Picspam Reaction: Supernatural 8.18
Warning: Contains profanity, some serious. Also some typos and word jumbles I'm sure because I'm posting this in a tearing hurry. Will likely edit later.
Spoiler and Theory Summary
Remember that hunter's kid from that episode back a ways about the *handwave* things and stuff? She's back and in high school and hunting or something. Or at least that's what the general miasma coming from some fandom spaces is strongly suggesting. Well, why not.
And the title is Freaks and Geeks, which was apparently also the title of something else.
In short, sounds like a filler episode, but it's never wise to trust that there won't be something vital in the filler with this show.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.18 - "???" "Freaks and Geeks"
-Starting off very tired. I just spent about a minute staring at the freeze-framed "THEN", marveling at the rotational symmetry of the 'H'. See?
I've got a font that was at one point pretty darn close to the titles font for this show (it's called Sell Your Soul, ha ha) and its capital H characters don't have that rotational symmetry. Has that always been there? Hunh.
-*blink* Need. Coffee.
-Getting on with the skipping of the THEN, even though I'm pretty sure who and what would be featured in it.
-Those red leaves made me think massive messy blood splatter for a second there, but if that were the case, there wouldn't be teenagers (I'm assuming) in a nookie-wagon with the radio playing, would there? ...Probably not.
-Yep, teenagers, necking in the pre-credits sequence. So doomed.
-Including the hunter's daughter (Krissy?) from that episode in season 7 who should know better than to engage in horror-victim-trope type activities that fog up the windows and obscure seeing on anything that might be zooming-past/stalking around the outside of the nookie-wagon. Admittedly though, not many monsters Krissy might be familiar with coming from a hunting family drive blue vans. That's more the Criminal Minds sort of monster.
-Some of them rip off the hood of the car, though. Not a typical tactic, but effective.
-"Don't leave me here!" ...I'm going to assume she's saying that because she doesn't want her idiot boyfriend Ian leaving the moderate safety that is the big metal box of a station wagon they're in and go running out and trying to be a hero with a *squint* tire iron, only to meet his inevitable splattery doom? Since Krissy didn't seem to be the sort to become a screaming clinging ninny when under attack the last time we saw her.
-*window goes smash* Well, I did say 'moderate safety'.
-*sudden decapitation* Well! Ian's a bit of a dark horse there isn't he! I guess they were there being bait, and that tire iron was a machete. Hm. Is Ian a Hunter's kid too, or has Krissy been doing some tutoring?
-And then there were three. Insert your own Next Generation reference here. Also, all this being a sting op to lure out the monsters makes the decision to steam up the windows even more tactically moronic, but hey, they'll learn.
-HI CAR! I see that the aerial that mysteriously appeared last episode has just as mysteriously disappeared this episode. I think. *squints* Maybe the tape deck was busted and Dean needed better radio reception when they were in downtown Whereverthehell last episode, but now he's got the tape deck fixed and the aerial had to go. Sure. *handwave*
-No, wait, spoke too soon, it's still there, just hard to see in long shots. The tape deck must still be unreliable then. *reserves handwaving just in case*
-Considering they're talking about one of them having a potentially fatal Trial-linked quantum molecular shift issue with his atoms, and the other getting the crap beat out of him by their mind-controlled angelic best friend who is in the wind with another base code of the universe tablet (and either getting locked into his own prophet-mode fugue-state or starting a second set of Trials with... oh crap. Um. Heh... If Sam's doing the Hell trials then the obvious choice if there are Heaven Trials to do would be.... heheh. Darn these Winchesters and their habit of getting on opposite sides of the same damned Apocalypses, eh?) ANYWAY. Considering all that, I probably should not be laughing as hard as I am at this conversation.
-"What, like my feelings?"/"If that's what you wanna talk about, sure." Sam, have you met your brother? At all?
-Herbal tea and Cowboy Junkies. Hee!
-"They were drained of all their blood."/"Hunh."/"We found that strange also." Really? You don't say? There have been some awesome local sheriff characters in recent episodes.
-Tie report: Sam is aggressively stripey with white-blue stripes on alternating fresh and not-so-fresh blood tones. Complex, on more than one job, and as the slant is quite aggressively towards Dean at the moment, genuinely concerned about Dean, even though he's on the case, on the Trials, assumably still bleeding randomly, and has a recent diagnosis of being too messed up for an angel to heal. Aw. Dean has a subtle blue-grey tie with a faint pinstripe crosshatching it looks like, though I don't trust that that's not another chameleon tie like Sam's last week. Dean is on conflicting jobs (the case, the Trials, and trying to keep Sam wrapped up in crash padding while he does the Trials) and is both obscure on the surface and distracted between all the tasks at hand.
-*facepalm* When chopping the heads of vampires (or whatever the blood-suckers are), make sure you don't park your bait in direct line-of-sight with the CCTV, particularly if you're going to do a group pose by the corpse. (That one had a really bouncy head...) Also, looks like he didn't rip the hood off, just opened it and yanked some engine bits to disable the car.
-Dean pulls the big bad Fed card to get the evidence since he recognized Krissy, Sam's momentarily confused eyebrows back his play.
-Written by Adam Glass, Directed by John F. Showalter *nods*
-Well, if they're going to make a prop ID that clear and cappable, I'll cap it. *squints and does math* Pft. Like hell you're 25, kid.
-She's throwing cash around quite nimbly. Wonder how she's sourcing it?
-Stealing the girl you're interested in's cellphone to see if you can look for her boyfriend's number to find out if he exists or not? Kinda creepy.
-"Let me guess, he also lives in Canada?"/"He does, actually. Small town. Called Kissmyass." Hey, I think that's near Sicamous. XD
-Vampires and cameras get along fine in SPN 'verse it seems, did we know that before? I think we did.
-"How about we start a new tradition and before each job give each other good luck kisses?"/"How about I punch you in the throat instead?" I like her. ...Oh crap, now she's doomed, and I don't even know her name yet!
-"Blood?" Solo vampires really need to be more fastidious in their eating habits if they're going to keep even Junior Buffy Squads like this one from finding them and chopping their heads off. Still wondering who or what is providing Krissy's group's funding, unless they all got fake ID's and earphone cameras from Santa this year.
-Standard high school skill-set there. *nods*
-She gets the drop on Dean. What, again?
-Ah, the hunter father died. Combine that with her mother being messily dead and we get taking up a life of hunting evil at the age of, what, 16 now?
-Ah, the deep base drumbeat of impending messy doomed death. Just as the redshirts Scooby gang junior hunter's auxiliary is about to enter the vampire's easily located lair. I predict this will end in sunshine, roses and chocolate malteds all around. (No. No I don't.)
-Or it would have done, if not for a sudden case of Winchesters.
-This guy looks familiar. Well, not the teeth obviously, but still.
-"I got him! *Krissy runs after the vampire*"/"Sonofabitch!" Why am I laughing? I do not know why I'm laughing.
-Meanwhile the other two seem to be stunning Sam with their competence in victim management. Why do I get the feeling he's going to be on their side later on while Dean's going to be trying to get them to stop, even though Dean started younger? And that it's going to turn from Sam supporting the kids' side into an argument about Sam doing the Trials? Oh right, because I've been watching this show for nearly 8 years. Carry on.
