“Supernatural” Episode 10.8 – “Hibbing 911;” Starring Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and guest starring Kim Rhodes; Written by Jenny Klein; Directed by Tim Andrew.
We’re back for another Monster of the Week episode, and that’s by no means a complaint. The one-off episodes, thus far, have been the real stars of season ten of “Supernatural.”
A couple familiar faces return for this week’s hunt; Brianna Buckmaster, episode 9.13’s Donna Hanscum is back, and everyone’s favorite county law official Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes) returns. As per usual, an appearance by Sheriff Mills means that poor woman is going to stumble on some chicanery. Again.
Our story commences at what is possibly the rinkiest of dinky Sheriffs’ conventions, being held in a small town in Minnesota. Sheriff Mills is in begrudging attendance and is immediately befriended by Sheriff Hanscum. The duo decides to team up to assist in a case that has left the locals perplexed – some sort of wild animal is devouring people. And also stealing their leather goods. But, you know, “wild animals” do the darndest things.
Sam and Dean are back at the Batcave doing research on the Mark of Cain and coming up empty, so when they get Jody’s call for info they decide to up and road trip it to Hibbing to help out. Turns out they could have stayed at home and continued researching transgenderism in werewolves, because this episode was all about the ladies. And – spoiler – neither of the ladies died! You know what, that deserves more exclamation points. Neither of the ladies died!!!!
The Good:
- Oh my God, thank you thank you for the upheaval in the B.M (it’s officially I thing, I’ve decided). Thank you for disposing of the “YOU’RE NOT OK DEAN” “I’M FINE SAMMY EMOTIONS ARE FOR GIRLS” jive, because it was seriously starting to lose its punch. And thank you for dispensing the moment with simple honesty and a complete lack of melodrama. I know I’ve harped for years about the fine line between “what defines a character” and “what stunts character growth” and tonight that line was tight-roped with finesse. And in addition to being a nice dramatic moment, it was a subtle plot pusher to boot. Dean was able to kill some monsters without hulking out. So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.
The “That One Time ‘Supernatural’ Made Me Do My Homework”:
- I started thinking a lot about “The Weight,” and how I would have held out for maybe a heavier (not even a little sorry) moment to use the lyric “I pulled into Nazareth.” I mean, the show does, on occasion, deal with Heaven and the what not. And then later on, Sheriff Hanscum discovered a clue that lead to an address on Cripple Creek. One shallow wiki-hole later and kmc1138 learned that Bob Dylan, frequent collaborator with The Band, grew up in Hibbing, MN. Well played, Jenny Klein, well played indeed. I’m a bit of a nerd in both the music and trivia fields, so to learn something new while watching a show about handsome dudes that kill monsters is just delightful. And to be prompted to look it up in the first place in such a subtle way is just classy as balls.
Sheriff. Jody. Mills.
- I ain’t even gonna make a weird lead in there. Sheriff Jody Mills deserves a sentence for each word in her name. If you don’t love Jody Mills (and Kim Rhodes, real talk), we should probably just go ahead and break up.
All right, I’m breaking format. Sorry. But let’s have a serious discussion about Jody Mills and the fact that an episode like this could not have happened without her.
I imagine that a short time after the events of “Abandon All Hope (5.10)”, the show runners realized that they had made a pretty big mistake. The show is certainly chock full of manly angst and tends to be very “dude”-centric (I could go on a tangent here about assigned gender expectations but I won’t). Guns, car, fist fights, “no chick flick moments,” you know. Dude stuff. But beyond that – and this isn’t even an assumption or inference, it’s something we as fans explicitly know – it’s really about family and the definition thereof. But they killed off the only maternal character (and no, for this particular point Dean does not count as a maternal figure). Five episodes later, the writers gave us Sheriff Jody in what is easily one of the most tragic and gutting episodes of the entire series. And they decided to keep her around just enough for Sam and Dean to know that there is a woman out there who loves them, and will help take care of them to the best of her abilities. She chastises and reprimands, but also offers homemade chowder and hugs. OK maybe not literal hugs but that’s totally OK.
And Jody Mills got powerful. Always a woman of authority, she quickly and tragically learned about all the things that go bump at night. And then she learned how to kill them and protect her charges. But I think what made Jody Mills the most important woman on the show was that we’re given the opportunity to know her beyond a supernatural or a Winchester element. Sure, her episodes are driven by Winchesterian events, but she’s given development beyond how she can help Sam and Dean. A fact that was perfectly exemplified by tonight’s episode, in which the brothers were actually her sidekicks. We know her history, her losses, and how she chooses to make the world better. Jody Mills watched her zombie son eat her husband and she still gets out of bed every day fixin’ to make the world better.
And in “Hibbing 911,” Mills made a friend. Sheriff Branscum might not be strong in the same way as Jody, but she’s smart, she’s good at her job, and she can behead a vampire in one swing. All important qualities. Donna and Jody formed a nice little balance; where Jody is abrupt and concise, Donna is friendly and chatty. On the flip side, where Donna is a sweet pushover, Jody will kick you right in the balls. The actresses worked well together with great timing and chemis-
Wait. Wait just one minute. Did “Supernatural” just pass the Bechdel Test?!!?
Well that’s all I have to say. Review over. Ten years in, and we can still get firsts. I will admit to a slight sadness that this took ten years, but such an important milestone certainly marks an important episode in “Supernatural” lore. I’m pleased it was done in such a well written way.
If I’m wrong, and in fact there has been a Bechdel-passing moment before, please call me out on it in the comments! And if you have time, hop over to Kim Rhodes’s blog – she’s absolutely the kind of woman I look up to.