Let’s Speculate: Supernatural 9×20, “Bloodlines”
Warning: If you have not seen tonight’s episode, “Bloodlines,” then beware spoilers ahead!
Episode Summary:
Here we have the spin-off premise and lo and behold, a girl dies. Welcome back, Supernatural, last week’s episode lured me into a false sense of gender security.
So this week we meet Ennis, the intrepid and youthful Chicago cop whose girlfriend gets ganked in the first five minutes of the show. Girls dying always set up the drama, you know. Also one of the monster family members gets killed as well – Sal. We find out there are mobster monster families at war in the city of Chicago and that the local PD is on their payroll, or at least some of them are.
The plot revolves around Ennis trying to find out who killed his girlfriend, or fiancée for a few seconds, and he apparently had a dad who was a hunter with silver bullets. We meet the werewolf family and the shifter family – they are the ones butting heads. Sam and Dean show up intermittently to show that we are in the Supernatural universe and help to track down the monster killing the other monsters.
We learn through exposition that the shifter family has a dying dad and a really really beautiful but evil sister-leader. David, who is a mischief at first, is the brother and he returns home after Sal’s death. We find out that Julian Duval, who is the brother leader of the werefamily, has a sister also – Violet. Violet and David were apparently in love and still are. Violet gets snatched by monster killer. Dean and Sam meet David, the shifter, and convince Ennis that sometimes you have to “work with the bad guys to get to the worse guys.”
The guys follow clues to an abandoned warehouse and it turns out that the monster is a human, who has an eerie John Winchester like wall in his basement where he tortures Violet. David gets caught and is hung up next to her while Sam, Dean, and Ennis try to find them. After seeing the human try to kill her beloved, we see Violet wolf out and escape to tear the human apart, but David stops her. Ennis goes in for the kill instead.
The episode ends with a flashback that shows us that Sal told Violet to give David up. They were going to run away together. This sets up the Romeo/Juliet plot of the perhaps series to come. Sam and Dean take Ennis back to his rundown apartment and are ready to stay and help clean up the monster issue (that apparently no other hunter knew about). Dean gets a call from Castiel with a lead on Metatron, so the boys have to leave. Episode ends with a Ennis voiceover swearing that he’ll pick up the fight, and as he stares at the wall of monster news, the phone rings and his father’s voice warns him not to begin hunting.
Thoughts:
Not a lot of thoughts this week. It was a set-up for another series if it gets picked up. I’m not particularly thrilled with the change in shifter lore or in the premise but I have a feeling that I’m not the intended audience. I wish Dabb and company luck.
I wonder what the lead on Metatron will lead us to?
Share your thoughts with us!
TV Guide already has a review up. Sadie Gennis has been a critic of this project from the beginning, but gave it the benefit of the doubt during her review with Andrew Dabb. Benefit gone. This is a harsh review, but it’s right.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Supernatural-Spin-Off-Bloodlines-Recap-Review-1081059.aspx
[quote]and help clean up the monster issue (that apparently no other hunter knew about)[/quote]
And they never caught wind of in Shadow. I’m giving Dean a pass on missing things when he met Death in a pizza parlor in Chicago because the Apocalypse was a main concern, but how did the mobster, monster families handle THAT little wrinkle?
I was also less than thrilled that Ennis, believing his fiance had been killed by a monster was portrayed as right to become a hunter whereas guy whose daughter was killed by a monster was seen as a monster for doing pretty much the same thing. Yes, it was awful that expendable fiance was killed, but The Winchesters have pretty much lived by find monsters, if monsters are killing people then we kill them. Sussing out which particular individual monster did the actual kill has not been a priority. I’m also less than thrilled by the move to if a hunter is old and not terribly attractive he is always wrong and/or borderline psychotic to kill monsters (see Martin, Travis, Samuel Campbell), but if you are young and hunky, go for it. And Ennis, honey, you are a cop. Taking on non-humans does not have a rule book. A nutso human who killed your totally expendable fiance has a rule book that includes evidence and arrest. Not “you’re the real monster” bam.
