The Great Supernatural Rewatch Project - Dead in the Water
Mar 20, 2017 21:17:52 GMT -5
Mystique, nitar, and 1 more like this
Post by luxshine on Mar 20, 2017 21:17:52 GMT -5
Ok, sorry I forgot to put this thread up last Monday. But hey, we're back.
Last time I mentioned how we were starting to see how Kirpke early plan was easy to see , in particular with Sam and his Roaring Road trip of Revenge, and how Dean was not really planned outside ‘Sam needs a sidekick and I need to sell this to the network’. Continuing that line, this episode? Is where we start to see Dean grow as a character in a direction that is a complete opposite of the 'horndog who cares only for himself’ image that Sam’s dialogue and the narrative keep trying to push.
It also contradicts the Pilot with one teensy detail, that while was later forgotten by writers, seems to be a pivotal part of Jensen’s performance as Dean, and something that Fandom runs with at all times.
General stuff
Once again, we start with the brothers in a dinner. Once again, the scene seems to be played as “Dean wants to have sex, Sam is moral and is worried about the hunt” but once again, both the actions and the way the scene is constructed, point to something else.
Because, before the cute waitress came on to Dean (Who, again, had his eyes glued on her face, despite the camera framing her boobs. I really want someone to ask Jensen if that’s a personal choice out of respect for the actresses, a director’s request, his personal view of Dean, or a mixture of all of the above) Dean is doing research, looking for people in trouble. While Sam is… eating and glaring at Dean. Which is a particularly weird sight not because I don’t think Sam glares at Dean but because it’s common fandom wisdom that they didn’t start fighting until well into Season 4, but here? Sam is NOT pleased with Dean, and he is not shy about it.
Another interesting thing is how Sam and Dean talk to the sheriff. Sam is listening, paying attention to what the sheriff says, while Dean is the one who asks the questions, who engages in a dialogue with the sheriff. And here? Works wonderfully. Dean is the con artist, the people’s person, the one who knows how to make people feel at ease, while Sam is the smart guy, the one who is paying attention to all details around them. In fact, he only asks one question in the whole exchange, which is to ask if Lucas is ok.
Now, until here, the first time I saw this, I assumed this was because the writers were going to draw a parallel between Sam and Lucas. The scene starts very well for that, with Dean paying attention to Andrea, asking her to walk them to the motel (With Sam rolling his eyes and doing an epic bitchface in the background) but… while Dean’s first lines to Andrea about kids could be seen as bad attempts to flirting. Then again, there’s the fact that Dean looks vaguely offended at Andrea telling him that his pickup line was bad, not in a 'yeah, it was bad’, or even a ’ I can’t believe that you called me on that’, but a 'hey, I wasn’t really flirting’ way.
And then of course, we have Dean’s expression when they find out that Lucas is the only witness to his father’s death, which bring us to a line that I will analyze in the Secrets section:
“Watching one of your parents die isn’t something you just get over. ”
Which brings us to the park scene. Where Dean completely goes against type by focusing directly on Lucas. He has completely forgotten about his attempts to flirt with Andrea -something that Sam understands- and we get to hear Dean talk for the first time about Mary’s death. (Although that is something that we will go on at length in the Secret’s section)
And what is really clear? Is that Dean is VERY good with children. HE knows exactly how to approach Lucas, how not to pressure him, how to make Lucas open to him. While Sam.. is the one who stays talking to Andrea -and we don’t really know how Sam talked to her, since we never hear that part of the conversation.
Again, this could be ok in the series. We know that Sam is hellbent on avenging Jess, which is ok, since she was her fiancee and is the death of the person he REMEMBERS, and then, we have Dean opening up about his Mom, the woman that his father is trying to avenge. So far, so good. Problem is, we never get Sam to talk about Jess (No, seriously, never. To this day, I have no idea WHY Sam was in love with Jess, or why Jess was in love with Sam and it’s been 9 seasons), and Dean never opens to SAM about Mary. EVER. It’s an open wound for Dean, as we see in this episode, but one that he never allows to close because he doesn’t talk about his feelings (And, much later, we will learn why he never does.). THAT? Is a huge mistake on the writers’ part. In fanon, we have a lot of theories (Sam/Jess fics are ALWAYS adorable, no matter what. And there are very few fics I’ve read where Sam is not very aware of Dean’s trauma… but that’s only on fics)
Anyway, another guy dies, and they go back to talk to Lucas. Again, DEAN goes back to talk to Lucas. And I really, really wonder WHEN did Sara Gamble went from the woman who wrote such strong Dean episodes like this one, to the Uber Sam!Fangirl of season 6, because this is a very Sam-lite episode, and it has a lot of juicy info about Dean’s past.
