The Great Supernatural Rewatch Project - The Pilot.
Feb 15, 2017 2:35:36 GMT -5
Mystique, nitar, and 1 more like this
Post by luxshine on Feb 15, 2017 2:35:36 GMT -5
Ok. So I started this rewatch project for two reasons: First, to make sure I didn’t miss any of Sam’s speeches for the analysis project, and second, because I’m an anal person about canon when writing fics and since I’m writing 2 different fics set in season 1, needed notes.
And then it came the whole thing about which brother displays what abusive behavior, and who lies under what kind of circumstances and who gets called on and who doesn’t, and let’s be honest, at 30 pages of notes just on one season? I was starting to work more in my meta than in my school work and that was just not on.
So I decided to just do a normal rewatch, and put all those data episode by episode. And it also gives us the advantage that we can also see how things change with the knowledge that we get as the series advances. How we go from seeing them as ‘normal’ brothers who happen to hunt monsters, to the co-dependent mess they are now? Can we see seeds of John’s treatment in the pilot? Is it possible for the writers to have added foreshadowing of seasons 4-onwards in the first season (Well, realistically, no, as the plan was to go in a completely different way but.. there are certain causalities that make it hard to believe that the original plan didn’t really end with Sam and Dean and Stull Cemetery, as the new Michael and Lucifer)
So trying to keep some order (Let’s see if I can keep the order in all the recaps)
(also, warning. This is LONG. 12 pages in word, just about the pilot)
General stuff
It’s very funny that when one watches the Pilot with all the hindsight, it looks like a very different show from the one we ended up having.
First thing I noticed is that while it’s 'common knowledge’ that Sam was always thought as the main character, to the point that it’s said that he’s the first character we met… that is not true. Jared is the first one of the main cast we see, true, but the very first image of the series? Is Mary, carrying Dean in his arms.
This is very important regarding Dean. Everything in that scene puts him as a quite big 4 year old who is loved by his mom, dad and Brother. And yes, I’m capitalizing brother now, because that’s the order in which Dean will see his family after this first scene. Because regardless of what it does to Dean in-story, it places the focus of Dean as a character in his brother. That’s how we met Dean, in regards to his relationship with Sam. Just as we meet John and Mary as Sam’s parents, the importance of Dean is just as 'Sam’s brother’.
Not only that but, for a series that would later hinge completely in the idea that Family is the most important thing (Even if Family Doesn’t End with Blood), and the Brother Bond ™… yes, we do get the first inkling of Dean as Protective Brother ™ with what is probably the most quoted scene within the series, “Take your Brother outside, and don’t look back”, but within our very first meeting of Sam, we see that Sam? Doesn’t care that much about Dean.
It’s a very subtle thing, by the way. Something that I didn’t notice the very first time I saw the pilot. Because in order to establish that Jared Padalecki’s “Sam” is the same character as the baby Sam, without having him saying “Oh, I don’t like Halloween because is the day that my mother died”, we get the exact same photo of Mary and John as the one we saw in Mary’s bedroom… and no picture of Dean. Of course, this might be because the show didn’t want us to see Jensen’s face before we saw Jensen, but it is still very telling because not 30 minutes later we’ll get this little gem from Sam:
SAM
To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren’t for pictures I wouldn’t even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.
To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren’t for pictures I wouldn’t even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.
Which, by the way? Is true. Sam was six months old, and thus has absolutely no emotional connection to Mary except through what John and Dean told him. Which of course, make Home and The Song Remains the Same quite painful, as there’s no reason for Mary to focus on Sam, and no reason for Sam to have any emotional tie to her past “She seems to be a nice person” but also? Marks a real difference between Sam and Dean’s reasons for hunting, as we’ll find out later. More importantly regarding the photo thing… Jess doesn’t recognize Dean. She has to be told it’s Dean, which means that Sam has no photos of Dean, or if he has? They’re not anywhere they could’ve been seen by Jess.
