Contagious fear may not be a new idea, but I nonetheless enjoyed Supernatural’s take on it in “Yellow Fever,” (OAD October 23, 2008). The concept previously has been explored by everyone from Sun Tzu(1) to Caesar(2) to the United States military(3). It’s referred to in the bible(4). It’s incorporated in Native American Navajo beliefs(5). It’s been blamed for real-world illnesses(6). Emotional contagion has been the subject of scholarly research(7). Movies starring the likes of Sherman Hemsley(8) and James Marsters(9) have been dedicated to the subject, as have television shows like The X-Files(10) and, now, Supernatural.  

The opening scene of the episode sets the tone for what is to follow. Dean is panic-running down the street, the sounds of a hellhound gaining on him. Only this particular hellhound is… an adorable brown yorkie puppy with a pink bow? The clock resets to 43 hours earlier, and the episode-proper begins. In it, we see Sam and Dean investigate the death of one Frank O’Brien. As the episode progresses, we learn that Frank, a bully, tried to avenge the death of his wife Jessie some twenty years prior by killing her supposed killer, a giant of a man named Luther Garland. In actuality, Luther was infatuated with Jessie and did nothing worse to her than a little obsessive portrait sketching. Jessie, at the nadir of one of her manic-depressive episodes, killed herself. Frank assumed the worst, however, and confronted Luther – ultimately killing Luther by gruesomely “road-hauling” him: wrapping one end of a chain around his neck, affixing the other to his car, and dragging him down the road. Now, twenty years later, Luther is back in the form of a “buruburu” – a Japanese ghost that infects people with fear. He is fear itself, and — since his bones cannot be found to be burned — he can only be dispatched by being frightened to death.

While this sounds like it could have the trappings of a truly frightening episode, the show takes it in another direction and adds a substantial amount of levity to the proceedings as Dean contracts the ghost’s fear and we see his slow descent. The results are mixed but, for the most part, the balance is better than the more absurd “Monster Movie” episode of last week. Jensen Ackles’ performance, particularly, sells the show. Many of his facial expressions are priceless, and it is a blast watching him become more and more fearful. It starts with some mild fear about a few mostly-harmless looking teenagers. Dean wants to avoid them. It gets worse as Sam and Dean question a witness (one of the first ever, I think, that calls them on their rockstar fake names), with Dean petrified by Donnie and Marie, the witness’ two snakes. Soon, Dean is driving the speed limit, won’t make a left turn into traffic, and hates the fact that their motel room is all the way up on the fourth floor. There are some great bits with Dean frightened by a cat jumping out of a locker, Dean refusing to handle a gun, and Dean flubbing an interview with Luther’s brother out of fear that he’ll be called out on his fake ID. As his sickness progresses, the comedy tones down a bit. Dean has a vision of Sam-as-Yellow-Eyes, accusing him of being a loser. Ultimately, he has a vision of Lillith herself, and the vision nearly kills him after reminding him of the hell he experienced in Hell.

As for Dean and why he was selected by the ghost, that appears to be a bit of an open question. It’s humorously put forth within the episode that it may be because Dean, like the other victims, is a dick. In fact, though, Eric Kripke has gone to some length to correct fans on that point, stating (as quoted at www.thetvaddict.com):

“So I’ve never before responded directly to the fandom’s comments about an episode, and I don’t plan to make a habit of it, but I couldn’t resist dropping in a thought about the episode “Yellow Fever.”

Which is this:

Dean is not a dick.

None of the writers, or anyone on the creative team of SUPERNATURAL, think Dean’s ever been a dick, past, present, or future. He’s a hero. Dean did NOT contract the ghost sickness because he’s a dick. Victims contract the illness because they use “fear as a weapon.” Dean asks Lilith at the episode’s end, “why did I get infected?” And she cryptically responds, “you know why. Listen to your heart.” We, as the writers, probably should have emphasized this mystery more, I take responsibility for that omission. But the point is: the reason he was infected is because of a SECRET he’s keeping. A dark secret that will be revealed in Episode 10. And not at all because of any dickishness, implied or otherwise.”

Fortunately, Dean is saved just in the nick-of-time by Sam and Bobby, who have figured out that the way to finish off the ghost is to scare it to death. They do so by conspiring to tie an iron chain around its neck, inscribed with whatever hocus pocus may be necessary, and dragging it through the street – recreating its death. The whole thing struck me as kind of horrific. Once again we have a somewhat sympathetic monster. Luther wasn’t a bad guy in life. As a ghost, he wouldn’t win Mr. Congeniality, but his second death was equally gruesome as his first and it left me feeling sorry for him. This definitely appears to be a recurring theme for the season.

The buruburu, like the rougarou of a few episodes back, is a “real” legendary creature, not one sprung from the mind of Kripke. According to Japanese myth, buruburu are ghosts that hide out in graveyards and forests, often posing as an old man or an old woman, often with one eye. They attack by attaching themselves to the back of the living, causing shivers to run up and down the victim’s spine and, ultimately, causing the victim to die of fright. Sound like Luther and what happened in this episode? Not so much. But I’m okay with that. As with the concept of contagious fear, Kripke has once again taken something old and added his own touches to turn it into something compelling and new. While this episode certainly doesn’t set the high water mark for the series, it was a definite improvement from last week’s disappointing entry. Let’s call it 3.5 out of 5 Metallicars.