#spn 3.02

[foxthefanboi]

Supernatural Appreciation Week - Day Four:      ↳ Underrated Characteristic - Dean Is Good With Kids

[spngeorg]

Episode 46: 3.02 The Kids Are Alright

I wrestled with the jokey tagline on the image this week. I nearly went with something about Ruby, since she’s the other Big Deal Thing happening in this episode, but I’m still stuck on the thematic similarity between Lisa and Carmen from Dean’s djinn dream in 2.20. I mean, they even look similar. Like, maybe his long-ago memories of Lisa influenced his mental process in choosing that particular El Sol ad model as his ideal partner in his dream world, you know? And then the reality of Lisa when he walks back into her life in this episode is just... not at all what he was expecting. The dream kind of shatters a little bit, but in a way that helps him come back down to earth and confront himself, rather than just trying to run from his problems (like his ticking clock and his one way ticket to Hell) and bury them under hedonistic distractions.

(also, we discuss this episode with the understanding that Lisa is not a liar, she’s not deceiving Dean about Ben’s parentage, and that Dean is 100% not Ben’s father, just in case anyone takes issue with that.)

But also, there’s Ruby, and the beginning of her arc that is so damn satisfying to watch when you already know her whole story. She is one of the things I always point to when people suggest that Supernatural is a bad show, or that it was poorly written. Her entire arc wasn’t an accident. Well... we all know how late s3 pulled the rug out from under the plot and then replaced it with angels, but for her part in the Big Scheme of Things, she was always supposed to be the little demon on Sam’s shoulder whispering the secrets to his own downfall in his ear. It just ended up having far more long-reaching consequences in the narrative than originally planned thanks to the whole Apocalypse thing happening. :D

So this is a big one all around!

Things referenced in this episode:

The Superwiki page for this episode

My tag for this episode

Casting Sides for Ben

Listen now on AnchorFM, or whever you enjoy podcasts!

[mittensmorgul]

Why did dean not let Jack to watch tv??? (13x02)

eh, i mean...

if i'd just had to have a funeral pyre for the love of my life who i'd watched stabbed to death by lucifer while i stood helpless to save him

and then watched lucifer drag my mother into an alternate universe i had no hope of saving her from

and then knew another person i had confusing feelings for but who was trying to help me stop all that other stuff from happening had likely also died in the process of failing to stop any of that from happening

but then my brother insisted on protecting/caring for the suddenly almost-adult-appearing spawn of lucifer (you know that dude who murdered the love of my life and doomed my mother in the span of two minutes the night before) and i hadn't really had any sleep in days let alone any time to process...

i probably would be irrationally against said spawn (again, the root cause in my mind for all of the above, even if not by his own choice and just as a consequence of his own birth/very existence) taking pleasure in something that had been a core feature of my own childhood (scooby doo).

tl;dr dean was exhausted, overwhelmed, grieving, bitter, and angry, and honestly he had every right on the planet and then some to feel that way

was it wrong to take it out on jack? eh... ymmv, but after a year of being told that if that child was allowed to be born, he would destroy the universe, and all evidence to that point was kind of proving that assessment correct, at least for Dean personally...

[holisticfansstuff]

Ok, but remember that time Dean showed up on Lisa's doorstep, telling her she should leave town and handed her his credit card as incentive. I mean, imagine what it must have looked like to her, some guy with whom she'd slept once just randomly telIs her to take a trip with her son and hands over his credit card. His fake credit card. Lmao. It was like Dean had never spoken to an actual human being before. And he makes fun of Cas.

[mittensmorgul]

omg, I was looking something up about 3.02, and ruby telling Sam about all his mother's friends having been murdered, and I just put something together

Sam asked her where she got a knife that can kill demons, and she snarked back "Skymall." And like... knowing how Top Tier she was in the whole apocalypse plan, I wonder if she didn't literally get it from an angel...

I think back when they wrote 3.02 they were still adamantly on Kripke’s “never angels” plan, and it was legit just a wisecrack, but like... I find it hilarious now :’D

[mittensmorgul]

really quickly... 3.01 The Magnificent Seven, and 3.02 The Kids Are Alright (Since I'm kinda squeezing them in late at night when I should be doing other things, but I hate not mentioning them because TNT loop completeness...)

A lot of s3 seems to be about regret, the cost of revenge never being worth it, and what could've been. Tamara and Isaac let their own past cloud their judgment and it leads them into a situation they never could've suspected and were utterly unprepared to deal with. But Sam, Dean, and Bobby are also dealing with the cost of Dean's deal. Despite finally getting their revenge on Azazel, there's a much bigger cost coming due in one short year, and nothing Dean can do will get him out of it.

He reverts to indulging in every whim, since he's gonna die anyway, right? Might as well squeeze as much as he can out of the time he has left. But it's all so heavily tinged with regret. There's nothing cheerful about his indulgences and it's not hard to see through the veneer to the fact it's coming across more like gallows humor than joie de vivre here.

Which brings us to Lisa and Ben. Caught up in a case where children are being replaced by monsters who kill their parents, Dean is forced to face the reality that he's not really leaving a legacy behind in the world. More than just the picket fence suburban life that this woman from his past has carved out for herself, he's facing now never having a family of his own-- you know that dream John had always wanted for Dean specifically. It takes him a really long time to realize that's all it ever was-- a dream that even he didn't really want in the end.

It's really telling that Dean remembered Lisa from almost nine years earlier for nothing more than the fact she was "bendy." He never told her the truth about what he did, like he did with Cassie, who from the timeline it's likely he met AFTER his bendy weekend with Lisa, while Sam was at Stanford. Lisa was "safer" because she wasn't someone he'd tried to have a relationship with. She wasn't someone he thought going back to visit that even nine years later she would've settled down into a relationship of her own, either. He expected to show up on her doorstep, have another bendy weekend and relive that piece of his past, and then adios again. Maybe if she hadn't had a child along the way she would've been just that, but even she says in the episode that having Ben changed her life. And seeing those changes, Dean begins to wonder if he could've done anything to change his own life that way, too.

But in Dean's life, the monsters have always been real. And it might take a few seasons for him to begin to really understand it, but he can't walk away from his life, either. Not even for the seductive lure of peace and quiet in the suburbs. It's weird, but Dean's relationship with Lisa has always felt like a changeling situation, you know? Except he feels like the monster fitting himself into their lives, pretending to be just a normal guy, while his presence in their lives does nothing but hurt them.

Regret. What could've been.

(oh, and curiously, Lisa full-names Ben at one point. “Benjamin Isaac Braeden.” which is interesting considering Tamara’s husband, killed by demons in 3.01 after being forced by Gluttony to drink drain cleaner, was named Isaac. Probably an unintentional coincidence, but interesting just the same)

[jennsens]

Brothers & set design porn | SPN 3.02 | Dedicated to @demondetoxmanual

[jennsens]