SPN 8.05
Right. Gonna try and whizz through some backlist! I don’t think there’s anything epic I’ve discussed about Benny on tumblr that I need to link to, so I’ll summarise my thoughts on him as we go (edit: this was not even close to a 'whizz though' - fuck me):
THEN:
Dean went to Purgatory. He got a vampire BFF called Benny.
He lost Cas. Found him again. And refused to let him go.
Apparently he did. Or did he??
Dean got out of Purgatory with Benny.
Sam was traumatised at losing his brother (again!) and gave him up for dead.
He lived a normal life with a messed up girl called Amelia.
Oh, and Kevin Tran (Advanced Placement) is a prophet. He’s missing.
NOW:
On the docks with a guy who would look right at home with the posh kids at Eton.
Benny shows up in an absolutely AMAZING blue sailor-ish outfit complete with blue hat! ♥
Eton wanna-be is one of the vamps who killed Benny back in the day and Benny’s come for revenge.
I’ll admit I was a little surprised by this - I assumed Benny was killed by hunters, not his own people. This got me interested v. quickly.
Eton wanna-be calls on some friends to help him deal with Benny. Full of bravado, Benny pulls out a knife and gets ready to take them all on. ALL… um… 3? 3? That’s all I see. A measly 3… compared to the armies he must have fought in Purgatory? It’s hardly a challenge is what I’m saying, right?
Anyway, meanwhile our boys have been trying to track down Kevin. Put Kevin is a sneaky sneaky guy and been leaving a false credit card trail. He is not in the motel room Sam and Dean have found.
Sam is especially pissed. He wants to find Kevin fast, no doubt, so he can wrap things up and get back to trying again with a normal life. Just like he felt about everything during the Pilot. He’s come full circle and that makes sense to me.
Dean is more relaxed and happy to enjoy the paid for minibar :p
During the conversation we get a little more insight into Dean’s new, super, soldier-focused outlook -
Dean: When is that kid gonna stop running from us.
Sam: [annoyed] I dunno Dean, I mean, you did try to kill his mother.
Dean: I was trying to kill Crowley! Okay? Who happened to in Kevin’s mother at the time. There’s a difference!
Sam: Apparently not to Kevin! I don’t know, maybe because, oh yeah, it’s his mother.
Just to emphasise how Dean is doing that compartmentalising thing hardened soldiers end up doing - ignoring emotional/moral aspects of something in order to get the job done. I LIKE IT SO MUCH. I love Dean’s plot this season! :D It makes every tiny expression of real emotion in Dean from this point on EVEN MORE AMAZING than ever because it will mean any emotion he shows must be incredibly heartfelt and strong because he can’t ignore it like he has done with all the others and… ugh, it’s beautiful, I love characters with emotional armour and watching it crack! ♥
Also interesting is how Dean doesn’t seem to understand why Sam isn’t on the same page with him on this. To Dean right now a hunter NEEDS to view the world in this detached way in order to get by, a hunter should be OUTSIDE the world. And it’s frustrating to Dean that Sam DOESN’T see things the same way, that he persists in applying real world morals and ideals to a world Dean has separated from all that.
Just another in all the ongoing examples of Sam and Dean’s differing outlooks on life and the fact that they really DO live in different worlds (oooh - STILL live in different worlds, you could say, even though Dean has outwardly re-joined Sam in his one from Purgatory… and Sam has re-joined Dean in the hunting world from his normal life… yes, I like that). This is another plot I’m really really loving and I think it’s ticking over very very nicely :)
Anyway, Dean gets a call for help from Benny, which he takes in relative privacy outside. Making Sam instantly suspicious, of course. This gave me Benny-Ruby parallel tingles, because this is what Sam did with Ruby of course - secret phone calls. And I DID so want Benny to be a Ruby-like figure for Dean… as of next episode though, the more apt parallel is that Benny is Dean’s AMY. Which does indeed make more sense. Woes. Still, there are some Ruby overtones at least :p
Benny is bleeding out badly and needs Dean’s help. Dean is exasperated and impressed that Benny took on ‘HOW many?’ I’m… :| What? It was THREE! Pah. But I will overlook that and except that the set-up is that Benny is in peril. Ok.
Also of note - Benny says he messed up, prompting Dean to ask immediately in an ominous tone ‘what did you do?’ To which Benny replies ‘nah, man, not like that.’ Which, of course, tells us right away that Benny promised not to kill humans to feed. A disappointment to me initially, because I wanted Dean to have bonded with Benny in such a way that he was willing to overlook the guy’s occasional murder, I wanted it to be THAT DARK between them (kinda like Betsy didn’t care about the crimes Brick had committed because she was so in love with him, you know?).
But no, from the get go we learn Benny is a ‘good’ monster.
I’m over it now :p
Cut to Sam furious with Dean for ditching him and the hunt for Kevin without explanation.
There are some lines here I’m doing mental backflips over -
Dean: Hey the trail is dead […] you got some research to do and I got some personal crap I gotta take care of that’s all.
Sam: What does that mean ‘personal’?
Dean: Did you have a stroke? Vocabulary - personal. As in my own, grown up, personal, I don’t know, crap.
♥ ♥ ♥
Guys, do you REALISE how BIG this is? This is Dean saying ‘I have a LIFE OF MY OWN OUTSIDE OF YOU, Sam.’ This is Dean saying ‘I AM MY OWN PERSON.’ This is Dean saying ‘I CAN EXIST WITHOUT MY BROTHER.’ And whether or not a friendship with Benny is a good or bad thing is irrelevant because it’s not WHAT his personal crap is that matters here, it’s the fact that Dean is happy to HAVE personal crap. This is Dean BREAKING SOME OF HIS CO-DEPENDENCE with Sam and that’s an amazing amazing thing! ♥
(Ok ok - there might be a case to say he’s simply transferred his co-dependence onto Benny, but I don’t think so. He insisted on a split between them in 8.01 after all, and stuff he says in 8.06 tells me the relationship he and Benny have isn’t like that. But still, things to think about…)
So Dean drives off into the night and we are treated to a sexy flashback of him and Benny fighting in Purgatory. Now, I think they WAAAAY overdid the slow-motion this episode, and this flashback is a fine example. Silly slow-motion. BUT the flashback itself is awesome. Benny is whistling through his and Dean’s fight - presumably as a kind of personal signal or tactic between them? - and IDK, I thought it was equal parts creepy and sexy and cool :)
The tune Benny whistles is In The Hall of The Mountain King, which has lots of meta significance :) The most relevant is that it is the tune the murderer whistles in the film ‘M’ - a film about a child killer who insists he has ‘urges’ that ‘compel’ him to kill which he can’t control. Hmmm, sound like something a vampire might say? In the film an ‘M’ is marked on the murderer’s hand - M for Murderer. But M for Monster would be equally applicable, right? Benny is, of course, both...
What I love the MOST about this flashback, however, is the moment when Dean and Benny start to naturally back towards each other without looking and Dean reaches behind him to pat Benny’s back in an unspoken signal - telling where the enemy is, how Benny should tackle them, something like that. I thought THAT was beautifully done, with the shot pausing for a moment on the touch to emphasise its significance.
So I love that. And I hate it. I had a mini-meltdown on tumblr about it. Because this is Dean and Benny acting as the perfect fighting team. Their communication is SO GOOD they don’t even have to verbalise it. They are slick and completely in sync. They are an equal and amazing partnership.
And it was so much everything I’ve ever wanted Dean and Cas to be I could have cried! D:
But tumblr discussion has pointed out a few things that have pacified me.
Because the thing about this easy partnership Dean has with Benny is that it is very much a WORKING relationship. Dean has nothing with Benny EXCEPT for the fight. They are completely, and more than Dean and Cas ever were, SOLDIERS-IN-ARMS. And THAT is what Dean LIKES about the relationship, of course - there are no pesky extra FEELINGS to worry about, he doesn’t need to fret about Benny’s safety (because it doesn’t matter too much if this guy he doesn’t REALLY care about gets hurt), he doesn’t need to have any deep and meaningful conversations with the guy. With Benny everything is PRACTICAL and NOT EMOTIONAL.
Which is where Cas differs, of course. Because Dean never had this practical, soldiers-in-arms relationship with Cas. It was an EMOTIONAL relationship from the word go, with Cas seeing into him and caring (‘you don’t think you deserved to be saved’) and the two of them discussing emotional secrets (‘I’m not a hammer’ - ‘I’m not strong enough’ etc.). Dean CARES about Cas on a deep, emotional level, like he has always ended up doing with the people in his life. Dean enjoys being with Benny because their relationship is refreshingly devoid of that.
This means that, in many ways, Dean is freer with Benny than he is with Cas and Sam. But it also means his relationship with Benny is LESS.
DURING PURGATORY anyway. I think things shift during this episode and Benny becomes for Dean more of a REAL FRIEND. But a friend with whom Dean is NOT CO-DEPENDENT. A CASUAL FRIEND. For which I’m happy for him about, he’s needed one of those for ages, to show him that relationships can be varied and they don’t have to be these epic, exhausting, clingy, all or nothing bonds he’s always seemed to have made them.
And that give me hope that if his relationship with Benny can evolve that way, he one with Cas can become more balanced too and gain an element of that easy, brothers-in-arm equality Dean shares with Benny. But more on that later…
Back at the motel Sam is checking up on Amelia’s financial situation. Because he’s ‘concerned’ and ‘not stalking’ :p
While he does he notices a broken fan in the ceiling and flashes back…
Now, I really really LIKE these flashbacks of Sam, but I recognise that 1) the WAY Sam flashes back is HILARIOUS - staring ~significantly at a broken fan doesn’t come across as anything but DAFT :p and 2) Sam’s flashbacks this episode are INCREDIBLY MUNDANE.
