Supernatural: Blood Brother
October 14, 2021 7:38 AM - Season 8, Episode 5 - Subscribe
Benny, the vampire who helped Dean escape from Purgatory, calls on Dean for help, and together they go after the nest led by the vampire that turned Benny. Sam thinks back to his life before Dean returned.
Quotes
Dean: What the hell do you know about the value of life? You're a vampire.
Benny: Yep. And I think we both know which of our kinds killed more humans.
Castiel: Well, statistically speaking, that'd be your...
Dean: Yes, thank you, Cass.
Sam: So, you think I'm creepy?
Amelia: I think it's creepy that you buy all of your clothing at army surplus. White supremacists do that.
Sam: Yeah, but I'm *not*.
Amelia: Drifting serial killers do that.
Sam: Fair enough.
Amelia: You come from nowhere, you appear to be going nowhere, and you've, quote, "seen a lot of stitches". It's all pretty solid creepy.
Castiel: Well, I think we're clear for the moment. It does present a curious curl in the metaphysics, doesn't it? If you murder a monster in monster heaven, where does it go?
Benny: And this is the crazy aunt I want to take on the road?
Castiel: I am not your aunt.
Benny: What? Really?
Castiel: I have no possible relationship with your sibling offspring.
Benny: Now you're kidding me.
Dean: Oh, you two are killing me.
Sam: You did try to kill his mother.
Dean: I was trying to kill Crowley! Who just happened to be wearing Kevin's mother at the time.
Sam: ...
Dean: Well there's a difference!
Sam: Apparently not to Kevin. Maybe because, oh yeah, it's his MOTHER!
Dean: Vampire pirates, that's what you guys are. Vampirates.
Benny: You know all the years we ran together, I can't believe nobody ever thought of that.
Dean: What do you mean, it's like the third thing you say.
Benny: No, it isn't.
Dean: [about Kevin] Kid's like Rain Man. Like a crappy little credit-card-counting criminal prodigy Rain Man.
Sam: Well, he *was* in Advanced Placement.
Dean: Shut up.
Benny: You're worried what I might do if we make it topside. I'll start eating your little piggies. I already told you, man -- by the time I got iced, I was strictly on blood transfusions, donated blood. Not donated to me, I'll give you that, but I paid good black-market scratch for it.
Dean: So, what is that? Like the vampire Zone diet?
Benny: Look, all I'm saying is I started seeing something in humanity, okay? Something that shouldn't be taken. I drink blood. I don't drink people.
Dean: I'm the one with the mojo. I'm the one with the plan. Cass, we're gonna shove your ass back through the eye of that needle... if it kills all three of us.
Benny: Obviously, I'm less than comfortable with that.
Dean: Now, don't get me wrong, I'm down with the hunting, but, uh, why?
Benny: To kill him before he kills me. Again.
The Old Man: I've been here so, so long, Benny. Seen all the outcomes, all the patterns a trillion times. It all means so little. This universe is a pyramid of despair, nothing else.
Benny: A little dark.
The Old Man: I am evil, after all. At least I've had that much to keep me cold at night.
Trivia
Benny asks his maker, "You know what Socrates said about life unconsidered?" Socrates said the unconsidered life is not worth living.
In Dean's recollection of Purgatory, Benny whistles slightly off-key, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the opera Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg. This is the same tune whistled by Peter Lorre in the classic 1931 film M. This film is loosely based on the murderer also called the Vampire of Dusseldorf.
Sam quotes Elmer Fudd when he says, "You are a wascally wabbit, Mr. Tran."
Vampirate Benny tells of his love for the beautiful Greek heiress, and Dean asks if Fabio was on the cover of that paperback. In the '80s and '90s Fabio was the male model for the covers of over 480 Harlequin Books romance novels.
