Supernatural - Dead in the Water

 This was the third episode of the first season, with Sam and Dean still out there looking for their father -- who is somewhere, but how to find him has proven to be quite elusive, which is sort of the point -- while "monster hunting" and looking to help people, sends them to a particular lake (a dam is leaking and soon the water will be gone) where "something" is drowning or "carrying away" victims tied to a missing child from the 70s. So the fictional Lake Manitoc in Wisconsin is the main setting, with a small town sheriff (Daniel Hugh Kelly) who has a secret as does Bill Carlton (Bruce Dawson), while those they love are either threatened or lost to a spirit using the lake where he drowned to pursue his victims. A grieving mother Sam and Dean interview gives them a historical context to go on, even as the sheriff sees through their "rangers" job disguise and warns them to leave or else. Sheriff Devins' daughter, Andrea (Amy Acker, who I have seen all over television), and grandson, Lucas (Nico McEown), eventually nearly drown when the spirit uses the lake or lake water to get to them. Bill's daughter is a serious swimmer who took to the lake all the time, suffering the "Jaws" departure I just call the "Jaws Goodbye". I can't blame Kim Manners and his crew for going that route since everyone and their mother has at some point or another done so. I think the sink drowning of Bill's son looked terrible, though. I think the angle from under the sink water is cringe because of what happens later with us actually seeing the spirit rising from the depths. But the young man being pulled into sink, we never see the spirit's hand grab onto him as the ghost later grabs Lucas. I am not exactly wild and crazy about the scene where Andrea is in her bathtub and is pulled into the water with Sam having to reach deep inside to fetch her out.

I think the show is still yet to really get as good as it eventually does. I don't dislike the show, mind you, but when "Supernatural" gets away from feeling so much like an alternative "X Files" and finds its own real personality, I think the show will find its footing with me. I really like Padalecki as Sam. There is a nice balance of sensitivity and intensity with Padalecki I appreciate. You can see he cares about people, while remaining dead serious and focused on finding answers regarding his father and the loss of both his mother and lover. Dean, as I laugh while writing this, is like flies to shit when a very attractive woman his age (or around his age) happens to pass within eyesight or seeing distance. Two women, a flirty blond in clinging jean shorts at a diner, and Andrea, later, capture Dean's attention, while Sam tries to keep him on task. At the end, I thought of an alternate multiverse where Dean stays with Andrea and Lucas, adulting and raising a family in the small town. I think, realistically, Dean is more about mounting the blond before throttling the accelerator of his hot rod on his way to the next small town in search of his father as Sam rolls his eyes and remains dedicated to locating his deceased girlfriend's killer. The episode does, to its credit, finesse Dean some with how he bonds with Lucas, looking to find out what killed his father, relating to his loss of a parent. This episode does adopt the trope of a traumatized child sinking into drawing and coloring as escape, as Dean tries to reach him while Andrea tells Sam she won't fall for any Jerry McGuire romantic nonsense.

The look of the episode reminds me of the stark, color-drained aesthetic of Marcus Nispel. This feels very mid-2000s in his presentation. I think why the show grabs me is because it does feel very much of that very specific horror era where remakes were the rage as Zombie and Roth emerged with that splat pack moniker. 

2.5/5