Another interesting thing, that comes completely to the actors, is how Dean treats Jess. We’re supposed to see Dean as this womanizer, who has one night stand after one night stand. A horn dog who only cares about sex, unlike his more sensible brother. However, in the scene with Jess, DESPITE Dean’s dialogue being about Jess’s breasts and body… his eyes never leave Jess’ face. At all. To the point that one might even think that it was Jensen doing it on purpose not to make the actress feel uncomfortable because it’s so noticeable.
There’s also the thing that Dean here? Pretty much the sidekick, who follows Sam’s lead: he tells Sam he needs to talk in private, Sam refuses for some unknown reason -no, seriously, I watched the scene 8 times and I still don’t get why Sam says that what Dean has to say can be said in front of Jess- and Dean, without any argument, goes and says what he needed to say. Another iconic line, true… that makes Sam immediately tell Jess that no, he needs to talk to Dean in private after all.
Yes. The timing of the scene is beautiful. It highlights the drama in a perfect way. But once you start thinking about it… especially about the fact that Sam didn’t want Jess to know anything about his past… It makes absolutely no sense.
Later on, when Sam agrees to come with Dean, it’s once again him the one who puts the rules: He’s going with Dean for a weekend, and that’s it.
As I have said before, this puts the relationship in a very strange situation because while it seems that Dean is calling the shots? Sam is the one who establishes the parameters of how they’re going to work together. This keeps even at the end, with Dean wanting to keep looking for John, but Sam gently reminding him that he has an interview on Monday, and Dean taking him there…. just in time for Jess to be fridged and for Dean to repeat his actions of 20 years earlier: Saving his little brother from a fire.
When it comes to the reasons behind their passion for hunting, here we also have a clear distinction between Sam, Dean, and John.
Sam makes it clear that he knows that John is hunting only out of revenge, but it’s Dean’s answer what’s important:
DEAN
Don’t be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what’s out there.
SAM
Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad’s obsession to find the thing that killed her.
SAM
But we still haven’t found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find.
DEAN
We save a lot of people doing it, too.
Don’t be afraid of the dark? Are you kidding me? Of course you should be afraid of the dark. You know what’s out there.
SAM
Yeah, I know, but still. The way we grew up, after Mom was killed, and Dad’s obsession to find the thing that killed her.
SAM
But we still haven’t found the damn thing. So we kill everything we can find.
DEAN
We save a lot of people doing it, too.
It’s not “we will find it one day”, or “It’s something to kill the time” or even “would you prefer we left them alive”, but “We save a lot of people doing it, too”. That is the closest we have gotten to the reason why Dean is a hunter. Every time the subject comes up in the future? Dean has a similar answer. He does it because he’s saving people from dangerous things. For Dean? Revenge is a secondary, or even a tertiary thing.
That is not enough for Sam. Sam wants to have a safe life, and the emphasis on Safe, rather than on normal, is something that seems to have been lost as the episodes advanced. And, of course, at the end of this episode, Sam’s reason for hunting is the exact same one as John’s: Revenge. While John is looking to avenge Mary, Sam is looking to avenge Jess.
