#watchingspnagain humans as monsters

[watchingspnagain]

Rewatching The Benders

Welcome to “Daaang and Yikes: A Supernatural Rewatch Blog” with Lor and Mace!

 Up today, s1e15: The Benders

  The boys investigate an area where a lot of people tend to disappear. They're not convinced it's their kind of job, but then Sam gets...disappeared. Dean teams up with a local deputy to look for him, but his cover is blown (he's a wanted man who's supposed to be dead, if you'll remember) and she threatens to turn him in once they find his missing 'cousin.' The horrible part of all this is that it's not monsters. It's people. People hunting other people. Which is more monstrous than most every other episode in this show. shudders Anyway. Dean goes very Big-Brother Don't-Touch-My-Sammy on their disgusting redneck backwoods butts and all is well in the end. But beware - this one is pretty dark, folks.

 Below is a log of our real-time reactions as we watched. Remember that there may be spoilers for any part of SPN’s 15-season run here.  Note also that the nature of our conversation is adult and thus it may contain adult language and themes.

 [and we begin:]

 Lor:

Jensen previously again. I wonder how they decided which eps to put it on and which to not?

 Mace:

Yeah, weird

 Mace:

 oh god is this the in-bred human hunters one?

 Lor:

yep

 Mace:

 shit

Lor:

you okay with that today?

 Mace:

yeah. I mean, I'm not really okay with it at any time - I hate this one (meaning I don't hate it but I hate it because it's so well done and so awful)

 Lor:

Okay. and yeah, it's so awful

   Mace:

 OMG SHERIFF OUTFITS

 Lor:

OMG THOSE OUTFITS

  Mace:

 omg Sammy's throat-clearing

 Lor:

YES

 Lor:

and Dean with the kid

  Mace:

 (also? ALL the Godzilla movies are great. All. Of. Them.)

  Lor:

(I have never seen one?)

 Mace:

 (They may not be your thing? But I LOVE 'em)

 Lor:

MaYBE thIS ISnT oUr kInD OF giG

 Mace:

YES

 Mace:

 RUN, BOYS, JUST RUUUUN

 Lor:

lol

 Lor:

mmm, Dean playing darts

 Mace:

 YES

 Lor:

do not ever meet each other outside

did your wretched father teach you nothing?

 Mace:

 RIGHT?! Come on, big brother, don't let him go out there alone

 Lor:

also, Sammy? not being the smartie here we all know you to be

 Mace:

honestly, John is probably the reason Dean will beat himself up about this later

 Mace:

 Exactly. Come on. Sammy

 Lor:

UG

yep

 Mace:

 Aw, poor Dean is panicked

 Lor:

he IS, poor baby

of course, he SHOULD BE

 Mace:

 well yeah

 Lor:

"like the rifle"

 Mace:

 "two beers and he's doing karaoke" I LOVE that, both that Dean says it in that tone and that it's true

 Lor:

and omg giving out real names

 Mace:

RIGHT

 Mace:

 and the results of the search

 Lor:

YES

 Mace:

"handsome, though"

DEAN

 Lor:

"handsome though"

YAAAAS

I love this sheriff

 Mace:

yeah she's pretty great

his impatient eye roll when she has her back turned

 Lor:

yeah

 Mace:

 80% sad 20% annoyed

 Lor:

yep

 Mace:

 um, is that cage made of rebar?

 Lor:

OMG

not made of, but there's some in there, i think?

 Mace:

yeah

one side at least

smarty Dean and the engine noise

 Lor:

YES

I was just gonna say that

 Mace:

 Ha!

 Lor:

I love how he puts things together

 Mace:

YES

well, and I love that he knows motors, so this one seems natural for him

 Lor:

ooo YES

poor Sam. gotta be trapped with a sarcastic one

  Mace:

Ha! yeah, Mr. Optimistic Pants

 Mace:

Ooof, Sammy still thinks it's monsters

god, I hate this

 Lor:

RIGHT?

it really is awful

 Mace:

 it's awful because it's real

 Lor:

YEP

 Mace:

 more real than the monsters, which are safe to watch and get a little fun-spooked by while ogling the boys

 Lor:

yeah

and I can't watch it without thinking about “The Most Dangerous Game,” what we read freshman year, and I can't think about THAT without thinking about ---- just blurting out in the middle of a discussion "wait? are they still naked?"

 Mace:

Oh! Ha! [My son] told me they're reading that this year and asked if I'd ever read it. HAHAHAHA

 Lor:

lolol

 Mace:

 Men as the Real Monsters is SUCH a vibe in this show

 Lor:

YES

and it's like how the police episodes are so much more scary for us worrying about hte boys

it's real

  Mace:

 YES

and shouldn't be part of their outsider world

 Lor:

yep

 Mace:

 OOOF and this ep combines both of those things with her finding out who Dean is

 Lor:

yeah

the way he's telling the truth to manipulate her but it IS the truth

 Mace:

 well, now, to be fair, Dean, he was pulled from the fire by Dad and you were ordered to save him

 Lor:

yeah

 Mace:

 DON'T CALL HIM SAMMY

 Lor:

dude. you do not get to call him Sammy

 Lor:

lolololol

 Mace:

 HAHAHA

 Lor:

"oh thank god, a bracket"

 Mace:

 snork!

