#1.22 devil's trap

[samtoys]

1.22 Devil's Trap

[samtoys]

1.22 Devil's Trap

[darkstar6782]

Fade to Black - 1.22: Devil’s Trap

“Anything you wanna know about demons, go see Bobby Singer. If there’s any hunter who could be considered an expert in demons, it’s him.” He can hear Rumsfeld barking from inside the garage at the back of the property. Pup’s got a good set of vocal cords on him; assuming he’s not going apeshit over another squirrel on the roof, he’s gonna make a great guard dog. He’s wiping the grease off his hands as he comes around the house and sees that he’s got a visitor: there’s a black ’67 Chevy Impala sitting in his driveway. It looks well-maintained, if a little hard-ridden, and there’s a dark-haired man in ripped jeans and a battered leather jacket leaning on her hood, well out of the pup’s range.

“You Bobby Singer?”

Bobby nods. “Rumsfeld, hush!” he commands, and the dog goes quiet. Yup, gonna be the perfect guard dog. “Who’re you?”

“Name’s John Winchester. I understand you’re the man to see about demon lore.”

Bobby shrugs. “You understand correctly, but I don’t usually discuss it in the front yard. Wanna come inside, do this over a few drinks?”

John hesitates a moment at this, then glances over his shoulder at the car. “Sure,” he says, “long as it won’t take too long.”

“Why?” Bobby asks, getting suspicious. “You got someplace else you need to be?”

“No,” John says, crossing his arms defensively and moving to get in front of Bobby as he gets closer to the car. “Let’s just take this inside.”

Bobby’s about to agree, but then he catches a flash of motion from one of the car windows that has him on high alert. He sidesteps John and gets a good look into the car’s back seat before the younger man grabs him by the arm and practically throws him away from the car.

“What you got in the car, John?” Bobby’s cursing himself for not having a gun on him, but so far, the man has simply been defensive, not aggressive, so he keeps his cool as he waits to see how this plays out.

“Nothing. Why?”

“Because it looks to me like you got two kids back there. And you better tell me they’re yours, otherwise I’m siccen’ Rumsfeld on you here and callin’ the cops.”

John relaxes only a fraction at this. “Yeah, they’re my boys. What of it?”

“And you were just gonna leave ‘em out here?”

“Most hunters ain’t too keen on havin’ a couple’a kids runnin’ around,” John says with a shrug and a hard look.

“Well, I ain’t most hunters.” That’s not entirely true. Bobby has no interest in children, and, in truth, would rather not have them running all over his house, but he isn’t about to just let two little boys sit in a car in his front yard when it’s threatening snow outside. “You bring ‘em inside, and ‘long as they don’t go playin’ cowboys with any ‘a my weapons, I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.”

“Don’t worry, they know better than to treat weapons as toys,” John says, a look of pure relief coming over his face as he turns to the car. “You can come on out, boys.”

The car’s rear door opens with a creak, and two sets of feet drop down to stand in the dirt behind it. The older one comes out first, carrying a backpack and leading the younger boy by the hand. Bobby has no idea how to guess children’s ages, but he knows the older can’t be more than eleven or twelve, and the younger looks like he’s probably only just started school.

“Sam, Dean, this is Bobby Singer. He’s going to help me with some stuff for work, so we’re going into his house for a little while. While we’re in there, you’re to be quiet and not touch anything, you understand?”

“Yes, sir,” the older one says, while the younger one sticks his thumb in his mouth and nods. Bobby leads the way into the house, John herding his boys behind him.

“Doggy!” the younger boy whispers as they pass Rumsfeld. “Dee, can I pet him?”

Bobby is about to turn around and give them both a stern lecture about leaving the dog alone, but the older boy beats him to it. “No, Sammy. He’s a guard dog, and he’s on duty, so no petting, okay?”

“‘Kay.”

Well, that solves the mystery of which one is Sam and which is Dean, at least. When they get in the house, Bobby sets both boys down at his kitchen table with glasses of water—he doesn’t have anything else in the house suitable for a child to drink, unfortunately—and a stern warning about not touching anything—especially the weapons—then he and John retreat to his library with bottles of beer to discuss demons.

A couple of hours later, while John is buried deep in a book of demon lore, Bobby pops back into the kitchen to see exactly how much trouble the two boys have gotten into. He was a boy himself, once, so he’s expecting something skirting the edge of complete chaos, but, to his surprise, the boys are still sitting in pretty much the exact same spot where John had left them. Sammy has climbed into Dean’s lap, and is staring avidly at the pictures in the book that Dean has open on the table while Dean reads to him about knights and castles and a princess with long hair.

“Uncle Bobby? Can Sammy have another glass of water, please?”

Bobby’s just turning to leave when the sound of his name stops him in his tracks. “Who said to call me that?”

Dean shrugs. “That’s what Dad says to call all his friends, since we don’t got any real uncles. Is that okay?”

Uncle Bobby. Huh. He kinda likes the sound of that. He’s never been anyone’s uncle before. “Sure, kid. It’s just fine. Some water, ya say? Coming’ right up.”

