Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Bugs (Part 1 of 2)

Supernatural, Season 1
Episode 8, “Bugs”
Written by Rachel Nave and Bill Coakley
Directed by Kim Manners

Warnings: image heavy post,
including images of bugs and spiders. (It’s right there in the title! 😊)
episode also includes indirect incestuous themes and internalized homophobia

S04E18

Of all the episodes in the first season, “Bugs” is one of the most heavily criticized, and not just by the fans. Eric Kripke and Robert Singer have both condemned the episode as one of the show’s worst, and all this was comically acknowledged by Chuck in “The Monster at the End of This Book”. Unjustly, however, the joke placed the blame squarely on the writing, which was an unkindness to Rachel Nave and Bill Oakley since the problems with the episode mostly lay not in the script but in a failure of execution. And, despite its technical weaknesses, I still feel there was a lot to love about the episode, especially in the development of the brothers’ relationship. So, in this review I’ll be talking about what I think went wrong with “Bugs” but, more importantly, what went right.

It begins in Oasis Plains, Oklahoma, where two guys from the power company are working on a home construction site when a sink hole opens up and one of them falls in. It transpires however that the housing development has bigger problems than a tendency for sinkholes.

There follows a reasonably creepy scene where the guy in the hole gets attacked by swarms of beetles. The success of the scene is largely due to the apparent use of real beetles, and a very brave actor!

Ew.



EW!



EEEWW! Ears!

I sincerely hope they used CGI or some form of optical trickery for that last shot. Or that the actor got paid a LOT of money! (Who’d be an extra in Supernatural?)

When the poor extra’s co-worker gets back to the hole with rope, this is what he discovers:

And that’s mostly as creepy as it gets on the bugs side of things. It’s all downhill from here.

The post title card scene, however, opens with an example of the beautiful camera work that is always the hallmark of episodes directed by Kim Manners. It begins with an inverted image of Sam sitting on the hood of the Impala.

We realize we are seeing the scene reflected in a pool of rainwater when a motorcycle crosses the camera, circles round and crosses back, splashing through the water:

Lovely filmwork!

Then the camera pans up to reveal the actual bar with a “Billiards” sign flashing in the background.

We’ve noticed before that the show likes to use reflected images to alert viewers to the presence of plot/character reversals and/or literary doubling, so perhaps we should be on the lookout for either or both occurring in this episode.

"Rock of Ages" by Def Leppard plays over the sequence. It seems to be a favourite track with the sound crew. It was used in Bloody Mary too. Maybe it’ll get used again some time . . .

Sam is reading a newspaper and the camera zooms in on an article about a mysterious death:

This is a very subtle hint that marks the beginning of a shift in the brothers’ roles that will become more significant later in the season. In “Dead in the Water” (which was also directed by Manners) the post title card scene opened with Dean searching newspapers for a case; here that task has passed to Sam.

The close up of the news article pans to a beautiful profile shot of Sam, then Dean emerges from the bar and it seems he’s a winner.

A conversation ensues about the ethics of their lifestyle and their upbringing, and Sam expresses his disapproval of both:

Sam: You know, we could get day jobs once in a while.
Dean: Hunting's our day job. And the pay is crap.
Sam: Yeah, but hustling pool? Credit card scams? It's not the most honest thing in the world, Dean.
Dean: Well, let’s see honest. Fun and easy. It’s no contest. Besides, we’re good at it.
It’s what we were raised to do.
Sam: Yeah, well, how we were raised was jacked.
Dean: Yeah, says you. We got a new gig or what?
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.08_Bugs

The brothers’ background and the issue of honesty in general will become recurring themes of the episode.

Sam reveals that he’s found out about the incident in Oasis Plains, which has bizarrely been reported as a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob, aka human mad cow disease, and Dean responds by revealing something about his TV viewing that surprises Sam:

DEAN Mad cow. Wasn't that on Oprah?
SAM You watch Oprah? (Ibid)

Embarrassed, Dean is briefly speechless and quickly changes the subject. It’s an amusing little anomaly that seems out of character with the butch stereotype he typically projects, and it would be easy to dismiss his discomfiture as just a throwaway gag, except his awkwardness persists even as the conversation moves on. He continues - for several seconds - to display micro expressions that reveal the slip is still worrying him; while Sam talks, it’s clear he’s still kicking himself for dropping that clanger:

I've enthused before about the first season's economical use of dialog: an exposition scene is never wasted but often doubles as an opportunity to develop character. So, is this just a comical moment?  Or is it a deliberate hint that Dean’s hiding a side of his character that doesn’t fit his macho image? Time will tell.

Sam concludes that the victim’s symptoms developed too quickly to be natural, so the boys head out for Oklahoma. As they jump in the car Dean quips “work, work, work. No time to spend my money.” It seems light-hearted now but, as I suggested earlier, we may already be seeing hints of a reversal in the boys’ roles and status. In “Dead in the Water” it was Dean who was scouring the newspapers for work and insisting on the importance of killing every evil thing they can find, but here he seems to be enjoying funding their hunting more than hunting itself. He was the one pushing for the family business before. Is he starting to have a change of heart? He doesn’t seem so serious now, but by the end of the season we’ll see a marked trend toward Sam driving the hunting while Dean shows more obvious signs of fatigue.


