Recap – “I Believe The Children Are Our Future”
The Impala pulls up in front of a farm house with the painted sky providing this week’s glory shot. Amazing how most of the glory shots involve the Impala. They walk up to the porch and Sam goes to pick the lock, but a young boy opens the door. Judging by the way he asks for id and asks why they don’t knock, this is a whip smart kid. They ask the boy if they can look around. He isn’t sure, so Dean pulls the “You can trust us, we’re the authorities.” Did that work in you when you were eleven Dean? I think not. The boy lets them in anyway.
They go into the kitchen where something is cooking on the stove. Sam asks what he’s got there. “It’s called soup,” the boy quips. Remember Sam, asking a silly question… Sam smiles and clarifies. He had to cook his dinner while he was a kid too. The boy states he’s not a kid. Sam holds out his hand and introduces himself as Robert. I guess Sam is Agent Plant in this scenario. The kid says his name is Jesse. Also, since Sam is the lone surviving demon psychic kid nee Lucifer’s vessel and this kid is demon spawn nee Anti-Christ, shouldn’t have sparks or something flown between them? Kicked off at least a strange feeling in both of them? No, I would have thought the universe would have exploded. Or I guess there’s nothing happens.
Dean finds a drawing on the refrigerator. A bearded man in a pink tutu and wings. Dean asks if he drew that. Yep, it’s the tooth fairy. His dad told him about it. He asks Dean if his dad ever told him about the tooth fairy. “My dad? My dad told me different stories.” Oh Dean, you never did get to be a kid, didn’t you? It’s pretty sad. At least Sam was kept in the dark until he was 8.
The kid claims the tooth fairy isn’t a story, so Dean goes into twenty questions. What does he think about itching powder? “That stuff will make you scratch your brains out.” Pop rocks and coke? “You mix them and you’ll end up in the hospital.” Dean pulls out the joy buzzer. Jesse gets all scared. “You shouldn’t have that. It’ll electrocute you.” Dean tells him its harmless, just a windup toy. It doesn’t have any batteries. Jesse believes this. Dean even proves his point by shocking Sam with it, much to Sam’s deep irritation, and there’s two more bitchfaces. Of course Sam doesn’t end up like burnt toast either, so it’s clear this kid is doing something.
Okay, I can’t believe how many people had issue here with what Dean did to Sam. I honestly believe that if Dean thought that any harm would come to Sam, he wouldn’t have done it. Plus, it’s also a good chance that Dean knows neither of them can be killed since angels will just bring them back. But I just took the scene to be going back to the good ole days when Dean did such things to get a rise out of Sam. He did. After all, that’s what older siblings do.
Sam and Dean leave the house and Sam’s upset about the joy buzzer thing. Dean brushes it off and is convinced the boy doesn’t even know he’s doing this. Time to dig up the family history. I do have issue with this. Sam finds out Jesse is adopted and gets the birth mother’s name, Julia Wright, and address. She’s that easy to find? How could the demons be looking for this child for years and Sam makes the link in one afternoon? He’s smart, but not that smart. Or demons aren’t that dumb.
They drive to another part of the state and enter a yard marked “No Trespassing” with overgrown grass and weeds everywhere. They knock on the door, do the presenting of the badges thing, yada yada. They ask about her son, she denies she has one. Sam tells the exact date, March 29, 1998. That’s only a few weeks after my daughter was born. I sometimes wonder if she’s demonic (I’m kidding!). The woman doesn’t deny, so Sam asks if the birth was unusual. She freaks out and runs. Sam and Dean chase her into the kitchen where she tosses salt on them. Nothing happens. “You aren’t demons?” I don’t know lady, but there’s a pretty close one in front of you. You obviously haven’t learned about holy water either. “How do you know about demons?” Dean asks. Oh boy, story time!
I absolutely love this scene. There’s nothing quite like telling a horrific story at the kitchen table. It should also be noted the episode goes pretty dark from here. Julia talks about how she was possessed. A demon took control and she watched herself do horrible things like kill people. “It wasn’t you,” a sympathetic Sam says, although that’s hardly comforting, even though he can relate. It should be mentioned the entire time she tells this story, Sam and Dean aren’t just empathetically listening, their expressions hint they’re actually feeling every ounce of her pain. It’s like the three are having a trauma victims moment and it’s quite powerful. What’s also interesting is director Charles Beeson’s choice to close in on Julia’s face and mostly show the eyes. I think it brings out her personal torture more.
