Review – “Hunted”
“Hunted”
–Robin’s Rambles by Robin Vogel
Gordon returns and he wants Sam’s dead, which will become a recurring theme for Mr. Walker for quite a while. Turns out that, for the Winchesters, the only good Walker is a dead Walker.
“Hunted” begins with the eeriest, coolest openings. “Go Ask Alice,” plays as a young man, Scott, sits with a shrink, explaining that he can kill merely by touching a living creature with his hand. He proved it by touching the neighbor’s cat. The psychiatrist doesn’t believe him, but still won’t shake hands with Scott at the end of their session. He also tries to tell this guy that he has terrible dreams of a man with yellow eyes who urges him to do terrible things. The shrink hits this poor kid with shrink-talk because he doesn’t know what we and the Winchesters do.
Scott stumbles out into the darkness, a terrible, foggy night, where he meets up with an attacker who rips into him with a knife. It’s quite a scene as he leans backward against his car, bleeding thickly and profusely from his mouth, dying.
Which brings us back to Sam and Dean and their non-idyllic discussion against the lovely lake backdrop. “Dad told me to watch out for you, Sammy, take care of you or kill you. He said I might have to kill you.” Horrified, angry that his brother lied to him and held back his father’s final words, Sam rants, “Does he think I’m gonna go DARKSIDE?” Dean wants them to lay low, figure it out together; this is all spinning out of control! Be careful or you WILL have to waste me, warns Sam, remembering Max and Anson, the murderous special kids.
Even though he leaves Dean with the impression that he will “lay low,” Sam leaves their motel in the middle of the night, boosts the car next to the Impala and takes off for the Roadhouse. He breaks into some place, walks into a tripwire and explodes, his boot lying there, his body blown to bits. A young woman wakes up next to her boyfriend, gasping. She tells him she had a nightmare and urges him to go back to sleep.
After consulting with Ellen and Ash, Sam learns of four other special kids who had a nursery fire like his, two he already knows, and the last, Scott Carey, a recent murder victim from Indiana. Ellen begs Sam to be allowed to let Dean know where he is; he’s been calling her constantly, but Sam says no.
Sam, posing as a former high school friend of Scott’s, questions his father and learns of the kid’s headaches, paranoia, nightmares, and how he closed himself off. He asks to see Scott’s bedroom and finds his closet wall covered with yellow eyes cut from magazines and drawings. Sam steals a bottle of one of Scott’s many medications so he’ll have the doctor’s name and address.
Returning to his room at the Blue Rose Hotel, Sam is accosted by one Ava Wilson, a wacky, wild and winsome gal who has psychic nightmares like Sam does””she saw Scott stabbed and killed before it happened–and she had one of Sam dying! They’re connected, realizes Sam, although her Mom is still alive. She begs him to leave town, but he says he has to see this through””doesn’t she want to know how she fits into all this? I’m just a secretary from Peoria, she says, and getting married in eight weeks. Aren’t you scared? coaxes Sam, giving her the puppy eyes””don’t you want to know The Truth?
Though Sam asked her not to, Ellen decides family trumps all, calls Dean and tells him Sam is in Lafayette, Indiana. Dean heads there, very fast.
While Sam walks the ledge outside the building to get into the doctor’s files, Ava takes an appointment with Scott’s shrink, keeping him occupied, asking him if combining Pop Rox and Coke as a child was a suicide attempt. She tells Sam this derring-do makes her feel just AWESOME, and he grins at her. Together in Sam’s hotel room, they listen to Scott telling the doctor about his ability to electrocute with just his touch. Outside the hotel room, watching from the Impala, Dean spots Sam with Ava and is relieved to see he’s more than all right, the sly dog. Sam and Ava listen to Scott talking about the yellow eyed man wanting these special kids as soldiers for his army for the coming war. Ava can’t figure out how she’d play a part in THAT””then someone fires at them through the sliding glass door of Sam’s room. They duck, avoiding being shot very narrowly. Dean leaps on their attacker””Gordon Walker””and punches him, but as it turns out, Gordon hit Dean with his gun butt, knocking him out, capturing him.
Sam calls Dean’s cell phone. Dean’s tied up in a chair in the very building Ava saw in her vision. Dean tells him to come to 5637 Monroe Street and mentions Funky Town. Sam hangs up and says the latter means someone is holding a gun on Dean. Gordon makes it clear that this is nothing personal; Sam is fair game because he’s one of the psychic kids who’s going to turn killer and therefore must be killed. (Remember, this is the man who killed his own sister when she became a vampire; I’m surprised Gordon didn’t bring that up, but I am.)
Sam sends Ava back to her fiancé; he wants her out of danger. She asks him to call her and let her know how things turn out. He promises he will. Gordon describes how he was exorcising a teenage girl who spoke of a coming war. Hearing that the girl died following Gordon’s exorcism, Dean calls him a son-of-a-bitch, Gordon punches him”””That’s my mother you’re talkin’ about,” he says–Sam is going to be fighting on hell’s side, and therefore must be wasted. Moronic, declares Dean, demons lie. Gordon got further info from “a Roadhouse connection,” and all must be taken out like he did Scott. All the while, Gordon has been putting together the tripwire bomb, which he promises will kill Sam quickly.
