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Supernatural: Freaks and Geeks

"Never trust a guy who wears a sweater."

And it's Supernatural, The Next Generation.

Unfortunately, the episode suffered a bit because it was obvious from the beginning what was going on. It just smelled of set-up because Victor was too good to be true, and hey, "Victor" is such a villain's name ("That's Frahn-ken-steen").

And also unfortunately, the living room denouement was awkward and took too long; they wrote themselves into a corner where pretty much the only way out was for Victor to kill himself. But I did like that the vampire lore on this show has advanced to the point where an innocent woman could be saved and unvamped. I also liked that the Winchesters taught those three kids that it was more important to save someone than to kill monsters.

I didn't buy that those kids were going to stop hunting, though. Krissy reminded me of Jo, who was so determined to follow in her late father's footsteps. (Poor Jo.) It's also not the first time that hunting monsters has been referred to as an addiction, and that the people who do it are essentially broken, and unable to stop until they die.

And what are the three of them going to live on? Who owns that house? Is there money in the bank?

When the series began, Dean and Sam were 26 and 22. The scenes they did with those three kids just made it obvious how freaking long this series has been going on. (Not that Jensen and Jared are old!) Krissy Chambers was introduced in last season's "Adventures in Babysitting." I thought she was too young to be sexy bait, but according to IMdb, the actress is 17. Half Jensen Ackles's age, by the way. Half.

I'm sorry that we won't see Krissy's dad again. I liked him. Hunters die young, as we all know quite well.

Bits and pieces:

— Before the Winchesters showed up, Krissy talked about her boyfriend in Canada who wasn't around. I wonder who that could be? (Yes, I got that it was probably fantasy Dean.)

— The Winchesters supposedly met Victor during a rugaru hunt in Spokane. I don't think we've seen him before, though, because I don't remember seeing him in season four's "Metamorphosis." Am I wrong?

— I never saw Freaks and Geeks. Were there any references to the show in the episode, or was it just a nod to the fact that these were high school kids?

— I enjoyed that the opener was something of a take-off on their "parked by the side of the road opening up about their feelings" thing. Herbal tea, anyone? And Sam did give the impression that he was under the weather. Victor got the drop on Sam much too easily.

— This week: Conway Springs, Kansas. I wonder if they deliberately used the Winchesters' home state because it was an episode about children as hunters?

— The "Lodge" looked familiar, and I've never been to Vancouver. Have they by chance filmed there before?

Quotes:

Dean: "You just crossed streams with a federal investigation."

Dean: "It's not what I expected."
Krissy: "And what was that?"
Dean: "More Lord of the Flies, less Huxtables."

Dean: "So how does this work? After soccer practice and the bake sale, they chop vampires' heads off?"
Victor: "Why, yeah. I think a balanced approach is best, don't you?"

Dean: "Kids aren't supposed to hunt, Sam."
Sam: "We did."
Dean: "Yeah, and look what that did for us."

Dean: "There's something I want to tell you about Krissy."
Aiden: "I know. You'll kill me if I ever hurt her, blah blah blah."
Dean: "No. She'll kill you. Good luck."

Interesting idea, reasonably good execution, but it didn't completely work for me. Two out of four possibly fatal training exercises,

Billie
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Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

12 comments:

  1. I haven't seen this yet, but my understanding is that Victor is the same actor who was the Striga in his doctor form in Something Wicked.

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  2. After last week's wondrous ep, this one had to suffer by comparison, but it wasn't too bad. I really didn't expect that Victor had had a vampire kill the kids' parents, and I was pleased we remembered we had a cure for vamps who hadn't fed yet. When you think about it, a Hogwarts for Hunters isn't the worst idea, but made up of high school grads who WANT to hunt. Even if Sam succeeds, there are still non-demons out in the world that will have to be hunted--or will closing the Gates of Hell do away with ALL evil things automatically? I'm not clear on that. I liked this ep, Billie, but I loved last week's sooooo much! --Robin Vogel

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  3. I won't even go into how disturbing I thought this episode was. Let's just say that I'm with Dean - kids shouldn't be hunters - ever.

