Things I Love About Season 1: Home (Part 1)
Supernatural, Season 1
Episode 9, “Home”
Written by Eric Kripke
Directed by Ken Girotti
Warning: image heavy post
Some brief reference to mental health issues
If I could pinpoint exactly when I ceased to be a casual viewer of Supernatural and became a full-on fan, “Home” would certainly be one of the major contributing episodes. The first Demon arc episode since “Phantom Traveler”, it represented a major turning point in the season with big brother reveals, the show’s first ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ brother hug, and John’s first appearance since the pilot.
It starts with a recap, and you can tell it’s no ordinary recap because the theme music is playing over it, so it must be important. And nearly all the clips are from the pilot so that must be significant too. Maybe we should remind ourselves how that episode started, just in case it’s relevant . . .
S01E01
And this is how “Home” opens:
Well, what do you know?!
But instead of a dark creepy house exterior we get a dark interior that slowly pans to a shot of a woman in a living room surrounded by boxes. And it isn’t Mary, though she does look a bit like her.
Come to think of it, a lot of the women in season 1 have a similar look:
It took me a while to notice the pattern and, when I did, I cynically remarked that the casting director had a type. Back when I was just a casual viewer, I wasn’t alive to the show’s subtler nuances, and it didn’t occur to me until later that it was deliberate. There was a type being cast, consciously, and the prototype was Mary.
The subtle message behind the casting was that Dean was trying to save his mother every week.
But it’s more than a vague physical resemblance links this particular woman to the Winchester family. First, there’s a hint of a circumstantial parallel as she picks up a wedding photo and smiles.
But then she bites her lip and tears up, so it seems this once happy memory has now become a source of grief.
Jenny (turns out, that’s her name) is presumably a widow, and we will learn that, like widower John Winchester, she has two children.
Daughter Sari appears in her jammies and complains there’s something in her closet, and we recall that, in the pilot, Sam revealed he was afraid of the thing in his closet when he was nine. Another parallel. So, Jenny goes to check and assures her daughter there’s nothing there, though this POV shot from inside the closet (and the tense music that accompanies it) heavily suggests she’s mistaken:
Sari discloses she doesn’t like the house, but her mother reassures her it’s just because it’s new and she isn’t used to it yet but. Nevertheless, Sari insists she puts a chair in front of the closet door, which Jenny does “just to be safe”.
As she returns to unpacking, Jenny hears scampering under the floor. “Please God, don’t let it be rats,” she says. Ah, if only rats were the sum of her worries!
She goes downstairs to check the basement and, while she’s there, discovers a box with some old family photos in it, and the faces turn out to be very familiar!
As in the pilot, photographs are becoming a recurring theme in this episode.
Meanwhile, in Sari’s room, the chair moves itself out from the front of the closet and the doors open with a menacing creak, revealing an alarming image within . . .
Sari screams and
TITLE CARD!
After the title frame we get a shot of a familiar house and spooky tree, and we can just see a woman in the window before a close up reveals it to be Jenny banging on the glass and silently crying out for help.
So, it’s confirmed: Jenny and her family are living in the old Winchester home!
Then the silence is broken by a truck horn and Sam wakes with a start. It seems he’s been having a nightmare. This is the first time we witness one of Sam’s prophetic dreams.
This disorienting close up of Sam beautifully captures his state of mind
as he wakes from his nightmare.
I love the use of camera angles here, too, with Dean foregrounded as Sam sits up in the background. Dean is sleeping with his hand under the pillow, which is a nice call back to the early scene in “Phantom Traveler” where we saw he kept a knife there.
In the next scene Sam is trying to draw the tree from his dream, and he demonstrates some skill with a pen (a point that was apparently forgotten two seasons later in “Bedtime Stories”).
Meanwhile Dean is surfing the net for their next case:
DEAN: All right. I’ve been cruisin’ some websites. I think I found a few candidates for our next gig. A fishing trawler found off the coast of Cali -- its crew vanished. And, uh, we got some cattle mutilations in West Texas. Hey. [SAM looks up from his drawing.]
Am I boring you with this hunting evil stuff?
SAM: No. I’m listening. Keep going.
DEAN: And, here, a Sacramento man shot himself in the head. Three times. [He waves his hand in front of SAM’S face.] Any of these things blowin’ up your skirt, pal?
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.09_Home_(transcript)
The subtle shift in roles and status that we noted at the beginning of the previous episode continues in this scene. Early in the season we saw Dean driving the hunting and searching for cases but, in “Bugs”, we saw the job hunting had fallen to Sam; now we see Dean surfing for cases, but he is actively seeking direction from Sam on which one they should pursue next. He wants Sam to make the decisions. It’s another hint that, despite his bossy outward demeanour, Dean is not a natural leader. In the absence of orders from John, he looks instead to Sam for guidance.
