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raloriaOnce again I'm terribly late in posting this review. I'm going to keep trying to improve my time, but I'll admit it's a tall order with 2 college classes. Hope you think this was worth the wait. :)
If you want a little bit more of my thoughts check out my First Impressions Post for this episode. Please remember that the caps here are just small for the review. I'll be posting the full sized caps in a regular picspam later on.
All the caps within this review were taken from my own Hi-Def recording of the episode. You're free to take any that you like, as long as you give me credit. There are 113 caps, but most of them are clickable thumbnails in consideration of my fellow dial-up users.
* I'm not going to go into the opening scenes too much. We're in Cicero, Indiana where a woman is waitng outside for her daughter. Katie returns home to her mom from her dad's place, saying she doesn't want to go back and that she's scared of the monsters there. Turns out she has a good reason, as poor dad is swiftly killed off via power saw. I will say I found the power saw scene very startling and gory for the opening of an episode, but kudos to Kripke & Co. for getting it on the air! Eeek!
* Sam's secretly working with Bobby to find a solution to Dean's Demon Deal (DDD) and is apparently looking into a "demon dispelling ritual" while translating some very interesting text on the laptop. Dean shows up at the restaurant and Sam hastily cuts off the phone conversation with Bobby. He then proceeds to badly cover up the call by saying he was ordering a pizza. *snort* It's cute how Sam can smoothly lie to strangers but fumbles when lying to his brother. But Dean doesn't make a big deal out of it "Okay. Weirdy McWeirditon" and moves on to the task at hand....their next case.
* Dean brings up the power saw death in Cicero and Sam isn't all that interested. However, Dean's not going to let it go because his real reason for heading there is to visit one of his old girlfriends, Lisa Braeden. Apparently Dean met her 8 years ago on a little road trip by himself while Sam and their dad were working on a banshee case in Orlando. As clingy as we all assumed Dean was to his family, it looks like he did venture off on his own now and then. Turns out on this excursion he spent most of his time in Lisa, aka Gumby Girl's loft, having "the bendiest weekend" of his life. Dean again plays the "dying wish" card and Sam, naturally weakens.
Dean: C'mon have a heart. Huh? It's my dying wish!
Sam: How many dying wishes are you gonna get?
Dean: As many as I can squeeze out. C'mon, smile Sam. God knows I'm gonna be smiling after 24 hours with Gumby Girl. (He & Sam chuckle) Gumby Girl....Does that make me Pokey?
*giggles*
* Dean drops Sam off at the Cicero Pines Motel. Quite literally too, the poor kid barely had enough time to get his bags out of the car! He then tracks down Lisa's house in the lovely Morning Hill community.
* I'd like to point out the continuity error here between the first shot of the Impala driving thru the neighborhood and the second. In the first, it's late afternoon - almost "magic hour" light and in the second it's clearly earlier in the day! Ooops!
* The scene between Lisa and Dean as he shows up on her doostep is full of charm, which Dean is oozing in buckets. I would let this man into my house in a heartbeat. And of course, all those lovely Jensen smiles! *guh*
* Turns out Lisa has a son named Ben, who's celebrating his 8th birthday that day. There's a big party and Dean pretty much invites himself into the festivities. Ben is a cute, smart-alecky kid and right away we (and Dean for that matter) see him as a mini-Dean. He loves AC/DC, cars, eating, and girls. He even talks like Dean! Meanwhile, as Dean checks out the birthday cake, a couple of the neighborhood women check him out. Evidently, Lisa did some bragging about her time with "Best-Night-Of-My-Life-Dean" and his appearance has the women all fangirly...but then how can you blame them. *g* He turns around, sees them staring at him, says "hi" which they each return, and then in a brilliant bit of comedy he makes an awkward retreat. It's too cute how he turns to go one way and then instantly changes direction to go the opposite!
