Four Torches (Out of Five)
Warning: This review contains major spoilers for the “I Believe the Children Are Our Future” episode of Supernatural.
I confess that when I read the synopsis for this episode — everything a child thinks comes true — I thought, “Wait. Haven’t we done this episode five or six times before?”
Yes, they have done that episode. So they took this episode in an entirely new, unexpected direction.
Turns out that the kid is causing all kinds of havoc, but the episode isn’t a “monster-of-the-week” one about trying to figure that out (or a remake of the “It’s a Good Life” episode of The Twilight Zone, about that all-powerful kid who terrorizes a town).
Sam and Dean — er, Detectives “Plant” and “Palmer” — figure out what’s happening pretty quickly, which is how the episode becomes more about how the kid got his powers: he is a child of a woman who was possessed by a demon, something that makes him very powerful, a potential anti-Christ.
(The “anti-Christ” isn’t the son of Lucifer, Castiel explains — it’s any demon-spawn. “Your bible gets more wrong than it gets right,” Castiel notes, in a line that should get this show quickly boycotted by the American Family Association, if they’re not doing so already.)
Eventually, the kid learns the truth about himself and runs off on his own. If this were any other show, I would worry that this kid was introduced solely so they could bring him back in later episodes in order to do battle with Lucifer — sort of a long-term deus ex machina. But I have faith that they’ll do something far more interesting, and we saw a hint of that in how Sam sees himself in the kid (except, of course, Sam was unable to resist the temptation of ultimate power).
As usual, the jokes were hilarious — especially the ham, Dean’s “hairy palms” (I can’t believe they went there!), and Castiel, after saying something really serious, sitting on a whoopie cushion.
And a very nice moment at the end when both Dean and Sam admit they wish their dad had lied to them about being a “hunter.” Powerful.
Not a great episode, but certainly not a sub-par one either.
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Nice review, Brent but Sam and Dean were agents “Plant” and “Page”, not “Palmer”. (I kept waiting for someone to call them on it–it was so obvious!)
I think there was an episode where someone asked them “Like the musician?” when one of them gave their name.
Ah, good catch!
Sam and Dean. Spanking. Brett you’re evil
Decent episode, not great.
Good child actor too! Obviously he WILL come back, not a bad thing.