With 20/20 hindsight we can enjoy the casual way a case of cattle mutilations is dropped into the script at the beginning of a Demon arc episode. Sam and Dean, of course, have too little information at this point to recognize that as a major red flag, but it seems likely John would have picked up on it. Was he in West Texas checking it out before he got Dean’s call, I wonder?
It’s interesting that the script includes a detail that can only be appreciated in retrospect. As viewers, we had no way of knowing its significance at the time; we were as much in the dark as Sam and Dean, and we didn’t learn of the correlation between cattle mutilations and demonic manifestations until the end of the season, in “Salvation”. It’s a detail you can’t possibly pick up on a first viewing, but it’s there as an easter egg to reward those who can be bothered to rewatch.
Supernatural premiered during a distinct era in the evolution of commercial TV. Early television began as a cheap alternative the movies. A lot of it was live, and drama was low budget. On the whole, so long as a show was entertaining, production values weren’t a priority, and neither were things like realism, internal logic or great subtlety. These things weren’t subject to close scrutiny since most shows were expected to air once or twice at most. But then came the video era, and that was a game changer. For the first time, audiences could buy and own copies of their favourite shows and play them repeatedly. Suddenly TV execs had a financial motive for making quality television that was worthy of being watched more than once. The X-Files was probably one of the earliest shows to bring a movie like quality to the small screen but, in those years, a number of talented creators proved that intelligent and sophisticated television could find a popular audience. More recently, however, the game has changed again as mainstream channels, facing competition from cable then streaming services, have found it more cost effective to fill their schedules with Reality TV and other low budget shows. Once again, the object for free-to-air channels is simply to make cheap and disposable TV.
Supernatural had the good fortune to be born in the golden era in the middle, when the DVD market was at its most competitive, and the early seasons consequently benefitted from quality writing, high production values and a painstaking attention to detail that has since become mostly the purview of Pay TV. In addition, the scripts often included subtleties, like the cattle mutilation reference, that demonstrate the writers expected, or at least hoped, episodes (indeed, whole seasons) would be viewed multiple times.
This scene, of course, turns out to be the big brother reveal of the season as Sam, realizing he’s been dreaming about their old house in Kansas, is finally forced to tell Dean about his prophetic dreams:
Awww! The trepidation in Sam’s poor little face as he drops this bombshell! He’s right to be worried. A series of different fleeting emotions play on Dean’s face as he absorbs this revelation, from shock to incredulity to deepening concern and alarm.
When Sam tells him he dreamt about Jessica’s death, Dean’s whole body sags and he exhales, as if from a gut punch. It’s a consummate physical performance from Jensen.
As for Sam, he just looks so young in this scene.
He gets excited and animated as he insists that Jenny and her family are in danger, and his voice shoots up into the higher register. I wonder if it was a deliberate acting/directorial choice to make Sam seem boyish while Dean is being forced to confront memories of their childhood.
Dean sits down on the bed and Sam takes a seat opposite but, when Sam suggests Jenny may be in peril from the same thing that killed Mary, Dean gets up and hurries away, needing to put space between himself and all this new information.
“The shining” is, of course, a reference to the Jack Nicholson horror movie of the same name where the phrase was used to denote psychic power. Kripke does love his cultural allusions. And so do I 😊
Both the emotional performances from the boys, and the filming of this scene are wonderful. Every frame is impeccable, and there are so many beautiful emotional close ups.
I love how they capture the tears gathering in Dean’s eyes.
Awww. So resolute.
The trepidation is clear on Dean’s face as they drive up to the old homestead. “You gonna be all right, man?” Sam asks.
Sam’s face is also filled with emotion when the door opens and reveals the woman from his dream. Does he also see a resemblance to his mother, I wonder? Is that why he elects to cut over Dean’s prepared pretext with the truth? (Or a version of it, anyway.)
DEAN: Sorry to bother you, ma’am, but we’re with the Federal-
SAM: I’m Sam Winchester, and this is my brother, Dean. We used to live here. You know, we were just drivin’ by, and we were wondering if we could come see the old place.
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.09_Home_(transcript)
Jenny recalls finding the Winchester family photos, so she invites them in and, after some awkward small talk elaborating her circumstances, they ask what she thinks of her new home. And we’re treated to another of the brothers’ silent conversations when they share knowing glances while she describes the “issues” she’s been having with the house.