Oh, sigh.
Rumor has it the network was not very impressed with this pilot, but they left it open as a contender to see if there was any good fan reaction, or perhaps reaction from screenings to non-Supernatural fans. I think the only chance at success is if the latter proves to be true.
I know everyone was really pitching this “new” premise, but this should have never been a backdoor Pilot. I think that just ruined any chance this show had. Sam and Dean looked and felt awkward in that universe, the script needed a few rewrites (the dialogue was clunky and not interesting), the pacing was atrocious and there was little to no cast chemistry. I wish they had taken this, reworked it, and made it a regular Pilot like they did with The Flash. This was not intended at all for the Supernatural core audience, which is huge for this network. Strategically, a bit opportunity was blown.
It’s a shame too, because I was honestly rooting for Andrew Dabb to succeed on this one. He still might, maybe they’ll decide this worth reworking. With so many other good pilots though (The Flash and iZombie are shoo-ins), it might not be worth it to them.
My heart aches over this blunder. I honestly thought our producers and this network were smarter than this. How embarrassing.
We were even lied to! Here’s the quote from the TV Guide interview with Andrew Dabb. “A big shoe drops at the end of this episode, which kind of kicks off into our last three episodes,” Dabb teases. Um, no! Nothing like that happened at all.
“I did. I did. I did see a puddycat!” It was the phone call from Cas. And yet we saw Abbadon in the preview for next week? Exciting, but another layer of confusion after 42 minutes of confusion. No need to rewatch this one because I’ll just go back and watch “Mother’s Little Helper” so I can watch an interesting scene in front of that carved wood staircase.
Alice I wonder if the “big shoe” got cut because tptb didn’t want to spill to many beans for upcoming episodes. If that is the case they really left Dabb hanging in the wind.
I really wanted to like this, I really did…. Admitting I didn’t makes me feel incredibly disloyal, 🙁 but the whole thing seemed like a wasted opportunity.
Premise-wise, I had a flashback to the Season 3 premiere, Seven Deadly Sins. When I first read that outline, I remember thinking, ‘Cool, the Sins will make awesome villains.’ Then doubt set in; how were they going to do justice to seven villains in one 42-minute episode? Of course, when the episode aired, it wasn’t just the Sins + Sam and Dean–there were also Bobby, Ruby and (inexplicably) two new-to-the-show hunters, Tamara and Isaac for a grand total of 13 characters in one episode. As a result, pretty much everyone got short shrift and it was one of the series’ weakest premieres.
It was déjà vu all over again with Bloodlines–far too many characters jammed into one episode with the end result being you didn’t (and couldn’t) care about any of them, because nobody’s story was told well. In trying to create a whole universe in one episode, they did noone justice and bogged down the dialogue with some really clunky exposition.
As others have mentioned, I didn’t like that it trampled on shifter lore (which is pretty damn cool in SPN canon, so why not mine it for all its worth?) and it was simply too big of a stretch to believe no hunter has ever heard of this monster underworld. Come on; Sam and Dean were in town for five minutes and, even distracted by the MoC, Dean was ready to mobilize the troops to begin clean-up operations.
Acting-wise, most of the performances seemed flat. Very flat. Yes, the two leads were good looking and charismatic but where was the spark to give their characters dimension? For me, the only one who really jumped off the screen and grabbed by attention was Danielle Savre’s Margo. She’s the kind of villain who could believably go toe-to-toe with Dean (and that’s a dance I’d enjoy watching ;)); the rest never seemed to rise above the type of characters that normally die off in the opening gambit.
Like I said, I really DID want to like it; I just wish they’d given me something to like.
