Supernatural Talk

Tarts talk about 9.05: Dog Dean Afternoon

By Suzette Chan
January 6, 2014

Welcome to Supernatural Talk, where Tarts talk about Supernatural, their favourite show about demon-hunting brothers. This week: 9.05: "Dog Dean Afternoon."

Sam and Dean investigate two weird murders that involve animals. When they realize the only witness to both instances is a guard dog, Sam and Dean get Kevin's help to identify a spell that lets them communicate with the dog. Fearing for Sam's health, Dean volunteers to take the serum so that he can can talk to the animals.

He learns that a chef named Leo tried to cure his cancer using shamanism and found that he could gain animalistic superpowers by eating their organs. Later, the chef corners Sam and cuts his throat. When he sees how quickly Sam heals, he vows to make Sam his next meal. Dean gets there in time to save Sam and capture the chef.

What was this week's monster?

Suzette Chan, Features Editrix: The shorthand answer is "shaman," but the show was fairly clear in presenting Chef Leo as a human with a low, although strong, motivation to abuse shamanistic methods.

In many folkloric traditions, shamanism is about reaching a state of transcendence, usually by meditation. This episode focuses on a more mechanistic tradition in which power or energy can be transferred from one living being to another by means of ingestion, for example, of a warrior's heart or the body of Christ. (The Catholic tradition of transubstantiation, which can be traced to words attributed to Jesus in John 6:5-18: "This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.")

This emphasis on the physical puts Leo's actions on the same plane as the medical treatments he sought for a physical condition. Shamanism is just another treatment for him. Leo's appropriation of shamanism may be culturally insensitive, but Dean takes offence at Leo dabbling with the supernatural at all. In a sense, Chef Leo is doubly villianous.

Katherine Keller, Culture Vultures Editrix: Chef Leo was the MOTW, but I'll have to agree with Suzette that Leo's not understanding what shamanistic practices are, what they do, and how they are meant to be used is a part of what made him a villain.

The fact that Sam and Dean have some sympathy for him and his plight helps us realize that Leo wasn't inherently evil, but rather just an ordinary person (like most viewers) who had been twisted by adverse circumstances into a monster, and there but for the grace of ....

Anita Olin, Staff Writer: Chef Leo completely debased and abused shamanism, and he was willing to eat people. That's pretty screwed up.

How did the episode relate to the season?

Suzette: Leo talks about cancer as if it were a sentient entity that is determined to invade and take over his body: "Cancer always came back." This is such a common way to talk about cancer that it slides by innocuously. However, in the context of the show, Leo's attitude toward cancer calls attention to the sentient entity that's taken up residence in Sam's body: Ezekiel.

We talk about cancer being opportunistic: it consumes its host body, leaving no benefit for the host. Is Ezekiel opportunistic? Ezekiel tells Dean that his possession of Sam is symbiotic, that he can heal Sam's body while being protected by Sam's body. Ezekiel has promised to vacate Sam after they reach full strength, but Ezekiel would also have repaired the most powerful angel vessel on Earth. Dean has no guarantees that Ezekiel will keep his word, and, so far, no means of forcing Ezekiel to leave Sam's body.

Katherine: "He was possessed by something he couldn't control."

This episode has only a roundabout link to the ongoing thread of the season, and that is via the metaphor (explained by Suzette) of Ezekiel's occupation of Sam's body. And, though Dean has no way of forcing Ezekiel to leave Sam's body, should Sam ever find out that he's been duped into consenting to angelic possession, he can expel Ezekiel ... though that might have dire consequences for him, given the burnt out shells of humans that some angels have left behind. (Then again, those humans were not as strong as Sam.)

And, once again, we saw Dean having to lie to Sam about what's really going on with him.

Anita: I agree with the thoughts that Leo's cancer reflect Sam's hitchhiking angel. Whereas Leo knows about his cancer and no one else did, it seems like everyone knows there's "something wrong" with Sam, except for Sam -- although he's getting suspicious.

How did it fit into the Supernatural universe?

Suzette: Chef Leo valued self-preservation over all others' right to existence, placing him high on the evil meter. On Supernatural, almost every creature -- from monsters to angels to humans -- can choose active evil or a low-profile existence that does not harm humans. For example, Benny and Lenore were "good" vampires who did not feed on people. Luther (the coven leader in 1.20 "Dead Man's Blood") and the Alpha vampire are "evil." Sam and Dean have learned to differentiate and treat individuals accordingly. (The one exception to this was Amy, the kitsune who did everything she could to minimize the effects of her existence on the human world. Dean's attitude toward her was so irrational, it seemed to be more of a matter of battling for Sam's then recently recovered soul.) In this context, Leo's interest in "combination therapy" was interesting. He can't really be faulted for getting creative to find a cure for cancer. But he can be taken to task for proceeding without any morals or wisdom. These are human failings, but he becomes a monster because of them.

About the more humorous storyline, we had a hint that animals could talk. Castiel interrogated a cat in 8.08 "Hunteri Heroici." I wonder if Castiel knows why dogs were put on Earth?

