SUPERNATURAL Recap: The Girl Who Cried Werewolf

Season11, Episode12 “Don’t You Forget About Me”

…And vampire… and monster…

Unfortunately for Claire Novak (Kathryn Love Newton), the werewolf turned out to be a German shepherd with rabies. Although that is still an important thing to discover, her constant vigilance and seeing the supernatural where it doesn’t exist has convinced even those who know that monsters exist that she is paranoid. And worse, using hunting as an escape for having to deal with real life.

Arrow over ran Supernatural a bit on my TV so I missed the “Road so Far” segment. I also missed Claire holding a sword to someone’s throat and demanding to know what they were.

For me, it opened up with Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) in their lair, with Sam explaining something that had to be the weasel riding a woodpecker video that swept the internet. Dean brings to the table, literally, an Elvis, which is a cheeseburger wrapped in two donuts. Sam refuses to eat it, saying that if he’s survived hundreds of monster attacks, he’s not going to be done in by a two doughnut monstrosity. We can gather from this that the boys are bored. Someone calls and they head out. (For those with long memories, the Caddyshack mention should let you know who it is.)

Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) picks up Alex (Katherine Ramdeen) from school. It seems that she is doing well both academically and in sports, and dating the most popular boy in school. Jody is beaming with pride, but she does spot birth control pills in Alex’s backpack. Alex is Jody’s foster daughter; she was brought up in a vampire nest, being used to lure unsuspecting (and usually quite bad) people to the vampires to be eaten. Jody took her in after Sam and Dean cleared out the nest.

They pull up to the house to see the Impala. Alex is surprised that they are there. Jody says she did not send up the bat signal. Claire called them, convinced that she is right even though all she has for confirmation of the supernatural is three missing people.  She is Jody’s other foster daughter, the daughter who was orphaned when Castiel took over her father’s body and her mother was killed by the angel Tamiel in a later episode. A bit older than Alex, she is ditching college to chase monsters and generally driving Jody crazy.  Jody is happy to see Sam and Dean, hoping they will provide backup, but not in the same way that Claire wants.

The boys are thrilled to get a home cooked meal and chicken that is chicken shaped. Unfortunately they have to see the girls bicker. Claire rats Alex out about plans to spend the night in a cabin with Henry, her popular boyfriend, and Jody confronts her about the birth control pills and tries to get Sam and Dean to agree about protection, which causes them to squirm and stammer and go silent. They are so embarrassed, it’s hysterical.

Jody tells Dean about Claire’s problems while they are washing dishes. Dean sends Sam in to talk to her, ’cause he’s better with talking. Sam does a good job of explaining that while monsters are always there, families and school are not. It’s believable because he lived it.

Claire is vindicated, however, when Alex’s favorite teacher is strung up on the school flagpole, dead. It takes more than ordinary strength to accomplish this. Sam and Dean show up as FBI agents and check out the school. Dean finds no EMF readings-Sam encounters a school janitor that acts like Lenny from Of Mice and Men. Asbestos was found at the crime scene.

Alex confesses to her boyfriend about her sordid past. He says he doesn’t care about her past.

Claire and Jody are heading to the registrar’s office when they are attacked by the school janitor. Jody puts up a fight but he stomps on her, breaking her leg. He drags both of them off. Jody gets Dean by phone. The guys return to the house, find them gone, get a phone call about the janitor’s real identity and figure out he’s a vampire from his family being left behind with their throats torn out. They track the phone to a dumpster and then decide to check out a building that was abandoned because of asbestos from the asbestos clue earlier.

Henry reveals himself to be a vampire and drags Alex off. We see Jody and the girls tied up in the janitor’s lair. There are bodies lying around, remains from dinners that haven’t been thrown out.

The janitor turns out to be an old victim of Alex’s. He seems more intelligent now while he tells his story. He took her home after driving off a pedophile she was taking to the nest. He was a nice guy, he says, but went home and slaughtered his family after he was turned. He blames her and wants to take away everything; her teachers and family. Of course he doesn’t recognize his own guilt for killing innocent people, not even for food but for revenge, because he’s a vampire now. And maybe because people are myopic about their own faults.

