SPN - "Adventures in Babysitting"
Jan. 12th, 2012 08:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feliciakwOkay, here we go. I'm gonna try to just hit the highlights on this one.
You all know the ep title has double application to the show, right? Babysitting--i.e., surveilling--the leviathans, and babysitting the girl. And Dean's involved in both.
The guest hunter looks very familiar, but I can't place him.
Nice aerial shot and shot composition in the parking lot between the semis.
Week One: Silence and grief and near catatonia at Rufus's cabin. Sam working thattalisman spot on his palm. Looking fretfully and sorrowfully at Dean, wanting to help, but unable to. Wanting comfort. Then looking away as Dean looks thoughtfully at him. Sam is the only thing keeping Dean there. Neither looking directly at the other.
I'm going to assume until we're told differently that they cremated Bobby properly. At this point, I can't see them taking the risk of not cremating him would good reason.
Week Two: Dean is working the numbers that Bobby left them (and drinking) while Sam finds Bobby's address book. People who knew Bobby, who depended on him, maybe. People who might miss him.
Week Three: Getting down to business. After eliminating the obvious for the numbers (lock boxes, v-mail passwords, etc.) Dean's got the hunter's wall (war wall? Do we have an actual name for such a wall?) well filled with info, news articles, maps.
Sam retrieves a beer from the fridge, and the first thing I notice is that it's El Sol, Dean's favorite. This tells me that Sam has been conscious of Dean's state of mind, being considerate in the little things he can, because he can't fix the big things.
Sam and Dean being Sam and Dean: Sam wonders if they should be informing Bobby's people; Dean is passionate about working Bobby's numbers. (Neither want to do the actual calling.)
Mysterious call on Bobby's phone, a girl. Sam wants to check it out; Dean wants to find Frank (whom Dean gave these numbers to weeks ago and hasn't heard from since). Dean tells Sam to go check out Girl Scout, he'll look up Frank.
My response: No, Dean. Bad Things happen when you guys split up. Very Bad Things.
Sam agrees but only on the condition that if Frank is spinning his wheels (or, you know, leviathan chow), Dean bails and joins Sam.
And Dean's beer bottle, which was full only moments ago, is now empty! Eeep!!! My first thought was time hiccup. Yikes! That's #1.
Sam tracks down the girl, Chrissie, and we get case exposition. She's growing up in The Life very much like Sam and Dean did, though perhaps a little more settled. Sam asks Chrissie to make coffee, and Geo laughs and comments on how subtlety is not Sam's strong suit. I point out that it never has been, as when Dean and Jo were talking way back in S2, and Sam realizes, "I have to go . . . over there . . . right now." Ha!
Sam finds the hunter wall in the back of a closet, borrows a picture, gives Chrissie a phone number.
What is Dean driving? It's not the Impala, but he's apparently ditched the Charger. Is it black? No, it's maroon. What is it?
Frank's place has been cleared out. Except there's Frank, accusing Dean of being a leviathan. Um, yikes?
Poor Dean, always having to cut himself to prove he's him. (I now have thoughts of a fic wherein a post-Hell PTSD Dean cuts himself to prove to himself he's him. And no, I won't be writing that fic.)
Frank has downsized, and totally freaked since Dean asked him to look into Richard Roman. I am highly amused by Frank's description of his mental/psychological situation. Heh!
Frank thinks it's only been four days since Dean called him. Dean corrects him--it's been four weeks. Frank does not seem concerned with the time differential. I'm thinking, "Hm . . . that's time discrepancy #2."
Also? Dean's paying Frank a nice chunk of change for his work/research. Also also? Dean is on board the revenge train now--which is a major change from the younger, more innocent Dean we met seven years ago. *hugs him*
Frank confirms that the numbers don't mean anything. So his next step is probability generating. (Charlie Eppes! Is that you?)
There's a number missing from the sequence Bobby gave them. Did I know that? I think I might have noticed that. Maybe? Yeah, I think I did.