(as an aside… the picture of the kid that died? Looks a lot like Lucas with a different hairdo)
Now, I might make a point of saying that the writers, in particular Krikpe, had a very clear Sam-is-the-hero POV in the narrative, and I sustain that. However, in this episode, is pretty clear that the director and the cameraman… have a sort o love affair with Jensen’s expressive face, since more often than not?DEAN is the focus of the scene, with Sam in the background or unfocused completely. Which of course, goes completely against the written narrative. And that’s where I guess the whole 'But Sam is not the main character’ complains come from. At least here. It is really confusing . Of course, it could be that the episode is focused on Dean, as we see when they meet Lucas and Andrea again after Bill’s death.
However, we still don’t get to see Sam’s heroic side when it is not about something directly related to him, and that’s starting to bug me (Especially as I used to believe that was a far later development, say, season 7 onward). They get run out of town, and Sam accepts it. In fact, he is surprised when Dean decides to drive back to the town… and even then… he wonders why are they going back and why would Dean care (Which is strange as just last episode, it was established that Dean doesn’t leave a hunt until he is 100% sure that it is done. And yes, I am counting this as Sam leaving the hunt in the middle of it while people are in danger, because he should know that you don’t leave a hunt without making sure everything is really done)
So, the little ghost gets his revenge, and Dean saves Lucas (Again, an important thing because it cements Lucas and Dean’s bond, even if it leaves Sam with nothing to show for), and Sam bonds more with Andrea… over Dean’s actions. And despite a lot of things I’m going to say in the next sections, it does seem that Sam realizes another big point of Dean’s emotional makeup: Dean DOES blame himself for every single person he doesn’t save. Sam sees the hunt as a triumph, as Lucas and Andrea are alive. Dean? Blames himself for Jake’s death.
(Which makes me wonder even more about future episodes, such as the one that sparked this project, The Purge. I mean, here, Sam realizes perfectly that Dean doesn't think of himself as heroic, but as a failure. Not only that, he acknowledges it. So he should know, even 9 years later, that Dean has never seen himself as someone who does 'more good than harm’)
I didn’t analyze a lot of the scenes of this episode, compared to the Pilot and Wendigo, mostly because I’m going to tackle the important ones below, and because this is a very 'by the numbers’ episode. It is, in effect, filler. Nothing on it advances the plot of the search for John -something that only seems to bother Sam, not Dean- and thus, if one skips it? It makes no difference to the overachieving arc. Which is also interesting since it’s a Dean-heavy episode. I don’t know if I should make a counter of Sam-heavy episodes that are arc-related, Sam-heavy episodes that are filler, Dean-heavy episodes that are arc-related , and Dean-heavy episodes that are filler. What do you guys think?
Violence
There isn’t a single scene in this episode that can be considered as a physical violent situation. So the counter remains in 0 for this episode.
Emotional Violence
Sam starts the episode with a lot of passive aggressiveness in the following exchange:
Now, in this exchange two things are very clear: First, Sam seems to be expecting Dean to fix things. There’s no laptop on Sam’s side of the table, no newspapers or anything that can hint to the fact that Sam is doing his own research on cases that John could’ve been working on, he never suggests WHAT they could be doing to find John. He is, as Dean points out, expecting DEAN to do something. Dean is the one who should be looking for Dad, in Sam’s view, and that’s… strange, given that they’re both adults, both able to do research, and, more importantly, Sam is not currently being chased by law enforcement, as we know Dean is (As per the Pilot). While I get not calling the cops on John -given that John is ALSO a fugitive- there is no real reason for Sam not to suggest it, since Sam dislikes the hunting life and disapproves it.
