Time really does fly.
In the “Phantom Traveler” (Supernatural S0104) cold open, we get a nervous-looking dude at an airport get invaded by some kind of demon essence in the form of black smoke-like CGI – making me think for a moment that perhaps the Dementors of Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkeban fame had made a bit of a crossover visit to the realm of Supernatural – and then proceed, while onboard a flight, to jump out of the plane in mid-air while glaring some kind of creepy black-eyed stare to the passengers around him. Everyone naturally bugs out, and the plane goes down.
Shortly thereafter, a guy named Jerry Panowski calls the boys, turns out he has “helped out” the brothers’ pops with a poltergeist problem in the past. Panowski is played by Brian Markinson, who I prefer to think of as Dr. Arnold Rosen from Mad Men Season Six, though he has a long and storied career as a character actor.
Panowski connects the Winchesters to survivors and family members of the crash. Sam and Dean’s disguise of the week is as NTSB investigators, prompting them to get into “Blues Brothers”-like attire. After a subsequent suspicious plane crash, the brothers discover that some evil force is trying to knock off the survivors of the initial “accident,” and that the planes are going down at the 40-minute mark, making it a biblically significant (meaning death) number. Thankfully, Supernatural episodes, like most 60-minute dramas on television, clock in north of that time increment.
When Sam and Dean hop on a flight to try to cut the evil spirit off at the pass, so to speak, we discover that much like B.A. Baracus (played by the legendary Mr. T) of The A Team lore, Dean is afraid of flying. The most amusing moment of the week comes when Dean hums Metallica (he’s a metal head, let’s recall) to calm himself down in flight.
The boys whip up a mystic recipe to sniff out the supernatural baddie, and just when I thought it was safe to assume this was all to be gleaned from a watchable if not spectacular episode, the evil spirit (in the form of the flight’s captain) relays that he knows why Sam’s girlfriend died.
Now, you know I’m going to stick around for a while if we can start to get deeper into the series arc mysteries.
Notes of fun, interest, intrigue:
- If I had a nickel for every time in real life I saw someone say to someone they’ve never met in an airport bathroom, “Nervous flyer?” I’d have… uh, actually, nothing.
- Seems like it’s a go-to for sci fi and horror TV shows and films to use eye color change to convey that a normal human-ish fellow or gal has gone creepy and wrong, right?
- Pretty high class guest stars in Supernatural in the early going, with Amy Acker appearing in a prominent role in “ Dead in the Water” and Markinson’s appearance in this episode.
- You don’t hear the term “monkey suits” a whole lot these days, but Dean managed to work in a reference when wisecracking about his outfit as the fellows were on the run from the authentic National Transportation Safety Board investigators.
- Turns out the “Phantom Traveler” has a penchant for saying, “Time really does fly,” before taking out an airplane. Good one, phantom…
- Nice and funny The X Files name drop when Dean spits out that he doesn’t have time for, ‘The truth is out there crap” when things go sideways in flight.
Some stats and info about Supernatural, “Phantom Traveler”
TV SHOW – Supernatural
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 4
AIRED ON – October 4th, 2005
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – CW/Netflix
GENRE – Drama, Teen Dramas, Horror, Fantasy
CREATED BY – Eric Kripke
CAST – Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Misha Collins, Mark Sheppard, Jim Beaver, Alexander Calvert, Mark Pellegrino, Samantha Smith, Ruth Connell
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.