TV Review: Supernatural Episode 1.07

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

From WB: The infamous "Hook Man," a vengeful spirit who kills his victims with a shiny hook that serves as his hand, terrorizes a small college town in Iowa. Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) learn that all the victims are connected to the daughter of a local minister and race to find and destroy the Hook Man's bones before he comes for them.

My Rating:

The purpose of this episode of Supernatural revolving around The Hook Man urban legend had the major intent to scare us, and scare us it did. At least I know I was scared. It was the perfect episode to air this week before Halloween. This week's episode opened with a scene showing a young woman getting ready to go out on a date.

Her roommate talks her into dressing up a bit for her date, and while out the girl ends up at one of the town's make out points. While kissing, the young man she is out with tries to go a bit further than she likes, and all of a sudden we hear the sound of scratching, and things get scary fast. By the time, the young girl Laurie gets out of the car, her date has been killed and she finds him hanging upside down over his car slashed to bits.

Sam and Dean read the news story online and decide to check out after they read the girl said something invisible killed her date. It would be the type of case their father would go after. When they arrive at the small town in Iowa, they start to investigate, first going to the young man's fraternity house. This leads to the girl when they learn her identity. Turns out she is the daughter of a reverend in town.

The two brothers end up going to the church where they find the young girl that witnessed the murder and they talk to her about what happened. Sam forms an attachment to the young girl because they have both seen similar incidents where someone died. After talking to her, Sam thinks they are dealing with the hook man, so him and Dean begin going through old town records at the university library. After some extensive research, they find the man that they think turned into the hook man. A priest that was so upset about prostitution in the town that he went through and killed 13 prostitutes during the 1800s.

We then return to Laurie as she returns home. Turns out she isn't alone. The spirit of The Hook Man is right behind her bedroom door. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds her roommate dead in her bed, killed by the hook man. The spirit leaves a message for Laurie in her roommate's blood on the wall, "Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light."

We then return to the brothers as they try to find the bones of the long dead priest. In order to rid the town of the spirit, they need to find the bones, bury them in salt and then burn them. However, they get a bit sidetracked when they are caught by the cops. The next morning they are released after some fast talking by Dean. Outside the sheriff's station, they see the cops rushing from the station and follow. They arrive on the scene to see Laurie waiting outside the building. After finding a way to get inside they see the message on the bedroom, and these words make it clear to them they are dealing with the hook man.

That night Sam and Dean separate. Dean goes in search of the unmarked grave of the man they think is the hook man, and Sam goes to watch over Laurie. Dean finds the grave and goes through with the burning. Sam and Laurie end up talking and Laurie kisses him. Sam pulls back, and her father comes out to call her in. Just as he does the hook man appears and carries the reverend through the house. Sam even sees him. They are able to stop the hook man from killing Laurie's father, but the spirit isn't gone yet. Even with Dean burning the bones with salt.

Sam determines they need to find the hook and burn this as well. They go through the research they had collected and find out the hook had been sent to the reverend's home after he was killed. This being over one hundred years ago, the hook could be anywhere. More research leads them to further discover that the hook was melted, so this means it could be anything. They return to Laurie's home and church in order to find all items silver and Sam finds Laurie in the church just before the hook man appears. This is even after they have destroyed all silver in the house and church. All but the necklace Laurie is wearing around her neck. Dean takes it and burns that with everything else, and the spirit burns right along with it. The hook man is no more.

By far this episode was one of the scariest of the series so far. A good episode to show right before Halloween. Not as much character development in this episode, but we do see Sam start to move on from Jessica by kissing Laurie, even if he does pull back from her. It shows he is healing. I enjoyed this episode, and it looks like we have a break next week from fresh episodes because they didn't show a preview specific for next week. After seven straight weeks of new episodes, the brothers deserve a break.