-Gunning a man who seemed to be begging for his life down in a public street isn't going to win you any Brownie points with the locals or Dean, Krissy, even if he is a vampire. In which case, bullets are just kind of annoying to him anyway, aren't they? So either this isn't the vampire (since I don't see that blue van anymore) and you shot some random guy, or the vampire is hamming it up to get you arrested.
-"Darts filled with dead man's blood." Of course they are. While Dean stumbles up panting and asking obvious questions like a doof. *facepalm* Krissy, we have had the Mary-Sue talk before, haven't we? *looks back* Not directly, but the point was made. Moving on.
-"Where's the blue van?"/"What blue van?" Okay, being terribly unobservant and not noticing the same blue van at the roadside vampire killing site and parked at but departed from the hotel of 'how are these kids affording all this tech gear?' (which of course means these two vampires aren't the only ones and there's a pissed off nest nearby) does cut down the Mary-Sue risk considerably. It'll do. *nods*
-"This is not your kill." Also the lack of practical thinking that really it doesn't matter who dispatches the monster, as long as the monster is stopped from killing again makes you look like more of an idiot. Or less of an idiot if there's the intent of interrogating the guy and Dean's about to lop his head off without asking questions. Either way, no one is getting D&D experience points here, so it doesn't matter who gets the kill shot.
-Um, guys? Maybe a better place for the shouting about death and brandishing of machetes at cringing guy (who, from anyone who might be watching's perspective, has just been shot by one of your number) would be somewhere else other than the middle of a very public street, hm?
-"I came home from a friend's house and I found them." A woman, a brother and a sister. Ouch. Well, we know a bit of this kid's backstory now.
-Ah, so interrogation wasn't the goal here then, just vengeance. Although it would have been better to get some intel on who the actual vampire who killed her family was, since buddy who has just been very publicly decapitated seemed to have no idea what she was talking about and her vengeance is a bit misplaced it seems.
-Seriously, guys. Off the streets. Take the fresh corpse with you.
-"I need to talk to you. Privately." Oh yes, I should think so.
-"You know this guy?" If she claims Dean is her mythical Skyping Canadian boyfriend, I may never stop laughing.
-Ah, Krissy's dad quit hunting long enough for her to get a taste of normal and then something tracked him down and killed him anyway. That really sucks. I suppose it's a better reason for gathering a teenage cadre and going out aslaughtering than what Dad does looks like fun.
-The one who I have doomed by liking is called Josephine (shout-back to Jo Harvelle's alternate name choice which got dumped in favour of Joanna Beth?) And ...Aiden? Not Ian? I think? Sound is fuzzy.
-"I'm sorry to rain on your parade but you are way too young to be doing this." While that's true in general, that coming from Dean Winchester is rather hilarious, but in a sad sort of way. He was too young too, but still. I don't think Krissy will appreciate the distinction between having started living in the hunting lifestyle more or less at the age of four and wanting to have started living in the hunting lifestyle more or less at the age of four.
-"You're never too young to kill monsters, especially ones that kill your family." There's something... weird about that and how she said it. Like it's *headshake* Like it's a pre-formulated "saving people, hunting things" phrase. An aphorism. Something someone has repeated to her. Hm. I don't think her dad was the sort to have wanted her to feel personally responsible for avenging her mom's death at an early age (though that would explain a lot about her character), and him quitting the hunting life in attempt to keep her out of it would be at odds with that standpoint. Something is fishy here. That combined with the gear she and her crew are hauling around... do these kids all have a hunting mentor?? Hmmm... *eyeballs everyone suspiciously*
-"I think Victor's gonna have a problem with that." Well then! Attitude and bankroll explained; Victor the Mentor. Not Victor Henricksen, of course, since he's dead and his soul was being all vengeful back during the rising of the witnesses which is as proof of death as you get with this show, but wouldn't that have been a shocking development? Left the FBI to start training gangs of teen Hunters. Oh, and it won't be Victor the Leviathan either, since he got eaten.
-"We're not the X-Men." Heee.
-"I don't need you to save me, Dean. I'm not a little kid anymore." Like she used to be last year? Ah, teenagers.
-I do wonder what this Victor person is getting out of forming and supplying this cadre of junior hunters and setting them on revenge quests. Is it just vs. vampires? If so, who or what has a major issue with vampires? Leviathans, but... hm. Did all the Leviathans disappear after Dick Roman went pop? Maybe Victor is a popular Leviathan name choice, and this is one who missed the bus back to Purgatory? Or maybe he's just a human hunter using kids to get some sort of revenge he can't get on his own for some reason? Hm. We'll see. In any case, I doubt 'Victor's' motivations are entirely altruistic, no matter if he's human or otherwise.
-*goes to refill coffee* Heh. Or. OR. It's Frank. And I don't mean Livejournal's goat mascot that's been nibbling on the wires lately. Frank Devereaux. The super-paranoid hunter who they met in the same episode as Krissy and her dad, isn't that interesting. Frank's place was trashed by Leviathans, yeah, and Leviathans tended to not leave corpses behind, but until there's a corpse there's no proof the character's dead, and even then on this show, that's not always a guarantee it'll stick. Sitting behind the scenes and running a crew of mini-hunters seems like something Frank might do, for the right compensation. He was pretty mercenary though, so... hm. I say strong possible on 'Victor' being Frank Devereaux with some serious motivation behind him, but not definite because I think Frank has a lethal allergy to any level of altruism.
-Kids merrily rolling the headless corpse up in a tarp, Sam standing guard. This town and in particular this hotel that all this is happening right outside of is exceptionally oblivious, isn't it?
-Victor from Spokane? Have we met him or is this some backstory spontaneously generating?
-When bagging headless corpses, always remember to bag the head and body separately, just in case. Also, as ever duct tape is your friend, but only if you remember that fingerprints can be pulled off duct tape, and therefore use some kind of countermeasure against that like wearing gloves... Oops. Oh well, I suppose there's always fire.
-Krissy: *throws head into trunk with a loud clunk*, Head: *bounces* I suddenly have an inexplicable headache...
-"Not what I'd call a compound." No, not really. Compounds aren't often *squints* dark teal with white trim. And token picket fence-like bits.
-Victor Rogers (ahaha, so he's Mr. Rogers, complete with a cardigan), who Sam and Dean met on a Rugaru hunt in Washington State sometime. Not Frank Devereaux. Darn.
-Hugs and aphorisms about grief and homework reminders. That and a cup of cocoa for the perfect ending to an evening spent hunting and killing a vampire.
(Also, Sam's tongue. Hee.)
-"Full report on your desk by morning." *nods consideringly* Mission reports. that's... well, on several levels I approve, but on another level, it's kind of creepy as hell.
-"Drink?" Yeah, the boys look like they could use one.
-"So after soccer practice and a bake sale they chop vampires' heads off?"/"Well yeah, I think a balanced approach is best, don't you?" Sam and Dean have these faces. They speak volumes.
-"Because the next generation of hunters has to be better."/"Better than what?"/"Better than us." Well, I think I can see his perspective on that. the past few years there's been a hell gate opened, a few apocalypses, a leviathan incursion, demonic activity spiking everywhere.... Of course a lot of that is down to Winchester-related activity, but still, there has to be serious trickle-down to the general hunting population.
-"Somebody obviously dropped Garth on his head when he was a baby." I think it's more that he didn't get enough hugs and is now overcompensating, myself, though Sam's eyebrows think otherwise.
-"I know you two loved that Bobby guy but he was a barely functional alcoholic." Oh fuck you Mr. Rogers. Sorry. My thought bubble burst there. No one speaks ill of Bobby.
