotion than Kristen Stewart did. Then again...that isn't such a hard feat, given that Kristen's Bella is about as nuanced as a jack-hammer.

- Oh...and 'Bella' is literally named Kristen. Excuse me while I go choke on laughter again...

- You know, I think I'm actually a bit sold on the whole Dean/Lisa story. Out of all Dean's past romances (Cassie, Jo, unnamed girls from bars), she is the only one that I really felt worked in a relationship with him. Cassie was one note and never mentioned again, Jo felt forced and more 'little sister' than lover, and we all know that those other flings rarely lasted longer than one night.) Maybe it has something to do with the fact that Lisa actually looks the right age for Dean and was allowed to grow gradually as a character, but I would pin good money on a good chunk of the reason she works is because of Ben. I love that kid!

- I have the sneaking suspicion that Lisa was lying when she reassured Dean that Ben wasn't his. Maybe she was afraid of how he would react and then was too uncomfortable to tell him afterwards?

- It's also a shame that Dean never did get that weekend to spend with them. Both Lisa and Ben were clearly looking forward to it and it's obvious that he was too. Curse the writers for building up our hopes of something happy only to ruthlessly squash them again!

- Kristan was awful at coming up with passwords. Probably even I could have hacked her account in no time. Pattinson? Seriously? That would have been my third guess after 'Cullen' and 'Eddykins'.

- It is very interesting to hear about these 'gothic' romances from Sam and Dean's points of view as hunters (and therefore actual vampire/werewolf/demon experts)

- I really have to question the parents of these girls. Something's wrong with the way they let their daughters decorate their rooms like something out of Bride of Frankenstein, complete with life-sized cut-outs of their undead 'heroes'.

- You really have to feel a tiny bit sorry for all of those abducted and turned girls. Yeah they were idiots to take a badly-written book so seriously that they would gamble their lives on it, but they were also tricked into a fate worse than death. They were manipulated.

- That gothic bar the boys track the vamps to gives me the creeps.

- Is it wrong that I took a certain amount of vicious pleasure out of Dean whaling on that guy who wore glitter lotion and fake fangs just so he could score that night? What a scumbag!

- "All right, you go with Efron. I got Bieber." Dean, describing the good-looking scout vamps that he and Sam are going to jump.

- So for a while now (including in this episode's Then segment) it has been telegraphed that something is seriously wrong with Sam...that he popped out of Hell vastly different and not in a good way either. But this episode cements it. Few things on SPN have been as chilling as Sam Winchester watching his brother be turned into a vampire with a calm, satisfied smile on his face. My fingers were itching for the holy water whenever I saw that happen...

- After Dean is turned we get the same spiel that we saw with Gordon: sensitivity to light, blurry and distorted vision, super hearing, and freaky imagery. So, basically being a vampire is like being on an eternal acid trip.

- "Newsflash; vampires pee!" Uh...thanks for that, Dean.

- Up until the point of Dean's transformation, the tone of the episode had been fairly light-hearted (for SPN, anyway) and satirical. But once our beloved Winchester starts sprouting pointy teeth, the entire thing makes an abrupt turn into horror and tragedy.

- Dean goes to visit Lisa, and I think that that sequence is one of the most heartbreaking out of this entire season as he realizes that he is a monster and cut off from the human race (i.e. everyone he loves the most).

- He also looms in the shadows, watching Lisa sleep. It's a nice callback to earlier in the episode and gets a weak, sad smile out of us all.

- But the smiles go away whenever the legendary bloodlust (triggered by Lisa's heartbeat) comes into play and Dean realizes he has to flee. Without taking time to explain himself, Dean does just that...running before he does something he'll regret. Unfortunately he runs into Ben on the way out, who just wants to know what is wrong and ignores Dean's warning to stay away. Smelling the boy's blood, Dean shoves him away as a precaution but is not used to vampiric strength and sends Ben crashing into a wall. Seeing the betrayed and shocked looks on Lisa and Ben's faces, Dean runs into the night to beg his brother to put him down.

- Long story short, Granddad Campbell has developed a cure for Dean's new condition. It will only work if he hasn't fed yet and if he can gather the blood of the vamp who turned him. So now Dean has to infiltrate the nest, avoid giving in to the hunger, and take out his sire. Just another normal day in the life of the Winchesters, right?

- "These are the best days in the last 600 years to be a vampire. Dracula? Anne Rice? Please." Please indeed! Give me John Mitchell from Being Human or Spike from Buffy any day! Still, the Alpha Vamp does have a point. I imagine the obsession with the 'Edwards' of the world makes their job easier. Those poor girls!

- Dean gets the blood and Samuel and Sam rush to make the cure. By this point he's looking AWFUL! It was bad enough watching Gordon go through the transformation, but he more or less got his just desserts for being an all-around sadist of a hunter. This is DEAN we're watching change and suffer. That just makes it all the more painful.

- It really drives home the point that eventually, even if you tried to life a 'normal' life after your turning, you would come to see even your family as little more than potential meals as you got hungrier and hungrier. And not even Dean is immune:

- Even then, Dean tries to protect his little brother.

- The cure is absolutely disgusting. It looks like mutated gumbo and the side-effects (vomiting, convulsions, bleeding, and cramps) look like absolute torture. Thank God it worked, though.

            This episode is absolutely amazing. Not only does it make fun of the ridiculousness of the Twilight series (and all knock-offs), but it also manages to be dark and gritty and tragic. Something is seriously wrong with Sam, Dean's relationship with Lisa is jeopardized because of it, and we had to watch our hero (and, for many, favorite character) go through hours of personal hell. It's a hard episode to watch in some ways, as it switches from satire to horror in the blink of an eye, but it has a solid story and some excellent points that you would be sorry to miss out on. All-in-all, I loved it. Live Free Or TwiHard is a 5/5.

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What did you think? Do you agree with my rating? If not - what would you say differently?