Oak Plains, Oklahoma. Workers at a site find a sink hole and one falls in to be attacked by bugs. Sam (Jared Padalecki) reads in the paper about a local death being blamed on a medical mystery. He thinks they could get occasional day jobs to pay their way. Dean (Jensen Ackles) wins some money, nope hunting's their job. Don't think anyone can imagine Dean on an actual job! They're good at hunting. The man died from Creutzfeld-Jacob disease, human mad cow disease (X-Files territory here, or should that be Scully (Gillian Anderson) territory since Sam is the one who mentions it and you know what Dean says, Sam's the red-headed girl and he's Mulder (David Duchovny). Dean: "Isn't that on Oprah?"
Sam: "You watch Oprah?!" Of course amongst a million other shows, ha. Dean changing the subject asks why it's their case.
Sam posits geekily (!) brain degeneration takes years and this man's brain disintegrated in an hour or less. Dean's unhappy it's always work and has no time to spend his 'hard earned' money. (Yeah on booze and chicks.) They drive to Oasis Plains estate, the site of the injury. Sam finds whatever it was, worked on the inside of the brain and they need to go down the hole, but don't know what's there. Dean flips a coin, he's not afraid. Sam goes down instead and finds dead beetles but no other tracks, tunnels or signs of any other creatures. Some beetles eat meat, but normally it's dead. They need more information on the area.
Dean suggest they start at the show home, free BBQ, that signals all you can eat for free, for Dean. As Sam says, "free food's got nothing to do with it."
Dean: "No, I'm a professional." Dean knows growing up in such a place would have freaked him out, it's so normal. Sam: "There's nothing wrong with normal."
Dean: "I'd pick our family over normal everyday." The developer says they accept all sorts of homeowners regardless of sexual orientation. Dean insists they're brothers. Lynda (Carrie Genzel) mistakens them for a gay couple too. To which Dean replies to Sam: "...okay honey."
His son, Matt (Tyler Johnston) likes bugs, a spider comes towards her and Sam picks it up, yuk. Sam comments Matt's on a first name basis with his father and it reminds Sam of him and Dad (Jeffrey Dean Morgan.) Dean recalls Dad never treated them like that. Sam: "Dad never treated you like that - you were perfect, his was all over my case." Cos Sam was out of line at times. Sam recalls he wanted to play soccer but had to learn bow hunting. Here comes the brother differences and how Sam believes Dean was the favourite whereas that was Sam, cos in all families the youngest is always the favourite. Dean wasn't perfect as we'll see in some later episodes. He just had to do what he thought was right and that was in hunting.
Dean realizes this wasn't the first strange death, there was one from an allergic reaction to bee stings a year ago, before the development was started. Sam adds hauntings sometimes include manifestations of bugs. Sam likens it to Willard who liked rats. There are cases of psychic connections between people and animals, elementals, telepaths. Dean likens it to Lassie and Timmy. Dean wants to try the steam shower in the house. Lynda is attacked in the shower by (CGI) spiders. Sam hears the call on the police scanner. Dean: "Shower's awesome." With towel over his head; like a girl! Then has to venture out in the rain! Dean notices the spiders in the towel (fake plastic ones more like.)
They follow Matt into the woods where he collects bugs. He knows somethings happening to the bugs and he tried to tell his father but he wouldn't listen, "he's too disappointed in his freak son."
Sam: "I hear you."
Dean: "You do." Sam comforts him as he can go to college in two years and get away from him. Dean: "What kind of advice is that - kid should stick with his family." Sam notices the earth mound in which Dean puts his hand and pulls out a skull (and he just had a shower.) Sam says it's an unmarked grave, so why the bugs and why now?
Dean gives Sam the third degree, why did he tell Matt to leave his family like that. Sam: "I know what the kid's going through."
Dean: "How about telling him to respect his old man - how's that for advice." Great let the fireworks begin. These moments are classics for this show. Sam knows this is about him, Dean thinks he didn't respect Dad, which he did, but he couldn't do anything that was good enough in his eyes. Dean agrees Dad was disappointed in Sam. Sam: "Was, is always has been...because I wanted to go to school and live life, which in our family made me the freak."
Dean: "You were like the blonde chick in The Munsters." Again Dean tries to inject some humour in this conversation which has been on the cards for a long time.. Sam recalls Dad threw him out of the house and Dean also recalls that fight, "I seem to remember a few choice phrases coming out of your mouth." Then Sam comes down to the bit about finding Dad, eventually but he probably won't want to see him. Dean admits Dad wasn't disappointed in Sam, he was scared of what would happen to Sam if he wasn't around and rightly so. Look at everything that will happen to Sam. Dad used to see him at Stanford even when they were arguing to ensure he was safe. So why didn't Dean do that too, keep in touch. Seems like Dean's the one who had more of a grudge against Sam for living his life than Dad did. But that's to come.
They have an appointment with a professor (Jim Byrnes)who tells them events 170 years ago on the Native American time scale, when there were no tribes and relocation was common. They should talk to Joe (Jimmy Herman). They admit they're not really students. Dean: "Truth is..." He shouldn't start a sentence with truth is and is rebuked by Joe. Truth is they're liars. He likes Sam, he's not a liar. Joe tells them what his grandfather told him: 200 years ago his ancestors lived here and the US cavalry came to relocate them, they resisted and on "the night the moon and the sun share the sky as equals, the cavalry raided and they resisted and on the sixth day everyone was dead in the village. On the sixth night, the chief whispered to the heavens, no white man would ever tarnish his land again, nature will rise up and protect the valley." Sam says it's the spring equinox and the houses have been built on cursed land.
Dean tells Sam you don't break a curse you get out of its way. Matt finds bugs outside the house and Dean calls and says he should say there's a gas leak and leave. (Travis doesn't recognize Dean's voice.) Dean suggests not to tell him the truth cos he'll think he's crazy. Matt told his father the truth. Dean: "What happened to the plan?" Dean hears a swarm approach, they cover over the doors and windows. Sam says they need to outlast them as the curse will end at sunrise. Dean sets fire to bug spray and they head for the attic. They're attacked and just as the spray gun runs out, hey presto it's daylight.
The development is on hold, Matt throws his bug collection away. Sam wants to find Dad, so does Dean and Sam wants to apologize for what he said. He was doing the best he could. Dean knows they'll find Dad, apologize and then Dad and Sam will fight again. Yes that's true. Not one of the episodes high up on my favourites list, but at least we get some arguing between Sam and Dean, which was stewing and building up. That's the best bits in this show, well some of them anyway. That they're brothers and of course siblings fight, families fight, but at the end of the day it's not over anything trivial. Then they kiss and make up, ha. The first time Sam and Dean being mistakenly alluded to as gay.
The bees through the fireplace reminded me of The Birds (1963) and I know I've said it before but it did. Anyone who hasn't seen that Hitchcock classic should watch it and then see some similarities between the swarm attack. Also what Jensen and Jared do for their art, they were actually faced with real bees, cos the fake ones were too small to film. Yeah bet a lot of us would have liked to have applied ointment to their bite marks!! Dean calling Sam the blonde chick, Marilyn in The Munsters, since in their family she was the freak, as she was human and the others were monsters. Thus Sam was the normal one in the Winchester family and thus the freak.
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