Frank kind of amuses me. You know, in a totally paranoid, somewhat abrasive, not someone I want to shake hands with kind of way.
Sam and Dean touch base. Good.
Because Very Bad Things happen when they split up.
Frank and Dean under cover as phone line repair technicians. I am pleased that Dean is smart and uses the safety cable/rope to hook himself to the rig.
They discover leviathan surveillance, and so decide to tap into the surveillance that's already there (babysitting job #1). Frank asks Dean when the last time he really slept was, Dean snarks back, but is then promptly out like a light.
Sam leaves a message on Dean's v-mail. He's found in Dad's journal what these things are--vetala, maladjusted loner types, grab their take-home dinner and feed slow. Silver knife with a twist does them in. And after having looked the creature up to see if I'm spelling it right, I kinda wish they'd have made a MotW ep centered around a vetala rather than make it a rather generic plot device.
Sam goes to investigate the vetala, and Bad Things Happen. See? See, guys? You never listen to me.
Dean wakes up after 36 hours (according to Frank). Really, Frank? And you haven't left that chair in thirty-six hours? (Actually, I'd believe such single-mindedness from you.) Either you're A) actually pretty considerate to let Dean get all of his sleep out without waking him or making him take a shift; B) confused as to the passage of time, rather like four days vs. four weeks; or C) there's another wrinkle in Dean's timeline. Possible temporal anomaly #3.
Roman's people are surveying the property to build something, don't know what. Frank is ready to settle in and wait and watch. Dean is not so much with that plan. Conversation ensues, Frank imparting some prickly advise.
First suggestion: go kill something to blow off steam.
Second suggestion: quit. Which makes Dean baulk. He's not gonna quit. He's not gonna walk out on his brother. (Sam is indeed the only thing that's keeping Dean going.)
Third suggestion: Decide to be okay until the end of the week. Then do it again the next. Do the job right, with a smile, or don't do it. (And Frank had a slightly crazy gleam in his eye at one point during that speech. Kinda gave me the chills.)
Fake it? Dean asks. Frank calls it being a professional. I call it slightly unnerving, considering the look in Frank's eye.
Dean checks is v-mail, and we get potential temporal anomaly #4: Dean reacts to Sam's message before the message is complete, specifically: "No, no, no. Sam, that's not right!" before we get to the part of the message that actually isn't right, the "loner type" part.
Incoming call, and it's not Sam, it's Chrissie. She hasn't heard from Sam (because Very Bad Things happen when the guys split up), and this is the number Sam gave her.
Sam wakes up in the vetala's lair. Chrissie's dad is there. They share info.
Babysitting Part 2. Dean arrives at Chrissie's. She doesn't think Dean is competent, which makes me kind of want to cuff her upside the head. She's destroyed the map, but she's memorized it, so she's the map so Dean has no choice but to bring her along. I can understand her attitude--dad leaves, doesn't come back, Sam leaves and doesn't come back, she's afraid the same will happen with Dean. Still kinda makes me want to cuff her upside the head.
Dean is having a really, really bad week/month/year. He's usually better with kids than this. Of course, he hasn't run into many hunter's kids.
How did the monster take down her dad and Sam, Chrissie asks. Because they both assumed that they were hunting one thing, but the intel is wrong. Best available at the time, but wrong. Vetalas usually hunt in pairs. Dean knows this from experience. A couple years back, he hunted one that turned out to be two. The reason he didn't tell Sam? Sam was away at Stanford. ("A couple years back" Sam was at Stanford? Figure of speech or potential temporal anomaly #5? Time will tell. Maybe.)
This is for yay, that we get a tidbit of info on what Dean was up to while Sam was at Stanford. A case he worked alone. Probably escaped by the skin of his teeth. And another creature that he's killed at least one--probably two--of.
Chrissie: Sam went to Stanford? I thought your dad was a hunter.
Dean: He was. We were. Sam quit and went to college.
Chrissie's face: ????? You can do that?
Dean: You could, too, you know. Go to college. Be a hunter-slash-pediatrician.