Probably the character who got the worse treatment from this episode to season 9 was John. He is only for one small scene in this episode, but from the way he acts in that scene, from the way Dean talks about him, and even little details like the picture he kept in his motel room -a picture of him with his kids, not a picture of Mary, the apparent subject of his roadtrip of revenge- we get the idea that he is a loving father. Not only that, but between Sam’s surprise at Dean being in a hunt alone at 26, and Dean’s mention of the time he has been missing end up giving us a very different image from what we later know is canon: a man who cared about his children, who didn’t leave them weeks at a time with other men, who wouldn’t have abandoned his eldest in jail just to prove a point. And while John being the neglectful, borderline abusive parent that we know now, who Stockholmed one of his sons to become the perennial protector of the other and who didn’t give a crap if said son lived or died until it happened right in front of him, has given us very interesting meta? I really weep for the potential of the broken, but loving parent, that we can see in this very small glimpse. (Also, between the brother’s dialogue and the way in which the picture is taken, one gets the idea that Sam knew all his life about monsters. This will be proven false later, but it is curious how the pilot sets up that both of them had been raised from the fire onwards as warriors, rather than Sam having some sort of normalcy in his childhood while Dean didn’t get that luxury)
Mary doesn’t fare much better either. The first time I saw her, I thought she was a loving mother with shitty luck. As the time passed, and we learned of her past as a hunter, she became a tragic figure, and is still that. However, in this rewatch two things are clear: Either the plot twist with Mary as a hunter wasn’t planned… Or Mary was the worst hunter in the story of the world. Because in her desire to 'leave’ the life… she left her house completely unprotected. After having made a deal with a demon (hell, one would think she’d mark that in the calendar! Remember, demon coming, put salt lines all over the house. Oh, and btw, tell John!). Because she didn’t, she died, and it’s a very interesting lesson the show tries to push: “Safe” is not just “ignoring that there are dangers outside”
Another interesting thing is the scene of Dean in jail while Sam is still solving the case. This scene puts Sam directly in the role of the hero: He is the one doing important things for the case, reaching to witnesses, while Dean was being held by the police, acting like a smartass. Unfortunately, we have the first instance of Sam not being subtle at all with a witness, pretty much accusing Constance’s husband of having caused the whole problem which ends up with him looking quite bad. The man is suffering from the death of his children and his wife, probably blames himself since he cheated on her, and Sam… pretty much pushes this into his face. While it’s a nice scene, and I really liked it the first time I saw it, comparing it to later similar instances, it comes off as Sam both showing off his supernatural knowledge, and judging the ones who caused the problems, blaming them for everything -and in the case of Constance’s husband, for example, blaming him of the deaths of 10 other innocent men. Take that scene opposite to Dean, who is being faced with the accusation of killing those men, and is left to get himself off handcuffs, and escape with the help of a very well timed phone call by Sam. So while Sam is the hero of both scenes, we see Dean’s actions more directly, and the pain of Constance’s husband is enough to make his solo scene look a bit worse.
Still talking about the hero-sidekick dynamic, is interesting how Sam is the one who ends up facing Constance directly, while Dean is dealing with the B plot. This marks clearly that this pilot is not the story of two brothers versus the world, but SAM’s story. Which of course, makes a lot of what happened later both ironic and sad.
Violence
It’s very interesting, especially in the light of the latest discussions in the fandom regarding the brother’s relationship, that the very first scene that Dean and Sam have together as main characters is a fight. And quite a violent one too. I’ve previously mentioned how sad it is that Sam’s quite noticeable fighting style got completely forgotten, and I wonder if it was for a similar reason that his apparent ability with knives never took off. Now, the fight itself puts a very interesting spin on their fighting prowess: Sam is fighting seriously, as he doesn’t know who the intruder is, while Dean doesn’t want to hurt Sam… and yet wins the upper hand just before a 'distraction’ (telling Sam that he was out of practice) gives Sam the victory. This is a pattern that repeats itself a lot around the series, whenever the brothers fight. As long as Dean doesn’t want to hurt his brother, Sam will get the upper hand. So it’s interesting to see that seed start here.
Their second instance of physical violence between the brothers starts in a very contrived manner because for no reason at all, Sam starts questioning what they’re doing and the time is taking. Yes, he has to go back home Monday, but as far as we know? It’s still the first day since they arrived. We have no exact idea of the time, but because of that, we don’t know if it’s really urgent, or if they have been there 12 hours or any other reason why at that exact moment he felt the need to remind Dean that he is not there for the long haul (Even if we, as viewers, know that he is. I mean, it’s one of the moments where the Doylean reasons totally trump the Watsonian reasons. The show is about two brothers, so of course Sam is going to stay. Because it was either that, or have Dean show up in his doorstep every episode, with Jess growing more and more frustrated that Sam doesn’t tell her anything)
The dialogue goes as follows:
SAM
Okay, so now what?
