What Lives in the Lake
I wasn’t real sure about this one as even though the intro claimed it was an anime original, the title hinted that this was going to be a pretty close remake of season 1’s Dead in the Water.
Well I was wrong. And I was very pleased to be wrong.
This is one episode I don’t want to give too much away, but it involves one of my favorite tropes of SPN where the boys think they’re investigating one thing, only to figure out it was another. The final end and reveal is just great.
Plus, it had a smokin’ animated redhead. (nope, no pics, I’m encouraging you to seek this one out)
Great, GREAT episode.
Reunion
Now this one is a remake of the season 1 episode Dead Man’s Blood. So, a quick compare contrast is in order.
- Instead of the vampires involved being just some random mooks, they are instead a coven founded by the father vampire of the previous anime episode, Savage Blood. An interesting choice. While I do like the original’s sense of “randomness” (and how it can mess with the plans of men or angels), I do give the episode props for using some of the differences the anime has made. Hooray for continuity!
- At the end it’s John being held by the vampire instead of Sam. It’s ok, but I really missed the impact of watching John lay the smackdown on one that threatened his son. Plus, it was a nice demonstration on just how much he really does care for his boys. It was especially poignant two episodes later when John berate Sam for not shooting John while Azazel possessed him. It really showed that while John may value a bullet of the Colt above his own life, he does not value it above his sons’.
- It turns out a demon is possessing the head vampire. It’s… interesting since we rarely see the angel/demon side of SPN interact with the monster side (well, at least until seasons 6 & 7). I wasn’t sure things like vampires could even be possessed by any but the most powerful demons.
- Instead of shooting the vampire, the head one is killed by John cutting off its head with a hidden blade. Only instead of regenerating the body (like demons can sort of do to humans), the demon just ups and leaves. I wonder if that’s a difference, demons can’t hold onto monster bodies as well as humans.
- Origin for the Colt is the same.
- It is… interesting to see how the anime & live shows handle demons. In season 1, we barely saw them, such that the revelation that the thing that killed Mary was one had a lot of gravitas. It was shown and told to us that they were very difficult to kill, so the idea that something out there could was really potent. Here… we’ve seen demons several times and John Winchester handling many of them (of course, that IS John Winchester…) so the Colt’s revelation doesn’t quite have the same impact.
- Still, the episode’s coda shows the Winchesters prepping for war. Can’t wait to see how this all goes…
Hunting Muses 