While possessed she figured out salt would repel a demon. It was in her head for months. How many? Nine months to be precise. That demons used her body to give birth to a child. Then, we’re treated to a powerful flashback of her in some dingy basement going through some very painful labor. Something happened though, she managed to wrestle control of the demon after giving birth. She forced the demon out by ingesting a crap load of salt. She was left alone with a baby she couldn’t kill, so she gave it up for adoption.
An unnerved Dean asks who was the father. No one, she was a virgin. Sam and Dean share an “uh oh” glance. Okay, this is another big issue brought up. If demons can make virgins pregnant, what’s stopping them from having all sorts of demon spawn? You know, I don’t have an answer to that other than the bible hints there could be multiple anti-christs but only one emerges with great power. This could be the writers playing with that. I’m buying it for now. Only because thinking about it too much makes my brains hurt.
She asks if they’ve seen her son. Dean tells her his name is Jesse and he lives in Alliance. He’s a good kid. If good you mean killing babysitters with itching powder, okay. I know, it’s not his fault. A shell shocked Sam and Dean leave and its obvious, they need some help. They come back to the motel room and no surprise, Castiel is there. You know, I love Cas, but his entrances are getting a little less shocking. Showing up in the back of the Impala would have been more fun. Cas got their message and says they’re lucky to have found the boy. Dean asks what they do with him. “Kill him,” Castiel replies. Um yeah, Sam and Dean don’t like that.

Alice Jester is the founder, editor-in-chief, head writer, programmer, web designer, site administrator, marketer, and moderator for The Winchester Family Business. She is a 30 year IT applications and database expert with a penchant for creative and freelance writing in her spare (ha!!) time. That’s on top of being a wife, mother of two active kids, and four loving (aka needy) pets.
The kid playing Jesse was so cool. I usually am not that taken with the kid actors (Michael from something Wicked is still my fave, with weeSam and weeDean but that’s about it) but Jesse was really interesting and my heart broke for him, truly. So sad to lose ones innocence at that age. It’s not fair, but life never is. I liked the way this eppie was a light one at first and then turned dark (Mystery Spot came to mind after the first view because of that turn).
I loved Dean eating the ham. Sam had too many bitchfaces in this one (for me anyway) and the buzzer thing… I dunno…it bugs me, and it don’t so I’ll leave it that.
I was a bit pissed with the whole adoption thing too, since the demons would (and should) have found Jesse in no time. At first I thought it might be because of his force field but after a bit of pondering, seemed too far fetched… Also with Julia leaving some info about herself when giving away a chils she’s not sure is even human to the adopt agency. Just figured if you’re gonna “run” then don’t leave any trace behind.
And the whole “why wasn’t Lucifer there the moment the demons saw Sam” -thing also bugged me. But maybe they’ll be somekinda explanation later on. Maybe he doesn’t need Sam that badly yet or… I got nohing, its late. *tirey smirk*
I loved the melting the rubber chicken -bit. Didn’t see that coming, me and hubster laughed quite a bit. And the hairy palm. “gor bored, the nurse was hot” *double smirk* Dean, ah. I love you man.
Castiel was win(!!) for me. I like that tension between him and Sam. Since I’m spoiler-free this is just a speculation but I think (hope) that Anna will be the one to set Cassy straight on the whole guilt/blame thing…and possibly rat on his ass to SamnDean. 👿
This week’s red shirt…hee…I take it that’s a Star Trek reference.
I’m not saying trying to kill a kid is in any way ok, but I liked Cas having an edge, being just a little bit, well, scary… one of the things I loved about the angels in the first place, Reminds me he’s not human, that he’s still on that journey…I’m with Supernarttu, I like the tension between Cas & Sam too, I’d love to see more
Love the review, Alice….keep them coming!!
I love Dean being back to normal…and teasing his brother again. Loved Sam’s irritation too. I love to do that to my siblings…and I get it back so I don’t always get away with it.
I really am not too pleased with the inconsistancies in the story this season…and there have been a number in each episode. You and other posters have mention them also. It just deoesn’t make the show look put together, or well thought out, which is sad. This is a good show, and I like it to shne!
Another great review, but more bias next time, please. 😎
I loved the buzzer gig and definitely side with elenaM on the Castiel As Jackass thing. It’s certainly funny when they play around with his difficulties with human civilization, but he *is* an angel and he *is* powerful, and it’s a good idea to remind everyone of that now and then. When you’ve been dealing with a black and white universe for, I don’t know, millennia, and the apocalypse is extra nigh, you’re going to revert to what you know, crutches and all that.
I know we’ll get an explanation (I assume) of the whole Antichrist deal, I just hope it’s internally consistent with their universe.
Angst, fart jokes, bad Casness and no blue-screen of doom spoiling my fun.
I’m happy.