Supernatural: The Chitters
May 2, 2016 3:54 PM - Season 11, Episode 19 - Subscribe
Sam and Dean are visiting a small town in Colorado where people are mysteriously disappearing every 27 years.
Another Monster of the Week episode. But I thought it was a pretty interesting one, albeit I yelled at the TV "STOP SPLITTING UP" every time they... split up. It was especially nice to see more LGBT representation, and super nice of Dean to not drag the couple into their Apocalypse drama. Although I couldn't help but note that maaaaaybe this is an all hands on deck scenario, since y'know, Amara wants to undo creation. Letting a couple of capable hunters go off and enjoy their last days together might give Dean that "good endings" kinda feel, but I would've at least clued them in with a "please help when we come calling so your happily-ever-after might last longer than until this time next month".
I also liked this episode because of the cicada references, because cicadas are fascinating to me.
Another Monster of the Week episode. But I thought it was a pretty interesting one, albeit I yelled at the TV "STOP SPLITTING UP" every time they... split up. It was especially nice to see more LGBT representation, and super nice of Dean to not drag the couple into their Apocalypse drama. Although I couldn't help but note that maaaaaybe this is an all hands on deck scenario, since y'know, Amara wants to undo creation. Letting a couple of capable hunters go off and enjoy their last days together might give Dean that "good endings" kinda feel, but I would've at least clued them in with a "please help when we come calling so your happily-ever-after might last longer than until this time next month".
I also liked this episode because of the cicada references, because cicadas are fascinating to me.
The show has a history of making some squeamish, bro-y jokes about gay stuff, so this episode felt very much like the creators were saying, "Yeah, sorry. Here are two heroic gay guys in love." In the past Dean would have (at the very least) mumbled something to convey that he was uncomfortable around them, but there was absolutely none of that here and the Winchesters treated the guys like any other hunter couple they might meet. So, 10 points there, Supernatural.
This show really evolved over time. It's weird now to see those early episodes where the brothers look about 16 and they're obsessed with tracking down their dad and there's no Crowley or Cas or even Bobby around. It's like we've watched them grow up, almost. I do wish they'd get a real spinoff going (Sheriffs Jody & Donna pleeeease?) because I feel like this universe they've created is rich enough to go on indefinitely. I'd be sad to see it just end with this show, whenever this show ends.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:41 PM on May 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
This show really evolved over time. It's weird now to see those early episodes where the brothers look about 16 and they're obsessed with tracking down their dad and there's no Crowley or Cas or even Bobby around. It's like we've watched them grow up, almost. I do wish they'd get a real spinoff going (Sheriffs Jody & Donna pleeeease?) because I feel like this universe they've created is rich enough to go on indefinitely. I'd be sad to see it just end with this show, whenever this show ends.
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:41 PM on May 2, 2016 [2 favorites]
I agree with the idea that this universe could support a real spinoff, or two. There's so much more that could be explored. That backdoor pilot they created a couple of seasons ago was SO VERY BAD, though. I wonder if they'll ever try again.
posted by terilou at 1:00 PM on May 12, 2016
posted by terilou at 1:00 PM on May 12, 2016
I knew I didn't want to watch an episode called "The Chitters." I will give it slight points for use of the word "orgy" and a happy gay hunter relationship (even if Jesse was a bit off-putting, his partner seemed quite nice).
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:30 PM on May 20, 2016
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:30 PM on May 20, 2016
Quotes
Dean: Green eyes, buzzing. Weed alone doesn’t conjure up that kind of scenario. Isn’t that right, Sam?
Sam: Dude, I was eighteen.
Dean: Sinner.
Sam: It was college. It was probably oregano anyways.
Dean: Rebel.
Sam: You’re an idiot. Look, I’m coming up empty also. Uh, nothing on Junkless or the green-eyed shaker.
Dean: So we think Junkless turned Libby?
Sam: Hold up. We’re not actually gonna go with “Junkless” on this, are we?
Dean: Eh.
Sam: Dude, that’s a new low, even for us.