In Oasis Plains they pretext as the victim’s nephews to get information from his co-worker, Travis Weaver, who is unconvinced initially but Dean resourcefully employs flattery which, it seems, really will get you everywhere.

DEAN Are you the Travis who worked with Uncle Dusty?
TRAVIS Dustin never mentioned nephews.
DEAN Really? Well, he sure mentioned you. He said you were the greatest. (Ibid)

Chuffed, Travis readily confirms that his colleague showed no symptoms of Mad Cow before the sudden death, and he directs the boys to the place where the incident occurred. Investigating the hole where the victim died. Dean suggests tossing a coin to see who goes down and Sam, reasonably, points out they don’t know what’s down there, but Dean goads him into risking it by calling him chicken. It’s a typical big brother move but not entirely consistent with the obsessively over-protective Dean we come to know in later episodes. Perhaps that aspect of their storyline was yet to be hashed out at this point in the show’s evolution. And it seems the ubiquitous rock-paper-scissors gag is also yet to evolve.

Sam finds nothing down the hole besides a few beetles and speculates the victim may have been devoured by insects, but the boys decide they need more info, at which point they pass a sign for an open house.

DEAN I know a good place to start. (Another sign reads, "Models Open. New Buyers' BBQ Today!") I'm kinda hungry for a little barbeque, how 'bout you? (SAM gives him a knowing look.)
What, we can't talk to the locals?
SAM And the free food's got nothin' to do with it?
DEAN Of course not. I'm a professional.
SAM Right. (Ibid)

This is definitely in keeping with the Dean we come to know, and thus begins Dean’s long and popular love affair with food.

As the brothers approach the house, we get another scene that develops the theme of their differing attitudes to their lifestyle.

DEAN Growin' up in a place like this would freak me out.
SAM Why?
DEAN Well, manicured lawns, "How was your day, honey?" I'd blow my brains out.
SAM There's nothing wrong with "normal".
DEAN I'd take our family over normal any day. (Ibid)

In retrospect, this was another lesson in the need to be skeptical of the statements characters make about themselves, and others. Back when I first saw the episode I tended to accept Dean’s attitude at face value. It took time to start recognizing his sour grapes response to those things he believed he could never have. By the end of season 2, of course, his true feelings about suburban domesticity were revealed:

S02E20

When the brothers arrive at the open house the door is opened by Larry, homeowner and property developer. They introduce themselves and Larry immediately makes an assumption about the two young men that will become a recurring trope in the show:

LARRY Sam, Dean, good to meet you. So, you two are interested in Oasis Plains?
DEAN Yes, sir.
LARRY Let me just say - we accept homeowners of any race, religion, color, or... sexual orientation. (Ibid)

The brothers have differing reactions to Larry’s inference. Sam is merely surprised, and he looks mildly amused; Dean doesn’t. “We’re brothers,” he insists, emphatically.

Dean also appears worried. While Sam quickly improvises a pretext for their visit, you can see Dean’s brain ticking over. You can almost see his thought process on his face: why would he think that? Does everyone think that?

“Our father is getting on in years, and we're just looking for a place for him,” Sam explains and, due credit to Larry, he doesn’t blink or miss a beat before adapting to the new information: “Great, great. Well, seniors are welcome, too. Come on in,” he says.

In the garden, however, they’re introduced to Larry’s wife and then Lynda Bloom, head of sales, who immediately leaps to the same conclusion as Larry: She seems somewhat less at ease with the brochure pro-gay policy, though; her delivery of the same sales pitch just seems a little more awkward than Larry’s, and her cheeriness just a little more forced.

The brother’s response to this second occurrence of the confusion is a little different too. This time Sam is doubly surprised and his amusement seems tainted with a little embarrassment. Dean, on the other hand, chuckles this time (though his expression suggests his humour is less than genuine).

Nevertheless, he elects to make a joke of the situation – at Sam’s expense – before extricating himself from it altogether. “Right. Um... I'm gonna go talk to Larry,” he says, adding “Okay, honey?” as he turns and slaps Sam on the rump before walking away.

Sam is less than amused now.

 

Dean’s behaviour is interesting because there is a persistent idea in our culture - dating back at least as far as ancient classical literature – that presumes gay couples will automatically fall into traditional masculine and feminine roles, and that the more ‘butch’ partner will assume the dominant role and will therefore be the ‘top’ in the relationship while the other will be the ‘bottom’. It’s an inaccurate and unhelpful stereotype with roots in homophobia and misogyny since, naturally, the feminine role has traditionally been considered to be the more subservient, weak, and demeaning of the two.