I’ll keep this short. Waste of an episode this late in the season that should be moving OUR show along! The actor who played Ennis was miscast as a cop. I actually liked David best but he reminded me so much of Brady that it was distracting. If they had developed this show on it’s own I might have checked it out. The tone of the two shows didn’t mesh. The story wasn’t engaging. I wish Supernatural hadn’t been involved at all. This may have hurt both shows IMO. I wish had something more positive to say but these are my first impressions. Thanks bookdal, not really much to speculate on except to say I don’t think this will catch on as a series. Maybe fans of other shows will love it. For the sake of those involved I hope so, I wish them luck
I was not impressed. I would have been very excited if the last episode with Jodi had been a spin-off pilot. Seriously, Sam and Dean had more chemistry in the first 180 seconds of S1Ep1 than these people did over the entire 42 minutes. I actually do not think that I am the intended audience for the show, but hasn’t the Twilight audience demographic been thoroughly saturated yet? I have heard J2 talk about how protective they are about Sam and Dean, how they will stand up for them against the writers, how they will speak up in order to keep the storyline in character with their personalities … It’s too bad no one spoke up and said this is not a logical #Supernatural progression.
Jody (and Alex) would make an AWESOME spinoff!!! … And you’re so right–Sam almost slams a baseball bat into Dean’s head and Dean gives him snark, but c’mon you can’t tell me “Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cakehole” was all it took to fall in love with this show!
If it gets picked up I’ll watch maybe the first four episodes and see if I like it more but wasn’t overly impressed. The only spinoffs I’ve ever liked were Angel and Torchwood and they took characters from Buffy and Doctor Who that I loved and made it their own and it worked. I also don’t necessarily have a problem with monsters being the bad guys … SPN has given us Lenore and Benny and Angel/Buffy had Spike and Angel who were vampires but I loved their characters (even when they were bad … although Angelus was really scary) so I can get behind that. I’m also excited that it’s starting as an ensemble cast so while there may be a character that people don’t like it won’t be the same as people hating Cas because the show is about the boys (who ever said it wasn’t?) and if one character isn’t clicking they can kill them off but bring someone else in. Gives them more fluidity. But, if the network isn’t too excited then it won’t happen. Admittedly the most excited I got was when Cas called and Dean said we gotta go … bigger fish to fry in not so many words. Nice try though …
Watched it and well I didn’t hate it, but I felt it was way off too. As positive things I could say I like the Freddy Krueger glove and it was freaky in it’s own way.
I liked the atmosphere and lighting of the episode and well Chicago is awesome. And of course the brothers was a plus. Dean got to kill a vampire again by chopping heads woo!
All I can say it wasn’t totally bad but the dialogue and the characters they just weren’t my liking even though they did their best. They gave it a try and even though it was in a bad time this season now it’s done and over. If you compare this to VD and Originals. I have seen them and they did this same but way better. I really would have wanted to love this too but I leave it to watchable.
In this site people were talking about a lot about the Spinoff. Death and Reapers in Chicago, Samuel Colt and I would have loved Eliot Ness. That episode was awesome. If it would have been about anything from the real Supernatural I think it would have worked better and I would have loved it. But now. The ship passed.
There’s my two cents.
– Lilah
I thought Leviathans eat all the monsters and the only Alfa left alive was the vampire one.
Well I will just chock it up to I was not the intended target audience which is strange that it got pitched to an audience who was not the intended target.
I speculate that I won’t be adding this new show to my must watch list. The underlying idea wasn’t bad, monster wars in Chicago. I just didn’t really care about any of the characters. Maybe a younger audience will tune in for an attractive cast and the romance story lines. It definitely wasn’t aimed at me.
🙁 MY HEART IS BROKEN.
ME TOO! NOLA NOLA I’m with you in this. It twist things up in my head and it’s ugly.
I didn’t particularly care for it; seemed strangely out of place in the Supernatural universe. But, like you said, I don’t think I’m the target audience. Just wondering how much of this was original concept or whether the CW had a lot of “input” on the final product? In any event, I wish everyone involved in the pilot the best of luck.
The main charectors were not in the least original. The writers simply took Sams’ backstory and gave it to David and then gave him what they dont give Sam….dialogue. Then they made Ennis Dean 2.0…or by now is it Dean 3.0 since Krissy is Dean 2.0. Oops. Forgot ben Braedon is Dean 3.0. Does Castiel count as a variation of Dean? Sooo this is the what? 4th? 5th incarnation of Dean winchester being played by another actor?
