SPN - "The Slice Girls"
Feb. 10th, 2012 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feliciakwOnce again, I'm going to try to just hit the highlights. We'll see how successful I am.
There's some tension thrumming throughout this ep. Sam's driving, Dean's asleep, first thing Dean does when he wakes up is reach for his flask. Which was Bobby's flask. Bickering about a case. Dean doesn't want to take the case; Sam does. No clues on Dick Roman, so what else is there to do?
At the morgue, the guys fall into old roles. Dean makes up cheery small talk while Sam rolls his eyes and tries to stay on task. It's a façade, but it's comfortable.
Turns out DNA from the crime scene indicates that the attacker's genetic markers don't match anything human. Dean reluctantly concedes that this might be a case. Sam is ready to focus--head back to the motel and haul out the laptop. Dean wants to mix with the locals and see what kind of clues bubble to the surface. I.e., he wants to go to a bar. If you want to over-simplify it.
Don't worry, Sam. Dean will find some clues. Heck, he'll become a clue.
I admit, I found the extreme close-ups in the flirtation scene to be a little bit distracting, but I'm not gonna complain about extreme close-ups of Dean's eyes.
Not much to elaborate on with the flirting. Dean is on the receiving end of a lot of attention, and he does his bit to work to impress this chick (investment banker, speaks Japanese). She's drawn him in, hook, line, and sinker.
I covered the one-night stand scene in my previous post, so I won't rehash.
The following morning: Sam has not yet figured out what the symbol carved into the bodies is. "We're gonna need and expert,"
"Expert? Our expert's dead." Oh, Dean.
You know? I really like the coroner dude. He's cute and personable. I like that in an ME. It would be nice if they could bring him back.
Dean left Bobby's flask at Lydia's. Sam razzes Dean about calling her and having her number. Trying to find comfort in familiar behavioral patterns. Because they're both "fine." (Well, yes, they're fine, but they're not "fine." Oh, you know what I mean.)
So, Lydia is very busy. She hangs up on Dean quickly, and Sam tries for sympathy, but has got to go with amusement. A cute little moment for Sam.
Hello, Lydia is very pregnant.
Ooh. Coven? The leader woman played, I think, a bodyguard in an ep of my old fandom, TS. Ah, Vancouver. All the familiar faces.
And poppin' out babies is very impersonal for these women. No love making in the sex, no choice in the name, assembly-line maternity. Is it just me, or does Lydia seem a bit . . . regretful . . . of the circumstances?
Hello! TS fans, please tell me, is that Hargrove Hall? Because it looks familiar. As do the interior shots at the university. Was that one of Blair's offices? Maybe it's just me.
The tension is back, and it's due in no small part to Bobby's absence and the need to settle for a lesser expert. Which brings Dean back to Bobby's flask. (Dean's security blanket of sorts.)
Lydia mis-remembers Dean as "Don." No, Lydia. Different fandom.
Lydia returns the flask, and Dean is taken with the toddler he didn't know Lydia had.
Sam calls. "Dude, it's a flask. Not the Holy Grail." Hee!
Toddler Emma is talking in fluent, complete sentences. Dean, of course, recognizes that this is not normal. (I myself was taken aback by one of the four-year-olds in Sunday school last week, a young man who spoke in very clear, very complete, very intelligent sentences.)
Okay, seriously. Can we keep the ME, Eddie, is it? I like him.
Dean is staking out Lydia's house. When Sam calls and starts to give him a hard time, Dean informs him, "I've been eating at the buffet of strange all afternoon." Dean does have a way with an idiom, no?
Sam offers back-up, but Dean declines. Sam informs Dean that some of the vics frequented the Cobalt Room. Dean dodged a bullet. Um, not so much, Sam.
Lydia calls for Emma, to had her off to a group of women. So, wait. Emma goes from conception to 5 or 6 years old in less than 24 hours? No wonder Lydia looks unhappy. This is certainly not a desirable situation for mother/daughter relationships or family. Use father to get pregnant, give up baby to the tribal elders less than 24 hours after she's born? Yeah, no.
