Supernatural S01 E02 – Youth Mauling Wendigo

Previously: We met the Winchester boys in the Pilot episode, and Sam’s girlfriend Jess was killed by something…. Supernatural!
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Wendigo

Sara: Blackwater Ridge. Lost Creek, Colorado. Something is growling outside of a tent in the middle of the woods. Three guys inside are playing video games on handheld devices, and HEY. One of them is Cory Monteith! Aw, feels.

Kirsti: Especially seeing as this was one of his few chances to play an age appropriate character. Sniff, tear, sob.

Sara: Another guy is recording a message on his phone for someone named Haley, telling her that he’s fine and will talk to her tomorrow. Probably not if that growly thing has anything to say about it. Also, that’s some sweet cell service!

K: Clearly, he’s with the same company as Angel, who gets phone reception in the sewers.

Sara: Unidentifiable Third Guy goes outside to empty his bladder and hears some rustling in the woods. He sees something that we don’t see and screams, alerting the other two guys. Cory Monteith sticks his head outside of the tent to investigate and is promptly yanked out, and again, all we hear are screams. Magical Cell Signal Guy has learned his lesson at this point and just cowers in the tent while something growls louder and louder outside of it. Finally, the camera swoops in and snatches Magical Cell Signal Guy up, and we cut to black. Have I mentioned that this show is legit scary yet?

Palo Alto, California. Sam is laying flowers on Jess’ grave, and OMG SHE’S REALLY DEAD. What the hell, show? He tells Jess that she always said roses were lame, so he brought her something else. Sam is choked up as he tells her that he should have protected her and told her the truth (K: The tinkly orchestra of feels is off to an early start). A hand reaches out from the grave and grabs Sam’s wrist, and at that, Sam wakes up in Dean’s Bromobile.

Dean asks Sam if he was having another nightmare, but Sam doesn’t answer, so Dean asks if Sam wants to drive the car. Sam looks surprised as he says that Dean has never offered to let him drive the Bromobile before. Dean says whatever, never mind, because he’s like the Fonz and can’t admit that he has sappy love emotions for his brother. Sam says that he knows Dean is worried about him, but he’s perfectly okay. Dean mmm-hmms back, because obviously Sam is not okay because of how his girlfriend was just murdered by something… Supernatural!

The boys check back over the map and Dean says that it can’t be a coincidence that right when their dad goes missing, the Fire Demon of Death came back for Jess. Sam wonders why their dad would send them coordinates to a forest in the middle of nowhere, and the writers are like SHHHH, don’t worry about it. Here’s hoping a bear rips their shirts off!

Ranger Station. The boys are looking at maps and pictures of giant bears when a Ranger walks in and asks if they’re planning on heading out to Blackwater Ridge. Sam covers and says they’re just environmental study majors, working on a paper. Dean throws in, “Recycle, man,” with a fist pump. I’m kind of in love with him already.

K: It’s taken you this long?!

Sara: I have a feeling I’ll be back and forth on falling in love with each of them again and again. I hope my boyfriend Mal doesn’t get jealous…

Ranger Joe calls bull on that story and accuses them of being friends with that Haley girl (the one Magical Cell Signal Guy was recording a message for). The boys are confused for a second until Dean is like, “Uh, yeah, sure, that’s who we are,” because he’s good at getting private information from people. With dem abs, I’d give him all my information, too, if you know what I mean.

Ranger Joe says that he’ll tell them the same thing he told Haley – her brother signed a permit saying he would camping until the 24th, so it isn’t a missing persons case. Dean says he could probably get Haley to calm down about it if he could show her a copy of the permit, and voila! Three seconds later, the boys are walking out of the Ranger Station with a copy of the permit. Either they’re glamouring people, or those perfect faces also work on men.

K: You have no idea, Sara. I think it’s the puppy dog eyes.

Sara: Dean wants to go talk to Haley, but Sam just wants to go to the coordinates their dad left them and find him. He doesn’t understand why they’re wasting their time on this side mission, and Dean says, “I don’t know, maybe we should know what we’re walking into before we actually walk into it?” Like duh.