I dont understand why the writers refuse to write for the already successful charectors of Dean and Sam Winchester and THEIR story/relationship. Maybe its time to clean house. All new writers and a new showrunner who will focus on the Winchesters. And then Carver and his stable of writers can move to Bloodlines but with stricts orders to stop cannibalizing Supernatural.
HA! Funny. Dean does have the habit of rubbing people the wrong way or rubbing off on people, huh?
[quote]There’s a reason I don’t watch anything else on the CW except for Arrow. I was hoping I would be proven wrong, though. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. This was Days of Our Supernatural Lives.[/quote]
Yeah! I think you hit the nail on the head with that. Outside of Supernatural, likely Arrow, and [i]maybe[/i] The Originals (but probably only because it’s ‘set’ in a swankily stylized section of the New Orleans French Quarter) the CW is branded to teens. It surprised me that my preteen students watched Sam and Dean, too, but they have older brothers my age (20-somethings). They’ll love Bloodlines, but not me.
I liked Ennis, and I hated they killed off his fiance to set him up to be a hunter, but Ennis is no Sam Winchester, and his new “friend” the shape shifter is no Dean either. I liked The Black Keys soundtrack, but it wasn’t until halfway through the episode that I uttered a [b]short-lived[/b] “Yes! That’s the show I signed up for–a zinger from Dean over a guitar riff.” Then it broke for commercial and never came back.
Speaking of Dean did anyone else find it as equally odd that he’d say “there is no such thing as monsters,” as it was refreshing to not see him battle the Mark? This would have been much better suited to air after “#Thinman.” It was disappointing to see a sidebar story right when we’re all greasing the wheels for the season finale. But really, would it be Supernatural if we didn’t have to have everything smack us over the head right at the end? 😉
In the end, they just tried to set up too much in 42 minutes of TV. The first big scene in the bar gave me “Man’s Best Friend with Benefits” flashbacks. The fight between werewolves and shape shifters was interesting, but when they needed to give me a sitcom-style freeze frame to tell me who we’re about to walk in on then you’ve incorporated way to much and you’re just going to confuse us. Also, I hated the werewolf douche–his little sister seemed like textbook for the complete opposite of a bitch, and then it made her melodramatic later.
…It played out like the “Bones” back-door pilot of “The Finder.” I don’t think “The Finder” even made a complete season though. “Bloodlines” seems to have a much more solid premise. Can you just imagine all the fun Andrew Dabb could have making monster mob stories?! It was just too much last night and poorly timed and made about as much sense as the thankfully short-lived “Cult” promos last season of Sam and Dean watching one of the new show’s videos on Sam’s MacBook. …”A for effort. F for the day.”
…It played out like the “Bones” back-door pilot of “The Finder.” I don’t think “The Finder” even made a complete season though. “Bloodlines” seems to have a much more solid premise. Can you just imagine all the fun Andrew Dabb could have making monster mob stories?! It was just too much last night and poorly timed and made about as much sense as the thankfully short-lived “Cult” promos last season of Sam and Dean watching one of the new show’s videos on Sam’s MacBook. …”A for effort. F for the day.”
look on the bright side, everybody. Three new episodes in a row, and yet another TNT Supernatural Marathon on Friday which I think is Sam’s birthday as well.
Oh my, I was bored. And horrified for the wrong reasons. Like scullspeare, I feel disloyal. Like myself, that makes me feel guilty. I always (except one time in all these years) like Supernatural. Now two times. ———– I’m sad. 🙁
I ws very disappointed – posted this before, but will coment the same info here:
“this episode was a bogart attempt by the network (or producers) to shove a pile of steaming poo into an otherwise great series. The shifter doesn’t shift according to the lore, Winchestres spill their guts to some rando in first 5 minutes of meeting him, Dean’s Cain Mark rage somehow dissipated and he takes a back seat to the story .. I could go on.