Dean follows the strange women to their secret lair. George laughed. "Now that's really inconspicuous," he said of Dean's ride-of-the-week. A Riviera, he informed me.
Dean gets back to the motel (they're staying in a motel this week), telling Sam about the baby. Sam is skeptical, Dean is insistent. Brotherly snarking ensues. "Like you'd notice." "That's the first thing you notice. Red flags."
Then this morning, boom. Baby. I want to say something here about Dean and boom and baby and fandom, but the words are not coherent.
"Dude, are you deliberately messing with me?"
Followed by Sam's little smirk-shrug. Yes, Dean. He is deliberately messing with you. Because he can. And because it's been too long since he's had an opening.
"By sunset, she's Hanna Montana. . . . Early years." Which makes me wonder what kind of TV programming Dean ended up channel surfing while living with Lisa. Ha!
Okay, so, tribe, not coven. And Emma hesitates during this portion of the initiation ritual. Is she her father's daughter? Or does she simply not like the idea of eating human flesh? And if that's the case, is it because she is her father's daughter?
Oh, not witches. Amazons.
Also, the lead investigator on the serial killings is one of them. I wonder if her search has tipped of any leviathan alarms.
Dean's digging through boxes of Bobby's stuff while Sam does internet research. Sam says the professor left out a very important part of Amazon lore. "That's because he doesn't believe in it," Dean says. "Which is a real handicap when you're trying to deal with it." And the irony of those words coming from Dean is not lost on Sam. Pot, meet Kettle.
Upshot: The Amazons were turned into monsters. When the get pregnant, the pregnancy progresses uber-fast. Sam and Dean start putting 2 and 2 together, and the signs point to Dean being Emma's father. In which case Dean needs to hang on to his hands and feet.
The Amazon babies are now teenagers. Another initiation rite, receiving a brand. Emma flinches more than the rest of them.
Dean and Sam are sorting through piles of "maybe it's useful." They turn their backs (Sam asking why Lydia would be with Dean, and Dean tells him that she may or may not have thought he [Dean] was a rich investment banker. To which Sam sighs in that put-upon "what am I gonna do with him" sigh that he has), and when Dean turns back, the paper have moved. Sam whips out the EMF detector, and though it red-lines throughout the room, there are power lines, and an open window with a breeze.
Wow, says I. That's starting to look like Bobby. He's attached to the flask.
Dean and I are on the same wavelength.
But they burned him, Sam says. Confirmation of a cremation.
"It's not Bobby!" Sam says. "It can't be!"
"Why not?" Dean asks.
"Because we want it to be!" Oh, boys. *hugs them*
The page that mysteriously surfaced is in Greek. Which Bobby reads. So does Professor Morrison. Sam heads out to see the professor, warning Dean to stay put, keep the door locked. Which means, because they've split up, that Very Bad Things will happen.
Sure enough, while Sam is visiting the professor, teenaged Emma shows up at Dean's door begging for help. He's the only one she can trust. Because he's her father.
Emma talks her way into the room, tells Dean her story, but it's all in the presentation, the upshot being "I don't want to be like them."
And Emma isn't like her peers. She doesn't barge in throwing Dean against a wall. She sweet talks him. "You're a good man. My mother told me." Which goes nowhere toward flattering Dean. Okay, switch tactics. "You're a hunter." Ah, that throws Dean off his guard. "Maybe you can protect me. Just long enough so I can get away. Then I'll leave you alone," and here's the kicker, "I know you don't want me." The last line delivered in such a way as to play on Dean's overly developed sense of guilt.
"Okay, let's not go there," Dean says. And I agree. Let's not. Because that is so not true of Dean. If Dean suspects he has a kid, he'd step up to the plate in some fashion. You don't even need to be his own flesh and blood for him to consider you his. (Besides, there have been issues in the past week wherein birth fathers not taking any responsibility and wanting the easy way out have been on my mind, so this plays with a bad button for me. Dean is not an irresponsible man. So just, let's not go there.) "This isn't a matter of . . . " wanting you or not is what I hear Dean trailing off from. Because if Dean knew, he would step up. Another thwarting of Emma's emotional play.