[darkstar6782]

1.22: Devil’s Trap - My Rewatch Review

Oh man, this episode! It is truly one of the more perfect season finales of the series. There are so many things to love, from Bobby showing up for the first time, to Sam and Dean starting to learn about demon lore, to the epic confrontation in the cabin and all of the complicated family dynamics at play that it reveals. But the thing I found myself focusing on the most this time around was the way that this episode wove the story of Dean coming to terms with a darker part of himself throughout the larger narrative. Leading straight on through from the previous episode, when he confessed to Sam just how much his family means to him, Dean puts that loyalty on the line over and over again in this episode, and each time, he sacrifices a bit of himself to do it. Starting with torturing and then exorcising Meg, even after being told that an innocent girl will die as a result of his actions (both current and former, which has to hurt even worse), Dean follows that up by shooting a possessed man in the head in order to save Sam, turning the Colt on his own father with only his gut instinct to guide him, and ultimately confronting the demon that killed his mother and standing up defiantly as it manages to tear into his every weakness and insecurity. And, in the midst of all this tragedy, in a moment that seems all-but-forgotten by the story as a result of everything happening around it, Dean confronts his own darkness, admitting that it scares him that he is capable of such unflinching violence when his family is in danger.

This is an interesting moment to me, especially, because of the contrast that it highlights between Sam and Dean. Over the next few seasons, we will see Sam, as a result of discovering the true source of his power and the ‘destiny’ that has been laid out for him, struggle against what he sees as an inherent darkness in his character. He voices the same doubts and fears that Dean is voicing here over and over again, and receives a variety of responses depending on who he is with and where he is in his journey. In contrast, this is one of the very few times when Dean ever expresses these doubts about his own character, and it isn’t because his actions change after this episode. On the contrary, he becomes more set in his ways and certain of himself, at least on the surface. If he has these doubts again, they are easily pushed aside by all of the people in his life that tell him that he is doing the right thing. From his father tasking him with “saving” Sam, to the angels calling him the “righteous” man, he is clearly placed on the side of good, in spite of the dark impulses inside him, and, in contrast to his brother, he doesn’t feel the need to question that darkness any more. And to think that it is here, in a single moment that is almost too-easily forgotten in the grand scheme of things, that the first seed of the struggle that we are about to witness is planted. Because both of these boys have a darkness in them, and they both know it, and it’s a brilliant turn of the tables to have the one that is supposedly on the side of ‘evil’ be the one that struggles against those dark impulses, while the one on the side of ‘good’ chooses to embrace them.

I also found it fascinating during this rewatch to see just how much attention is paid to the fact that demons are possessing innocent people, because this is a fact that the show uses to great character-defining effect here, but as the show continues, it is only brought up in the future when convenient for further character conflict. Throughout most of the rest of the series, Sam and Dean will slaughter demons, and angels, without much thought to the people that they are possessing, and while it is definitely more of a story convenience than anything that is supposed to speak to their character or humanity (except when the plot deems it so), it is an unfortunate side-effect of making monsters that possess people one of the primary antagonists of the series. Because I don’t want Sam and Dean to agonize over every demon that they kill—that would get tiresome real fast—but when looking at the series too closely, it can reflect poorly on their characters when they only agonize over it at the plot’s convenience, but slaughter with no remorse the rest of the time. Also, I found it obnoxiously convenient to the plot that suddenly, for this episode and this episode alone, demons can possess people ‘invisibly’. Especially since they could have just as easily shown two people standing in out-of-the-way places being possessed by the normal clouds of black smoke, which makes me think that the only reason they chosen to do it the way they did was to save on the special effects budget. If they had been setting this up to be a new dimension to demon-possession to be worried about (which, to be honest, would have been pretty freaking terrifying), that would have been okay, too, but, as far as I can recall, this is the only time we ever see people being possessed by demons in this fashion, which turns what could have been a very scary aspect of demons into nothing more than a nitpick.

No matter how many times I watch this episode, the car crash at the end still makes me jump, and my heart always races at the point where Dean accuses his father of being possessed too, which is always a sign to me of a show that is doing suspense just right, because even though you know what’s coming, and you can anticipate it, everything that is going on in the scene, from the actors’ delivery of their lines to the music and sound cues is working not on an intellectual level, but on a more primal, emotional one that you can’t help but react to. It is also what makes this show infinitely rewatchable in my opinion; because there are hundreds of moments just like these throughout the course of the series, and I can’t wait to experience each one of them all over again.

[oceansima]

Dean and the scary beauty of Devil’s Trap. In one scene he looks incredible young and vulnerable and in the next scene he is brave, intimidating and deadly. He is the guy I admire and fear. This is Supernatural at its best.

[recreationalauthor]

Supernatural 1.22 Devil’s Trap

S

[treefrogie84]

boys, it’s july, in MISSOURI.

you’re going to get more attention for the jackets than the guns.

-from the girl who regularly wears a flannel and/or carries a sweatshirt with her, year round.

[treefrogie84]

they’re laying the ground for Alastair’s Apprentice Dean early.

Not the same as Demon!Dean.