Supernatural: Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

June 7, 2021 4:49 AM - Season 2, Episode 4

Dean and Sam investigate the death of a young college student who died in a car accident and whose grave is now surrounded by a circle of dead plants.
posted by orange swan (6 comments total)

Dean: It takes two to... you know... have hardcore sex.

Dean: Neil, it's your grief counselors. We've come to hug.

Dean: Damn, that dead chick can run!

[Sam and Dean visit the basement where zombie Angela has been kept]
Sam: Do you think she's in?
Dean: Nah, I think she went out to rent Beaches.
Sam: Look, smartass, she might kill someone.

Sam: Did we have to use me as bait?
Dean: I figured you were more her type. She had pretty crappy taste in guys.

Sam: [as he and Dean rebury Angela's corpse] Rest in peace.
Dean: For good this time, okay?

[Sam, who is alone in the motel room, is watching TV intently]
TV narrator: Next, on the Skin Channel, Casa Erotica 4: A Tale of Two Latin Beauties....
Dean: [opens the door and walks into the motel room as the TV narrator is talking]
Sam: [hastily turns the TV off] Hey. 
Dean: [gives Sam a knowing look]
Sam: What?
Dean: Awkward. 


Dean's very open about his love of porn, but this is the first time, and possibly the only time in the run of the show, that we see Sam looking at any of his own accord. I liked that they showed that, and not just because it was a very funny moment. It points up another of the differences between them. Sam might appear to be the one who's more open and honest because he talks more about his feelings while Dean is more stoic and hides his real feelings and thoughts under a devil-may-care demeanour, but the truth is far from that simple. Dean is bluntly honest about quite a few matters which Sam prefers to keep discreet, and is far more given to just blurting out whatever he's thinking in the heat of the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if both brothers think they are the more straightforward one of the two. What Sam considers discretion/social polish, Dean would see as hypocrisy, and what Dean sees as pragmatism and coping because he thinks talking about his feelings won't help matters, Sam would see as unhealthy suppression/refusal to communicate.

It's amazing how Sam and Dean always manage to dig graves with perfectly straight, smooth, squared sides and ends. 

Neil was so that "guy who acts like a woman's friend and counsels her through her boyfriend troubles but is really only waiting for his chance with her". Can't say I was sorry when the zombie version of her that he summoned snapped his neck.
posted by orange swan at 5:08 AM on June 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Jared Keeso (of 'Letterkenny') playing Matt - could barely recognize him.

Dean going hard on the father of the deceased really highlights how sketchy hunting can be - especially since they've shown concern about the people that demons possess - have they ever made a mistake and hurt an innocent?

Ah, so they do acknowledge that the Colt disappeared.

Interesting juxtaposition of using this episode for Dean to acknowledge that he's essentially raised from the dead (twice!) although he had never formally stepped across to the undiscovered country.

Zombie girl doesn't seem to have gone evil just by being raised from the dead and was already kind of a not-great person? Or does coming back, by default, change someone?
posted by porpoise at 1:31 PM on June 7, 2021

Angela walked in on her boyfriend and her roommate while they were having sex, turned to a friend for a shoulder to cry on, then when her boyfriend showed up at her friend's place, took off in her car, and was so upset by a call from her boyfriend that she crashed her car into a concrete wall. Then her friend brought her back from the dead because he was in love with her. I don't see any indication that she wasn't a good person before her death.

I also meant to mention that Dean subtly checking out the triple X porn advertisement that was sitting on top of the TV right after he'd walked in on Sam while Sam was watching porn on TV was a fun grace note.
posted by orange swan at 2:15 PM on June 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

I will never, ever keep straight which one is Playthings and which one is Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, and the fact that the one with children playing with dead things in the title is not the one with children playing with dead things in the episode should help, but it sure doesn't.
posted by jameaterblues at 8:56 PM on June 7, 2021

That was my initial feel - coming back from the dead screws with one's ethics.

Also the game (rules, and expectations) changes when one has one less thing (life) to lose. So why not? Especially if survival means breaking from your past - the people-you-know/ who-know-you aren't going to be smeared with your bad/ antisocial behaviour.

If I was zombie-revived with that much agency and memory, I'd ditch the previous life. Invest in makeup and invest in a fake identity that the tax authorities recognize and go full vampire/ immortal lifestyle.
posted by porpoise at 2:45 AM on June 8, 2021

You seem to have put some serious thought into how to live life as an undead, porpoise.
posted by orange swan at 7:41 AM on June 8, 2021