I can’t excuse the OTT staring at innocuous stuff :p But I LIKE the mundane in this context. I like how it’s juxtaposed with the hyperrealness of the Purgatory flashbacks, I like how they are very much polar opposites. Dean and Sam have been living in completely opposite worlds, both of which have their good points and bad points, but both of which are valid - that’s the message I’m taking from this. Which is an extension of ‘Sam and Dean are DIFFERENT PEOPLE’ and that’s okay. Which I also love. YMMV, of course :)
So don’t tell me Sam’s story is boring because it’s mundane - the mundane part is THE POINT, and while I agree that a whole show made up of Sam’s story would be dull and I wouldn’t bother watching, SPN is not trying to make a whole show out of something mundane, it is placing mundane moments within a story otherwise filled with super violence and excitement so the two things can work together and I THINK IT WORKS AND I REALLY LIKE IT. The end.
:p
Dean finds Benny’s van and his supply of bagged blood, quickly followed by a weak and still bleeding Benny. Rescue mission complete!
After a quick fix and a shower Benny is good as new - surprising Dean a little considering how bad Benny was hurt, which is mostly for exposition purposes, I think, so Benny can explain how being a vampire works. Because, really, Dean would KNOW vamps can heal superfast, surely?
Here’s another bit that changed my understanding of Dean and Benny’s relationship -
Dean asks what’s going on and Benny tries, very hard, to fob him off so he can go on with his business alone. When Dean pushes it, looking Benny deep in the eye and lowering his voice in that way we all know means Dean CARES, even if only a little, Benny shakes his head.
Benny: You and that whole ‘friend’ thing, man.
See, from the way Benny seemed so cut up about Dean suggesting they split for a while I assumed Benny was, well, more into Dean than Dean was into him :p But this suggests that to Benny their relationship was very much as described above - a non-emotional, brothers-in-arms deal. He trusts Dean with practical things, like fixing him up when he’s bleeding, but he doesn’t want Dean involved in any personal, emotional, aspects of his ‘real’ life outside their working relationship.
And okay, that’s cool too :)
Dean, however, senses something personal and he can’t help it, can he? He starts to CARE. Because that’s what he does, that’s his ‘thing.’ Benny has been nothing but a fighting partner up until now and Dean’s LIKED that, but there’s no fight now… and Sam’s distant from him… and Cas is gone… yup, I can imagine Dean is feeling a need for an emotional connection right about now, so the chance to ‘upgrade’ Benny to a deeper friend was one he jumped on.
And talking of Dean’s ‘friends’ - flashback!
We pick up where the last one left off. Dean and Benny dispatch their attacker, while CAS faces down his own monster alone, burning the guy up with a touch to his forehead.
Benny is impressed by unhappy that Cas, being an angel, is drawing the attention of all the monsters around. Cue a moment that re-enforces the idea he and Dean AREN’T v. close in Purgatory - Dean counters that Benny said before it was Dean’s humanity making them a target for monsters. Benny just shrugs and tells him ‘that too’ and Dean gives him a bitchy look that says ‘you don’t know WHAT you’re talking about do you, why am I trusting you again?’
Cas: [on the dead monsters] Does present a curious curl in the metaphysics doesn’t it? If you murder a monster in monster heaven where does it go?
♥ I love Cas’ rhetorical philosophical musings. This has been mused over on tumblr. I won’t replicate the musings because they are somewhat tangential, but I love that Cas keeps posing these questions, to be thought about or not depending on your preference :)
And Cas and Benny - CAS AND BENNY GUYS! ♥
Benny: And this is the crazy Aunt I want to take on the road?
Cas: [angry] I am not your Aunt.
Benny: [sarcastic] What? Really?
Cas: I have no possible relationship to your sibling offspring.
Benny: Now you’re kidding me.
Dean: [exasperated, this is not the first altercation between them] Oh, you two are killing me!
And then we jump immediately from antagonism to reluctant allegiance -
Cas: I have to agree with the vampire, Dean. Crossing Purgatory with a Seraph, it’s, less than strategic. And certainly when I have no reason to believe that I can pass through the door that we’re headed for.
Benny: You see, Dean? […blah blah exposition…] You hear what he’s telling you, Dean? Your buddy is saying -
Dean: Listen to me you undead blood junkie, I’m the one with the mojo, I’m the one with the plan. CAS! We’re gonna shove your ass through the eye of that needle if it kills all three of us.
Benny: Obviously I’m less than comfortable with that.
At which point I officially feel in love with Team Free Purgatory :)
I just LOVE their dynamic, okay? :D All of it. I love that Benny baits Cas and Cas falls for it, and that Dean is fondly frustrated with them over it, like a parent when one of their kids is teasing and the other doesn’t realise. I love that despite disliking and distrusting Benny Cas will take his side in an instant if it means protecting Dean. I love that Benny gets so smug over that, like support from Cas is this big prize. I love that when push comes to shove Dean TAKES CAS’ SIDE OVER BENNY without question. I love it I love it I love it!
And oh DEAN. Still so DESPERATE to keep Cas with you ♥ And saying, as so many have pointed out, the Dean Winchester equivalent of ‘I’d rather die than live without you’ I mean, OMG ♥
All Purgatory flashbacks are PERFECT ♥
Back in the present Benny explains his backstory - he’s hunting his maker, because that’s who killed him. He pitches it as self-preservation, kill before he’s killed himself, but we sense there’s more to it than that.
In other news, Sam remembers being a motel handyman for a while and stumbling across Amelia living in one of the other motel rooms…
Benny and Dean go through dead Eton wanna-be’s pockets and find a list of names that Dean doesn’t understand but Benny recognises immediately as names of yachts. I love the gentle way Benny mocks Dean for not realising - ‘Sea You Later spelt S-E-A I mean, come on’ ♥
This, Benny explains, was how his nest used to hunt - feeding on pleasure yachts and then sinking them.
This guys! -
Dean: Vampire pirates, that’s what you guys are… Vampirates.
Benny: [chuckling] You know all the years we ran together I can’t believe anyone ever thought of that.
Dean: What do you mean? It’s like the third thing you say.
Benny: No, it isn’t…
♥ ♥ ♥
Someone on tumblr was theorising ages back that Benny could be a pirate, and thus a ‘vampirate.’ I CAN’T BELIEVE THE SHOW WENT AHEAD AND MADE THAT CANON! ALL THE WIN. Double hilarious for me because these are the kinds of books I’m shelving nearly every day at work :p
Anyway, Dean and Benny discover Benny’s maker (never named, fyi, which is interesting) is holed up on a private island and off they go.
On the way Dean pushes for more info on the situation and Benny obliges. And guys, guys, SERIOUSLY, the parallels in Benny’s story to both Dean/Cas and Sam/Dean are ABSURD!
Let me break it down.
Benny, as a supernatural creature, comes from a very strict family nest that made their living via a very specific (family) business that was military in nature, involving a hierarchy of vamps that followed orders from the leader of the nest. The leader of this nest is Benny’s (and, we assume, everyone’s) Maker, who is considered by the vamps under him AS GOD. This leader is both father and deity to Benny. He was a ‘jealous god’ who ‘kept the family together’ but ‘kept [them] apart from the rest of the world.’
Comparable to Cas? Explicitly.
Edlund’s not screwing around here. The vampire community described here matches the angel world to a T. It is, like Heaven, a crazy close-knit family separated from the wider world, but close-knit with the emotional part of the bonding most likely absent - something that is debateable when it comes to angels, but I’ve always considered their community mostly emotionless, so the comparison is exact in my mind. And just to hit it home, oh, the leader of the vampire community is, as it is in Heaven, GOD. Obviously god’s leadership in Heaven was removed at some unspecified point, but pre-S04 Cas existed, as I see it, EXACTLY LIKE BENNY.
Comparable to Dean and Sam? Equally explicit.
Growing up as hunters Dean and Sam were also kept apart from the world at large (this being Sam’s continual lament about the hunting life). John was, like Benny’s Maker, a similarly revered father-figure to Dean, and Dean has made comparisons to John and Cas’ father before, meaning John is most certainly a god-figure in the Winchester world. Sam and Dean’s world wasn’t as close to Benny’s as Cas’ I think, because there was no wider family than the three of them and so no hierarchy under John, but the similarities are clear, no?
Benny was content with his life and his world, he ‘always did what was best for his family the nest,’ UNTIL he met the love of his life - Andrea. I’m going to replicate his whole speech on her because it’s BEAUTIFUL - ‘My life changed when she entered it, Dean. Everything I had been or done up to that point just seemed to vanish into what we had become together. I mean… we found it, man.’ But this is supernatural, and there’s only one place for the life of your life, and it’s not somewhere warm… After living in bliss for… IDK, not v. long, Benny’s past catches up with him. His Maker finds him and has both Benny and Andrea killed (or so Benny thinks), because leaving the nest was a ‘crime’ to this god.
Comparable to Cas? OMFG!
We’re talking about a SUPERNATURAL BEING who LEFT HIS FAMILY AND HIS GOD BECAUSE OF A MORTAL WHO HE LOVED. Pfft! Look, I know you can argue that’s not what happened with Cas, in fact I don’t like the idea Cas did everything he did PURELY because of Dean and his feelings for Dean, that kind of sucks, I want him to have left Heaven and fought with Dean because it was the right thing to do, so let’s rephrase - Cas, like Benny, was a supernatural (immortal supernatural) being who was shown a better way of living by a mortal and so left his family to pursue that life. But regardless of how you want to interpret Cas’ feelings for Dean, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Edlund is MAKING A DIRECT COMPARISON TO DEAN/CAS HERE, THIS IS 100% DELIBERATE. We all know Edlund, how he writes, what he thinks. I may debate the intentions of other writers, but not with him. The intention here is CLEAR. And the IMPLICATION, the SUBTEXT, IS that one of the deciding factors for Cas leaving Heaven WAS BECAUSE HE LOVED DEAN. It’s not necessarily THE deciding factor, like it seems to be with Benny, but according to Edlund it is certainly involved. Cas left Heaven because of Dean and, like it did with Benny, Cas’ past as an angel was disregarded because he and Dean together became MORE than anything Cas’ existence had been prior to their meeting.
