S02E17 Heart

Episode Summary

Sam and Dean investigate a series of murders in San Francisco. There they meet Madison, her neighbour and her ex-boyfriend. The latter, the prime suspect, is killed by a werewolf that turns out to be Madison. Sam, who feels attracted to Madison, tries to save her by killing the werewolf who bit her which is revealed to be her neighbour. After this attempt fails, Madison convinces Sam to save her by shooting her.

Commentary

I have recently followed an interesting discussion on why people start watching a series, and, even more interestingly, why they keep doing it. My feelings for Supernatural are quite clear in this respect: I came for the plot, I stay(ed) for the plot! (Despite the huge gap between posts.) Episode 17 of Season two is a great example for a seemingly straightforward plot with a great twist, great potential and great heart. Before, when thinking about the metaphorical heart in Supernatural, I used to locate Dean’s either on his tongue or way south and Sam’s in tiny little pieces locked up away from harm after his girlfriend’s recent and brutal death. The episode „Heart“ shows I could not have been more wrong – or more right.

While the very first shots of the episode made me think of a vampire-y encounter, scratch marks and some interesting dog-perspective camera shots make it clear from the beginning, that the Winchesters have to deal with a werewolf. That, however, is about the only thing clear and obvious in this episode. Take the „damsel in distress“, for example. She is pretty, says her creepy, overprotective, religious neighbour is „sweet“ and gets it on with one of the Winchester brothers. She seems like the typical bad stereotype of the „sexy dumb blonde“. Except she’s not blonde. Or always pretty. Or responding to Dean’s charm. Her distress isn’t the result of some powerful external figure’s plot but lies almost wholly in an as yet undiscovered part of her inner self.

As the episode progresses it becomes clear that she isn’t threatened by a werewolf, she is one herself. Unsurprisingly, Sam wants to save her. That this is no easy task is already partly shown by the more than ten remaining minutes of the episode. Things get complicated further by Sam’s feelings. The inner monster he knows and fears himself not only makes him relate to Madison’s situation but to Madison herself. This attraction leads to an eventful night were clothes, tears and blood are shed.

My conclusions of that night can be summarised as follows: Some things are as they seem, others are more complicated. On the one hand, the creepy neighbour is a perpetrator. Dean likes strippers and bawdy jokes. And supernatural beings are dangerous. On the other hand, the most likely suspect, the violent ex-boyfriend, is not the killer but killed. Sam isn’t abstinent either. And supernatural beings face problems some of us are just too familiar with. All of Supernatural is full of life lessons but the last example also ties in with what I said at the beginning of this text. The series isn’t about undermining stereotypes but it breaks with them ever so often. The „damsel in distress“ really isn’t a lonely, helpless girl in a tower waiting for a knight to save her. Madison is a self-determined woman who decides that she can’t live with her werewolf-side. Eventually she asks Sam to help her – under her conditions: „This is the way you can save me. I’m asking you to save me.“ That is, to shoot her. And Sam does. Because his heart may be shredded and buried but it is still beating. And even Dean flinches at the sound of the shot. Thus far, the Winchester brothers turned out to be ambivalent figures with hearts in all the right places.