Whether the new spin-off will or will not be halfway decent, we won’t know based on this drivel, but this episode DEFINITELY was not Supernatural storyline.
I fell cheated of an episode that could expand on what is going on with Sam & Dean, whether they’re finally ok after Sam being upset over the life-saving lie Dean commited, what is up with Dean and the Mark, how is Cas handling heaven, where is Death in all this, or God for that matter, or hey, that antichrist kid, Jessie.
A spin-off could have been based on actual characters from the show to be a spin-off. We can have Jodi teamed up with the no longer vamp girl, there is Charlie in OZ, Kevin’s mom, Adam stil lin Luci’s cage, papa Winchester stuck in Hell, plenty other choices.
This one? NOT Supernatural. Absolutely has no place in this show. “
Sorry folks, this is harsh; you’ve been warned!
So, let’s see. TPTB took Supernatural, their best running and most popular show, a show unlike any other show on their network, with a massive and dedicated following and used it to set up a spin-off that was theoretically devoted to the established Supernatural, to that dedicated following (women in their 30’s-60’s who are educated, professional and smart) and then concocted a teeny bopper soap drama with poor acting, without ANYTHING a smart, adult women who has some brains and likes a little quality TV would ever conceivably watch, that bears absolutely no resemblance to the franchise that is lending this show it’s themes, simply to cash in on the popularity of the Supernatural name? Do I have that right? Did they think we wouldn’t notice that the shows aren’t even remotely the same and we’d just buy into it all because it’s called Supernatural? This is the kind of thinking that makes me just plain crazy mad. Geez, what a waste of time. I wasn’t at all hopeful about this supposed spin-off and I am afraid to say that even my sub-baement level expectations weren’t met. The only thing this show has taken from Supernatural is the often shady way in which women are sometimes treated or depicted. I have forgiven Supernatural in this as there are so many other redeeming qualities to the show itself and in characters like Jodi, Ellen, Lisa and Charlie who fill in the ‘woman as victim’ gap to a certain extent. But in Bloodlines the women were deplorably written and treated. From the disneyesque, but expendable girlfriend who never even had a chance to become a character, who was used purely for motivational purposes; to the “keep quiet and stay out of this” girl who was summarily put into her submissive place by her brother (I think it was her brother) and that wretched, screeching harpy Margo(?) whose grating voice made me want to put my fist through the screen just to get her to shut up, the women were just awfully written and awfully treated.
I feel like Supernatural as a show has been cannibalized for its popularity and for no other reason to try and sell an inferior product; I feel cheated, I feel that Supernatural has been cheated. Why weren’t the producers brave enough to take a look at Supernatural as a show, see how it is unlike any other show on their network and then follow it as a model to fashion a new show? Instead they looked at Supernatural as a show, saw what makes it successful and then constructed another teen angst melodrama after the model of all their other failing teen angst melodramas and took Supernatural down a peg while they did it. They made Sam and Dean awkward, stupid and useless in their own universe and I can’t forgive the writers or the producers for that. What bloody awful dreck.
You should really learn to speak your mind E!! 🙂 I agree.
Hehe Leah! Yeah, I guess I kinda cut loose a little bit there didn’t I? The way that the spin-off was marketed to Supernatural’s dedicated fans was a total misrepresentation of what we actually got IMO. I feel duped even though I could see it coming from 100 miles off. How could the PTB think that any self respecting fan of Supernatural would support this show simply because the word “Supernatural” is in the title? Without the quality, world building, acting, engaging characters, good writing, chemistry and all of the other aspects that make Supernatural such a superior show? They can call Bloodlines a Supernatural spinoff all they want, but saying it does not make it so, and TPTB are foolish to think we’d simply accept it just because the word “Supernatural” is in the title. They have underestimated us, and in so doing, ended up insulting us. They’ve been trying to sell us a bill of goods under false pretenses, and they’ve undermined our beloved Show to boot, which is a capital offense as far as I am concerned. 😉
That’s one of the things I love about you E! I have sprinkled some of the same thoughts in my comments but you crystallized everything that annoyed me about this. Thanks. I think I would have judged this completely differently had they not tried to piggyback this on the success of our show. Kept our show completely out of it.