And by now, I think I can call this a cycle in the way the writers put these conversations between the brothers because in three episodes? we’ve had about six conversations that follow the same pattern: Sam says something passive aggressive, Dean asks him to elaborate, Sam says something that can be hurtful (In this case the 'something, anything’, implying that Dean is not doing anything to look for their dad), Dean lashes out with defensive anger and a verbal attack on Sam ('While you’ve been off to college going to pep rallies’). No Physical violence since Sam didn’t mention Mary, but it’s very telling that so far? The writers have never made Dean make a quip against Sam just because. One could count the eariler exchange about the waitress and how Sam doesn’t like 'fun’, except that with the head movement -and yes, hindsight for later episodes- we know that Dean is not saying that Sam is a bore, but that Sam should let himself have some fun instead of wallowing in grief. He is, in effect, looking after his brother, not wanting to make him feel bad, which is Sam’s goal in this dialogue.
So the question is… Why? Why do the writers decided to establish SAM as such a judgmental person in his relationship with Dean? Especially since we know at this point, neither brother were supposed to be a vessel for any archangel, since angels weren’t in the plans for the series.
This exchange, by the way, also points out the very first time Sam blames Dean for something directly: Dean is to blame that the trail for Dad’s location has grown cold. Funnily enough, Dean comes CLOSE to recriminate Sam for the two (four in the Pilot but they don’t care) years that Sam abandoned them, but he never says the actual words, instead, he makes fun of what Sam was doing calling it 'going to pep rallies’ (i.e, meaningless fun, while we know that Sam was studying).
Later on, we have Sam, once again, making fun of Dean’s attempts to hook up with Andrea. I am putting this here, not because I think they count as actual emotional violence even if it IS Sam making fun of Dean’s actions, but because it shows how little Sam knows about Dean. YEs, part of it is that Dean’s long and really touching story with kids of all ages has not been written yet, so the writers don’t know about it (doylean reason) , but in universe? How can the man who was RAISED by his brother, who by this time must have already seen that cases that involve children ARE a hot button for Dean, assume that his brother doesn’t like children, when in the very last episode, he was quite attentive to the younger brother? Even more when, as the episode advances, we can clearly see that Dean’s interest in Lucas was not faked… and in fact, he ended up bonding more with Lucas than with Andrea.
There’s a bit in the car, right after the second scene with Lucas and Andrea, where it seems as if Dean is making fun of Sam “Oh, College Boy thinks he’s so smart” (Regarding the churches). However, both Sam and Dean laugh at that, so I’m not going to count that as Dean making fun of Sam (as opposed to the Pep rallies dig, or Sam’s constant eye rolling) since body language from both of them make it clear that neither is angry at the other.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
The biggest secret in this episode is Dean’s, and it’s a weird one. Because there’s no real reason why it should have been a secret, and the fact that Dean shares it with Lucas? Means he doesn’t keep it that close. So the weird thing is that John and Sam seem not to know this little detail. And it goes as such:
I mentioned at the beginning that this was an episode that pointed out something that was not shown in the pilot, and was later ignored. I don’t know if it was added by the episode writer (Doubt it, since it was Sera 'Sam is the only hero of the story’ Gamble, but maybe it was Raelle Tucker, the second writer), or by Kim Manners (Who in my opinion leant more to the ensemble cast story and thus, wanted to flesh out Dean more) or by Jensen himself, but here? We get canon confirmation that Dean SAW Mary bleeding on the roof. It doesn’t quite fit with what we saw on the Pilot, where John hands Baby Sam to Dean OUTSIDE the nursery, but it clearly marks a lot on how Jensen plays Dean both in this scene and in future interactions with Mary.
So Dean saw Mary die, which is bad enough. But then, he goes on:
This? is experience speaking. There’s a fanon tidbit going around that Dean suffered from selective mutism when he was a kid. Until this rewatch, I thought it was canon, but now I haven’t been able to find the actual source of this, so maybe the fanon comes from the fact that Lucas has selective mutism and a scene later when Dean gives more details on what he saw and what happened afterwards:
And this is the reason why I count this as a secret. Because what Sam didn’t know before this (And probably still doesn’t, since it’s not clear if he heard the whole thing or not) is that Dean doesn’t hunt to AVENGE his mom, but in MEMORY of his mom. So that no one would suffer what he did.
Which is a pretty heavy secret to keep for 22 years. And we know is a secret because on Home we find out that Sam didn’t even know that Dean had pulled him out of the fire, and John… well, John took Dean shooting when he was 6 years old. Somehow, I doubt he knew -at least as far as series canon goes, not sure of secondary canon, like his diary- that Dean saw Mary die.