Oh, Dean. You so want kids to have normal childhoods, young adults to have normal lives. You wanted it for Adam. You wanted it for Ben. You regret taking it away from Sam and Jo (even though you did nothing of the sort). Yet you accept that it was never meant to be for you. Oh, Dean. *wraps him in fleecy blanket and cuddles him*
At the lair, Sam taunts Sally to distract her from Chrissie's dad. Oh, Sam.
Dean and Chrissie staking out the diner. Chrissie claims she's worked with her dad. She helps all the time (I'm thinking research), she's been prepping for this her entire (young) life. Dean really does not like seeing a kid thrust into this kind of life.
They follow the semi to the vetalas' lair. Dean, in a good-natured, enthusiastic display, cons Chrissie into a fist bump, and I'm amused. That's the closest to a smile (in Dean's voice) that we've had in a while.
But it's a sly trick to cuff Chrissie to the steering wheel. Because ain't no way Dean's taking a kid into the situation. And he knows about being a hunter's kid well enough to demand her lock pick.
Chrissie knows how to play Dean. And though he carries the understanding, he's not falling for it. And it's kind of low of her to try to take away what little hope he has.
"How come you get to do it and I don't?" she asks. Well, hon, probably because he has over a decade of experience, and you're only, what, fourteen? He's the grown-up. He's not taking you into a hot situation like that, where there are too many unknowns--your own skills included.
Dean gets into the warehouse/garage/whatever. He clobbers one vetala, is ready to take out the other, when Chrissie comes running in, distracting Dean from his target, and getting herself caught.
See, hon? This is why he didn't want you in there. You've compromised the situation.
Somehow, though, Chrissie doesn't look overly scared.
Things start to go very sideways. Blonde starts chowing on Chambers, Chrissie cries for Dean, and Dean . . . freezes? Takes it in--vic getting drained, child crying for help . . . and he can't move fast enough to stop both. Was he ever in this position? Was Sam? Ben could have been, if he'd come into hunting (was, kind of). And of course he'll see this as being his fault.
But Chrissie's got a knife stashed (I'm guessing she did the research on this case) and ganks the vetala holding her. While the blonde goes after Dean, Chrissie frees Sam, and Sam ganks the second vetala.
Chrissie's very pleased with herself. Tough kid, self-assured, cute, but still a little annoying in that she inserted herself into a situation that could have gotten them all killed.
In the hospital, Sam and Dean visit Chambers, who thanks them for saving his and Chrissie's lives. "Don't thank us," Dean says. "Quit."
Like so many hunters (Winchesters included), he got into The Life for his family. Which is why, Dean says, he should get out.
"You ever know anyone who left the life?" Chambers asks, genuinely curious.
No, but Dean knows two people who've tried. He's one of them. And when it turned out he couldn't leave The Life, and his family (i.e., Lisa and Ben) couldn't leave The Life behind, he made them leave, arranged it so they wouldn't remember it--or him.
"No," Dean says. "They all get killed first." Oh, Dean.
Food for thought for Chambers.
Outside the hospital, Dean and Chrissie have a cute little moment. Little bit of banter, little bit of camaraderie without the pressure of a hunt and now knowing each other's skills.
"You could have gotten yourself killed."
"I saved your bacon."
"My point stands." Yes, Dean. Yes, it does. This is Dean as parent and mentor.
The Chambers (Chamberses?) are getting out of The Life.
The fist bump is cute. "We're so lame." "Yeah, we are."
Final, heartbreaking scene. It's good to walk away and feel that maybe they'll be okay. How's Sam? Not okay, but he just wants to work. Should Sam even ask about Dean? Dean's fine, meaning he just wants to work. Take Dick Roman down. "We are the professionals."
And as Sam turns on the tunes and curls up for a nap, Dean practices looking like a professional. Practices Franks advice. Tries on different smiles, practices "doing the job, with a smile."
Oh, Dean, you break my heart.
So, to sum up:
1. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.
