Phantom Traveler

Phantom Traveler- Aerophobia

Right from the start of this episode you just know that flying is not a good idea. Within minutes of the opening teaser we see a plane plummeting to the earth, passengers screaming. So, will watching Phantom Traveler give you aerophobia, just like Dean Winchester has? Will it make you stop and think before your next flight? I think not.

Perhaps it was me, but there seemed something lacking about this week’s episode that was most definitely easily apparent in Dead in the Water. For me, there was no sense of dread, not even when Sam and Dean boarded Amanda Walker’s new flight knowing it had only forty minutes before its destruction. There was just no scare where there should have been.

That said, I’m not saying Phantom Traveler was a bad episode, far from it. There was some great humor from Dean as always, and I especially liked his ‘truth is out there’ X-Files reference. Seeing the usually cocky Winchester afraid of something for a change was fun too, and Jensen Ackles played it perfectly. His wide-eyed expressions as the flight began to dive were priceless. Although, would someone who can fight demons, ghosts and a wendigo, without pause for thought, really be scared of taking a plane ride?

Sam finally got a chance to play more than second fiddle this week too, and I thought it was about time. I love Dean, don’t get me wrong, but it was nice to see Sam doing the exorcism and saving the day, and his brother’s butt!

The effects looked okay too. Both plane crashes were handled well on what I suspect was a pretty restricted budget. (This was all before the show got picked up for a full season, remember.)

Finally, lets talk about the ‘Winchester’ arc. Every episode we seem to get some kind of reference to either the brothers’ dad, or Sam’s dead girlfriend, Jess. In Phantom Traveler, we got both. My question is this, how long can the producers string us along wondering about these two puzzles before it all gets very stale? If they’re going to keep teasing us with the references, they’ll need to give us something more than a voicemail message to sink our teeth into. I want to know answers as much as I want to be teased. Of course, it’s still early to know what the writers are up to, and now they have more episodes to produce they may just think about broadening there horizons. I like to see Dean and Sam ride of into the sunset every week like some modern day cowboys, I really do, but how about ending an episode with a little cliffhanger, or some teaser about where the next episode is going to start?

All in all, though, Phantom Traveler was a pretty reasonable instalment to the series, and as always I look forward to more. Not to be too spoilery, but the future episode ‘Home’ is the one I’m waiting eagerly to see. Now that looks spooky…

Added: October 8th 2005
Reviewer: Dawn
Score: 4/5