No Exit

 

Original Airdate: November 2nd, 2006

We had a quite a ride this week with H.H. Holmes. The hunt was by far the best we’ve seen so far this season and I think it’s because this is the first time the writers created an episode based off a true event in American history and added some Supernatural flavor to it. In all the previous episodes of the show, Sam and Dean have hunted spirits that people only believed in stories that were passed around campfires. But H.H. Holmes was a real man who tortured human beings and became known as America’s first serial killer. I certainly enjoyed gaining knowledge of Holmes. Up until this week, I had no idea who Holmes was. I’ve been online researching him and it’s a very interesting, yet scary event in American history. I always joke around by saying my home town of Chicago is a cursed city because all the famous historical murders took place here. (EX: H.H. Holmes and John Wayne Gacy)

In was clearly shown in this episode, that the writing team was trying a lot of new ideas. This is the first time they actually had victims of a spirit being trapped inside the walls. I thought the Holmes’ gushy fingers reaching out of the vent, added good horror to the episode. The part that freaked me out the most was right at the beginning before the title opener when the girl sees the ectoplasm coming out of the light switch and she looks through the screw hole and Holmes’ eye pops up out of nowhere. I was a little disappointed in the lack of Holmes’ appearance in this episode. I was hoping to get more close-ups on his face. However, I think Sam and Dean are starting to get over their dads death and back to taking their hunts more seriously. When Sam said that Holmes’ body was encased in a couple tons of concrete, I was hoping that they were going to some a construction truck with drills and dig up Holmes’ corpse. Like Dean said earlier in the season to Sam, “Since when are you afraid to get dirty?”

I also thought that there was a lot of good drama between the boys, Ellen, and Jo. I’m really enjoying the elements that Ellen’s character brings to the show. In a way, she’s acting like the mother figure to the boys that they never had growing up. With that in mind, that’s why I think Dean hasn’t hit on Jo yet, because he has a great amount of respect for Ellen and he can see that she’s a mother who cares about Jo and wants what’s best for her. He doesn’t want to interfere in their relationship but getting close with Jo. On every Supernatural forum that I’ve browsed I see threads being posted saying, “Down with Jo!” Personally I love Jo’s character and her influence that she passes onto Dean. Yes I was in shock in the last scene of this episode when she blows Dean off and tells him to get lost. But I think that’s perfectly normal because with how close she was with her dad and not knowing what caused his death, I think she wanted someone to blame and she thought that she could take it out on Dean. But I don’t think she’s truly mad at Dean.

Throughout this season we’ve seen Sam and Dean open up and trust Ellen, Jo, and Ash. I think it’s awesome that they have the roadhouse as a resource, but I don’t want them to become too dependent on the roadhouse. I mean last season when their dad didn’t send them coordinates, Sam and Dean were looking through newspapers and surfing the web trying to find a hunt. But lately, they seem to have become very lazy, hanging out at the roadhouse, cracking open the whiskey waiting for Ellen or Ash to out a case together for them to investigate. I want Sam and Dean to go back to their usual selves, out on the road just the two of them doing the job without any help. I think this was there last visit to the roadhouse at least for a while, until Ellen and Jo have time to cool down. What still puzzles me is that if Ellen was pissed off at John for causing her husband’s death, why was she being a helping hand to the boys all this time and why on earth did she wait this long to tell Jo the truth?

Overall I was blown away by this episode. It gave me a good scare and had a taste of a lot of new character elements. The hunt was nicely spread out through the entire episode, and there was a good flavor of family drama. I’m hoping that during an episode in a later season, H.H. Holmes returns out for revenge on the boys and hungry for more pretty blondes. This without a doubt has been the best episode so far this season, and I give it a full 100% rating.

Rating: 5/5
Reviewer: Matt (godismydaddy)

Added: Nov 5th 2006