DEAN
Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while.
SAM
Dean, I told you, I’ve gotta get back by Monday—
DEAN
Monday. Right. The interview.
SAM
Yeah.
DEAN
Yeah, I forgot. You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? You think you’re just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?
SAM
Maybe. Why not?
Okay, so now what?
DEAN
Now we keep digging until we find him. Might take a while.
SAM
Dean, I told you, I’ve gotta get back by Monday—
DEAN
Monday. Right. The interview.
SAM
Yeah.
DEAN
Yeah, I forgot. You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? You think you’re just going to become some lawyer? Marry your girl?
SAM
Maybe. Why not?
This is the first example of the writers creating a conflict between the brothers because the plot demands it, rather than let it happen normally. And this? Is what makes it ambiguous. If we had the time of what is going on, and had an idea of the time that has passed, and how far away is Jericho from Stanford, we could side completely with Sam, without problems. Sam, after all, is the one who wants the respectable life, the socially acceptable life, and wants to be normal. And Dean is completely out of line by acting the way he is, when we don’t know that it’s part of a defense mechanism against being abandoned by his family again. But that’s the thing. Without the time scale? Sam seems to be looking for an argument, no matter what, and it gets worse as it continues (I’m skipping the line about Jess knowing about what Sam did as it will be discussed later)
DEAN
You’re one of us.
SAM
No. I’m not like you. This is not going to be my life.
DEAN
You have a responsibility to—
SAM
To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren’t for pictures I wouldn’t even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.
DEAN
Don’t talk about her like that.
You’re one of us.
SAM
No. I’m not like you. This is not going to be my life.
DEAN
You have a responsibility to—
SAM
To Dad? And his crusade? If it weren’t for pictures I wouldn’t even know what Mom looks like. And what difference would it make? Even if we do find the thing that killed her, Mom’s gone. And she isn’t coming back.
DEAN
Don’t talk about her like that.
At this point, Dean shoved Sam hard against the bridge, and three things jump at us. First? yes, we know, Mary is a big button for Dean (more on that below) but, most importantly, we don’t have any idea of what Dean was going to say. SAM is the one who brings up John’s crusade, not Dean. And, as we had seen before? Dean puts more stock on saving people than on John’s revenge. More importantly, would Dean have shoved Sam in the bridge had Sam not mentioned Mary? Finally, Sam doesn’t look either surprised, nor scared. Sam doesn’t feel threatened by his brother, even as his brother is angry.
This scene is very important in regards to the brothers, and it’s an argument that will get lost quickly in the series, as Sam gets on board of the revenge train. We know that Sam wants the apple pie life, that he doesn’t want to be a hunter… but we don’t know why. Because as the series advances, the only thing we know is that Sam wants to be 'normal’ or 'safe’ within his parameters, but he’s never an outcast in school (After school special has SAM becoming the hero of the school and it’s the only time we see Sam’s youth besides a pretty prom dance and a dinner with his girlfriend’s family, all of them pretty normal), or given us many reasons for wanting to be normal besides 'I don’t like to risk my life’ -since here he puts more stock on being 'safe’, another thing he’ll keep saying in future seasons. Dean, on the other hand, seems to put everything on family, since it’s his reason to look for Sam, to look for his father, and for everything he does BUT we have that interruption. Dean never finishes his phrase. And later, just as Sam’s reasons are not fleshed out, Dean’s are. And Dean’s end up being more about doing the right thing for the right reason -or for what he thinks is the right reason, saving lives- than for a sense of revenge or family tradition. Especially as he claims that Sam is “one of us” referring not to the Winchesters… but to Hunters. And not all hunters are on the business to avenge Mary.