Haley House. Haley answers the door, and HEY. IT’S SHEA FROM HARPER’S ISLAND. (I have a feeling this is going to be happening a lot with this show’s guest stars.) Dean introduces them as rangers with the park service and asks if he can ask her some questions about her brother, Tommy (formerly known as Magical Cell Signal Guy). She isn’t fooled by their pretty faces and asks for some ID, which Dean gladly produces from his Never Ending Bag of Identification. It’s like the bag from Halloweentown but just full of IDs. She reluctantly invites them inside, but makes sure to compliment the Bromobile and eye sex Dean at the same time. LUCKIEST EYES EVER.

Haley goes about fixing dinner as Sam asks why she’s so worried about her brother since he isn’t due back until later in the month. She says that he sends her messages and videos every day, and she hasn’t gotten one in a while. Sam suggests that Tommy might not have cell reception, but Haley shoots that idea down because he has a satellite phone. A-HA. Not Magical Cell Phone Service then! I’m glad I changed his name. That could have been embarrassing.

K: Actually, she says that he has a sat phone TOO, which implies that it was totally Magical Cell Phone Service and that the sat phone was a back up plan. Especially seeing as I don’t think sat phones are equipped to record video, let alone send it. So I stand by your nicknaming.

Sara: VALIDATED!

The boys ask to see the pictures and videos Tommy sent her, and Haley shows them the video we saw him recording at the beginning of the episode. Sam says that they’ll go out to the campgrounds in the morning to look for him, but Haley is way ahead of them. She’s already hired someone to take her out there, and they’ll also be leaving in the morning. Convenient timing, boys! Before the boys leave, Sam asks Haley to forward the pictures and video to him.

Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grille. Sam is filling Dean in on some details about the camping area Tommy was in. Not many people camp out there, and two hikers recently disappeared from that same area with no evidence of where they went. Also, back in 1982, eight people disappeared from the area, and the local LOLPD chalked it up to a grizzly bear attack.

DID SOMEBODY SAY YOUTH MAULING BEAR? Close enough!

Apparently the same thing happens every 23 years. A group of campers mysteriously goes missing. And since it’s 2005, we’re just in time for another!

K: Man, that youth mauling bear has a long lifespan.

Sara: Sam shows Dean the video Haley showed them earlier, but slowed way down, and in it, a shadow crosses the tent in the background which is fuh-reaky. Sam continues Information Vomiting about how one person survived the 1959 attack – a small child who crawled out of the woods by himself like a boss.

Baby Boss. The boys are visiting the now grown up Baby Boss, and his place is a wreck. He wants to know why the rangers are interviewing him after all these years. All of his information is on public record, regarding the story of his parents being eaten by a… Sam interrupts to say grizzly bear, and Baby Boss gives him a look. Dean asks him pointedly if all of the missing person cases in 1982 and this year were the result of a grizzly bear, too. He goes on that it would be a lot easier to fight this thing if they actually knew what it was.

Baby Boss says that they wouldn’t believe him anyways. Nobody ever did. Aw. That’s some Childhood Trauma right there. He tells the boys that the Wendigo (it’s the title of the episode, so I calls ’em like I sees ’em) moved too fast to see, but he could hear it. It made a roar like nothing he’d ever heard before. Baby Boss was sleeping in the cabin when the creature got in by unlocking the door. “You know of a bear that could do something like that?”

I’ll let the evidence speak for itself.

K: There really is a gif for everything.

Sara: The magic of the Internet!

Anyways, Baby Boss said he didn’t even wake up until he heard his parents screaming. They were dragged off into the woods, and he never saw them again. He says that the Wendigo did leave him one gnarly scar and shows it to the boys. “There’s something evil in those woods.” Well. Yeah. No shit, dude.

As the boys leave, they deduce that this creature is corporeal, because if it was a demon or a ghost, it could have just walked through the walls. Dean says that if it’ s corporeal, that means they can kill it. Dean pops open his Weapons Trunk, as Sam asks how they can keep Haley from going into the woods.

Dean says that they’ll just have to go with her and protect her. Sam is not happy about the idea of babysitting Haley while also trying to find their dad, but Dean DGAF.

