TV Review: Supernatural Episode 1.11

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

From WB: Sam and Dean (Jensen Ackles) finally make contact with their father, but he tells them to stop looking for him and sends them on another ghost-hunting job. Frustrated with their father's evasiveness, Sam sets out alone to find him while Dean stays back to obey his father. Dean investigates a small town in Indiana where couples have gone missing the same day each year and discovers the farmers are sacrificing them to a Pagan God who takes the form of a scarecrow. While en route to California, Sam meets Meg (Nicki Aycox), a young backpacker, who unbeknownst to Sam is working for a demon.

My Rating: 4 out of 4

Another series that has been on way too long of a break for the holidays returns tonight to the WB. Supernatural is one of my favorite series, and I'm really glad to see it back tonight with a fresh new scary episode. The Winchester brothers definitely left us with a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of their last episode, so we were all upset when we learned we would have to wait for what happened when their dad finally contacted them after all their months of searching. We now know via something Sam said in the timeline of the show it has been six months since Dean came to Sam and Jess died.

This week's episode starts by jumping a year into the past to find a young couple experience car trouble outside a dark orchard outside Burketsville, Indiana. A scarecrow ends up coming to life, quickly ending their lives. Once we know what the boys will be dealing with in this episode, we jump to the present where we left off. Sam answers the phone, and it is his father. His father doesn't really have much time to mince words, and he basically orders Sam and Dean to stop looking for him cause he is after the demon that killed their mother and Sam's girlfriend, Jess. He does give them their next assignment, and it is the one that takes them to Indiana.

Sam is stubborn though, and he has the called traced to Sacramento. Instead of following their father's orders, he wants to go after their dad. Dean is set on following through on the assignment given to them. This causes a big disagreement between the two brothers, and some words are exchanged between them. Sam ends up taking off on Dean, and Dean lets him go.

Dean heads to Indiana, and he starts looking for one of the couple's that has gone missing. The town seems nice enough, but he also sees the scarecrow in the orchard. He pokes around town some more, and this makes the townspeople uncomfortable. When he returns, and finds yet another young couple on their way through town, he sticks around long enough to get nicely escorted out of town by the sheriff.

This doesn't deter Dean, and he returns to the orchard that night and arrives just in time to save the couple from the scarecrow. The next day he calls Sam, who is stuck in a bus depot waiting for a bus to Sacramento. The two brothers share some kinder words as they discuss over the current case Dean is working on, and Dean tells Sam he is on his way to the local university to find out more about the scarecrow. He believes some pagan God is reanimating it, but he isn't sure which.

Meanwhile, Sam seems to have met up with someone while on his way to California. Meg is also on her way to California, and there isn't something right about her from the moment I laid eyes on her. Unknown to Sam, she is working for the demon their father is after it seems. We see her communicate with the demon by the end of the episode.

Back in Indiana, Dean is captured by the townspeople, and they plan to sacrifice him along with one of the girls from the town. They have no other choice. It is the last day of the yearly cycle in which they must sacrifice one couple to appease the God so that their town and orchards remain prosperous.

Somehow Sam figures out something is wrong when Dean doesn't answer his phone, so he stops his plans to head to California and heads to Indiana. He arrives just in time to find Dean and the young woman tied to trees waiting for the scarecrow. In fact soon after Sam shows up, the scarecrow does indeed come to life. The three are on the run for the scarecrow comes after them, but they meet the townspeople there to stop them.

Out of nowhere the scarecrow comes out and captures two of the townspeople, a couple, and he is appeased. The next morning Sam, Dean and the young woman find the tree that is source of the scarecrow's power and burn it. Without the tree and the scarecrow, the town's prosperity will be no more. The girl leaves the town since the couple taken was her aunt and uncle.

We then see another wonderful scene of brotherly love and bonding between Sam and Dean. These two certainly have grown over the time period in the series. They have their baggage, but they do love each other. Seems like these two will be around fighting evil spirits and other type things for some time to come. Their biggest problem will come to pass sooner or later – the demon that for some reason has it out for their family is still out there, and he has help. Meg called the demon she communicated father, so it looks like we have two families going head to head here. A twist that makes this series even better and more exciting.

I'm really glad to see Supernatural back. When I learned we had six weeks before new episodes aired I was upset. This series keeps things interesting, and we have a lot going on not only with the cases, but the Winchester family each and every episode. I really can't wait to see what happens next week. You can find a download of a preview for next week's episode here.