-"Watch it." Yeah. What Dean said. *grr*
-So, Mr. Roger's apparent motivation is hero-building for the next generation. I don't know. Something feels off. Either there's something else going on, or things are going to go very far south very quickly and very soon.
-"Maybe they're doing it right, maybe they can hunt and have a real life."/"You know that's not true." Yep, Sam's on their side, Dean's not, and the countdown to this turning into an argument about the Trials starts now.
-So. To keep the kids out of harm's way, Dean's proposing they go hunt the nest for them. Gee. That couldn't possibly relate to any other decisions Dean's made in his life regarding protecting people both younger and (he hopes) more innocent than he is by throwing himself into the line of fire for them (something he can't do for Sam and the Trials), hm? Noooo not at alllll.
-And he leaves Sam hanging out in Mr. Rogers' neighbourhood too. Ha. Dean is a transparent transparent thing who is going to get his ass kicked going solo against a vampire nest, because this time, he's not a vampire.
-...Speaking of characters on the show of indeterminate fate who may or may not turn up at some later point in time... What exactly happened to the Alpha Vampire...? O.o
-Another sudden thought, because I think actually Dean said he was going to go talk to the woman they found in the vampire's hotel room, and that something seemed weird about that, and then the guy they killed seeming to have no idea what was going on... what if it's all Victor? He finds kids he thinks will make good hunters and part of a good team, then kills their families in a monsterish sort-of way and collects up the kids afterward to 'rescue' them and train them. Almost like YED's special kid program, but without the involuntary blood-feedings for babies, and a shorter turnaround time on results than several generations of selective genetics and upbringing, a ten year demon deal and 20 years of growing up before harvesting. Crap. That's totally what's happening, isn't it? Guess I'd better move this along and find out.
-OH HELLO BLUE VAN LURKING UP ON THE HOUSE AS DEAN LEAVES. Yet another problem with having a steady, permanent base of operations, your adversaries can find you. Just ask the Roadhouse.
-Yep, dark tealish, well-manicured shrubbery and two color trim, and a wide open gate that wouldn't keep a determined toddler out even if it was shut. If Victor isn't secretly killing off the kids families to build his dream team, I hope he's got some kind of defenses on the place or this will be ugly.
-*wafflesinteractsitdowngonnabelatestandupleave* That was some kind of Pleasantville breakfast on fast-forward there. I do not blame Sam's highly amusing bogglement.
(Damn now I want orange juice.)
-"Wendigo, ripped em to shreds." Not exactly the best argument in support of having a family there, Victor.
-"It's not the only way." Victor's promotion of a happy stable hunting family life to the highly receptive audience of Sam is not going to make Sam not take the kids' side any time soon. Also, if Victor isn't secretly evil and offing Hunter kids' parents to raise them into his future hunter dream team, he is totally going to be dead before the credits roll.
-Vampire guy was wonderful and awesome and just came back from Afghanistan a few weeks ago. Yep, not the vampire that took out Josephine's family, obviously. If it indeed was a vampire *eyes Victor*
-Tie Report #2 for Dean. Shifting shades of blue and silver, aggressively stripey. On the job come hell or high water, even though the job is likely to shift to something he's not expecting.
-Guy with blue van got her, tied her to the bed. Hm. Where did the kids get the hotel location from? Maybe Victor has an accomplice who is setting up the monsters to take the fall, or setting them up with tempting human bait to get them to fully turn or go off the bloodmobile wagon, or... HMMM. *ponders*
-I'm not particularly bothered by Victor pulling the kids out of school to work a job since I've known a lot of small business owners and farmers who do the same thing when they need an extra hand in the family business, so long as the kids aren't running behind in school. Although none of their family businesses involve hunting down vampires and carrying out vengeance quests.
-"My dad's necklace." Well, if it's a setup, it's a darn thorough one. Wonder if Blue Van/possible accomplice is part of the Vampire nest?
-"Are you sure this is a video surveillance pic?"/"It's her!" Yeaaaah, it's sounding more and more like setup to me, winding up hot-headed teens and setting them loose.
-"He was fresh made within the month." Unless he was turned in Afghanistan, but still, he was off the continent until a few weeks ago so not going to be Josephine's family's killer regardless of where and when he got turned.
-"There's no time-stamp on it." ... wait. *scrolls back and caps*
No, there isn't! I saw the little block of text in the bottom right there and assumed it had the time in it without looking too close, but it just has a camera identification. That's kinda weird indeed. And not looking positive for Victor not being a secretly murdering bastard out to create the perfect Hunter team, through bonds of blood and vengeance and sweet sweet waffles. Well spotted, Sam!
-"Never trust a guy who wears a sweater." Well, John Watson wears jumpers, not sweaters, so I suppose I'll let that one pass.
-Blue Van, you are about to be busted by Sam Winchester, whose eyebrows have gone all thinky. Watch out.
-"We think he's working with the vampire we just popped."/"Looks like we're going hunting." Does this expression look like 'Wow, thanks for spotting a potential threat to my happy hunter family, Sam!' or does it look more 'The fool suspects. I must kill him now before he reveals my dastardly plan... Bwahahaha.' I don't know, but I'm getting some serious Evil Overlord vibes from Victor right now, and not feeling to cheery about the likelihood of Sam having a 'hunting accident'.
-Yep. Blue Van Hoodie booked the room. *squints at the wall of pamphlets* Does the one next to the seasonally-closed-lodge-of-convenient-lair-making say Haunted something? Haunted Farm Tour? Looks like. Hm.
-Sometimes I wonder when exactly they take time to change from suits to practical gear. Do they just pull over and change kit in a gas station restroom? I do understand the reasoning. Suits are good for information and okay for moderate running around, but jeans and five layers of jackets and shirts are far more practical for the more hands-on aspects of hunting, and not just because that coat on top of that much cloth is practically a very light torso armor versus slashing things like claws and blades. Also, steel-toed work boots or even hiking boots beat dress shoes in combat any day.
(Car pretty. Pretty car. *pats*)
-This location is looking really familiar, but I'm not sure why.
-"Hey! Who the hell are you?" Looks like the person from the photo, who is either not a vampire, or is a vampire and pretending to be hero-bait.
-"This ever happen to you before?"/"No!" Ooooor, Blue Van Hoodie and Victor are making the vampires who 'killed the kids' families' to order (whether by biting them or by feeding them vampire blood like that guy in , just in time for them to be a very confused and easy starter kill, and cement the kids in a life of hunting. Wow. That's getting a bit baroque. I think I like it. In terms of plot complexity, of course, not in terms of goals and morality and collateral damage and so forth.
-Oh perfect, the kids are here. Interesting how Aidan's the only one pointing his gun at the poor confused newbie vampire and not at Dean.
-Interesting microclimates they have around here. Where Sam and Victor are it's bright and sunny, but over by the cabins of seasonal convenience, it was pouring rain and lightly thundering. As a side note, Sam's hair in the sun goes a bit auburn doesn't it?
-Hint: if you are skulking around doing secret things, you may want to vary your wardrobe now and then so you aren't easily identified by an item of clothing. I get that the hoodie is to keep the sun off so he can go skulking around in the day (as it seems he is a vampire), but there are other options. SPF 100 sunscreen, or a varied selection of hats for example. Also, people are less likely to mistake you for Oliver Queen wearing the wrong colour.
