Supernatural 8.09 "Citizen Fang" Review: Legacies

 

     Supernatural 8.09 “Citizen Fang” was the fall finale of the show. It was written by Daniel Loflin who we are used to seeing write with Andrew Dabb. Dabb, of course, solo’ed on last week’s episode, “Hunteri Heroici”. This week’s episode also featured a director new to the show: Nick Copus. We had a couple of really beautiful shots, including the shot up through the water of Benny as he washes the blood and dirt off of his hands. You may have recognized guest star Kathleen Munroe. In this episode she played Elizabeth, but she was also in episode 3.02, “The Kids Are Alright” as Katie’s Mom. As befits a fall finale, we saw a lot of the story threads that have been developing come to a head in this episode. While I’m anxious to find out more and see what’s next for the brothers Winchester, I didn’t feel like we had a major cliffhanger to chew our nails over during hellatus this year. 

    The episode begins with Benny working in a cafe in Louisiana, as “Born on the Bayou” by Creedence

Clearwater Revival plays. Two thumbs up for some awesome classic rock. Inside the cafe, he’s being watched by Martin Creaser, played again by Jon Gries. Martin seemed as nervous and gittery as the last time we saw him in “Sam Interrupted”, but to me, he also seemed a bit rude – not really the nice guy we’d met before. Dean is not happy when he finds out that Sam has had Martin tailing Benny. Dean repeatedly tells Sam that Martin shouldn’t be on the job, and he tells Martin repeatedly that he’s going to get killed. Both Sam and Martin defend his right to be there, but in the end, Dean is right about Martin getting himself killed.
    Dean defends Benny, but also maintains that he will do the right thing if Benny really is killing people. Sam finally agrees to let Dean have a couple of hours to determine if Benny is a threat. Martin is shocked.  And I begin to wonder what the rest of the hunting community may think about Dean’s newest friend if the word does get out.

    This episode gave us some great insights into Benny and Ty Olsson is simply a joy to watch. I think he broke my heart at least twice in this one episode. The first time was when he told Dean that he was in Louisiana because he was looking for family. He specifically tells Dean that he’d come back to where he was born because Andrea was gone and Dean was back hunting, and both Andrea and Dean had been the family that kept him on the straight and narrow; they were the ones to keep him from drinking humans. So now, Benny is using Elizabeth – his great granddaughter to keep him honest. This means, of course, that when Benny calls Dean “brother”, he means it a lot more than maybe Dean realized.
    The second time Olsson’s Benny broke my heart was in the confrontation with Martin over Elizabeth. Both Olsson and Munroe are fantastic in this scene, with both giving raw performances. Munroe had worked with director Copus on Alphas, so that may have been a factor in her terrific performance or it may be that both actors were so completely in the moment. At any rate, when Benny bends himself over the counter, Copus gives us a great shot through the pie caddy of Benny’s anguished face, tears brimming. It seems like he’s sacrificing himself for the only family he has, but in the end, he’s destroyed by the fact that he knows he’ll be cutting himself off from her forever when she discovers what he is.

    The scenes with Olsson and Ackles just keep getting better. The two have an almost ridiculous amount of chemistry together on the screen and one’s performance just seems to make the other’s better. Dean is trying to do his best to keep Benny safe. He so clearly wants to trust Benny, and their wary reunion as they both check each other out was sad to see. The two also kill the comic scenes as Benny makes sure that Dean wasn’t hitting on his great granddaughter and Dean obviously registers how awkward that is.
    My heart broke for Dean when he told Benny that “Guys like us, we don’t get a home. We don’t get a family” because of course, those are the very things that both Dean and Benny want so badly. Benny reminds Dean that he’s got Sam. Dean’s answer is “yeah” but it’s clear from the expression on his face that he doesn’t feel like he does have Sam. And he’s justified in thinking that. Dean’s inability to help Benny in the end seems to be the beginning of the end for them and I really hope that the show finds some way to keep Benny because Olsson has added a terrific new element to the show. However, right from when Benny kills Desmond, he says to Dean that he’s missing a step. Somehow when they were fighting in Purgatory, they seemed more equal, but it seems clearer and clearer that Dean is becoming more “human” as Benny is becoming more “vamped” and less able to resist his bloodlust. The shot of Benny through the empty pie caddy was also a nice shout out to Dean – who once again didn’t get his pie in this episode.

