Reviews That I Missed: Supernatural 9.19 – “Alex, Annie, Alexis, Ann”
This is a surprising episode. We were so dragged down by all the season nine crap at this point that when “Alex, Annie, Alexis, Ann” came along, I was stunned to see an actual great, emotional story play out, especially with a vampire story. Where did this come from? It finally brought some long overdue depth to Jody Mills and her struggles, and the end result was stunning. A spotlight episode like this for Kim Rhodes was long overdue and man she delivered.
The focus wasn’t on the brotherly drama and it was a breath of fresh air. The contrived brotherly crap had been sucking all the air out of the room so far this season. This episode was engaging right off the bat. It seemed normal enough at first, a young girl getting arrested, but who called Jody showing up with an axe to chop off the vamp’s head to save Alex just before the opening credits? That’s an attention getter! The great pacing continued with the perfect mix of suspense and action, yet slowing down at the right spots to push the emotional storytelling. Everything fired on all cylinders.
Why did this episode work? For one, it was about time Jody Mills got a rich story. Robert Berens remembered that she suffered a deep trauma all those years ago, when we first were introduced to her in “Dead Mean Don’t Wear Plaid” and it was weakly revisited in her other appearances up to now. I mean come on, she lost her son, then her son returned from the dead, and then he killed her husband before he went back to being dead, leaving her alone. Of course she still grieved for them. Introducing Alex was a perfect way to break open those old wounds, get her to accept her reality, and push her toward healthy healing.
Alex’s story ran with a very popular theme in this series, family and loyalty. How much can you remain loyal to family without losing yourself and your humanity? Hers was an interesting parallel to Sam and Dean’s situation, but it wasn’t totally anvilicious either. There were enough differences where it wasn’t heavy handed like SO many other parallel stories (I’m talking to you Adam Glass). Alex’s backstory was tragic, ripped from her home at a young age and forced to live with a vampire family. She tried to be loyal, but in order for her family to survive, she had to do horrible things that went against her humanity. It got to be too much. She couldn’t face her mother about her feelings, so she ran. Sounds a bit like John and Sam, huh?
There were some Dean parallels too though, particularly with the overprotective vamp mother who chose to turn Alex into a vampire rather than let her go and live her own life so they could be together as a family forever. Sounds a bit like Dean’s deal with Gadreel, huh? Alex chose to be a vampire when her mother wanted it, but soon found out afterward her mother lied to her. When given the choice to save Jody or not, she remembered her humanity, and did the right thing. That’s basically what Sam is doing now since he was tricked by Dean with Gadreel. Trying to make amends. It’s going so/so.
What makes Jody a great character is she trusted her instinct right off the bat. Alex was young, scared, confused, and way in over her head. She wasn’t an evil mastermind, every fiber of her being told her that. That triggered Jody’s motherly instinct to help, no matter what the cost. No wonder she figured out Mama vamp clung onto Alex to hide her pain over a lost child. It took a grieving mother to know one. I love that she refused to listen to Sam and Dean and went with her gut instead. Jody was able to convince Alex to turn on her mother by just caring and not pushing too hard. The best part was though, to remind her they were still human, Jody made Alex look away as she beheaded Mama vamp. It was a simple gesture, but one that spoke volumes.
Something else clicked though, Jody and Alex at the end when Alex was healing from the vampire cure. For one, thanks for sparing all the gory details with the cure that we got the last time. Two, it’s refreshing to see two mature adults in the room, both battered, bruised and broken, but able to reach out to each other and offer support. No macho swallowing pride here. Their bond was heartwarming and encouraging, despite the pain they both were in. Jody got an important revelation from all this, she had been lying to herself about her grief, and it was time to deal. This was exactly the type of healing the brothers needed at the time, but they weren’t there yet. They were too knuckle-headed to learn this time, but this was an early sign that Sam was coming around about Dean and ready to save him. Yay, a season ten setup.
You know what else I loved about this episode? Sam and Dean were actually working together! Brotherly rift be damned. Their dialogue was smart and funny, they were loose, on the same page, and knew exactly what needed to be done. There was no crisis of confidence or melodrama over their predicament, for the most part. THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE THE BROTHERS! Yeah, there was that one bit of brutality from Dean when he killed stunt brother demon #3, but honestly, that vamp did have it coming. Still, Sam said something, because, sigh, I guess as viewers we needed to be reminded he noticed. But given all the other goodness we got here, I’ll let it slide.
Other Stray Thoughts
Return of the woodchipper! While we remember that from “Weekend at Bobby’s”, this scene was strangely reminiscent of the film Fargo. It was almost a carbon copy actually.
We got the return of Samsel in Distress, but for some reason this didn’t piss me off this time. Maybe because he was actually feeling the effects of it, something that sometimes doesn’t happen (I’m talking to you season four Andrew Dabb). Blood loss means being woozy! But how about Dean’s line when saving Sam, “I know, you wouldn’t do the same for me.” Ouch much?
The directing on this episode was top notch. Stefan Pleszczynski managed to capture the raw emotion that Katherine Ramdeen and Kim Rhodes brought to the table. He saw the amazing chemistry between these too and the top advantage of the full potential. No wonder TPTB saw spinoff potential down the road with these two. I love the contrast between these two shots in particular, Alex looking away.
Overall grade an A. Enjoy this happiness because up next, “Bloodlines,” aka moving from an A to an F. Get ready for all the reasons why it remains number one on my worst episodes of Supernatural list.
Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
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