Croatoan
Original Air Date 12/07/2006

Sam has a vision that sends the Winchester brothers to Oregon, where the word "Croatoan" carved into a telephone pole may be the key to a series of very strange events in a small town.

Notes

Writer

John Shiban

Director

Robert Singer

Guest Stars:

Kate Jennings Grant
  (Dr. Lee)
Bobby Hosea
  (Master Sergeant Mark)
Diego Klattenhoff
  (Duane Tanner)

Other Guests

Sonja Bennett (Pam)
Nolan Funk (Jake Tanner)
Laurie Murdoch
(Mr. Tanner)
Chilton Crane
Simon Longmore

Filming Locations:

Fort Langley

Completely Useless Trivia:

Review

HOW FREAKING AWESOME WAS THAT EPISODE????? I had watched the first half thinking that it was a mediocre episode that would be a breeze to review, but then. then. well, if you've seen it you know what then. Fortunately, Supernatural has taught me to master the silent scream so I no longer wake up a six block radius when something like this happens, although I confess that at the end I called Kripke a few choice phrases that are usually reserved for driving in rush hour traffic. (Sorry Eric, I love you, I really do, honest!) If it were within my power, I would have traded his traitorous tokus for John Winchester's and let Eric spend the next five weeks in the depths of hell, much like we fans will be. Okay, enough griping, on to the review!

How much did I love that the opening vision was of Dean? Wow! To know that all of Sam's visions are about evil events that need to be stopped, and here he is watching Dean fire his gun at a man begging for his life. What a fantastic way to open the episode, I was on the edge of my seat! Cut to the boys driving to Oregon, nice to see Sammy making use of the GPS feature on his Palm Treo. And here all this time I assumed that they just had an impeccable sense of direction. Dean spends most of the drive trying to convince Sam that he wouldn't shoot an innocent man, but Sam knows his visions. He also saw the look in Dean's eyes, something he's seen before. Although I'm still missing the rock 'n roll we've come to expect from this show, I will say that the soundtrack for this episode is above and beyond. It's interesting in a subtle way, it drives the action without being obtrusive. I'm really pleased with it. Pulling into the quaint little town of Rivergrove, Oregon, Sam recognizes a local sitting at in front of his shop as one of the men in his vision. Introducing themselves as US Marshals Billy Gibbons and Frank Baird, they ask if he knows a young man with a scar on his temple. He's reluctant to help, but Dean notices his bulldog tattoo and addresses him by rank to put him at ease. He reluctantly admits that he knows him, and directs them to Duane Tanner up on Paskin Way. They walk in the direction pointed out to them, and clumsy ole Sam bumps into a telephone pole which just happens to be the one somebody carved "Croatoan" in. Great investigative technique, Sammy! He gives Dean a quick history lesson about the Roanoke colony which has been the source of much debate since the colonists all disappeared without a trace back in the 1500's. The only evidence left behind was the word "Croatoan" carved in a tree. With no information to work from they decide to call Ellen or Bobby, and find that both cell phones have no signal. Dean tries a nearby payphone, but there's no service. Dean observes that knocking out the phones would be a good first step to wiping out a town.