    It's strange, I've seen every episode of this show since the start, but I couldn't for my life remember this girl, I had to IMDB her. Turns out she was in an ep last year! Hmmm...I must have completely blocked her out, or I might be not that invested in this show after all??

    Well, all that kids stuff aside, I guess that there were some good moments in there. Some interesting vampire lore a la Supernatural style as Billie pointed out.

    But my rating would still be zero out of four possibly fatal training exercises.

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  4. Other than the high school thing, I didn't note any obvious Freaks and Geeks references, but it's been a while since I've seen it. I guess Krissy had a bit of a Lindsay Weir vibe, but it's only something I thought of after you asked the question.

    This one didn't do much for me, but the parent-child-legacy thing feels like it has been coming up a lot lately, and I'm starting to wonder if a knocked up Amelia is going to stumble back into the boys' lives. I'm not sure how I'd feel about that kind of development.

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  5. I was excited when I saw the detail since Freaks and Geeks is one of my all-time favorite shows. In fact, I just introduced my teen-aged kids to it in the last month or so. I didn't see a single parallel or reference, which is a shame.

    I wasn't fond of this episode. I am getting tired of the way they way in which they sometimes make Sam look like an idiot to put him in danger. He was already suspicious of Vicotr, yet he goes out with him to look for the vamp and then turns his back on him in such a clueless manner. It didn't ring true to me. Also, why would Victor keep him alive until Sam woke up just to explain his whole plan to Sam. The writing was pretty weak this week and disappointing after last week's awesome episode.

    Did anyone think of Buffy and the gang when they were talking about how wrong it was for teenagers to have to fight monsters in between high school classes and activities? I missed the Scoobies while watching this ep.

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  6. I should have proofread my post! Autocorrect strikes again. I meant "title" not "detail."

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  7. Interesting that you thought the Lodge looked familiar. I thought the house where the kids were living with Victor looked an awful lot like the house where the Winchesters lived when Mary was murdered.

    I agree with Jess; in fact, I mentioned it in my comment to "As Time Goes By" earlier this season. As soon as Victor asked Sam if he had any kids, I thought of Amelia. There seems to be a lot of set up this season for her to turn up pregnant.

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  8. I liked this episode and I like Krissy. But it just made me sad: there are only two ways for a hunter: either die or be completely crazy.

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  9. I'm just catching this episode on netflix, but the housr Victor has the kids in looks a lot like the set of buffy's house.

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  10. I really wanted Victor to be played by Antony Stewart Head. Or Alexis Denisof.

    I really don't want Amelia to be pregnant (I'd much rather Ben came back, whether he's Dean's biological son or not) but now that you guys have pointed it out, it does seem likely. And the bad guy saying to Sam 'you're not a father' reminded me very much of another show where someone said that to a guy who, while he had no idea of it at the time, actually was.

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  11. I liked this episode but Victor being a bad guy was clear. At first when dean was telling Krissy she is too young to hunt and victor is a bad guy for getting them into it , I was thinking " dean and sam were much younger when they started" and there dad got them into the life. But I am glad sam addressed that issue later on in the episode. I am interested to see what happens with the angel tablet. I do agree that if they close the gates of hell. I got the impression it just applies to demons. They are other creatures like wearwolfs,shapshifters etc that won't be affected. unless closing the gates get rid of every evil creature.

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  12. Was briefly excited, since I liked Jo's spiritual successor and didn't expect her to come back... her crew was hyper competent, and I thought I was getting an inspiring idea of why they have introduced a bunker now. Then my hope struggled and died when they decided to gate-keep, like a fish washed to shore :( Well I liked her not having to be stopped from killing Victor. That was still pretty proactive...
    Why did they "Cas" Garth lol? By which I mean, why are they constantly talking about him without any appearances? Their world has shrunken even more somehow.

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