Rewatch S5: I Believe The Children Are Our Future (5x06)
I was going to be far more productive yesterday, but my brain broke and I ended up being too depressed to do much of anything. Thankfully, I started feeling better sometime in the evening and decided that doing another rewatch would probably help, not hurt, my predicament. And I was correct! Yay!
Who's looking forward to tonight, btw? *raises hand* I'm going to a friends house to watch it!! Woo! SPN PARTY! That means that my usual "Quick Reaction" will be a couple of hours later than usual...and not so quick, I guess.
Anyway...on with the show....
I BELIEVE THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE
Who takes their hairbrush to a babysitting gig?
Page and Plant - classic false identities. The boys wear suits for a LOT of this episode.
"You didn't read the autopsy report that I emailed out this morning?"
"We had server issues."
-Brilliant. I love the way Jared delivers that line...I can't put my finger on it, but it's brilliant. Also, it reminds me of a quote that I've forgotten about how we are so accepting of computer problems, and how the equivalent would be if you went to tie your shoes one morning and your shoelaces exploded and you weren't concerned at all.
And the hairbrush is still on the TV. Follow up question to my first question: Who doesn't put away their dead babysitter's hairbrush?
The kid who plays Jimmy is good. I like the way he is nervously lying.
Jared is very attractive in this episode - still doesn't quite look like he does in person, but getting closer than usual.
"What the hell? That crap isn't supposed to work?"
-Again, I just like the way Jared delivers this line. Don't know why.
Also, in this scene (over the roasted pig), you get a great shot of Jared's forearm. Mmm....
Dean's enthusiasm for the whoopie cushion is adorable.
"These days all they care about are iPhones and those kissing vampire movies"
-Supernatural really likes to take digs at Twilight (not that I blame them...sorry to those who are fans, but that series is the most horrible thing. Simply GodAwful)
"Some freak is going to come into my room and take my tooth..."
-Awww, the little girl is ME.
God, teeth pulling scene is so horrible! Also...awww, the dude is a single parent!! THIS IS A HORRIBLE THING TO HAPPEN TO A SINGLE PARENT! He's got enough troubles as it is!
I love Sam's face when Dean makes the face! Hahaha...that sentence doesn't make sense if you haven't seen the episode.
"I thought sea monkeys were real [...] like in the ads. The sea monkey wife cooks the pot roast for the sea monkey husband and the sea monkey kids play with the dog in the sea monkey castle. I mean, I was six, but I believed it."
-Awwww, why isn't there more fanfic about six-year-old Dean's imagined domestic life of sea monkeys?! That is both adorable, and heartbreaking given how six-year-old lived.
"...has the power of a god...or a trickster."
"And the sense of humour of a nine year old"
"Or you"
-I know this is a jokey line, but it totally reminds me of the great meta about Dean's stunted emotional growth...ah Dean, you are so heartbreaking.
"Dude, seriously? Still with the ham?"
"We don't have a fridge!"
-You know what I love about this: Dean isn't wasting food. They could have bought that ham SOLELY for the experiment and tossed the whole thing. Instead, Dean tries his best to eat it all - even though at this point it's already a day old, so unless he had it in a bucket of ice, I wouldn't touch it. Anyway, I just like it because food-waste is a pet-peeve of mine. We throw out so much food in North America it's really insulting to those in the rest of the world who don't have any...or, you know, people like me who can't really afford to eat right now.
Then we get the hairy palm....oh man, so gross. Jared does the disgusted little brother face so well!
"I got bored. That nurse was hot."
-*comment censored*
"Hey, do not use my razor!"
-Again, Jared is just hitting his line deliveries out of the park this episode. Also: who wants to bet that Dean totally used his razor?
I love how the kid asks to see their badges up close....that he's less trusting than most adults they meet. Don't underestimate kids, people!!
So, Dean convinces the kids that joy buzzers are harmless, waits until he's sure the kid is convinced they are harmless, then uses it on Sam. Sam, of course, hasn't fully clued in yet and has an AWESOME reaction. Haha...I love his super annoyed look he gives Dean.
"Dude what the hell?"
"I had a hunch and I went with it."
"You risked my ass on a hunch?"
"You're fine...."
-I understand why Sam's annoyed...but this is actually a huge growing point for Dean. He actually momentarily put Sam at risk! Good job! Also, Sam, as I seem to recall, you once had your brother play chicken in a parked car with a racist truck because you had a hunch...
Anyway, small critique of the writing here: Sam and Dean then go on to explain in detail what just happened - about how Jesse believed the joy buzzer would kill and it did, then Dean convinced him otherwise and it didn't, etc....DUDES WE KNOW. You are OVER EXPLAINING. The audience isn't THAT stupid. We just saw what happened too, you know, it's not that hard to put two and two together.
There's a fly on the counter at Jesse's mum's place...that's a really cool touch.
"Maybe the demon was tired or the pain helped me fight it."
-Another clue into the 'being able to fight off demons is key' thing. Personally, I think it probably had more to do with maternal instincts and whatnot...whether impregnated by a demon or not, new mother's have super-powers.
It is a really cool twist on "immaculate" conception. It's more like an instance of impregnation by rape. (Note: I view the whole possession thing on the show as a symbol of rape).
I like how Dean tells her about the kid though...he doesn't say "he has weird freaky powers, but otherwise he seems nice." He just says "he's a good kid" - which you know, is true, and also what someone who has probably been wrestling with their decision to keep the kid alive wants to hear.
Is this the first time Sam has seen Cas since the beginning of 5x02? I think so, eh? The Sam-Cas relationship is certainly strained at this point.