It seems that, if others insist on seeing him as gay, Dean at least wants to establish himself as the ‘butch’ of the relationship. It’s a tactic he uses on more than one occasion in later episodes: for example, he does it again in season 2, “Playthings” and again in season 3, “A Very Supernatural Christmas”. The latter is an interesting example because, on that occasion, he voluntarily presents himself and Sam as a gay couple in order to get information from a shopkeeper but, again, he forces Sam into the feminine role. All of which suggests Dean is more femmephobic than homophobic since he’s apparently slightly less concerned about being seen as gay than he is with how he’s perceived within the relationship.

But does he even truly fit the butch stereotype? Thinking back to the Oprah slip from the beginning of the episode, one can’t help wondering if it hinted at an unexpressed “feminine side” to Dean’s nature . . . especially when it’s considered in conjunction with this scene from later in the episode:

Nothing very macho about that towel, is there? Dean may want to be thought of as butch, but it looks like the writers are keen to suggest quite the opposite. In this particular episode the theme is given a light-hearted and comic treatment, but is it just a joke? I confess, I took it as such the very first time I watched “Bugs”, but as these hints recurred consistently throughout the series a picture began to build of a character presenting a fake image of himself. In other words, we are seeing indications in this episode that Dean is a man who isn’t honest with himself, or others.

But, to return to the monster plot: while in conversation with the developer, Dean notices a collection of terrariums filled with bugs and Larry reveals his son is “very inquisitive” about insects. To underscore this point, the scene cuts to the garden where a teenage boy is seen smirking as a tarantula creeps toward Sam and the sales woman. Sam, however, is unperturbed. He simply guides Lynda away while he captures the advancing arachnid.

Fanfic writers take note: it’s canon that Sam is not afraid of spiders. And neither is Jared, of course. Personally, I have an ambivalent response to tarantulas. On the one hand, they’re kind of like a small furry animal that my brain registers as sort of cute, on the other hand . . . they have eight legs, and I would scream like a feral banshee if one got anywhere near either of my hands! Which is why I can’t help regarding those who can handle spiders as super heroic. And I just love how gentle Jared is with Terry the Tarantula.

Awww. How sweet!

The jury’s out about Dean (and Jensen) who is conspicuously and conveniently absent for the purposes of this scene. Which makes him fair game for any writers who care to add arachnophobia to Dean’s growing list of canonic phobias.

Sam discovers he has some common ground with Larry’s son Matt (played by Tyler Johnston who is equally comfortable and gentle with Terry. Goodonya, Tyler!) It seems there is some strain between father and son since “Larry” is disapproving of Matt’s entomological preoccupations and interrupts the conversation to make his disapproval very clear:

Sam insists “it’s no bother” but Larry firmly steers Matt toward the house where he can be seen giving his son a dressing down as Dean approaches Sam.

SAM Remind you of somebody? (DEAN looks over at LARRY, who is yelling at MATT. He looks back at SAM, confused.) Dad?
DEAN Dad never treated us like that.
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.08_Bugs_(transcript)

So, Sam sees a parallel between the Pike family tensions and his relationship with his own father. Would this be the literary doubling we were promised in the episode’s early imagery?

I think it’s worth paying attention to the characterization of John in this scene because I feel fans may sometimes allow their impressions of him to be coloured by the fanfiction they read; here it is made clear canonically that John never physically abused his sons (and this is also confirmed later in E14 “Nightmare”). Indeed, according to Dean, he never even yelled at them, though Sam disputes this point:

SAM Well, Dad never treated you like that. You were perfect.
He was all over my case. You don't remember?
DEAN Well, maybe he had to raise his voice, but sometimes, you were out of line.
SAM (scoffs) Right. Right, like when I said I'd rather play soccer than learn bowhunting.
DEAN Bowhunting's an important skill. [Ibid.]

Indeed, it is! As we will discover later in E20 “Dead Man’s Blood”!


It seems both brothers are agreed that Larry’s treatment of Matt is harsh but, I have to say, I’m sympathetic with the developer. He’s trying to sell houses, and Matt thinks it’s funny to try to scare potential buyers? I’d say Larry’s irritation is justified.

Sam directs the conversation back to the case and it’s established there have been other bug related deaths in the area. The boys return to the Impala where we get another minor reversal of our usual expectations since Sam’s driving while Dean does the research – though his favoured research tool is John’s journal rather than the laptop. And we get some background on the supernatural folklore that I enjoy so much, which concludes with speculation that Matt may be psychically directing the bug attacks:

DEAN You know, I've heard of killer bees, but killer beetles? What is it that could make different bugs attack?
SAM Well, hauntings sometimes include bug manifestations.
DEAN Yeah, but I didn't see any evidence of ghost activity.
SAM Yeah, me neither.
DEAN Maybe they're being controlled somehow. You know, by something or someone.
SAM You mean, like Willard?
DEAN Yeah, bugs instead of rats.
SAM There are cases of psychic connections between people and animals - elementals, telepaths.
DEAN Yeah, that whole Timmy-Lassie thing. (He thinks for a second and realizes something.) Larry's kid - he's got bugs for pets.
SAM Matt?
DEAN Yeah.
SAM He did try to scare the realtor with a tarantula.
DEAN You think he's our Willard?
SAM I don't know. Anything's possible, I guess. (Ibid)

Continue to part 2