"You get that this isn't a normal situation, right?" So how, exactly, is Dean supposed to step up when the child in question has been alive and developed from infant to young adulthood in a matter two days? When the offspring in question isn't human? And probably wants to kill him?
Not a normal situation? Understatement.
So Emma pulls the "this is my last chance at normal" card. She repeats her sob story. "My mother threw me in that place, and my father . . . " Well, she can't really say that her father doesn't want her. So she goes for "This is my last chance at normal." Because if he's a loving father, he'll want her to have "normal"--rather than what she's describing as Amazonian tribal life.
This Emma is a smart cookie with the emotional manipulation, the kind that Dean is vulnerable to. Yeah, she's a hunter's daughter. She knows what weakens her prey.
Where did Sam get such an ancient manuscript?
Sam: A crazy, drunk, old genius.
Professor: Yeah, they always have the good stuff.
New development for Sam: It's the offspring that kills her father. This does not sit well with Sam.
If Emma really wants help, Dean will help her. (Being Dean, he can do no less.)
So, Amazons can be taken down with a bullet. Was that a silver bullet or an iron one? Meh. Details. Sam's gun is loaded with the appropriate ammunition. (Make of that statement what you will.)
Sam's phone got crushed in the altercation, so it's Sam speeding through town to the rescue.
Dean opts to test Emma. Give her an opening and see what she does.
Curse her sudden but inevitable betrayal.
That is Missy Bender, isn't it.
She pulls her Amazon dagger while his back is turned, but he's ready for her, with his Colt 1911.
And as Sam races through the streets, into the motel, and up the stairs, Dean and Emma continue a back-and-forth. Dean, heartbroken, urges Emma to walk away. She hasn't killed anyone yet. He won't come after her. Emma insists that she has to kill Dean, but it's strangely hard, because he's her father. Dean's voice, full of regret and urging. Emma's, full of defiance and determination. "I don't have a choice." If it were anyone but a relation, Dean would have pulled the trigger right there.
Sam bursts into the room, and that changes the entire dynamic. The burden is now shared. Dean drops his gun a little, torn now as Emma (his daughter) begs him not to let Sam hurt her. Dean's pain-filled, confused gaze shifts between Sam and Emma, and Sam takes the shot. He knew it needed to be done. Dean knows it needed to be done. But the regret, the pain. It hurts.
Amazons have skedaddled.
Final scene: Sam is driving like a bat out of Hell, giving Dean the silent treatment. Dean calls him on it, and that breaks Sam out of it. "What did you say to me, when I was the one that choked? . . . You kill the monster!" That's right, Sam. And remember a time when you were possessed, and it looked to Dean like you were going darkside? Dean saved you. Or the time when you were drinking demon blood, and Dean as much as said that you were turning into a monster. You beat him to a bloody pulp, almost killed him, and left him lying on a hotel room floor. He did not kill you. My point is this: When has Dean ever pulled the trigger on family? You couldn't kill Amy because she had been your friend. Dean couldn't pull the trigger on Emma because she was his daughter.
And yes, there is much more to being a father than providing genetic material. But. Dean is not the distant "I want nothing to do with this" genetic donor. He is predisposed to be a caregiver. You remember the 'shifter baby? Monster baby. But Dean was ready to protect that child. (And, hey. Has he told you how he didn't kill Amy's son because said son hadn't killed anyone yet?) He's a good dad. He wants to be a dad. He finds out he has a kid? He's going to do what he can to give that kid a chance.
It's who he is.
Thank you, Sam, for lifting that responsibility from him. He could have done it. He would have done it. But I'm not sure that he could have handled the emotional repercussions of doing it. Especially on top of everything else he's trying to deal with.
Argument about Dean's state of mind. To which Dean points out the obvious: "You're just as screwed up as I am. You're just . . . bigger." Heh.
Sam will not be sidetracked with brother banter. The thing that scared him most about the whole situation was that Dean almost got himself killed, and Sam's not convinced that Dean won't let that happen. "Just don't get killed," he pleads.
"I'll do what I can," Dean says.
They're each hanging on by a thread. And they're each hanging on for the other. But threads can only take so much strain. It's just . . .
