"Bugs" is quite a monumental episode you know. Even to this day, when we switch off a weak effort like "Fallen Idols" or "Family Remains," our instant reaction is "Ah well, it wasn't Bugs." I've said it before and I say it again. Welcome to not only the worst episode of the entire series, but I think they actually show this episode in film schools now as a warning to students not to stoop to this level. Not if they want to work.  The really sad irony in all this is that poor poor Kim Manners was saddled with having to direct in this young show of his, this next major step in his brilliant career, the most unworkable script on the planet. It was logistically impossible. He begged Eric Kripke not to do it. Jensen and Jared, the unwitting victims, had little choice but to read their bad lines and hop in a tent full of thousands of angry bees.  No wonder their supposed all night stand only lasted three minutes. To this day, I'm working how Jensen didn't walk off the set after being told to provoke these bees with an impromptu flamethrower. 



I've read where a lot of people started rediscovering Supernatural is season four again because it lost them in season one. My guess would be right about here. It's bad enough Sam's character was all over the map. Now he's relating to a kid who has a little tension with his father? Um, Sam's father was a demon hunter who uprooted his children, taught them how to fight monsters, trained them like warriors, and abandoned them most of the time, thus scarring him for life. This kid and his dad just didn't see eye to eye, you know, like MOST fathers and sons. It was a half assed parallel that made Sam look like a whiny brat. It made Dean look pretty stupid too, for fighting off a swarm of bees with a can of Raid and a lighter is not exactly a "cunning" plan. 



You know though, in order to give an episode of any kind an "F", it has to be the kind of episode that happens with a running series that so alienates the viewership that any time they put into the show has been completely invalidated. Considering this was episode 8 of season one, that's not quite the same thing as to what Smallville did to their viewers with that Lana Lang crap in season 8. So, because of that, and one good scene between the brothers while Sam held Indian bones in a box (?), plus Dean's split second win in the steam shower, I bump up that F to a D-.  



I actually did a much longer scathing review of "Bugs" a while back. For more detail as to why it is that bad, here's the link. 

http://www.thewinchesterfamilybusiness.com/article-list/19-season-one-recaps/152-a-not-so-memorable-look-back-at-qbugsq.html