Henry was turned and sent off after her so that she would be happy and have something to lose. Alex offers to be bait for their nest if they let Claire and Jody live. After taunting Alex for a while, the janitor bites Claire and throws her to the ground. Sam enters the room and gets beaten up by the sledgehammer wielding vampire and the vampire in the letter jacket. He gets tossed onto another floor of the building. Claire wakes up and Jody points out a crowbar, which Claire stabs the janitor vampire with. Dean slices his head off from behind. Sam overpowers Henry, and gives Alex a chance to confront him. She gives him a good right hook and Claire cuts his head off. Claire really likes to stab and slice monsters.

Alex and Claire make Jody breakfast as a gesture of appreciation. She’s now got crutches and a cast. She tells Alex that she is good; she was doing to lay down her life for theirs. Claire is impressed by Jody’s effort to save her. She still wants to hunt but Jody is going to teach her how to investigate properly and vet leads. Alex is going back to school, and knows she will eventually go her own way because she can’t be around the things they hunt.  The boys go back home with ribs and sauce.

Thoughts: HOW did Alex not know that Henry was a vampire? She lived with vampires for EIGHT years! Are vampires able to pass for human with no trouble on Supernatural? (I would have to do some digging to figure out that one.) There is a scene where she’s trying to tell Henry about her past. That’s the scene where I knew something was wrong with him. Other people said the same thing. He tells her he doesn’t care what she’s done, she doesn’t have to tell him, but he didn’t finish with “I love you”, “I care about you”, or “you are a good person”, something she desperately wanted to hear. I don’t know if that’s what tipped me off or if it was something else in that scene.

Alex may not have much ability to discriminate between good and evil. She spent so long with monsters and being bait for humans that would go home with little girls that she feels it’s normal and doesn’t have any antenna out for danger.

Supernatural is not deep. No real lessons, except that there is evil and heroes to fight it. It’s not an after school special. But they do family wonderfully. So many shows have pat answers and easy relationships. There is a realism to the family dramas on Supernatural. I have experienced and witnessed being outnumbered by teens, moms wanting dads to kick in and back them up and getting a response much like the dinner table scene. Sam and Dean did do well later in the show, Sam with his talk with Claire about what she could miss out on, Dean telling Claire to respect her mother (pretty much) and giving Alex’s boyfriend the evil eye. Even when Jody says she doesn’t have the background with the girls that she needs, it rings true. You can’t be an authority to a teen that you don’t have a relationship with. It’s a big problem for stepparents.

Both girls needed validation. Claire, respect for the path she has started on, and Alex, reassurance that she is a good person. The ways in which they have handled their respective traumas are true to their natures. Claire always was scrappy. She’s a fighter and is trying to protect herself and her family. Alex assimilates to survive and she is trying to blend in with the real world. I believe that Alex is right that she needs to stay away from the hunter’s world. She is a perpetual Little Red Riding Hood. Claire may be overly alert to danger but Alex is not alert enough.

Both girls got what they needed. Claire knows Jody and Alex love her. She was proven right. She will be getting help from Jody about hunting. And I think this is the first time she’s been through one of these ordeals without losing a parent or parental figure. Alex knows that the path she’s on is right and that she can be a good person.

Oh, and Sam and Dean are very polite. Sam helps bring groceries in and Dean dries dishes.

Questions: How did Alex not know Henry was a vampire? I know, I covered that already but I can’t get over it.

You only need three missing people to feed one vamp, then two, for three months? I suppose they could have kept them captive for a while.

How are they going to cover up this one? They could blame the vampire for the bodies and Sheriff Jody could have killed the vamp, although it begs the question of why she cut his head off instead of shooting him, but that popular kid is going to cause a stink.

Will Jody Mills get her Rubbermaid back?

New Info: None, just visiting some old friends.

Next week will be a Valentine’s Day episode. I hope it won’t be as bloody as the last one.

 

Supernatural airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.