Comparable to Sam and Dean? Also strong.
The parallel runs particularly close to Sam’s situation here. Firstly with Jess - Sam didn’t leave his ‘nest’ FOR her, but he certainly wanted to stay out because of her. And, like with Benny, Sam’s past caught up with him and got Jess killed. But there’s also connections to Sam/Amelia here too. Because with Amelia Sam really did end up leaving the hunting BECAUSE of her - her bitching about the dog drew Sam away from searching for Dean and showed him (or perhaps in Sam’s case re-showed/reminded him, since he was already shown this once with Jess) what was, for him at least, a better life. Sam says they were ‘building something,’ which is very similar to this ‘becoming something together’ Benny describes. With Dean? Well… the way he smiles at Benny’s speech makes me think this idea of becoming a new person through togetherness with someone else is something he maybe recognises a little bit, or longs for, or both. We know he didn’t achieve it with Lisa, so it could be he’s just happy that Benny found what he couldn’t… or… there’s some Dean/Cas undertones there too, and the sense that Dean feels he has become a new person through his relationship with Cas? :)
Additional - when describing Andrea Benny says: ‘words don’t even cut it.’ Now, I’m close-reading here, so the intent behind this is likely slim, BUT - we know ‘words’ are Dean’s worst enemy, right? (besides himself). He is terrible at expressing himself, and that’s what’s caused so much trouble at key points in the show. So having Benny say this, like he also struggles with words and specifically with putting his feelings about the person he loves into words - that feels like another mini-comparison between Benny and Dean to me. Because Dean can’t put into words how he feels about Cas either, you know? :)
So SERIOUSLY - EPIC PARALLELS ARE EPIC THE SUBTEXT THIS SEASON IS THE BEST ALL THE WIN <3
Right.
Dean and Benny reach the island. To get to the nest HQ they have to sneak through a wood, which leads to obvious comparisons to Purgatory, what with the landscape being the same. And this bit was just… sweet. This was Dean and Benny being obviously in the same position, struggling with the same… culture shock, I guess, of being soldiers returned from the frontline.
Benny: It’s weird being back, isn’t it? In the world I mean.
Dean: Sure as hell is.
Benny: I mean, what do you do with it all? All the… all the everything. Hell I don’t even know if this world is real. If I’m real.
Dean: Hey. Listen to me. I see what happens down that rabbit hole, okay? We’re real. Benny, this is real. It’s the only way to play this game, you get me?
More struggles with words there. But about THIS, between them, Benny doesn’t need words to explain, because Dean was right there in Purgatory with him and he GETS IT (damn, I wish he and Cas could have stuff like that they really and truly understand each other about!).
And I really like the way Dean stops to offer comfort. The way Dean is, for a moment, the more experienced of the two of them. Because he’s come back to life from another world before, of course. More than once even. So all that stuff about not feeling real he has BEEN THROUGH already and… IDK, I just like it. I like that he and Benny develop… more of a connection over this shared experience. This is more of Dean and Benny’s relationship growing into a real friendship I suppose. As is, of course, Benny revealing his emotional story. We are watching them grow closer all the way through this episode, and it’s really lovely to see that happening with Dean. To see it happening with Dean BEING AWARE it’s happening and that he’s making a friend here. Oh Dean. You need more friends x
So we get inside the vampire mansion.
Benny gets distracted by his Maker’s old harpsichord - understandable, it’s a relic of his old life, dregs up memories. Dean moves to the next room. Then - oh no! Benny finds a picture of his old love… who promptly walks down the stairs. Alive. Or rather, of course, undead.
Thump. The rest of the nest appears to knock him senseless while Dean shakes his head on the other side of the wall.
They cuff him to a chair for interrogation. Turns out Andrea climbed high high up in the vampire pecking order while Benny was away.
Dean ignores Sam’s calls while he tries to figure a way to help his new BFF.
A now anxious Sam flashes back to more memories of getting to know Amelia at his old motel. I would say stuff about this, but… eh. I don’t find it boring. But I don’t feel the urge to analyse either. Amelia is distrustful. Sam learns she is living in the motel . It’s sweet.
Finally catching a quiet moment Dean calls Sam back and explains his situation. Sam is furious. Dean tries to explain a little about Benny without revealing too much…
In the meantime Andrea takes a chance to get Benny alone. In which she immediately falls to her knees, kissing him passionately. Of course she still loves him, how could she not?
Benny is distraught. Her situation is his fault. But she assures him otherwise - she CHOSE him. Another key theme this season - humans knowingly loving monsters and choosing to be with them… but by loving monsters/supernatural creatures do you always risk becoming a monster yourself? Sam loved a demon (ish) and became a demon. Kate loved a werewolf and became a werewolf. Betsy loved an immortal and seemed to believe herself to be something of a monster for allowing/accepting his murderous sacrifices. And Dean… well Dean rather stripped away his humanity looking for Cas in Purgatory, didn’t he? And the monstrous elements of Dean’s character are absolutely key to his plot this season… Is Dean becoming a monster because he loves Cas? ;p
Not quite that clear-cut really. Dean was going down that path anything, because there’s another issue being explored with Dean. If you hunt/kill monsters, does that kind of life ultimately make a monster out of you as well? Sam believes so, I think, which is one of the many reasons he wants out.
Um. ANYWAY.
Andrea sees Benny’s return as an opportunity to free them all from their Maker. She slips him a knife and the keys to his cuffs.
Ooooh, I forgot this bit. When explaining why she stayed with the nest after Benny’s death Benny nods his understanding - ‘it’s complicated’ he acknowledges, ‘every damn thing is complicated.’ ♥ YES. FINALLY real acknowledgement of that in this universe. That people’s choices are not always simple. That life isn’t black and white. Benny, like Dean, is upset by this realisation, because Benny, like Dean, is a SOLDIER who has lived the ‘pure’ and focused life in Purgatory - kill or be killed, fight or flight, yes or no, everything an absolute. But upsetting as it is, Benny accepts it as truth. Which is what Dean must do this season as well. FINALLY.
Dean txts Sam his location, presumably because Sam was pestering him so much about it! But then his phone is conveniently destroyed :p
Benny is taken to the Old Man. Who is a very very young man. See what you did there ;p
The Old Man is wearing posh, public school clothes as well and my London friends tell me this is probably a reference/mocking of Twilight, because that’s how the vamps dress in the films? Could be true… I definitely think Benny’s southern accent is a reference to True Blood, so why wouldn’t they go all out and reference different versions of vampires across the board :) SPN vamps are TOTALLY my favourite kind now though - EVEN MORE THAN BUFFY’S YES I SAID IT.
Banter banter… the Old Man was sad he had to kill Benny… he turned Andrea because she meant to much to Benny and he’s evil like that.
Oh yeah, and he considers Benny his ‘wayward son’ - his WAYWARD SON. If you still don’t see parallels in Benny to Sam, Dean and Cas then YOU ARE WRONG. Edlund can’t really get more explicit than that guys.
Out in the corridors, Dean is killing vamps in secret left right and centre and re-living fond Team Free Purgatory memories :)
This time the three of them are marching through a forest and discussing the value of life. Who knows how that topic came up but I’m betting Cas had something to do with it :) Benny assures Dean he does value human life and that he won’t start killing when they get topside, he lives on blood transfusions only.
Benny: All I’m saying is I started seeing something in humanity, okay? Something that shouldn’t be taken. I drink blood, I don’t drink people.
At the time this felt a bit heavy handed to me - yeeees, he’s a ‘good’ vampire, we GET IT. But actually it’s not. It’s fine. It just felt OTT to me at the time, I think, cos I was still upset Benny wasn’t more evil :p
Also, an immortal supernatural creature who ‘started seeing something in humanity’ that ‘shouldn’t be taken’? COME ON ♥ What could that something be? Life? Creativity? Divine spark? FREE WILL?
Benny starts bitching again about Cas being a danger to them, while Cas senses leviathans close by. Everyone runs!
Back in the present Sam steals a car and sets out after his brother. Remembering happier things…
Like his new dog running into Amelia’s room while being walked, forcing Sam to creep in after him. ‘Don’t bother the angry lady’ Awww ♥
Aside - my London friends pointed out that every Sam flashback this episode starts with a shot of the dog. Who does Sam love more do you think, Amelia or…? :p
At this point the animal is simply called ‘Dog.’ Oh Sam. I think it had a name in another flashback though, but I can’t remember it… presumably we will get a flashback about that in the future…
Anyway. Sam and Amelia end up having a moment where they discover they are much much similar than they realised - they have both lost someone close to them and are at a loss of how to life now. Bless them.
In the present, Sam freaks out over Dean no longer answering his cell. He doesn’t want to lose his brother AGAIN and have no one, AGAIN. Aw, Sam.
Benny and his Maker are still bantering. This time with some nautical terms thrown in just to add some flavour - ‘coming back from the dead is the definition of mutiny’ for a vampires etc. I like :) They ARE vampirates after all ♥
More references to ongoing themes -
Benny’s Maker: All of this has me feeling so tired.
…
Benny: You live so long, how is it you have so little?
There’s a theme building here, I think, about immortality being a curse more than a blessing. That long life leads, ultimately, to an unsatisfying and/or meaningless life. Brick seemed to feel the same, hence why he killed himself before he had to face losing Betsy - the one thing that had finally given his life meaning. In one of his letters to Betsy he even writes ‘so tired of it all.’
