"They're just weapons."

"Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves—they're a part of us!"

I figured if Meg, Drake and Nida are streaming an episode,ni may as well be in line and continue my rewatch so here we gooo, ep 5!

Akridaaa here yaay! I love those fuckers! And a lot about the Akrida this episode since we're finally getting to seeing them full on.

God, Dean speaking about pain and letting it out so it doesn't fuck you up hurts. And of course it's highly relevant to this ep, Mary of course once more being the Dean mirror.

Ok lets begin, cuz I've thoughts. We'll do this one chronological aka as the ep goes.

1stly this is the episode when I literally went "oh there you were, u fucker" cuz this episode is the one when John acts most like the version we're used to from spn. Interesting thing, when John's talking to Millie at the beginning of the episode and she asks him.how he is but in a way that he can easily let rest there and he is so in his head about what happened last ep that he preemptively reassure her he isn't affected by the Vietnam trauma which ofc means it is at the front of his mind. Also about that scene, Millie saying she wanted to take a pry bar to the motorcycle heavily echoes Dean taking a crowbar to Baby after John's death. I have many thoughts about Millie saying Mary is good for John like Betty was. Like what does she mean? Why does John need someone to keep him in check tho, because thats the implication there for me, we'll circle back to this cuz my opinion kind changes as the ep goes on.

Ada off the bat is the focus here.She ignored Carlos' mention about the demon after the last time when she was almost sadistically plucking leaves off. She wasn't really listening to the case detail as Mary was listing them. She didn't even really get involved in the discussion except to say they need to work this case and oooof it hurts to see because we ofc now know why shes acting as distracted and worried as she is.

Lata took Ada knowing her djinn lore as a ... birds of a feather thing aka Ada being interesting in the lore as she herself is and is so pleased about it. I wonder what she thought about it after finding out about Tony and Ali.

God Tony's entrence is pretty fucking great tho, jeesus. I also love that we start it off on the usual set up for monsters that spn perfected aka the monster of the week doesnt show their face til late in the episode cuz theyre the threat, the danger, the thing we're not supposed to relate to or get close to whereas the victim and the brothers (in spn) are introduced to us with full shot of their face because we're meant to care about them, to associate them immediately with a person and be invested in them, be close to them. So Tony being shot as just his legs as he runs until the moment he sees Ada is absolutely gorgeous to me. It goes from this distant, dangerous thing to someone important to one of our main charaters in the span of seconds. In seconds he becomes someone we're emotionally invested in (even if just curiosity about why Ada has her reaction) only to then really hit home once she says who he is, her son.

I also love that Lata's question about Ada being a djinn is said completely without judgement, just Lata trying to recontextualize what she know about Ada to herself, including the earlier knowledge about djinn lore. And this non judgemental attitude is relfected by Carlos and Mary as well. They're curious, confused, shocked, but not hostile to Ada. They just want to understand. But John is a dif creature here. From the moment Ada memtions who Tony is, John is pissed. He's absolutely furious throughout Ada's story, completely cruel in his reaction and absolutely oblivious about how he comes across for all of it, or willfully ignorant if I'm not feeling charitable. And this after he was a dick to Mary earlier about the motorcycle, but that by contrasr was just a foot in mouth thing That, while yes, dickish, wasnt harmful ultimately. And in both he had no clue how he came across. In the 1st scene, Mary let him know, in the second, because it was so striking that Mary Carlos and Lata chose instead to remove him from Ada's presence as quickly as possible without any chastisement because they knew Ada safety was more important than John being made aware of his behaviour (be it even just the emotional side here, since I don't think they would ever think hed do anything really). And it's this scene that makes it clear beyond any reasonable doubt to me, thay yea, this is def John Winchester and he is just a few degrees off of spn!john and could easily become him.

But the other interesting part here is that it's him having this reaction, the newbie here, the one who's joined this fight without any personal stake really. Like Henry doesn't count since the trauma of losing Henry is an old one that is wrapped more in Henry's abandonment than the actual supernatural world, whereas everybody else has lost people they loved as a direct result of monsters. But they're still empathetic to Ada and understand her choice so much easier than John who just doesn't get it or even try. Because he's already written monsters off as the Enemy thus the evil to his good.Like I said about the previous episode, John views it all in stark Black and White colors.