The whoopie cusion gag is so jarring that it WORKS. I can't imagine how many takes it must have taken them to get that right.
"Who put that there?"
-Cas' glance at Dean after this line is priceless. 'We all know who put that there, Dean'
"Your bible gets more wrong than it does right."
-Yay! I'm so happy the writers decided that their universe was only going to be "loosely" based on the bible. It brings so much more freedom and SANITY and better story-telling.
"Lucifer will twist this boy to his purpose and with a word this child will destroy the host of heaven..."
-Jesse is really cool and all, but WHY is he so powerful? I mean, a single black-eyed demon can't destroy the host of heaven. A human is less powerful than a demon...SAM can't destroy the host of heaven...why can Jesse?
"Wait, we're the good guys here. We don't just kill children!"
"A year ago you would have done whatever it took to win this war"
"Things change"
*Dean breaks up fight*
-Poor Sam, he was totally being used by both heaven and hell last year. Hell was deliberately leading him by the hand, and the angels were totally taking advantage of his single-mindedness.
"So we tell him the trust. You say Jesse's destined to go darkside, fine, but he hasn't yet. So if we lay it all out for him. What he is, the apocalypse, everything. He might make the right choice."
*Cas pauses, leans forward* "You didn't...and I can't take that chance."
-See, the slight pause is what makes that comment cruel. Secondly, it's UNFAIR, because Sam DIDN'T have the truth laid out for him...he didn't know he was starting the apocalypse. For all intents and purposes, he thought he was PREVENTING it. YOU and the host of heaven LED HIM TO BELIEVE that he was preventing it.
What if John (or someone, if John didn't know) had told Sam the absolute truth - not these vague allusions about Dean needing to save him or kill him...but the whole matter of being Lucifer's vessel and how Lilith was the final seal and all sorts of things...do you think Sam would have made the same decisions? Probably not. I'll come back to this later.
Dean looks down all weakly...what do you do when your brother and your angel are fighting? You can't really take sides...
I like Sam's "damn it" - "damn it" is to Sam as "son of a bitch" is to Dean.
Castiel totally stole the demon knife.
When Cas says "I'm sorry" to Jesse - it's delivered with genuine emotion! My heart breaks a little for Castiel. He actually doesn't want to do this.
Then the boys arrive to save the day! Interesting to note: they totally took the time to change out of their suits and put on their regular clothes before they rushed over. Priorities?
"Was he your friend?" *angry face*
"No." - Haha, Dean...
I like Dean's superhero story - it's so DEAN. He relates everything to Superheroes.
Now it's time for Horrible Way To Find Out You're Adopted #63!
Sam's speech to Jesse gives a lot away about what Sam's been feeling...like the fact that he's going to be haunted the rest of his life. Aww, Sam.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I have to believe someone can make the right choice. Even if I couldn't."
-Technically Sam, you weren't GIVEN a choice. You were tricked. Stop beating yourself up. It's not like people told Dean that he was the first seal either. Didn't you and Dean discuss this at the end of the last episode? NEITHER of you knew.
"Kid, you're awesome"
-Geez, Dean, way to be a bit of a hypocrite. It's ok for a half human half demon kid to exercise demons with his mind, but it's not ok for your demon-tainted brother to do the same? I mean, I get that the kid doesn't have to be hopped up on demon-drug to do it, but still. Sam KILLED the demon that tortured you! Did you ever thank him for that? No, probably you just freaked the heck out.
"Truth is, he's kind of a buddy of mine..."
"He tried to kill me."
"Right [...] He's a good guy. He was just confused.....it's been a long night, we can talk about it later."
-Haha, I like how Dean's like "well, let's try the honesty thing" and then he's like "ok...um...let's just...leave it."
"You're powerful. More powerful than anything we've ever seen. That makes you-"
"A freak?"
"To some people maybe, but not to us. See, we're kind of freaks ourselves."
-I LOVE how Sam is becoming more comfortable with his own freakishness....not really, but look closely at that, he INCLUDED DEAN in the category of freak! At least Sam isn't acting like he's the black-sheep freak of his family.
"Our dad, he would take us with him wherever he went."
"Where is he now?"
"Dead. A demon killed him."
-Technically not true. John killed himself, he just used a demon to do it.
I hope they returned Jesse's birth-mother to her house. Otherwise she's going to be in trouble if his parents wake up and discover that he's not there and there's a strange woman sleeping downstairs.
"You know, we destroyed that kid's life by telling him the truth."
"We didn't have a choice, Dean"
"Yeah, I'm starting to get why parents lie to their kids, you know. You want them to believe that the worst they get is mixing poprocks with coke. Protect them from the real evil. You want them going to bed feeling safe, if that means lying to them, so be it. The more I think about it, the more I wish Dad had lied to us."
"Yeah, me too"
-Ok, I get that this is Dean and Sam morning their lack of childhood ala Something Wicked (and hey, at least this time Dean is thinking of himself too)...but technically, John lying to them is what got them into this mess in the first place. Also, Dean and John DID lie to Sam until he was about 8 or 9 years old. Like I said earlier, if they had known EVERYTHING I'm sure they would have been able to avoid this mess. Whereas, if John had lied to them COMPLETELY they probably would have been far more easy to manipulate. If we assume John knew everything, than what he tried to do was strike a balance: tell them enough truth to arm them, but not enough truth to horrify them by their own destinies. That's my opinion anyway.
I mean, I understand the boys wishing they had a regular childhood and weren't so messed up psychologically...but if they were actually wishingfor something that would prevent the apocalypse, they should be wishing that someone had told them everything, like they had just told Jesse.
.