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shirtlesssammy · 6 years

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3x02: The Kids Are Alright

Then:

Dean’s going to hell, guys!

Now:

In Cicero, Indiana, a divorced suburban mom anxiously waits the return of her daughter. It’s the girl’s night to spend with her dad, but upon her return she pleads with her mom to never go back. It’s scary and there are monsters there. Meanwhile, the dad is busy working in his shop --making a wooden toy that’s about 5 years too late if it’s for his daughter that hates him. It’s late so he calls it a night, but as he walks away, the table saw spins to life.

He switches it off and walks away again --only for it to turn on again. As he goes to investigate again, something attacks him from behind, pushing him onto the blade. Blood gushes everywhere! And the camera pans to the little wooden horse, rocking slowly back and forth.

Meanwhile, Sam is 1000% unable to play it cool when talking to Bobby about Dean’s demon deal, flubbing about ordering pizza at a diner. Good save, Sammy! Dean’s caught a case and a serious desire to relive the bendiest weekend of his life. He’s in YOLO mode and wants to see Lisa Braeden again. Dean’s in high spirits as he drops Sam off at the motel, telling him, “Don’t wait up for me.”

Dean pulls into a new suburban neighborhood, and locates Lisa’s house. She’s a bit surprised to see him. It’s been almost 9 years since that weekend after all. “Dean Winchester. Wow.” Haha, so say we all. She’s a bit busy at the moment. She’s throwing a birthday party for her son, Ben, who’s turning 8. He also has close cropped spiky hair, loves hard rock, cars, and food. Dean looks on with consternation while Lisa greets her friend, the woman from the cold open. Dean mingles with the locals.

And some quality time with his mini-me.

Dean does some quick math in his head (I LOVE when Dean visibly counts to himself. It’s something so endearing and consistent about Dean over the years.)

Lisa is consoling her friend about her ex-husband’s untimely demise. Her friend confesses that she feels there’s something wrong with Katie, her daughter. In fact, she’s not sure it’s actually her daughter. She goes to collect Katie to leave the party.

Dean walks in and ever so casually asks Lisa if Ben is his. (Natasha: dies laughing) Lisa dismisses his concerns, but it’s clear Dean’s still a little nervous. But even under possible parental distress, Dean’s able to work the case and ask Lisa about the death of her friend’s ex. Lisa admits to a lot of bad things in the neighborhood.

Sam, meanwhile, gets a visit from Ruby. Cue dramatic zoom. Sam wants to know more about her knife that can kill demons (those innocent days! I don’t even think he knows she’s a demon here!) Ruby wants to talk about Sam’s ESP -- and his mom’s friends (what?? My mind is fuzzy about this.) As she’s leaving, she tells Sam there’s a case in this town.

Two seconds later, Dean calls and tells Sam there’s a case in this town --four other people have died in Lisa’s neighborhood.

Meanwhile, Lisa’s friend wakes from a nap (after falling asleep reading The Historian. Lol, I completely understand Friend of Lisa, but Show, a book about bloodsuckers is a little too on the nose.) Her daughter is watching her like a little creepoid.

The girl is creepy and clingy and has some seriously messed up skin when the mom sees her reflection in the mirror.

Sam investigates the other homes where people died.

I submit this photograph for Insurance purposes only:

As the woman points out where her husband fell and died, Sam notices blood on the windowsill, and a blank staring little girl looking out the window --and a sucker-like hickey on the back of the mom’s neck.

Friend of Lisa’s is rubbing her own neck when she’s making Katie her lunch. She tells her daughter to eat and then locks herself in the bathroom to inspect her own sucker hickey. Eww. There’s a pounding on the door. She wants in. She continues to rattle the door while Friend of Lisa’s grows increasingly worried. The rattling stops when the doorbell rings. She rushes downstairs to find Katie answering the door to the neighborhood sunshine representative, bearing a basket of goodies. The woman inquires how they’re doing, and then about if they’re planning on keeping the house. Cold, lady. Friend of Lisa’s slams the door in her face, only to find Katie right there demanding ice cream.

Out and about, Dean sees a sad Ben, sitting alone. He joins Ben on the bench and asks if there’s something wrong. Ben’s as chatty as his not-father when it comes to emotions. Some kid borrowed Ben’s game and now he won’t give it back. Ben refuses to let Dean meddle. Dean’s proud of the little guy for wanting to fight his own fights. (I hold back my commentary about toxic masculinity being passed down to the next generation. My, how far we’ve come, Dean Let-It-Go Winchester.)

Ben heads up to the group of bullies and calls out the kid who stole his game. Ben knees him in the balls and grabs his game while Dean grins from the sidelines. Lisa storms up and berates Ben for kicking another kid. Dean gets the Mom Look of Death ™.

Lisa (RIGHTLY SO) reminds Dean that they spent a single night together years ago and it is hella creepy for Dean to be hanging out with her son right now. Like, I KNOW RIGHT? (Team Lisa) Lisa and Ben head out, only for Ben to run back to Dean and give him a big thank you hug. It’s super adorable.

And then...the adorableness dies swiftly as creepy children in the playground turn in unison to stare at Dean.

And back with Friend of Lisa, her daughter is aggressively telling her that she loves her while mom, weeping, buckles her into the car. Mom adjusts the rearview and catches a glimpse of...well…

Drive, momma, drive! The little girl is still JONESING for ice cream so mom drives them to a nice refreshing...boat ramp. She puts the car in neutral, releases the parking brake, and the car and child slide slowly into the water. (I find this scene particularly horrifying because of its layer of real life parallels so GOOD JOB writers for making me feel awful.)