On to the Tanner house, they're greeted by Duane's brother Jake who doesn't seem at all worried that US Marshals are looking for his brother. Duane's not home, he's off fishing, and when Dad comes to the door he (also unperturbed by the Marshal stars) doesn't know when to expect him back. They ask after his wife, but are told that she's not home, even though Jake said she was. Suspicious at the "Stepford" behaviour, the boys decide to investigate further. They peek through the window at the back of the house and see Mrs. Tanner tied to a chair, beaten and crying. As they watch, Jake lets his dad cut his arm then drips blood onto his mothers already injured shoulder. Sam and Dean burst through the door with guns blazing, killing Mr. Tanner. Jake leaps through the window and runs to the woods while Sam hesitates, allowing the boy to escape. They take Mrs. Tanner to the local clinic to see Dr. Lee, who is incredulous that Mrs. Tanner could be attacked by her own family. Dean and Sam discuss the possibilities, ruling out demon possession since Mr. Tanner didn't spew black smoke when he died. Dean berates Sam for letting Jake escape, insisting that Jake was no longer a person, he was an "it". This gives us a glimpse into his views on all things evil, letting us see how he could be willing to kill Duane just like Sam envisioned. Dean agrees to drive to the next town to contact the coroner and the county sheriff on the doctors behalf, but he doesn't get far. He comes across an abandoned car with enough blood on both front seats plus the infant car seat to preclude the possibility of any survivors. As a side note, I find it hilarious that the license plate starts with "WTF". (for the record, WTF 4C7) A little farther down the road, he encounters a road block guarded by six men with rifles and shotguns, one of whom is Jake Tanner. A seventh man sneaks up from behind, startling Dean to full attention with a loud smack to the roof of the car. He explains that the road is closed due to a quarantine issued by the county sheriff by phone. Knowing that the phones are down, Dean is on guard when asked to step out of the car. He should at least be pleased that the man is willing to kill him outside of his precious Impala, thus saving the leather seats from a sticky mess. I love how staring into the face of danger brings out Dean's cheeky irreverence. Case in point? He looks the redneck straight in the eye and says "You are a handsome devil, but I don't swing that way. Sorry." Gotta love that Dean. He throws the car into reverse and burns rubber backwards down the road with the man hanging on through the open window. All six guys open fire with an amazing display of their hunting prowess, close range and straight line of fire, yet with all that buckshot flying through the air the Impala doesn't get so much as a chip in her paint.

Back at the clinic, Dr. Lee has noticed that Mr. Tanner's lymphocyte levels are high, indicative of an infection. Not only that, but his blood contains a sulfur-like residue. They ask Beverly Tanner for permission to take a blood sample to compare to her husbands, and she pats the doctors hand by way of consent. In a sudden day-to-night reversal Beverly turns violent, grabbing the doctors wrist and backhanding her across the face. With the doctor temporarily stunned she turns her attention to Sam, grabbing a scalpel from the medical tray and stabbing it towards him with a scream of the insane. Sam barely has enough time to pluck the fire extinguisher from it's stand and bring it down across her neck, dropping her to the ground like a punctured balloon. Coming back in town, Dean is stopped by the Master Sergeant (Mark) wielding a rifle. He forces Dean out of the car, not realizing what a quick draw Dean is. Shouting back and forth, they both demand the other drop their weapon. It's nice to see the display of military training that has molded both men into the fighting machines they are today. Both using their most commanding voices, they banter back and forth with the same questions echoing. "Drop your weapon", "Put it down", "Are you one of them?", "You could be lying!" until Dean stops the exchange with by saying "we could do this all day, lets just take it easy before we kill each other". This little gem of a scene is near perfect, my only beef being with the master sergeant's stance. Being ex-military myself, I can tell you that when holding a rifle on somebody, particularly one with a scope mounted on it, one never EVER squints the other eye! Basic riflery 101, always keep one eye on your prey and the other on the surroundings. Squinting one eye narrows your field of vision and makes you vulnerable. Any marine would know that. Yeah, yeah, too picky, I know! But the devil is in the details. The next few sentences have got to be the big keepers of this episode:
Mark- "what's wrong with everybody?"
Dean- "I don't know."
"My neighbor, Mr. Rogers."
"You've got a neighbor named Mr. Rogers?" (with a wonderful tinge of incredulity)
"Not anymore! He came at me with a hatchet, I had to put him down."
Like I said earlier, face of danger = Dean snark. Dean tells him that there are other untouched people at the clinic and he should come along. Although he's not fond of the idea, he reluctantly gets in the car, switches to a handgun and keeps it trained on Dean, who likewise has his handgun aimed and ready. "Well, this ought to be a relaxing drive." What a great line.

