Roadkill Review

 

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. Those who dismiss Tricia Helfer based on the more superficial aspects of her “Battlestar: Galactica” role got to see her at her absolute best. Molly went through the emotional wringer in this episode, and Helfer never failed to sell it. It made a surprising, yet logical, twist a lot more substantial and satisfying.

The idea of two spirits locked in a loop of suffering is an interesting one. Molly doesn’t know that she’s a spirit, but Greeley certainly did. That created an unusual dynamic, especially in terms of how Dean and Sam handled Molly. They couldn’t tell her everything right from the beginning, or she might flee and her suffering would continue.

The brothers each deal with the difficulties of this situation in remarkably consistent fashion. Dean is more detached and pragmatic; while he’s not entirely unsympathetic to Molly’s situation, he also recognizes that there’s a goal to be achieved and a haunting to resolve. Sam, as one would expect, is a lot more empathetic to Molly’s situation. His conversation with her about the nature of the paranormal could easily be seen as a commentary on his own status. Contrast this to shows like “X-Files”, where the story elements might have been present, but the characters regularly changed personality traits to fit a given situation.

I was a bit worried when they made such a pointed announcement regarding Tricia Helfer’s appearance in the episode. It would have been easy to play on her reputation and toss her into a femme fatale role or a scantily-clad victim. Instead, the role was written with acting chops in mind, and that made this a much stronger episode in the end.