Mom gets home, emotionally ravaged, only to find a water soaked little girl sitting at her table. “Hi mummy,” the girl says. “Can I have that ice cream now?” Fuuuuuuuck.

Sam, meanwhile, is diligently doing research when Dean bursts into the hotel room. (Side note: there’s been so little Sam in this episode that I was actually surprised to see him again. In my defense, I’m tired. In my defense, I’m also distracted by creepy kids.) Sam’s function is clearly to dump a ton of lore on us. We learn that changelings aren’t just babies. They can be kids - and there’s one at every house that’s had a death. They climb in through the windows and steal the real children, then feed on the back of the mothers’ necks for a few weeks. (Query: it’s heavily implied that changelings only feed on women. Does this mean that the children of gay male couples are safe? Duly noted, man.)

Dean preps the weaponry. Just...fire. Lots of fire.

Sam thinks the kids might still be alive somewhere underground. Dean low key flips out about the idea of any of the kids getting snatched and heads straight to Lisa. When Lisa opens the door she looks harried, Dean looks dorky. Awww they’re so cute. (Man, I love Dean and Lisa almost as much as I love Dean and Cas. It doesn’t hurt that Lisa’s smile is like the frickin’ sun.)(Boris: Vigorously nods in agreement.) Dean hands Lisa a credit card and tells them to go on vacation together. Guys, it’s a TOTALLY NORMAL gift for a 9-years-later hookup to give. She asks Dean about the hinky name on the card but then Ben shows up. “Make him go away, Mommy,” says a decidedly chillier Ben. Lisa takes the hint (while Dean’s hunter hackles rise) and the door gets slammed between them.

Awwww shiiiiit, a monster’s got Ben!

Dean stalks around the house, looking for clues. (Again, in the hunting context we’re like okay COOL good job and in the real world context we’d be going SHIT LISA CALL 911 he’s outside of your house!!!) Dean finds the telltale blood on the sill. Ben’s done got snatched. Dean races to the car. It’s not blood on the sill, he tells Sam. It’s….

“Red dirt,” Sam concludes as we scene jump to one of the buildings under construction. (SIDE NOTE dudes I used to live near Sedona AZ the capitol of red dirt and when dried it did not look like blood. What I’m saying is, someone get some decontamination crews to this neighborhood. It’s a biohazard zone. No wonder property’s so cheap.)

They investigate the house. Dean finds the basement, hears a noise, and heads on down. He finds trapped kids (including Ben) and tells him that he’ll be free soon. Meanwhile, Sam (Sam is here too!) gets confronted by the nosy realtor with the muffin baskets. Downstairs, Dean discovers the caged realtor in the basement. Wherps. Sam’s smart, though, so instead of getting talked into buying a house he whips out his trusty business card.

Fake Ben gets all up in Lisa’s grill, asking for food, so Lisa offers him pizza. Fake Ben agrees and Lisa notices his reflection in her shiny coffee table. Yeesh.

Lisa may be having a shit time, but Dean’s enjoying his father(????) & son bonding moment as they work together to free and comfort the other children. Dean busts a hole through the window and gets everyone out. Just then momma changeling appears. Dun dun DUN.

Lisa confronts fake Ben. “I love you, mommy,” he says in response. Lisa grabs her keys and gets the fuck out of town, but there are kids in her lawn ready to go all Children of the Corn on her. She heads back inside.

Momma changeling gives a good fight, beating the shit out of Dean and Sam. All the while, Ben calmly gets all the kids out. Sam blasts the changeling mom with fire and the fire cascades to all the changeling children. They erupt into flame and ash, including the ones tormenting Lisa and Friend of Lisa.

Lisa races out as the sun rises and greets Ben joyfully. They head inside, Lisa sets Ben up with food and headphones, and then Dean fills her in on his line of work.

Dean asks one more time about Ben’s parentage and Lisa sets him straight (OR DOES SHE). She took a blood test...it was a dude she met in a bar. “I swear you look disappointed,” she says as Dean looks low key devastated.

“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?”

Dean. You’re breaking my fucking heart. Lisa asks him to stay for a while and he gets the fuck out instead because he doesn’t think he deserves good things. (weeps some more)

For Science:

Basically if they’re both in the same frame I am DEAD. They’re tooooo pretttyyyyy.

I uncurl from my ball of sorrow to recap the Sam is Here Too ™ portion of the episode. He’s checking up on his mom’s friends. They’re all dead. He meets Ruby and she tells him they’re dead because of the Yellow Eyed Demon. Sam demands to know who she really is and she goes all black eyed on him. Ruby insists that she’s on his side. “It’s all about you,” she tells him. She’s just trying to figure out how all the puzzle pieces fit together. And if he plays ball, she’ll help him save Dean.

These Quotes Want Some Ice Cream:

O-kay, Weirdy Mcweirderton

Gumby girl. Does that make me Pokey?

I’m interested in you because you’re tall.

Something’s wrong with the kids in this town.

We'll just bust in, drag the kids out, torch them on the front lawn. That'll play great with the neighbors.

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#spnrecap #spnrewatch #spn 3x02 #the kids are alright #dean winchester #sam winchester #lisa braeden #ben braeden #supernatural season 3

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