In any case, regarding violence, we can see that so far? Both brothers are capable of holding their own against the other, and thus, the idea that any of them using their strength to force the other to do something is not held by the text at all.
Emotional Violence
Now, this is a touchy subject, and one where I admit? I’m pretty biased on Dean’s side.
Because we get the very first discussion with the brothers, where at first Dean is trying to be conciliatory while Sam is outright hostile. Dean , however, stops being conciliatory the second Sam brings Mary into the conversation, first by looking away from his brother, and then, when Sam actually questions how John raised them, hitting the gate of the stairs.
It is obvious for us, and Sam, that Mary is an emotional red button for Dean. A button that later Sam pushes a little too hard, and that ends in the fight I already discussed a couple of paragraphs up. Not only that, Sam, in that same conversation, acts really dismissive of Dean, first not believing his gut when it comes to the fact that John is in trouble, then acting as if the mere idea of Dean going on a solo hunt is ridiculous. Of course, it could be a thing of the acting, Jared tends to go for the more serious, unbelieving face, while Jensen seems to be the master of the inner pain, as even when we could say that he is attacking Sam for his choices, he looks as if he’s in pain from remembering what Sam did, rather than sounding and looking as if he’s mocking Sam .
The only moment in that opening conversation where one could say that Dean’s tone goes from sincere to openly blackmailing, is when he says the following line:
DEAN
You know, in almost two years I’ve never bothered you, never asked you for a thing.
You know, in almost two years I’ve never bothered you, never asked you for a thing.
But right after, when Sam tells him about the law school thing? He looks proud of Sam. Really proud. Not mocking, not sad. And he doesn’t argue about the deal.
Later on, as part of the exposition on how the Winchester’s live, we get Sam immediately criticizing Dean for both his choices of breakfast and how he pays for them. And then his music choices, in the exact same breath.
Which is when Dean retaliates, by calling him Sammy. But then again, we are establishing a small pattern just within this episode. Both brothers aim to hurt the other with certain comments, in the most traditional 'brother bickering’ way possible, which is, obviously, the writer’s intention. However, it is notable that so far, it’s SAM the one who says the first hurtful thing, to the point that I am curious if it is because at this point of time it was important to set Sam as the one with the socially acceptable moral high ground and thus, he had to be the one who started the arguments by openly questioning what they were doing -notice that all of his jabs at Dean, with the exception of the ones about their mom are either about the illegality of what Dean and John do, or about how 'old fashioned’ Dean is, while Dean’s jabs, on the other hand, are against normality: The “apple pie life”, the fact that Sam left and cut all contact, and, of course, calling him Sammy, reducing him to 'little brother’, rather than letting him be an equal. Again, this is a very interesting thing at how the writers are obviously intending to portray them as normal brothers, with the younger brother being more 'hip’ and the older thinking the younger is still a kid, but with hindsight, and, more specifically, with chapters like Asylum, Dream a Little Dream, When the Leeve Breaks, and, even more recently, the Purge, BOTH sides take a darker turn.
Even more telling, after Constance gets killed? Dean directly praises Sam, with no sarcasm, no hint of mockery… only for Sam to answer with a dismissal of Dean’s actions:
DEAN
You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy.
SAM
Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?
DEAN
Hey. Saved your ass.
You found her weak spot. Nice work, Sammy.
SAM
Yeah, I wish I could say the same for you. What were you thinking shooting Casper in the face, you freak?
DEAN
Hey. Saved your ass.
Yes, in the action previous to Sam’s line, Dean claps him in the chest, right where the ghost hurt him. Was this on purpose on Dean’s part? Did he know how hurt Sam was? Or was this a mere accident? If we read it as the first one? Well, yes, Dean is an assbutt and thus Sam is answering with a hurtful comment as defense. But the second and third one? Are a brothers-in-arms thing, that it’s immediately twisted by Sam as an attack to Dean’s abilities, another thing that will become constant in future episodes, Sam stating that he is a superior hunter to Dean, despite Dean been doing it longer. (We will discuss the times were Sam says that Dean is better when we get to them)
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
DEAN
Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you’ve done?