Trivia
The beer that Sam & Dean drink with the other hunters is called "Elly's Brew" which is a nod to The Blair Witch Project whose director, Eduardo Sanchez, also directed this episode. Eduardo Sanchez also directed Lovely Molly.
Sam tells Dean that sitting is the new smoking. This episode was made around the start of the sitting-is-evil fad. At first, sitting more than three hours a day was said to shorten your life by 0.2 years. Then it was sitting more than two hours a day shortened your life by 2.0 years. Then it was said that every hour sitting over two hours a day shortened your life by 20 minutes (which would easily add up to losing 6 years of life expectancy by retirement age).
The frequency of attacks mentioned in the episode, 27 years, is the same frequency as Stephen King's monster clown Pennywise from It.
When in the mine, Dean says he has about 5 gallons of gas back at the car... When we see him at the car, he's pulling a 5 litre gas can out, which is 1.3 gallons.
At the end of the episode, Sam tells Dean that -- as a kid -- he used to be afraid when Dean and their father went off on hunts without him. He says he was scared they would not come back because a vamp, rugaru, or other monster had killed them. However, in the season one episode "Dead Man's Blood", it was revealed that the brothers had no knowledge of the existence of vampires in their youth. In "Metamorphosis" (ep. 4.4), when Sam and Dean are told their case involves a rugaru, Dean comments that the word rugaru "sounds made up", and Sam doesn't indicate that he knew what a rugaru is either.
When Sam is explaining the weird situation they will soon be facing he tells Dean that the girl saw a mutant with green eyes. He shows Dean an article on his laptop where the story of the mutant is explained. In the article it reads the supposed mutant had red eyes, not green. The article also states that it was Kim that was taken and is still missing, yet Sam says otherwise and we see otherwise when Dean is talking to Kim about Libby missing.
When the boys are talking to Etta, they are discussing how her husband (she says it was her 2nd husband) went missing last time these monsters appeared back in 1989. That was 27 years prior, as this episode takes place in 2016, and the story is these monsters show up every 27 years. The actress playing Etta was 41 when this episode aired. This means that 27 years prior, she would have been 14 years old. Was a 14 year old already on her 2nd husband back in 1989 when he went missing?
posted by orange swan at 11:17 AM on January 2, 2022
Dean: Green eyes, buzzing. Weed alone doesn’t conjure up that kind of scenario. Isn’t that right, Sam?
Sam: Dude, I was eighteen.
Dean: Sinner.
Sam: It was college. It was probably oregano anyways.
Dean: Rebel.
Sam: You’re an idiot. Look, I’m coming up empty also. Uh, nothing on Junkless or the green-eyed shaker.
Dean: So we think Junkless turned Libby?
Sam: Hold up. We’re not actually gonna go with “Junkless” on this, are we?
Dean: Eh.
Sam: Dude, that’s a new low, even for us.
Trivia
The beer that Sam & Dean drink with the other hunters is called "Elly's Brew" which is a nod to The Blair Witch Project whose director, Eduardo Sanchez, also directed this episode. Eduardo Sanchez also directed Lovely Molly.
Sam tells Dean that sitting is the new smoking. This episode was made around the start of the sitting-is-evil fad. At first, sitting more than three hours a day was said to shorten your life by 0.2 years. Then it was sitting more than two hours a day shortened your life by 2.0 years. Then it was said that every hour sitting over two hours a day shortened your life by 20 minutes (which would easily add up to losing 6 years of life expectancy by retirement age).
The frequency of attacks mentioned in the episode, 27 years, is the same frequency as Stephen King's monster clown Pennywise from It.
When in the mine, Dean says he has about 5 gallons of gas back at the car... When we see him at the car, he's pulling a 5 litre gas can out, which is 1.3 gallons.
At the end of the episode, Sam tells Dean that -- as a kid -- he used to be afraid when Dean and their father went off on hunts without him. He says he was scared they would not come back because a vamp, rugaru, or other monster had killed them. However, in the season one episode "Dead Man's Blood", it was revealed that the brothers had no knowledge of the existence of vampires in their youth. In "Metamorphosis" (ep. 4.4), when Sam and Dean are told their case involves a rugaru, Dean comments that the word rugaru "sounds made up", and Sam doesn't indicate that he knew what a rugaru is either.