However, the first part of the secret, the fact that Dean watched Mary die, is open. Sam knows now, because he was listening. So, one less secret in Dean’s life.
Why Dean doesn’t talk with Sam about his feelings? Well, Sam tries to open up about it, when he mentions that Dean never said that he saw Mary die. Dean dismisses him, telling him it’s not important (A telling thing. Dean’s feelings, according to Dean himself? Are not important), but later on, we have this other exchange in the car:
Again, I have no idea if this was the intent of the writers but the end result is that we have a Sam that has no idea who the hell his brother is, and not only that, doesn’t listen to his brother at all. Just one episode ago, Dean told Sam, point blank, that his reason to hunt is to make sure people are safe from ghosts and demons. So of course this whole case would be about making Lucas feel safer, and make sure that Lucas and his mom won’t be hurt. Why would Sam doubt it? And, more importantly, why would he claim that Dean being worried about a little kid well being is Dean acting out of character?
Speeches and Apologies
There are no great speeches in this episode, and no apologies at all. As I said, filler episode.
Final Tally
Next episode, I will be adding a filler episodes vs. story arc episodes. Just to have a clear view on who gets more focus and where.
AS a filler episode, this is a very normal, by the numbers episode. As an individual episode, I’d say that the Lucas/Dean parallel echoes the foreshadowing the Wendigo gave us on Sam, but I feel that’s stretching the facts way too much. Also, it’s the most common monster of the series, so it’s nothing special as a monster.
Still, unlike Wendigo, here the relationship is not as balanced as it was in the previous one, as now, Sam’s little digs seem to come from nowhere, and they are far more vicious than the ones in Wendigo. Also, to my surprise, it has the first time that Sam blames Dean for something it’s not Dean’s fault. I really thought that would happen way into Season 4.
Numbers (or the TL;DR summary)
(Episode/Total so far)
Times Dean has lied to Sam or to a loved one: 0 / 0
Times Sam has lied to Dean or to a loved one: 0 / 2
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0 / 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 0 / 0
Times Dean has hit Sam in anger: 0 / 1
Times Sam has hit Dean in anger: 0 / 0
Times Dean’s lies or secrets have caused someone’s death: 0 / 0
Times Sam’s lies or secrets have caused someone’s death: 0 / 1
Times Dean has abandoned (Or wanted to abandon) a hunt in the middle for his own needs: 0 / 0
Times Sam has abandoned (Or wanted to abandon) a hunt in the middle for his own needs: 1 / 3
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0 / 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 0 / 0
Secrets kept by Dean: 1 / 1
Secrets kept by Sam: 0 / 0
Times Dean has blamed Sam for something :0 / 0
Times Sam has blamed Dean for something: 1 / 1
Times Dean has apologized with words to Sam: 0 / 0
Times Sam has apologized with words to Dean : 0 / 1
Times Dean has respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 3
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 1 / 2
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 2 / 7
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 0 / 1
Last time I mentioned how we were starting to see how Kirpke early plan was easy to see , in particular with Sam and his Roaring Road trip of Revenge, and how Dean was not really planned outside ‘Sam needs a sidekick and I need to sell this to the network’. Continuing that line, this episode? Is where we start to see Dean grow as a character in a direction that is a complete opposite of the 'horndog who cares only for himself’ image that Sam’s dialogue and the narrative keep trying to push.
It also contradicts the Pilot with one teensy detail, that while was later forgotten by writers, seems to be a pivotal part of Jensen’s performance as Dean, and something that Fandom runs with at all times.
General stuff
Once again, we start with the brothers in a dinner. Once again, the scene seems to be played as “Dean wants to have sex, Sam is moral and is worried about the hunt” but once again, both the actions and the way the scene is constructed, point to something else.
Because, before the cute waitress came on to Dean (Who, again, had his eyes glued on her face, despite the camera framing her boobs. I really want someone to ask Jensen if that’s a personal choice out of respect for the actresses, a director’s request, his personal view of Dean, or a mixture of all of the above) Dean is doing research, looking for people in trouble. While Sam is… eating and glaring at Dean. Which is a particularly weird sight not because I don’t think Sam glares at Dean but because it’s common fandom wisdom that they didn’t start fighting until well into Season 4, but here? Sam is NOT pleased with Dean, and he is not shy about it.