* Dean ends up over by Ben and they exhange some small talk about the Moon Bounce in front of them and girls. Ben then heads off into the Moon Bounce, hot on the trail of some chicks and Dean starts running the math in his head. Coming to the conclusion that the kid might be his, he makes a run for the house only to bump into a trash can. *gigglesnort* Love how Jensen really gets to show his comedic side in this episode. Oh, and his eyes in this scene with Ben were the greenest I've ever seen them! I just wanted to crawl through my TV screen and jump into those gorgeous emerald pools. Stunning!
* Meanwhile, Lisa is talking to Katie's mom (Why doesn't this woman have a name? She's got a big enough part!) and asking if she's alright since her ex's death. Katie's mom expresses her concern over her daughter, saying she doesn't think the girl is really Katie. Ooooooh.
* Dean enters and not too subtly asks Lisa if Ben is his. She in turn awkwardly says no and we then see a rather creepy looking Katie and her mom leave. Dean then finds out her ex was the power saw victim and that it's not the first bit of "bad luck" in the neighborhood.
* Now we cut to Sam who is sitting in the motel's cafe (not eating, btw) and presumedly still working on DDD. Enter our mysterious blond chick from the previous episode (aka Ruby). He claims she's been following him since Lincoln and she grabs a fry from his plate, speaking one of the best lines from the episode.
Ruby: Mmmmm. These are amazing. It's like deep fried crack. Try some.
He asks about the knife she used to kill the demons, which she quickly evades and he wants to know why she's following him. She says she's interested in him because he's tall and then gets to the heart of the matter with his whole "Anti-Christ thing". Sam says he no longer has his powers since the YED's death. Ruby praises him on killing old Yellow Eyes and then drops a little hint about his mom which Sam knows nothing about. She tells him to look up his mom's pals and call her, writing her number on his palm. Then, before taking off she reminds him there's a case to be solved in town. Cue Dean calling Sam's cell to tell him there is a problem in town worth solving.
* The next scene involves creepy Katie and her mom, who wakes up to find the girl watching her. Btw, just to be picky...that's the worst waking up I've seen from an actor in a long time. You don't just sit up like that. Anyway, the kid wants to play, mom agrees and then happens to get a look at Katie through a mirror and her skin is not exactly...normal. Ewww! Mom freaks out, but covers it up fast as Katie then switches gears and wants to be fed. Very demanding creatures, these creepy kids.
* Elsewhere Sam is playing insurance man at one of the neighborhood's crime scenes. Speaking of which, if the guy was "just inside changing a light bulb", why is there a ladder at the broken window outside? Sam spots some blood marks on the house and the fence nearby while the woman's creepy daughter, Dakota, watches him from inside. Leaving, Sam notices a weird mark on the back of the woman's neck.
* Back to Katie and her mom, who is burning that grilled cheese sandwich she's fixing. No wonder the kid wanted ice cream...mom can't cook worth a darn. Mom is rubbing her neck and feeling weirded out and heads off to the bathroom and sees the strange mark. Katie then preceeds to begin banging on the locked bathroom door, demanding to be let in. She only stops when the doorbell rings. The realtor is there, bearing a basket of goodies and wanting to know if Katie's mom is going to keep the house or not. Mom tells her now's not a good time and slams the door on her, turning around to face Katie who, surprise, surprise wants more food.
* Next we have another adorable scene between Dean and Ben, who's sitting on a park bench while a bunch of other boys are enjoying the use of his Gameboy. Btw, I love how they're even dressed the same here with the torn jeans and jacket....very cute. Dean wants to go over and get the game back, but Ben stops him.
Ben: No! Don't go over there. Only bitches send a grown up.
Dean: You're not wrong.
Ben: And I am not a bitch.
Dean gives his patented crooked smile here, clearly impressed with the kid.
Ben heads over to Ryan Humphries, who's playing the game and after getting an adorable thumbs up from Dean, asks for his game back. Ryan says only if he takes it back and Ben gives him a few well placed knees to the crotch and the kid goes down like a sack of potatoes. Dean watches all of this with wonder and bemusement and gives Ben a high-five upon his triumphant return with his game. Lisa then shows up and Dean looks totally busted when she makes the connection that he told Ben to beat Ryan up. She wants Dean to stay away from her son and the two of them walk off, but not before Ben goes running back to Dean to give him a thank you hug. Awwww! Dean watches them leave wistfully and then spots 3 creepy kids looking at him.
