Recap of Supernatural
Season 11, Episode 17:
Red Meat
Sam and Dean battle a pair of werewolves who have captured two victims. Just as the brothers are about to win, one of the werewolves shoots Sam. Dean gets his brother and the victims out of the house but learns a pack of werewolves are hot on their tails, hoping to kill them all.
Writers: Robert Berens and Andrew Dabb
Director: Nina Lopez-Corrado
Body Count:
For this episode: 3 humans and 5 werewolves.
For the series so far = At least 1261 humans (of which 15 were witches), 1124 angels, 186 demons, 71 vampires, 52 ghosts, 36 Jefferson Starships, 22 gods, 19 zombies, 17 werewolves, 10 hellhounds, 7 shapeshifters, 7 skinwalkers, 6 changelings, 5 djinn, 5 reapers, 4 dogs, 4 ghouls, 4 Leviathan, 3 Khan Worms, 3 Thule, 2 Amazons, 2 arachnes, 2 kitsunes, 2 rugarus, 2 vetalas, 2 zannas, 1 banshee, 1 cat, 1 crocotta, Death, 1 deer, 1 dragon, 1 fairy, 1 familiar, 1 lamia, the Mother of All, 1 nachzehrer, 1 okami, 1 phoenix, 1 pishtaco, 1 Purgatory creature, 1 qarin, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 shojo, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, 1 soul eater, 1 Titan, 1 wendigo, 1 whore of Babylon, 1 wicked witch, and 1 wraith.
Tropes
- Anachronic Order: The episode opens with the fight where Sam gets shot, then jumps between the early stages of the case and the aftermath.
- Asshole Victim: Corbin. The boys save his and his wife's life, but decides that Sam is slowing them down too much and decides to take matters into his own hands. Later he realizes that he was turned by the werewolves and he really doesn't seem to mind.
- Break the Cutie: Dean's promise to go back for Sam's body is thwarted at every turn and he grows increasingly desperate to get his brother back.
- Death by Irony: Corbin decides to kill Sam by choking him when it seems like he's slowing them down. As it happens, Sam only passed out. He eventually gets to the hospital... where he kills the now werewolf Corbin.
- Even more ironic is that apparently, by choking Sam out, Corbin actually helped save Sam (since that delayed Sam's bleeding out).
- Death Is Cheap: Averted; Billie makes it very clear that she's unyieldingly standing by her "what's dead stays dead" rule, and would've reaped Dean had it not been for the doctor pumping adrenaline into his heart.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Dean intentionally overdosing just as Sam is waking up from his apparent "death" is reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet (with Dean being the Romeo and Sam being the Juliet).
- Downer Beginning: The episode opens with Sam getting shot.
- Driven to Suicide: Dean downs a handful of sleeping pills so that he can meet Billie and ask her to bring back Sam. He did tell Michelle to get the doctor to try and revive him, but that there would be no hard feelings if she failed.
- The Farmer and the Viper: Sam is murdered by the injured person he'd just rescued.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Word for word what Corbin says after they leave the apparently dead Sam behind.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: After getting shot and being barely able to walk, Sam tries to convince Dean to take the victims back to town and come back for him after. Dean is having none of it.
- Living Emotional Crutch: In full force this episode; Dean overdoses to try and bargain with Billie for Sam’s life, but makes it obvious that if that fails, he doesn’t mind if the doctor can’t revive him.
- Made of Iron: Sam gets shot in the stomach at the beginning of the episode, and is almost choked to death by one of the victims. And yet he's still able to kill the remaining two werewolves, make his way back to the Impala, drive to the hospital, and kill the victim-turned-werewolf, saving Dean's life. All while bleeding out and barely being able to walk.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Sam's cracking jokes right after getting shot.Sam: I told you that roadhouse chili was a bad idea.
- In the end, Sam is released from hospital on the same day, apparently having only needed a blood transfusion to replace what he lost over the last few hours, some stitches and a prescription for 2 days worth of antibiotics to ward of wound infection from Dean's unsterile bullet removal. Leaving aside that antibiotics are always prescribed for at least 5 days, that means that the bullet apparently missed the major blood vessels in his belly (which would have led to Sam bleeding out within minutes), any and all internal organs (which would have required major surgery and perhaps complete removal of the damaged organ), and it didn't even nick his guts (which would have required surgery and FAR more antibiotics, as well as a stay in intensive care to monitor him for possible sepsis for a few days). Normally, if you don't bleed out in minutes from a gut wound, what kills you is the systemic infection from your own gut bacteria, several days later - that's why gut wounds were considered an inescapable death sentence for a soldier before the invention of antibiotics. (Much like appendicitis was a death sentence for civilians because the inflamed appendix would eventually rupture and release the bacteria into the normally sterile parts of the belly.)
- Mistaken Death Confirmation: Sam is shot and then strangled by werewolves. Dean takes his pulse and concludes that he's dead, and circumstances force him to abandon the body, after which it turns out Sam was merely unconscious and is still alive.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The promo for this episode implied that Billie was going after Sam. In reality, not only did Sam not actually die, but she was actually after Dean (who deliberately ODed to try and get her to bring Sam back to life).
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Sam's reward for trying to save missing hikers from werewolves is getting gut shot by one of the wolves and then murdered by one of the hikers who feared the wound Sam received in the rescue would slow the group down to the point of being recaptured.
- No One Gets Left Behind: Subverted. Dean is totally willing to risk the entire group being captured or killed rather than leave his wounded brother behind. However, after Corbin kills Sam behind Dean's back, Corbin convinces Dean that saving the "innocent" survivors is what Sam would have wanted.
- Only Mostly Dead: After Corbin chokes him, Sam's body goes into shock, which caused his breathing and heartbeat to slow down to almost nothing, but it was enough for everyone to think he was dead.
- Police Are Useless: Not necessarily their fault as the cops have no idea about the supernatural forces at work.
- Sam and Dean come in to work the case after local cops are unable to locate four missing hikers. After the harrowing rescue, the cop tazes Dean who is desperately trying to get back to Sam (who, unbeknownst to either of them, is not dead but, in fact, bleeding out on the floor of the cabin).
- Seconds after Dean is revived from an overdose, the same cop handcuffs him and insists that the doctor sedate him (ie put more drugs designed to slow down the heart and lungs into Dean's system).
- Both cops in the episode cross paths with the villain just in time to become victims themselves.
- Poor Communication Kills: Justified. The doctor and the cop die because Sam is unable to warn Dean about Corbin in time due to a dropped cellphone call. Sam nearly dies because poor cellphone coverage won't allow the brothers to call out for help. Dean nearly dies because that same spotty cellphone coverage won't let Sam contact Dean to alert him that Sam is not really dead.
- Shot to the Heart: Dean is revived with adrenalin to the heart just when Billie is about to take him to the empty.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Corbin's wife makes it clear that she did not approve of Corbin choking Sam to death (supposedly), nor his attempts to undercut what he did for them.
- We Have to Get the Bullet Out!: Dean immediately digs around in Sam's gut for the bullet after he's been shot, while they are still in possible danger, and before even freeing the campers from their shackles. After that, all the further First Aid he gives him is to hand Sam a flimsy little gauze patch to tape onto his stomach by himself - they don't even make an attempt at some kind of pressure bandage around his waist. At best, getting the bullet out would have done nothing; at worst, that could have led to Sam rapidly bleeding out because the bullet was plugging up a damaged blood vessel or because Dean ripped a previously undamaged artery while digging around in there. Dean even wastes time trying to sterilize his tools with fire - which is utterly ridiculous with a gut wound that's going to require lots of antibiotics to survive in any case.