While going to Purgatory's escape hatch, Dean says, "Cass, we're going to shove your ass back through the eye of that needle..." In the New Testament of the Bible it is said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. The Eye of the Needle was actually a gate in Jerusalem that was so narrow that camels had to have whatever they were carrying unloaded before they could be led through it. The general interpretation of the verse is that you must give up your desire for possessions to enter heaven. This isn't an analogy that seems to apply to Castiel's exit from Purgatory, but Dean was likely only using the expression to mean he was going to accomplish the seemingly impossible whatever it took.
In one of Dean's flashbacks to his time in Purgatory, Castiel reveals to Dean that he is a seraph and takes orders from the archangels. Zachariah was also a seraph that took orders from Michael.
The Old Man refers to Benny as his "wayward son". This phrase is also found in the unofficial Supernatural anthem, the song "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas. This is the first time any character has actually used the moniker to refer to another character, and it's a vampire speaking to one of his progeny, rather than someone speaking to one of the Winchesters.
Although Dean's claim to "only be gone a day" to help Benny might just mean "not very long" to Sam, driving from Oklahoma to Washington and back would require around 60 hours. Adding in time for sleep and actually helping Benny, it would be a minimum of 3 days.
Quotes
Dean: What the hell do you know about the value of life? You're a vampire.
Benny: Yep. And I think we both know which of our kinds killed more humans.
Castiel: Well, statistically speaking, that'd be your...
Dean: Yes, thank you, Cass.
Sam: So, you think I'm creepy?
Amelia: I think it's creepy that you buy all of your clothing at army surplus. White supremacists do that.
Sam: Yeah, but I'm *not*.
Amelia: Drifting serial killers do that.
Sam: Fair enough.
Amelia: You come from nowhere, you appear to be going nowhere, and you've, quote, "seen a lot of stitches". It's all pretty solid creepy.
Castiel: Well, I think we're clear for the moment. It does present a curious curl in the metaphysics, doesn't it? If you murder a monster in monster heaven, where does it go?
Benny: And this is the crazy aunt I want to take on the road?
Castiel: I am not your aunt.
Benny: What? Really?
Castiel: I have no possible relationship with your sibling offspring.
Benny: Now you're kidding me.
Dean: Oh, you two are killing me.
Sam: You did try to kill his mother.
Dean: I was trying to kill Crowley! Who just happened to be wearing Kevin's mother at the time.
Sam: ...
Dean: Well there's a difference!
Sam: Apparently not to Kevin. Maybe because, oh yeah, it's his MOTHER!
Dean: Vampire pirates, that's what you guys are. Vampirates.
Benny: You know all the years we ran together, I can't believe nobody ever thought of that.
Dean: What do you mean, it's like the third thing you say.
Benny: No, it isn't.
Dean: [about Kevin] Kid's like Rain Man. Like a crappy little credit-card-counting criminal prodigy Rain Man.
Sam: Well, he *was* in Advanced Placement.
Dean: Shut up.
Benny: You're worried what I might do if we make it topside. I'll start eating your little piggies. I already told you, man -- by the time I got iced, I was strictly on blood transfusions, donated blood. Not donated to me, I'll give you that, but I paid good black-market scratch for it.
Dean: So, what is that? Like the vampire Zone diet?
Benny: Look, all I'm saying is I started seeing something in humanity, okay? Something that shouldn't be taken. I drink blood. I don't drink people.
Dean: I'm the one with the mojo. I'm the one with the plan. Cass, we're gonna shove your ass back through the eye of that needle... if it kills all three of us.
Benny: Obviously, I'm less than comfortable with that.
Dean: Now, don't get me wrong, I'm down with the hunting, but, uh, why?
Benny: To kill him before he kills me. Again.
The Old Man: I've been here so, so long, Benny. Seen all the outcomes, all the patterns a trillion times. It all means so little. This universe is a pyramid of despair, nothing else.
Benny: A little dark.
The Old Man: I am evil, after all. At least I've had that much to keep me cold at night.
Trivia
Benny asks his maker, "You know what Socrates said about life unconsidered?" Socrates said the unconsidered life is not worth living.