Btw, just to give my opinion on the whole Ben is like Dean idea... I enjoyed it because it was cute and adorable and all that stuff, which was clearly the show's intention. However, I don't think it was very realistic. Even if the kid is Dean's son, he hasn't been around in Ben's life at all. There's no reason for the kid to be displaying so many of Dean's traits and mannerisms. Seems to me those would only come from emulating Dean by watching and observing him. But it was still cute and gave the desired impression that Dean could be a dad. I'm just saying maybe a subtler approach could have done the same thing.
* Back to creepy Katie and mom, who is preparing to take the kid out for ice cream...or so she wants the kid to think. Katie's all over mom, telling her she loves her. Mom gets a look at a monster in place of Katie when she glances in the rearview mirror. Next thing we know, she's letting the car with creepy Katie slip off into a lake as she tearfully watches. Returning home, sobbing, she finds creepy Katie is back, still asking for ice cream. Bwuhahahahaha.
* We return from the commercial break with Sam doing research online about changelings and Dean coming into their motel room proclaiming "something's wrong with the kids in this town". Love Dean's description of them, "creepy stare-at-you-like-you're-lunch kids". Heehee! The boys then go over the pertinent changeling info. (synovial fluid...now there's term you don't hear every day) as Dean sits in front of a mirror making mini-flamethrowers. So cool! This show loves using mirrors! So the changelings assume the child's form and feeds off the mother and anyone else handy.
Dean: And fire's the only way to waste them?
Sam: Yep.
Dean: Great. Well, we'll just bust in, drag the kids out, torch'em on the front lawn. That'll play great with the neighbors.
*giggles* Oh, Dean...I love you!
The real kids are probably hidden somewhere, still alive and Dean wants to check on Ben before they go looking.
* He gives Lisa one of his credit cards (Siegfrid Houdini - *giggles*), urging her to take Ben and get out of town for a few days. She balks, especially when a now creepy Ben tells her to make Dean go away. He checks for blood marks on the outside of the house and sure enough, the red marks are there. Except they're not blood, but red dirt from the housing community.
* Dean somehow figures Ben and the other kids might be imprisoned in an unfinished house. Why I don't know, but oh well. The brothers enter, snooping around. Dean finds several cages holding Ben and the other kids while Sam has a run-in with the realtor lady, who it turns out is the changeling responsible for all the little kid changelings. He misses her with the flamethrower and Dean gets Ben out of his cage, enveloping the boy in a nice little hug before moving on to the other cages. Awwww! It's cute how Ben acts like a little hero Dean, helping the other kids out, making sure they get out of the building first, and giving Dean his jacket to protect everyone from the broken glass around the window frame.
* Lisa meanwhile, finds out her Ben isn't really Ben (creepy reflection on the table - eek!) and tries to get away out the front door. She's met by 3 other creepy kids and runs back inside the house. In another part of the neighborhood, little creepy Katie is banging on the bathroom door as mom sits cowering on the floor.
* Back with the boys, the realtor/changeling has reappeared and begins thoroughly beating the brothers up. To paraphrase Dean, Damn! That chick can fight! Heehee! She knocks the lighter out of Sam's hand before he can light the blowtorch and then knocks him out. She then takes on Dean, who proves himself awfully tough even against her. He yells for Ben to get the other kids out and then whacks her with a brick! Go Dean! With one good kick he sends her flying and by the time she gets up she's met with Sam and his flamethrower at the ready. He sends her and subsequently the other changeling children off with a firey goodbye.
* Just want to make note of two cool things here: First, the shot of the Impala coming into frame like that and into focus was awesome! Second, Sammy's driving! Guess Dean wanted to concentrate on making sure Ben was okay. Awww. Lisa's grateful to have her son back and shows her gratitude to Dean with a big hug. Sam says he'll give them some time. Ben, seemingly unfazed sits down to lunch and some tunes while Dean and Lisa look on and chat.
