1.02 Wendigo

Beginning the search for their missing father, the Winchester brothers instead find an ancient cannibalistic monster storing humans in a cave for the winter. Boy, does someone have daddy issues!

Pre-show notes

Charmed did a wendigo episode first (1999, The Wendigo). In Charmed, the wendigo was a monster with a literally cold heart, transformed from a woman betrayed in love. It’s a long way from Supernatural’s cannibalistic creature that hunts hikers in the mountains.

Both versions draw different elements from the original mythology. Charmed was more focussed on romantic themes, so it’s not surprising their writers picked up on the heart of ice element. I suspect that Supernatural was more influenced by the Marvel comics version than the Native American creature.

Episode notes

The pilot episode set up the Winchester brothers’ search for their missing father. In the second episode, they follow their only clue: the coordinates left in John’s journal, which lead them to the ominously named Blackwater Ridge, Lost Creek.

Sam is in a seriously bad place, emotionally. Our first view of him in this episode is him taking flowers to Jessica’s grave. As he lays his bouquet on the ground, a hand bursts through and Sam jerks awake, revealing this was a nightmare. So, yeah, Sam is really laying on the guilt, but it’s understandable. If Jessica were killed by an intruder or a mugger while he was away with Dean, Sam would have felt guilty, knowing that it probably wouldn’t have happened had he stayed. In those circumstances, he would eventually have stopped blaming himself, because there would be a real person to blame. But what actually happened to Jessica was something intensely personal to the Winchester family. The manner of death is too specific, and with all their experience of the supernatural, Dean and Sam know of no similar cases, so Sam’s feelings around Jessica’s death are much more complicated than grief. Sam feels that his presence in her life led directly to her death – and of course that’s essentially true.

We learn that the brothers spent a week investigating what happened and came up with nothing. That’s one of those things to note for future reference. Certainly the fire would have destroyed most of the physical evidence. We will never learn much about how it was treated by the authorities, but given how easily Sam leaves it’s safe to assume her death was deemed a tragic accident, the unexplained fire not treated as arson.

The brothers arrive at Lost Creek and begin at the ranger station. It’s impressive how easily Dean improvises when the ranger challenges them, smoothly playing into the man’s expectations and getting the information about the missing-not-missing hikers. The encounter determines the role-play of the week: they are fake rangers. Really, really bad fake rangers!

I don’t want to retell the whole episode here. Instead I’ll just pick out a few things that jump out to me on this re-watch.

• Haley’s family unit is very similar to the Winchester’s: no parents, a tight-knit family that looks out for each other. She knows her brother is in trouble and isn’t willing to sit around and wait for the authorities to do something. She’s going out there to find him.

• The alpha-male dynamic between Dean and Roy. Roy is a professional guide, and he knows what he’s doing in terms of leading the group into the mountains. Yet Dean feels the need to demonstrate his superior knowlege of what’s out there by mansplaining the danger to Roy. And at that point, he doesn’t actually know what’s out there. All they know for sure is that hikers have gone missing, both in the present and going back several generations. It’s confirmation bias – Dean is used to the supernatural explanation being the right one (and of course it is, because this is a TV show). But his almost walking into a bear trap shows the danger of his bravado.

Did Bambi or Yogi ever hunt you back?

Dean

• Later in the episode Sam does the same kind of thing, telling the group they are unprepared for what’s out there hunting them. But Sam’s outburst isn’t boastful, it’s fearful. He’s still traumatised by Jessica’s death and can’t handle the thought of losing someone else. The context is different, too: by then, they do have an idea what’s out there. And Sam is providing information, albeit not in a way anyone is likely to take seriously. Dean was just dropping ominous hints. Sam’s fight with Roy is a lot like the fight he will have with John in a later episode, which shows how much he is taking on his father’s path, even this early.

• Although this is a stand-alone episode, the monster of the week does a really good job of foreshadowing what’s to come. The wendigo is a creature that can perfectly imitate a human voice. It uses deception to isolate its prey and pick them off one by one. It’s playing a long game: keeping prey in cold storage, not just going on a murderous rampage. Many of its qualities are shared with the big bad of the season.

Errors/nitpicks

When they hunt the wendigo, Dean uses himself as bait to draw it away from the others, giving them the chance to escape. It’s wildly reckless, particularly given how efficiently the wendigo hunts. But doesn’t it seem way too easy when he kills the wendigo at the end? It’s so fast it can barely be caught on camera. Yet Dean shouts to get its attention and waits at least a second before he fires. The wendigo had loads of time to get out of the way.

Associations

The hand thrusting its way out of the grave is a nod to Carrie (1976), though a lot of horror-themed TV shows have done similar homages.

The campers being attacked by a supernatural creature is a pretty common trope but I think the obvious reference is to An American Werewolf in London (1981) where a pair of American backpackers are attacked on a moor by a werewolf.

Final thoughts

There are some great guest stars this week: Gina Holden as Haley and Callum Keith Rennie as Roy.

Haley is a favourite character of mine. Strong and fiercely protective of her family – oh, wait, didn’t I say that last time? I guess I have a type. I also very much enjoy her chemistry with Dean. They occupy similar roles in their respective families so it’s not surprising they have that dynamic. In the episode coda, when she turns down Dean’s “hero gets the spoils” sexual advance, it’s a great moment, but it brings back that theme of dodgy gender politics from the first episode: it’s treated as a joke, but I think Dean was serious. Certainly had she accepted he wasn’t going to turn down the chance for sex. I think it’s meant to be endearing, but I still find it a bit creepy.