 Okay, there's two people who kind of get the brunt end of the stick in Supernatural in the latter years. One obviously being Kevin Tran, and the other I would say is Benny. Ooh! That's a hot mug, guys! Hey guys, this is my review for episode 9 of Supernatural Season 8, Citizen Fang. Whether that's actually a play on Citizen Kane or not, I couldn't really tell you because this has nothing to do with Citizen Kane in any ways. Anyways, this episode is following Benny, who is trying to set up himself as a new life, and in fact actually working for his granddaughter, whereas Martin, who has been asked by Sam to keep an eye on him, is still a little bit screw loose and a series of vampire murders start to happen that seemingly linked to Benny, and Dean has to try and navigate Sam, Martin, and his own feelings about Benny and to try and figure out what's actually going on. Turns out it's an old vampire from Benny's past and they kill him. Not before this guy kills a few people and some unfortunately convenient matters close to that of Benny, and then for some reason everything goes wrong at the end of this episode. Not so much in the writing, I actually like how the episode ends if there is one major absolutely ludicrous leap of logic that has to happen, but I like what happens with Benny because fuck me, does this guy just not get the good end of the stick? He is trying to find a new means of existence. First revenge turned out to be kind of pointless and he's like, hey I got a granddaughter, let's try and take care of her? Oh no, I've got to murder this crazy fucker right in front of her because she's gonna kill her. Even though I lay my head down to die, things go awry. If I find it kind of crazy that even after all of that when they have the dead vampire, Dean's just like, you know what, yeah, can't take this ahead and be like, hey guys, there was another one. No, there's no point in trying to do that. Now I will admit that things get a bit heated between Dean and Martin and Sam with Dean getting knocked out by Martin and Sam deciding to go with Martin even though Martin's clearly crazy. And then Dean is able to pull Sam away with the most bullshit method. I think that I'm gonna have to say that it ever happens in the season. If something more bullshit than this happens, I'll be impressed. He uses a burner phone disguised as Amelia to lure Sam away. Now I understand that most of us do not know what the phone numbers are for people nowadays. We all got them pre-programmed into our phones. That's just kind of how it is. However, there are some people, usually it's our loved ones or our parents or our siblings, that we know what the phone numbers are for. So it just doesn't make any sense to me. Now I understand that Sam might have been a little bit like, oh my god, that's Amelia. My phone says so. But I would have wondered if he saw the number and been like, well, wait a minute, that's not the number that I literally was using a couple of months ago. Well, it's weird too because I feel like Sam has made a mention of her name, but not her last name. Again, it's a bit of a leap for Dean to just have done this and Sam not for one second been like, hey, that phone number didn't match what I remember. That's the biggest issue for me to be honest because I actually really like how the episode ends and we're coming to the conclusion of that story for Sam with Amelia. I've been enjoying these stories back and forth about Sam showing that he had a chance to have what he'd always wanted. And he still walked away from it because his brother came back. It's kind of heartbreaking. It's almost like cast away a little bit where you see Amelia's old husband there and they seem to be happy. But at the bar, Amelia appears behind him and she's like, I knew you were there and that's where the episode ends. As well as Martin being torn apart and Sam and Dean again at an odds. And again, this makes sense. I know that the show would reuse this to the point where it was so fucking stupid it just may be grown. But I can believe the strife between the brothers over Benny over not getting Dean at a purgatory over Amelia. All of these factors make sense. Has the overall season story really actually taken place at all? No. And the fact that we're coming up to midseason finale and we've only really had like three or four technically three story related episodes being about the tablet. I'm kind of surprised that I care this much. Yes, it's been kind of boring. Yes, it's been kind of dull, but it's been brother storytelling. And that's something that we all kind of wanted, especially after the disorganized bullshit mess that was seven and the kind of that was six. So I can't be complaining about that, truly speaking. The episode itself, while the first half is kind of dull, the second half is actually quite interesting if a bit ridiculous to believe. But it's still kind of a mere episode, because like I said, the first half so blah, but the second half is so meh, they kind of like evens each other out. So I'm going to give Citizen Fang a four out of seven. I cannot believe how many fucking four out of sevens I've given this year, but okay, but those are my thoughts about this episode. Let's see what you guys are to