And now we have the Millie/Ada/John/Dean parallel. Aka the parent afraid of/for their child to the point they end up hurting them. Now importantly, Millie is parallel more clearly with John as parent here, specifically his controlling behaviour towards his kids, Dean most of all Id say and using that fear/worry as an excuse for his shitty behaviour. While Ada is both Dean and John. Leaning more toward Dean, who ultimately did realise that the behaviour was wrong and tried to fix things in much the same way Ada gives Tony the choice to help, to reestablish connection, Dean extends the same to Jack. John never fully does this, he dies still balancing between saving his son vs killing him. And then there is the treating your child based off of seeing him as another person. This one is big too, because Millie and Ada treated their sons as tho punishing them for their fathers, but important distinction, Ada tried not to allow her fear to taint Tony, it was him walking into her nightmare that led to their break. Millie does treat John like this, deliberately. She constantly compares John to Henry and we have to assume this is a behaviour that's been present during John's childhood too because of how prevalent it is.

So we already have all the daddy issues before the main emotional break of the episode is even introduced. And it all paves the way for the John/Samuel parallel's and as such the Dean/Mary parallels once we enter Mary's mind.

And it's important too that it's John talking to Mary that cools John down and it's the comparison to themselves that has him actually willing to relate to Ada's experience.

God I still hate the Saint Miguel reference, especially after the previous episode.

Another important thing about Ada/Dean is they both acknowledge their failings and then choose to do better, whereas Millie is a bit of an inbetween, she's changing as I've said, but is just figuring it out still, she's not really there yet, but she's asking about how to do it which is very important. It means she's willing to put in the work to do better. I also love that Ada immediately believes Tony but so does Carlos, even without the evidence.

Small thing I appreciated about the talk the gang has about the Akrida is Carlos picking up the file and clearly trying to put stuff together themselves.

I love everyone but John's reactions to Ada. So so much. I also love the following your heart advice Ada gives Mary, it reminds me of Mildred (my beloved) giving the same advice to Dean.

God Carlos' lies are awful, how have they been a hunter so long ans still.are this shit at lying. I love them.

I adore the Akrida design as well, i fucking love those bugs soo much.

Aaaand Mary got stung. And Carlos making a joke to difuse the worry is soo soo good and his advice to Ada to just tell Tony the truth is brilliant. As is Ada's talk to him. I LOVE her making sure she refers to Tony as his own person rather than who he is in relation to her, it's her ackowledging his personahood and also her not pushing him and making it clear she knows he likely will still leave and wont force him.to stay, it is such such good communication.

John being signled out makes perfect sense to me here tbh, bacuse outta everyone there, John has been the one to push Mary even when she's been at her most stubborn, he's the one whose been challenging her since they met as she does him. They know Mary can just tune them.out because she's done it before (in this show even) but John has always broken through to her.

John saying you cant fight ur trauma but you can face it, is chef's kiss after last ep. It shows he has been thinking, has been trying to do better even if it's not shown to us. To some degree he knows what he needs to do. I dont even mind thay he's a bit too harsh initially in trying to convince Mary to face her worst memory, bacause it is a time crunch, there's time to process it properly after, once Mary is alive to do it. And he give her the space and understanding she needs once she's going through it, he doesnt make it about himself. So we have not just Mary afecting him like Millie says in the beginning, but he afects her too. This is why they can work together.

But goood I hate the Campbell's just as much as I hate spn!John. For the same reasons, and I still think they were better parents then John, bacause Mary at least had more stability than Dean and Sam did, because she had a stable home. But yea, Mary's tragedy in spn is def partly the fact that her kids had to live what she did, and she has no idea just how similar it was, not really.

John giving Mary the reassurence that shes right to want to leave once shes done hunting is also very very good.

And I gotta say I love the bonding between Ada and Tony at the end, open ended but full of potential and i love lata and tony so so much! And also also, carlos once more pulling that vital vital background work to finally find out about Roxy.

This episode is so chock-full of intergenerational trauma (not that thats surprising, but rather the way it gets highlighted here). There is so so much to talk about and I can't even get all of it out but yeah, heres ep 5. Do i have more thoughts about it? Always. But so far here we leave it