Still in the clinic, the assistant Pam is barely holding it together. Wondering if they're already infected, she feels the need to escape, heading for the door with the excuse that she has to check on her boyfriend. Sam stops her, encouraging her to wait until Dean gets back with help. His words are punctuated by the sound of the Impala's throaty rumble pulling up outside. He fills Dean in about the suspected virus and the sulfuric residue in the blood, calling it "demonic germ warfare". Sam also reports and entry he found in the journal. John's pet theory about the Roanoke Colony mystery is that a demon was responsible. He surmised that Croatoan was the name of the demon, along with Daeva or Reshef. A demon of plague and pestilence. It's interesting that they bring up Daeva again, after we met Daevas in the Shadow episode from season 1. Also, anyone who has done research on the Roanoke Colony knows that Croatoan was the name of a nearby native indian tribe who were friendly towards the colonists.

Interrupted by Mark calling out about Beverly Tanner, Dean goes to see what the fuss is about. When he hears that she's infected and locked up in the next room, he cocks his gun and moves to the door. Sam asks if there's any possibility of treatment, but Dr. Lee has no answers. They enter the room with guns drawn and find a crying and vulnerable woman curled up in the corner. She appeals to Mark's sense of mercy, saying that the doctor tried to kill her. Dean, having no attachment to her whatsoever, asks Sam if he's sure she's infected. Receiving a nod, he doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger. Yet another moment of foreshadowing that leaves us yearning to see the sequence of events leading to the vision Sam had of Dean killing Duane. The jumble of thoughts is exquisite torture. Dean says he wouldn't kill an innocent man. Sam only envisions evil events. Sam had a vision of Dean, therefore Dean must have been doing something evil. Dean must be stopped from doing something evil, but there is a demonic plague going around town and chances are high that Duane could be infected. If Duane is infected he will need to be killed. Sam had a vision of Dean killing Duane. Sam's visions are about evil events. If Dean kills Duane will he be killing an innocent man? Around and around it goes, options presenting themselves faster than my overworked brain can process them. The only thing that gives me hope is that the hero shot of Dean pulling the trigger three times to kill Beverly shows the identical look of determination and confidence that we saw in Sam's vision, and we know that Bev needed to go.

Night falls, having given the boys enough time to arm themselves from the trunk of the Impala. Weapons laid out like a butch buffet, they check each one for readiness. Pam screams in alarm from the other room. Her nerves are shot and she's dropped the tray with the Tanners' blood samples. Freaked by the possibility that she has infected herself, she again begs to leave. The men discuss possibilities; Sam wants to go to the Roadhouse to make sure people hear what's going on. Dean reminds them of the violence outside the doors of the clinic. Mark comments that it's a small town and people are good with rifles. They'll be easy targets unless they have explosives. This gives Sam an idea. Armed with his knowledge of chemistry and the bottles of various liquids from the clinic, they can make their own explosives. Just then Duane pounds on the door outside begging to be let in. He seems normal, but looks winded and sports a bloody leg injury. He tells of seeing someone dragged from their house and being cut with knives, then asks after his parents. (Dean, quietly to Sam: "Awkward.") Duane says the injury is from running in the woods, but Dean insists on tying him up anyway. They won't know if he's infected until he becomes violent, which took three hours for Beverly. With no way to cure him, there's not much to be done. Sam pulls Dean into another room and insists that Dean not do anything until they no for sure. Dean argues that if they wait and he is infected, he'll become stronger and could break free and infect someone else. He doesn't want to take any chances, especially since Duane was outside alone for so long and has an open wound. Sam doesn't see the harm in waiting, but Dean is determined. When he moves to leave Sam plants himself in the way, blocking his path. Dean grabs him by the shirtfront, spinning him around and pushing him to the other side of the room. Before Sam can get back, Dean has closed the door and locked him inside. With a look of determination he marches back to Duane, ignoring Sam's calls. Duane insists that he's not infected, but Dean ignores him. The other three look on uneasily, having watched Dean shoot Beverly Tanner, they have no doubts at all about his convictions. Duane begs Dr. Lee to confirm that he's okay, but she can't tell. At this point Duane is crying openly, begging for his life. Dean aims down the barrel of his pistol, his merciless eyes showing his resolve. Before he can pull the trigger the resolve begins to crumble and with an endearing chin wiggle he decides not to go through with it. Waiting to see if Duane turns, they spend the next four hours making several bottles of their amped up version of a mai-tai cocktail. By then Dr. Lee still hasn't found any evidence of sulfur in Duane's blood; he's in the clear. Sam tries to get Dean to explain why he didn't pull the trigger, but as always Dean is unreadable. I really enjoy the understanding the brothers have with each other. Dean understands that Sam has to ask, and Sam understands that Dean won't tell. They go through the process anyway, knowing that the result will be the same as the last hundred times, yet neither of them are angry or bitter, it's just accepted. A leopard can't change it's spots, and although they may push, in the end they each accept the other for who they are. This scene is a great example of that, Dean probably couldn't explain even if he wanted to, he's just not used to processing those kinds of emotions. Even if he could explain, he would never vocalize it unless pushed to his absolute limit, and even then he'd probably use anger or violence to express himself.

