Supernatural Review: Season 1 Episode 12 "Faith"

By: Sera Gamble & Raelle Tucker

**Spoilers**

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

           It started out as your typical 'main-character-is-deathly-ill-but-we-all-know-they're-probably-not-going-to-die-anyway' story and then morphed into a tragic introspection about desperation, faith, and prayer.

          One thing I have found with shows like Supernatural, Buffy, and even X-Files that deal with 'good vs. evil' and 'the unexplained' is that they are very comfortable exploring the dark side of the paranormal - making it supernatural vs. humans - but seem reluctant to delve into the good side. They'll gleefully go on about vampires and demons and all that other classic horror supernatural stuff, but don't really bother to deal with the other side of the coin. That's the road Supernatural was on and this is where they gloriously veer entirely off course and take the uncharted path.

       In this episode, Dean is confronted with his own mortality. Okay, fine, pretty standard hero-development stuff there. But that conflict is resolved rather quickly and with unusual ease. It's only the tip of the iceberg, ladies and gentlemen, there's many more layers to this episode than that. What's the story? Dean and Sam are hunting a Rawhead (a creature that can apparently only be killed with a taser...God only knows what hunters did before those were invented) and through a series of unfortunate events, Dean ends up getting electrocuted and suffering from a massive heart attack (guess all those bacon cheeseburgers do have an effect after all). He's told that his heart is damaged beyond repair and that he has about a month or so to live...maybe less if he overexerts himself.

       Dean, being Dean, takes this news externally very well - determined to die with dignity and to keep his game face on until the bitter end. Sam, ever the stubborn rebel, refuses to take the news of Dean's impending death lying down and starts scouring his way through their father's contacts in search of a cure. Anyone. Anything. He eventually finds a faith healer in Nebraska that he all but blackmails his brother into going to see. Long story short, Dean is healed and the day is saved...but things aren't all what they seem.

       The thing I really love about this episode is that it isn't afraid to dive right into tough subjects of faith and sacrifice and where to draw the line between morally right and morally wrong. So few shows are really willing to objectively do that (probably for fear of alienating people) and so I really respect Supernatural for the thoughtful and deep way they dealt with the issue. Not all was neatly tied up in the end; the morals were a  bit gray but still clean-cut as to where the line was. It also forced Dean to question what he really believes and whether or not just having faith in something is helpful in the face of certain death.



Favorite Moments & Random Thoughts:

- I love the way Dean finds those kids (he's really good with them, despite his posturing) and then hustles Sam to take them and get out of the building. He's such a good big brother.

- It must have been horrible for Sam to come running back into the building and to find his brother's body like that. Jared Padalecki does a wonderful job of infusing the lines with Sam's desperation and fear at losing the brother that he was just starting to grow close to again.

- Dean making plans to hunt down the fabric softener teddy bear never fails to make me smile.

- "You better take care of that car or I swear I'll haunt your ass." 

- Sammy calling John and trying desperately not to break down on the phone as he just rants his feelings to his dad makes me feel like crying...

Ouch. Just...ouch.

- "Well I'm not gonna die in a hospital where the nurses aren't even hot!" Classic Dean stiff upper lip line.

- I love the muddy, tented location of the faith healer's gig. To anyone who's ever attended one of those small sort-of-backwoods church revival meetings or tent services, this setting is as about as authentic as a person could wish for. Not just the architecture either...the people. Someone on the SPN team clearly spent some time at services like this, because that level of accuracy isn't something you can get from research.

- They even did the whole 'laying on of hands' and 'arms upraised in prayer' bit.

- I love the way Sam asks his brother how on earth Dean can be a skeptic what with the things they see and fight every day. They've exorcised demons, yet Dean has no faith? Considering that we find out in Season 2 that, despite it all, Sam still prays every night...this conversation takes on whole new meaning. Sam clings to his belief that there is something good out there beyond our reality while Dean is reluctant to believe anything but what he can see. He especially doesn't want to believe that God exists and yet still allows the evil to ruin so many good people's lies. It's the age-old argument...the one that man has struggled against for centuries. How could a good God allow such suffering in the world?

- You've gotta love the way that, even in his cynical and weakened state, Dean still finds the energy to flirt with Layla (a young woman also visiting the faith healer in hopes of a miracle) long enough to make her and his brother smile.