This is a nice theme all on its own, but I like to think it’s going to relate to Cas eventually - that he’s going to have to consider whether life as an immortal angel has meaning or not, whether it’s actually fulfilling or not. If we work with the ‘closing the gates of Heaven’ theory then it will come to a clear choice - immortality in Heaven or mortality on earth. Everyone and their dog knows I come down on the side of mortality providing the most fulfilling life, and so far it seems the show seems to be implying that as well… but will it relate to Cas? Or is all this building up to Cas returning to a re-vamped (ha - pun!) Heaven where he and his family build a meaningful, immortal existence together?
Because if Cas does go back to Heaven and gets shut in there, he could just stay and wait for Dean, right? They would still be together eventually when Dean dies, and that way Cas would not risk non-existence by dying as a mortal (since we have no way of knowing if fallen angels end up in Heaven when they die). That COULD be romantic - Castiel waiting in Heaven for Dean and Dean knowing Cas will be there for him when his times comes…
*sigh* It just wouldn’t satisfy me though I don’t think… :(
Anywho. Benny and his Maker. The Old Man thinks he has Andrea, but Benny exposes his unlocked cuffs and reveals otherwise. He also reveals his super post-Purgatory fighting skills by easily killing the Old Man’s bodyguard.
More on the inadequacy of immortality -
Benny’s Maker: You’re right. I’ve been here so so long Benny. Seen all the outcomes, all the patterns. A trillion times. It all means so little.
…
Benny: You know what Socates said about a life unconsidered. [nb: "the life which is unexamined is not worth living"]
Benny’s Maker: [rolling his eyes] Yes. But what we have in us? Benny, that’s not life. That’s what you still don’t get. That’s why it’s always been so hard for you.
That last one poses an additional question - can monsters have a fulfilling life AT ALL? Do they have the capacity? This guy doesn’t think so. At one point Dean despaired that they couldn’t - ‘the angels, they don't care. I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. Seems like when they try, it just... breaks them apart.’
But Kate is trying. Benny is trying. Cas has been trying. Amy was trying. So surely, surely, that’s not true, right?
Long and short, Benny kills him, of course.
He returns, triumphant, to Andrea, ready to start a new life together. But, oh, Andrea never planned to leave with him. Her plan was always to keep running the vampirate operation. Oh no.
Benny: What I wanted was to put your memory to rest.
Andrea: But Benny, I’m not a memory, I’m right here.
Benny: [sad] What I loved… it ain’t here anymore. It was snuffed out a long time ago. By monsters like me. Like what you’ve become.
Andrea: You think you’re better than me now?
Benny: No. I think we’re all damned.
At which point she vamps out… and Dean jumps in to kill her :(
Now, intellectually and emotionally this is a beautiful, tragic story. Benny’s just come from his Maker telling him monsters can’t have a fulfilling life. Benny knows what it means to be a vampire, how much of a struggle it is to resist the urge to kill. He sees the woman he loves advocating killing now, in a way (we assume) she never did when she was human. He sees she has become something less than she was and while he MIGHT be able to convince her to struggle like him into not killing, there’s no certainty he will succeed, and in any case it damns her to a life of pain… so yes, of course he must see her killed, for his sake, for her sake and for the sake of the innocents she might hurt. And the dialogue does make a POINT of having her insist that she wants to keep killing, and that Benny does not consider himself better than her, making him therefore not really a hypocrite by denying her the chance to live long enough to become a better monster/person. This is just a tragic situation, with no right answer. Benny and Dean are not being portrayed as ‘right’ to kill her, just that it was, sadly, the lesser of a collection of only evil choices.
But if you step outside the subtle specifics of the story for a moment - this poor poor girl has been given NO CHANCE at having a character of her own, her story exists solely to fuel Benny’s and it has involved her being refrigerated not once, but TWICE. And on top of that she is a POC! I mean… ouch, show.
I’m not saying I’m fiercely opposed to the story or anything. I actually like it. There wasn’t really time to flesh Andrea out, I get that, and I’m not opposed to refrigerating characters on principle - it is a valid storytelling trope. Just saying, it’s sad how this story ended up playing out for both representations of women and POC and, you know, people should be aware of that. Not that it’s necessarily wrong in this isolated instance, but that it KEEPS HAPPENING like this.
Cos, see, RUBY could have had a similar backstory to Benny’s like this. They even started to give her one with her history with that witch demon and the fact she remembered being human, unlike most demons supposedly. But no… she was just evil… because, apparently, it’s only the men who get to explore angsty ‘struggling with inner darkness’ themes, and women either exist to service the male version of that story, or they get the simplified ‘she was nothing but evil and manipulative all along’ version…
I LOVE Benny and his story and I’m not going to hate it or call it badly written just because of what it isn’t doing. In and of itself it’s a GOOD story. But I can’t say I’m not disappointed with the general fact that Benny got this story, when Ruby didn’t. It exposes the inequality when it comes to how male and female characters are written in TV that I’ve been able to ignore up until now.
Rah rah.
To happier things - nice bit of casual eyesexing between Dean and Benny after the kill x
As the two of them get back into their boat Benny is forlorn. He questions why Dean even bothered to resurrect him. No one would have known otherwise if Dean hadn’t… concerned, Dean asks Benny if he’s okay and Benny, speaking for the majority of characters of this show (except for Sam this season I think), replies ‘I don’t know what I am…’
As Dean muses on this and, presumably, why he DID resurrect Benny, we jump to a flashback of Team Free Purgatory running from leviathans. Leviathans which look SO MUCH DAMN COOLER in Purgatory, btw. LOVING the oily missiles that morph into human form :)
A leviathan heads for Dean as Cas and Benny watch. Cas immediately runs in the opposite direction. There’s been wank about this which I consider ridiculous - no, Cas wasn’t leaving Dean to danger, he was leaving Dean and Benny with a SINGLE leviathan to fight (knowing they are a capable fighting pair) while he attempts to draw any others away to keep Dean safe. I mean, honestly…
Another leviathan gets in Cas’ way, however, and knocks him down. Personally, I think there is even a case to be made that Cas was running TOWARDS that leviathan on purpose with the intent of getting himself killed so as to no longer be a danger to Dean at all.
Dean deals with his leviathan himself. Cas is about to get chomped until - Benny to the rescue!
Cas’ expression at having been saved by a vampire he doesn’t really like is BEAUTIFUL. I’m sure there’ll be distrust over this, but in that moment Cas is nothing but shocked and touched… and maybe, MAYBE, a tad disappointed? In any case, the way he looks at Benny as he pulls Cas to his feet is soft.
While the way DEAN looks at them both is wide-eyed and kind of manic. I joked ‘aroused’ at the time :p But the fact we linger on Dean’s expression and end the flashback on it indicates this is a significant moment for Dean specifically. Benny saving Cas - that’s a GAMECHANGER for Dean. Is that, perhaps, why he made sure to resurrect Benny? Out of respect for this moment? Benny saved his angel, even though Benny had made it perfectly clear he felt Cas was a liability and that his life would be better off without Cas in it. Is this the moment, like when Ruby and Amy saved Sam at personal cost, that cemented Dean’s trust of Benny? Very possibly.
Which is, naturally, why I can’t 100% trust it :p If Benny knows just one thing about Dean it is that CAS MEANS EVERYTHING TO HIM down here in Purgatory. Just a little while ago Benny heard Dean putting Cas’ freedom above his own life. Benny KNOWS that if Cas dies Dean will react… badly. Potentially badly enough to kill Benny in the fallout, even if Cas’ death isn’t Benny’s fault. So the bottom line for Benny must be - to stand the best chance of escaping Purgatory, he must keep Cas alive for Dean for as long as possible. Meaning this could EASILY have been a strategic move on Benny’s part.
Dean, however, is maybe too blinded by different levels of fondness and love for both of them to realise this and sees only that Benny is being friendly to the guy he loves his angel.
I like to think Cas and Benny will ultimately develop a genuine fondness and respect for each other eventually, but here and now? There is probably not much in the way of real emotion going on between them.
Although I’m working on a small headcanon where Cas realises Benny saved his life for Dean’s sake, because Benny realised Dean wouldn’t be able to handle Cas dying - something Cas himself didn’t understand, because all he understood was that if he died Dean would be safer. When he realises that Benny understood this side of Dean better than he himself did, however, Cas comes to trust Benny more and becomes grateful to Benny for keeping him alive and sparing Dean pain (and if Cas and Dean end up having sexy times in Purgatory Cas becomes grateful to Benny for giving the two of them the chance to be together ;D). And maybe… maybe… Cas and Benny hatch a plan in secret together to keep Cas in Purgatory at the vital moment of escape, both of them being equally invested in doing this for their own reasons, Cas to ensure Dean escapes alive and Benny to ensure he escapes alive… but I’m not sure about that cos it doesn’t really match how Cas seemed in the relevant flashback of that moment, so…
To end - we meet Sam at the docks. Already furious with Dean for taking on a vamp nest without him, he then shakes Benny’s hand when Benny offers it and immediately clocks to Benny being a vampire (cos Sam ain’t no fool, yo). Cue the final moment of really REALLY OTT slow-mo and Sam reaches - FOREVER - for his knife, and Dean gives a long, drawn out shake of his head. Seriously, OTT slow-motion there show. Seriously.
Nice bitchface from Sam though :)
Verdict? Not one of Edlund’s BEST, I have to say. But a sub-par Edlund script is equivalent to a great script from anyone else, so still fantastic :) Plus my disappointments are over general TV writing issues as opposed to issues with this episode as an individual entity, so… all round I very much enjoy what they are doing with Benny (even though it’s not what I was anticipating), the PARALLELS guys, the PARALLELS are to DIE FOR! This is further continuation of seeing the season progress into everything I’ve ever wanted (for my boys at least).
edit: amazing meta on this is amazing ♥
THEN:
Dean went to Purgatory. He got a vampire BFF called Benny.