2. Dean would make an excellent mentor
3. Dean is holding on, but how well is debatable. He won't abandon Sam, and he'll do the job with a smile. That's all he's got left. But he keeps on keepin' on. Oh, Dean. So much I could say about you. So little time.
You all know the ep title has double application to the show, right? Babysitting--i.e., surveilling--the leviathans, and babysitting the girl. And Dean's involved in both.
The guest hunter looks very familiar, but I can't place him.
Nice aerial shot and shot composition in the parking lot between the semis.
Week One: Silence and grief and near catatonia at Rufus's cabin. Sam working that
I'm going to assume until we're told differently that they cremated Bobby properly. At this point, I can't see them taking the risk of not cremating him would good reason.
Week Two: Dean is working the numbers that Bobby left them (and drinking) while Sam finds Bobby's address book. People who knew Bobby, who depended on him, maybe. People who might miss him.
Week Three: Getting down to business. After eliminating the obvious for the numbers (lock boxes, v-mail passwords, etc.) Dean's got the hunter's wall (war wall? Do we have an actual name for such a wall?) well filled with info, news articles, maps.
Sam retrieves a beer from the fridge, and the first thing I notice is that it's El Sol, Dean's favorite. This tells me that Sam has been conscious of Dean's state of mind, being considerate in the little things he can, because he can't fix the big things.
Sam and Dean being Sam and Dean: Sam wonders if they should be informing Bobby's people; Dean is passionate about working Bobby's numbers. (Neither want to do the actual calling.)
Mysterious call on Bobby's phone, a girl. Sam wants to check it out; Dean wants to find Frank (whom Dean gave these numbers to weeks ago and hasn't heard from since). Dean tells Sam to go check out Girl Scout, he'll look up Frank.
My response: No, Dean. Bad Things happen when you guys split up. Very Bad Things.
Sam agrees but only on the condition that if Frank is spinning his wheels (or, you know, leviathan chow), Dean bails and joins Sam.
And Dean's beer bottle, which was full only moments ago, is now empty! Eeep!!! My first thought was time hiccup. Yikes! That's #1.
Sam tracks down the girl, Chrissie, and we get case exposition. She's growing up in The Life very much like Sam and Dean did, though perhaps a little more settled. Sam asks Chrissie to make coffee, and Geo laughs and comments on how subtlety is not Sam's strong suit. I point out that it never has been, as when Dean and Jo were talking way back in S2, and Sam realizes, "I have to go . . . over there . . . right now." Ha!
Sam finds the hunter wall in the back of a closet, borrows a picture, gives Chrissie a phone number.
What is Dean driving? It's not the Impala, but he's apparently ditched the Charger. Is it black? No, it's maroon. What is it?
Frank's place has been cleared out. Except there's Frank, accusing Dean of being a leviathan. Um, yikes?
Poor Dean, always having to cut himself to prove he's him. (I now have thoughts of a fic wherein a post-Hell PTSD Dean cuts himself to prove to himself he's him. And no, I won't be writing that fic.)
Frank has downsized, and totally freaked since Dean asked him to look into Richard Roman. I am highly amused by Frank's description of his mental/psychological situation. Heh!
Frank thinks it's only been four days since Dean called him. Dean corrects him--it's been four weeks. Frank does not seem concerned with the time differential. I'm thinking, "Hm . . . that's time discrepancy #2."
Also? Dean's paying Frank a nice chunk of change for his work/research. Also also? Dean is on board the revenge train now--which is a major change from the younger, more innocent Dean we met seven years ago. *hugs him*
Frank confirms that the numbers don't mean anything. So his next step is probability generating. (Charlie Eppes! Is that you?)
There's a number missing from the sequence Bobby gave them. Did I know that? I think I might have noticed that. Maybe? Yeah, I think I did.
Frank kind of amuses me. You know, in a totally paranoid, somewhat abrasive, not someone I want to shake hands with kind of way.
Sam and Dean touch base. Good.
Because Very Bad Things happen when they split up.
