Supernatural: Route 666
May 25, 2021 9:42 AM - Season 1, Episode 13 - Subscribe
Dean is contacted by an ex-flame, who asks him for help because black men in her hometown are being murdered by a driverless spectral truck.
After reading the warnings about this episode in my Ask thread, I thought I might skip it at first. Instead, I decided that I'd see how bad it was before jumping to the next episode. I really wanted to do that, but then there is evidence that Dean had a real relationship, and with somebody who really seemed like she could be a good, strong match for him. So of course I stuck around until the end (although I can't say I paid too much attention to the non-Sam-and-Cassie parts. I don't konw if she shows up again, but I'd be all in favour of a return appearance.
posted by sardonyx at 2:05 PM on May 25, 2021
posted by sardonyx at 2:05 PM on May 25, 2021
According to IMDb, this episode was Cassie's only appearance in the series.
posted by orange swan at 9:01 PM on May 25, 2021
posted by orange swan at 9:01 PM on May 25, 2021
I love the concept of Cassie, but the execution was just meh. The whole show was very careful not to touch racial issues - you'd think there'd be haunted plantation houses, waaaay more haunts and ghosts from lynchings, far more police brutality (the show initially is pretty ACAB but the introduction of 'positive' police characters, that sort of vanishes later) but it is a fundamentally white straight male show that struggles (very interestingly! and with occasional moments of glory) with intersectionality.
If I recall, Ackles disliked doing anything with nudity further on, so there's only one scene several seasons later, while Padalecki whipped his clothes off on-screen plenty.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 12:05 AM on May 26, 2021 [5 favorites]
If I recall, Ackles disliked doing anything with nudity further on, so there's only one scene several seasons later, while Padalecki whipped his clothes off on-screen plenty.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 12:05 AM on May 26, 2021 [5 favorites]
The whole show was very careful not to touch racial issues
I wish they'd done even less or, better, found someone who know what they were doing since the way the show handles race is really terrible, partly by their tendency to kinda ignore the implications of some of their casting/character choices, but also because when they do address it more directly, like in this episode and, most notably, with the episodes based around the character of Gordon Walker who wanted to kill Sam. The show uses the whites explaining racism to Black characters trope with Walker, which is just ugly, and in this episode, feints towards the idea they are going to address Black experience, only to switch over to making all about the pains of white people dating outside their race.
I don't want to go on too much about this since it'd be a long rant and y'all don't need that, so just I'll leave it there for now and just say it's a topic I think Supernatural was largely dreadful with when they bothered to notice it at all, even when they seemed to have decent intentions, as in the earlier episode Home, but that's all too common for fantasy/sci-fi shows staffed primarily with white showrunners and writers.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:59 AM on May 26, 2021 [6 favorites]
I wish they'd done even less or, better, found someone who know what they were doing since the way the show handles race is really terrible, partly by their tendency to kinda ignore the implications of some of their casting/character choices, but also because when they do address it more directly, like in this episode and, most notably, with the episodes based around the character of Gordon Walker who wanted to kill Sam. The show uses the whites explaining racism to Black characters trope with Walker, which is just ugly, and in this episode, feints towards the idea they are going to address Black experience, only to switch over to making all about the pains of white people dating outside their race.
I don't want to go on too much about this since it'd be a long rant and y'all don't need that, so just I'll leave it there for now and just say it's a topic I think Supernatural was largely dreadful with when they bothered to notice it at all, even when they seemed to have decent intentions, as in the earlier episode Home, but that's all too common for fantasy/sci-fi shows staffed primarily with white showrunners and writers.
posted by gusottertrout at 12:59 AM on May 26, 2021 [6 favorites]
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Dean: So I guess I saved you from a boring existence.
Sam: Yeah, occasionally I miss boring.
Dean: All right, so this killer truck...
Sam: I miss conversations that didn't start with "this killer truck".
Sam: So burning the body had no effect on that thing [meaning the evil truck]?
Dean: Oh sure it did, now it's *really* pissed!
Dean: Don't leave the house.
Cassie Robinson: Don't go getting all authoritative on me; I hate it.
Dean: Don't leave the house... please?
Sam's glee over the fact that Dean had actually developed genuine lasting feelings for a woman, and then gotten dumped, was peak sibling obnoxiousness.
The back story for the killer ghost truck was even more horrific than the present day events, probably because it's historically realistic for 1960s Missouri. That poor woman's grief over the deaths her interracial marriage had occasioned....
Hot love scene between Dean and Cassie. Dean is the horndog he is, not because he isn't capable of loving or committing to one woman (the guy's whole life and creed is one of unfailing love and commitment in other directions), but because he can't be in a romantic relationship and be a hunter, and hunting comes first with him -- it's in his blood. And so he single-mindedly pursues women for casual flings because he knows that's all he can realistically have with them.
posted by orange swan at 9:47 AM on May 25, 2021 [2 favorites]