Haley, her brother, and their hired Mountain Man are about to head off into the wilderness to find her brother, when Dean and Sam show up. They ask if they can tag along, but Team Mountain Man [MM] is not very happy with this development. Haley tells MM that the boys are rangers, but then immediately questions why a Ranger would be hiking in biker boots and jeans. “Oh, sweetheart, I don’t do shorts,” Dean tells her.

K: There are no words for how much I adore that line. Partly because it reminds me that Dean is going to be proven wrong in a couple of seasons. 

Sara: We cut to a dark cave, where a guy, covered in blood, is hanging from the ceiling by his hands. We see the shadow of the Wendigo enter the cave and as he begins EATING THE KID ALIVE? IS THAT WHAT’S HAPPENING? OMG. Okay, anyways, he starts eating the kid alive, I guess, and the camera pans over to Tommy, on the other side of the cave, also hanging from the ceiling and covered in blood. He cringes as we cut to black.

Dean is trying to get some information on MM and his experience with hunting things that are not Mythical Beasts, but MM isn’t giving up much. When Dean asks him if he’s ever hunted something that hunted him back (which reminds me of Ice-T in Surviving The Game, so funny), MM grabs him by the arm and yanks him to a stop.  But luckily for everyone, it was just our old friend, Misdirection, because Dean was about to step in a bear trap.

As the team continues their hike, Haley stops Dean and calls him out for his clothes, his one bag, and his no provisions. She knows he’s not a Ranger, so she wants the truth. Dean gives her the Cliff’s Note version: He and Sam are brothers who are trying to find their missing father, and he figured they could all help each other since her brother is missing, too. Haley doesn’t understand why he didn’t tell her sooner, and he gives her the typical guy answer: “I’m telling you now…” They legit do not understand why that answer is invalid. He also says that this is the most honest he’s ever been with a woman… ever. Oh, Dean. I don’t need honesty. Just dem abs.

K: BEST.

Sara: Haley smiles as he walks away, because she and millions of women across the world just simultaneously fell in love. The team makes it to the exact coordinates they’re looking for, and MM says he’s going to take a look around. Sam tells him that he should stick close, just in case, and MM is like, “LOL OKAY BECAUSE I’M SO SCARED,” which is a surefire way to get your ass eaten by a Wendigo, dude.

The others look around until they hear MM calling Haley over. When they get to the clearing, they see Tommy’s campsite from the beginning of the episode and it’s a mess. The tents are all torn, and there is blood everywhere. Ugh, I can’t even imagine rolling up on that and knowing my brother was in one of those tents. Poor Haley. She starts calling out for Tommy, but Sam shushes her because something might still be out there.

Dean calls Sam over and shows him a path covered in blood. He figures the bodies were dragged there, but the path vanishes at a certain point. Back in the campsite, Haley finds Tommy’s phone and cries. Dean tells her that he could still be alive, but she looks utterly unconvinced.

K: I don’t blame her.

Sara: Suddenly, they hear a guy screaming for help in the woods, and they all take off towards the screams. When they get to the noise, there’s nothing there anymore and it’s dead silent. Sam tells the group to get back to the campsite, and they take off. When they return, their bags have all been taken, along with their phones and GPS devices. Sam tells them that it’s smart and wants to cut them off from calling for help. MM is confused by this and thinks that Sam is talking about a crazy human.

Sam pulls Dean aside again and asks to look at his dad’s journal, aka the Filofax of Shadows. He gets to a passage about the Wendigo and points out the similarities, but Dean doesn’t think they’ve ever shown up this far west.

K: I stop to congratulate Dean because he was officially the first one to say the thing, and he therefore earns himself our very first Supernatural gold star!!

Sara: Sam does manage to convince him, though, and Dean realizes his gun is kind of useless now. They go back to the group, planning to get everyone to safety.

Sam tells everyone that they need to head out, but MM says to calm down because he can handle it. Sam stands his ground and says that if MM shoots the thing, he’s just going to piss it off. Sam tells him that he never should have let him come out there, and he’s just trying to protect him. “Oh yeah? I was hunting in these woods when your mommy was still kissing you goodnight.” Now that burn is rude as fuck, MM. You leave Baby Sam alone!

