TV Review: Supernatural Episode 1.18

Thursday, April 06, 2006

From WB: Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) investigate a small town in Wisconsin where children are falling into comas for no apparent reason. The brothers discover that a witch is creeping into the bedrooms of the children and stealing their "life force." While battling the witch, Dean recalls a past mistake that almost cost Sam his life at the hands of the very same witch, an event which has fueled Dean's protectiveness over Sam and his blind obedience to his father (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

My Rating: 4 out of 4

This fresh episode of Supernatural titled Something Wicked starts with a witch like being entering a little girl's bedroom. Sam and Dean's dad sends them the coordinates to the town of the occurrence. When they arrive, they aren't sure why they are there, but an empty school playground makes them suspicious. As it turns out, six children have become seriously ill, and this leads to scared parents not letting their children play afterschool.

Sam and Dean go to the hospital to see the children, and Dean sees a woman that looks very much like the witch that we saw enter the girl's bedroom at the beginning of the episode. The doctor tells them he isn't sure what they have. Dean wants to interview the children, but they are unconscious in coma like states. It seems the disease they have runs through families. First the one sibling, and then the next.

Dean remembers something from their past, and it turns out their father sent them to deal with a type of being he had hunted before. He sent his sons there to handle this one. The being is a type of witch that lives off the 'breath of life' and they prefer to feed off of children. The information they find says the being is not vulnerable to anything human, but Dean remembers the being is vulnerable when it feeds. Dean remembers the old woman he saw at the hospital, and he thinks she is their witch.

The two go the hospital to see her with guns ready. However, it doesn't appear to be her when they confront her. That night the witch comes to the family that runs the motel the brothers are staying at. With more research, Sam finds this being comes to different town every fifteen to twenty years this being comes to the towns and the children are picked off one by one. They go into comas and then die. Sam also finds a picture of the doctor at the hospital that was taken in 1893. So it appears the doctor might be the witch.

Dean returns to the motel, and he wants to use the brother of the motel family as bait for the witch. Sam is against it. However, they both decide to do it, and they go to the boy. However, he doesn't want to do it at first. He does change his mind and decides to help the brothers. With the boy as bait, the brothers wait in the next room for the witch to arrive. When it does arrive, they shoot it with consecrated iron bullets, but it doesn't work. The being comes after them and it tries to take the breath of life from Sam. Dean shoots it, and this time it dies, releasing the spirits it has collected.

Throughout the episode, there are flashback sequences of the last time the family dealt with this being. The scenes give us more insight into the family and the characters. Something that I liked a lot. This episode gets us ready for their father's return in next week's episode, and I liked the take on the witch being they have in this episode. Reminds me of a smiliar witch story I've heard time and time again, but they made it their own with a few twists. That is something very nice to see.

Also check out my new Blog of The Week, Strange and Beautifully Broken. She's a Lost fan, and has a lot of entries where she discusses the show, so head on over to the see her blog. Tell her Gina sent you over!