9.19 Alex Annie Alexis Ann The fact that this episode is something special is evident from the very beginning. It appears to start like any other episode: there’s a poor helpless girl locked in a room in a police station, and you just know that the evil monster is going to come get her and kill her, leaving a bloody corpse that spurs the Winchesters onto a new hunt. That’s the opening of pretty much every Supernatural episode ever. Except that doesn’t happen, because Jody Mills shows up to cut the head off the vampire and save the would-be victim, whom we’ll call Alex. On Supernatural, this is so unexpected that it makes me worry about the space-time continuum. After all, Supernatural doesn’t exactly have a good track record with its female characters, who, more often than not, are nothing more than foils for the Winchesters or dead bodies that provide manpain for the male characters. Even series star Misha Collins has pointed out these problematic portrayals of women on the show, and this season has been particularly lackluster in that respect, so it’s refreshing to have an episode that’s so… respectful. Plus, this episode, in focusing on Jody, not only has the benefit of reminding us that women actually exist as something other than plot devices in the Winchesters’ world, but also fleshes out that world. It makes it seem more real through an interesting and compelling characterization of the people the Winchesters interact with, and also tells a story that has deep and important parallels for the story of the Winchesters. In fact, the amazing thing about this episode is the number of points of view it provides on “Alex” – alternatively called Annie, Alexis, and Ann – as many points of view as she has names, each name symbolizing a different role of her. Everyone sees her differently, trying to pigeonhole her into a name and a role, but in the end it turns out that she’s all of them and none of them – and that the Winchesters don’t always have the right version of the story. Despite Alex’s reluctance to give up her family, however, the Winchesters do manage to track down the nest, while Jody takes Alex up to a cabin to hide out from potential vampire pursuit. While interrogating one of Alex’s brothers, the Winchesters discover that she often played the role of bait when her vampire family hunted – and quickly assume that Alex enjoys killing. This interrogation is cleverly intercut with scenes of Jody and Alex up at the cabin, with the suspense building perfectly until the viewer just waits and waits for Alex to turn out to be a bloodthirsty killer and attack Jody. All signs point in that direction: Alex’s sudden and strange disappearance as Jody looks for her, Jody not picking up her phone as the Winchesters frantically call, the way Alex appears to be asleep in a bed and you just know that she’s faking… Except that she’s not. In another clever subversion of Supernatural’s own tropes, Alex is actually a scared little girl, terrified of what her vampire family would do to her and who’s had an inaccurate version of the story pushed onto her. But, despite Alex’s attempts, her family takes her back, leaving Jody unconscious on the ground in the process. This leads to the Winchesters and Jody regrouping and debating what to do. The Winchesters are all for following the vampires back to the nest and killing them all, while Jody seems to be the sole voice of reason, suggesting that Alex deserves a chance. It’s a strange scene: Sam seems to back Dean completely on the idea that someone like Alex, in a tenuous, morally gray position, doesn’t deserve a chance. The fact that Dean’s so judgmental is explainable: it can be easily read as some more effects of the Mark of Cain. But Sam’s always been the compassionate one, capable of seeing the moral gray area – especially when it comes to vampires. Nevertheless, it’s Jody’s who’s the voice of compassion here, emphasizing that the Winchesters aren’t always right in their narrative of who’s good and who’s evil. The episode then cuts back to Alex and her “mother,” the vampire who originally kidnapped her and renamed her, and to a conversation about the oh-so-familiar concept of “family” – and this is where the most interesting parallels begin. The other, most important parallel, though, is between Jody and the Mama vampire, and this is where the episode gets even more interesting. See, Supernatural does this really clever thing where it uses its monsters as metaphors for the emotional lives of its protagonists. Usually, those monsters are parallels for the Winchesters’ issues – but this time, it’s Jody’s story and her emotions that literally manifest themselves in the form of the monster she confronts. As the episode goes on, Jody takes on the role the Winchesters usually play, of having a complex relationship with the monster in question through their similarities. And, while the Winchesters are off in the ungraceful position of being bloodbags for the vampires, it’s Jody who has the interesting confrontation with the main monster, the Mama Vampire. It’s here that Jody sees herself in the monster she’s facing: the Mama Vampire and Jody are both women who have lost their child, and who have tried to fill that empty hole with Alex. In doing so, the episode once again draws on an already-established backstory-Jody’s. It reminds us that Jody’s not just a sassy, badass, and fun recurring character, but a complex human being who goes through the same struggles and losses as the Winchesters. And somehow, that makes everything feel more real. Of course, neither Sam nor Alex like being manipulated into a role they didn’t choose, which is what turns Alex against her mother and allows Jody to escape and, in another badass move, take down the main monster of the episode. In the meantime, the Winchesters manage to escape their precarious position – and, in another striking parallel to a former Supernatural episode, Dean bloodthirstily slices the head off a vampire, and looks like he’s enjoying the power trip it gave him. It’s more than reminiscent of Sam’s killing of hunter-turned-vampire Gordon back when his own powers and evil were manifesting themselves, and another subtle, quick nod to the Mark of Cain storyline. Then comes the usual post-episode discussion, as our stalwart heroes discuss the events, the monsters, and the moral issues. After a quick mention that Alex has been cured of vampirism (another nod to already-established vampire lore!), the episode leaves Sam to confront Dean about how much he was enjoying the killing. Interestingly, Dean almost blows him off, suggesting that there’s nothing wrong in taking pleasure in killing – a mindset that harkens back not only to his experiences in Purgatory (which he described as “pure”) but also to his experiences in Hell, where he not only tortured souls but liked it. This Dean, though, doesn’t even seem to be bothered by the fact that he likes it, which makes the place he’s sliding to all the scarier. Admittedly, I’m getting a little tired of waiting for where exactly that leads – but we should find out in about two episodes. Read Anastasia’s review of the previous episode, Meta Fiction, here. 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