Sam goes to the dispensary for more alcohol, where Pam is working alone. She closes the door and locks it, telling Sam that she's been waiting to get him alone. Momentarily unsure if she's going to kiss him or confess to him, Sam is caught by surprise when she suddenly attacks. She knocks him to the ground, punching him and jumping on top of him. (sadly, making him once again utter that horrid "Gah!" sound.) She cuts him with a scalpel, then slits her own palm and presses it to his wound. Dean and Mark kick down the door and take her down with a few well placed shots. Dean reaches to help Sam up but Mark stops him, pointing out that Sam will now be infected. Insert a nice, long commercial break here to give us time to process the news. Will Sam die? Can Dean go on if everyone he's ever loved has been taken from him?

Dean asks Dr. Lee to check his wound. She's willing to give Sam the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if he shows symptoms, but Mark is gung-ho to get it over with now. Mark and Duane are both pushing to shoot Sam right now, but Dean stands strong. Duane points out Dean's earlier convictions, saying "you were willing to shoot me!" to which Dean responds "You shut your pie-hole or I still might!" But Sam stops the argument by siding with Mark and Duane. He'll take his own life if they'll give him a gun. Things come to a head as Mark pulls his pistol out, ready to do the dirty work. Dean threatens that if he tries it he'll be dead before he hits the ground, to which Mark replies "then what are we supposed to do?" It only takes a moment for Dean to decide. Reaching into his pocket for the car keys, he tosses them to Mark, telling him to take the other two and get out. They have the explosives, they have the weapons, they should be able to make it. They all try to convince Dean to go as well, but he won't budge. Locking the door with only he and Sam left, he cracks a joke to ease the tension. Sam, unable to hold back the tears any longer, tries in vain to convince Dean to leave. Sam's fear for Dean is contrasted by Dean's stubborn conviction. Cue Dean's theme song for the upcoming emo moment, when Sam says the magic phrase "Dean, I'm sick. It's over for me, but it doesn't have to be for you. You can keep going!" Without any hesitation, Dean answers with "Who says I want to?" Finally, honesty from Dean. Sam listens dumbfounded, knowing this is a once-only experience. Dean says he's tired. Tired of fighting, tired of carrying the burden. Sam brings up their dad, but Dean says it's not about that. Part of it is, but that's not all. (interesting how this conversation echoes the words Sam used in Provenance when talking about Jessica's death.) Sam asks what it's about, but before Dean can answer, there's a knock at the door. Dr. Lee and the others are back. In a surprising turn of events, the town is completely abandoned. There's not a soul to be found, everyone has vanished. Not only that, but after five hours, Sam shows no sign of infection. Even the Tanners' blood samples no longer show signs of infection. The crisis seems to be over.

