Baby’s Rear View Recap: 11.17 “Red Meat”

This post is about Supernatural season 11 episode 17, “Red Meat,” written by Robert Berens and Andrew Dabb and directed by Nina Lopez-Corrado.

****Spoilers below****

This episode opens on Sam and Dean, and is the only episode to ever do so (as far as I remember.) It shows us a cabin in the woods and then jumps right into the action, plunging us into a fight between Sam and Dean on one side and two growling monsters on the other. In the background are two victims tied up, a man and a woman. Sam and Dean are both kicking butt until one of the monsters grabs the gun Sam dropped earlier. He shoots and hits Sam, who falls to the floor as Dean stabs the other monster and looks on. This is also the only opener I can remember that doesn’t have any words, and it sets a dark and serious tone for the entire episode.

“I mean, this is a case. Let's do what we do. Let's work it.”

After the title card, we jump back to 48 hours earlier. Sam and Dean are safe in the bunker, and Sam has found a case to work. Werewolves. As usual, Dean doesn’t want to go—he wants to focus on Cas. But Sam thinks it’ll be good for them, and by the way Dean looks, he really needs something.

“Yeah, that's 'cause they were probably purebloods. And they can change any time. Any time they want.”

Skipping back to the future, Dean kneels in front of Sam to remove the bullet. Sam motions to the other victims, but Dean just works faster. Once the bullet is out, he leaves Sam to bandage himself while he moves on to the female victim at the male victim’s urging. But there are others coming, and the group has to move on—and fast.

“Yeah, well, we're running out of things to interrogate, unless you want to go outside, start talking to the trees.”

Back in the past, Sam and Dean ask questions at a bar. The bartender tells them to check the cabins nearby, and they leave while the bartender exchanges a suspicious look with a burly man by the door. (This is at once both foreshadowing and backstory—nifty.)

“I'm gonna come back for you, okay? I promise.”

Now we’re in the present/future again. The four struggle into a second cabin to take a rest. The male victim is starting to get antsy, and suggests that they leave Sam behind and keep moving. Dean wants to pick a fight but Sam urges him to listen. Dean refuses to leave and goes out to build Sam a litter. While Dean’s struggling outside, the man smothers Sam, hoping that Dean will leave if his brother is dead. The camera flashes on a werewolf bite on the man’s arm before focusing in on Sam as he takes his last breath. Dean rushes back inside when he sees car lights and is devastated by what he finds. Dean wants to stay and fight the werewolves, but the man convinces him to leave and save them instead. As they rush through the woods, the car follows them; it’s the bartender and the big man from earlier.

“You know, we always talk about taking a break, going camping. This could be like camping. It could be fun.”

“Yeah, which part? Hmm? Freezing our nuts off in the middle of the woods on a thin lead?”

“Yeah, that part.”

Back in the past, Sam and Dean talk as they get ready to head from their car to the cabin. Sam explains that it’s a four mile hike from the car to the cabins.

“I got to get back to my car, back to my brother.”

In the future/present, day is breaking when Dean flags down a car. It’s a police officer, which at first seems like a lucky break. Dean hands the victims over and turns to leave. But then the officer wants to ask questions, and Dean just wants to get back to his brother. When the officer moves to stop him, Dean hits him in the face. Unfortunately, he can’t get away before the officer tazes him from behind.

“I need to talk to a -- Well, I wouldn't call it a friend, more like a scary, crazy death machine.”

Dean wakes up in the urgent care and the doctor tells him he has broken ribs and a concussion. Meanwhile, the male victim tells the police officer the story (leaving out his hand in Sam’s death, of course). Michelle is disgusted by her husband’s lack of remorse and gives him the literal cold shoulder. The doctor comes in to check on the man, and when she asks him about the bite on his arm, he tells her he feels good. While this is going on, Michelle goes to check on Dean. She apologizes about Sam, but doesn’t tell the truth about her husband. When she tries to comfort Dean by telling him death is not the end, Dean gets an idea. The two head to a supply room where Dean explains that if he dies, he can talk to someone who may be able to bring Sam back to life. Michelle agrees to help, and Dean searches for something with barbital in the name.

“After I do this, go get the doc and tell her to, um Tell her to bring me back, if she can. If not no hard feelings, okay?”