In Dean's recollection of Purgatory, Benny whistles slightly off-key, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the opera Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg. This is the same tune whistled by Peter Lorre in the classic 1931 film M. This film is loosely based on the murderer also called the Vampire of Dusseldorf.
Sam quotes Elmer Fudd when he says, "You are a wascally wabbit, Mr. Tran."
Vampirate Benny tells of his love for the beautiful Greek heiress, and Dean asks if Fabio was on the cover of that paperback. In the '80s and '90s Fabio was the male model for the covers of over 480 Harlequin Books romance novels.
While going to Purgatory's escape hatch, Dean says, "Cass, we're going to shove your ass back through the eye of that needle..." In the New Testament of the Bible it is said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. The Eye of the Needle was actually a gate in Jerusalem that was so narrow that camels had to have whatever they were carrying unloaded before they could be led through it. The general interpretation of the verse is that you must give up your desire for possessions to enter heaven. This isn't an analogy that seems to apply to Castiel's exit from Purgatory, but Dean was likely only using the expression to mean he was going to accomplish the seemingly impossible whatever it took.
In one of Dean's flashbacks to his time in Purgatory, Castiel reveals to Dean that he is a seraph and takes orders from the archangels. Zachariah was also a seraph that took orders from Michael.
The Old Man refers to Benny as his "wayward son". This phrase is also found in the unofficial Supernatural anthem, the song "Carry On Wayward Son" by Kansas. This is the first time any character has actually used the moniker to refer to another character, and it's a vampire speaking to one of his progeny, rather than someone speaking to one of the Winchesters.
Although Dean's claim to "only be gone a day" to help Benny might just mean "not very long" to Sam, driving from Oklahoma to Washington and back would require around 60 hours. Adding in time for sleep and actually helping Benny, it would be a minimum of 3 days.
“A motel’s not actually part of the town that it’s in. It’s not part of anywhere.” Yeesh just have someone who’s spent most of his life in motels drop a line like that in the middle of the vampirates episode, sure. The whole thing with Amelia is pretty weird but the soft focus, super brightly lit flashbacks are so odd that when it first aired a lot of people thought the whole thing was some weird hallucination or fantasy.
The vampirates are kind of silly, but I get what they were going for with Benny and his nest as an insular group living lives unusual even for their kind, under a man who sets himself out as their creator and absolute authority, and the violent conformity that inspired when someone wanted to go do something else with his life.
Putting Bobby in a slightly different category, if you take Dean’s three closest friends to this point as Castiel, Benny, and Sam, they all come from insular, violent, rigidly authoritarian backgrounds and all three tried to rebel in one way or another, with varying degrees of success. (Bobby maybe kind of fits in that category too, though I doubt Dean ever knew much about that.) Dean ran toward making his background a core part of his identity, but he sure seems drawn to people who at least try to say no fuckn thanks.
posted by jameaterblues at 12:20 PM on October 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
The vampirates are kind of silly, but I get what they were going for with Benny and his nest as an insular group living lives unusual even for their kind, under a man who sets himself out as their creator and absolute authority, and the violent conformity that inspired when someone wanted to go do something else with his life.
Putting Bobby in a slightly different category, if you take Dean’s three closest friends to this point as Castiel, Benny, and Sam, they all come from insular, violent, rigidly authoritarian backgrounds and all three tried to rebel in one way or another, with varying degrees of success. (Bobby maybe kind of fits in that category too, though I doubt Dean ever knew much about that.) Dean ran toward making his background a core part of his identity, but he sure seems drawn to people who at least try to say no fuckn thanks.
posted by jameaterblues at 12:20 PM on October 14, 2021 [1 favorite]
Seriously, Dean has no insights into how vampires feel or behave? Sure, he wasn’t a vamp for very long, but he was turned. He should have some personal experiences to draw upon.
