3.02 The Kids Are Alright
| |
| Title | The Kids Are Alright |
| Episode # | Season 3, Episode 2 |
| First aired | October 11, 2007 |
| Directed by | Philip Sgriccia |
| Written by | Sera Gamble |
| On IMDB | The Kids Are Alright |
| Outline | Re-visiting an old flame, Dean uncovers a hunt - changelings are slowly killing off families in a suburban neighbourhood. Meanwhile, Sam continues to research ways to save Dean's soul. |
| Monster | Changelings |
| Timeline | Likely late May, early June |
| Location(s) | Cicero, Indiana |
| [[{{{prevep}}}|« Previous Episode]] | [[{{{nextep}}}|Next Episode »]] | |
Contents
Synopsis
The episode begins in Cicero, Indiana. A woman is there to greet her daughter, who is brought home by her ex-husband. The girl, Katie, claims that she hates it at her dad’s house and there are monsters there. The dad is seen next in his woodshop when the saw mysteriously turns on. He switches it off, and it comes back on, and we know somehow he’s going to end up having part of him ground to a pulp, which is what happens.
Sam is in a diner on the phone to Bobby, trying to crack a translation on the laptop in relation to Dean’s deal. Dean enters and mentions the gruesome power saw death, then reveals he really wants to go to Cicero to hook up with Lisa, an ex-yoga instructor that once gave him “the bendiest weekend of his life” over eight years ago. Dean dumps Sam off at the Cicero Pines motel and drives to cookie-cutter suburbia, arriving at Lisa’s house. She’s shocked to see him, and he’s arriving on the day of her eight year old son's birthday party. Dean meets the boy and sees the striking resemblance, especially noticing the joy for his new AC/DC CD, the way he eats his sandwich, and the race-car birthday cake. Two women (one a local Realtor) ogle over Dean, who both heard that Dean gave Lisa “the best night of her life.” Dean goes over to talk to Ben, and finds he has an eye for the ladies. He gives Ben a long stare while he goes off to play with some “chicks”, does the math in his head and rushes off to talk to Lisa.
Lisa talks to the woman in the opening scene (known only as Katie’s mom), who claims her daughter Katie isn’t right. Dean shows up after she leaves to ask Lisa in a round about way is Ben is his. She says no, and then talks about the saw accident while they watch Katie and her mother behave strange in the yard.
Sam is in a diner when the mysterious woman who saved him in the last episode (we find out next episode her name is Ruby) takes a seat across from him. She tells Sam she’s interested in him, knows all about how he’s got the “Antichrist” thing going for him and is the sole survivor of the psychic kids. Sam is surprised to hear that she knows this, and claims that his psychic abilities died with yellow eyes. She surprises him again by mentioning that something happened to his mother’s friends. She tells him to look into it and to call her when he’s done, writing her phone number on the palm on his hand. Just before she leaves, she says there’s a job in this town, and then Dean calls to reveal that same fact. There have been four other accidents in that neighborhood that never made the paper.
Katie’s mom wakes up to find creepy daughter staring eerily at her, and then sees the girl’s molten and gray skin in the mirror. Sam, in a nice suit playing an insurance agent this time, visits the wife of an accident victim and sees the scene where her husband fell off the ladder. He notices a red spot outside the window, a little girl giving him an eerie glare through the window, and a mark on the back of the woman’s neck. Back to the other house, Katie’s mom goes into the bathroom very rattled by her daughter’s behavior, and freaks out when the girl tries to force her way in through the locked door.
Dean sees Ben at the park looking sad. He reveals a bully has taken his video game, so Dean encourages him to get the thing back by kicking the bigger boy in a place where the sun don’t shine, upsetting Lisa, but getting him a huge hug from Ben in thanks. Dean sees a set of creepy children staring him down as Lisa and Ben leave.
Katie’s mom straps Katie into the car, and sees her distorted face in the mirror. Instead of taking her for ice cream, she drives up to the edge of a lake, gets out and releases the brake, letting her car and daughter sink into the water. She gets home extremely upset, only to find her wet daughter alive and well, asking for ice cream.
Dean meets Sam back at the motel room, where Sam reveals all his research about changeling lore. It seems a changeling has replaced the kids, killed the dads, and is feeding on the moms. They realize any kid is at risk, and Dean insists they go check out Ben. They arrive at Lisa’s house to find that Ben is indeed different. Dean finds the same red spot that Sam did at the other house, but realizes it’s not blood, but red sand.
