Supernatural - Episode 5.06 - I Believe the Children Are Our Future - Recap Posted by Selina at Saturday, October 17, 2009 (Comments: 4) Labels: Recaps, Supernatural

It's another week of Supernatural – and another great episode! In 'I Believe the Children Are Our Future' we met Jesse for the first, and I suspect not the last time, and we also had some pretty hilarious gags juxtaposed with a more introspective, reflective tone overall. There's lots to discuss so let's get right to it!

These reviews are also featured on Out of the Box, a television blog full of theories, discussion and reviews about your favorite shows! Please check it out if you enjoyed this review and would like to read more.



So if you add all that up... I got nothing.
Let's get the basic plot over with first of all, because in this review I want to focus on some of the themes and representations in the episode. A series of seemingly unrelated and bizarre accidents are happening around a town – a structure Supernatural has used a fair number of times before, most memorably in 'Tall Tales', 'Bedtime Stories' and 'Wishful Thinking'. This episode followed pretty generically in their footsteps; in fact what was happening was almost exactly like in 'Bedtime Stories' where the fairytale re-enactments were caused by a little girl in a coma. But this time instead of fairytales, the theme was 'Lies My Parents Told Me' (a title which the producers were probably kicking themselves that Buffy thought of first), and instead of a little girl in a coma the gruesome accidents were caused by a little Antichrist boy. Eep. Meet Jesse – a half human, half demon super intelligent child who with the power of his mind can do just about anything, oh and he's said to be the one who will destroy the force of Heaven. Yeah, I can see where Castiel was coming from wanting to kill him, even if he was being a bit harsh. But of course Cas doesn't succeed, because Jesse turns him into a toy! By the way, who else wants that action figure? I know I do!

My dad told me different stories.
This episode dealt with some pretty powerful issues, ironic considering the overall tone of the plot and the humour, but I think this only intensified the message which came across. Everybody lies on this show, but this week it was about the lies you tell in order to protect others, whether it be parents telling their children comforting stories at bedtime or Sam and Dean trying to convince Jesse to come with them – not only for Jesse's own good, but for the world's. Poor Jesse is suddenly faced with the cold hard facts that not only is the tooth fairy not real, but he is adopted, he is half demon, and he will have to fight in the upcoming war. That's some heavy duty revelations to lay on the poor kid! And of course this brings us back to the ethics of lying: while Sam and Dean both express a wish that John had told them more lies as children, surely anything beats having everything brought down on you at once like Jesse had? I don't blame the kid for skipping town. While I'm pretty certain he will have to come back and play a bigger part in the final battle, I like the idea that he won't necessarily be back – he could just as well end up being a dormant chess piece hiding out in Australia, removed from the heart of the action and thus not interfering with God and the Winchesters' plan.

The Good, the Bad, and the Winchesters.
You know, I reckon that this episode showed us the first time that Castiel has ever spoken directly to Sam. They may have talked before, but it struck me that for once, Sam was the person Castiel's words were intended for, and not Dean. This is significant, even if all Castiel did was remind Sam – needlessly, of course, because we all get it already – of his role in the apocalypse, because I think this finally, firmly establishes that Sam's role as the ambiguous force in the show is OVER. Ever since the beginning of the show, we've always had the looming shadow of Sam's dark side, we've always known that even though the brothers had fun and bonded, eventually Sam would make a turn for the worst. It didn't happen when he met Meg, it didn't happen when Yellow Eyes approached him directly... but it was always there, drawing ever closer. Now it's over, he's done his part, and him and Dean have reconciled, and I think the significance of Castiel finally giving him the time of day and speaking to him as he would to Dean is that Sam is no longer considered a threat. The fear of Sam turning dark side again has been eradicated; he turned, and then he turned back, and we've seen him refuse the demon blood even when he had to literally spit it out of his mouth. Finally, finally, we are back to the Winchesters against the world... and what's even better, I think we're back to Sam and Dean doing The Right Thing. From the way they protected Jesse and their self-reflexivity about their childhood, we're ultimately meant to agree and sympathise with Sam and Dean's decisions. Their moral compass is pointing the right way – unlike the demons' AND the angels', both sides of whom are ultimately out for themselves. And this is why the Winchesters must be the ones to win this war. Not God, or Lucifer, or Michael, or anyone else. Sam and Dean, the humans, because ultimately, this is all about the importance of being human, and the importance which lies in protecting humanity, with all its rights and wrongs, from "evil". Some people criticize the show for its "xenophobic agenda" – but I would argue that rather than expressing a hatred for the different or the unknown, Supernatural is promoting unification. Not through exclusion, but through symbolically "fighting evil". Fighting the monsters, who represent the evil in society. Look at the horsemen: death, war, famine, etc. The ills of society that threaten the human race as a whole, this is the symbolic fight which the Winchesters have dedicated their lives to. Whether or not they win will say a great deal about the state of the world, but no matter which way it goes, it already has made great comments on our society, both the obvious (Paris Hilton and the idol culture, for one), and the more abstract like in this week's episode.

Masturbation and Fart Jokes: A Stylistic Choice?
I want to make a case for the use of comedy in this episode, because while I could play the negativity card and call it childish and over the top, I like to look into things a little more analytically, and Supernatural has already proven how carefully thought out a show it really is. In Supernatural, the big moral messages and the high brow elements are often concealed behind the entertainment qualities of a typical CW show – and while I'm sure the show would have been able to develop a lot more and have had a lot more recognition had it been on, say, ABC or HBO, I think this double tone actually suits the show quite well. I think Supernatural is happy staying just below the radar, because the writers can probably get away with a lot more wacky ideas and tongue-in-cheek references (Sarah Palin, anyone?) than they would have otherwise. But I'm calling you out on your stylistic brilliance, guys! See, the over-arching theme of this episode was, as I have already discussed, of course 'Lies My Parents Told Me'. The title was 'I Believe the Children are Our Future' – the common denominator is of course childhood, and pranks. So the TONE set by the humour matched this theme perfectly, and you can tell they did this deliberately because of how obviously the humour differed from the average SPN episode. The Jared fart-shoutout in the joke shop, Dean devouring the electrocuted pork, the most obvious masturbation reference I think has ever been made on the CW because of the "proof" on the offending hand (it's things like this that just makes me wonder if Supernatural even is screened by the CW before they allow it to go on the air!), and of course the complete disruption of an otherwise serious scene by the Castiel fart incident. Hilarious, but on a very low level, so that you almost feel embarrassed laughing about it. Things my younger brother would find hysterical, just like he giggles every time someone says "sex" or "toilet": child humour. Because this episode was all about children. Conclusion: the lamer the jokes, the more brilliant the episode works stylistically. It's a win-win for Supernatural this week!

That's all, folks!
And that's about all I have for you this week, I hope you enjoyed my observations. Please leave a comment sharing your own views of the episode; obviously I chose a very specific approach this week so there is a lot I didn't cover, like the mother (brilliant actress by the way) and the idea that the antichrist also came by a virgin birth – but I'll leave that up to the rest of you!

The next episode of Supernatural, 'The Curious Case of Dean Winchester', is one of the episodes I have been most looking forward to this season, so I'm really excited for next week! Check back here for that recap as well, and for every episode after that! Thanks for reading.