Supernatural: Roadkill

June 20, 2021 6:18 AM - Season 2, Episode 16

Molly and her husband are driving along a long deserted highway at night when they come upon a farmer in the middle of the road whom Molly tries unsuccessfully not to hit. The next thing she knows her husband is missing and the horrifically injured farmer is chasing her. She flags down a passing Impala and meets the Winchesters, who try to help her escape and to find her husband.

Quotes:

Sam: Should've thought of it.
Dean: What?
Sam: It's an old country custom, Dean. Planting a tree as a grave marker.
Dean: You're like a walking encyclopedia of weirdness.
Sam: Yeah, I know.

Molly McNamara: Oh, thank God!
Dean: Ah, call me Dean.

Dean: [after they come across a creepy-looking house] You know, just once I'd like to round the corner and see a nice house.

Trivia:

In the beginning of the episode the husband David says they are on Hwy 99, but then the couple pass a Hwy 41 sign. On Hwy 99 near where it crosses Hwy 41 there is a street called Jensen Ave.

posted by orange swan (3 comments total)

I wanted to throttle David for having started that stupid wrestling match with Molly while she was driving. He got Molly and Greely killed. 

Why would Molly be such a rational, normal acting ghost while Greely, who seems to have been a good man before his death, is a crazed, vicious one?

Molly's outfit was so not 1992, but I suppose they didn't want to make it obvious, so as not to give away the twist. 

Dean's mellowed out a little on his "supernatural beings are all evil" stance, but he still wasn't too sympathetic to Molly. 
posted by orange swan at 6:22 AM on June 20, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh my, Tricia Helfer (Molly) is prolific... and could be considered video game royalty. Sonya Blade from 'Mortal Kombat,' EDI from 'Mass Effect,' and (MF-ing) Kerrigan from 'Starcraft' (among others).

Instead of the reveal through outfits, missed opportunity to use a too-frequently-played song from 1992 instead of 'House of the Rising Sun' (although it wouldn't have made it onto the old jukebox).

Of the top 20 Billboard songs in '92, the only ones I recognize are 'Baby Got Back' (2), 'Jump (Jump)' (3), and 'Life is a Highway' (18, #1 in Canada).

So, maybe not.

Greely knows that he's restlessly undead whereas Molly doesn't?
posted by porpoise at 12:44 PM on June 20, 2021

Watching again, I think part of why Greely is so different than Molly in death is reenacting the scene every year. It must have driven Greely mad to experience it over and over again. Greely knows he's dead and Molly refuses to acknowledge it; that itself would get wearisome after awhile. On top of that, it's strongly implied that Greely knows about the fate of his own wife, and the other characters comment on how "normal" a life that couple led before Greely's death. If I were Greely, sticking around originally because he loved his wife only to discover she died by suicide, I'd be pretty pissed about now being eternally stuck with the woman who killed you--who herself keeps moaning about her own husband, with literally no empathy for the couple whose lives she ruined. And to return every year, with the knowledge of what Molly did and how it affected Greely and his wife, only to watch Molly swoon about with amnesia every year, would probably also drive me to torture.

I agree with orange swan that the real person at fault here is Molly's husband for the car crash that started it all, and it makes me extra grumpy that he's apparently the only one of the four who eventually gets to be happy in the end. (And then also appears to be doing nothing to commemorate his first wife's death on his wedding anniversary on a major 15-year milestone? I know the husband probably wouldn't spend literally every second of that day performatively grieving, but like... maybe something?)

This is such a clever episode the first time you watch it, and I love it for that reason. But every time I rewatch, I want justice for the Greelys.
posted by lilac girl at 9:24 PM on July 18, 2021 [2 favorites]