When Sam is explaining the weird situation they will soon be facing he tells Dean that the girl saw a mutant with green eyes. He shows Dean an article on his laptop where the story of the mutant is explained. In the article it reads the supposed mutant had red eyes, not green. The article also states that it was Kim that was taken and is still missing, yet Sam says otherwise and we see otherwise when Dean is talking to Kim about Libby missing.
When the boys are talking to Etta, they are discussing how her husband (she says it was her 2nd husband) went missing last time these monsters appeared back in 1989. That was 27 years prior, as this episode takes place in 2016, and the story is these monsters show up every 27 years. The actress playing Etta was 41 when this episode aired. This means that 27 years prior, she would have been 14 years old. Was a 14 year old already on her 2nd husband back in 1989 when he went missing?
posted by orange swan at 11:17 AM on January 2, 2022
I think this is the only time in the whole series that we see hunters deciding that they've achieved what they set out to do and that they're going to retire and live their lives. Can't blame Sam and Dean for not wanting to mess with that. An ordinary pair of hunters wouldn't be likely to be able to help so much with the Amara/Lucifer situation anyway -- and Sam and Dean do know other hunters who are still in the game.
It was nice to see a pair of gay hunters represented without any issue being made of the fact that they were gay. Sam even asks them what it's like to hunt with your life partner, which I think is a nice subtle sign of the way his thoughts may be trending, given that he has recently met a very attractive female hunter to whom he has given his number and an invitation to, "Feel free to drop a line if you ever need anything... or even if you just want to hang out."
It was pretty judgy of Dean to give Sam a hard time about what seems to have been experimental and short-lived, or even just one-time, pot use.
posted by orange swan at 11:34 AM on January 2, 2022
It was nice to see a pair of gay hunters represented without any issue being made of the fact that they were gay. Sam even asks them what it's like to hunt with your life partner, which I think is a nice subtle sign of the way his thoughts may be trending, given that he has recently met a very attractive female hunter to whom he has given his number and an invitation to, "Feel free to drop a line if you ever need anything... or even if you just want to hang out."
It was pretty judgy of Dean to give Sam a hard time about what seems to have been experimental and short-lived, or even just one-time, pot use.
posted by orange swan at 11:34 AM on January 2, 2022
“Late season cicada sex monster episode” does not sound particularly auspicious going in, but I liked this one quite a bit.
“We heard you were dead” is probably the Winchesters’ absolute best case scenario reaction when encountering new hunters at this point, but it’s nice they made friends, especially friends who don’t die within three days of meeting them.
I don’t know that it’s technically new information at this point, but Sam growing up waiting alone in motel rooms, planning what he’d do if his family died and never came back for him, explains kind of a lot about him as a person.
Dean can admit revenge won’t fix you, but he can’t say it doesn’t feel awesome.
posted by jameaterblues at 10:53 PM on February 5, 2022
“We heard you were dead” is probably the Winchesters’ absolute best case scenario reaction when encountering new hunters at this point, but it’s nice they made friends, especially friends who don’t die within three days of meeting them.
I don’t know that it’s technically new information at this point, but Sam growing up waiting alone in motel rooms, planning what he’d do if his family died and never came back for him, explains kind of a lot about him as a person.
Dean can admit revenge won’t fix you, but he can’t say it doesn’t feel awesome.
posted by jameaterblues at 10:53 PM on February 5, 2022
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These hunters represent the possibility of a happy ending for Sam and Dean, where they might settle into a normal life. Literally every role model in their lives and every hunter friend has suffered in the end, so it's about time they have a little hope.
(The exception being Jody Mills, but she was never a true hunter and has deliberately tried avoiding that lifestyle. Plus she lost her husband and kid, so there's that.)
posted by 2ht at 5:48 PM on May 2, 2016