He lost Cas. Found him again. And refused to let him go.
Apparently he did. Or did he??
Dean got out of Purgatory with Benny.
Sam was traumatised at losing his brother (again!) and gave him up for dead.
He lived a normal life with a messed up girl called Amelia.
Oh, and Kevin Tran (Advanced Placement) is a prophet. He’s missing.
NOW:
On the docks with a guy who would look right at home with the posh kids at Eton.
Benny shows up in an absolutely AMAZING blue sailor-ish outfit complete with blue hat! ♥
Eton wanna-be is one of the vamps who killed Benny back in the day and Benny’s come for revenge.
I’ll admit I was a little surprised by this - I assumed Benny was killed by hunters, not his own people. This got me interested v. quickly.
Eton wanna-be calls on some friends to help him deal with Benny. Full of bravado, Benny pulls out a knife and gets ready to take them all on. ALL… um… 3? 3? That’s all I see. A measly 3… compared to the armies he must have fought in Purgatory? It’s hardly a challenge is what I’m saying, right?
Anyway, meanwhile our boys have been trying to track down Kevin. Put Kevin is a sneaky sneaky guy and been leaving a false credit card trail. He is not in the motel room Sam and Dean have found.
Sam is especially pissed. He wants to find Kevin fast, no doubt, so he can wrap things up and get back to trying again with a normal life. Just like he felt about everything during the Pilot. He’s come full circle and that makes sense to me.
Dean is more relaxed and happy to enjoy the paid for minibar :p
During the conversation we get a little more insight into Dean’s new, super, soldier-focused outlook -
Dean: When is that kid gonna stop running from us.
Sam: [annoyed] I dunno Dean, I mean, you did try to kill his mother.
Dean: I was trying to kill Crowley! Okay? Who happened to in Kevin’s mother at the time. There’s a difference!
Sam: Apparently not to Kevin! I don’t know, maybe because, oh yeah, it’s his mother.
Just to emphasise how Dean is doing that compartmentalising thing hardened soldiers end up doing - ignoring emotional/moral aspects of something in order to get the job done. I LIKE IT SO MUCH. I love Dean’s plot this season! :D It makes every tiny expression of real emotion in Dean from this point on EVEN MORE AMAZING than ever because it will mean any emotion he shows must be incredibly heartfelt and strong because he can’t ignore it like he has done with all the others and… ugh, it’s beautiful, I love characters with emotional armour and watching it crack! ♥
Also interesting is how Dean doesn’t seem to understand why Sam isn’t on the same page with him on this. To Dean right now a hunter NEEDS to view the world in this detached way in order to get by, a hunter should be OUTSIDE the world. And it’s frustrating to Dean that Sam DOESN’T see things the same way, that he persists in applying real world morals and ideals to a world Dean has separated from all that.
Just another in all the ongoing examples of Sam and Dean’s differing outlooks on life and the fact that they really DO live in different worlds (oooh - STILL live in different worlds, you could say, even though Dean has outwardly re-joined Sam in his one from Purgatory… and Sam has re-joined Dean in the hunting world from his normal life… yes, I like that). This is another plot I’m really really loving and I think it’s ticking over very very nicely :)
Anyway, Dean gets a call for help from Benny, which he takes in relative privacy outside. Making Sam instantly suspicious, of course. This gave me Benny-Ruby parallel tingles, because this is what Sam did with Ruby of course - secret phone calls. And I DID so want Benny to be a Ruby-like figure for Dean… as of next episode though, the more apt parallel is that Benny is Dean’s AMY. Which does indeed make more sense. Woes. Still, there are some Ruby overtones at least :p
Benny is bleeding out badly and needs Dean’s help. Dean is exasperated and impressed that Benny took on ‘HOW many?’ I’m… :| What? It was THREE! Pah. But I will overlook that and except that the set-up is that Benny is in peril. Ok.
Also of note - Benny says he messed up, prompting Dean to ask immediately in an ominous tone ‘what did you do?’ To which Benny replies ‘nah, man, not like that.’ Which, of course, tells us right away that Benny promised not to kill humans to feed. A disappointment to me initially, because I wanted Dean to have bonded with Benny in such a way that he was willing to overlook the guy’s occasional murder, I wanted it to be THAT DARK between them (kinda like Betsy didn’t care about the crimes Brick had committed because she was so in love with him, you know?).
But no, from the get go we learn Benny is a ‘good’ monster.
I’m over it now :p
Cut to Sam furious with Dean for ditching him and the hunt for Kevin without explanation.
There are some lines here I’m doing mental backflips over -
Dean: Hey the trail is dead […] you got some research to do and I got some personal crap I gotta take care of that’s all.
Sam: What does that mean ‘personal’?
Dean: Did you have a stroke? Vocabulary - personal. As in my own, grown up, personal, I don’t know, crap.
♥ ♥ ♥
Guys, do you REALISE how BIG this is? This is Dean saying ‘I have a LIFE OF MY OWN OUTSIDE OF YOU, Sam.’ This is Dean saying ‘I AM MY OWN PERSON.’ This is Dean saying ‘I CAN EXIST WITHOUT MY BROTHER.’ And whether or not a friendship with Benny is a good or bad thing is irrelevant because it’s not WHAT his personal crap is that matters here, it’s the fact that Dean is happy to HAVE personal crap. This is Dean BREAKING SOME OF HIS CO-DEPENDENCE with Sam and that’s an amazing amazing thing! ♥
(Ok ok - there might be a case to say he’s simply transferred his co-dependence onto Benny, but I don’t think so. He insisted on a split between them in 8.01 after all, and stuff he says in 8.06 tells me the relationship he and Benny have isn’t like that. But still, things to think about…)
So Dean drives off into the night and we are treated to a sexy flashback of him and Benny fighting in Purgatory. Now, I think they WAAAAY overdid the slow-motion this episode, and this flashback is a fine example. Silly slow-motion. BUT the flashback itself is awesome. Benny is whistling through his and Dean’s fight - presumably as a kind of personal signal or tactic between them? - and IDK, I thought it was equal parts creepy and sexy and cool :)
The tune Benny whistles is In The Hall of The Mountain King, which has lots of meta significance :) The most relevant is that it is the tune the murderer whistles in the film ‘M’ - a film about a child killer who insists he has ‘urges’ that ‘compel’ him to kill which he can’t control. Hmmm, sound like something a vampire might say? In the film an ‘M’ is marked on the murderer’s hand - M for Murderer. But M for Monster would be equally applicable, right? Benny is, of course, both...
What I love the MOST about this flashback, however, is the moment when Dean and Benny start to naturally back towards each other without looking and Dean reaches behind him to pat Benny’s back in an unspoken signal - telling where the enemy is, how Benny should tackle them, something like that. I thought THAT was beautifully done, with the shot pausing for a moment on the touch to emphasise its significance.
So I love that. And I hate it. I had a mini-meltdown on tumblr about it. Because this is Dean and Benny acting as the perfect fighting team. Their communication is SO GOOD they don’t even have to verbalise it. They are slick and completely in sync. They are an equal and amazing partnership.
And it was so much everything I’ve ever wanted Dean and Cas to be I could have cried! D:
But tumblr discussion has pointed out a few things that have pacified me.
Because the thing about this easy partnership Dean has with Benny is that it is very much a WORKING relationship. Dean has nothing with Benny EXCEPT for the fight. They are completely, and more than Dean and Cas ever were, SOLDIERS-IN-ARMS. And THAT is what Dean LIKES about the relationship, of course - there are no pesky extra FEELINGS to worry about, he doesn’t need to fret about Benny’s safety (because it doesn’t matter too much if this guy he doesn’t REALLY care about gets hurt), he doesn’t need to have any deep and meaningful conversations with the guy. With Benny everything is PRACTICAL and NOT EMOTIONAL.
Which is where Cas differs, of course. Because Dean never had this practical, soldiers-in-arms relationship with Cas. It was an EMOTIONAL relationship from the word go, with Cas seeing into him and caring (‘you don’t think you deserved to be saved’) and the two of them discussing emotional secrets (‘I’m not a hammer’ - ‘I’m not strong enough’ etc.). Dean CARES about Cas on a deep, emotional level, like he has always ended up doing with the people in his life. Dean enjoys being with Benny because their relationship is refreshingly devoid of that.
This means that, in many ways, Dean is freer with Benny than he is with Cas and Sam. But it also means his relationship with Benny is LESS.
DURING PURGATORY anyway. I think things shift during this episode and Benny becomes for Dean more of a REAL FRIEND. But a friend with whom Dean is NOT CO-DEPENDENT. A CASUAL FRIEND. For which I’m happy for him about, he’s needed one of those for ages, to show him that relationships can be varied and they don’t have to be these epic, exhausting, clingy, all or nothing bonds he’s always seemed to have made them.
And that give me hope that if his relationship with Benny can evolve that way, he one with Cas can become more balanced too and gain an element of that easy, brothers-in-arm equality Dean shares with Benny. But more on that later…
Back at the motel Sam is checking up on Amelia’s financial situation. Because he’s ‘concerned’ and ‘not stalking’ :p
While he does he notices a broken fan in the ceiling and flashes back…
Now, I really really LIKE these flashbacks of Sam, but I recognise that 1) the WAY Sam flashes back is HILARIOUS - staring ~significantly at a broken fan doesn’t come across as anything but DAFT :p and 2) Sam’s flashbacks this episode are INCREDIBLY MUNDANE.