Frank and Dean under cover as phone line repair technicians. I am pleased that Dean is smart and uses the safety cable/rope to hook himself to the rig.
They discover leviathan surveillance, and so decide to tap into the surveillance that's already there (babysitting job #1). Frank asks Dean when the last time he really slept was, Dean snarks back, but is then promptly out like a light.
Sam leaves a message on Dean's v-mail. He's found in Dad's journal what these things are--vetala, maladjusted loner types, grab their take-home dinner and feed slow. Silver knife with a twist does them in. And after having looked the creature up to see if I'm spelling it right, I kinda wish they'd have made a MotW ep centered around a vetala rather than make it a rather generic plot device.
Sam goes to investigate the vetala, and Bad Things Happen. See? See, guys? You never listen to me.
Dean wakes up after 36 hours (according to Frank). Really, Frank? And you haven't left that chair in thirty-six hours? (Actually, I'd believe such single-mindedness from you.) Either you're A) actually pretty considerate to let Dean get all of his sleep out without waking him or making him take a shift; B) confused as to the passage of time, rather like four days vs. four weeks; or C) there's another wrinkle in Dean's timeline. Possible temporal anomaly #3.
Roman's people are surveying the property to build something, don't know what. Frank is ready to settle in and wait and watch. Dean is not so much with that plan. Conversation ensues, Frank imparting some prickly advise.
First suggestion: go kill something to blow off steam.
Second suggestion: quit. Which makes Dean baulk. He's not gonna quit. He's not gonna walk out on his brother. (Sam is indeed the only thing that's keeping Dean going.)
Third suggestion: Decide to be okay until the end of the week. Then do it again the next. Do the job right, with a smile, or don't do it. (And Frank had a slightly crazy gleam in his eye at one point during that speech. Kinda gave me the chills.)
Fake it? Dean asks. Frank calls it being a professional. I call it slightly unnerving, considering the look in Frank's eye.
Dean checks is v-mail, and we get potential temporal anomaly #4: Dean reacts to Sam's message before the message is complete, specifically: "No, no, no. Sam, that's not right!" before we get to the part of the message that actually isn't right, the "loner type" part.
Incoming call, and it's not Sam, it's Chrissie. She hasn't heard from Sam (because Very Bad Things happen when the guys split up), and this is the number Sam gave her.
Sam wakes up in the vetala's lair. Chrissie's dad is there. They share info.
Babysitting Part 2. Dean arrives at Chrissie's. She doesn't think Dean is competent, which makes me kind of want to cuff her upside the head. She's destroyed the map, but she's memorized it, so she's the map so Dean has no choice but to bring her along. I can understand her attitude--dad leaves, doesn't come back, Sam leaves and doesn't come back, she's afraid the same will happen with Dean. Still kinda makes me want to cuff her upside the head.
Dean is having a really, really bad week/month/year. He's usually better with kids than this. Of course, he hasn't run into many hunter's kids.
How did the monster take down her dad and Sam, Chrissie asks. Because they both assumed that they were hunting one thing, but the intel is wrong. Best available at the time, but wrong. Vetalas usually hunt in pairs. Dean knows this from experience. A couple years back, he hunted one that turned out to be two. The reason he didn't tell Sam? Sam was away at Stanford. ("A couple years back" Sam was at Stanford? Figure of speech or potential temporal anomaly #5? Time will tell. Maybe.)
This is for yay, that we get a tidbit of info on what Dean was up to while Sam was at Stanford. A case he worked alone. Probably escaped by the skin of his teeth. And another creature that he's killed at least one--probably two--of.
Chrissie: Sam went to Stanford? I thought your dad was a hunter.
Dean: He was. We were. Sam quit and went to college.
Chrissie's face: ????? You can do that?
Dean: You could, too, you know. Go to college. Be a hunter-slash-pediatrician.