Dean argues desperately on Sam’s behalf””his brother isn’t like that””he feels guilty surfing internet porn! Sam will become a monster, insists Gordon. If Dean had the chance to kill Hitler when he was a goofy artist, wouldn’t he? Of course he would! This is Sam’s destiny. It hurts like hell to kill his brother, but. . .he gags Dean, reminding him that John would have done this””are you telling me you’re not the man he is?
Sam approaches, looks in, sees the situation. He unlocks the door. There’s an explosion; Dean cries out piteously behind the gag. Wait, says Gordon. There’s a second explosion; Dean struggles against his bonds and cries out again. Gordon sees Sam’s boot on the floor and smiles. Sam, behind him, orders him to drop his gun. Gordon brings his gun around and forces Sam to drop his. They both loose their guns and go to hand to hand combat. “You’re no better than the filthy things you hunt,” says Gordon. When Gordon is on the floor, Sam holding a rifle to his head, Gordon begs him to shoot. Instead, Sam knocks him out cold. Sam, beaten and bloody, unties Dean, who runs to murder Gordon. Sam says not to, he’s taken care of Gordon. As they leave, Walker comes after them, shooting them over and over from TWO guns! Sam and Dean fall together in a ditch to avoid the shots. Police cars show up, cornering Gordon, finding the arsenal in his car, arresting him. “An anonymous tip,” brags Sam. “You’re a fine, upstanding citizen,” praises Dean.
Later, Dean accuses her, Jo or Ash for tipping off Gordon to their whereabouts. Ellen reminds him of their loyalty and assures him it wasn’t one of them. She reminds him there are plenty of other hunters who come to the Roadhouse who could have said something. Sam, concerned, has been unable to contact Ava to let her know how everything turned off. Dean is pleased that Gordon won’t be reaching for the soap for a while and asks Sam not to take off like that again. “What’ll you do, kill me?” demands Sam. Dean wants to go to Amsterdam; he’s sick of this job””no pay, no thanks, he’s doesn’t believe in destiny. You can’t run from this or protect me, says Sam. I can try, insists Dean. Sam plans to take this head on. Dean plans to stick around. “Bitch.” “Jerk.”
Sam’s concern about Ava is so strong, he asks if they can stop in Peoria to check on her. His fear is well-founded””they find her fiancé dead in lots and lots of his own blood. Her engagement ring lies on the floor in a puddle of it. There is no sign of Ava herself, but there is sulfur on the window. Sam picks up Ava’s ring and says her name in a lost, worried voice.
- Gordon is a great villain. He is SO sure he is right, you can’t even talk to him. Black and white. Sam must die. We will see him again in season 3. The only good Gordon is a dead one.
- Dean tells Sam something he doesn’t want to hear, Sam runs, Dean runs after him. It’s a pattern that is repeated more than once, but this was a big one, and I guess Sam had ever reason to be upset. Then again, this was HUGE for Dean, too, and who can blame him for putting it off. You are maybe going to go darkside, bro, and I might hafta kill ya. Sorry, no biggie, let’s go for ice cream! It’s not something I would have wanted to share with my baby brother right after Daddy’s death, either. It’s not something I would have wanted to EVER share.
- We never do learn who told Gordon about Sam. I guess it wasn’t important enough, or not Ellen, Jo or Ash. I remember there being some serious speculation about it.
- Poor Ava. We all LIKED her so much, but she is a girl and doomed. You can never really get close to any girl on this show. We do see her again, and that’s all I’m gonna say about that.
- What a beginning. Poor Scott! Can’t touch anyone without killing them, so what kind of life could he have, anyway? Couldn’t ever get married, so Gordon really did him a favor. So sad. Some of these special kids “gifts” were pretty awful.
- Didn’t you go nuts for poor Dean, all trussed up and gagged like that? Imagine what he was going through? He didn’t know what Sam knew through Ava! They never use Funky Town again, more’s the pity. I love that!
- This was a pretty good ep. Not my favorite. I loved Ava, enjoyed seeing Gordon again. I thought he’d beat up Dean more, after what happened the last time they saw each other. I guess Gordon was more busy killing Sam. You have to give Gordon credit for single-mindedness, don’t you?
Robin, from a suddenly-no-more-time-to-write point just a short note: Gordon was a superb villain, and I loved Sam’s handling of the situation. Unfortunately, Gordon did not reach for the soap long enough.
He was a great villain with a complex background, tragedy that made him become a hunter (well, haven’t they all?) and an omnipotency delusion with wonderfully played out personality disorder… Loved that. Did not love him abducting Dean and exposing him to the threat (and for a moment to the ‘reality’, since he believed for a moment to have lost his brother) of a blown up Sam.
Sam, though, was Mr Cool here, rambling about subsonic rounds, getting Ava to steal confidential psych files (naughty, naughty), walking into Gordon’s trap level headed. You just gotta love the man…
Thanks, Robin! Love Jas
And they say watching T.J. Hooker is bad for the soul. Bah. I hated seeing Gordon axed (er, wired?) but it was a fitting sendoff because what a fantastic villain, as you showed here. Funny though, Sam may not be the Antichrist (really, knock off the heavenly host with one word? Yikes), but to many of the 6 billion I’d imagine, pretty damn close. Man, I love season two.