Katherine: In Chef Leo's case his abusive use of shamanistic rites is part of a larger ongoing theme within the Supernaturalverse of people dabbling in the supernatural and not approaching it as something that needs to be taken seriously because it has such major consequences. (Think of all the pacts made with demons.) "He was possessed by something he couldn't control," is putting it lightly. Leo's misuse of shamanistic rituals ultimately consumed and killed him, just the way his cancer would have.

Anita: Dean acted rashly in consuming a potion without knowing the side effects, how long it would last, etc. It's typical Dean behavior of jumping in up to his neck first and figuring it out later -- which is what he's done with Ezekiel, too. The magic employed in this episode was not well understood by those who used it, but Dean's lesser spell left him unscathed, where Leo's major magic didn't.

What were the highlights for the characters?

Suzette: We saw how far into protective mode Dean has gotten. At first, he didn't even want Sam to leave the bunker. Later, he wouldn't allow Sam to try the potion, claiming that Sam has a weak stomach. It was very appropriate that the animal that Dean mind-melded with was a German Shepard. While Dean felt his father trained him to be an attack dog, Dean has been a vigilant guard dog for Sam.

Meanwhile, Sam is convinced there is something "off," but hasn't gotten close enough to even suspect Dean of anything. Still, Dean was being overprotective, even for Dean. That might have triggered some warning bells, but Sam has gone into full-on geek mode, now that he has an entire library at his disposal.

Katherine: I enjoyed Sam's vast amusement at Dog-Dean.

And, yes, Dean really will do just about anything for his brother, including drinking nasty potions. I have to say that Jensen Ackles really did a great job of spinning straw into gold.

Anita: Dog-Dean was pretty damned funny. His absent-minded retrieval of the trash Sam kept tossing out was well played and hilarious, as was Sam's reaction.

Sam won't be so amused later.

What other observations did you have?

Suzette: Jensen Ackles was incredible as Dean's thoughts became more dog-like. Involuntarily playing fetch with Sam was amusing. Barking at the mailman was illuminating (so that's what dogs are saying when they bark at posties!). But Dean quoting Scooby-Doo's line "Ruh-roh" was classic.

There was a nice little loop when Dean freed the dogs who would later become his pack. Written by Eric Carmelo and Nicole Snyder, this episode was directed by Tim Andrews, who would know a thing or two about packs from his directing assignments on Teen Wolf.

Speaking of direction, props to Andrews for directing all the dogs. Jared Padalecki tweeted that the dog who played the Colonel was, shall we say, limited as an actor. Andrews never let that on.

The guest cast included a couple of great and experienced voice actors (Al Rodrigo and Leslie Jordan), but the dog voices stood out too far from the rest of the dialogue. I'm not sure if this might have been different with different sound or direction.

Katherine: I really wanted to like this episode, but honestly, I felt it was trying too hard. The opening montage, I think, partly set it up for failure by being a highlight reel of the classic funny episodes of the series. I felt as if we were being told that this was going to be a funny episode instead of letting us discover that for ourselves. Perhaps that's part of why this episode didn't feel as funny as it should have been.

Also, since Charlie episodes are always very funny, it seemed strange having two back-to-back comedy episodes; this episode seems out of place and undercut a lot of the momentum the season was building.

Oklahoma does not have mountains like that. The wide shot of the Diamond Pines motel with the steep mountain slope behind it really threw me out of the story.

I agree with Suzette that the animal voices weren't that good, despite being done by veteran actors. They just didn't fit the animals they came from that much and sounded too much like people trying to speak in different voices and / or imitate someone as opposed to actual voices. I can't think of a graceful way to say it -- the voices were trying too hard.

Pun aside, the title of the episode is a take on the classic movie Dog Day Afternoon which as a very serious and dark hostage-crime-love drama couldn't be anything less like this episode.

That said, I did find some humor in this episode --

Dean: "Always knew I'd find the source of all evil at a vegan bakery."

Sam: "What's that smell?"

Dean: "Patchouli mixed with depression from chronic meat deprivation."

My husband's a vegan and I always find the stereotypes of who's a vegan and why to be funny because they're so damn wrong.

The demanding little Yorkshire Terrier (despite having a completely wrong voice) was hilarious in his demands for belly rubs.

"Bet your ride is going to look sweet in white." I loved the evil pigeon.

"Screw the sharktopus." Oh dear, due to a friend of mine's obsession with bad SyFy movies, I have seen all of the shark+whatever movies. Hours of epic mocking.

And, in the end, I like that the lone big bad wolf was taken down by a pack working together, though Leo's death was pretty grim.

Anita: They really could have gotten some better voice actors for the dogs (I thought the mice were great). There has got to be more than just me who is a fan of Animaniacs, Tiny Toons, Freakazoid, et al., and Supernatural, and it would have been a great way for these shows to collide by using some prime animation voice talent.

That had to be the single most hilarious "Then" montage ever. But yeah, then it made the actual episode seem not as funny as it really was. Don't be a tease, show.

I loved the patchouli crack, just because of where I grew up; it is kind of true there, and I hate patchouli.

Dean pulling his gun on the pigeon and the reactions of everyone around him had me in stitches (could have been an even better "Goodfeathers" moment).

Sam got to drive so Dean could hang his head out the window!

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