“Dead in the Water” means adrift or stagnating…not an awesome theme for only the third episode. But of course this is Supernatural, where “dead” never means gone. What seems like a “monster-of-the-week” episode turns out to have a lot of layers.
Pre-show notes
Dead in the Water was directed by Kim Manners, who also directed an episode of The X-Files, Quagmire which has a very similar look and feel. Both are about a series of drownings in a lake, and in both the investigators initially suspect, or joke about suspecting, a lake monster. I ended up re-watching a couple of X-Files episodes ahead of this one, just to be sure I didn’t imagine it. The plots and beats are quite similar, but more striking is the cinematography. Same director – no question.
My question – is the similarity just Kim Manners’ signature, or is there more to read into it?
Episode notes
A poor lakeside community. Something deadly lurks beneath the water. A traumatised child holds the key to the mystery.
Enter the Winchester brothers. When we first meet them they are in a diner bickering about their mission. Dean has spotted the newspaper article about a drowning and wants to investigate. Sam wants to press on and find John and kill Jessica’s killer. The argument provokes a bit of a rant from Dean, and I think it’s the first time he’s expressed real resentment of the years Sam spent at college. He’s pretty contemptuous of college life. Sam agrees to go along with the hunt.
We know that Dean has hunted alone before: he mentions being in New Orleans in the pilot. But what isn’t obvious on first watch is how rare that must have been. John was very controlling and I suspect Dean only hunted alone when John didn’t want him around. So this is really the first time Dean is choosing his own hunts. He’s stepping into his father’s role (hold that thought).
“People don’t just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them.”
Sam
A lot of layers to Sam’s statement there. On the surface he’s saying “disappeared” just means “not found yet”. He’s pushing to continue their search for John, and given how important that is to Sam at this point, of course he doesn’t want to stop looking. At this point they have no idea what has happened to their father. John had rented a hotel room for a month, then abandoned it, leaving behind a lot of research and equipment and a cryptic voicemail which ended with a warning of danger. They must be wondering whether John is even alive. There’s an element of magical thinking to Sam’s statement: Dad isn’t dead as long as they keep searching. I wonder if, in a sense, Sam’s words also apply to him: Dean didn’t look for him when he “disappeared” from the family.
This week the brothers’ fake ID is Federal Wildlife. It seems an odd choice until you realise they think the lake has its own Loch Ness Monster.
Bill Carlton, the father of the drowned girl, spends a lot of time brooding on the pier. When we first see him there, his expression reminds me a lot of John’s in the pilot, holding his boys as their home burns. But there’s a striking difference between the two fathers. John Winchester didn’t sit around doing nothing for long: he took action. Bill Carlton is obviously (and justifiably) depressed, and we learn later he has a understanding of what’s going on and his own responsibility for it. Ultimately Bill sacrifices himself to the lake – but his suicide comes too late to save his children.
“My children are gone. It’s worse than dying.”
Bill Carlton (and Mrs Sweeney)
The pain of losing a child is a huge theme here. And that’s going to be really important in later episodes.
Getting back to this one, the other big theme is Dean’s connection to Lucas. Lucas witnessed the ghost drowning his father and the trauma has made him mute. Since he’s their only witness, Dean wants to talk to him and protests that he’s good with kids. Sam is sceptical, challenging Dean to name one kid he knows. It’s painfully ironic: Sam seems to have forgotten that Dean basically raised him.
“Watching one of your parents die isn’t something you just get over.”
Dean
In the pilot it’s unclear whether Dean saw anything of Mary’s death. It’s clear from what he says to Lucas that he did see at least something of what happened. It’s also notable that it’s the first time Sam has heard Dean talk about what he witnessed. In the pilot and in episode two we were focussed on Sam’s trauma over Jessica’s death. But it’s important to realise that Dean was traumatised, too. Witnessing Jessica’s death must have brought that childhood trauma right back.
Dean has a lot of empathy for Lucas who witnessed his own father’s death. But it’s not just the empathy of shared trauma. Dean has a real way of connecting to the boy and in his first attempt he’s sensitive enough to walk away when Lucas doesn’t respond. Most adults would keep badgering until they got a response.
Dean’s connection with Lucas is very paternal. There’s a lot to unpick about the kind of father John Winchester was to his sons, but back in the pilot we saw his relationship with Dean was a good one, normal and loving. That’s the kind of father Dean might be, as we see in this first glimpse.
And I think that’s all I want to say about this episode. Except the bathtub scene is really gross. So unnecessary. There were at least two better ways to advance the plot than to get a pretty young woman naked. Ugh.
Associations
The deadly mystery hidden in a lake is a common trope.
For me the closest association is the X-Files episode, Quagmire. In the X-Files episode, the mysterious beast turns out to be a large but entirely natural crocodile. Here what Dean is obviously hoping was Nessie turns out to be a vengeful spirit. The boy whose drawings lead the way through the mystery is also reminiscent of an X-Files episode, Conduit.
The opening death, a pretty young girl who drowns while swimming, evokes Camp Crystal Lake of the Friday the 13th franchise. The way the scene is filmed, the camera positioned below her in the water as she swims, also evokes Jaws (1975).
The bathtub scene is very like A Nightmare on Elm Street, though it’s another common horror movie trope.
Final thoughts
Two fathers sacrifice themselves in this episode. Bill Carlton effectively commits suicide after both of his children are killed by the spirit of a boy he himself helped to kill. Sheriff Devin acts when his grandson and daughter are threatened and offers himself to save them. That’s some heavy foreshadowing there.
