TV Review: Supernatural Episode 1.15

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

From WB: Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) head to Minnesota where a young boy (guest star Ryan Drescher) witnesses a man vanish into thin air. Upon searching for clues, Sam is abducted by what he assumes is a supernatural being, and Dean is left to search frantically for his brother. However, both are stunned when they realize the kidnappers are human, and using the captives as human prey for a twisted hunting expedition.

My Rating: 4 out of 4

Supernatural comes to us this week with a fresh new episode titled The Benders, and this episode is probably what I think is the least supernatural episode of these series to date, ranking right up there with the bugs episode from earlier in the season. Even with the lack of anything really supernatural going on, this episode was still one of the better episodes of the series.

This week, the two brothers head off to Minnesota to work on a case in which a man has vanished into thin air. A small boy that witnessed his father's disappearance says he heard a monster and then saw his father taken away. The boy's mother blames his sighting on the fact that he was watching a scary movie at the time. The two brother's pose as state police in order to interview the mother and her son.

That night, Sam and Dean are at the local bar discussing the case and planning their attack. Sam wants to find a place to sleep, and Dean wants to stay. Sam leaves on his own, and in the parking lot of the bar he is taken by some unseen force. An hour later Dean goes out to find him, and Sam is nowhere to be found.

The next day, Dean goes to the local sheriff, once again posing as someone from the state police, looking for Sam. The sheriff helps him, and once they see the surveillance footage from a traffic camera outside the bar, they find it is possible someone took Sam. This case is starting to look less supernatural by the minute as the episode progresses on. We then see Sam locked up in a cage, and the cage next to him is the man that disappeared. Two men come in to feed the other man, and any doubts that this episode had a supernatural tone are now gone.

The sheriff helping Dean does a check on his badge number, and she finds out that Dean isn't who he says he is. This leads her to want to arrest him and take him in. She doesn't though after he pleads his case. She says she will take him in once they find Sam. At some point later, Dean asks her why she didn't take him in right off, and she tells him that her brother disappeared much like Sam did three years before, so she understood where he was coming from. Back with Sam, the man is let loose, and we soon learn the purpose of the kidnappings. In some odd hunting game, the man is gone after and killed by two other men living in the house. Sam can hear the man's screams as he dies.

Dean and the sheriff follow the trail they discovered, and it leads them to a private road. They have had some good fortune and found the property where Sam is being held. Dean wants to go with the sheriff, but she tricks him and locks him to the car with her handcuffs. Up at the house, she finds a little girl. While she is talking to her, the girl's father comes up and hits her over the end from behind with a shovel. She is now taken captive.

When she doesn't come back, Dean finds a way to come out just before the men from the house come to find her truck. He makes it up to the house, and then finds the sheriff and Sam locked in cages. When he goes to find the key, the little girl spots him, and he is captured as well. The family tries to get him to talk, but Dean isn't talking until the father burns him with hot iron. He then sends his son to shoot both Sam and the sheriff.

When the son arrives, Sam is ready, and he is able to overpower him to get free. He also let's out the sheriff, but when the son doesn't return the father and his brother come looking for him. Sam and the sheriff are able to fight off the two as well, and Sam leaves the sheriff with the father. She questions him about her brother because Dean found his car on the property, and when she gets an answer she doesn't like, she shoots the man. Once this is done, the three meet up outside, and she lets them both go. The Winchester brothers walk off, and she is left to deal with the state police and FBI.

Not a lot of character development in this episode, other than the fact we are able to see the lengths Dean will go to in order to protect his brother. Past episodes it was Sam doing for Dean and going the extra mile. Now it was the other way around. Dean feels responsible for his younger brother, and we can see their bond strengthening each episode. No new episode next week. Supernatural will return in two weeks with an all new episode that returns us to the main story line of this series, their father and the demon behind the death of their mother and Jessica. The previews for the next episode look great. I can't wait.