 Lor:

he's annoying but he IS funny

 Mace:

he is

oh Sammy being smart

 Lor:

yep

the instincts on that boy

 Mace:

 YES

 Lor:

Jenkins, ya don't have the sense god gave ya

 Mace:

 SNORK!

 Lor:

this is why you should pay attention in English class

you'd know not to do this kind of thing

 Mace:

yeah

UGH

 Lor:

yeeeeah, I am mostly not looking at it

"and a felon, I think"

 Mace:

 her eyes are amazing

 Lor:

they ARE

oh Dean come on

 Mace:

 oooh, Dean, BAMBOOZLED

 Lor:

RIGHT?

 Lor:

"i gotta start carrying paperclips"

 Mace:

snork!

 Mace:

UGH everything is so grey and rainy and dirty

it's perfect and thanks I HATE IT

 Lor:

RIGHT?

like you 100% believe that this family might have lived down some dirt road a few miles from you when you were kid

 Mace:

 I'm pretty sure their kind live around here now

 Lor:

ug yeeeep

stretch, Dean, streeeeetch

 Mace:

 HAHAHA

 Lor:

mmmmmrf his fingers

 Mace:

YES

HURRY DEAN HUUURRRRRYYYYY

 Mace:

 ope there's that rebar again

 Lor:

OMG that damn rebar

 Lor:

LOLOL us

 Mace:

HAHAHA YES

 omg that smile Sammy gives him

 Lor:

the way he hits the cage when he finds out he's okay

 Mace:

YES

omg the "kiddo"

 Lor:

yes

 Mace:

 "but with people...they're just crazy" THERE IT IS

 Lor:

"with people, they're just crazy"

YES

 Lor:

oh jeez, I forgot about the photographs

 Mace:

 RIGHT?!

 Lor:

"Demons I get. People are crazy"

 Mace:

YEP.

He knows his world, not the real one

 Lor:

YES

 Mace:

sings outSIDER

THE SAWING

NOPENOPENOPE

 Lor:

RIGHT?

and the music

 Mace:

yeah

and the feeling of nerves that Dean is in way more danger here than when in a monster's lair

just...UGH

 Lor:

RIGHT?

the eyebrows and then looking over at the dude

 Mace:

UGH THIS GIRL

YES

 Lor:

Right?

so creepy

 Mace:

 DEAN. You've got to keep your head on a swivel, honey

 Lor:

and the way he thinks she's a victim but we know she's not because of the previous scene with the sheriff and it just builds that fear in that moment of silence between them

 Mace:

yeah

you just know that place smells like old bacon grease and motor oil

 Lor:

"you're a sick puppy"

 Mace:

 yeah

 Lor:

oh jeez

 Lor:

and blood

cause they ain't cleaning ANYTHING good

 Mace:

 yep

 Lor:

OMG leave my Dean alone

 Mace:

 RIGHT?! THIS IS AWFUL

 Lor:

it REALLY is

and it's... not fun?

 Mace:

NOPE

because it's too real

 Lor:

like, so much of what is awful on this show also has an element of just enjoying it?

this is not that

 Mace:

 yep

 Lor:

they don't take good care of their guns either tsk

 Mace:

HA!

they're made all the more despicable because they never fight fair - shooting the cabinet without opening it...

 Lor:

HA Sammy, nice

 Lor:

right?

 Mace:

 YES

 Lor:

they have no honor

I know that sounds like duh, but

they don't seem to value anything

 Mace:

 they're hunters who go against Hunter codes

 Lor:

yeah

they don't even seem to have their OWN code

 Mace:

 Hunters are always already in some ways like the monsters they hunt, but these are a distortion/corruption of that idea

 Lor:

YES

like, Sam and Dean have to square themselves with the fact she shot him in cold blood

 Mace:

 yeah, although it doesn't take long

 Lor:

no

but they have to think about it

 Mace:

 poor woman

 Lor:

oh Dean

 Mace:

 "I'm not looking for you" "sure you are"

 Lor:

"you vanish like that again, I'm not looking for you"

 Mace:

 HAHAHA the "you're getting rusty there, kiddo" again

 Lor:

and Sammy saying "you're getting rusty there, kiddo" to Dean

YES

 [after the episode ended:]

 Mace:

 welp, I'm not sad that that one's done

 Lor:

nope

 Mace:

 I don't think I ever want to watch it again, to be honest

 Lor:

it's a GOOD one, but yeah, I'm not sure I ever need to see it again

 Mace:

 yeah. it's too good at what it's doing. same reason I can't read Stephen King anymore