Sam tells MM that this thing is a perfect hunter, and it’s going to hunt them down and eat them alive. MM laughs crazily in Sam’s face and then calls Sam crazy. Dude, you’re the only one around here laughing like someone who’s about to get eaten. Haley interrupts to say that Tommy might still be alive, and she isn’t leaving without him. The boys relent and decide to get comfy.

When we come back from the Not Commercial Break, the boys have told the group about the whole Wendigo thing. They’ve even set up some kind of magical safety circle around themselves. MM is still scoffing and laughing in the background. Dude, how many times do I have to tell you: YOU ARE DEFINITELY GETTING EATEN.

K: I dunno. If two dudes with no provisions but half a bag of peanut M&Ms hijacked my search and rescue mission and then claimed we were all protected because they’d drawn a bunch of mystical stick figures in the dirt, I’d probably scoff too.

Sara: What if they had the face of gods, though??!

Sam is sitting by himself away from the campfire, and Dean comes over to tell him that he knows he isn’t okay. Sam just wants to find their dad as soon as possible. Dean pulls out the Filofax of Shadows and tells him that everything there is to know about the rest of the season monsters and supernatural things is in that book. He tells Sam that their dad must have left it behind for a reason other than fulfilling plot purposes.

Dean is sure that their father wants them to continue the family business by saving people and hunting things.

K: And those of us who know and love the show stop for a moment of “HE SAID THE THING FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!!” because that clip turns up in the previouslies for basically the rest of the show.

Sara: Thus, the premise for this show was born. I admit that there is a ton of heavy handed info dumping in these first two episodes, but you know what? I don’t even care. This show is so damn fun that it doesn’t even matter.

Sam complains that if this is what their dad wanted, it might be a little easier if he would just leave them a freaking voicemail or send them a letter, explaining it. Dean says that it doesn’t matter because their dad has given them something to do, and he’s going to do it. He agrees to help Sam find their father and whatever killed Jess. Sam asks Dean how he deals with the pain, and he tells him that helping other families stay together helps him. Plus, killing those evil son of a bitch monsters doesn’t hurt.

They’re interrupted by more screams for help in the middle of the forest. The boys warn the others not to leave the circle, because the Wendigo is trying to draw them out. They hear the evil growling, and MM finally admits that that ain’t no grizzly. He fires a few shots out into the forest and, thinking he hit it, runs off after it, because: HE ASKIN’ FOR IT.

Dean chases after him, and MM calls out to him that the Wendigo is in the tree, and the Wendigo immediately reaches down and snaps MM’s neck. Whenever my cats are climbing somewhere they aren’t supposed to be and they fall, I always yell at them, “That’s what happens!” and since it applies so nicely here: Mountain Man, THAT IS WHAT HAPPENS.

K: Fair call. He was pretty much asking to get murdered/eaten/whatever from the minute he turned up. 

Sara: Dean and Sam make it to the tree but don’t see MM anywhere. With a shriek of the soundtrack, we cut to a Not Commercial Break. During this break, can we address the fact that the soundtrack on this show is borderline ridiculous? It kind of reminds me of the Seizure Cuts on Angel. Terrifying and completely out of nowhere.

K: It goes hand in hand with the two seconds of lightning-y sound effects that stand in place of an opening theme.

Sara: After the Not Break, it’s morning and Haley is asking Dean how he knows about all of this Supernatural stuff, and he responds that it runs in the family. Sam shows up to say that they have better odds in the light, and he’s ready to kill this thing. Dean is down because of course.

Sam and Dean explain the origins of Wendigo to Haley and her little brother: Wendigo means “evil that devours,” and they’re hundreds of years old. During a harsh winter, when a man ran out of food, he would sometimes become a cannibal and eat members of his own camp. Cultures all over the world believe that eating human flesh can give a person special abilities: speed, strength, immortality. If you eat enough of it, over years, you become a less-than-human thing that is always hungry.

Haley wonders how Tommy could still be alive, if all that is true, and Dean tells her that she won’t like the answer. She demands to know, and he says that the Wendigo will keep some of its victims alive, so it can eat them later. It’s like how you sometimes make double the bacon because you know you’re gonna be craving bacon again three hours after you eat it. The Wendigo will keep its Freezer Meals in a dark and empty cave somewhere, and the only way to kill it is to set it on fire.

