So here's the thing that bugged me about tonight's episode.
So here's the thing that bugged me about tonight's episode. (Okay, two things, actually.)
Yes, it was a fun episode.
Yes, they've done wackier things before - I actually love the crack episodes SPN does, most of the time.
The problem, though, is in the idea that it's a human - and not just a human, but a friend of John Winchester's (not a hunter, but an informant?) who had these powers - these supernatural abilities.
Remember seasons 1 & 2 (and hell, seasons 3-5) when everyone - including John and Dean Winchester and all the other hunters out there - were freaking out about Sam's abilities? We had psychics like Missouri and Pamela, but their powers were basically that they were extra tuned in to the spiritual world, and fit very much within the overall mythology of the show.
Fred Jones could control his surroundings with his mind without even realizing it. The last character who could do that was a little boy who was half-demon and considered to be the anti-christ.
I've seen a lot of people say that tonight felt like a classic Trickster/Gabriel episode, which I think is correct. Yes, it was Castiel with his angel-mojo who actually inserted Sam and Cas into the dreamworld of Fred's mind, but it was Fred all on his own who projected these physics-defying (telekinesis?) abilities wherever he went.
No one even raised the idea that poor old Fred Jones was someone to be hunted Not even Dean, who told Sam "If you weren't my brother, I would want to hunt you" because he could exorcise demons with his mind. Oh, but that's because Fred Jones was just an innocent old man, right? He didn't mean to hurt anyone!
At least not until he forced a man to turn his gun on himself and pull the trigger.
Ahh, yes. And now we get to my other big, big problem with tonight's episode. Abuse/Manipulation of the elderly is a growing problem, and many people draw parallels to child abuse, in the way that the victims are powerless to help themselves, and sometimes don't even realize what's going on around them. It's a very sad, cruel thing.
Max Miller was a victim of child abuse. Remember Max? He was the very first "special" kid besides Sam that we met back in season 1. He used his powers to kill his Dad, then his Uncle, and then he almost killed his mom with a gun (using his powers) before swinging it around to kill himself. It was a very tragic and emotional episode, and while Sam and Dean argued over whether or not Max was a monster or whether he could control his powers, at no point dd anyone suggest that it was okay for Max to have killed his abusers.
It's a controversial topic, and I'm not saying that I condemn Max or Frank for the actions they took. However, within the context of the Supernatural universe, I'm growing worried at the nonchalant way that they are killing off non-monster humans at an increasing rate. It's become common-place for Dean or Sam to pull out the knife and kill a demon (and the host) without even attempting to look for an alternative.
Tonight's episode, however, was all human. There was no monster-of-the-week. There was a man - an old family friend - with special abilities, and there was a criminal who was stealing from old people, manipulating an old man with dementia, and who accidentally killed one man, on purpose killed another, and was attempting to kill Dean. He was far from innocent, but he was still human. He had committed crimes, but did he deserve to die? And even if he did, did Frank (or even Sam and Dean) have the right to make that decision?
Supernatural is not Arrow, with a vigilante out to clean up crime and work outside of the law to do it. It's also not X-Men or any other super hero comic, which is where Frank's powers would have fit right in with the mythology of the universe. There is nothing inherently wrong with either Frank having powers or the Bad Guy getting what was coming to him... but neither of these things fit the previous seven seasons of Supernatural.
And if they're going to start (or continue) to mess with the show on such a fundamental level, what will they do next?
This entry was originally posted at http://risti.dreamwidth.org/912201.html.
comments.