Sari brings up the subject of the “thing” in her closet and wants to know if it was there when they lived in the house.
“Right?” Jenny says pointedly, turning to Sam and Dean with a look that demands the answer “no”.
Sam does his best to be reassuring, bless him, but the brothers’ expressions are less than convincing. And when Sari describes the “thing”, the alarm in Sam’s eyes is plain for all to see.
We cut to the brothers leaving the house and an agitated exchange ensues. It’s an economic scene that covers a lot of ground in a few sentences. First, it’s clear that their concerns aren’t quite identical. Sam is primarily focused on whether they may have found Mary’s killer, and with protecting Jenny and her family, while Dean is still fixated with Sam’s dreams. It’s notable that he refers to them as “weirdo” visions. Already the narrative is shifting from the brothers being ‘freaks together’ to Sam being a different kind of freak. The theme returns of how best to approach the subject of the supernatural with its victims and, on top of all that, the dialogue manages to slip in some exposition on malevolent spirits for the benefit of viewers who may have missed earlier episodes that covered such things:
SAM: You hear that? A figure on fire.
DEAN: And that woman, Jenny, that was the woman in your dreams?
SAM: Yeah. And you hear what she was talking about?
Scratching, flickering lights, both signs of a malevolent spirit.
DEAN: Yeah, well, I’m just freaked out that your weirdo visions are comin’ true.
SAM: [panicked] Well, forget about that for a minute.
The thing in the house, do you think it’s the thing that killed Mom and Jessica?
DEAN: I don’t know!
SAM: Well, I mean, has it come back or has it been here the whole time?
DEAN: Or maybe it’s something else entirely, Sam, we don’t know yet.
SAM: Well, those people are in danger, Dean. We have to get ‘em out of that house.
DEAN: And we will.
SAM: No, I mean now.
DEAN: And how you gonna do that, huh? You got a story that she’s gonna believe?
SAM: Then what are we supposed to do?
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.09_Home_(transcript)
Another cut and the conversation continues at a gas station while Dean fills up the car. It’s a clever device. There’s a lot of information to impart and dividing it between different visual settings helps to avoid the impression that the narrative is getting bogged down in exposition.
Also, I love these road level views of the Impala.
Sam asks Dean what he remembers about the night of the fire. “I remember the fire . . . the heat” he says, then there’s long pause while he stares into the middle distance, as if the events of the night are playing across his memory:
“Then I carried you out the front door,” he concludes, but somehow it just feels like he’s skipped a bit, brother. Then, after another pause, he continues: “you know Dad’s story as well as I do. Mom was . . . was on the ceiling. And whatever put her there was long gone by the time Dad found her.” It’s an interesting choice of word, “story”. He could have used “account” or any other expression that implies a factual recounting of events, rather than a word that leaves room for the interpretation that it was something John made up. It was implied in “Dead in the Water” that Dean actually witnessed his mother’s death. Is it possible that what he saw didn’t actually match John’s “story”? The false start and hesitation between “Mom was” and “was on the ceiling” also leave room for the possibility that he was about to say something different and needed to correct himself to fit the received narrative.
In my review of the pilot, I discussed various interpretive possibilities that the text left open; one of these was a possible naturalistic reading of Supernatural:
“The parallels between the Winchesters and the Welches suggest to me a number of interpretive possibilities. The first is that Mary’s death was actually suicide [due to John's infidelity], and the manner of it may have been hinted at in the shot I drew attention to earlier where it appeared her body might have been hanging from the ceiling.
What if she hung herself from a light fitting and this was the true cause of the fire? . . . It’s possible Mary’s supernatural death was a delusion John created because he couldn’t face the guilt of being the cause of her suicide. Everything after that point would, in that case, be a shared psychosis that John imposed on his sons.”
I referred to “Home” at the time because it seems that, in this episode, Kripke is still leaving room for the shared delusion reading. In an upcoming scene we will also hear an account of the post-fire events from the point of view of John’s business partner of the time, and it’s clear he thinks John was mentally unstable.
Sam expresses surprise when he hears Dean carried him out of the house. We discover he wasn’t previously aware that had happened. We watch him gazing at Dean as he processes the new information. Doubtless the revelation adds to the revised picture he’s been drawing of his older brother since the pilot.
And once again, at the close of the conversation, we get a repeat of the tableau from “Wendigo” and “Bugs” of the brothers sitting together on the hood of the Impala. It always seems to accompany discussions about John.
At the beginning of this scene Dean had insisted they needed to treat this case like any other, but at the conclusion of the conversation, Sam asks, “does this feel like just another job to you?”
