In the seventh episode of the ninth season of Supernatural, BABY DEAN. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Supernatural.
Trigger Warning: For bullying.Â
You know, there’s nothing about “Bad Boys†that makes it a bad episode or a poor story. I think a lot of the pieces of a good Supernatural episode are here: timely flashbacks. Baby!Dean and Baby!Sam. More Winchester history. One hell of a mystery.
And yet? It feels almost too typical of the show. Nearly everything here is something we’ve seen before in some fashion, so it doesn’t come across as anything new. (With one exception, which I’ll get to it.) The placement of it also concerns me because of the implications it might have on future events. If Dean’s time in Sonny’s Home for Boys ended because he felt a duty to protect Sam, is this supposed to provide us context for the eventual reveal of Ezekiel’s presence? Sure, Dean was acting in what he saw as Sam’s best interest; his intentions were good; he wants his brother to be safe. That doesn’t negate the complicated and fucked up situation we’ve got here. So are we supposed to believe that Dean is just looking out for Sam, like he always has?
I suppose that this skewed my perception of this episode, and I have no problem admitting that. I thought Timmy was an interesting character, but Dean’s mentoring of him after being bullied felt a whole lot like his interactions with Ben. Now, maybe those scenes were meant to invoke our memory of Dean as a father figure, but what do they mean to the story right now? How do they contribute to the narrative in season nine? I’m not quite sure, aside from the continued references to Ezekiel that are made throughout this episode.
In that sense, “Bad Boys†feels like a Greatest Hits of Supernatural, an episode chock full of references and imagery (intentional or not) that bring us back to a point much earlier in this show’s history. We’re reminded of what it was like when the Winchesters fought a lot of ghosts, when multiple episodes per season focused on salting the remains of some poor spirit before lighting them on fire. I’m fine with the nostalgia, and I generally enjoy flashback episodes. If anything, “Bad Boys†reminded me just how far these characters have come. (And how terribly alone they are, good god.)
I think my favorite part of this episode, though, was Sonny. I wish most of the other characters were written with as much depth as him. Badly-dyed mustache aside, he’s a fascinating character within the Supernatural world. For Dean, he’s basically Bobby before Bobby ever showed up. He was an undeniable positive force in Dean’s life for those two months, and I think that’s a meaningful thing for him, you know? Sonny taught him a different kind of discipline, one not rooted in hunting. He also deeply, deeply respectful of Dean and Dean’s ability to make choices for himself, which includes suffering the consequences of those actions. John Winchester was not that affection towards Dean, and I don’t even mean that in a physical sense. There’s a care that Sonny demonstrates for Dean that he was clearly not used to, so I understand why Dean would come running once Sonny asked for help.
I swear, though, I didn’t really have any problems with this episode! It just didn’t do anything for me.
The video for “Bad Boys†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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