Oh, Dean. You so want kids to have normal childhoods, young adults to have normal lives. You wanted it for Adam. You wanted it for Ben. You regret taking it away from Sam and Jo (even though you did nothing of the sort). Yet you accept that it was never meant to be for you. Oh, Dean. *wraps him in fleecy blanket and cuddles him*
At the lair, Sam taunts Sally to distract her from Chrissie's dad. Oh, Sam.
Dean and Chrissie staking out the diner. Chrissie claims she's worked with her dad. She helps all the time (I'm thinking research), she's been prepping for this her entire (young) life. Dean really does not like seeing a kid thrust into this kind of life.
They follow the semi to the vetalas' lair. Dean, in a good-natured, enthusiastic display, cons Chrissie into a fist bump, and I'm amused. That's the closest to a smile (in Dean's voice) that we've had in a while.
But it's a sly trick to cuff Chrissie to the steering wheel. Because ain't no way Dean's taking a kid into the situation. And he knows about being a hunter's kid well enough to demand her lock pick.
Chrissie knows how to play Dean. And though he carries the understanding, he's not falling for it. And it's kind of low of her to try to take away what little hope he has.
"How come you get to do it and I don't?" she asks. Well, hon, probably because he has over a decade of experience, and you're only, what, fourteen? He's the grown-up. He's not taking you into a hot situation like that, where there are too many unknowns--your own skills included.
Dean gets into the warehouse/garage/whatever. He clobbers one vetala, is ready to take out the other, when Chrissie comes running in, distracting Dean from his target, and getting herself caught.
See, hon? This is why he didn't want you in there. You've compromised the situation.
Somehow, though, Chrissie doesn't look overly scared.
Things start to go very sideways. Blonde starts chowing on Chambers, Chrissie cries for Dean, and Dean . . . freezes? Takes it in--vic getting drained, child crying for help . . . and he can't move fast enough to stop both. Was he ever in this position? Was Sam? Ben could have been, if he'd come into hunting (was, kind of). And of course he'll see this as being his fault.
But Chrissie's got a knife stashed (I'm guessing she did the research on this case) and ganks the vetala holding her. While the blonde goes after Dean, Chrissie frees Sam, and Sam ganks the second vetala.
Chrissie's very pleased with herself. Tough kid, self-assured, cute, but still a little annoying in that she inserted herself into a situation that could have gotten them all killed.
In the hospital, Sam and Dean visit Chambers, who thanks them for saving his and Chrissie's lives. "Don't thank us," Dean says. "Quit."
Like so many hunters (Winchesters included), he got into The Life for his family. Which is why, Dean says, he should get out.
"You ever know anyone who left the life?" Chambers asks, genuinely curious.
No, but Dean knows two people who've tried. He's one of them. And when it turned out he couldn't leave The Life, and his family (i.e., Lisa and Ben) couldn't leave The Life behind, he made them leave, arranged it so they wouldn't remember it--or him.
"No," Dean says. "They all get killed first." Oh, Dean.
Food for thought for Chambers.
Outside the hospital, Dean and Chrissie have a cute little moment. Little bit of banter, little bit of camaraderie without the pressure of a hunt and now knowing each other's skills.
"You could have gotten yourself killed."
"I saved your bacon."
"My point stands." Yes, Dean. Yes, it does. This is Dean as parent and mentor.
The Chambers (Chamberses?) are getting out of The Life.
The fist bump is cute. "We're so lame." "Yeah, we are."
Final, heartbreaking scene. It's good to walk away and feel that maybe they'll be okay. How's Sam? Not okay, but he just wants to work. Should Sam even ask about Dean? Dean's fine, meaning he just wants to work. Take Dick Roman down. "We are the professionals."
And as Sam turns on the tunes and curls up for a nap, Dean practices looking like a professional. Practices Franks advice. Tries on different smiles, practices "doing the job, with a smile."
Oh, Dean, you break my heart.
So, to sum up:
1. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff.
2. Dean would make an excellent mentor
3. Dean is holding on, but how well is debatable. He won't abandon Sam, and he'll do the job with a smile. That's all he's got left. But he keeps on keepin' on. Oh, Dean. So much I could say about you. So little time.