Dean doesn’t answer, excusing himself to go to the bathroom instead. Once he’s out of Sam’s eye-shot, he makes a phone call and John’s voicemail can be heard: “This is John Winchester. If this is an emergency, call my son, Dean at 866-907-3235.”* Dean leaves this message for his father:
“Dad? I know I’ve left you messages before. I don’t even know if you’ll get ‘em. [He clears his throat.] But I’m with Sam. And we’re in Lawrence. And there’s somethin’ in our old house. I don’t know if it’s the thing that killed Mom or not, but….[His voice breaks. He pauses, barely keeping himself together.]…I don’t know what to do. [He begins to cry.] So, whatever you’re doin’, if you could get here. Please. I need your help, Dad. [He hangs up sadly, with tears in his eyes.]” http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.09_Home_(transcript)
Recalling the scene in Wendigo where Dean put his hand on the journal, like it was a bible, and its suggestion that John was a metaphor for God, it strikes me that this message seems very much like a prayer:
It’s the first time we see the lost little boy so completely exposed. I didn’t realize it when I watched the scene at the time, but I think that’s probably when I first started falling in love with Dean.
* Incidentally, although the number is out of commission now, it was possible at one time to call Dean’s number in real life and, according to Superwiki, the following messages (spoken by Jensen Ackles) would play:
- Message 1: "This is Dean Winchester. If this is an emergency, leave a message. If you're calling about 11-2-83, please page me with your coordinates."
- Message 2: "Dad, we really need to hear from you. Leave me a message, text me, check your jwinchester1246 gmail, Anything. We have new info."
https://supernatural.fandom.com/wiki/Dean%27s_Cell_Phone
The next scene is one that I like to call a “Kripke Horror Special”. It’s the one where the plumber gets his arm shredded in the waste disposal and it’s so horrific it’s practically unwatchable. I usually skip right past it when I’m re-watching the episode but, with the sound off, it was just bearable enough to get these caps:
If it isn’t clear, that’s blood pouring into the bucket, folks!
I’ll let you all imagine/remember the rest (or rewatch for yourselves if you dare). Thank you SO much for that, Eric. And director, Ken Girotti, of course; great work sir. And I hate you both.
Meanwhile the boys pay a visit to Guenther’s Auto Repairs where they interview John’s former business partner, which gives us an opportunity to see John from an outsider pov. Guenther remembers John as “a stubborn bastard . . . whatever the game, he hated to lose, you know?” Sam and Dean nod. These are qualities with which they’re familiar, and doubtless these are traits that contributed to John’s tenacity in his quest to find Mary’s killer. But he also reveals a softer side of John that the boys have had less opportunity to experience.
When they ask what John told him about the fire, he seems reluctant to elaborate at first but, as they press him for more, it becomes clear he had concerns about John’s mental state afterward:
OWNER: Oh, he wasn’t thinkin’ straight.
He said somethin’ caused that fire and killed Mary.
DEAN: He ever say what did it?
OWNER: Nothin’ did it. It was an accident -- an electrical short in the ceiling
or walls or somethin’. I begged him to get some help, but….
DEAN: But what?
OWNER: Oh, he just got worse and worse.
DEAN: How?
OWNER: Oh, he started readin’ these strange ol’ books.
He started goin’ to see this palm reader in town.
DEAN: Palm reader? Uh, do you have a name?
OWNER: [scoffs] No.
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.09_Home_(transcript)
There’s a deleted scene that expands on this interview where we learn that Guenther called social services after John sold his share of the business to buy guns, a revelation that doesn’t go down well with Dean, and he finds it progressively more difficult to maintain his cop persona during the conversation, but it’s clear Guenther thought John was a danger to his children, which would also have developed the parental abuse theme that’s been bubbling away in the background of the season. We learn that John disappeared right after that, suggesting he was wise to what his partner had done.
“I just hope he got himself well,” Guenther concludes, at which point Dean snaps and tells him he should have stuck by his friend. (The full scene is available on the DVD special features or on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpeXNy7RbME&list=PLDYbs-HxgvGwQPhbHPCcvPOytUfJikujG&index=7 )
Kudos to Don Thompson who gives another of those nicely understated and genuine performances that help to ground the first season in the ordinary lives of relatable people.
Going through the phone book (remember those?) Sam finds several local psychics and as he reads out the names, Dean recognizes Missouri Moseley. Digging out John’s journal he has Sam read the first line: “I went to Missouri, and I learned the truth”.
“I always thought he meant the state,” Dean says.
Continue to Part 2
.