#i'm gonna make a separate post addressing my updated understanding when i wake up more lol bc i think it's interesting

[incesthemes]

i'm impatient so i wanted to share my handwritten notes for 1.15 the benders because i can't wait to type it all up... it's a little messy so here are my key takeaways from the episode, formatted for easier reading:

this is another episode which subtly explores the idea that hunters are monsters. similar to 1.02 wendigo, the monster of the week is defined by its skill in hunting, which suggests that hunters are the same cruel killers that their prey are. other episodes up to now that touch on this are 1.06 skin, 1.07 hook man (less directly), and 1.14 nightmare (less directly).

dean is resistant to this hunt, while sam is enthusiastic about pursuing it. i wrote extensively about the importance of sam pursuing this case here, but regarding dean: dean not wanting to follow up on a potential hunt reveals something about his character, and here it seems to be his worries about sam's developing powers.

sam performing acts of service (hunting) in order to ensure his goodness seems rooted in his family values which are based on service to others. importantly, compare 1.22 where azazel also upholds these values while posing as john. azazel worms his way into the family dynamic and corrupts it by enforcing toxic relationship dynamics, both through acts like this and through acts of incest.

the benders are implied to be incestuous at various points in the episode. they're also paralleled with the winchesters as a whole, through them being hunters and through their undersocialized, insulated dynamics. daddy bender further draws a direct parallel by comparing himself and his family to dean during his interrogation and invites the audience to see them as similar. this consequentially invites us to see the winchesters as incestuous, but in a different way from the incest parallels in episodes up to now: this is a grotesque, warped thing, nothing romantic about it. it's peeling back the layers to reveal the ugly truth of their isolated family.

sam attempts to include himself in this hunt by telling dean to be careful. saying this is important to him because he wants to be part of this dynamic and help, even when locked in a cage. being part of his family is important to him.

sam doesn't kill any of the benders. compare 1.14, where he says it's wrong to kill humans. consistency that reveals a difference between sam and dean: sam doesn't want to see humans as the monsters they hunt, while dean assigns monstrosity based on actions and behaviors.

the episode concludes that seeking revenge will not result in healing, continuing the theme from 1.14—still, sam remains motivated to find and kill azazel, while dean seems to agree with kathleen (who is paralleled to him) and has in a lot of ways abandoned this revenge quest (hinted at in 1.16 and confirmed in 1.22). like in 1.11 and 1.12, sam is making the decisions that will result in tragedy, while dean lacks the narrative agency and willpower to challenge sam's choices and avert their ruin, because his devotion to the family is his ultimate flaw that sam denied him of developing out of in 1.11 (and we see now the effects of this, further expanded upon in 1.18, 1.20, and 1.22). the "moral" of the episode runs directly contradictory to sam's choices, and the warning signs are ignored as sam continues his hunt for azazel.

actual notes under the cut because there's a lot of them!