    The relationship between Dean and Sam has once again been strained to the breaking point and the episode leaves them separated – though the scenes for “Torn and Frayed” which airs on January 9, 2013, show them back together again. Dean practically has to beg Sam to give him time to talk to Benny to find out what’s actually going on. Sam seems to be in a really big hurry to kill Benny first and ask questions later. Sam asks Dean if they “are just going on trust here?” Sam means is he supposed to trust Benny, but in reality, Dean is once again asking Sam to trust him – and Sam if very reluctant to do so. In the end, he tells Dean he’s too close to the situation to make a reliable decision. Faced with Martin’s death at Benny’s hands, it’s going to be interesting to see what Dean does going forward. That has always been his tipping point, and as much as he can justify that Martin had it coming – and I think he did – he crossed a line in using a civilian like Elizabeth as bait – Dean will be tormented by the situation. His entire life, his father’s legacy, will be demanding he kill his friend. I think that Benny won’t continue to drain humans – making him hard to track and further complicating Dean’s ultimate decision.

    While Sam isn’t the one to knock Dean unconscious and he’s shocked that Martin does it, he also helps to handcuff Dean to the radiator. He’s also most likely the one to have the forethought to take off Dean’s jacket before handcuffing him to remove his various lock picks from reach – though in the end, Dean obviously had a paperclip stashed somewhere else on his body. Martin brings up John on a couple of occasions and even tells Sam that John would have taken them both out to the woodpile to punish them for the way they’re acting. It’s doubtful that Martin could say anything that would make Dean feel more guilty than raising the spectre of John’s disappointment.
    I had to wonder if Martin’s comment to Sam that “Your brother chooses a vampire over his own brother? I know how I’d feel” has to have a lot of resonance with Sam. After all, Dean said almost the exact same thing to Sam – “You chose a demon (Ruby) over your own brother?” Sam has to feel doubly guilty because while Ruby turned out to be evil, Benny has so far seemed to be innocent. In fact, Sam has to feel bad that it was a vampire that rescued Dean from Purgatory, not him. Sam obviously is also stung by the fact that Dean trusts Benny more than Dean trusts Sam – though Dean doesn’t deny it. Once again, my heart broke for a character when Dean says to Sam, “Every relationship I’ve ever had has gone to crap on me at some point.” Sam is simply mad that Dean feels that way about him, but Sam has let Dean down in the past. John let Dean down. Arguably Bobby’s only fault was dying, but he also came back as a vengeful spirit whom Dean had to kill. Dean also had to give up Lisa and Ben to protect them.
    I’m sure a lot of people were irked at Dean for the fake call to Sam from Amelia. However, it’s also very telling that Sam dropped everything to go to her. I feel badly for Sam because he does so obviously care for Amelia – but more about them in a moment. Dean, however, was once again justified to think that Sam would choose the girl over everything else. Sam left Martin in the middle of the woods in an uncertain position as he didn’t really know where the vampires were and he left town, leaving Dean handcuffed to a wall. Sam left both of them vulnerable and left the vampires free to kill whomever they chose.
    I think that it’s got to be obvious by now that Amelia is real. And that Don is likewise real and not just some figment of Sam’s imagination. However, it is possible that Sam and Amelia's relationship is not what it seems in Sam’s flashbacks. It didn’t really make a lot of sense for Sam to say that he wanted to stay with Amelia and then to leave. In fact, all Don asked Sam for was to let Amelia make up her own mind. Sam doesn’t do that – he takes himself out of the equation. He tells Amelia that she “saved him” and that she should now do that for Don. It’s not really respecting her to take the decision away from her. I found it curious that Sam is packing what looks like the same knapsack as we see in the first episode this season, but instead of it being dark and Amelia being in bed, it’s light and she’s in the doorway. Are we to infer that he comes back after this? It doesn’t make sense for him to be in the room at night with her – and for her to be alone with Riot – if she’d gotten back together with Don. There are still a lot of loose ends.
    This was a really dense episode emotionally for Benny, Dean, and Sam. I love how much of the previous seasons we’re seeing woven into the story. I do wish that the brothers would begin to see how much pain the other is in. Dean has always been desperate for some stability and reassurance, and Sam has always yearned for some sense of a normal life. In many ways, they are both looking for the same thing. I really hope that this season finally sees both characters finally mature enough to recognize what the other needs.

    While the story didn’t leave us with a “how are they going to avoid death” kind of cliffhanger, the brothers are still at a crossroads as to where they go from here. We do see Dean once again reaching out to try to talk to Sam and Sam shutting him down because he’s just too angry to talk to him. I’m hoping that Amelia may be the person to give Sam some insight into dealing with that person from his past who he loves, but who maybe came back at the wrong time. I really think that Amelia and Don’s relationship forms a nice parallel to Sam and Dean. Don and Dean both came back from the “war” and disrupted the life Sam and Amelia had built.
    What did you think of the episode? Where do you think we’ll go from here? Will Sam stay in contact with Amelia now? Is Dean going to be forced to kill Benny? Should he? I say no – because I want to keep Ty Olsson around! Let me know your thoughts in the comments... And massive re-watch for the hellatus anyone??