I get Sam is annoyed at Dean taking off without him, but does he truly think that yelling at Dean while Dean is in the middle of a nest is a helpful course of action?
I have no idea what a human head sounds like when it’s bouncing across the floor, but I don’t think noises that bring to mind a basketball would even be close.
posted by sardonyx at 3:15 PM on October 14, 2021
I get Sam is annoyed at Dean taking off without him, but does he truly think that yelling at Dean while Dean is in the middle of a nest is a helpful course of action?
I have no idea what a human head sounds like when it’s bouncing across the floor, but I don’t think noises that bring to mind a basketball would even be close.
posted by sardonyx at 3:15 PM on October 14, 2021
Supernatural: Drifting serial killers do that.
That's one comically large switchblade. The strength of the spring needed for that would be impractical, for starters. I wonder where the prop department got it? 19th century mall ninja store?
The ease of decapitations on this show is ridiculous. Even professional headsmen (I'm not sure there is evidence of professional executioners who exercised their profession by beheading who were non-men - there's Elizabeth Sugrue but she was a hangwoman, Antonina Makarova and many more who used guns/ gas chambers/ etc. Marie Rege substituted for her husband in a mask, and did it herself unmasked, as a hangwoman so I wouldn't be surprised if there were axe headswomen - were there any women operators of guillotines?) back in the day, even with immobilized condemned, would sometimes need several swings with a specialized instrument to get it done.
It famously took three strikes to sever the head of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587. The first hit the back of her head, while the second left a small sinew which had to be sawn through with the axe blade. It was hard even when the victim was dead. When Oliver Cromwell’s corpse was decapitated at Tyburn, it took the axeman eight blows to cut through the layers of cerecloth that wrapped his body and finish the job."
I don't know about severed heads, but heads attached to bodies striking a hard surface with force sounds not unlike a large unripe watermelon. Dull reverberation when it smacks onto a hard surface that's absorbed by that big brain, which is essentially a solid chunk of fat in the braincase. It's a lot "flatter" sound than a fully inflated basketball.
Foley artists usually aim for a "believable" sound over an "accurate" sound. That's actually a pretty interesting article; in a couple of movies a decapitated pig's head was used.
posted by porpoise at 8:45 PM on October 14, 2021
That's one comically large switchblade. The strength of the spring needed for that would be impractical, for starters. I wonder where the prop department got it? 19th century mall ninja store?
The ease of decapitations on this show is ridiculous. Even professional headsmen (I'm not sure there is evidence of professional executioners who exercised their profession by beheading who were non-men - there's Elizabeth Sugrue but she was a hangwoman, Antonina Makarova and many more who used guns/ gas chambers/ etc. Marie Rege substituted for her husband in a mask, and did it herself unmasked, as a hangwoman so I wouldn't be surprised if there were axe headswomen - were there any women operators of guillotines?) back in the day, even with immobilized condemned, would sometimes need several swings with a specialized instrument to get it done.
It famously took three strikes to sever the head of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1587. The first hit the back of her head, while the second left a small sinew which had to be sawn through with the axe blade. It was hard even when the victim was dead. When Oliver Cromwell’s corpse was decapitated at Tyburn, it took the axeman eight blows to cut through the layers of cerecloth that wrapped his body and finish the job."
I don't know about severed heads, but heads attached to bodies striking a hard surface with force sounds not unlike a large unripe watermelon. Dull reverberation when it smacks onto a hard surface that's absorbed by that big brain, which is essentially a solid chunk of fat in the braincase. It's a lot "flatter" sound than a fully inflated basketball.
Foley artists usually aim for a "believable" sound over an "accurate" sound. That's actually a pretty interesting article; in a couple of movies a decapitated pig's head was used.
posted by porpoise at 8:45 PM on October 14, 2021
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That first vampire who approached Benny was so very handsome I felt a pang of regret when Benny sliced his head off.
posted by orange swan at 7:49 AM on October 14, 2021 [1 favorite]