-Casually walking through the residential area park near his house, in broad daylight, openly drawing a gun from his zippered cardigan. Mr. Rogers is very comfortable about doing whatever he damn well pleases in his neighbourhood.
-Surprise! It's a trap! Really, Sam, if you had the slightest qualms about Victor after the security camera pictures, you should never have let him out of your line of sight. Though in your defense you were a little blinded by the 'happy hunting home' pitch and were dithering between he's lying and he doesn't know, and erred on the side of letting a relative unknown get behind you with a weapon. Oopsie.
-Seriously, Green Arrow, but in navy and tan. Although really I only see the commercials for Arrow, so *shrug*
-"Why are you with the vampire that killed my dad?" Great, now she thinks Dean's in cahoots. Come on! You kids are smarter than this. Open your eyes, see what's in front of you and make your own call about the situation.
-And now for the new hunters, a guest lecture on how vampirism works from Professor Dean. Sensible and logical, and meanwhile all these kids' guns are waving around so much, Dean could probably disarm them all with a sneeze.
-Or like that. With a smile and a grab. Silly hunterlings.
-"She's still a monster and deserves to die." And not too many years ago, Dean would have agreed with you. However, she got turned against her will, she's still in the opening however many hours window, and if they can get - what was it, blood from her sire and a bunch of herbs and spices - they can reverse the process still.
-It's been a while since Sam's been tied to a chair, hasn't it? Has it? I keep getting side-tracked by memories of A Very Supernatural Christmas, and I know Sam must have been tied to a chair since then.
-"Seems that nest of vampires you were hunting came seeking revenge and killed you." And were also slightly offended by the end tables in the sitting room and tipped them all over, gently, and in straight lines.
-"I'm sorry, Sam I can't have anyone poisoning my kids' minds."/"Other than yourself I guess." Point to Sam.
-"That Leviathan fiasco was a wake-up call. We have to do what we can to survive." Including making pacts with the enemy and lying to kids to turn them into killers. Hmm. I'll leave meta analysis of that overall situation to the more politically-inclined.
-"I have a second chance to make it all right. To create the next generation of hunters. Stronger! Faster! Smarter!" *takes a short Daft Punk hand jam break* Well, Victor certainly busted out the evil overlord frothing in spades there didn't he? All he's missing is an 'I'LL SHOW THEM, I'LL SHOW THEM ALL! BWAHAHAHA!', with possibly a Six Million Dollar Man reference in return.
-Yes, and just as it says in the evil overlord's handbook, "When you have the hero at your mercy, don't stand around explaining the plot and gloating, just kill him." Silly Victor. *pats*
-Sam's little gesture here of 'whoops, got knocked out and tied to a chair again, sorry Dean' is making me laugh far too hard.
-"These two are not to be trusted. They're trying to destroy us." And that explains the vampire behind you how exactly?
-As Aidan subsequently asks. Good boy Aidan.
-"Is that true?" Aaaaaand the long open-mouthed pause of 'oh crap, how do I explain this' really is not helping your case.
-"It's complicated." As ever, it's probably not a good sign when you have to reduce your plans and plotting down to a Facebook relationship status.
-"See, Blue Van here has been turning fresh vamps, setting them up for you kids as easy kills." SEE? I said so!
-"Well then who did?"/"I did." In a room full of hunters, with three armed teenagers out for vengeance, that's not exactly a great statement to make in terms of your continued survival, Blue Van dude. Though if he's getting in early so he can reveal Victor's role behind it all in ordering their families deaths rather than risking Victor making him a scapegoat, it does make some tactical sense.
-"And they all screamed and begged for mercy." Back to tactically stupid, unless he's got a reason for wanting to be the target of a barely-controlled fire-fight.
-"You needed motivation. I scouted each and every one of you." You know, in cases like this, full disclosure is really not your friend. Oh well, it was coming out one way or another. Go big or go home as they say.
-"I know the deaths were tragic, but think of all the future lives that will be saved because you are together." Pfffffft. Oh dear. I'm surprised no one's shot him yet, frankly.
-"We can get past this." Uhhhh. No. I don't think so.
-Dean Winchester, draws faster than a speeding vampire.
-...almost.
-Krissy: *shoots Blue Van in the eye* Right, okay. Character balance check time. *pulls out GURPS rule book* For a Snapshot off a Fast-Draw, through an occupied hex, and hit the eye, the modifiers on that shot would be... *tosses pencil* fucking insane. Like at least -18 to a roll made on three 6 sided dice, making it literally impossible (without it being a fluke) for 99.99% of people who use guns. That was either a natural crit, or she has Mary-Sue levels of Guns Skill. Mathing it out and putting it in general terms, in order to have had even a 50% chance of making that shot, she'd have needed to put the same amount of points/character value into her Guns skill as... hm. As Sam or Dean would have used for all their skills, stats and character advantages total by about the 4th episode of season 1. And that's assuming she has nothing but one skill. So. Out of balance, and careening wildly into Mary-Sue territory, because unlike other characters in this and other shows making amazing shots, she doesn't have the backstory of intensive combat training and years of experience to back it up. It is a pretty shot, but a shoulder hit would have been far more easily believable than that eye shot and sufficiently incapacitating for the situation.
-She could do very well at playing an evil character. She's got that 'you're gonna die' smirk down cold.
-"He's not a person, he's a monster." She does have a point, but finding some way to prove he was behind all the recent deaths and turning him over to the authorities would be the more morally sensible thing to do, since there are courts and laws to deal with the kind of monster he is.
-An empty gun sort of works though. Really convenient that she didn't have it loaded, since I don't see how or when she'd have had the chance to dump the bullets in that scene, and dumping the bullets before the scene was under control would have been suicidally stupid.
-Of course if he decides to be a dumbass and start shooting, there's not much you can do.
-Or that. Eep. Victor was not doing too well on many levels.
-"Just drink slowly, this'll take away all the pain." After giving you a whole lot more pain along with convulsions and thrashing and maybe some hallucinations if it's going to be similar to Dean's experience, but whatever *handwave*
-"Your aunt. Cincinnati, normal life. We'll be there by lunch tomorrow." Ha ha. I doubt Krissy will be going for that for some reason. Don't know how they're going to pay the bills, the rent, the property taxes, etc, though Victor might have had a will that left his stuff to them. They were flashing a lot of cash around earlier, so maybe Victor was loaded. If they own the house, they should sell it and get a smaller place, like a trailer on a postage stamp sized property. Of course they'll need to clear out the dead bodies and clean the blood and brain matter off the walls and floor before inviting a realtor to come around, but every place needs some pre-sale sprucing up. :-P
-"You're alright for an old guy."/"I'm really not that old."/"You keep telling yourself that." *snerk*
-"I'm gonna have a guy come and check on you once in a while, his name is Garth." Oh lord, the kids are gonna eat him alive.
-"I know. You'll kill me if I ever hurt her, blah blah blah."/"No. She'll kill you." And again *sneeeerk*
-"Maybe if we shut that hell hole once and for all, those three can have a real life."/"Maybe they won't be the only ones." And back to the Trials we go.
Not as much meta-arguing about who is and isn't allowed to be responsible for their own choices regarding taking on epic quests and suchlike as I thought there might be, but there we are.
As I mentioned, posting this in a massive rush, likely to edit later.
