Supernatural Episode 8-17 Review – “Freaks and Geeks”

Reviews, Shows

In last week’s episode we saw what Supernatural can do when accompanied by a great supporting cast. Now be prepared to see what they can do without it in “Freaks and Geeks” which as a bit of a preview is a let down. They have overcome poor secondary characters before to manage decent turn outs but that is only because Dean, Sam or our dearly missed Bobby could come into save the day. However this go around leaves our stars with very little to do and not much of the main story. Almost as if they were characters making a visit to a Supernatural spin-off show.

Our story centers around three vampire hunters – Aidan, Josephine and Krissy. The latter you may remember from her appearance a season ago in “Adventures in Babysitting”. She very much shared Sam and Dean’s life as her father was a hunter and therefore moved her around the country to fight monsters all the while trying to keep her out of harm’s way. In the end of that episode she tells the boys that she is leaving the life for good. Clearly that didn’t really end up working out. This new group of teenage hunters starts the episode by killing a vampire but was a little sloppy and got picked up on a security camera. Luckily for them, Sam and Dean heard about a vamp nest in the area and were able to use their charm, wit and FBI badges to get them out of trouble. As a bit of an aside this is one of the funnier and creepier small town sherrifs they have ever dealt with on the show. It is a shame he doesn’t get more screen time than just this one scene.

After tracking down these new hunters Sam and Dean confront Krissy who pulls a gun on them. She explains that the monster they were hunting killed Josephine’s parents and had to be put down. It needs to be noted that the actress portraying her cannot seem to capture convincing tears or even anger. This has been the sole motivating factor in her life up to this point and something that will define the rest of it and she doesn’t seem to really care. We also learn later that the same fate had befallen her father and Aidan as well. Krissy’s dialogue of “You’re never too old to kill monsters” coupled with her whinny attitude is very much “You don’t understand me!, I am going to my room” which I guess fits a teenage character to a point but it would be nice to have some depth. Also how she quickly casts aside Dean’s help with the FBI which cleared her of a murder because she could “be fine on her own”. I get that kids need to work out their own problems sometimes but some how standing trial for killing someone shouldn’t be one of them.

Another problem with the teenage hunters, we learn later that they have been under the instruction of a man named Victor, who was in the life himself and even worked with Sam and Dean previously, but they seem to have had little instruction and only had maybe 3 or 4 kills yet they act more jaded and hard than the boys. Krissy would at least been somewhat believable in this attitude because she had experience before hand but the other two were just normal kids who had a terrible thing happen to them. Later on when we join them at Victor’s house we find that he is raising them like a good parent. Making sure they clean their rooms, don’t miss school, do homework and spend time as a “family”. So despite the fact their parents and siblings were brutally murdered at random, told about the existence of monsters, being trained to kill and having decapitated at least three vampires they show no signs of fear or emotional distress? Nothing that would effect their school work, attitudes towards each other or themselves.

Victor doesn’t seem all bad as he tells Dean that these kids don’t have to be like them. They can manage a real life and this side job as long as they learn how to do it the right way. This by the way is another red flag for me story-wise. He previously told Josephine to “Move on but never forget” and places a premium on revenge killings. Each of these has proven to turn hunters into ticking time bombs just look at Sam and Dean who literally fueled by vengeance for years. In fact, Victor himself had a family that was killed by a monster and instead of just helping troubled kids he also has to turn them into hunters too. Sam sees his point because as we know he always wants this to end so he can pick up the stability he has been gaining and losing for the last few years.

Dean on the other hand is creeped out by the whole thing and begins researching the vampire that Josephine killed in the beginning. He finds out the monster was actually a young baby faced war hero who was recently turned and simply couldn’t have been the one behind that first attack. Back at the house Victor pulls the kids out of school because he found another target and this one killed Krissy’s father. This is pretty shocking that the kids would just go along with that. They are portrayed as merit scholar smart and were specially selected for that purpose but they can’t seem to put together that this is all happening a tad fast.

Dean through his own detective work happens upon the location of the suspected vampire who once again is a fresh turn. He should certainly know because he sort of was one for a while a couple of season’s ago but I digress. The teen hunters show up quickly behind and are quick to brandish guns and shoot people in the face.

Back at the house Sam has been captured. It is revealed that Victor was working with a vampire the entire time to provide easy kills for his students and in fact had their parents killed. He argues that their natural gifts and years afforded to them at such a young age would turn them into great hunters capable of fighting the greatest foes. This I have to admit is actually an interesting point in the Supernatural universe. Every hunter we have ever met has come to the profession by tragedy and never by choice. If a normal person was made aware of the existience of monsters would they fight without having lost anything or is this work truly laid out for revenge driven people?  Unfortunately we never really get to delve that much into it because the kids show up with Dean and save the day.

Krissy now has Victor on his knees and opts instead of shooting to fire empty rounds proving I guess that she has risen above vengeance. She says the punishment of being all alone would be enough. Ummm no it wouldn’t. He could just do this whole thing again. Clearly he has the means and the will to do it so why not find a bunch of new kids and do it again? Well the writers opted to close that plothole with a bullet as Victor opts to kill himself. Why? I don’t quite know but at this point the whole thing is just such a mess that it doesn’t really matter. After the smoke has cleared Krissy decides to stay with her new “family” and give up hunting for good this time. The End.

In quick summary, this episode fails on a lot of levels most notably the fact that the teenage supporting cast are just awful. Sure they aren’t helped by great writing or direction but the delivery of their lines are flat and non-emotional. Even the supposed jokes come across as empty. The script is trying to make them vulnerable but bad-ass killers which is hard rope to walk especially with no foundation. After such a great episode last week the horrible stench of  “Freaks and Geeks” looms larger.