Aaaahhhhh! *hands*
*pets boys* *gives them cookies*
There's some tension thrumming throughout this ep. Sam's driving, Dean's asleep, first thing Dean does when he wakes up is reach for his flask. Which was Bobby's flask. Bickering about a case. Dean doesn't want to take the case; Sam does. No clues on Dick Roman, so what else is there to do?
At the morgue, the guys fall into old roles. Dean makes up cheery small talk while Sam rolls his eyes and tries to stay on task. It's a façade, but it's comfortable.
Turns out DNA from the crime scene indicates that the attacker's genetic markers don't match anything human. Dean reluctantly concedes that this might be a case. Sam is ready to focus--head back to the motel and haul out the laptop. Dean wants to mix with the locals and see what kind of clues bubble to the surface. I.e., he wants to go to a bar. If you want to over-simplify it.
Don't worry, Sam. Dean will find some clues. Heck, he'll become a clue.
I admit, I found the extreme close-ups in the flirtation scene to be a little bit distracting, but I'm not gonna complain about extreme close-ups of Dean's eyes.
Not much to elaborate on with the flirting. Dean is on the receiving end of a lot of attention, and he does his bit to work to impress this chick (investment banker, speaks Japanese). She's drawn him in, hook, line, and sinker.
I covered the one-night stand scene in my previous post, so I won't rehash.
The following morning: Sam has not yet figured out what the symbol carved into the bodies is. "We're gonna need and expert,"
"Expert? Our expert's dead." Oh, Dean.
You know? I really like the coroner dude. He's cute and personable. I like that in an ME. It would be nice if they could bring him back.
Dean left Bobby's flask at Lydia's. Sam razzes Dean about calling her and having her number. Trying to find comfort in familiar behavioral patterns. Because they're both "fine." (Well, yes, they're fine, but they're not "fine." Oh, you know what I mean.)
So, Lydia is very busy. She hangs up on Dean quickly, and Sam tries for sympathy, but has got to go with amusement. A cute little moment for Sam.
Hello, Lydia is very pregnant.
Ooh. Coven? The leader woman played, I think, a bodyguard in an ep of my old fandom, TS. Ah, Vancouver. All the familiar faces.
And poppin' out babies is very impersonal for these women. No love making in the sex, no choice in the name, assembly-line maternity. Is it just me, or does Lydia seem a bit . . . regretful . . . of the circumstances?
Hello! TS fans, please tell me, is that Hargrove Hall? Because it looks familiar. As do the interior shots at the university. Was that one of Blair's offices? Maybe it's just me.
The tension is back, and it's due in no small part to Bobby's absence and the need to settle for a lesser expert. Which brings Dean back to Bobby's flask. (Dean's security blanket of sorts.)
Lydia mis-remembers Dean as "Don." No, Lydia. Different fandom.
Lydia returns the flask, and Dean is taken with the toddler he didn't know Lydia had.
Sam calls. "Dude, it's a flask. Not the Holy Grail." Hee!
Toddler Emma is talking in fluent, complete sentences. Dean, of course, recognizes that this is not normal. (I myself was taken aback by one of the four-year-olds in Sunday school last week, a young man who spoke in very clear, very complete, very intelligent sentences.)
Okay, seriously. Can we keep the ME, Eddie, is it? I like him.
Dean is staking out Lydia's house. When Sam calls and starts to give him a hard time, Dean informs him, "I've been eating at the buffet of strange all afternoon." Dean does have a way with an idiom, no?
Sam offers back-up, but Dean declines. Sam informs Dean that some of the vics frequented the Cobalt Room. Dean dodged a bullet. Um, not so much, Sam.
Lydia calls for Emma, to had her off to a group of women. So, wait. Emma goes from conception to 5 or 6 years old in less than 24 hours? No wonder Lydia looks unhappy. This is certainly not a desirable situation for mother/daughter relationships or family. Use father to get pregnant, give up baby to the tribal elders less than 24 hours after she's born? Yeah, no.
Dean follows the strange women to their secret lair. George laughed. "Now that's really inconspicuous," he said of Dean's ride-of-the-week. A Riviera, he informed me.