(PLEASE, NO REFERENCES TO EPISODES PAST 8.18 IN COMMENTS! I'll be catching up as fast as I can, but that's not likely to be very fast, and definitely not in time for the finale. Obviously. :-/)
Spoiler and Theory Summary
Remember that hunter's kid from that episode back a ways about the *handwave* things and stuff? She's back and in high school and hunting or something. Or at least that's what the general miasma coming from some fandom spaces is strongly suggesting. Well, why not.
And the title is Freaks and Geeks, which was apparently also the title of something else.
In short, sounds like a filler episode, but it's never wise to trust that there won't be something vital in the filler with this show.
Picspam Reaction, with speculation and randomness for Supernatural 8.18 - "???" "Freaks and Geeks"
-Starting off very tired. I just spent about a minute staring at the freeze-framed "THEN", marveling at the rotational symmetry of the 'H'. See?
I've got a font that was at one point pretty darn close to the titles font for this show (it's called Sell Your Soul, ha ha) and its capital H characters don't have that rotational symmetry. Has that always been there? Hunh.
-*blink* Need. Coffee.
-Getting on with the skipping of the THEN, even though I'm pretty sure who and what would be featured in it.
-Those red leaves made me think massive messy blood splatter for a second there, but if that were the case, there wouldn't be teenagers (I'm assuming) in a nookie-wagon with the radio playing, would there? ...Probably not.
-Yep, teenagers, necking in the pre-credits sequence. So doomed.
-Including the hunter's daughter (Krissy?) from that episode in season 7 who should know better than to engage in horror-victim-trope type activities that fog up the windows and obscure seeing on anything that might be zooming-past/stalking around the outside of the nookie-wagon. Admittedly though, not many monsters Krissy might be familiar with coming from a hunting family drive blue vans. That's more the Criminal Minds sort of monster.
-Some of them rip off the hood of the car, though. Not a typical tactic, but effective.
-"Don't leave me here!" ...I'm going to assume she's saying that because she doesn't want her idiot boyfriend Ian leaving the moderate safety that is the big metal box of a station wagon they're in and go running out and trying to be a hero with a *squint* tire iron, only to meet his inevitable splattery doom? Since Krissy didn't seem to be the sort to become a screaming clinging ninny when under attack the last time we saw her.
-*window goes smash* Well, I did say 'moderate safety'.
-*sudden decapitation* Well! Ian's a bit of a dark horse there isn't he! I guess they were there being bait, and that tire iron was a machete. Hm. Is Ian a Hunter's kid too, or has Krissy been doing some tutoring?
-And then there were three. Insert your own Next Generation reference here. Also, all this being a sting op to lure out the monsters makes the decision to steam up the windows even more tactically moronic, but hey, they'll learn.
-HI CAR! I see that the aerial that mysteriously appeared last episode has just as mysteriously disappeared this episode. I think. *squints* Maybe the tape deck was busted and Dean needed better radio reception when they were in downtown Whereverthehell last episode, but now he's got the tape deck fixed and the aerial had to go. Sure. *handwave*
-No, wait, spoke too soon, it's still there, just hard to see in long shots. The tape deck must still be unreliable then. *reserves handwaving just in case*
-Considering they're talking about one of them having a potentially fatal Trial-linked quantum molecular shift issue with his atoms, and the other getting the crap beat out of him by their mind-controlled angelic best friend who is in the wind with another base code of the universe tablet (and either getting locked into his own prophet-mode fugue-state or starting a second set of Trials with... oh crap. Um. Heh... If Sam's doing the Hell trials then the obvious choice if there are Heaven Trials to do would be.... heheh. Darn these Winchesters and their habit of getting on opposite sides of the same damned Apocalypses, eh?) ANYWAY. Considering all that, I probably should not be laughing as hard as I am at this conversation.
-"What, like my feelings?"/"If that's what you wanna talk about, sure." Sam, have you met your brother? At all?
-Herbal tea and Cowboy Junkies. Hee!
-"They were drained of all their blood."/"Hunh."/"We found that strange also." Really? You don't say? There have been some awesome local sheriff characters in recent episodes.
-Tie report: Sam is aggressively stripey with white-blue stripes on alternating fresh and not-so-fresh blood tones. Complex, on more than one job, and as the slant is quite aggressively towards Dean at the moment, genuinely concerned about Dean, even though he's on the case, on the Trials, assumably still bleeding randomly, and has a recent diagnosis of being too messed up for an angel to heal. Aw. Dean has a subtle blue-grey tie with a faint pinstripe crosshatching it looks like, though I don't trust that that's not another chameleon tie like Sam's last week. Dean is on conflicting jobs (the case, the Trials, and trying to keep Sam wrapped up in crash padding while he does the Trials) and is both obscure on the surface and distracted between all the tasks at hand.
-*facepalm* When chopping the heads of vampires (or whatever the blood-suckers are), make sure you don't park your bait in direct line-of-sight with the CCTV, particularly if you're going to do a group pose by the corpse. (That one had a really bouncy head...) Also, looks like he didn't rip the hood off, just opened it and yanked some engine bits to disable the car.
-Dean pulls the big bad Fed card to get the evidence since he recognized Krissy, Sam's momentarily confused eyebrows back his play.
-Written by Adam Glass, Directed by John F. Showalter *nods*
-Well, if they're going to make a prop ID that clear and cappable, I'll cap it. *squints and does math* Pft. Like hell you're 25, kid.
-She's throwing cash around quite nimbly. Wonder how she's sourcing it?
-Stealing the girl you're interested in's cellphone to see if you can look for her boyfriend's number to find out if he exists or not? Kinda creepy.
-"Let me guess, he also lives in Canada?"/"He does, actually. Small town. Called Kissmyass." Hey, I think that's near Sicamous. XD
-Vampires and cameras get along fine in SPN 'verse it seems, did we know that before? I think we did.
-"How about we start a new tradition and before each job give each other good luck kisses?"/"How about I punch you in the throat instead?" I like her. ...Oh crap, now she's doomed, and I don't even know her name yet!
-"Blood?" Solo vampires really need to be more fastidious in their eating habits if they're going to keep even Junior Buffy Squads like this one from finding them and chopping their heads off. Still wondering who or what is providing Krissy's group's funding, unless they all got fake ID's and earphone cameras from Santa this year.
-Standard high school skill-set there. *nods*
-She gets the drop on Dean. What, again?
-Ah, the hunter father died. Combine that with her mother being messily dead and we get taking up a life of hunting evil at the age of, what, 16 now?
-Ah, the deep base drumbeat of impending messy doomed death. Just as the redshirts Scooby gang junior hunter's auxiliary is about to enter the vampire's easily located lair. I predict this will end in sunshine, roses and chocolate malteds all around. (No. No I don't.)
-Or it would have done, if not for a sudden case of Winchesters.
-This guy looks familiar. Well, not the teeth obviously, but still.
-"I got him! *Krissy runs after the vampire*"/"Sonofabitch!" Why am I laughing? I do not know why I'm laughing.
-Meanwhile the other two seem to be stunning Sam with their competence in victim management. Why do I get the feeling he's going to be on their side later on while Dean's going to be trying to get them to stop, even though Dean started younger? And that it's going to turn from Sam supporting the kids' side into an argument about Sam doing the Trials? Oh right, because I've been watching this show for nearly 8 years. Carry on.
-Gunning a man who seemed to be begging for his life down in a public street isn't going to win you any Brownie points with the locals or Dean, Krissy, even if he is a vampire. In which case, bullets are just kind of annoying to him anyway, aren't they? So either this isn't the vampire (since I don't see that blue van anymore) and you shot some random guy, or the vampire is hamming it up to get you arrested.