* This is a touching scene, giving more insight into Dean's frame of mind in light of his coming death sentence. He asks one more if Ben is his and Lisa confirms she did a blood test and his dad is some biker guy she met during her wild days. She tells him he can relax and then seems surprised when Dean looks a little disappointed. I don't think she was imagining that Dean would possibly want to be Ben's dad, in fact, probably the opposite. The Dean she knew eight years ago probably (in her eyes) was the wild, irresponsible type that wouldn't want to be burdened with a kid. But this is not that Dean. With his life on the line he's thinking (and showing us for the first time) that he's having regrets about leaving this earth so soon. But sadly, he knows it's something that he isn't meant to have.
Lisa: I...I swear you look disappointed.
Dean: Yeah, I don't know. It's weird you know, your life. I mean this house...kid. It's not my life. It never will be. Some stuff happened to me recently and uh....Anyway, a guy in my situation. You start to think, you know, I'm gonna be gone one day and what am I leaving behind besides a car. (chuckles)
Lisa: I don't know. Ben may not be your kid, but he wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you. That's a lot if you ask me.
Dean: You know just for the record...You got a great kid. I would have been proud to be his dad.
Awwww! Just when I think I can't love this character any more, he gives me yet another reason.
*squishes Dean*
She then rushes towards him and gives him a sweet kiss. Dean's two for two! Two episodes, two kisses. Heehee! She offers to have him stay for a while and he thinks for a moment before declining. He's got work to do and reitterates that this isn't his life, stepping out her door with one last sad smile.
* At the motel room, Sam is looking into the fates of the people who knew his mom. Making endless phone calls he comes across nothing but death reports. I'd really like to know where he got this list of people from. He didn't know Mary, so how could he possibly know of her friends? And I don't see John keeping a list like that in the journal. He seemed to bury all evidence of his wife after her death, save for his wedding ring that he continued to wear. Anyway, I love the editing and the cinematography of this scene. The extreme closeups and the wide shots, the quick cuts...great stuff.
* So he calls Ruby and wants to know what's going on. Someone was covering up their tracks and she answers it was the YED. He then demands (very loudly at the end) to know who she is. She succumbs with a haughty, "Fine" and shows her black demon eyes. Surprised, Sam steps back, searching for the flask of holy water in his bag. She claims she wants to help him and that she doesn't know why everyone who knew Mary was killed or what happened to her. All she knows is it's all about him, that it's always been about him and she's trying to figure it all out.
Ruby: Not all demons are the same, Sam. Not all of us want the same thing. Me? I wanna help you from time to time. That's all. And if you let me....there's something in it for you.
Sam: What could you possib..
Ruby: I could help you save your brother.
And with that another exciting episode comes to an end. All in all I really enjoyed this episode. It has the one minor flaw of barely having the brothers together most of the time, but like TUS and No Exit, it still manages to work. Yes, there was that whole changeling storyline that took away airtime from both the brothers, but it also helped propel their case plot along, so in it's own way it also worked. I'm sure Jensen & Jared appreciated a little extra time off, no matter how minor. I wouldn't worry about this becoming a trend, as it's still the story of the two brothers and we need to see them in order for that to play out.
The big question mark of the episode really isn't about who Ben's father is, but just what is Ruby's intentions? I wasn't too surprised about her being a demon, as that one demon from "Mag 7" shouted "You!" just before Ruby sliced her with the knife. But I'm not too sure about her reasons for supposedly helping Sam. After some thought, I kind of see her as the Mr. X character from The X-Files. He helped Mulder, guiding him on a path he himself had made. Both ally and foe at times, the reasoning behind his actions were sometimes hard to decipher. Maybe Ruby is one of the special kids herself. Sam has demon blood in him. Could this indicate the possibility that he could become a demon himself someday? If so, she could be there to guide him down that path. Meanwhile, she'll be getting whatever she wants out of this deal, which was another one of Mr. X's tricks. Should be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Just my own thoughts and speculation. Don't take it too seriously, I'm always proven wrong in the end. Hope you enjoyed the long review and the caps. Please leave a comment, okay? Even if it's just to quickly say you'll be back later to read the whole thing and give more comments. Thanks! :D
If you want a little bit more of my thoughts check out my First Impressions Post for this episode. Please remember that the caps here are just small for the review. I'll be posting the full sized caps in a regular picspam later on.