I have said before that this is the only CW show I watch. Others are shot here in NEW ORLEANS and I still don’t watch.
I am oh so sad. Sad for JIM MICHAELS and crew who are betting on shooting in CHICAGO.
Who the hell am I, it may have a HUGE following; just not ME.
I guess the correct term is backdoor pilot. It really doesn’t have a lot to do with the “Mother Ship” supposedly. It was a little bit of a cheat to lure in a ready made audience for a show that isn’t going to have much to do with SPN. I think that is why a lot of fans are outraged. It waisted an episode of SPN and really didn’t go anywhere that anyone was interested in going.
Hi Cheryl! I wasn’t aware that a “backdoor” pilot had a different meaning. I just thought they were trying to slip it into the backdoor during one of SPN episodes in hopes that no one would notice that it wasn’t very good or similar to our show at all :p We didn’t take the bait.
That’s as good a description as any. My take from the interviews was that this episode was going to introduce these characters into a new show that really didn’t have much to do with SPN (as in Sam and Dean) but that other characters from the show might pop up from time to time. Jared and Jensen really have their hands full with their own show. But I do feel kind of used.:(
Heh, I was kidding around a little with that last bit. I was curious, are they planning on calling the series ‘Supernatural-Bloodlines’ or something like that? I hope they rethink that, if that is what they are planning.
I would hope not. A second watch did not go any better than the first. Even Jared and Jensen had the life sucked out of their scenes. I don’t think I have ever said this about any episode of Supernatural. Every episode has something no matter how poorly written that I can take away as a positive. Even the dreaded Man’s Best Friend had the cute Stooges argument and Jared and the dog. This was embarrassingly bad. This can’t have been the show that all tptb had in mind. I have to believe that the CW had some hand in this mess. What a shame.
Edit: On second thought there was some epic Sam hair.
Way to look at the bright side Cheryl! Epic Sam hair indeed.:)
Okay, I know I’m late to the party because I just watch the episode tonight. I have high curiosity about this new spin off but here’s my impression…
First impression… I don’t like it..
Second impression … still doesn’t like it.
Third impression … am I still watching Supernatural?
Anyway, This episode gives me the creeps because, hey if you start giving monster a little bit of heart, it may twist the moral. I mean a demon is a demon. No matter how much people Ruby saved, how much she helped Sam, the moment she came on screen, I already distrusted her and voila!!! Demon’s black heart will always burn in hell after all.
So, monster is a monster. Do we forget that these monster have done organ trafficking? Have deals to hunt for prey? Human’s prey I might add? They have blood bag labelled Susan for God’s sake. Is this Susan a blood slave? Come on, these monsters need killing. That guy was killing monsters because one of them butchered his kid. I support him. It’ not like Soulless Sam hadn’t kill a waitress in the line of duty. Sam and Dean failed to save people sometimes and they becomes casualties but it doesn’t mean they don’t still fight the good fight. I don’t care if Violet is pretty she’s still eating human’s hearts (or Cow’s heart I don’t care). The Djin will still eat of human’s fear, The vamps will still drinking blood, All monsters in Supernatural world leach on human. That’s why there are hunters. That’s why Sam and Dean hunt. Saving people, hunting things. That’s the famiily’s business and the Winchester family is the only family I choose. Unless they change the lore by making these monster not eating people then the pilot can work but hey, it will betray Supernatural. I hate Ennis. I don’t root for him. He definitely needs a morality check. This episode wrecks my mind. It twist things up and it’s not flattering whatsoever. As a Supernatural fan (been watching it since season 1) this episode gives me the creeps. It twist my mind and break my heart. If it’s picked up I will disown it. That’s not my supernatural. It’s painful to watch.
KINDRED, THE EMBRASED is the show I was thinking about. 5 vampire families and the lead died and they did not re-cast. NA NA NA :p