-"Darts filled with dead man's blood." Of course they are. While Dean stumbles up panting and asking obvious questions like a doof. *facepalm* Krissy, we have had the Mary-Sue talk before, haven't we? *looks back* Not directly, but the point was made. Moving on.
-"Where's the blue van?"/"What blue van?" Okay, being terribly unobservant and not noticing the same blue van at the roadside vampire killing site and parked at but departed from the hotel of 'how are these kids affording all this tech gear?' (which of course means these two vampires aren't the only ones and there's a pissed off nest nearby) does cut down the Mary-Sue risk considerably. It'll do. *nods*
-"This is not your kill." Also the lack of practical thinking that really it doesn't matter who dispatches the monster, as long as the monster is stopped from killing again makes you look like more of an idiot. Or less of an idiot if there's the intent of interrogating the guy and Dean's about to lop his head off without asking questions. Either way, no one is getting D&D experience points here, so it doesn't matter who gets the kill shot.
-Um, guys? Maybe a better place for the shouting about death and brandishing of machetes at cringing guy (who, from anyone who might be watching's perspective, has just been shot by one of your number) would be somewhere else other than the middle of a very public street, hm?
-"I came home from a friend's house and I found them." A woman, a brother and a sister. Ouch. Well, we know a bit of this kid's backstory now.
-Ah, so interrogation wasn't the goal here then, just vengeance. Although it would have been better to get some intel on who the actual vampire who killed her family was, since buddy who has just been very publicly decapitated seemed to have no idea what she was talking about and her vengeance is a bit misplaced it seems.
-Seriously, guys. Off the streets. Take the fresh corpse with you.
-"I need to talk to you. Privately." Oh yes, I should think so.
-"You know this guy?" If she claims Dean is her mythical Skyping Canadian boyfriend, I may never stop laughing.
-Ah, Krissy's dad quit hunting long enough for her to get a taste of normal and then something tracked him down and killed him anyway. That really sucks. I suppose it's a better reason for gathering a teenage cadre and going out aslaughtering than what Dad does looks like fun.
-The one who I have doomed by liking is called Josephine (shout-back to Jo Harvelle's alternate name choice which got dumped in favour of Joanna Beth?) And ...Aiden? Not Ian? I think? Sound is fuzzy.
-"I'm sorry to rain on your parade but you are way too young to be doing this." While that's true in general, that coming from Dean Winchester is rather hilarious, but in a sad sort of way. He was too young too, but still. I don't think Krissy will appreciate the distinction between having started living in the hunting lifestyle more or less at the age of four and wanting to have started living in the hunting lifestyle more or less at the age of four.
-"You're never too young to kill monsters, especially ones that kill your family." There's something... weird about that and how she said it. Like it's *headshake* Like it's a pre-formulated "saving people, hunting things" phrase. An aphorism. Something someone has repeated to her. Hm. I don't think her dad was the sort to have wanted her to feel personally responsible for avenging her mom's death at an early age (though that would explain a lot about her character), and him quitting the hunting life in attempt to keep her out of it would be at odds with that standpoint. Something is fishy here. That combined with the gear she and her crew are hauling around... do these kids all have a hunting mentor?? Hmmm... *eyeballs everyone suspiciously*
-"I think Victor's gonna have a problem with that." Well then! Attitude and bankroll explained; Victor the Mentor. Not Victor Henricksen, of course, since he's dead and his soul was being all vengeful back during the rising of the witnesses which is as proof of death as you get with this show, but wouldn't that have been a shocking development? Left the FBI to start training gangs of teen Hunters. Oh, and it won't be Victor the Leviathan either, since he got eaten.
-"We're not the X-Men." Heee.
-"I don't need you to save me, Dean. I'm not a little kid anymore." Like she used to be last year? Ah, teenagers.
-I do wonder what this Victor person is getting out of forming and supplying this cadre of junior hunters and setting them on revenge quests. Is it just vs. vampires? If so, who or what has a major issue with vampires? Leviathans, but... hm. Did all the Leviathans disappear after Dick Roman went pop? Maybe Victor is a popular Leviathan name choice, and this is one who missed the bus back to Purgatory? Or maybe he's just a human hunter using kids to get some sort of revenge he can't get on his own for some reason? Hm. We'll see. In any case, I doubt 'Victor's' motivations are entirely altruistic, no matter if he's human or otherwise.
-*goes to refill coffee* Heh. Or. OR. It's Frank. And I don't mean Livejournal's goat mascot that's been nibbling on the wires lately. Frank Devereaux. The super-paranoid hunter who they met in the same episode as Krissy and her dad, isn't that interesting. Frank's place was trashed by Leviathans, yeah, and Leviathans tended to not leave corpses behind, but until there's a corpse there's no proof the character's dead, and even then on this show, that's not always a guarantee it'll stick. Sitting behind the scenes and running a crew of mini-hunters seems like something Frank might do, for the right compensation. He was pretty mercenary though, so... hm. I say strong possible on 'Victor' being Frank Devereaux with some serious motivation behind him, but not definite because I think Frank has a lethal allergy to any level of altruism.
-Kids merrily rolling the headless corpse up in a tarp, Sam standing guard. This town and in particular this hotel that all this is happening right outside of is exceptionally oblivious, isn't it?
-Victor from Spokane? Have we met him or is this some backstory spontaneously generating?
-When bagging headless corpses, always remember to bag the head and body separately, just in case. Also, as ever duct tape is your friend, but only if you remember that fingerprints can be pulled off duct tape, and therefore use some kind of countermeasure against that like wearing gloves... Oops. Oh well, I suppose there's always fire.
-Krissy: *throws head into trunk with a loud clunk*, Head: *bounces* I suddenly have an inexplicable headache...
-"Not what I'd call a compound." No, not really. Compounds aren't often *squints* dark teal with white trim. And token picket fence-like bits.
-Victor Rogers (ahaha, so he's Mr. Rogers, complete with a cardigan), who Sam and Dean met on a Rugaru hunt in Washington State sometime. Not Frank Devereaux. Darn.
-Hugs and aphorisms about grief and homework reminders. That and a cup of cocoa for the perfect ending to an evening spent hunting and killing a vampire.
(Also, Sam's tongue. Hee.)
-"Full report on your desk by morning." *nods consideringly* Mission reports. that's... well, on several levels I approve, but on another level, it's kind of creepy as hell.
-"Drink?" Yeah, the boys look like they could use one.
-"So after soccer practice and a bake sale they chop vampires' heads off?"/"Well yeah, I think a balanced approach is best, don't you?" Sam and Dean have these faces. They speak volumes.
-"Because the next generation of hunters has to be better."/"Better than what?"/"Better than us." Well, I think I can see his perspective on that. the past few years there's been a hell gate opened, a few apocalypses, a leviathan incursion, demonic activity spiking everywhere.... Of course a lot of that is down to Winchester-related activity, but still, there has to be serious trickle-down to the general hunting population.
-"Somebody obviously dropped Garth on his head when he was a baby." I think it's more that he didn't get enough hugs and is now overcompensating, myself, though Sam's eyebrows think otherwise.
-"I know you two loved that Bobby guy but he was a barely functional alcoholic." Oh fuck you Mr. Rogers. Sorry. My thought bubble burst there. No one speaks ill of Bobby.