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, Sam wakes up. Turns out he wasn’t dead after all. But Dean doesn’t know that, and he takes the pills. To make matters worse, the werewolves have come back to the cabin where Sam is. Hearing their car, he struggles into the basement to hide. Meanwhile Dean seizes on the floor and Michelle’s husband begins to transform.

“I'm not here to bargain with you, kid. I'm here to reap you.”

Dead!Dean tries to strike a deal with Billie by bringing up Amara, but Billie sees through him. Plus, she just wants them to die. Dean begs her to help him, and she delights in telling him that Sam’s not dead. Luckily, before Dean can be reaped, the doctor manages to revive him.

“It took you long enough.”

Back at the cabin, the big werewolf has made it down to the basement; Sam jumps out of hiding at the last minute to ambush him, and when the werewolf falls, the head werewolf lady follows him into the basement. We hear a knife and a thump, and then Sam emerges, clutching his stomach. He takes the werewolves’ truck and drives it back to the impala, where he pauses to call Dean. Dean tells him he’s at the urgent care, and Sam tries to warn Dean about Corbin (Michelle’s husband). Meanwhile, the doctor goes to check on Corbin, who is screaming and smashing things in his room. Corbin attacks the doctor and Michelle and the sheriff rush to help. Corbin kills the sheriff and tells Michelle he wants to turn her. Michelle runs while Dean tackles Corbin. The two struggle and Corbin gets the upper hand. Just as Corbin is choking Dean to death, Sam shows up and shoots Corbin from behind.

“They said I could leave an hour ago. But where am I even supposed to go? After everything we survived together I watched the man I love die. There's no normal after that.”

Dean and Michelle talk. It turns out that Corbin’s actions put Sam’s body into shock, but he recovered and he’ll be okay. Dean and Sam leave the urgent care, and Sam asks Dean what he did when he thought Sam was dead. Dean says he knew that Sam wasn’t dead, and the two head back home.

Questions:

Is that really what happens when someone gets shot? I always wonder this, but I’ve heard people complaining about it in reference to this episode. I think it’s possible that any differences could be explained by the fact that it’s a silver bullet, not a normal one. Hence why it didn’t splinter, didn’t exit, didn’t kill him, etc. But I’m no expert.

Why would Dean even try to build a litter if they’re in that big of a hurry? He could have just carried him. I mean, I guess that would be tough on the broken ribs, but I feel like it’s unwise to stop to build a litter when you’re being chased.

Why couldn’t they drive the impala up to the cabins? Or at least a little closer. There was obviously a road if the werewolves’ truck could get up there, they didn’t have to park four miles away.

Did the doctor tell Sam what Dean did? She must have. In fact, I find it odd that she released Dean at all—if I were her I probably would have referred him to a mental health institution at least.

Conclusions:

I personally love this episode, and was really looking forward to seeing it again. I am all about the feelings, and there were a lot of those in this one. The acting was just great, and I loved all the quiet moments where Dean had time to just react to what was going on. Not much happened in this episode but that was a good thing. Like I said, I prefer just to watch the boys react—and I needed to have time to react myself as well. The whole episode was a lot to digest, and it really benefited from the drawn-out pace they chose.

For me, so much of this episode was heartbreaking. There was very little humor, and even the jokes they made were marked with fatigue and sadness. But even though this episode had a very different feel than normal, I still felt like it was true to Sam and Dean. There is a lot of sadness in their lives, and sometimes we need to see them feel it.

The jumping between times, while hard to write about coherently, worked well enough in the episode. Not quite as seamless as in “Safe House,” but not poorly done, either. I liked the mechanic overall, because it added to the tension of the episode, and made the exposition intense instead of boring.

The one thing that kind of bugged me in this episode was actually the music; the dramatic swells that they usually use were honestly a bit much here. Even cheesy in some spots. The mood was already so intense that it really didn’t need the intense music; and actually, I felt the best moments were those that were nearly silent.

All in all, a really moving episode. I loved where they took Dean, even though (and probably especially because) it was painful. And as much as I wanted him and Sam to talk about what happened in the end, I think it probably much more in-character to have happened the way it did. I personally felt I needed a debriefing to process my emotions after everything that had happened—and maybe because I didn’t get it in-episode, this ended up being one of the episodes that stuck in my mind most after viewing this season.