As a longtime Supernatural fan, it can sometimes be easy to take certain episodes for granted, especially the early ones. Season 1’s focus on monster-of-the-week tales makes nearly every episode feel as if it stands alone.
While that’s great when it comes to revisiting an episode or two, I’ve found that sometimes the paranormal procedural can still shock me, even after having seen these episodes countless times. But it was the Winchester brothers’ journey to an abandoned mental asylum in Season 1’s aptly titled “Asylum” that really pushed me over the edge. This one hits a little differently after watching Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) for 15 seasons, and here’s why.
‘Supernatural’s “Asylum” First Brings Out Sam Winchester’s Dark Side
The thing about “Asylum” is that it’s a classic ghost story. Despite being Season 1’s mid-season finale, there’s nothing terribly novel about the brother’s latest case, nor does the episode — the last 30 seconds aside — contribute much to the overall “we need to find dad” plot apart from Sam’s frustrations with their father. It truly stands alone as a character study about how Sam and Dean, in one of their earliest adventures, struggle to work together to battle evil. If only it were that simple. But considering that we know how Supernatural ultimately ends, revisiting episodes such as this only serve to reinforce where the Winchesters are going, and that gives it a little more “umph” than before.
“Asylum” sends Sam and Dean to Rockford, Illinois, which is actually not far from my own Illinois hometown. (We had a very different urban legend in my hometown, but “Asylum” is a bit more chilling when I consider that it took place so close to home.) While there, they investigate an abandoned mental facility after an off-duty police officer randomly shoots his wife and then himself. Having first visited the asylum that night, the officer was attacked by the vengeful spirit of Sanford Ellicott (Norman Armour), who, in life, had tormented his patients with radical treatments and experiments. In the afterlife, he continues to do the same with the living. While investigating, Sam and Dean are eventually separated, with the younger Winchester captured and infected by the same ghost they sought to put to rest. And this is where I think things get especially interesting, as Sam (who is very much the main lead of the show’s formative years) is overcome with anger, rage, and even homicidal tendencies.
Later seasons would see Sam go “Dark Side” due to demonic influence, but back in Season 1, Supernatural presents him as an innocent victim of spiritual mind control. Of course, he’s unknowingly a victim of the Yellow-Eyed Demon as well, but, as the show progressed, he would continue to make darker choices well into the sixth season (darn that Soulless Sam). Though it’s not really his fault in “Asylum,” the episode hints for the first time at what Sam could be if he were to give in to his darker side. His anger and his frustration boil to the surface because he cannot stand what his life has come to. He’s angry with Dean for always following their father’s orders, he’s angry at John (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) for not being there with them, and he’s angry at himself for letting Jessica (Adrianne Palicki) down nine episodes prior. If he weren’t so homicidal, it would be really tragic.
“Asylum” Hints at a Darker Truth Sam Won’t Admit to Dean for Years
But where this Supernatural episode takes a truly compelling turn is when Sam, in his altered state, tries to kill his brother. Actually, he doesn’t just try once, he tries a few times. Having taken a firearm from Dean, Sam decides to kill him. The problem is, there are no bullets in the gun. Dean, wisely, had ensured that Sam couldn’t kill him, even though he seemingly wanted to. But why? I think the later seasons of this show actually give us a clue, and, in turn, “Asylum” gives us a greater context to understand the show’s later years. You see, near the end of the series in Season 15’s “Atomic Monsters,” Sam admits to Dean that he thinks about Jessica all the time. It’s a small comment, but it retroactively puts a lot of Sam’s character arc into perspective.
If Dean hadn’t come to Standford to get Sam and find their father, Jessica may not have been killed. Of course, we know it was Lucifer’s (Mark Pellegrino) plan to kill her at some point in order to lure Sam to him, but Sam doesn’t know that here in Season 1. In his mind, he failed to protect her, and, perhaps in some warped way, Dean is who he holds responsible. He is, after all, the one who pulled him from his normal life back into the hunting realm he fought tooth-and-nail to leave behind. In fact, in this very episode, when asked by local girl Kat (Brooke Nevin) how he even ended up hunting ghosts professionally, Sam responds by saying he had “a crappy guidance counselor.” Kat wonders why anyone would ever want this job, and we can see the agreement behind Sam’s eyes.
Sam’s decision earlier in the episode to open up to Dr. James Ellicott (James Purcell) about his relationship with Dean is interesting too. We know from future seasons that Sam wrestles with his brother’s approval, partially because he really doesn’t want to live the hunting life forever. Season 8’s “Sacrifice” ends with Sam confessing all the times he has let his brother down. But how does he let Dean down? By leaving the family business. That’s what he does prior to the series before Dean pulls him back in, and he leaves it again between the seventh and eighth seasons when he believes Dean is dead. For Sam, his brother’s approval can be crippling, and here we see that the pressure (mixed with intense grief) is too much for him.
This ‘Supernatural’ Episode Foreshadows the Winchesters’ Ultimate Fate
It’s because of episodes like “Asylum” that the controversial ending of Supernatural makes perfect sense. Although Sam, at different times, accepted the hunting life, he inevitably always returns to a position of discontentment with it. We see glimpses of that here, which only whisper hints at how “Carry On” would end. It’s no wonder that the series finale is actor Jared Padalecki’s favorite episode, because when Supernatural first began, all Sam wanted was to live a normal life apart from hunting. (Dean, on the other hand, gets a much more fitting ending in The Winchesters.) Sadly, Sam could never manage to do that while his brother was alive, and maybe that’s why, deep down, he tries to kill Dean here. Of course, Sam apologizes for his actions at the end of the episode, and tells his brother that he didn’t mean it, but Dean doesn’t buy it. And neither do I.
More likely, this dark impulse (something everyone is capable of), was simply a result of Sam’s subconscious struggles in associating Dean (his “guidance counselor”) with his hatred for the job. Sam is an excellent hunter, and grows to be an even better one by the show’s end, but it was never his intention in life. Dean’s entire life is hunting, but episodes like Season 5’s “Dark Side of the Moon” reveal that Sam craves normalcy. While “Asylum” isn’t the first episode of Season 1 to hint at that, it does so in a profound and heartbreaking way when we see Sam first struggle to open up about what he really wants, and then go overboard under the ghostly influence by nearly killing his brother to attain it.
When Dean eventually does die in Season 15, Sam learns to move on without him. He settles down, buys a house, and has a family of his own. He does all of that because without Dean, hunting doesn’t mean anything. Sam doesn’t see hunting as his calling, but rather his burden. Thus, Dean’s death opens the door for something new. There’s a compelling parallel in the fact that Dean’s only confirmed child was a monster who Sam was forced to kill (thus representing how Dean cannot escape the hunting life, but Sam can), and Sam’s was a young man named after Dean who was only born after Sam left the family business behind. Love the series finale or hate it, Supernatural hinted at the end way back in its first season. Whether that was intentional or not (though definitely not considering Eric Kripke intended Season 5 to wrap things up), “Asylum” is a moving exploration of Sam Winchester’s internal dialogue, which remains relatively consistent throughout the show.
Source: collider.com