Supernatural: Halt & Catch Fire

Posted by: Kyle Tetarenko  •  February 10, 2015 @ 11:44pm

Filed under: Recaps & Reviews

The Winchesters may have encountered their fair share of ghosts but have they ever fought one that used 4G LTE speeds?

Another week and the boys still aren't any closer on finding to finding an answer to the Mark of Cain. Dean isn't all that concerned as he's found another case in Iowa. Sam and Dean drive down to the college and find out that a girl's boyfriend was killed by Trini, the Siri knock off. The girl was drunk at the time but knows what she saw and also recalls how the victim inherited the truck from his dead brother. After the two of them head out to the junk yard and burn the truck, they assume the case is solved but then another girl is killed by the power cord in her room after. Sam does some digging through the girl's laptop and finds a threatening conversation over Facebook shortly before she died where the killer mentioned 810 over and over. They mention that to the latest victim's friend, Delilah, but she's hiding something. Delilah talks with her friend Kyle and suggests that they come clean but he warns her not to. Moments later, Kyle is killed by his stereo. Later Sam and Dean confront Delilah and force the truth out of her about how her and friends accidentally killed a man named Andrew while they were all on their phones while out driving. She wanted to say something to the police but her friends, all of whom are now dead, convinced her to stay quiet and keep the secret. Facing a ghost that's only limited to an area with a strong connection, the Winchesters may not be able to save the day against a techno savvy ghost.

If the idea behind Halt & Catch Fire was to come up with a hybrid story between I Know What You Did Last Summer and Ghost in the Shell, Supernatural failed miserably. We've seen much better uses of technology by Supernatural before but every aspect here didn't work. Supernatural is known for having a few gruesome death scenes from time to time but the ones from Halt & Catch Fire, the power cord and ESPECIALLY the sound system death were terrible. I can't say they were cheesy because there was nothing redeeming or entertaining about either of them.

Though the digital ghost was a good concept, Supernatural failed to come up with a good idea of how to portray that. If you recall the 2005 film, White Noise (starring Michael Keaton), this worked extremely well here. The ghosts were more akin to static images and harsh noises trying to communicate across a digital medium but Halt & Catch Fire had the ghost of Andrew as a burned man with cheap special effects makeup strewn across every screen. While I understand that Supernatural has a tight schedule, White Noise came out ten years ago and the effects still seem better than this episode.

Halt & Catch Fire is undoubtedly one of the worst episodes of Supernatural, ever. From the poor writing (Dean was clueless about computers and pop culture even though he mentions them both all of the time) to the atrociously bad effects, I can't bring myself to find anything that went well. Next week's, The Executioner's Song, has Dean facing off against Cain in a showdown in what could be a game changing moment for season ten. My hopes are high since it would be almost impossible for that episode to be worse than Halt & Catch Fire.

Tags: Supernatural, Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Jensen Ackles , Jared Padalecki

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