I love this one… Actually there aren’t so many eppies on s2 that I ‘don’t’ love. But I really, really love this one too. It’s not as good as Croatoan but not that far off. I mean the “I would die for you” -vibe? Still here, very strongly. The brother moments are very strong in this one too. Is it just me or does S2 have the best of those? Or atleast the most of the best.
Aaaw, Gordy. Gordon went from a a cool cat to an awesome, creepy villain in like two seconds, love to hate him. I love that he’s so single-minded, so sure. Those quys are the most dangerous ones. And like we see in Fresh Blood, he’s like a kamikaze man, very deadly and muy muy ghastly. I really like his exchange with Dean. These two had a weird chemistry together. Like with Fred Lanes YED, he could bounce of the eevol very well 🙂
And Dean, oh man. He’s really worried and then so horrified when he thinks Sam exloded. And the way he checks on Sams wounds is really adorable, and then is ready to go & ice Gordon. Wow, talk about familial devotion. And Sam *heart* freaking out, like big time. I love freaking out Sammy, he’s all jittery yet determined.
I love Funky Town too. That’s so cool! I wish they’d use it again…
And the White Rabbit is so eerie. Poor Scott, he seemed like a good guy.
Gordon was a good villain, but I truly hated him. I did not like it when he was onscreen, he just really bugs me. His superiority of black and white justice, his unwillingness to look at things from another perspective and lastly, his displayed arrogance that is always calling Sam, “Sammy”, despite the many times Sam tells him not to (which started in Bloodlust). Nobody calls Sam, “Sammy”, but Dean. I truly loved it when Gordon gets caught by the cops. Great move Sam.
After watching the episode again and reading Robin’s review, I can’t help but ask the question, “Would John really kill Sam if he turned evil?” We witnessed in the previous episode that if Dean is forced to kill Sam, then he will kill himself afterward. And in later episodes, when pushed to it Dean refuses to kill Sam. So, if John were to have lived, and Sam turned darkside, would John have gone through with it? Or do as Dean says in BUABS when he says he would rather die than kill Sam. Truly a huge burden for Dean and damn John for leaving Dean with this heartbreaking knowledge right before he dies.
Ah, another one in my top five.(Most of season 1 and 2 are in my top five I admit).
This is the first of the many times Sam disappears without Dean having a clue. I was a bit annoyed with Sammy for putting his brother through so much anxiety. Why couldn’t he have at least left a note as to what he was up to. Not where he was going, but why he was going. When a loved one disappears with no reason known must be the most frightening thing and Dean was frantic. So glad that Ellen told him where Sam was.
Gordon was a scarey formidable opponent with his one track mind. Maybe he was a little bit correct in his determination that Sam was dangerous. After all, he did start the apocalypse unknowingly with his actions. But I really hated old Gordon for his unfeeling treatment of Dean and his cold blooded killings of his sister and Scott. (and his killing of his hunting partner in the next season). If he had succeeded in killing Sam what would he have done with Dean? He would have had to kill him, or for sure Dean would have ripped him apart!
Loved to see Dean so concerned for Sammy’s well being after being untied. That’s part of what I missed the most in season 4, their deep concern for each other.
Yes, I have to agree that John made a humongous mistake by giving that secret to Dean right before he died. What a horrendous burden that was for his eldest son to carry. No wonder Dean was so ready to die in the previous episode. And when told the secret Sam seemed to be really angry at Dean for some reason, when he should have aimed that anger at his dad. It must have hurt Dean to hear Sam say “If YOU’RE not careful Dean, you will have to kill me.” as if it was some fault of Dean’s. I presume Sam was too shocked to realize what he was saying at that time.
I’m rambling on too long here, so just want to say an excellent angsty episode indeed!
Ah, Season 2, how much I love it. My favorite. The “I would die for you” -vibe? (thanks Supernattu) is precisely what I miss so bad in Season 5. Thankfully, in the last two episodes I saw unmistakable signs of that vibe returning.
Croaton and Hunted are two of my favorite episodes. Tons of angst and brotherly interaction. Gordon is a great villain. He’s cool and really, really evil. I was sorry to see him go.
Would John kill Sam? Interesting question. I asked it myself a couple of times. I’m inclined to think that if it were to spare Sam of something worse that death, he would.
Dean is a difficult question. I wonder if he’ll ever find himself in a position where he has to decide whether to kill Sam. Season 2 Dean would rather die, but Season 5 Dean is a different man. He doesn’t love Sam less now than he did then, but now he has other responsibilities and he’s well aware of them. If he is forced to kill Sam to save other lives, or even to save Sam’s soul, who knows what his decision will be?
Mmmm … Gordon, love to hate him, so sorry to lose him … All round fab episode!
Loved this episode–Ellen, Ash, Scott, Ava, and especially Gordon! Still miss him. And yeah, Supernatural Survival Guide: if you’re a girl, just run. Run for the hills.