Scenes I Love . . .
"The Benders" cont.
Pa Bender decides to pay Dean back for all his smartass quips by forcing him to make a cruel choice:
“You think this is funny?” he says. “You brought this down on my family. Alright, you wanna play games? We’ll play some games. Looks like we’re gonna have a hunt tonight after all, boys. (to DEAN) And you get to pick the animal. The boy or the cop?”
It’s chilling that he refers to them as “the animal”, underscoring that he is indifferent to their humanity. It’s a recognized trait of serial killers that they tend to dehumanize their victims.
Given how we come to think of the brothers as protecting each other at all costs, even at the expense of others, we might have expected Dean to sacrifice Kathleen, but the fact that he chooses Sam shows his strong belief in his brother. In a hunt situation, he trusts Sam to be able to take care of himself. But Pa tricks him: the supposed choice was never anything but a sadistic game. He never had any intention of giving anyone a chance, and he tells his son to shoot both.
Dean reacts with predictable shock and rage: “You hurt my brother, I’ll kill you, I swear. I’ll kill you all. I will kill you all!”
We know he means it.
Pa tells Lee to shoot Sam in the cage, not to open it. Nevertheless, he hands him the key, which seems a bit contradictory. It’s a moment that reveals the actual location of the key, though, which turns out to be on a cord round his neck, so Dean never had any chance of finding it before. Lee does, in fact, open the cage to shoot Sam, which seems a bit unnecessary. I suppose he might have thought there was a risk of hitting the bars and being caught by a rebound. Giving Sam an opening turns out to have been the far greater risk though, as he proves Dean’s faith in him was justified. Utilising the rivet he acquired earlier, he flings it at Lee and distracts him for a split second, long enough to break out and get the jump on him. He gets Lee’s gun and uses it to knock him out but then, of course, it jams.
Having heard shots, Pa and Jared turn up to see what’s taking Lee so long. They find him locked in the cage, the fuses have been pulled, and the chickens have flown the coop. The hunters have become the hunted.
While father and son search for their erstwhile prisoners, we see Kathleen opening a cupboard, and we assume she’s going to hide there. Then Jared sees the cupboard and makes the same assumption, filling it full of bullet holes. Alas it seems our fine deputy is a gonna, but no! It turns out the cupboard is empty. SPN has pulled one of the stock cons on the audience that will become a regular feature in the show’s run. As for Kathleen, she’s alive and fighting, dropping down from above to attack Jared while is distracted.
She puts up a worthy fight, but Jared gets the upper hand and is about to shoot, so Sam runs in to draw his fire. Sam drops as Jared takes aim at him (this is confusing, isn’t it?) and just as Pa comes up behind him, so Jared accidentally (and conveniently) shoots his father instead. It’s a neat bit of fight choreography though. (Unfortunately it happens too fast to cap effectively).
With Pa on the ground, it’s a straight fight between Sam and Jared. The name does emphasize that Sam is engaged in combat with his own opposite number in the Bender family. He defeats his dark opponent relatively swiftly, but not easily. It’s an effort, as witnessed by what I believe is the first appearance of the Sam Winchester huffTM of exertion.
My grateful thanks to kazluvsbooks for capturing Sam’s big breaths for me with this beautiful gif.
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Please follow the "episode rewatch" tag to be notified when new reviews are posted.
.
Pa Bender decides to pay Dean back for all his smartass quips by forcing him to make a cruel choice:
“You think this is funny?” he says. “You brought this down on my family. Alright, you wanna play games? We’ll play some games. Looks like we’re gonna have a hunt tonight after all, boys. (to DEAN) And you get to pick the animal. The boy or the cop?”
It’s chilling that he refers to them as “the animal”, underscoring that he is indifferent to their humanity. It’s a recognized trait of serial killers that they tend to dehumanize their victims.
Given how we come to think of the brothers as protecting each other at all costs, even at the expense of others, we might have expected Dean to sacrifice Kathleen, but the fact that he chooses Sam shows his strong belief in his brother. In a hunt situation, he trusts Sam to be able to take care of himself. But Pa tricks him: the supposed choice was never anything but a sadistic game. He never had any intention of giving anyone a chance, and he tells his son to shoot both.
Dean reacts with predictable shock and rage: “You hurt my brother, I’ll kill you, I swear. I’ll kill you all. I will kill you all!”
We know he means it.
Pa tells Lee to shoot Sam in the cage, not to open it. Nevertheless, he hands him the key, which seems a bit contradictory. It’s a moment that reveals the actual location of the key, though, which turns out to be on a cord round his neck, so Dean never had any chance of finding it before. Lee does, in fact, open the cage to shoot Sam, which seems a bit unnecessary. I suppose he might have thought there was a risk of hitting the bars and being caught by a rebound. Giving Sam an opening turns out to have been the far greater risk though, as he proves Dean’s faith in him was justified. Utilising the rivet he acquired earlier, he flings it at Lee and distracts him for a split second, long enough to break out and get the jump on him. He gets Lee’s gun and uses it to knock him out but then, of course, it jams.
Having heard shots, Pa and Jared turn up to see what’s taking Lee so long. They find him locked in the cage, the fuses have been pulled, and the chickens have flown the coop. The hunters have become the hunted.
While father and son search for their erstwhile prisoners, we see Kathleen opening a cupboard, and we assume she’s going to hide there. Then Jared sees the cupboard and makes the same assumption, filling it full of bullet holes. Alas it seems our fine deputy is a gonna, but no! It turns out the cupboard is empty. SPN has pulled one of the stock cons on the audience that will become a regular feature in the show’s run. As for Kathleen, she’s alive and fighting, dropping down from above to attack Jared while is distracted.
She puts up a worthy fight, but Jared gets the upper hand and is about to shoot, so Sam runs in to draw his fire. Sam drops as Jared takes aim at him (this is confusing, isn’t it?) and just as Pa comes up behind him, so Jared accidentally (and conveniently) shoots his father instead. It’s a neat bit of fight choreography though. (Unfortunately it happens too fast to cap effectively).
With Pa on the ground, it’s a straight fight between Sam and Jared. The name does emphasize that Sam is engaged in combat with his own opposite number in the Bender family. He defeats his dark opponent relatively swiftly, but not easily. It’s an effort, as witnessed by what I believe is the first appearance of the Sam Winchester huffTM of exertion.
My grateful thanks to kazluvsbooks for capturing Sam’s big breaths for me with this beautiful gif.
.
Please follow the "episode rewatch" tag to be notified when new reviews are posted.
.