Recap / Supernatural S 05 E 06 I Believe The Children Are Our Future

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Recap of Supernatural
Season 5, Episode 6

I Believe The Children Are Our Future

Dean: Yeah. You know, I'm starting to get why parents lie to their kids. You want them to believe that the worst thing out there is mixing Pop Rocks and Coke—protect them from the real evil. You want them going to bed feeling safe. If that means lying to them, so be it. The more I think about it...the more I wish Dad had lied to us.

Sam: Yeah, me too.

Written by Andrew Dabb and Daniel Loflin.

Directed by Charles Beeson.

Air Date: October 15, 2009.

Sam and Dean investigate a series of Deadly Pranks and discover that a boy named Jesse is inadvertently warping reality to fit his beliefs about the world. Castiel appears and informs the brothers that Jesse is an Antichrist and insists that they kill him, but they opt to tell him the truth and he vanishes, leaving only a note saying that he wishes to keep his family safe.

Body count

For this episode = 2 humans.

For the series so far = At least 330 humans (of which 5 were witches), 39 demons, 28 ghosts, 11 vampires, 6 changelings, 4 angels, 4 gods, 3 shapeshifters, 3 zombies, 2 ghouls, 2 werewolves, 2 dogs, 1 crocotta, 1 djinn, 1 rakshasa, 1 rawhead, 1 reaper, 1 rugaru, 1 shtriga, 1 siren, and 1 wendigo.

Tropes

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• Anti-Anti-Christ: Jesse, the Antichrist, is a good boy who has no intention of destroying the world.
• Apologetic Attacker: Castiel says "I'm sorry" right before he tries to stab Jesse. Doesn't stop him from getting turned into an action figure.
• Big Bad: The demon possessing Julia Wright, who gave birth to The Antichrist, Jesse Turner, and tries to corrupt him to Hell's side.
• Biting-the-Hand Humor: The owner of a magic/prank shop says that kids these days are only interested in their iPhones and kissing vampire movies. That episode of the show was sponsored by the first Cirque Du Freak movie.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Happily Adopted: More or less. We don't ever see Jesse interact with his parents, and they're gone a lot, but he clearly loves them.
• Jerkass Has a Point
  Jesse: My parents love me.
  Possessed!Julia: Do they? Is that why they leave you alone all day? Because they love you too much? These people—these impostors—they told you that the tooth fairy was real, and that your toys could hurt you, and a hundred other things that aren't true. They love you so much, they made your whole life a lie.
• Lies to Children: Used with horrifying effect, almost to the point of deconstruction. A child's belief in those lies causes them to come true and the discovery that they are lies nearly causes the child to turn evil.
• Luke, I Am Your Father: The demon that possesses Julia twice is Jesse's, erm, "parent". It tries to get him to turn on humanity and join Lucifer.
• Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: Dean. Well, probably every episode, but in this one, it's..."confirmed." He's got very hairy palms to prove it.
  Dean: I got bored. That nurse was hot.
• Mood Whiplash: When Cas sits on the Whoopee Cushion.
• Muggle Foster Parents: Jesse's parents are normal people who know nothing about his true origins.
• Oblivious Adoption: Jesse doesn't appear to know he was adopted.
• Parental Neglect: While Jesse's parents do love him and he loves them back, they are only briefly shown onscreen and it is clear that Jesse is used to taking care of himself.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Jesse, who has the ability to destroy the Host of Heaven.
• Plot Parallel: Jesse's life and role as the Antichrist mirrors Sam's journey.
• Properly Paranoid: After Julia's ordeal with demonic possession, she becomes a paranoid wreck with three locks installed on her doors. Years later, the same demon shows up and re-possesses her.
• Reality Warper: Jesse can subconsciously alter reality nearby to fit his beliefs.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Castiel says that the Bible is wrong about The Antichrist being Lucifer's child... something the Bible never says.
• Shout-Out: To the X-Men.
  Dean: My partner and I, we work for a secret government agency. It's our job to find kids with special powers. In fact, we're here to take you to a hidden base in South Dakota, where you'll be trained to fight evil.
  Jesse: Like the X-Men?
  Dean: Exactly like the X-Men. In fact, the, uh, guy we're taking you to—he's even in a wheelchair.
• Soda-Candy 'Splosion: Two children get hospitalized with stomach ulcers, and they claim it was the result of them mixing Pop Rocks and cola. Sam and Dean discover that this is only made possible because Jesse Turner, a half-demon child who's destined to be molded into the Antichrist, lives in town, and his growing reality-warping powers are bringing all the old wives' tales he believes in to life.
• Take a Third Option: Rather than choose to fight on the side of the demons, the angels, or the Winchesters, Jesse chooses to move to Australia and avoid the Apocalypse altogether.
• The Tooth Hurts: A father has all of his teeth pulled out by the Tooth Fairy.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the opening, Jimmy promises to go to bed if the babysitter lets him touch her boobs.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Jesse warps himself to Australia and is never mentioned again. Justified in that he's trying to hide, but still.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Childish beliefs aside, Jesse is rather mature for his age. It might have something to do with his mostly-absent parents.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To Good Omens.