I can’t excuse the OTT staring at innocuous stuff :p But I LIKE the mundane in this context. I like how it’s juxtaposed with the hyperrealness of the Purgatory flashbacks, I like how they are very much polar opposites. Dean and Sam have been living in completely opposite worlds, both of which have their good points and bad points, but both of which are valid - that’s the message I’m taking from this. Which is an extension of ‘Sam and Dean are DIFFERENT PEOPLE’ and that’s okay. Which I also love. YMMV, of course :)
So don’t tell me Sam’s story is boring because it’s mundane - the mundane part is THE POINT, and while I agree that a whole show made up of Sam’s story would be dull and I wouldn’t bother watching, SPN is not trying to make a whole show out of something mundane, it is placing mundane moments within a story otherwise filled with super violence and excitement so the two things can work together and I THINK IT WORKS AND I REALLY LIKE IT. The end.
:p
Dean finds Benny’s van and his supply of bagged blood, quickly followed by a weak and still bleeding Benny. Rescue mission complete!
After a quick fix and a shower Benny is good as new - surprising Dean a little considering how bad Benny was hurt, which is mostly for exposition purposes, I think, so Benny can explain how being a vampire works. Because, really, Dean would KNOW vamps can heal superfast, surely?
Here’s another bit that changed my understanding of Dean and Benny’s relationship -
Dean asks what’s going on and Benny tries, very hard, to fob him off so he can go on with his business alone. When Dean pushes it, looking Benny deep in the eye and lowering his voice in that way we all know means Dean CARES, even if only a little, Benny shakes his head.
Benny: You and that whole ‘friend’ thing, man.
See, from the way Benny seemed so cut up about Dean suggesting they split for a while I assumed Benny was, well, more into Dean than Dean was into him :p But this suggests that to Benny their relationship was very much as described above - a non-emotional, brothers-in-arms deal. He trusts Dean with practical things, like fixing him up when he’s bleeding, but he doesn’t want Dean involved in any personal, emotional, aspects of his ‘real’ life outside their working relationship.
And okay, that’s cool too :)
Dean, however, senses something personal and he can’t help it, can he? He starts to CARE. Because that’s what he does, that’s his ‘thing.’ Benny has been nothing but a fighting partner up until now and Dean’s LIKED that, but there’s no fight now… and Sam’s distant from him… and Cas is gone… yup, I can imagine Dean is feeling a need for an emotional connection right about now, so the chance to ‘upgrade’ Benny to a deeper friend was one he jumped on.
And talking of Dean’s ‘friends’ - flashback!
We pick up where the last one left off. Dean and Benny dispatch their attacker, while CAS faces down his own monster alone, burning the guy up with a touch to his forehead.
Benny is impressed by unhappy that Cas, being an angel, is drawing the attention of all the monsters around. Cue a moment that re-enforces the idea he and Dean AREN’T v. close in Purgatory - Dean counters that Benny said before it was Dean’s humanity making them a target for monsters. Benny just shrugs and tells him ‘that too’ and Dean gives him a bitchy look that says ‘you don’t know WHAT you’re talking about do you, why am I trusting you again?’
Cas: [on the dead monsters] Does present a curious curl in the metaphysics doesn’t it? If you murder a monster in monster heaven where does it go?
♥ I love Cas’ rhetorical philosophical musings. This has been mused over on tumblr. I won’t replicate the musings because they are somewhat tangential, but I love that Cas keeps posing these questions, to be thought about or not depending on your preference :)
And Cas and Benny - CAS AND BENNY GUYS! ♥
Benny: And this is the crazy Aunt I want to take on the road?
Cas: [angry] I am not your Aunt.
Benny: [sarcastic] What? Really?
Cas: I have no possible relationship to your sibling offspring.
Benny: Now you’re kidding me.
Dean: [exasperated, this is not the first altercation between them] Oh, you two are killing me!
And then we jump immediately from antagonism to reluctant allegiance -
Cas: I have to agree with the vampire, Dean. Crossing Purgatory with a Seraph, it’s, less than strategic. And certainly when I have no reason to believe that I can pass through the door that we’re headed for.
Benny: You see, Dean? […blah blah exposition…] You hear what he’s telling you, Dean? Your buddy is saying -
Dean: Listen to me you undead blood junkie, I’m the one with the mojo, I’m the one with the plan. CAS! We’re gonna shove your ass through the eye of that needle if it kills all three of us.
Benny: Obviously I’m less than comfortable with that.
At which point I officially feel in love with Team Free Purgatory :)
I just LOVE their dynamic, okay? :D All of it. I love that Benny baits Cas and Cas falls for it, and that Dean is fondly frustrated with them over it, like a parent when one of their kids is teasing and the other doesn’t realise. I love that despite disliking and distrusting Benny Cas will take his side in an instant if it means protecting Dean. I love that Benny gets so smug over that, like support from Cas is this big prize. I love that when push comes to shove Dean TAKES CAS’ SIDE OVER BENNY without question. I love it I love it I love it!
And oh DEAN. Still so DESPERATE to keep Cas with you ♥ And saying, as so many have pointed out, the Dean Winchester equivalent of ‘I’d rather die than live without you’ I mean, OMG ♥
All Purgatory flashbacks are PERFECT ♥
Back in the present Benny explains his backstory - he’s hunting his maker, because that’s who killed him. He pitches it as self-preservation, kill before he’s killed himself, but we sense there’s more to it than that.
In other news, Sam remembers being a motel handyman for a while and stumbling across Amelia living in one of the other motel rooms…
Benny and Dean go through dead Eton wanna-be’s pockets and find a list of names that Dean doesn’t understand but Benny recognises immediately as names of yachts. I love the gentle way Benny mocks Dean for not realising - ‘Sea You Later spelt S-E-A I mean, come on’ ♥
This, Benny explains, was how his nest used to hunt - feeding on pleasure yachts and then sinking them.
This guys! -
Dean: Vampire pirates, that’s what you guys are… Vampirates.
Benny: [chuckling] You know all the years we ran together I can’t believe anyone ever thought of that.
Dean: What do you mean? It’s like the third thing you say.
Benny: No, it isn’t…
♥ ♥ ♥
Someone on tumblr was theorising ages back that Benny could be a pirate, and thus a ‘vampirate.’ I CAN’T BELIEVE THE SHOW WENT AHEAD AND MADE THAT CANON! ALL THE WIN. Double hilarious for me because these are the kinds of books I’m shelving nearly every day at work :p
Anyway, Dean and Benny discover Benny’s maker (never named, fyi, which is interesting) is holed up on a private island and off they go.
On the way Dean pushes for more info on the situation and Benny obliges. And guys, guys, SERIOUSLY, the parallels in Benny’s story to both Dean/Cas and Sam/Dean are ABSURD!
Let me break it down.
Benny, as a supernatural creature, comes from a very strict family nest that made their living via a very specific (family) business that was military in nature, involving a hierarchy of vamps that followed orders from the leader of the nest. The leader of this nest is Benny’s (and, we assume, everyone’s) Maker, who is considered by the vamps under him AS GOD. This leader is both father and deity to Benny. He was a ‘jealous god’ who ‘kept the family together’ but ‘kept [them] apart from the rest of the world.’
Comparable to Cas? Explicitly.
Edlund’s not screwing around here. The vampire community described here matches the angel world to a T. It is, like Heaven, a crazy close-knit family separated from the wider world, but close-knit with the emotional part of the bonding most likely absent - something that is debateable when it comes to angels, but I’ve always considered their community mostly emotionless, so the comparison is exact in my mind. And just to hit it home, oh, the leader of the vampire community is, as it is in Heaven, GOD. Obviously god’s leadership in Heaven was removed at some unspecified point, but pre-S04 Cas existed, as I see it, EXACTLY LIKE BENNY.
Comparable to Dean and Sam? Equally explicit.
Growing up as hunters Dean and Sam were also kept apart from the world at large (this being Sam’s continual lament about the hunting life). John was, like Benny’s Maker, a similarly revered father-figure to Dean, and Dean has made comparisons to John and Cas’ father before, meaning John is most certainly a god-figure in the Winchester world. Sam and Dean’s world wasn’t as close to Benny’s as Cas’ I think, because there was no wider family than the three of them and so no hierarchy under John, but the similarities are clear, no?
Benny was content with his life and his world, he ‘always did what was best for his family the nest,’ UNTIL he met the love of his life - Andrea. I’m going to replicate his whole speech on her because it’s BEAUTIFUL - ‘My life changed when she entered it, Dean. Everything I had been or done up to that point just seemed to vanish into what we had become together. I mean… we found it, man.’ But this is supernatural, and there’s only one place for the life of your life, and it’s not somewhere warm… After living in bliss for… IDK, not v. long, Benny’s past catches up with him. His Maker finds him and has both Benny and Andrea killed (or so Benny thinks), because leaving the nest was a ‘crime’ to this god.
Comparable to Cas? OMFG!
We’re talking about a SUPERNATURAL BEING who LEFT HIS FAMILY AND HIS GOD BECAUSE OF A MORTAL WHO HE LOVED. Pfft! Look, I know you can argue that’s not what happened with Cas, in fact I don’t like the idea Cas did everything he did PURELY because of Dean and his feelings for Dean, that kind of sucks, I want him to have left Heaven and fought with Dean because it was the right thing to do, so let’s rephrase - Cas, like Benny, was a supernatural (immortal supernatural) being who was shown a better way of living by a mortal and so left his family to pursue that life. But regardless of how you want to interpret Cas’ feelings for Dean, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Edlund is MAKING A DIRECT COMPARISON TO DEAN/CAS HERE, THIS IS 100% DELIBERATE. We all know Edlund, how he writes, what he thinks. I may debate the intentions of other writers, but not with him. The intention here is CLEAR. And the IMPLICATION, the SUBTEXT, IS that one of the deciding factors for Cas leaving Heaven WAS BECAUSE HE LOVED DEAN. It’s not necessarily THE deciding factor, like it seems to be with Benny, but according to Edlund it is certainly involved. Cas left Heaven because of Dean and, like it did with Benny, Cas’ past as an angel was disregarded because he and Dean together became MORE than anything Cas’ existence had been prior to their meeting.
