Metamorphosis (9 Oct. 2008)

A hunter named Travis points Sam and Dean towards a meat eating creature called a Rugaru. Complicating matters is the fact that Travis's target is a normal suburban dad in the earlier process of changing and he hasn't killed anyone yet.

Director:

Kim Manners

Writers:

Eric Kripke (creator), Cathryn Humphris

Stars:

Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Genevieve Padalecki

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Jared Padalecki	...	Sam Winchester
Jensen Ackles	...	Dean Winchester
Genevieve Padalecki	...	Ruby (as Genevieve Cortese)
Dameon Clarke	...	Jack Montgomery
Joanne Kelly	...	Michelle Montgomery
Ron Lea	...	Travis
Craig Stanghetta	...	Bartender
Angelique Naude	...	Girl in Bar
Colby Wilson	...	Guy in Bar
Marcus Hondro	...	Captive Demon

Storyline

After Castiel's revelation, Dean fears and soon sees confirmation, by consorting with demon Ruby, that Sam gained extraordinary powers as one of the children fed with demonic blood meant to help start the Apocalypse. Still they respond together to old friendly Missouri hunter Travis's call for help in Carthage. There so far model family man Jack Montgomery is about to transform into a man-eating 'rougarou'. Sam argues he may still resist the urge, with Dean sees as another sign of turning evil.

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Plot Keywords:

rugaru | exorcism | demon | drinking | fire | 

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 October 2008 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kripke Enterprises, Warner Bros. Television, Wonderland Sound and Vision

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the first time Dean refers to Castiel as "Cas".

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Goofs

Before Sam and Dean discuss Dean's visit to the past, the Impala is seen driving down the road. This shot has obviously been recycled from a previous episode, as the plates read "KAZ 2Y5".

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Quotes

Sam Winchester: [after Dean confronts Sam about using his powers] You were gone. I was here. I had to keep on fighting without you. And what I'm doing, it works.
Dean Winchester: Tell me, if it's so terrific, then why'd you lie about it to me? Why did an angel tell me to stop you?
Sam Winchester: [Sam looks up, startled at Dean] What?
Dean Winchester: Cas said if I don't stop you, he will. See what that means, Sam? That means that *God* doesn't want you doing this. So, are you just gonna stand there and tell me that everything is all good?

User Reviews

A Beast Am I

At first I considered this to be "only" a good, 7/10, episode, but on second viewing, I am elevating this to a *great*, 8/10, episode. As is often the case with less comedic, tense, edge-of-your-seat episodes like this, the less in-your-face details may be left overlooked. Especially when the writers are very in-your-face about hammering home the similarities between Sam and the case of the week.

There are great character moments between - and during! - the action, offering the actors chances to shine. And there is a *really* compelling philosophical debate going on between Sam and Dean. It also helps that the guest star of the week, Dameon Clarke, is *very* good in his role. Then again, he has a long CV - and one tends to learn a bit of acting in 20 years!

The season opener was fantastic, but the second and third episode introduced a recurring flaw: when Castiel made his appearance, he also made a huge revelation that was *great* as an episode-ending twist, but it was rather vague, wasn't it? Obviously, Castiel has his reasons not to disclose details (and at this point, he may not even know them), but it has been really frustrating to watch Dean seem *not* at all interested in posing questions about the matter to Castiel. Or to *anyone*. This is similar to what often happened in Lost - for some implausible reason no one, most of the time, asked 'What' and 'Why'. And since we can see from the opening credits that Misha Collins is AWOL from this episode, you can pretty much draw some conclusions from that. Also, the obfuscation recalls bad memories of The X Files - the difference being that in Supernatural, the writers know where the Mytharc is going whereas in The X Files they *actually* were making it up as they went on.

Bottom line: greater episodes still to come, so momentous, so astonishing that compared to them, this warrants no more than 8/10. But that is still waaay ahead of most of the crap on TV.