SAM
No, and she’s not ever going to know.
DEAN
Well, that’s healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you’re going to have to face up to who you really are.
Does Jessica know the truth about you? I mean, does she know about the things you’ve done?
SAM
No, and she’s not ever going to know.
DEAN
Well, that’s healthy. You can pretend all you want, Sammy. But sooner or later you’re going to have to face up to who you really are.
Now, a lot of people have brought this line in order to prove why Sam in season 9 is being a hypocrite. While I agree that Sam’s growth from 'I’ll keep a secret in order to pretend I’m normal’ to 'Secrets ruin relationships’ is quite accidental (not to mention fast, 12 or so episodes before that line Sam was still thinking his right to keep secrets was perfectly fine), I also think it’s unfair to use the pilot as a reason to criticize Sam for not wanting to keep secrets 189 later. What IS important about the line? is that this proves the very first time that one of Sam’s lies has deadly consequences for someone not him.
Because think about the logic: Had Sam not being obsessed with the idea of being 'safe’ -and for safe we have to assume he mean, not going on hunts himself- to the point of not telling his fiancée that there WERE things in the dark that could hurt them- Jess would be alive. It didn’t even need to be the whole speech of the full dangers of the supernatural, by simply telling her “I come from a really superstitious family, and that’s why I keep salt all over the windows and doors”, well, maybe Jess wouldn’t have listened anyway but Sam wouldn’t have just left her completely unprotected to die. Especially as he had been having visions that showed her dying, for weeks before Dean came. And thus, it is really important that we, as the audience, don’t know about that. Because Sam having a warning? Means he could’ve asked Jess to come with them, thus sparing her. Or maybe he could’ve told Dean “you know, I want to help you find Dad, what about this… go ahead, let me have my interview, and after it, I’ll go and meet you whenever you are and stay with you until the beginning of the Semester” thus ensuring he’d be home the night Jess was to be killed and could’ve protected her. Sure, it can be said that Sam was not aware his dreams could be prophetic, but let’s be honest. The way he had lived? Having nightmares of his girlfriend dying the exact same way his mom did had to be a red flag. One that he ignored, and thus ended up in Jess’ fridging.
And speaking about lies… Why did Constance went after Sam? Sam says he’s not unfaithful, to what Constance replies 'But you will be’. But ghosts, particularly women in white, are pretty much tied up to a very specific kind of action. She’s not supposed to be able to even show herself to a man who is not unfaithful, much less to get to try and kill him. So… why Sam? The show might shove it under the carpet, but it’s the one time a ghost goes directly against the rules they establish about her and that allows for the question…
Has Sam been unfaithful? Or just that lie of omission was good enough for the ghost to be able to chose him, without him having been unfaithful?
Speeches and Apologies
SAM
Hey, Dean? What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I’m sorry.
DEAN
No chick-flick moments.
SAM
All right. Jerk.
DEAN
Bitch
Hey, Dean? What I said earlier, about Mom and Dad, I’m sorry.
DEAN
No chick-flick moments.
SAM
All right. Jerk.
DEAN
Bitch
Here we have, Sam’s very first apology on the show. Which is a good one, don’t take me wrong. I wonder about the way it was offered since heaven knows that it is a strange apology for today’s standards. Personally, I’d think it’d flow better if it had been 'I’m sorry about what I said earlier about Mom and Dad’, but not because this particular apology rings false . It is because, in the future, Sam will have this particular tick in many other similar scenes: Specify the situation, said he was sorry, but never add if he was sorry BECAUSE of what he said -which I believe it’s pretty obvious in this particular instance- or if he was sorry because he hurt Dean’s feelings, but still thinks that what he said was the truth, or if he was sorry just because seconds after he said it, he thought Dean had died.
