Supernatural Review - Citizen Fang

Citizen Fang-tastic! 

Can we at least have a burger and talk about our favorite boy band?

Citizen Fang was directed by Nick Copus and written by Daniel Loflin. You may know Nick's directorial work from Alphas, Nikita and The 4400, he also directs an upcoming episode of Arrow. Daniel Loflin is the other half of the Dabb and Loflin team. They have been writing Supernatural for a few seasons. Without his usual writing partner, I thought it was a good episode from Loflin.
 

Supernatural is usually on its 10th episode this time of the season, but instead we are on 9th. After watching the promo of Tom and Frayed, it got me thinking perhaps Citizen Fang wasn't written as the mid-season finale, but Tom and Frayed was. Due to Thanksgiving, we had a week off, so we are one episode short in the first half of the season. Anyhoo, Citizen Fang was a great episode but it didn't feel like mid-season finale, however, it isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least a few things were moved forward. As a viewer, this is a good thing to feel so emotional about the storyline and characters. They are not written for everyone to like, this is not a children's book. Even a children's book has villains and crap, and this is Supernatural we are talking about. It must have dramas, conflicts, the WTF moments and darkness. It is written to challenge us psychologically. We are supposed to have the WTF reactions, that's the purpose of a drama. We can all debate about whether Sam did the right thing, if Martin was a douche, or if the trust issue is ever going to go away. One thing for sure, each character in this episode think they have made the best decision under the circumstances.

Let's start with Sam. I half expected Sam to do what he did. I expected him to flip and be stubborn about Benny. "Your brother chooses a vampire over you." Oh shut up Martin! But did it really cross Sam's mind? I don't think so. I'd like to think Sam was better than this. I think it was more about 'they are monsters, we want them dead, they want us dead' -- a motif Dean once shared with Sam before. Dean was never a choir boy about monsters, Sam knew it and he was willing to give Dean a few hours to investigate the case and talk to Benny.

But what scenario was Sam expecting to see after a few hours? May be he was too arrogant. To me, it was almost as if Sam was certain that the deaths in town were caused by Benny and hoped Dean was wrong about Benny. Sam wanted Dean to see the truth with his own eyes and said "Told ya!" Sam wasn't really thinking about an alternative -- what if Dean was right about Benny who didn't kill those people? To me, Sam was going to end Benny regardless. Sam was being stubborn. There was a bit of a "why am I always the one who is wrong about things and makes bad decision?" thing going on with Sam. For once, perhaps he wanted Dean to be wrong and made a bad decision. Sam was looking for a win, so to speak.

Lumberjack Benny

Sam was pissed off about the fake text message, which was well-played by Dean. It told us and Dean about Sam's feeling for Amelia, who could be a liability and in danger. Sam was willing to drop everything, including a job, to be by her side. Hypothetically speaking, if Crowley finds out about Amelia, she is gone! Sam may want a retirement and a happy life, but it is the stuff he did before as a hunter that makes it impossible for him to start a family or close to someone, because one day shit will come back to haunt him. It is a weakness and the monsters know it. For Sam to see Amelia with Don was a good thing, because he could see that she was safe and happy, so that he could move on. But for Amelia to go to Sam, this is going to drag! I don't want this to drag. The bar scene being the last shot of the mid-season finale was a little weak. Good ending to an episode, but not as cliff-hanger for a mid-season finale. This is not Grey's Anatomy, this is Supernatural. The episode was great, don't get me wrong, but that ending wasn't strong enough to wrap the mid-season.

Let me throw a few questions out there. What could possibly happen to Amelia and Sam from now on? Let's see -- Amelia is going to have an affair with Sam behind Don's back? Sam is going to drop everything and leaves Dean and hunting, again? Amelia is going to be Lisa 2.0 and tries to accept and live with the fact that Sam is a hunter? Don is going become angry and finds out about Sam being a hunter and then hire a witch to kill him? Amelia is going to be possessed by demon and then die? There is literally nothing interesting that could happen to the Amelia and Sam storyarc. I understand that this is part of Sam's character development, but either Crowley is going to find out about Amelia and uses her as an asset (which will be much more interesting), or Sam has to join Home and Away. Oh wait.. how about Don IS possessed by a demon under Crowley's authority?  

I shook that hand! I shook that big rough hand of his.

Let's talk about Dean and Sam. Dean had a point about Benny being the only one who had never let him down so far.  It was a fact, not a gut feeling. For Sam to say, "it must feel great to finally find someone you can trust after all these years" was immature. Sam was clearly pissed off. Perhaps he was pissed off because Dean trusted a vampire more than he trusted his little brother. But can you blame Dean? Like I said, Sam wished his brother to be wrong, just once! It's a sibling thing. Dean was surprisingly calmer than I expected. This was a job -- if Benny did the killing, Dean would have no reason not to end him. But perhaps Dean always knew he was right about Benny. Dean is hardly wrong, may be that one time when Dean was all buddy buddy with Gordan in his first appearance, they had a few drinks and traded stories in the bar. 

Dean was caution about Benny. He opted for the talking rather than all guns blazing, furious about the killing. And I think most importantly, he went with facts and not let his emotion clouds his judgement. But Sam did let his emotion and anger cloud his judgement for a little bit. He didn't even want to consider the fact Dean presented to him. He didn't even want to listen to Dean. So what's going to happen to the brother relationship? If you have seen the promo for the next episode, you'd know. Cas is going to tell them to get their shits together! There is no better way to saying it. Sam needs to stop being a baby. 

Let's talk about the 'almost-ok' Martin. I hate him. There was nothing adorable about him. He was a Gordan. Martin tried to get back into the game, fine! And I get that it was a hunter instinct to be suspicious about monsters. In the tradition of Supernatural, monsters are all bad. But this season, Benny was introduced as a complex character, challenging us to consider the possibility of the existence of monster with a good heart. I think that's why I like Benny, because we haven't seen anyone like him before on the show. This makes me Team Benny! Of course, I hate Martin for acting stupid and a douche for threatening Elizabeth. What was he thinking? But it wasn't about Martin, it was about Benny. It revealed who he really was. We saw his point of view. I am glad Benny is still alive and Martin isn't! Elizabeth had one hell of a job to clean up the blood and the body. Wish Cas was here to help.

Overall, I really like this episode because I secretly was hoping Dean was right about Benny. Benny is a great addition to the show. I really like this episode because Sam really pissed me off. That's right. Sam's stubbornness made half the episode, I don't agree with his action and his thinking, but I like the drama and conflict that he brings to the episode. But seriously, the Sam and Amelia storyarc has to end right friggin now! I don't want to have 1D's One Thing playing in my head whenever I see Amelia and Sam together. 

There is the hand again!

Supernatural episode 8.10 Torn and Frayed airs on Wednesday January 16th, 2013. Really, it's not that long of a wait. Yeah, REALLY!


Here is an update on the episode titles:

8.01 We Need to Talk About Kevin
8.02 What's Up, Tiger Mommy?
8.03 Heartache
8.04 Bitten
8.05 Blood Brother
8.06 Southern Comfort
8.07 A Little Slice of Kevin
8.08 Hunteri Heroici 
8.09 Citizen Fang 
8.10 Torn and Frayed (16 Jan)
8.11 LARP and the Real Girl
8:12 As Time Goes By
8.13 Everybody Hates
8.14 Trial And Error
8.15 Man's Best Friend With Benefits
8.16 Remember The Titans