Supernatural: The Chitters (11x19)

So! A perfectly serviceable C-plot episode with a gay couple, lots of Winchester bro parallels and maybe some Destiel material to boot, and a lot of ominous foreshadowing for the next few weeks? I'm pretty pleased with this one.

Cons:

This episode has the painful "we have no leads, so we should go on a hunt" conversation that so often starts Sam and Dean's story in C-plot episodes. It's getting so repetitive that I literally cringe whenever the formula repeats itself. Dean is researching frantically, Sam says that they have no new leads, and that they should keep moving forward. Dean reluctantly accepts, and they're off on a hunt. If we could find a more original way to do the establishing scene, that would be just dandy, thanks so much.

Another bit of tired writing comes at the very end, when our excellent guest characters Jessy and Cesar have this exchange: "You did it." "No, we did it." I think these phrases need to be retired from the English language. In an episode with a few bumpy writing moments, this one stood out the most to me.

The saving grace of this episode came in the form of the guest characters, and how their story and resolution helped us to think about Sam and Dean. That being said, the actual monster hunt was... bland. It wasn't bad, but it didn't do much to excite my interest, either. All you really need to know about the plot is that every twenty-seven years, some creatures come back and start turning local townsfolk into rabid beasts with green eyes. We learn that the man who was sheriff during the last round of disappearances had actually found the nest of the creatures, and discovered that his daughter had been turned, and had helped to kill the other missing folks. Sam, Dean, Jessy, and Cesar team up and defeat the monsters. There was nothing wrong with the plot, exactly, but the story wasn't all that original, and the pattern of investigation felt very boring and standard.

Pros:

But like I said, there was a saving grace. The specifics of the case aren't nearly as important as the character development. We first see Jessy in a flashback to 1989, and we see that he and his brother are planning to escape their small town. Jessy's brother is dragged off by one of the creatures. Flash forward to the present-day, and we see that Jessy and his partner (both hunting partner and actual husband) Cesar have been tracking the creatures, called the Bisaan. Jessy is looking for revenge for his brother's death, and in the end, he gets it. They destroy the nest of Bisaan and give Jessy's brother Matty a proper burial.

There are many elements of this story to praise. First of all, I loved seeing a little kid already so self-aware and confident about his sexuality. In the opening, Jessy is talking about his childhood crush in the way we might expect a real 12-year-old to be thinking about his peers. Matty warns him to keep quiet because of the prejudices of their community. This was such a lovely scene, and it came up later when Jessy told Sam all about his supportive older brother. Gah. Beautiful.

The parallels with the Winchesters were what really interested me. Older brother tragically dies and younger brother seeks revenge isn't exactly a pattern I want to see played out, but this sad story of two brothers reminds us of how tenuous the Winchester's lives really are. I mean, yeah, we joke about how they seem to be invincible, but Sam said something during Matty's long overdue funeral that really tugged at the heartstrings. He talked about how when he was a kid, and Dean and their father would go out on hunts, he would always think about what would happen if they didn't come back. What should his next step be? Where could he go? What should he do? A little kid thinking about that really hits hard. I can only imagine how hard Jessy's life was for him in the immediate aftermath of losing his main support system. And just like the Winchesters in their hunt for Azazel, Jessy made it his mission to seek retribution.

But there's an important difference between Sam and Dean's story, and Jessy's. When Jessy defeated the monsters who killed his brother, he and Cesar decide to bow out of the hunter's life, and go raise horses on a property they own together but never get to use. Dean, who had been thinking about asking the two of them for their help on the Amara problem, decides not to say anything, and to let them move on with their lives. Sam and Dean technically got their revenge, too - they defeated Azazel years ago. But doing so only drew them deeper and deeper into the world of the supernatural. Now, the thought of escaping that life and settling down feels completely foreign to them. It's refreshing for them, and I think for the audience as well, to see a simple, honest success story. Jessy and Cesar both get to live. They get to be together and they don't have to shoulder the burden of hunting any longer. That's truly a victory worth celebrating.

And what does this all mean in terms of Sam and Dean's own story? Are we going to parallel the Jessy and Matty situation, and have one of the boys die and the other spend the rest of his miserable life trying to avenge that death? Unlikely. Are we going to parallel Jessy and Cesar (without the weird incest implications) and have Sam and Dean retire from the life, their business truly finished? That's also a bit hard to picture. This show is going to have a Season Twelve, but that very well might be the end of it. If so, how do we wrap up a decade-long story focusing on Sam and Dean Winchester? This episode really made me think about that.

Now, with my Destiel goggles firmly on, I also have to point out the awesomeness of a gay hunter couple who have been hunting together for seven years (the length of time Dean and Cas have known each other...) and who make it out of the hunter's life completely intact, content to live out their days together in domesticity. I don't see that being the endgame for Dean and Cas, even in an ideal world, but it's encouraging all the same. Dean seemed to express curiosity about his own viability as a romantic partner: "what's it like settling down with a hunter?" Dean knows that his lifestyle is prohibitive in terms of a normal romantic relationship, but if said romantic relationship were with another hunter... that might be different.

Also on the Destiel front, I did like one element about the opening scene in the bunker, despite its dull repetitive nature: the contrast between Sam and Dean's behavior is really apparent. Sam is worried for Cas, of course, but Dean is the kind of worried that keeps him up all night and puts him on edge whenever anybody talks to him about it. I love watching his pain. (I'm sick, I know.)

A quick note on the humor of this episode, which worked pretty well. Dean teasing Sam about his sinful college ways was absolutely fantastic. Apparently, Sam went through a bit of a pothead phase, although he maintains: "it was college! It was probably oregano anyway." Dean's response was a very cheeky "rebel!" All of this is appropriate because this episode takes place in Colorado, a state that joins my own home state of Washington in having legalized marijuana. This turned in to a bit of a plot point, as one of the witnesses was considered unreliable since she was high at the time her friend was taken by the Bisaan. Another humorous moment came later, when Sam and Dean were interviewing somebody about the case. This woman, Etta, was lusting hardcore after Sam. He was clearly uncomfortable, but I was chuckling through that whole scene.

That's what I've got! I wish we could have had a more creative or compelling monster hunt, because that would have elevated this episode from "perfectly adequate" to "pretty darn great!" Still, the commentary about Sam and Dean's endgame, the introduction of a queer couple that makes it through the episode unscathed, and some solid worry about Cas all made this episode worth the watch.

7.5/10