All the caps within this review were taken from my own Hi-Def recording of the episode. You're free to take any that you like, as long as you give me credit. There are 113 caps, but most of them are clickable thumbnails in consideration of my fellow dial-up users.
* I'm not going to go into the opening scenes too much. We're in Cicero, Indiana where a woman is waitng outside for her daughter. Katie returns home to her mom from her dad's place, saying she doesn't want to go back and that she's scared of the monsters there. Turns out she has a good reason, as poor dad is swiftly killed off via power saw. I will say I found the power saw scene very startling and gory for the opening of an episode, but kudos to Kripke & Co. for getting it on the air! Eeek!
* Sam's secretly working with Bobby to find a solution to Dean's Demon Deal (DDD) and is apparently looking into a "demon dispelling ritual" while translating some very interesting text on the laptop. Dean shows up at the restaurant and Sam hastily cuts off the phone conversation with Bobby. He then proceeds to badly cover up the call by saying he was ordering a pizza. *snort* It's cute how Sam can smoothly lie to strangers but fumbles when lying to his brother. But Dean doesn't make a big deal out of it "Okay. Weirdy McWeirditon" and moves on to the task at hand....their next case.
* Dean brings up the power saw death in Cicero and Sam isn't all that interested. However, Dean's not going to let it go because his real reason for heading there is to visit one of his old girlfriends, Lisa Braeden. Apparently Dean met her 8 years ago on a little road trip by himself while Sam and their dad were working on a banshee case in Orlando. As clingy as we all assumed Dean was to his family, it looks like he did venture off on his own now and then. Turns out on this excursion he spent most of his time in Lisa, aka Gumby Girl's loft, having "the bendiest weekend" of his life. Dean again plays the "dying wish" card and Sam, naturally weakens.
Dean: C'mon have a heart. Huh? It's my dying wish!
Sam: How many dying wishes are you gonna get?
Dean: As many as I can squeeze out. C'mon, smile Sam. God knows I'm gonna be smiling after 24 hours with Gumby Girl. (He & Sam chuckle) Gumby Girl....Does that make me Pokey?
*giggles*
* Dean drops Sam off at the Cicero Pines Motel. Quite literally too, the poor kid barely had enough time to get his bags out of the car! He then tracks down Lisa's house in the lovely Morning Hill community.
* I'd like to point out the continuity error here between the first shot of the Impala driving thru the neighborhood and the second. In the first, it's late afternoon - almost "magic hour" light and in the second it's clearly earlier in the day! Ooops!
* The scene between Lisa and Dean as he shows up on her doostep is full of charm, which Dean is oozing in buckets. I would let this man into my house in a heartbeat. And of course, all those lovely Jensen smiles! *guh*
* Turns out Lisa has a son named Ben, who's celebrating his 8th birthday that day. There's a big party and Dean pretty much invites himself into the festivities. Ben is a cute, smart-alecky kid and right away we (and Dean for that matter) see him as a mini-Dean. He loves AC/DC, cars, eating, and girls. He even talks like Dean! Meanwhile, as Dean checks out the birthday cake, a couple of the neighborhood women check him out. Evidently, Lisa did some bragging about her time with "Best-Night-Of-My-Life-Dean" and his appearance has the women all fangirly...but then how can you blame them. *g* He turns around, sees them staring at him, says "hi" which they each return, and then in a brilliant bit of comedy he makes an awkward retreat. It's too cute how he turns to go one way and then instantly changes direction to go the opposite!
* Dean ends up over by Ben and they exhange some small talk about the Moon Bounce in front of them and girls. Ben then heads off into the Moon Bounce, hot on the trail of some chicks and Dean starts running the math in his head. Coming to the conclusion that the kid might be his, he makes a run for the house only to bump into a trash can. *gigglesnort* Love how Jensen really gets to show his comedic side in this episode. Oh, and his eyes in this scene with Ben were the greenest I've ever seen them! I just wanted to crawl through my TV screen and jump into those gorgeous emerald pools. Stunning!