In contrast, Dean doesn’t have any great speech here -nor a reason to apology unless one thinks he should apologize for shoving Sam into the bridge, right after Sam touched the most sensitive subject around Dean, Mary- but he is constant in telling Sam how good of a team they make and how even if he doesn’t NEED Sam to hunt, he WANTS Sam around. Yes, one could build this as part of a case on Dean’s emotional manipulation of Sam… except that Dean still drives away, still takes Sam home and still respects Sam’s choices to stay with Jess… until the moment when a demon took that choice away from Sam.
Final Tally
Watching the pilot with so much hindsight is at times interesting, but also really painful. A lot of things that we take almost for granted here, are going to be gone in less than half a season. But more importantly, there are things that change now, from when I saw them at first, and most is due to the extra information we have.
Ironically, just as I was finishing this, I saw a post like one of the so many that have been around lately about how horrible Dean is to Sam, claiming that from the get go, the show portrays Sam as the black sheep. Unfortunately, while trying to tie things up with the usual 'poor Sam’ narrative, the author forgot to mention that his older brother actually supported him and was proud of him, or that the idea of 'normal’ that Sam has? Caused people to die. It’s one thing to want to be normal, and another completely different to sacrifice innocents in the quest for that 'normal’ life. (Not to mention, that if Sam got his wish? No series.)
But let’s count here this: Dean obeys Sam, and respects his wishes, every single time they come to a conflict here. The one time their argument comes to violence? Is because Sam brought Mary up, the taboo subject, the one boundary that Dean placed. Dean doesn’t lie to Sam, and only questions two things about Sam’s wish to live 'safe’. The first one is how can he not tell Jess the truth, the second is why he leaves his responsibility behind (We never learn if it’s responsibility to the people, or to Mary’s memory, remember that). Sam, on the other hand, lies to Jess, with deathly consequences, and criticizes everything that Dean does, without one single 'you did well’ or 'hey, you’re smart’ to balance it. He apologizes for crossing Dean’s emotional boundary (as far as we can tell, by writers’ intent). Dean was violent and didn’t apologize with words, although, just as we can tell that the writer’s intent on Sam’s apology was for Sam to be honestly sorry, we can tell that Dean’s 'no chickflick moment’ means 'all is forgiven’, and that in that sense, Sam’s answer of 'jerk’, ALSO means that Sam forgave Dean. So, all in all, a VERY EQUAL relationship between the two brothers, as far as writer’s intent go. Also, as this will be important later on, neither brother blamed the other about anything. Let’s hope that stays.
Other than that, we have two very clear cases of fridged women, both in Mary and in Jess, since both of them only died in order to get John and Sam’s story going.
And hey, just food for thought. Later, we find out that Azazael only killed Jess so that Sam would go on the road with Dean to find John. Which means that if Sam HAD gone with Dean from the beginning, instead of insisting on going back to the interview? Jess would still be alive.
Numbers (aka, the TL;DR summary)
Times Dean has lied to Sam or to a loved one: 0
Times Sam has lied to Dean or to a loved one: 1
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 0
Times Dean has hit Sam in anger: 1
Times Sam has hit Dean in anger: 0
Times Dean’s lies or secrets have caused someone’s death: 0
Times Sam’s lies or secrets have caused someone’s death: 1
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 0
Secrets kept by Dean: 0
Secrets kept by Sam: 0
Times Dean has blamed Sam for something : 0
Times Sam has blamed Dean for something: 0
Times Dean has apologized with words to Sam: 0
Times Sam has apologized with words to Dean : 1
Times Dean has respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 3
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 1
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 3
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 0
Now, I admit that I am a Dean-girl first and foremost. So if anyone disagrees with the tally, please, let me know. If your reasoning is sound, I can change the tally to reflect it. This is not judging which brother is "better" but how the narrative treats them, hence the tally.