Supernatural: Yellow Fever

[norwich36]

Let me get a couple of things I found disturbing about the episode out of the way before I get to the squee:

1. I get that the title, "Yellow Fever," is supposed to be connecting Dean's fear episodes with Sam's yellow eyes later in the episode, but considering the racialized overtones connected to using "yellow" as a synonym for "fear," I was a little uncomfortable. ESPECIALLY since the "ghost sickness" was actually caused by a Japanese variety of ghost. Um, Kripke, for god's sake, THINK about these things.

2. And don't compound the problem by having the source of your ghost's violence be a death that has strong overtones of racialized violence--and the good guys have to actually *repeat* that violence to get rid of the ghost.

Nevertheless, there were a number of things about the episode that were entirely made of win

1. This was Dean's "Bad Day at Black Rock," wasn't it? And Ackles was really bringing the comedy. There's something really hilarious at seeing a guy who's literally been to hell and back get scared by (a) snakes; (b) teenage kids; (c) a cat in a locker; (d) left turns; (e) cute little puppies with bows in their hair; and (f) the dark. (I can't wait for all the fic that has Sam comforting that night when he can't sleep!)

2. Bobby speaks Japanese! Bobby, just when I think you can't get any more awesome.

3. Dean's whole speech to Sam about how their job was completely crazy. I may have rewatched that, oh, about 6 times, because it was such a hilarious critique, and revealed so much self-knowledge on his part (he knows he drives Sammy crazy listening to the same 5 albums over and over and over again and singing along to them, but he doesn't stop doing it). Oh, Dean. And the revelation that Sam is gassy just made me laugh and laugh.

4. As did Dean's complaints about bad diner food, skeevy motel rooms and scary rashes on truck stop waitresses. OMG, I was dying laughing. I suspect poor Dean's skin is no longer as unmarked as it was a few weeks ago!

5. Sam was AWESOMELY competent, even when saddled with a completely useless Dean. Yum yum yum. I find competence very sexy, and Sam is all about putting the puzzle pieces together and figuring things out this season, isn't he? The only thing sexier is when he is actually turning evil.

6. The acknowledgement that Dean is a dick. Because, let's face it, even though he's my favorite character, he actually is a dick sometimes. (So is Sammy, of course. I am assuming Sam's immunity is like his immunity in Croatoan and not because he's actually nicer than Dean--that may have been true at one time but is not any ore). Of course, it helped that this textual acknowledgement of Dean's dickery was accompanied by actual unselfishness in the episode; I was really impressed, for example, at the fact that he was still trying to save the sheriff after the sheriff tried to kill him and when he was being scared to death himself.

7. Sam and Bobby teasing Dean at the end of the episode. OMG so cute.

8. Not really part of the ep, but JENSEN ACKLES SINGING EYE OF THE TIGER WAS TOO DORKALICIOUSLY HILARIOUS FOR WORDS.

Things that gave me food for thought

1. It was interesting to see Dean's most authentic fears, of course. He's clearly haunted by the hellhounds and hell in general, and I'm taking this episode as confirmation that he does remember hell, since it was basically his subconscious talking to him. 40 years? OH DEAN. *Squishes him* And he's still really terrified that he'll have to go back there when he dies. Interesting that he chose to cling to the Bible to try to avert his fate--does that show he is, actually being influenced by Castiel? Oh very interesting that he seems to remember Lilith personally tormenting him in hell.

2. And of course, his biggest fear is Sam actually choosing to go evil. I think it was more than the yellow eyes; it was Sam actually saying "This is what I want to become, and there's nothing you can do about it." Ouch. (And I don't know *how* to interpret that flash of yellow eyes at the end. Flashback or something worse?

3. Dean consistently drinks throughout the episode to fight his fear. Interesting, since there is such a fannish debate about whether John actually was an alcoholic when they were growing up, or if that's just something Sam said in the Pilot in front of Jess because he couldn't tell the truth about his father's obsessions.

4. Sam displays a certain amount of concern for Dean in this episode (e.g. hunting him down after Dean gives the speech and runs off), but doesn't seem nearly as concerned as his brother is about the deadline. Just faith in his own competence? Or has he become so emotionally closed off after losing Dean once (really more than once if you count Mystery Spot) that he can't display (or feel) his own fears? I'm not sure. I'd rather he actually save Dean than be all emo and fail, of course, but he didn't really seem all that worried.

Comments

[anashi.livejournal.com]

I found it really interesting that they said it was caused by a Japanese ghost, since ghost sickness is a disorder/mental illness that is experienced by mostly Native Americans. Some people think that stroke is related, since sufferers experience numbness. I was surprised to see it brought up. There isn't that much fear of death in Japanese culture so it's not a mental disorder that would be present in the culture whereas locking oneself in your room for twenty years to avoid embarrassing social situations is. They mix up things in interesting ways on this show. A little research would do them wonders. But I don't think a ghost that makes people lock themselves in their room for 20 years would be as interesting.

I can't believe this episode was intitled 'Yellow fever'. At some point you have to ask yourself if they are stupid or just don't care.

[norwich36.livejournal.com]

To be fair, the way SPN was defining ghost sickness was not really related to fear of death per se, just fear in general. But I don't know where they came up with Japanese ghost sickness, and I couldn't find any reference to the buru buru googling around, so who knows what they were thinking.

They've demonstrated before that they don't, actually, give much thought to how their racial politics come across to viewers, so I can't say I'm too surprised.

[anashi.livejournal.com]

You know at some point I was thinking they were going to bring in asian spirituality because of how the story is progressing with Dean being aligned with western, Judeo-Christianity and Sam being aligned with the mysterious, mind-oriented powers of the east. This show has so much embedded east/west struggle already, I shouldn't have been surprised that it is beginning to become more apparent. I wrote a huge entry about it in my lj if you're interested, usually I don't care a fig about this shows use of symbology but it was a lot more layered in this episode than in any episode I've ever watched. It was like peeling an onion and revealing more and more about the mindset of western culture and how it views the east. Deeply fascinating stuff.