* Meanwhile, Lisa is talking to Katie's mom (Why doesn't this woman have a name? She's got a big enough part!) and asking if she's alright since her ex's death. Katie's mom expresses her concern over her daughter, saying she doesn't think the girl is really Katie. Ooooooh.
* Dean enters and not too subtly asks Lisa if Ben is his. She in turn awkwardly says no and we then see a rather creepy looking Katie and her mom leave. Dean then finds out her ex was the power saw victim and that it's not the first bit of "bad luck" in the neighborhood.
* Now we cut to Sam who is sitting in the motel's cafe (not eating, btw) and presumedly still working on DDD. Enter our mysterious blond chick from the previous episode (aka Ruby). He claims she's been following him since Lincoln and she grabs a fry from his plate, speaking one of the best lines from the episode.
Ruby: Mmmmm. These are amazing. It's like deep fried crack. Try some.
He asks about the knife she used to kill the demons, which she quickly evades and he wants to know why she's following him. She says she's interested in him because he's tall and then gets to the heart of the matter with his whole "Anti-Christ thing". Sam says he no longer has his powers since the YED's death. Ruby praises him on killing old Yellow Eyes and then drops a little hint about his mom which Sam knows nothing about. She tells him to look up his mom's pals and call her, writing her number on his palm. Then, before taking off she reminds him there's a case to be solved in town. Cue Dean calling Sam's cell to tell him there is a problem in town worth solving.
* The next scene involves creepy Katie and her mom, who wakes up to find the girl watching her. Btw, just to be picky...that's the worst waking up I've seen from an actor in a long time. You don't just sit up like that. Anyway, the kid wants to play, mom agrees and then happens to get a look at Katie through a mirror and her skin is not exactly...normal. Ewww! Mom freaks out, but covers it up fast as Katie then switches gears and wants to be fed. Very demanding creatures, these creepy kids.
* Elsewhere Sam is playing insurance man at one of the neighborhood's crime scenes. Speaking of which, if the guy was "just inside changing a light bulb", why is there a ladder at the broken window outside? Sam spots some blood marks on the house and the fence nearby while the woman's creepy daughter, Dakota, watches him from inside. Leaving, Sam notices a weird mark on the back of the woman's neck.
* Back to Katie and her mom, who is burning that grilled cheese sandwich she's fixing. No wonder the kid wanted ice cream...mom can't cook worth a darn. Mom is rubbing her neck and feeling weirded out and heads off to the bathroom and sees the strange mark. Katie then preceeds to begin banging on the locked bathroom door, demanding to be let in. She only stops when the doorbell rings. The realtor is there, bearing a basket of goodies and wanting to know if Katie's mom is going to keep the house or not. Mom tells her now's not a good time and slams the door on her, turning around to face Katie who, surprise, surprise wants more food.
* Next we have another adorable scene between Dean and Ben, who's sitting on a park bench while a bunch of other boys are enjoying the use of his Gameboy. Btw, I love how they're even dressed the same here with the torn jeans and jacket....very cute. Dean wants to go over and get the game back, but Ben stops him.
Ben: No! Don't go over there. Only bitches send a grown up.
Dean: You're not wrong.
Ben: And I am not a bitch.
Dean gives his patented crooked smile here, clearly impressed with the kid.
Ben heads over to Ryan Humphries, who's playing the game and after getting an adorable thumbs up from Dean, asks for his game back. Ryan says only if he takes it back and Ben gives him a few well placed knees to the crotch and the kid goes down like a sack of potatoes. Dean watches all of this with wonder and bemusement and gives Ben a high-five upon his triumphant return with his game. Lisa then shows up and Dean looks totally busted when she makes the connection that he told Ben to beat Ryan up. She wants Dean to stay away from her son and the two of them walk off, but not before Ben goes running back to Dean to give him a thank you hug. Awwww! Dean watches them leave wistfully and then spots 3 creepy kids looking at him.
