Things I Love About SPN Season 1: Faith #1
Supernatural, Season 1
Episode 12, “Faith”
Written by Sera Gamble and Raelle Tucker
Directed by Allan Kroeker
Warning: image heavy post.
This episode marked another major turning point for the show, both dramatically and for many viewers. “Faith” quickly established itself as a fan favourite, and Eric Kripke himself named it as his favourite episode from the first season.
"It's when I first realized what the show was capable of,” he said. “Is there a god? What's meant to be? And is there free will? And is your life worth the cost of someone else's life? It's a metaphysical and moral study of the boys' universe.”
From Nicholas Knight’s Supernatural: The Official Companion Season 1
For those still sitting on the fence about the series, this episode would see them finally and thoroughly hooked and ensure that they were committed for the long haul. While the metaphysical and moral elements Kripke mentions certainly played their part in that, for many the ingredient that turned casual viewing into obsession distilled down to something much more personal:
And so, it begins.
Right off the bat the opening stands out as something different from the usual formula as the scene opens on a dark, creepy, rundown house and almost immediately we hear the now familiar rumble of the Impala’s engine.
Sure enough, the car appears round a corner and we soon discover that we’re coming in right in the middle of the action with the boys already engaged in a hunt.
Popping the trunk, they get all up into the weapons cache and we get a lovely shot of all the hunting paraphernalia as Dean props open the lid with a shotgun - another action that will become fondly familiar.
DEAN removes two tasers.
SAM
What you got those amped up to?
DEAN
A hundred thousand volts.
SAM
Damn.
DEAN
Yeah, I want this rawhead extra frickin' crispy.
And remember, you only get one shot with these things. So, make it count.
http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/1.12_Faith_(transcript)
A rawhead, we soon learn, is a monster that specializes in preying on children, so Dean’s intense motivation is consistent with the soft spot for children we saw in “Dead in the Water” (also penned by Gamble and Tucker, incidentally). Without the viewer requiring any understanding of voltage, the clever dialog economically conveys - just from Sam’s single word reaction - that the taser’s charge is exceptionally lethal.
That may be an important detail . . .
As the boys enter the house and make their way down to the basement, we see them descending yet another staircase. As I mentioned in my review of “Scarecrow”, this recurring trope symbolizes their continual journey ever deeper into the underworld.
The closeness of the walls in this scene also evokes the visual impression of a tunnel. Since tunnels were an important symbol in “Wendigo”, I think it’s worth repeating the quotation I referred to in my review of that episode:
Tunnels make frequent appearances in literature, serving as symbolic representations of journeys and passages . . . The ideas that a tunnel represents in one piece may be completely different than the meaning of tunnels in another’s work. However, one common association of a tunnel is a journey from one place to another, both physically and symbolically -- for example, from a place of darkness and doubt to a place of light and confidence . . . At the end of every tunnel is the other side, often bursting with light and hope . . . It is the contrast of the tunnel’s darkness that gives light its power and resonance. Light has long been a symbol of good, hope and God . . . While tunnels certainly represent journeys, they more often symbolize the passage from one phase of life to another. In its most primal meaning, the tunnel symbolizes the birth canal . . . director, Stephen Chbosky, said that “the tunnel scene is a symbolic rebirth, whether people look at it as a spiritual rebirth or a coming of age.”
https://penandthepad.com/symbolism-tunnels-literature-2346.html
It's fair to assume that we’re going to see the boys undergo a transformation as a consequence of the events in this scene but once again, as was the case in “Wendigo”, while we see them enter the tunnel we never actually witness them leaving it. The show repeatedly shows the characters descending stairs, entering tunnels; but the corresponding actions of ascent, return to the light - those images that would normally symbolize hope and the outward journey - are continually withheld. The visual impression is of a journey that is always only inward, downward, deeper, darker.
There are a couple of other parallels with “Wendigo”: when the brothers find children hiding in a cupboard, Sam is given the responsibility of getting the victims to safety while Dean confronts the monster but, once again, it is Sam who is attacked, and Dean has to save him and his charges.
Dean fires his taser but doesn’t kill the rawhead, nevertheless he buys Sam time to get out with the children. Left alone with the monster and the last working taser, he finds himself backed into a flooded space with the creature bearing down on him and he fires while they’re both in the water, which may not be the smartest thing he’s ever done but maybe it was his only option. He kills the rawhead. Yay! But the earlier exposition about the 100,000 volt charge is suddenly very pertinent!
(Mind you, I’d have thought a current carrying 100,000 volts would have killed him outright and fried his own insides extra frickin’ crispy but, hey, I’m not an electrician.)
On discovering Dean’s body, Sam responds in a manner that will become all too familiar . . .
Tears stand out in Sam’s eyes when a doctor explains that the electrocution triggered a massive heart attack and there’s nothing to be done. He gives Dean a couple of weeks. To be honest, I was always surprised that the option of a heart transplant wasn’t discussed, if only to be ruled out. I would have thought that a young, fit man with an otherwise healthy heart that was damaged by accident would be an obvious candidate. I guess explaining why it might not be possible just would have taken up too much airtime. Maybe the lack of medical insurance on file had something to do with it.
“We can’t work miracles,” says the doctor.
But Sam’s tight jawed expression seems to say, “Screw you. If you can’t, I will.”
Another thing I appreciated about season 1 is that, when characters were injured or dying, they looked like they were injured or dying. Dean puts on a brave face, though, bitching about daytime TV and threatening to hunt down the Snuggle teddy. (I’m with Dean on this one. That bear needs to be ganked!) He says if Sam doesn’t take care of the Impala, he’ll haunt his ass.
Sam isn’t amused, but Dean insists it’s a little funny. He seems to get through the toughest situations by somehow finding humour in them. “It’s a little funny” was a stock phrase right up until he went to Hell. Sadly, I don’t recall him saying it again after that.
However, one positive thing we can find in this situation is
an opportunity to count the freckles on Dean’s nose 😊
Sam insists they still have options but Dean retorts, “what options? We got burial or cremation”. Ironically, in later seasons, Sam gains the reputation of being the fatalist of the pair, but here he is shocked and dismayed at Dean’s resignation.
(This was the only episode directed by Kroeker, which is a pity since his visuals were perfect.
He had wonderful grasp of Supernatual's dark and gritty tone)
Dean tries to persuade his brother to accept the inevitable: “I’m going to die, and you can’t stop it”. But Sam is determined.
Remember those shots in the Pilot where we were shown John’s research wall?
On that wall were hints of several themes that would come to dominate the show, including a reference to the Danse Mortis (Dance of Death) ominously marked with a circled “1”. We don’t know it yet, but the dance has begun, and it starts here with Sam’s refusal to accept Dean’s imminent demise. From here on in the brothers join hands and lead each other in an increasingly destructive waltz that pivots around their mutual inability to come to terms with one simple, painful fact of life: everybody dies.
I hope you've enjoyed this review of "Faith" so far. As always, I look forward to hearing all your thoughts and impressions of the episode. Please click here to continue to the next slice of the pie.
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