March 2007

 

I love it when writers take something fairly conventional, like an attractive damsel in distress, and turn in into something unexpected and unique. That’s exactly what happened in this episode of “Supernatural”, and the result was another winner for the series. This episode is a perfect example for those wondering why the show is often considered the best kept secret on television.

I’m usually good at seeing where a story will go, which is more a sign of experience than intelligence. Shows tend to repeat the successes of their predecessors, and often, it’s never received as well as the original. So the first three acts of the episode felt very familiar. The Brothers Winchester are hunting a ghost that victimizes travelers on a given road at a given time, a lovely woman is the victim this year, they struggle to save her from the bad guy, and so forth. The first indication of something far more interesting didn’t really come until the end of the third act, when the story all but ended.

The entire fourth act is a massive payoff for the patient fan.