Btw, just to give my opinion on the whole Ben is like Dean idea... I enjoyed it because it was cute and adorable and all that stuff, which was clearly the show's intention. However, I don't think it was very realistic. Even if the kid is Dean's son, he hasn't been around in Ben's life at all. There's no reason for the kid to be displaying so many of Dean's traits and mannerisms. Seems to me those would only come from emulating Dean by watching and observing him. But it was still cute and gave the desired impression that Dean could be a dad. I'm just saying maybe a subtler approach could have done the same thing.
* Back to creepy Katie and mom, who is preparing to take the kid out for ice cream...or so she wants the kid to think. Katie's all over mom, telling her she loves her. Mom gets a look at a monster in place of Katie when she glances in the rearview mirror. Next thing we know, she's letting the car with creepy Katie slip off into a lake as she tearfully watches. Returning home, sobbing, she finds creepy Katie is back, still asking for ice cream. Bwuhahahahaha.
* We return from the commercial break with Sam doing research online about changelings and Dean coming into their motel room proclaiming "something's wrong with the kids in this town". Love Dean's description of them, "creepy stare-at-you-like-you're-lunch kids". Heehee! The boys then go over the pertinent changeling info. (synovial fluid...now there's term you don't hear every day) as Dean sits in front of a mirror making mini-flamethrowers. So cool! This show loves using mirrors! So the changelings assume the child's form and feeds off the mother and anyone else handy.
Dean: And fire's the only way to waste them?
Sam: Yep.
Dean: Great. Well, we'll just bust in, drag the kids out, torch'em on the front lawn. That'll play great with the neighbors.
*giggles* Oh, Dean...I love you!
The real kids are probably hidden somewhere, still alive and Dean wants to check on Ben before they go looking.
* He gives Lisa one of his credit cards (Siegfrid Houdini - *giggles*), urging her to take Ben and get out of town for a few days. She balks, especially when a now creepy Ben tells her to make Dean go away. He checks for blood marks on the outside of the house and sure enough, the red marks are there. Except they're not blood, but red dirt from the housing community.
* Dean somehow figures Ben and the other kids might be imprisoned in an unfinished house. Why I don't know, but oh well. The brothers enter, snooping around. Dean finds several cages holding Ben and the other kids while Sam has a run-in with the realtor lady, who it turns out is the changeling responsible for all the little kid changelings. He misses her with the flamethrower and Dean gets Ben out of his cage, enveloping the boy in a nice little hug before moving on to the other cages. Awwww! It's cute how Ben acts like a little hero Dean, helping the other kids out, making sure they get out of the building first, and giving Dean his jacket to protect everyone from the broken glass around the window frame.
* Lisa meanwhile, finds out her Ben isn't really Ben (creepy reflection on the table - eek!) and tries to get away out the front door. She's met by 3 other creepy kids and runs back inside the house. In another part of the neighborhood, little creepy Katie is banging on the bathroom door as mom sits cowering on the floor.
* Back with the boys, the realtor/changeling has reappeared and begins thoroughly beating the brothers up. To paraphrase Dean, Damn! That chick can fight! Heehee! She knocks the lighter out of Sam's hand before he can light the blowtorch and then knocks him out. She then takes on Dean, who proves himself awfully tough even against her. He yells for Ben to get the other kids out and then whacks her with a brick! Go Dean! With one good kick he sends her flying and by the time she gets up she's met with Sam and his flamethrower at the ready. He sends her and subsequently the other changeling children off with a firey goodbye.
* Just want to make note of two cool things here: First, the shot of the Impala coming into frame like that and into focus was awesome! Second, Sammy's driving! Guess Dean wanted to concentrate on making sure Ben was okay. Awww. Lisa's grateful to have her son back and shows her gratitude to Dean with a big hug. Sam says he'll give them some time. Ben, seemingly unfazed sits down to lunch and some tunes while Dean and Lisa look on and chat.