Dean gets back to the motel (they're staying in a motel this week), telling Sam about the baby. Sam is skeptical, Dean is insistent. Brotherly snarking ensues. "Like you'd notice." "That's the first thing you notice. Red flags."
Then this morning, boom. Baby. I want to say something here about Dean and boom and baby and fandom, but the words are not coherent.
"Dude, are you deliberately messing with me?"
Followed by Sam's little smirk-shrug. Yes, Dean. He is deliberately messing with you. Because he can. And because it's been too long since he's had an opening.
"By sunset, she's Hanna Montana. . . . Early years." Which makes me wonder what kind of TV programming Dean ended up channel surfing while living with Lisa. Ha!
Okay, so, tribe, not coven. And Emma hesitates during this portion of the initiation ritual. Is she her father's daughter? Or does she simply not like the idea of eating human flesh? And if that's the case, is it because she is her father's daughter?
Oh, not witches. Amazons.
Also, the lead investigator on the serial killings is one of them. I wonder if her search has tipped of any leviathan alarms.
Dean's digging through boxes of Bobby's stuff while Sam does internet research. Sam says the professor left out a very important part of Amazon lore. "That's because he doesn't believe in it," Dean says. "Which is a real handicap when you're trying to deal with it." And the irony of those words coming from Dean is not lost on Sam. Pot, meet Kettle.
Upshot: The Amazons were turned into monsters. When the get pregnant, the pregnancy progresses uber-fast. Sam and Dean start putting 2 and 2 together, and the signs point to Dean being Emma's father. In which case Dean needs to hang on to his hands and feet.
The Amazon babies are now teenagers. Another initiation rite, receiving a brand. Emma flinches more than the rest of them.
Dean and Sam are sorting through piles of "maybe it's useful." They turn their backs (Sam asking why Lydia would be with Dean, and Dean tells him that she may or may not have thought he [Dean] was a rich investment banker. To which Sam sighs in that put-upon "what am I gonna do with him" sigh that he has), and when Dean turns back, the paper have moved. Sam whips out the EMF detector, and though it red-lines throughout the room, there are power lines, and an open window with a breeze.
Wow, says I. That's starting to look like Bobby. He's attached to the flask.
Dean and I are on the same wavelength.
But they burned him, Sam says. Confirmation of a cremation.
"It's not Bobby!" Sam says. "It can't be!"
"Why not?" Dean asks.
"Because we want it to be!" Oh, boys. *hugs them*
The page that mysteriously surfaced is in Greek. Which Bobby reads. So does Professor Morrison. Sam heads out to see the professor, warning Dean to stay put, keep the door locked. Which means, because they've split up, that Very Bad Things will happen.
Sure enough, while Sam is visiting the professor, teenaged Emma shows up at Dean's door begging for help. He's the only one she can trust. Because he's her father.
Emma talks her way into the room, tells Dean her story, but it's all in the presentation, the upshot being "I don't want to be like them."
And Emma isn't like her peers. She doesn't barge in throwing Dean against a wall. She sweet talks him. "You're a good man. My mother told me." Which goes nowhere toward flattering Dean. Okay, switch tactics. "You're a hunter." Ah, that throws Dean off his guard. "Maybe you can protect me. Just long enough so I can get away. Then I'll leave you alone," and here's the kicker, "I know you don't want me." The last line delivered in such a way as to play on Dean's overly developed sense of guilt.
"Okay, let's not go there," Dean says. And I agree. Let's not. Because that is so not true of Dean. If Dean suspects he has a kid, he'd step up to the plate in some fashion. You don't even need to be his own flesh and blood for him to consider you his. (Besides, there have been issues in the past week wherein birth fathers not taking any responsibility and wanting the easy way out have been on my mind, so this plays with a bad button for me. Dean is not an irresponsible man. So just, let's not go there.) "This isn't a matter of . . . " wanting you or not is what I hear Dean trailing off from. Because if Dean knew, he would step up. Another thwarting of Emma's emotional play.
"You get that this isn't a normal situation, right?" So how, exactly, is Dean supposed to step up when the child in question has been alive and developed from infant to young adulthood in a matter two days? When the offspring in question isn't human? And probably wants to kill him?
