{"id":4382,"date":"2015-01-19T13:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T21:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4382"},"modified":"2015-01-19T00:26:45","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T08:26:45","slug":"mark-watches-supernatural-s08e05-blood-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/01\/mark-watches-supernatural-s08e05-blood-brother\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Supernatural’: S08E05 – Blood Brother"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, Dean assists Benny in a revenge plot while Sam reflects on the life he left behind. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For blood and gore.<\/b><\/p>\n

THIS WAS SO UNEXPECTED AND I WANT SO MUCH MORE.<\/p>\n

Sam<\/b><\/p>\n

I know that most of this review will be devoted to what happens with Dean in this episode, but I did want to address the glimpses of Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life with Amelia. I suppose that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even an accurate way to label what we see here, since at this point in the flashbacks, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no relationship at all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the start of something more, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spawned entirely out of loneliness. Still uncertain where to go, Sam dawdles about the motel where he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been staying, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a surreal thing to witness. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s odd to see Sam as a handyman, but any sort of domesticity attached to this character is always going to be weird, you know? As much as Sam may truly want to leave hunting, I must admit it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a challenge to think of him as anything but a hunter.<\/p>\n

However, I can sense that Amelia and Sam grew close to one another out of their loneliness, though we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0Amelia feels so alone or why she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s living in a motel in small town. \u00c2\u00a0I also don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if the show is going to address why Sam chose to drift around the country instead of searching for his brother. I suppose the easiest explanation for that can be found in the same reason Sam and Amelia were drawn to each other: Sam didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have anyone to turn to. Yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult to imagine Sam away from the hunting lifestyle, but he was never as committed to this as Dean was. What happens when you take Dean out of the picture? I think Sam more or less fell apart because he relied so much on Dean for direction and guidance that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know\u00c2\u00a0how\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>to hunt anymore, at least not on his own. Hell, even after the events in season 5, Sam finds other people to hunt with.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is all rampant speculation with little basis in canon. I can interpret Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history and some hints from this episode, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak with any certainty. So what made Sam leave the domestic life behind? Why abandon that if he wanted it so badly?<\/p>\n

Dean<\/b><\/p>\n

Hahaha, SO MANY EMOTIONS. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m thrilled with the moral complication written into this specific episode. It is not a simple story, not for Benny and DEFINITELY not for Dean. Through the Purgatory flashbacks,\u00c2\u00a0we learn how Benny comes to be valued by Dean, which is important to explain how Dean is able justify his relationship with Benny.<\/p>\n

To himself, that is. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that he knew all along that Sam would freak out over Benny, and, again, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably because he knows he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being hypocritical here. But why risk it at all? To me, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the show needed to tell me. Something had to have made Dean relinquish one of his long-kept rules of hunting. What was it about Purgatory that made Dean trust a vampire, so much so that even\u00c2\u00a0after\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>escaping Purgatory, Dean is willing to stop one hunt to go help him. Dean is fiercely loyal; we know that. We know that he can be single-minded at times, but when it comes to those he loves and cares about, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do pretty much anything to do right by them. (Need I point to all the Purgatory sequences, where Dean insists on saving Castiel, even if that means all three of them die?) At this moment in the story, we only have two possible explanations for Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s affinity for Benny:<\/p>\n

1) Benny was instrumental in helping Dean escape Purgatory.<\/p>\n

2) Benny saved Castiel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life from a Leviathan.<\/p>\n

Both of them could be part of something more, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enough to understand why Dean is making the choices he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s making here. He trusts Benny because Benny demonstrated genuine concern for him and genuine appreciation. As far as Dean can tell, Benny is\u00c2\u00a0also\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>not killing anyone. (Which, of course, is what Sam wanted to do with Amy Pond: give her a chance to live a life free from killing.) So when he calls Dean for help, Dean doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hesitate to do so. I feel like that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a huge deal, you know?<\/p>\n

What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so great about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blood Brother,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d though, is that the dynamic is not the sole reason why this episode is so satisfying. The backstory for Benny himself? hahahaha WOW EVERYTHING HURTS. First of all, V A M P I R A T E S. Did we need this?\u00c2\u00a0Yes, we fucking did<\/i>. Mostly so that Dean could look utterly pleased with coming up with the name. But VAMPIRES FALLING IN LOVE. A VAMPIRE TRYING TO BE A GENUINELY GOOD PERSON. VAMPIRE. PIRATES. And the thing is, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nowhere near as silly as the idea sounds! The coven of vampires that Benny belonged to would rob and devour rich people on their own boats and yachts and then cover it up by calling in an alibi\/explanation for the boat sinking and disappearing. But how satisfying was that, particularly for Benny? Initially, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all he needed, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he stuck so closely to his maker. However, Benny fell for a woman, and he left his maker behind, which is how he ended up in Purgatory in the first place.<\/p>\n

The narrative works for Dean, too, who is certainly a big fan of revenge. Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 lord, the fanfiction WRITES ITSELF. I want more, and not even because I appreciate the show exploring this kind of relationship. When I watch a television show, I want it to make me long for more of the story, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what this does. (Admittedly, I desire for more of Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story at this point than Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, and Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL KNOW WHAT I FEEL ABOUT SAM.) I want to know how Benny is ever going to work in the future of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>now that Sam knows who and WHAT he is. I want to know how Castiel was left behind in Purgatory and why. I want to know if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anything more to explain how Dean came to trust Benny this much.<\/p>\n

What an exciting and satisfying episode!!!<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Blood Brother\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS.
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