* This is a touching scene, giving more insight into Dean's frame of mind in light of his coming death sentence. He asks one more if Ben is his and Lisa confirms she did a blood test and his dad is some biker guy she met during her wild days. She tells him he can relax and then seems surprised when Dean looks a little disappointed. I don't think she was imagining that Dean would possibly want to be Ben's dad, in fact, probably the opposite. The Dean she knew eight years ago probably (in her eyes) was the wild, irresponsible type that wouldn't want to be burdened with a kid. But this is not that Dean. With his life on the line he's thinking (and showing us for the first time) that he's having regrets about leaving this earth so soon. But sadly, he knows it's something that he isn't meant to have.
Lisa: I...I swear you look disappointed.
Dean: Yeah, I don't know. It's weird you know, your life. I mean this house...kid. It's not my life. It never will be. Some stuff happened to me recently and uh....Anyway, a guy in my situation. You start to think, you know, I'm gonna be gone one day and what am I leaving behind besides a car. (chuckles)
Lisa: I don't know. Ben may not be your kid, but he wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for you. That's a lot if you ask me.
Dean: You know just for the record...You got a great kid. I would have been proud to be his dad.
Awwww! Just when I think I can't love this character any more, he gives me yet another reason.
*squishes Dean*
She then rushes towards him and gives him a sweet kiss. Dean's two for two! Two episodes, two kisses. Heehee! She offers to have him stay for a while and he thinks for a moment before declining. He's got work to do and reitterates that this isn't his life, stepping out her door with one last sad smile.
* At the motel room, Sam is looking into the fates of the people who knew his mom. Making endless phone calls he comes across nothing but death reports. I'd really like to know where he got this list of people from. He didn't know Mary, so how could he possibly know of her friends? And I don't see John keeping a list like that in the journal. He seemed to bury all evidence of his wife after her death, save for his wedding ring that he continued to wear. Anyway, I love the editing and the cinematography of this scene. The extreme closeups and the wide shots, the quick cuts...great stuff.
* So he calls Ruby and wants to know what's going on. Someone was covering up their tracks and she answers it was the YED. He then demands (very loudly at the end) to know who she is. She succumbs with a haughty, "Fine" and shows her black demon eyes. Surprised, Sam steps back, searching for the flask of holy water in his bag. She claims she wants to help him and that she doesn't know why everyone who knew Mary was killed or what happened to her. All she knows is it's all about him, that it's always been about him and she's trying to figure it all out.
Ruby: Not all demons are the same, Sam. Not all of us want the same thing. Me? I wanna help you from time to time. That's all. And if you let me....there's something in it for you.
Sam: What could you possib..
Ruby: I could help you save your brother.
And with that another exciting episode comes to an end. All in all I really enjoyed this episode. It has the one minor flaw of barely having the brothers together most of the time, but like TUS and No Exit, it still manages to work. Yes, there was that whole changeling storyline that took away airtime from both the brothers, but it also helped propel their case plot along, so in it's own way it also worked. I'm sure Jensen & Jared appreciated a little extra time off, no matter how minor. I wouldn't worry about this becoming a trend, as it's still the story of the two brothers and we need to see them in order for that to play out.
The big question mark of the episode really isn't about who Ben's father is, but just what is Ruby's intentions? I wasn't too surprised about her being a demon, as that one demon from "Mag 7" shouted "You!" just before Ruby sliced her with the knife. But I'm not too sure about her reasons for supposedly helping Sam. After some thought, I kind of see her as the Mr. X character from The X-Files. He helped Mulder, guiding him on a path he himself had made. Both ally and foe at times, the reasoning behind his actions were sometimes hard to decipher. Maybe Ruby is one of the special kids herself. Sam has demon blood in him. Could this indicate the possibility that he could become a demon himself someday? If so, she could be there to guide him down that path. Meanwhile, she'll be getting whatever she wants out of this deal, which was another one of Mr. X's tricks. Should be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Just my own thoughts and speculation. Don't take it too seriously, I'm always proven wrong in the end. Hope you enjoyed the long review and the caps. Please leave a comment, okay? Even if it's just to quickly say you'll be back later to read the whole thing and give more comments. Thanks! :D
