Supernatural Season 1, Episode 3 “Dead In The Water”
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The mysterious drowning of 18 year old varsity swimmer Sophie Carlton in Lake Manitoc draws the Winchester brothers to a small town in Wisconsin. There have been a series of unexplained drownings over the past 35 years and Dean wants to investigate.
Posing as wildlife officers, they find out from the sheriff that the lake is slowly draining due to a leak in the dam. He assumes that once the lake is empty, the bodies will be found.
Sam and Dean also meet the sheriff’s daughter and grandson, Andrea and Lucas.
Andrea’s husband was one of the most recent victims of the lake. Their son Lucas was a witness to the incident. As a result, Lucas is now non-verbal, possibly from the trauma of witnessing his father’s death.
Dean feels a connection to Lucas. At one point when they are alone he shares with Lucas that he knows what it is like to see things that don’t make sense. Lucas draws Dean a picture of a house.
The next victim.
Later that night, Will Carlton, Sophie’s brother, is drowned in the kitchen sink. An unseen force dragged his head under the water and held him there. Sam and Dean conclude that there is a spirit in the lake that is taking revenge on people in the small town. They assume that Sophie and Will’s father, Bill, has a direct connection to the spirit. With the lake draining, time is running out for the revenge that the spirit seeks so it is speeding up the process.
Dean notices that the house that Lucas drew for him was a picture of the Carlton house.
The brothers visit Lucas again and after another heartfelt talk, he draws another picture for Dean. This time it is of a church with a house next door and a boy with a hat and a red bicycle. They are able to find the church. After speaking to the woman who lives in the house, they discover that the vengeful spirit is that of her son Peter. He disappeared 35 years ago. Sam noticed a picture of the boy and his childhood friend Bill Carlton. They assume that Bill must have killed Peter when they were kids. And now his family was being targeted by the boy’s spirit.
When they go to talk to Bill about it, they arrive just as he is steering his boat to the middle of the lake. Sam and Dean both run to the dock shouting for him to return but then an unseen force throws the boat over spilling Bill into the water, never to be seen again.
Is it really over?
It would be easy to think that the haunting was over now that the last member of the Carlton family was gone, but Dean doesn’t feel that way. On their way out of town, he turns around because he has this feeling that it is not over yet. When they arrive at Andrea’s house to talk to her, Lucas answers the door in a panic. The brothers are able to save Andrea from being drowned in her bathtub.
Going through photos at Andrea’s house, Dean finds a photo of her dad with Peter, the boy spirit that is terrorizing the lake. Dean thinks that her dad, the sheriff, may have also had something to do with the death of Peter 35 years ago.
Lucas leads the brothers out to a spot by the lake and they start to dig. They uncover the red bicycle that belonged to Peter. The sheriff shows up and while holding a gun to Sam and Dean, he explains that he and Bill had buried the bike after accidentally drowning Peter when they were kids. They had let his body sink into the lake.
Just then, Lucas is pulled into the lake and disappears under the water. Both Sam and Dean jump in after him to try to find him in the murky darkness but no luck. That is until the sheriff, begins to walk into the lake talking directly to the spirit of Peter. He pleads with him to spare the life of his grandson and to take his life instead. He is pulled under the water and then Dean finds Lucas and brings him to the surface.
Now it’s over.
With the spirit at rest, it is time for Sam and Dean to leave. Andrea and Lucas see them off and now that Lucas is able to talk again Dean teaches him one of the most important things in life. “Zepplin Rules!”
This was a great episode to see Dean open up emotionally. Coming out of his usually tough armor and letting us see the boy inside the man.
Click here for my recap of episode 1 and 2. And you can stream all episodes on Amazon Prime Video.