K: Good thing Dean always carries hard liquor, because now he can make himself a handy dandy Molotov cocktail! 

Sara: You really never know when you’re going to need a good Molotov cocktail, am I right, guys?

They start following a trail and are led to a clearing where all of the trees are claw marked and covered in blood. The boys stop, and Sam says that it seems like that trail was suspiciously easy to follow.

Right then, of course, the growling noises are back and everyone freezes. Blood drips down onto Haley’s jacket, and when she looks up, there’s a body falling right above her. She jumps out of the way, and the body is MM’s, dead from a broken neck. The group takes off at a run through the woods.

During the run, Sam and Haley’s little brother get separated from the other two and can’t find them anywhere. They start searching, and Little Bro asks Sam why the Wendigo would kill MM if it keeps its victims alive. Sam responds that MM probably pissed it off when he shot at it. Fair.

K: Totally. Plus, MM was pretty obviously the dick of the group and was therefore too dickish to remain alive.

Sara: They find a trail of M&Ms that Dean dropped and start to follow the trail. I find it hard to believe that Dean is managing to leave a trail of M&Ms as he’s being dragged by a Wendigo, but sure, okay, show. (K: SHHHHHH.) The guys finally make it to a terrifying looking coal mine, so of course this is where the Wendigo has set up shop.

They head inside and quietly walk through the caves with flashlights. They see the Wendigo from far away, too, and this thing will haunt me in my nightmares. The guys continue on and end up falling through a hole in the ground. When they gather themselves, they see Dean and Haley hanging from the ceiling. They each run over to their respective loved one to make sure they’re okay and cut them down.

Haley sees Tommy hanging in another side of the cave (I guess he’s being saved for a special occasion?) and assumes he’s dead. She touches his face sadly, and he wakes up with a start. They quickly cut him down and prepare to GTFO.

K: I’d GTFO too, because the floor is covered in bones and skulls. Apparently being a supernatural cannibal means that your housekeeping skills go right down the toilet. Also, a round of applause for contrivance for leaving a bunch of flare guns lying around the cave. 

Sara: On their way out of the cave, they hear growling, and Dean tells Sam that he knows what they have to do. He tells the others to go with Sam for safety while he takes care of it. Haley asks what he’s going to do, and he just winks at her and takes off, yelling for the Wendigo to come for him. He is the hottest hotness that ever hotted.

Sam leads the others into an open floor plan part of the cave, and it sounds like the thing is following him instead of Dean. He sends the others away, and the Wendigo jumps out at him. He runs after the others and all of them take off towards the exit together. They get trapped in a corner, and right as the Wendigo is about to wrap them up in doggy bags, Dean shows up to save the day.

 

You guys, I love this show. And it’s only episode 2.

K: Welcome to my world. 

Sara: We cut to later, and Sam is telling the police that they were attacked by a giant grizzly bear. DID SOMEONE SAY YOUTH MAULING WENDIGO?

Haley tells Dean that she doesn’t know how to thank him, and he gives her Hubba Hubba eyebrows. “Must you cheapen the moment?” He responds, “YEAH.” Hee! Before leaving, she gives him a kiss on the cheek and wishes him good luck on finding his father.

The boys agree that they hate camping and that they’ll eventually find their dad. Sam says in the meantime, he’ll be driving. Dean tosses him the keys and they hop in the Bromobile to head to their next adventure. I really hope that every episode ends with something being said in a manly voice as 80s rock music starts up in the background.

K: That hope is surprisingly close to the truth. Except that sometimes the music is from the 70s…

 

[Editor’s Note: Yeah… this wasn’t as good. I mean, I like the show, and it’s still pretty darn creepy, but episode 2 had an extra helping of contrivance and the middle part went on for a really long time when we all knew Mountain Man was going to die and the Winchesters were going to save the day. On the bright side: Mmmm. Winchesters. -Lorraine]

 

Next time: The boys investigate mysterious drownings in a small town. Find out what’s responsible in Supernatural S01 E03 – Dead in the Water.