They pull into a vacant house in the neighborhood with a pile of red sand in the front and go in equipped with makeshift flamethrowers. Dean goes in the basement and finds Ben, the other kids and the local Realtor from the party in cages. The fake Realtor confronts Sam, who misses her with his flamethrower. In the meantime, not!Ben starts freaking out Lisa. Dean frees the kids and gets them out through the basement window while Sam arrives issuing the warning that there’s a mother changeling. The fake Realtor shows up and tosses Sam and Dean around for a bit while Lisa and Katie’s mom freak out over their scary children. Dean takes down the Realtor and Sam torches her, then not!Ben and not!Katie go up in flames in front of their horrified parents.
The Impala pulls into the Lisa’s driveway and Ben gets out to greet a relieved Lisa. Dean goes inside and explains the changelings to her and why he never mentioned his job before. She confirms for Dean once and for all the Ben is not his son. Dean is very disappointed, and Lisa tries to help by reminding him Ben wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for him, and kisses him after Dean declares he’d be proud to be Ben’s dad. Lisa invites him to stay, but Dean reluctantly leaves, declaring this isn’t his life.
Sam, back at the strange motel room with mirrors on the walls, red patterned wallpaper among dark oak trim, a large and colorful box of fake flowers, strange gold bedspreads, hideous colonial-styled brown headboards and some very worn red carpet, finds out through a series of phone calls that his mother’s friends and everyone who ever knew her have been “systematically wiped off the map one at a time.” He tells the mystery woman this, and demands to know who she is. She reveals she’s a demon, and tells him that she doesn’t know what happened to his mother and her friends, just that it was all about him. She claims she wants to help Sam figure it out, and if he lets her, she can help him save Dean. That grabs Sam’s attention, and the screen fades to a metal teeth chomp.
Characters
- Dean Winchester
- Sam Winchester
- Ben Braeden
- Lisa Braeden
- Ruby
- Annette Doolittle
- Katie Doolittle
Definitions
Music
- Steve Carlson - If It Ain't Easy
- plays when Dean drops Sam off at the hotel, and continues as he drives to Lisa's house
- Goodnight City - 40,000 Miles (The CW called this song "Above the Sun" - no song of that name by this band exists - Source)
- plays at Ben's birthday party
Quotes
Dean: She was a yoga teacher. It was the bendiest weekend of my life. Come on, have a heart, huh? It's my dying wish!
Sam: Yeah, well how many dying wishes are you gonna get?
Woman #2: Yeah. Why?
Woman #1: You don't know about Dean? THE Dean, Best Night of My Life Dean?
Woman #2: No. Tell me.
Woman #1: Oh my God... So they had this crazy, semi-illegal... (Dean walks over)
Dean: Hi.
Woman #1: Hi.
Ben: Guilty.
Dean: It’s a cool party.
Ben: Dude, it’s so freakin’ sweet. And this moon bounce - epic!
Dean: Yeah, it’s pretty awesome.
Dean: No, nah, of course not. (scoffs) He's not, is he?
Ruby: I'm interested in you.
Sam: Why?
Ruby: Because you're tall. I love a tall man. And then there's the whole Anti-Christ thing.
Sam: 'Scuse me?
Ruby: Yeah. Generation of psychic kids, yellow-eyed demon rounds you up, Celebrity Deathmatch ensues. You're the sole survivor.
Sam: How do you know about that?
Ben: No! Don't go over there! Only bitches send a grown-up.
Dean: You're not wrong.
Sam: Is that some kind of joke?
Trivia & References
- Gumby was a stop-motion/claymation kids' show. Being made of plasticine, Gumby was exceedingly flexible. His best friend was a red plasticine horse named "Pokey".
- a fire that happened on November 24th 2006 in Lawrence.
- Robert Campbell who died on the 19th of July 2001. July 19th is Jared Padalecki's birthday.
- someone named "Hardecker" (or similar)
- a woman called Wallison
- Ed Campbell
- This line comes from the musical The Wizard of Oz, where it originally is "Ding Dong, the witch is dead" and refers to the Wicked Witch of the West.
- Anthony Michael Hall plays Johnny Smith in The Dead Zone, a man who became psychic after being in a coma for six years and uses his new abilities to solve crimes. The show is based on a novel by Stephen King.black_samvara
- Celebrity Deathmatch was a comedy show on MTV in which claymation celebrities would fight each other to the death, with often grisly results.