Comparable to Sam and Dean? Also strong.
The parallel runs particularly close to Sam’s situation here. Firstly with Jess - Sam didn’t leave his ‘nest’ FOR her, but he certainly wanted to stay out because of her. And, like with Benny, Sam’s past caught up with him and got Jess killed. But there’s also connections to Sam/Amelia here too. Because with Amelia Sam really did end up leaving the hunting BECAUSE of her - her bitching about the dog drew Sam away from searching for Dean and showed him (or perhaps in Sam’s case re-showed/reminded him, since he was already shown this once with Jess) what was, for him at least, a better life. Sam says they were ‘building something,’ which is very similar to this ‘becoming something together’ Benny describes. With Dean? Well… the way he smiles at Benny’s speech makes me think this idea of becoming a new person through togetherness with someone else is something he maybe recognises a little bit, or longs for, or both. We know he didn’t achieve it with Lisa, so it could be he’s just happy that Benny found what he couldn’t… or… there’s some Dean/Cas undertones there too, and the sense that Dean feels he has become a new person through his relationship with Cas? :)
Additional - when describing Andrea Benny says: ‘words don’t even cut it.’ Now, I’m close-reading here, so the intent behind this is likely slim, BUT - we know ‘words’ are Dean’s worst enemy, right? (besides himself). He is terrible at expressing himself, and that’s what’s caused so much trouble at key points in the show. So having Benny say this, like he also struggles with words and specifically with putting his feelings about the person he loves into words - that feels like another mini-comparison between Benny and Dean to me. Because Dean can’t put into words how he feels about Cas either, you know? :)
So SERIOUSLY - EPIC PARALLELS ARE EPIC THE SUBTEXT THIS SEASON IS THE BEST ALL THE WIN <3
Right.
Dean and Benny reach the island. To get to the nest HQ they have to sneak through a wood, which leads to obvious comparisons to Purgatory, what with the landscape being the same. And this bit was just… sweet. This was Dean and Benny being obviously in the same position, struggling with the same… culture shock, I guess, of being soldiers returned from the frontline.
Benny: It’s weird being back, isn’t it? In the world I mean.
Dean: Sure as hell is.
Benny: I mean, what do you do with it all? All the… all the everything. Hell I don’t even know if this world is real. If I’m real.
Dean: Hey. Listen to me. I see what happens down that rabbit hole, okay? We’re real. Benny, this is real. It’s the only way to play this game, you get me?
More struggles with words there. But about THIS, between them, Benny doesn’t need words to explain, because Dean was right there in Purgatory with him and he GETS IT (damn, I wish he and Cas could have stuff like that they really and truly understand each other about!).
And I really like the way Dean stops to offer comfort. The way Dean is, for a moment, the more experienced of the two of them. Because he’s come back to life from another world before, of course. More than once even. So all that stuff about not feeling real he has BEEN THROUGH already and… IDK, I just like it. I like that he and Benny develop… more of a connection over this shared experience. This is more of Dean and Benny’s relationship growing into a real friendship I suppose. As is, of course, Benny revealing his emotional story. We are watching them grow closer all the way through this episode, and it’s really lovely to see that happening with Dean. To see it happening with Dean BEING AWARE it’s happening and that he’s making a friend here. Oh Dean. You need more friends x
So we get inside the vampire mansion.
Benny gets distracted by his Maker’s old harpsichord - understandable, it’s a relic of his old life, dregs up memories. Dean moves to the next room. Then - oh no! Benny finds a picture of his old love… who promptly walks down the stairs. Alive. Or rather, of course, undead.
Thump. The rest of the nest appears to knock him senseless while Dean shakes his head on the other side of the wall.
They cuff him to a chair for interrogation. Turns out Andrea climbed high high up in the vampire pecking order while Benny was away.
Dean ignores Sam’s calls while he tries to figure a way to help his new BFF.
A now anxious Sam flashes back to more memories of getting to know Amelia at his old motel. I would say stuff about this, but… eh. I don’t find it boring. But I don’t feel the urge to analyse either. Amelia is distrustful. Sam learns she is living in the motel . It’s sweet.
Finally catching a quiet moment Dean calls Sam back and explains his situation. Sam is furious. Dean tries to explain a little about Benny without revealing too much…
In the meantime Andrea takes a chance to get Benny alone. In which she immediately falls to her knees, kissing him passionately. Of course she still loves him, how could she not?
Benny is distraught. Her situation is his fault. But she assures him otherwise - she CHOSE him. Another key theme this season - humans knowingly loving monsters and choosing to be with them… but by loving monsters/supernatural creatures do you always risk becoming a monster yourself? Sam loved a demon (ish) and became a demon. Kate loved a werewolf and became a werewolf. Betsy loved an immortal and seemed to believe herself to be something of a monster for allowing/accepting his murderous sacrifices. And Dean… well Dean rather stripped away his humanity looking for Cas in Purgatory, didn’t he? And the monstrous elements of Dean’s character are absolutely key to his plot this season… Is Dean becoming a monster because he loves Cas? ;p
Not quite that clear-cut really. Dean was going down that path anything, because there’s another issue being explored with Dean. If you hunt/kill monsters, does that kind of life ultimately make a monster out of you as well? Sam believes so, I think, which is one of the many reasons he wants out.
Um. ANYWAY.
Andrea sees Benny’s return as an opportunity to free them all from their Maker. She slips him a knife and the keys to his cuffs.
Ooooh, I forgot this bit. When explaining why she stayed with the nest after Benny’s death Benny nods his understanding - ‘it’s complicated’ he acknowledges, ‘every damn thing is complicated.’ ♥ YES. FINALLY real acknowledgement of that in this universe. That people’s choices are not always simple. That life isn’t black and white. Benny, like Dean, is upset by this realisation, because Benny, like Dean, is a SOLDIER who has lived the ‘pure’ and focused life in Purgatory - kill or be killed, fight or flight, yes or no, everything an absolute. But upsetting as it is, Benny accepts it as truth. Which is what Dean must do this season as well. FINALLY.
Dean txts Sam his location, presumably because Sam was pestering him so much about it! But then his phone is conveniently destroyed :p
Benny is taken to the Old Man. Who is a very very young man. See what you did there ;p
The Old Man is wearing posh, public school clothes as well and my London friends tell me this is probably a reference/mocking of Twilight, because that’s how the vamps dress in the films? Could be true… I definitely think Benny’s southern accent is a reference to True Blood, so why wouldn’t they go all out and reference different versions of vampires across the board :) SPN vamps are TOTALLY my favourite kind now though - EVEN MORE THAN BUFFY’S YES I SAID IT.
Banter banter… the Old Man was sad he had to kill Benny… he turned Andrea because she meant to much to Benny and he’s evil like that.
Oh yeah, and he considers Benny his ‘wayward son’ - his WAYWARD SON. If you still don’t see parallels in Benny to Sam, Dean and Cas then YOU ARE WRONG. Edlund can’t really get more explicit than that guys.
Out in the corridors, Dean is killing vamps in secret left right and centre and re-living fond Team Free Purgatory memories :)
This time the three of them are marching through a forest and discussing the value of life. Who knows how that topic came up but I’m betting Cas had something to do with it :) Benny assures Dean he does value human life and that he won’t start killing when they get topside, he lives on blood transfusions only.
Benny: All I’m saying is I started seeing something in humanity, okay? Something that shouldn’t be taken. I drink blood, I don’t drink people.
At the time this felt a bit heavy handed to me - yeeees, he’s a ‘good’ vampire, we GET IT. But actually it’s not. It’s fine. It just felt OTT to me at the time, I think, cos I was still upset Benny wasn’t more evil :p
Also, an immortal supernatural creature who ‘started seeing something in humanity’ that ‘shouldn’t be taken’? COME ON ♥ What could that something be? Life? Creativity? Divine spark? FREE WILL?
Benny starts bitching again about Cas being a danger to them, while Cas senses leviathans close by. Everyone runs!
Back in the present Sam steals a car and sets out after his brother. Remembering happier things…
Like his new dog running into Amelia’s room while being walked, forcing Sam to creep in after him. ‘Don’t bother the angry lady’ Awww ♥
Aside - my London friends pointed out that every Sam flashback this episode starts with a shot of the dog. Who does Sam love more do you think, Amelia or…? :p
At this point the animal is simply called ‘Dog.’ Oh Sam. I think it had a name in another flashback though, but I can’t remember it… presumably we will get a flashback about that in the future…
Anyway. Sam and Amelia end up having a moment where they discover they are much much similar than they realised - they have both lost someone close to them and are at a loss of how to life now. Bless them.
In the present, Sam freaks out over Dean no longer answering his cell. He doesn’t want to lose his brother AGAIN and have no one, AGAIN. Aw, Sam.
Benny and his Maker are still bantering. This time with some nautical terms thrown in just to add some flavour - ‘coming back from the dead is the definition of mutiny’ for a vampires etc. I like :) They ARE vampirates after all ♥
More references to ongoing themes -
Benny’s Maker: All of this has me feeling so tired.
…
Benny: You live so long, how is it you have so little?
There’s a theme building here, I think, about immortality being a curse more than a blessing. That long life leads, ultimately, to an unsatisfying and/or meaningless life. Brick seemed to feel the same, hence why he killed himself before he had to face losing Betsy - the one thing that had finally given his life meaning. In one of his letters to Betsy he even writes ‘so tired of it all.’
