In the second episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, Kevin insists on checking in with his mother, who quickly becomes ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTERS IN THE WHOLE SHOW. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trigger Warning: For discussion of racial stereotypes and consent<\/b>.<\/p>\n
This is such a strange episode in hindsight, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kinda perfectly okay with that? Just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 who knew we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d end up at\u00c2\u00a0an auction of supernatural and mystical objects? The cold open didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hint at this, and I kept expecting that man \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Mr. Vili \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to show up and be this episode\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s villain. NO.\u00c2\u00a0NOPE<\/i>. Instead, this episode tracks the Tran family pretty much exclusively from beginning to end, and goddamn, it was so satisfying to watch.<\/p>\n
I know that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in a large part because of Lauren Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s portrayal of Ms. Tran. I was SO PLEASED that she was deliberately written to upend the stereotypes we\u00c2\u00a0might<\/i> assume of her. (Though I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think that gives the writers credence to make jokes of a neologism that a lot of Asian Americans consider a slur. Seriously, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t call Asian mom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tiger moms,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t!) There are hints spread throughout this script that suggest that Ms. Tran has an entire life that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never shared with her son. What was her first tattoo? Who is Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real father? Why does she so effortlessly slip into this world? Perhaps\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i> is the most compelling thing about this; Ms. Tran learns of demons and Crowley and the plot to capture her son, and she immediately signs up for it. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready to go mere seconds after Sam and Dean explain the stakes to her. And all along the way, she never once is reluctant to do what she sees as necessary to protect her son. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll threaten a pawnshop owner, and then she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll\u00c2\u00a0give up her own soul<\/i> in order to save Kevin. That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean these choices are made without fear or sadness; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clearly upset at the thought of selling her soul, but she does it anyway.<\/p>\n
However, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re tricked by the show into believing this was going to be a whole lot sillier than it ultimately turned out to be. (Once again, the collective \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is the only way to make this sound like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not the only one who was lulled into a false sense of security by all this.\u00c2\u00a0Allow me this moment.<\/i>) When Beau showed up, eager to invite Kevin to Plutus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s auction, I felt like the episode had suddenly leapt into a different realm. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a jarring change in tone, namely because the assortment of characters and items seems so comical. da Vinci\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s notebook? MJ\u00c3\u2013LNIR??? And then the bidding starts, and\u00c2\u00a0what the hell show am I watching?<\/i> But I like that this signifies how completely out of their element the Winchesters are here. Dwarven gold as currency?\u00c2\u00a0The moon as currency<\/i>? The finger of Ymir, the frost giant? (I half expected ice giants from Discworld to be mentioned.)<\/p>\n
But I think that Dean is\u00c2\u00a0specifically<\/i> out of his element for an entirely different reason. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s upsetting to see all the signs that Dean is having a difficult time viewing the world through a lens of normalcy. After spending so much time in Purgatory, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more quick to violence than he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ever been before. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly a new development for him, and I think you could recognize that aspect of him long before this. But there seems to be a distinct lack of a filter; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reluctance; there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no sense for context or sense of moderation. Violence is the\u00c2\u00a0only<\/i> answer, even when it comes to someone like Ms. Tran. It just makes sense to him to kill her, just like he killed Eunice in an earlier scene.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s difficult watching this because we\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i> know that Dean Winchester and guilt go hand in hand, and all the glimpses of Purgatory suggest that he did something\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i> bad there. Teaming up with Benny? Well, that might be child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s play to LEAVING CASTIEL BEHIND. Whether that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intentional or accidental, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s haunting Dean, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lying to\u00c2\u00a0everyone<\/i> about it. How much of that is because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s convinced that hunting in Purgatory is more \u00e2\u20ac\u0153pure\u00e2\u20ac\u009d? How much did he\u00c2\u00a0enjoy<\/i> the visceral nature of that place? How much will Benny play in this development? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think it was accidental that this episode showed us Kevin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s angry rejection of Dean. Kevin doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to become collateral damage. He doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be a stepping stone for whatever plan Dean has, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair that he views Dean\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions through this lens. Dean was going to kill his mom in order to kill Crowley!\u00c2\u00a0We<\/i> understand what a huge moment it is for Crowley to possess someone. (That was the first time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever seen it, right?) And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like Kevin doubts the importance of stopping Crowley, either. But his mother is not a price he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s willing to pay. (Which breaks my heart because then I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop thinking about how Ms. Tran was willing to pay the price of her own soul in order to save him and I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T DEAL WITH THESE CHARACTERS.)<\/p>\n
So now the Winchesters have no tablet, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the Prophet on their side, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re at\u00c2\u00a0worse<\/i> than square one. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s entirely possible that Crowley will destroy the Word of God, right? And\u00c2\u00a0then<\/i> what? Will this whole plan have to be abandoned?<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M UPSET, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. I feel like they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all worse off than they were one episode ago, especially the Trans, now that Ms. Tran appears to have been horribly traumatized by the ordeal. WHY MUST I FEEL SUCH PAIN?<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Up, Tiger Mommy?\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. In the second episode of the eighth season of\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural, Kevin insists on checking in with his mother, who quickly becomes ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTERS IN THE WHOLE SHOW. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[590],"tags":[591],"class_list":["post-4347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-supernatural","tag-mark-watches-supernatural"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next two Double Features are now in the schedule! I will be watching <\/b>The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i><\/b> and then <\/b>Leverage<\/i><\/b>. <\/b>Commission away!
\n– The 2015 Mark Does Stuff tour is being announced!!! Check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"