say. With an amber, it is a Benny episode in season eight. I'm invested and I love Citizen Fang exploring his character trying to move on from his past. Even for him living a relatively normal life is cursed like Sam and Dean. His arc in the season continues to be more heartbreaking each every episode. He appears in. I agree with that. Absolutely. I love Martin's return from season five as an unhinged hunter. It's honestly one of the more overlooked episodes when the human is the villain. That's actually a good point. The tension with Sam and Dean really heats up and when Dean admits he's views Benny are more of a brother than Sam. My heart really drops when Dean creates the fake text of Amelia being in danger. The end of the episode has Sam reunite with her. I don't like how it happens because, like I said, like the amount of groups you have to jump through to believe it. But I do like it does have an emotional impact when he reunites with her. With Benny, I've always liked his character, but there's an ever-present chance of him turning into a villain. That's a good point on him. This mid-season finale played on that anxiety and put the brothers against each other. And while it's not the strongest finale we've gotten, it is one I really enjoyed. By the way, there's kind of like no repercussions to him killing Martin, at least from what I've been going through from my re-watch. He just, yeah, it's not even confirmed if he drank his blood so far as I've gotten. I'm glad they kept the innocence of his character in this episode. I'm sorry to see Martin meet an ugly end and turn into the menace of this episode. He was a much more sympathetic character in his initial appearance. Yeah, that's true. It's not, I'm not sure Sam, citing with Martin over Dean, is consistent with his character. Yes, exactly. And later ditching Martin alone in what, for all he knew at the time, could have been a dangerous place, also seemed like something Sam would have handled differently. Again, there's a lot of hoots for the actions to happen for you to believe it happened. It's just a convenient way to get them apart. Exactly. I don't think Sam would have abandoned another hunter in Martin's mental state in an area where a prowling monster could be hiding. What do you think? Yeah, it's hard to say though because he did think Amelia was in danger. I actually liked Sam Amelia storyline and it was like the less strange cliffhanger than usual for this show. Even though the show is starting to feel like the soap opera, this sometimes would never have worked in the earlier seasons, but eight years in it felt like a good time for such a storyline. Yeah, we are starting to go into that little soapy material. We haven't gone into that yet with the camera equipment yet, but we are getting there in terms of the storytelling. Once again, Ty Olson is great. I love seeing Benny again. Definitely the best character in season eight. It is also a light nice scene. Martin again, John Greer did a good job here too. Sam really made a big mistake bringing Martin in to follow Benny. To me, it seems like an obvious that Martin isn't the right headspace to continue hunting. Yeah, that's the other thing too. I don't believe Sam thinking that Martin out of all people would have been a good choice. He totally should have just quit the business after getting out of the asylum and absolutely enjoying seeing Benny and Dean working together. I really felt bad for Benny once again as he's left heartbroken having to leave his great-granddaughter. I didn't feel bad for what happened to Martin at the end of the episode. He should have listened to Dean and left Benny alone. Yeah, that's the problem Link here. It's trying to pull him in a few directions, but it's hard to kind of wheel into it because like I said, Martin shouldn't have been there in the first place. When I watched this and sang the first time it may be uncomfortable on a rewatch, it still does though I get why. Like Dean, I believe Benny when he says he wants to live a quiet, undead life and not hunt humans. Martin is following Hunter code, feel the find the evidence and kill the monster. The evidence points to Benny. Martin is right. Dean can't prove it wasn't Benny. It's belief in belief and it isn't part of the Hunter code. It's uncomfortable that Martin's saying all the right things, but because he's talking about Benny, I don't like it. That's actually a good idea or a good layout of what the story of this episode is. There's a good idea in it. Absolutely. There's a good theology of the counter between what you feel is right and what is the Hunter code, which Dean has been a part of for so long. And this season is having him turn around on that a little bit, but I feel it could have been executed a bit better. All right, guys. So those are my thoughts. And now we are heading on episode 10. We are almost halfway through this season. This is where it starts to pick up, right? This is where y'all said it would start to, you know, get better-ish. So make sure to give me guys the thoughts about that episode in the comments below and I'll read those off to the next review. Until then, guys, I hope you've been enjoying these reviews. 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