'The Winchesters' Season 1, Episode 2 is a progression of growth and well-anticipated antics

This week’s episode of The Winchesters was an episode filled with insight about the characters, heartfelt moments, and the seeds of what to expect for the rest of the season. From figuring out more backstory about Mary Campbell’s father and learning more about John Winchester’s father’s history with the Men of Letters, to finding out about more about the season’s big bad: the Akrida. The backstory of the characters in this show makes each of them have their own individual journeys, but when all the characters come together to fight and hunt, they have great chemistry that drives the show and plot forward.

A shapeshifter, or a mimic?

The episode starts with a young man named Barry, who happens to be involved in a spiritual commune, running into the woods and getting trapped underground by something with twigs and trees. He is not the only one on the run, as another man was on the run in last week’s episode. He wears a trench coat, an Indiana Jones-like hat, and he is trying to outrun the danger that is coming. Meanwhile Mary, John, Lata, and Carlos are still on a mission to find Mary’s father in Savannah. She realizes that her father left her clues and coordinates to work a case in the form of homemade gun shell casings that her father made. This moment is a nice parallel to Supernatural. John would leave coordinates and clues for his sons to go out on hunts while looking for him, and it makes for a familiar feel. She believes that her father wanted to leave her some indication that he’s alive, but doesn’t want to be found just yet. John and Mary arrive at the house of the son of the man who was taken in the beginning of the episode to get answers, which leads to the group joining a commune to get behind the case. Pull out the groovy dresses, flower headbands, and the psychedelic tunes. Afterward, Lata does some research into figuring out the name of the creature: La Tunda (Juliene Joyner). It can mimic people’s family or friends and they say their biggest insecurities and fears to the people the La Tunda captured. John was captured by The La Tunda when it reflected his mother, only to find the rest of the captured victims, leading to him killing the creature.

“Teach Your Children Well"

Throughout the whole episode, there were some moments of wisdom and growth for both John and Mary. Jensen Ackles, who narrated Dean at the beginning of the episode said it best,

“The ties that bind a family together can be complicated. Parents raise you, teach you what’s right and wrong, and in some instances, how to kill monsters. But no matter who you are, there comes a time where you must break from them and make your own way. And if you’re not careful, things can get ugly.”

This quote relates to the event of Mary becoming a leader on her own without being in her father’s shadow. She has been so passionate about looking for her father, Samuel, that sometimes she can be stubborn in the decisions that she makes. She makes these one-sided decisions, instead of listening to the other people who are there to help her.

Carlos calls her out by saying, “You can’t keep treating people like your dad, the front man who ignores the rest of the band.” He mentions that as much as Mary wants to find her father, she can’t be in her father’s shadow forever. Carlos reassures her by telling her, “Embrace the kind of leader you can be without him.”

This connects to John as well, in him wanting so badly to be the man his father can be proud of. Now he is following in his footsteps, against his mother’s wishes. His mother Millie is afraid that her son is going to turn into his father. John disappearing and not having communication with her mirrors his father too well. While John sees this as an example of his own mother not believing in him, he was just mad at his father for not being there to see what he’s doing with his life. John thinks he is the reason his father left and doesn’t feel wanted by him. He and his mother both working through their own thoughts and hesitations about the hunting life is their way of having some form of communication and shows that John is nothing like his father, by any means.