Supernatural S04E13 - After School Special (2009)

Review

Murder most foul is being committed by some of the students at Truman High School, but Sam detects a hint of sulphur and the Winchesters go back to school to investigate. Seems Sam and Dean attended Truman for a few weeks in their formative years and Sam made a name for himself taking on bully Dirk MacGregor. Dean was somewhat less successful, though he was a hit with the gals, and wanted out of the place as soon as possible.

The initial investigation rules out demonic forces at play but Sam surmises they are facing the rarest of revenant phenomena, a ghost with the ability to possess a body and travel well beyond its normal haunting grounds. Initially the Bros think they are dealing with the shade of Barry Cook, a victim of the school system who committed suicide, but they soon learn they are dealing with a blast from Sam's past. The Winchesters are about to learn that not everything is clear cut, humans are complex, and as the body count mounts the Bros need to sever the revenant's connection to a school bus.

After School Special is arguably the best episode thus far of season four, which is a bit of an indictment as we are over the half way mark with the season. Not entirely sure the episode would stack up to the same extent against episodes from the previous three seasons, but what the heck I enjoyed what I was seeing, dug the reversal of roles - Dean is emo in this one while Sam hits the action requirements, and for sure was giving two thumbs up for the not so subtle theme running through the episode. Besides which we get one cool revenant that has discovered a new mode of transport. Writers Dabb and Loflin are on fire here and should be regular inclusions going forward with this, and subsequent seasons. And before you ask, yes this is another episode that departs from the overall story arc of the season, anyone remember what that was?

Director Adam Kane gets his episode underway in pretty dramatic fashion. We are in the school cafeteria and apparently one of the in crowd girls has given her boyfriend the "full reverse cowboy" which leads to the sort of nastiness one would expect from a High school of immature teenagers. The girl in question is accused of being a slut and forced to go sit with April, a plain girl who tries to offer some solace. Taylor, our cowgirl, lashes out pretty brutally. Later Taylor is in the girls' bathroom crying in front of a mirror, she becomes aware of April behind her. April, clearly not happy, proceeds to smash Taylor head first into the mirror before dragging her over to a cubicle and drowning her in a toilet. April will later confess to Sam that she was unaware of what happened! Director Kane is throwing out the major theme of the episode immediately, bullying is the result and not the causation, we need to know the full story before passing judgement. So in essence the prologue introduces the major problem the Bros will be facing in the episode as well as hinting at the theme that will per mutate After School Special. But the Writers aren't finished there, we learn where Sam's rebellion against John Winchester started and the opportunity he was unaware of to escape his destiny in the family business.

A television episode with an underlying theme, has the apocalypse broken out?

To be honest this episode does follow a certain Supernatural flight path, boys go in to battle something supernatural, think they have it resolved, and are then faced with the real danger as the whip comes down. But once again I would reiterate that the overall theme in the episode raises it above what we might have expected. The role reversal between Dean and Sam was a breath of fresh air and we learn a lot more about Sam's motivation to go to University and not continue to frog marching to John Winchester's dance track.

I was actually pretty impressed with the special effects in use during this episode, taking into account the CGI of course. That black goo was a nice touch and the actual revenant when it was cast out of a body was pretty decent. Actually on this score a new piece of mythology went down, when you hit a ghost possessed person with salt the possessing spirit is forced out of the body and back to its normal 'hood. I was equally impressed with Colin Ford and Brock Kelly who played the young Sam and Dean in a series of flashbacks to their time at the High school. A seriously good attention to detail in After School Special that added another layer of goodness to our dessert.

Something I haven't been mentioning this season is simply how good Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Jensen Ackles (Dean) are in their respective roles. This episode pretty much belongs to Sam and Padalecki nails the reaction to revelations of just why someone is a bit of a prick. It's all in the facial expression, Padalecki comes to a realisation, which may be the purpose of the episode in the overall scheme of things, and you will find your sympathies changing direction as what was seemingly black and white enters a sort of grey area. There are always reasons, but then what choice did the younger Sam really have, the older Sam learns those reasons and Padalecki shows true remorse for what he seemingly had to do at a young age.

As mentioned above the three weeks spent at the school might well have been the start of Sam's rebellion against the Winchester fate. A teacher complements Sam on an essay he wrote concerning a family werewolf encounter, ironically the teacher thinks the essay is fiction whereas Sam has actually handed in the factual account the teacher asked for. Now why this really works is that at no stage during the previous three seasons when the Winchesters have encountered werewolves have either Sam or Dean shown surprise at their existence, in contrast to Dean's apparent mirth at the existence of vampires in the season one episode Dead Man's Blood. You have to love a show that keeps to the mythology and nails little points like this. Anyways a young Sam has the seeds of rebellion planted and we all know where that leads, and older Sam thanks the teacher and confesses that he ended up in the family business due to maturity; it's a surprisingly poignant moment of what might have been for Sam.

Finally some movement on the mullet rock front, Foreigner's "Long, Long Way From Home" gets a playing but that's all she wrote. As stated in previous episode reviews, the Producers are really dropping the ball on this aspect of the show.

Finally an episode of Supernatural that explores some themes, gives us some background on Sam's rebellion, and shows the younger Winchester Bro able to motor, as we say in my Country. While the episode once again diverged from the central plot arc of season four, and considering we are over half way through the season they may want to get back on track here, I was still grooving to the beat being laid down. It's one of those episodes you can come in cold with, you don't really need to know what has gone down previously in the franchise. Worth a look folks if you haven't dived into the Impala's shotgun seat yet, Supernatural continues to surprise with its ability to go beyond the "monster of the week".