Supernatural season 11, episode 19, “The Chitters,” was a strong monster of the week episode with an original monster and a pair of new hunters who paralleled the brothers.
With “The Chitters,” new Supernatural writer Nancy Won is three-for-three in her episodes this season.
In this episode, the Winchesters head to Colorado where they stumble on a monster that appears every 27 years and abducts a handful of people before going dormant again. It turns out the monster is something we’ve never seen before: a cicada spirit.
After nearly three decades of dormancy, the cicada spirits rise, abduct humans to serve as hosts for reproduction, then go dormant again. And the “chitters” describes the cicada-like sound the hosts make once they’ve been taken over. As someone who lives in a cicada zone, I can attest that it’s a good description.
Sam and Dean work with hunters Jesse and Cesar, a married couple, on the case. It’s always nice to see the show’s world expand with new hunters. When Jesse was 12, his brother was taken by the cicada spirit, so he has a personal stake in killing the monsters. This is the quest the couple has; once the monster is defeated, they will stop hunting and move to a ranch.
Any time we get a pair of hunters who work together in close proximity, the parallels to the Winchesters are apparent. Jesse’s quest for revenge against the cicada spirits echoes the Winchesters’ vendetta against Azazel, the yellow-eyed demon who killed their mother and gave Sam demon blood. Killing him at the end of season 2 and seeing their father escape Hell could have been the end to their crusade, but things were only just beginning for them, with Dean’s demon deal and the impending apocalypse.
Hunters are usually brought into the life because they lost someone to a supernatural entity; some are able to move on once they get their revenge while others are unable to leave the life. For some, hunting defines them while for others hunting is a means to an end. For Sam and Dean, hunting defines them, as every effort they’ve made to leave the life has ended badly. Meanwhile, Jesse and Cesar are not defined by it. It was nice to see them not only survive the episode but to get an apparent happy ending.
Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again because they were interesting and well-developed — but I’d also hate to see them lose that happy ending so few hunters get.
The monsters are eventually discovered and destroyed, but not before Jesse finds the remains of his brother. It’s a heart-wrenching moment as Cesar, Sam and Dean find Jesse on his knees next to his brother’s skeleton. Like Sam and Dean, Jesse and his brother were close and depended on each other. Jesse’s brother seems to have raised him, so losing him was like losing his entire world. The Winchesters know what it feels like to lose a brother and the feeling of losing their whole world with him.
Sam and Dean quite like and respect Jesse and Cesar, and even consider asking them for help with the Amara issue, but once they learn the couple plans to leave the life, they can’t bring themselves to rob them of that well-deserved ending. Once again, the brothers are on their own, though they have two new allies who have given them a glimpse of hope. Maybe one day Sam and Dean will be able to retire to a horse farm of their own.
“The Chitters” continues season 11’s track record of having strong monster of the week episodes.
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