-"Watch it." Yeah. What Dean said. *grr*
-So, Mr. Roger's apparent motivation is hero-building for the next generation. I don't know. Something feels off. Either there's something else going on, or things are going to go very far south very quickly and very soon.
-"Maybe they're doing it right, maybe they can hunt and have a real life."/"You know that's not true." Yep, Sam's on their side, Dean's not, and the countdown to this turning into an argument about the Trials starts now.
-So. To keep the kids out of harm's way, Dean's proposing they go hunt the nest for them. Gee. That couldn't possibly relate to any other decisions Dean's made in his life regarding protecting people both younger and (he hopes) more innocent than he is by throwing himself into the line of fire for them (something he can't do for Sam and the Trials), hm? Noooo not at alllll.
-And he leaves Sam hanging out in Mr. Rogers' neighbourhood too. Ha. Dean is a transparent transparent thing who is going to get his ass kicked going solo against a vampire nest, because this time, he's not a vampire.
-...Speaking of characters on the show of indeterminate fate who may or may not turn up at some later point in time... What exactly happened to the Alpha Vampire...? O.o
-Another sudden thought, because I think actually Dean said he was going to go talk to the woman they found in the vampire's hotel room, and that something seemed weird about that, and then the guy they killed seeming to have no idea what was going on... what if it's all Victor? He finds kids he thinks will make good hunters and part of a good team, then kills their families in a monsterish sort-of way and collects up the kids afterward to 'rescue' them and train them. Almost like YED's special kid program, but without the involuntary blood-feedings for babies, and a shorter turnaround time on results than several generations of selective genetics and upbringing, a ten year demon deal and 20 years of growing up before harvesting. Crap. That's totally what's happening, isn't it? Guess I'd better move this along and find out.
-OH HELLO BLUE VAN LURKING UP ON THE HOUSE AS DEAN LEAVES. Yet another problem with having a steady, permanent base of operations, your adversaries can find you. Just ask the Roadhouse.
-Yep, dark tealish, well-manicured shrubbery and two color trim, and a wide open gate that wouldn't keep a determined toddler out even if it was shut. If Victor isn't secretly killing off the kids families to build his dream team, I hope he's got some kind of defenses on the place or this will be ugly.
-*wafflesinteractsitdowngonnabelatestandupleave* That was some kind of Pleasantville breakfast on fast-forward there. I do not blame Sam's highly amusing bogglement.
(Damn now I want orange juice.)
-"Wendigo, ripped em to shreds." Not exactly the best argument in support of having a family there, Victor.
-"It's not the only way." Victor's promotion of a happy stable hunting family life to the highly receptive audience of Sam is not going to make Sam not take the kids' side any time soon. Also, if Victor isn't secretly evil and offing Hunter kids' parents to raise them into his future hunter dream team, he is totally going to be dead before the credits roll.
-Vampire guy was wonderful and awesome and just came back from Afghanistan a few weeks ago. Yep, not the vampire that took out Josephine's family, obviously. If it indeed was a vampire *eyes Victor*
-Tie Report #2 for Dean. Shifting shades of blue and silver, aggressively stripey. On the job come hell or high water, even though the job is likely to shift to something he's not expecting.
-Guy with blue van got her, tied her to the bed. Hm. Where did the kids get the hotel location from? Maybe Victor has an accomplice who is setting up the monsters to take the fall, or setting them up with tempting human bait to get them to fully turn or go off the bloodmobile wagon, or... HMMM. *ponders*
-I'm not particularly bothered by Victor pulling the kids out of school to work a job since I've known a lot of small business owners and farmers who do the same thing when they need an extra hand in the family business, so long as the kids aren't running behind in school. Although none of their family businesses involve hunting down vampires and carrying out vengeance quests.
-"My dad's necklace." Well, if it's a setup, it's a darn thorough one. Wonder if Blue Van/possible accomplice is part of the Vampire nest?
-"Are you sure this is a video surveillance pic?"/"It's her!" Yeaaaah, it's sounding more and more like setup to me, winding up hot-headed teens and setting them loose.
-"He was fresh made within the month." Unless he was turned in Afghanistan, but still, he was off the continent until a few weeks ago so not going to be Josephine's family's killer regardless of where and when he got turned.
-"There's no time-stamp on it." ... wait. *scrolls back and caps*
No, there isn't! I saw the little block of text in the bottom right there and assumed it had the time in it without looking too close, but it just has a camera identification. That's kinda weird indeed. And not looking positive for Victor not being a secretly murdering bastard out to create the perfect Hunter team, through bonds of blood and vengeance and sweet sweet waffles. Well spotted, Sam!
-"Never trust a guy who wears a sweater." Well, John Watson wears jumpers, not sweaters, so I suppose I'll let that one pass.
-Blue Van, you are about to be busted by Sam Winchester, whose eyebrows have gone all thinky. Watch out.
-"We think he's working with the vampire we just popped."/"Looks like we're going hunting." Does this expression look like 'Wow, thanks for spotting a potential threat to my happy hunter family, Sam!' or does it look more 'The fool suspects. I must kill him now before he reveals my dastardly plan... Bwahahaha.' I don't know, but I'm getting some serious Evil Overlord vibes from Victor right now, and not feeling to cheery about the likelihood of Sam having a 'hunting accident'.
-Yep. Blue Van Hoodie booked the room. *squints at the wall of pamphlets* Does the one next to the seasonally-closed-lodge-of-convenient-lair-making say Haunted something? Haunted Farm Tour? Looks like. Hm.
-Sometimes I wonder when exactly they take time to change from suits to practical gear. Do they just pull over and change kit in a gas station restroom? I do understand the reasoning. Suits are good for information and okay for moderate running around, but jeans and five layers of jackets and shirts are far more practical for the more hands-on aspects of hunting, and not just because that coat on top of that much cloth is practically a very light torso armor versus slashing things like claws and blades. Also, steel-toed work boots or even hiking boots beat dress shoes in combat any day.
(Car pretty. Pretty car. *pats*)
-This location is looking really familiar, but I'm not sure why.
-"Hey! Who the hell are you?" Looks like the person from the photo, who is either not a vampire, or is a vampire and pretending to be hero-bait.
-"This ever happen to you before?"/"No!" Ooooor, Blue Van Hoodie and Victor are making the vampires who 'killed the kids' families' to order (whether by biting them or by feeding them vampire blood like that guy in , just in time for them to be a very confused and easy starter kill, and cement the kids in a life of hunting. Wow. That's getting a bit baroque. I think I like it. In terms of plot complexity, of course, not in terms of goals and morality and collateral damage and so forth.
-Oh perfect, the kids are here. Interesting how Aidan's the only one pointing his gun at the poor confused newbie vampire and not at Dean.
-Interesting microclimates they have around here. Where Sam and Victor are it's bright and sunny, but over by the cabins of seasonal convenience, it was pouring rain and lightly thundering. As a side note, Sam's hair in the sun goes a bit auburn doesn't it?
-Hint: if you are skulking around doing secret things, you may want to vary your wardrobe now and then so you aren't easily identified by an item of clothing. I get that the hoodie is to keep the sun off so he can go skulking around in the day (as it seems he is a vampire), but there are other options. SPF 100 sunscreen, or a varied selection of hats for example. Also, people are less likely to mistake you for Oliver Queen wearing the wrong colour.
