Thoughts on SPN 5.06
Wow, that went from extremely funny to creepy and tragic in a hurry, didn't it? The tone shift was handled very well, though, didn't feel jarring to me at all. Kinda reminded me of "Mystery Spot" in that respect.
SPN continues its excellent track record with child actors. The kid who played Jesse was great.
The actress who played his mom was great, too. And kind of an awesome character. I'm glad she didn't end up dead.
It's nice to see the boys being all brotherly again. Sam teasing Dean about his sense of humor, his reactions to Dean's eating habits and the hairy palms -- priceless, all of it. Also, Dean showing off how the guy's face "froze that way." Hee.
One thing this episode brought home in a very effective way is that Castiel is not a sweet innocent woobie. Yeah, it's easy to think that way when he's standing on the side of the road going "the Voice says I'm almost out of minutes," but ignorance of human ways =/= goodness and light. Castiel is a Warrior for God, he's spent centuries smiting where he was told to smite, and his ways are not our ways. I do thing he's been growing more human through his association with Dean and Sam, but he's nowhere near there yet. I think he felt bad about having to kill Jesse, but not too bad, and he totally would've done it.
I still want the little Castiel doll in the little trench coat, though.
Nice job of tying in Jesse's situation with Sam's, and bringing all of Sam's issues with destiny and free will out into the open. And it's a nice hopeful note for Sam, isn't it, that Jesse did the right thing? If a nine-year-old kid can do it, surely the Winchesters can manage.
I knew they couldn't do it, but I'm kind of sorry they didn't end with Jesse going off for superhero training with Bobby. That would've been awesome.
If the Antichrist is any human-demon offspring rather than specifically Lucifer's kid, how do we know there's not more than one? Why isn't there more than one? There's tons of demons around, why aren't they out there trying to breed an army of superpowered kids? Why was the YED fooling around with that whole feeding-blood-to-babies business instead of doing it the old-fashined way?
And can angels make little anti-Antichrists too? Or is it only because demons used to be humans that they can cross-breed with us? Enquiring minds want to know.
I'm kind of annoyed at the "I wish Dad had lied to us" bit at the end. First of all, I think the show's gone overboard with demonizing John the last couple of seasons. It's shifted from "John was a complicated guy who tried to do his best in a horrible situation and fucked up a lot" to "Argh! John sucked and everything he ever did was wrongwrongwrong!!!!!!" which is not only frustrating for John fans, but also simplistic and boring. Posthumously making a layered and interesting character one-dimensional does no one any favors. And second of all, John was right in not lying to his kids, and Sam and Dean were right in not lying to Jesse, no matter how unpleasant it was. Jesse was killing and maiming people in his ignorance, and how many people do we see dying every week episode because they don't know what's out there? Remember what happened when Sam lied to Roland in "Nightshifter?" Ignorance is not bliss, people!
No new episode for two weeks? Waaaah!