This is a nice theme all on its own, but I like to think it’s going to relate to Cas eventually - that he’s going to have to consider whether life as an immortal angel has meaning or not, whether it’s actually fulfilling or not. If we work with the ‘closing the gates of Heaven’ theory then it will come to a clear choice - immortality in Heaven or mortality on earth. Everyone and their dog knows I come down on the side of mortality providing the most fulfilling life, and so far it seems the show seems to be implying that as well… but will it relate to Cas? Or is all this building up to Cas returning to a re-vamped (ha - pun!) Heaven where he and his family build a meaningful, immortal existence together?
Because if Cas does go back to Heaven and gets shut in there, he could just stay and wait for Dean, right? They would still be together eventually when Dean dies, and that way Cas would not risk non-existence by dying as a mortal (since we have no way of knowing if fallen angels end up in Heaven when they die). That COULD be romantic - Castiel waiting in Heaven for Dean and Dean knowing Cas will be there for him when his times comes…
*sigh* It just wouldn’t satisfy me though I don’t think… :(
Anywho. Benny and his Maker. The Old Man thinks he has Andrea, but Benny exposes his unlocked cuffs and reveals otherwise. He also reveals his super post-Purgatory fighting skills by easily killing the Old Man’s bodyguard.
More on the inadequacy of immortality -
Benny’s Maker: You’re right. I’ve been here so so long Benny. Seen all the outcomes, all the patterns. A trillion times. It all means so little.
…
Benny: You know what Socates said about a life unconsidered. [nb: "the life which is unexamined is not worth living"]
Benny’s Maker: [rolling his eyes] Yes. But what we have in us? Benny, that’s not life. That’s what you still don’t get. That’s why it’s always been so hard for you.
That last one poses an additional question - can monsters have a fulfilling life AT ALL? Do they have the capacity? This guy doesn’t think so. At one point Dean despaired that they couldn’t - ‘the angels, they don't care. I think maybe they just don't have the equipment to care. Seems like when they try, it just... breaks them apart.’
But Kate is trying. Benny is trying. Cas has been trying. Amy was trying. So surely, surely, that’s not true, right?
Long and short, Benny kills him, of course.
He returns, triumphant, to Andrea, ready to start a new life together. But, oh, Andrea never planned to leave with him. Her plan was always to keep running the vampirate operation. Oh no.
Benny: What I wanted was to put your memory to rest.
Andrea: But Benny, I’m not a memory, I’m right here.
Benny: [sad] What I loved… it ain’t here anymore. It was snuffed out a long time ago. By monsters like me. Like what you’ve become.
Andrea: You think you’re better than me now?
Benny: No. I think we’re all damned.
At which point she vamps out… and Dean jumps in to kill her :(
Now, intellectually and emotionally this is a beautiful, tragic story. Benny’s just come from his Maker telling him monsters can’t have a fulfilling life. Benny knows what it means to be a vampire, how much of a struggle it is to resist the urge to kill. He sees the woman he loves advocating killing now, in a way (we assume) she never did when she was human. He sees she has become something less than she was and while he MIGHT be able to convince her to struggle like him into not killing, there’s no certainty he will succeed, and in any case it damns her to a life of pain… so yes, of course he must see her killed, for his sake, for her sake and for the sake of the innocents she might hurt. And the dialogue does make a POINT of having her insist that she wants to keep killing, and that Benny does not consider himself better than her, making him therefore not really a hypocrite by denying her the chance to live long enough to become a better monster/person. This is just a tragic situation, with no right answer. Benny and Dean are not being portrayed as ‘right’ to kill her, just that it was, sadly, the lesser of a collection of only evil choices.
But if you step outside the subtle specifics of the story for a moment - this poor poor girl has been given NO CHANCE at having a character of her own, her story exists solely to fuel Benny’s and it has involved her being refrigerated not once, but TWICE. And on top of that she is a POC! I mean… ouch, show.
I’m not saying I’m fiercely opposed to the story or anything. I actually like it. There wasn’t really time to flesh Andrea out, I get that, and I’m not opposed to refrigerating characters on principle - it is a valid storytelling trope. Just saying, it’s sad how this story ended up playing out for both representations of women and POC and, you know, people should be aware of that. Not that it’s necessarily wrong in this isolated instance, but that it KEEPS HAPPENING like this.
Cos, see, RUBY could have had a similar backstory to Benny’s like this. They even started to give her one with her history with that witch demon and the fact she remembered being human, unlike most demons supposedly. But no… she was just evil… because, apparently, it’s only the men who get to explore angsty ‘struggling with inner darkness’ themes, and women either exist to service the male version of that story, or they get the simplified ‘she was nothing but evil and manipulative all along’ version…
I LOVE Benny and his story and I’m not going to hate it or call it badly written just because of what it isn’t doing. In and of itself it’s a GOOD story. But I can’t say I’m not disappointed with the general fact that Benny got this story, when Ruby didn’t. It exposes the inequality when it comes to how male and female characters are written in TV that I’ve been able to ignore up until now.
Rah rah.
To happier things - nice bit of casual eyesexing between Dean and Benny after the kill x
As the two of them get back into their boat Benny is forlorn. He questions why Dean even bothered to resurrect him. No one would have known otherwise if Dean hadn’t… concerned, Dean asks Benny if he’s okay and Benny, speaking for the majority of characters of this show (except for Sam this season I think), replies ‘I don’t know what I am…’
As Dean muses on this and, presumably, why he DID resurrect Benny, we jump to a flashback of Team Free Purgatory running from leviathans. Leviathans which look SO MUCH DAMN COOLER in Purgatory, btw. LOVING the oily missiles that morph into human form :)
A leviathan heads for Dean as Cas and Benny watch. Cas immediately runs in the opposite direction. There’s been wank about this which I consider ridiculous - no, Cas wasn’t leaving Dean to danger, he was leaving Dean and Benny with a SINGLE leviathan to fight (knowing they are a capable fighting pair) while he attempts to draw any others away to keep Dean safe. I mean, honestly…
Another leviathan gets in Cas’ way, however, and knocks him down. Personally, I think there is even a case to be made that Cas was running TOWARDS that leviathan on purpose with the intent of getting himself killed so as to no longer be a danger to Dean at all.
Dean deals with his leviathan himself. Cas is about to get chomped until - Benny to the rescue!
Cas’ expression at having been saved by a vampire he doesn’t really like is BEAUTIFUL. I’m sure there’ll be distrust over this, but in that moment Cas is nothing but shocked and touched… and maybe, MAYBE, a tad disappointed? In any case, the way he looks at Benny as he pulls Cas to his feet is soft.
While the way DEAN looks at them both is wide-eyed and kind of manic. I joked ‘aroused’ at the time :p But the fact we linger on Dean’s expression and end the flashback on it indicates this is a significant moment for Dean specifically. Benny saving Cas - that’s a GAMECHANGER for Dean. Is that, perhaps, why he made sure to resurrect Benny? Out of respect for this moment? Benny saved his angel, even though Benny had made it perfectly clear he felt Cas was a liability and that his life would be better off without Cas in it. Is this the moment, like when Ruby and Amy saved Sam at personal cost, that cemented Dean’s trust of Benny? Very possibly.
Which is, naturally, why I can’t 100% trust it :p If Benny knows just one thing about Dean it is that CAS MEANS EVERYTHING TO HIM down here in Purgatory. Just a little while ago Benny heard Dean putting Cas’ freedom above his own life. Benny KNOWS that if Cas dies Dean will react… badly. Potentially badly enough to kill Benny in the fallout, even if Cas’ death isn’t Benny’s fault. So the bottom line for Benny must be - to stand the best chance of escaping Purgatory, he must keep Cas alive for Dean for as long as possible. Meaning this could EASILY have been a strategic move on Benny’s part.
Dean, however, is maybe too blinded by different levels of fondness and love for both of them to realise this and sees only that Benny is being friendly to the guy he loves his angel.
I like to think Cas and Benny will ultimately develop a genuine fondness and respect for each other eventually, but here and now? There is probably not much in the way of real emotion going on between them.
Although I’m working on a small headcanon where Cas realises Benny saved his life for Dean’s sake, because Benny realised Dean wouldn’t be able to handle Cas dying - something Cas himself didn’t understand, because all he understood was that if he died Dean would be safer. When he realises that Benny understood this side of Dean better than he himself did, however, Cas comes to trust Benny more and becomes grateful to Benny for keeping him alive and sparing Dean pain (and if Cas and Dean end up having sexy times in Purgatory Cas becomes grateful to Benny for giving the two of them the chance to be together ;D). And maybe… maybe… Cas and Benny hatch a plan in secret together to keep Cas in Purgatory at the vital moment of escape, both of them being equally invested in doing this for their own reasons, Cas to ensure Dean escapes alive and Benny to ensure he escapes alive… but I’m not sure about that cos it doesn’t really match how Cas seemed in the relevant flashback of that moment, so…
To end - we meet Sam at the docks. Already furious with Dean for taking on a vamp nest without him, he then shakes Benny’s hand when Benny offers it and immediately clocks to Benny being a vampire (cos Sam ain’t no fool, yo). Cue the final moment of really REALLY OTT slow-mo and Sam reaches - FOREVER - for his knife, and Dean gives a long, drawn out shake of his head. Seriously, OTT slow-motion there show. Seriously.
Nice bitchface from Sam though :)
Verdict? Not one of Edlund’s BEST, I have to say. But a sub-par Edlund script is equivalent to a great script from anyone else, so still fantastic :) Plus my disappointments are over general TV writing issues as opposed to issues with this episode as an individual entity, so… all round I very much enjoy what they are doing with Benny (even though it’s not what I was anticipating), the PARALLELS guys, the PARALLELS are to DIE FOR! This is further continuation of seeing the season progress into everything I’ve ever wanted (for my boys at least).
edit: amazing meta on this is amazing ♥