-Casually walking through the residential area park near his house, in broad daylight, openly drawing a gun from his zippered cardigan. Mr. Rogers is very comfortable about doing whatever he damn well pleases in his neighbourhood.
-Surprise! It's a trap! Really, Sam, if you had the slightest qualms about Victor after the security camera pictures, you should never have let him out of your line of sight. Though in your defense you were a little blinded by the 'happy hunting home' pitch and were dithering between he's lying and he doesn't know, and erred on the side of letting a relative unknown get behind you with a weapon. Oopsie.
-Seriously, Green Arrow, but in navy and tan. Although really I only see the commercials for Arrow, so *shrug*
-"Why are you with the vampire that killed my dad?" Great, now she thinks Dean's in cahoots. Come on! You kids are smarter than this. Open your eyes, see what's in front of you and make your own call about the situation.
-And now for the new hunters, a guest lecture on how vampirism works from Professor Dean. Sensible and logical, and meanwhile all these kids' guns are waving around so much, Dean could probably disarm them all with a sneeze.
-Or like that. With a smile and a grab. Silly hunterlings.
-"She's still a monster and deserves to die." And not too many years ago, Dean would have agreed with you. However, she got turned against her will, she's still in the opening however many hours window, and if they can get - what was it, blood from her sire and a bunch of herbs and spices - they can reverse the process still.
-It's been a while since Sam's been tied to a chair, hasn't it? Has it? I keep getting side-tracked by memories of A Very Supernatural Christmas, and I know Sam must have been tied to a chair since then.
-"Seems that nest of vampires you were hunting came seeking revenge and killed you." And were also slightly offended by the end tables in the sitting room and tipped them all over, gently, and in straight lines.
-"I'm sorry, Sam I can't have anyone poisoning my kids' minds."/"Other than yourself I guess." Point to Sam.
-"That Leviathan fiasco was a wake-up call. We have to do what we can to survive." Including making pacts with the enemy and lying to kids to turn them into killers. Hmm. I'll leave meta analysis of that overall situation to the more politically-inclined.
-"I have a second chance to make it all right. To create the next generation of hunters. Stronger! Faster! Smarter!" *takes a short Daft Punk hand jam break* Well, Victor certainly busted out the evil overlord frothing in spades there didn't he? All he's missing is an 'I'LL SHOW THEM, I'LL SHOW THEM ALL! BWAHAHAHA!', with possibly a Six Million Dollar Man reference in return.
-Yes, and just as it says in the evil overlord's handbook, "When you have the hero at your mercy, don't stand around explaining the plot and gloating, just kill him." Silly Victor. *pats*
-Sam's little gesture here of 'whoops, got knocked out and tied to a chair again, sorry Dean' is making me laugh far too hard.
-"These two are not to be trusted. They're trying to destroy us." And that explains the vampire behind you how exactly?
-As Aidan subsequently asks. Good boy Aidan.
-"Is that true?" Aaaaaand the long open-mouthed pause of 'oh crap, how do I explain this' really is not helping your case.
-"It's complicated." As ever, it's probably not a good sign when you have to reduce your plans and plotting down to a Facebook relationship status.
-"See, Blue Van here has been turning fresh vamps, setting them up for you kids as easy kills." SEE? I said so!
-"Well then who did?"/"I did." In a room full of hunters, with three armed teenagers out for vengeance, that's not exactly a great statement to make in terms of your continued survival, Blue Van dude. Though if he's getting in early so he can reveal Victor's role behind it all in ordering their families deaths rather than risking Victor making him a scapegoat, it does make some tactical sense.
-"And they all screamed and begged for mercy." Back to tactically stupid, unless he's got a reason for wanting to be the target of a barely-controlled fire-fight.
-"You needed motivation. I scouted each and every one of you." You know, in cases like this, full disclosure is really not your friend. Oh well, it was coming out one way or another. Go big or go home as they say.
-"I know the deaths were tragic, but think of all the future lives that will be saved because you are together." Pfffffft. Oh dear. I'm surprised no one's shot him yet, frankly.
-"We can get past this." Uhhhh. No. I don't think so.
-Dean Winchester, draws faster than a speeding vampire.
-...almost.
-Krissy: *shoots Blue Van in the eye* Right, okay. Character balance check time. *pulls out GURPS rule book* For a Snapshot off a Fast-Draw, through an occupied hex, and hit the eye, the modifiers on that shot would be... *tosses pencil* fucking insane. Like at least -18 to a roll made on three 6 sided dice, making it literally impossible (without it being a fluke) for 99.99% of people who use guns. That was either a natural crit, or she has Mary-Sue levels of Guns Skill. Mathing it out and putting it in general terms, in order to have had even a 50% chance of making that shot, she'd have needed to put the same amount of points/character value into her Guns skill as... hm. As Sam or Dean would have used for all their skills, stats and character advantages total by about the 4th episode of season 1. And that's assuming she has nothing but one skill. So. Out of balance, and careening wildly into Mary-Sue territory, because unlike other characters in this and other shows making amazing shots, she doesn't have the backstory of intensive combat training and years of experience to back it up. It is a pretty shot, but a shoulder hit would have been far more easily believable than that eye shot and sufficiently incapacitating for the situation.
-She could do very well at playing an evil character. She's got that 'you're gonna die' smirk down cold.
-"He's not a person, he's a monster." She does have a point, but finding some way to prove he was behind all the recent deaths and turning him over to the authorities would be the more morally sensible thing to do, since there are courts and laws to deal with the kind of monster he is.
-An empty gun sort of works though. Really convenient that she didn't have it loaded, since I don't see how or when she'd have had the chance to dump the bullets in that scene, and dumping the bullets before the scene was under control would have been suicidally stupid.
-Of course if he decides to be a dumbass and start shooting, there's not much you can do.
-Or that. Eep. Victor was not doing too well on many levels.
-"Just drink slowly, this'll take away all the pain." After giving you a whole lot more pain along with convulsions and thrashing and maybe some hallucinations if it's going to be similar to Dean's experience, but whatever *handwave*
-"Your aunt. Cincinnati, normal life. We'll be there by lunch tomorrow." Ha ha. I doubt Krissy will be going for that for some reason. Don't know how they're going to pay the bills, the rent, the property taxes, etc, though Victor might have had a will that left his stuff to them. They were flashing a lot of cash around earlier, so maybe Victor was loaded. If they own the house, they should sell it and get a smaller place, like a trailer on a postage stamp sized property. Of course they'll need to clear out the dead bodies and clean the blood and brain matter off the walls and floor before inviting a realtor to come around, but every place needs some pre-sale sprucing up. :-P
-"You're alright for an old guy."/"I'm really not that old."/"You keep telling yourself that." *snerk*
-"I'm gonna have a guy come and check on you once in a while, his name is Garth." Oh lord, the kids are gonna eat him alive.
-"I know. You'll kill me if I ever hurt her, blah blah blah."/"No. She'll kill you." And again *sneeeerk*
-"Maybe if we shut that hell hole once and for all, those three can have a real life."/"Maybe they won't be the only ones." And back to the Trials we go.
Not as much meta-arguing about who is and isn't allowed to be responsible for their own choices regarding taking on epic quests and suchlike as I thought there might be, but there we are.
As I mentioned, posting this in a massive rush, likely to edit later.
(PLEASE, NO REFERENCES TO EPISODES PAST 8.18 IN COMMENTS! I'll be catching up as fast as I can, but that's not likely to be very fast, and definitely not in time for the finale. Obviously. :-/)