Mark and Duane decide to leave town and invite the doctor along, but she wants to stay and report the incident to the authorities. Dean laments that the fight doesn't feel finished, this is like the one that got away. They have no answers to what happened to all the infected residents, or to why Sam is immune to the virus. They may never know. While driving out of town, Duane asks Mark to pull over, he has to make a call. Mark points out that they're in the middle of nowhere, there are no phones around. Duane isn't worried though. He pulls out a silver chalice and a knife and slits Mark's throat. Filling the cup with blood he makes his call to the deep, deep south. Speaking to what we can only assume is the pestilence demon, he confirms that Sam is immune, as they expected, and that no more tests are necessary. He concludes by saying there's nothing left behind, showing his full onyx eyes to prove he's a demon spawn. Although it's a great twist to the episode, I find it bothersome that he said nothing is left behind when Sam, Dean and Dr. Lee were all first-hand witnesses to the events. At the very least I would think he would have gotten rid of Dr. Lee so she couldn't report what happened. Nevertheless, Duane being another demon was completely unexpected, and I have to applaud John Shiban for fooling me so completely! (A rare occurrence, I can assure you!)

The closing scene shows Dean and Sam enjoying a beer beside a beautiful sunlit lake. Sam, needing to ask as always, asks Dean to explain what he meant the night before when he said he was tired. Dean tries to play the do-over card like he did at the end of Simon Said, but Sam's not having any of it. He'll ride him until he spills. Dean tries to explain. He wants to take a break. Go to the Grand Canyon. Live a little. Sam pushes for more but Dean tries to shut it down. Sam pushes harder, asking to share the burden. Dean confesses that he promised their father that he wouldn't tell Sam a secret that John shared the day he died. What secret? What did Dean learn? As expected, we'll have to wait the six long weeks until Hunted airs to find out the answer to those burning questions. As I said at the beginning, all sorts of unladylike phrases spewed from my mouth at this unjust and undeserved torture. Kripke, the *@# %$#&*@ %$&^#$* has learned far too well from his merry team of henchmen producers how to ramp up the suspense and torture factors. I'm betting that Shiban wanted to tell us the secret now, but Kripke got the duct tape out and made sure Shiban did as he was told. I feel confident that given enough time I could get my hands on the original version of the script showing the full conversation with large chunks blacked out in Jiffy marker and Kripke's handwritten ravings of "No! Not now! Cut, cut, snip, snip!" scrawled all over that section. You doubt me? Just wait and see.

Okay, a few final observations about this episode. I am so thrilled with the person who decided to make the soul-baring conversations with Dean take place in open and bright areas. Just like at the end of Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, the sunny surroundings are a vivid reflection of what's going on inside Dean, and I just adore that kind of symbolism! Particularly when the majority of the show is filmed in darkness and secrecy, it's a nice change to see a touch of beauty from time to time. Also, I LOVE that Dean was willing to give up the Impala to stay with Sam. No hesitation, no second thoughts, no moping about it being gone after the two were alone. All that's important is that he's together with his brother. Excellent!

I am loving the role reversal between Dean and Sam from season 1. After Jessica's death, it was always Sam who was struggling with the fight and with the heavy emotions. Having seen the demon face to face, he seems to have come to terms with his situation and although things are still hard, he has a confidence and a drive that he didn't have before. Dean, on the other hand, feels the same deep-seated guilt over the loss of his father that Sam felt for Jess. He has never had to deal with this level of emotion before, and he's sorely unprepared. He has always been the rock of the family. His single-minded dedication has funneled his life into a simple dual focus routine: keep the family safe, and fight evil. Only he couldn't keep the family safe. Not only did he allow his father to die, he essentially caused his father to die. He failed his primary mission and may not be able to recover from that. I for one look forward to seeing how he handles himself in the second half of the season.

Finally, hat's off to Diego Klattenhoff for a completely convincing performance of a scared and completely un-demonesque victim. I was 100% fooled. Even from the beginning, our other little demon Meg always had a hint of suspicious behaviour. She was a little too ordinary to be found sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. I never believed for a minute that she was just some random girl. Duane, on the other hand, seemed like a completely average joe. Just some guy caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only suspicious thing was that he was away when the rest of his family became infected. His turnabout at the end when we realize the truth behind his fortuitous escape was surprising enough to force me to clamp both hands over my mouth so I wouldn't disturb the rest of the household. Well done, well written and very well acted! Thank you!

Croatoan Original Air Date 12/07/2006