- And of course Dean had to mix up the entire organisation by spotting the Reaper just before he passed out. One thing that makes me very happy about this episode is the way the whole 'harnessing the power of a Reaper' issue was handled. It would have been very easy to go with the old 'pastor corrupted by fame and power' story and taken a few cheap pot-shots a la Stephen King at religion in general, but they didn't. Instead it was the reverend's wife who, due to her fear of losing the husband she loves so much, resorted to black magic and started tampering with life and death itself...something that we all know you've crossed a moral line when you try to play God that way. What started as a small compromise quickly grew and festered into her heart until she told herself that it was her job to punish the wicked and heal the good by using the Reaper to transfer illnesses. And, of course, it came to the place where she was deciding who was wicked and beyond redemption and who wasn't. Her shame and power-drunkenness drove her half-mad and allowed what had been a small compromise to take over her life.

- I feel for Layla's mother, no matter how pushy and rude she was to the brothers. It must be hard to watch your daughter slowly die from a brain tumor and then be passed over again and again by the one person you think can help you for strangers who quite obviously don't even believe. She asks the right question: "Why do you deserve to live more than my daughter?"

- Poor Sam. He just looks so...defeated whenever he puts together the pieces of what's going on. Poor guy just wanted his brother to be healed.

- The idea of Reapers is very interesting in that they're introduced as benign agents of death whose job is to gather or reap souls and escort them to their place of eternal rest. The reverend's wife bound the reaper who came for her husband and is now forcing it to transfer diseases to those she deems worthy of punishment. I'm still not sure why that poor jogger 'deserved' to go, though.

- A shout-out should also be made this episode for the music choice. 'Don't Fear The Reaper' by Blue Oyster Cult? A bit on the nose...but very appropriate.

- They really handled this sensitive issue well and showcased that, while religion might not be evil, humans can use it to evil ends. Everything has the potential for corruption. This episode is very deep and dark as it deals with themes of belief and betrayal, but there's also an undercurrent of bleak hope. The idea that everyone believes something because that's what gives you a purpose every morning. They also don't totally beat down and disregard either side of the faith argument either. I respect that.

- You've gotta feel sorry for the Reverend Roy, though. The man is blind and honestly believes that all of his fervent prayer to God was answered and that he was blessed with the ability to save others from their illness and maybe have a chance to save their souls too. He doesn't know what his wife has done. He doesn't know how she's becoming so crazed with illicit power that she's started judging 'righteous' and 'wicked' by her own terms.

- "You said you saw a dude in a suit." "What...you think he should have been rocking that whole black cloak thing?" It's little touches like this that define why I love this show so much. They're not afraid to push the barriers (be it for storytelling, emotion, humor, or meta) and they put a delightful new spin on age-old concepts.

- I love the way Sam describes binding a Reaper. He says it's like putting a dog leash on a Great White Shark. Who would want to take Jaws for a walk? Not me!

- It is interesting, though, that Sam has to remind Dean that they're not vigilantes. No matter if someone really is playing God. They can't just barge in there and do the same. The end doesn't always justify the means and that's a line that they just cannot cross or else they'll be no better than the person they're trying to stop.

- The alter Roy Le Grange's wife is using to control the Reaper is just gross. It has the obligatory blood and candles and defaced pictures of the marked 'wicked ones' and is just disgusting. How could someone fall so far as this? I know that grief and fear makes you do strange things...but really.

- Dean obviously carries a lot of guilt over the fact that another man died in his place. Given his feelings later on in the series that 'Something dead should stay dead', can we really be surprised that for a moment there it really looked like he was going to let the Reaper kill him so that Layla could be cured?

- Anyway, we have our climax and Mrs. Le Grange pays for her sins with her life. The episode ends on a quiet and ambiguous note with the still dying Layla bravely facing her future and Dean promising that he'll say a prayer just for her. Guess he figures that his should really stand out, given how rare they are. It's a sweet moment and it really shows how much Dean has changed over this episode. He went from snarky and cynical and even a bit rude to gently understanding and accepting. He still doesn't quite buy into all the faith stuff, but he definitely has a better understanding than before.

               I really believe that this episode is one of Supernatural's all-time best. It was emotional, it was deep, it delved right into tough issues with sensitivity and respect, and it ended on a sad but somehow hopeful note. I love Layla's line about having faith means believing even whenever the miracles don't happen. It's true that with that issue we never really got a clear-cut resolution, but I honestly think that it was for the best. Such things are never cut-and-dry in real life and it would have been a disservice to portray anything less in the episode. The design of the Reaper was appropriately creepy and I like how Reverend Roy wasn't a corrupt obvious villain after all. I like how his wife wasn't evil either...or at least she didn't start out that way. I liked the character of Layla and certainly found her more compelling that Lori from our last heavily-religious-themed episode. Dean's character was challenged, Sam's character was challenged, and we all came out on the other side having learned something. Faith is a 5/5.





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