Not a normal situation? Understatement.
So Emma pulls the "this is my last chance at normal" card. She repeats her sob story. "My mother threw me in that place, and my father . . . " Well, she can't really say that her father doesn't want her. So she goes for "This is my last chance at normal." Because if he's a loving father, he'll want her to have "normal"--rather than what she's describing as Amazonian tribal life.
This Emma is a smart cookie with the emotional manipulation, the kind that Dean is vulnerable to. Yeah, she's a hunter's daughter. She knows what weakens her prey.
Where did Sam get such an ancient manuscript?
Sam: A crazy, drunk, old genius.
Professor: Yeah, they always have the good stuff.
New development for Sam: It's the offspring that kills her father. This does not sit well with Sam.
If Emma really wants help, Dean will help her. (Being Dean, he can do no less.)
So, Amazons can be taken down with a bullet. Was that a silver bullet or an iron one? Meh. Details. Sam's gun is loaded with the appropriate ammunition. (Make of that statement what you will.)
Sam's phone got crushed in the altercation, so it's Sam speeding through town to the rescue.
Dean opts to test Emma. Give her an opening and see what she does.
Curse her sudden but inevitable betrayal.
That is Missy Bender, isn't it.
She pulls her Amazon dagger while his back is turned, but he's ready for her, with his Colt 1911.
And as Sam races through the streets, into the motel, and up the stairs, Dean and Emma continue a back-and-forth. Dean, heartbroken, urges Emma to walk away. She hasn't killed anyone yet. He won't come after her. Emma insists that she has to kill Dean, but it's strangely hard, because he's her father. Dean's voice, full of regret and urging. Emma's, full of defiance and determination. "I don't have a choice." If it were anyone but a relation, Dean would have pulled the trigger right there.
Sam bursts into the room, and that changes the entire dynamic. The burden is now shared. Dean drops his gun a little, torn now as Emma (his daughter) begs him not to let Sam hurt her. Dean's pain-filled, confused gaze shifts between Sam and Emma, and Sam takes the shot. He knew it needed to be done. Dean knows it needed to be done. But the regret, the pain. It hurts.
Amazons have skedaddled.
Final scene: Sam is driving like a bat out of Hell, giving Dean the silent treatment. Dean calls him on it, and that breaks Sam out of it. "What did you say to me, when I was the one that choked? . . . You kill the monster!" That's right, Sam. And remember a time when you were possessed, and it looked to Dean like you were going darkside? Dean saved you. Or the time when you were drinking demon blood, and Dean as much as said that you were turning into a monster. You beat him to a bloody pulp, almost killed him, and left him lying on a hotel room floor. He did not kill you. My point is this: When has Dean ever pulled the trigger on family? You couldn't kill Amy because she had been your friend. Dean couldn't pull the trigger on Emma because she was his daughter.
And yes, there is much more to being a father than providing genetic material. But. Dean is not the distant "I want nothing to do with this" genetic donor. He is predisposed to be a caregiver. You remember the 'shifter baby? Monster baby. But Dean was ready to protect that child. (And, hey. Has he told you how he didn't kill Amy's son because said son hadn't killed anyone yet?) He's a good dad. He wants to be a dad. He finds out he has a kid? He's going to do what he can to give that kid a chance.
It's who he is.
Thank you, Sam, for lifting that responsibility from him. He could have done it. He would have done it. But I'm not sure that he could have handled the emotional repercussions of doing it. Especially on top of everything else he's trying to deal with.
Argument about Dean's state of mind. To which Dean points out the obvious: "You're just as screwed up as I am. You're just . . . bigger." Heh.
Sam will not be sidetracked with brother banter. The thing that scared him most about the whole situation was that Dean almost got himself killed, and Sam's not convinced that Dean won't let that happen. "Just don't get killed," he pleads.
"I'll do what I can," Dean says.
They're each hanging on by a thread. And they're each hanging on for the other. But threads can only take so much strain. It's just . . .
Aaaahhhhh! *hands*
*pets boys* *gives them cookies*