Another interesting thing is how Sam and Dean talk to the sheriff. Sam is listening, paying attention to what the sheriff says, while Dean is the one who asks the questions, who engages in a dialogue with the sheriff. And here? Works wonderfully. Dean is the con artist, the people’s person, the one who knows how to make people feel at ease, while Sam is the smart guy, the one who is paying attention to all details around them. In fact, he only asks one question in the whole exchange, which is to ask if Lucas is ok.
Now, until here, the first time I saw this, I assumed this was because the writers were going to draw a parallel between Sam and Lucas. The scene starts very well for that, with Dean paying attention to Andrea, asking her to walk them to the motel (With Sam rolling his eyes and doing an epic bitchface in the background) but… while Dean’s first lines to Andrea about kids could be seen as bad attempts to flirting. Then again, there’s the fact that Dean looks vaguely offended at Andrea telling him that his pickup line was bad, not in a 'yeah, it was bad’, or even a ’ I can’t believe that you called me on that’, but a 'hey, I wasn’t really flirting’ way.
And then of course, we have Dean’s expression when they find out that Lucas is the only witness to his father’s death, which bring us to a line that I will analyze in the Secrets section:
“Watching one of your parents die isn’t something you just get over. ”
Which brings us to the park scene. Where Dean completely goes against type by focusing directly on Lucas. He has completely forgotten about his attempts to flirt with Andrea -something that Sam understands- and we get to hear Dean talk for the first time about Mary’s death. (Although that is something that we will go on at length in the Secret’s section)
And what is really clear? Is that Dean is VERY good with children. HE knows exactly how to approach Lucas, how not to pressure him, how to make Lucas open to him. While Sam.. is the one who stays talking to Andrea -and we don’t really know how Sam talked to her, since we never hear that part of the conversation.
Again, this could be ok in the series. We know that Sam is hellbent on avenging Jess, which is ok, since she was her fiancee and is the death of the person he REMEMBERS, and then, we have Dean opening up about his Mom, the woman that his father is trying to avenge. So far, so good. Problem is, we never get Sam to talk about Jess (No, seriously, never. To this day, I have no idea WHY Sam was in love with Jess, or why Jess was in love with Sam and it’s been 9 seasons), and Dean never opens to SAM about Mary. EVER. It’s an open wound for Dean, as we see in this episode, but one that he never allows to close because he doesn’t talk about his feelings (And, much later, we will learn why he never does.). THAT? Is a huge mistake on the writers’ part. In fanon, we have a lot of theories (Sam/Jess fics are ALWAYS adorable, no matter what. And there are very few fics I’ve read where Sam is not very aware of Dean’s trauma… but that’s only on fics)
Anyway, another guy dies, and they go back to talk to Lucas. Again, DEAN goes back to talk to Lucas. And I really, really wonder WHEN did Sara Gamble went from the woman who wrote such strong Dean episodes like this one, to the Uber Sam!Fangirl of season 6, because this is a very Sam-lite episode, and it has a lot of juicy info about Dean’s past.
(as an aside… the picture of the kid that died? Looks a lot like Lucas with a different hairdo)
Now, I might make a point of saying that the writers, in particular Krikpe, had a very clear Sam-is-the-hero POV in the narrative, and I sustain that. However, in this episode, is pretty clear that the director and the cameraman… have a sort o love affair with Jensen’s expressive face, since more often than not?DEAN is the focus of the scene, with Sam in the background or unfocused completely. Which of course, goes completely against the written narrative. And that’s where I guess the whole 'But Sam is not the main character’ complains come from. At least here. It is really confusing . Of course, it could be that the episode is focused on Dean, as we see when they meet Lucas and Andrea again after Bill’s death.
However, we still don’t get to see Sam’s heroic side when it is not about something directly related to him, and that’s starting to bug me (Especially as I used to believe that was a far later development, say, season 7 onward). They get run out of town, and Sam accepts it. In fact, he is surprised when Dean decides to drive back to the town… and even then… he wonders why are they going back and why would Dean care (Which is strange as just last episode, it was established that Dean doesn’t leave a hunt until he is 100% sure that it is done. And yes, I am counting this as Sam leaving the hunt in the middle of it while people are in danger, because he should know that you don’t leave a hunt without making sure everything is really done)
So, the little ghost gets his revenge, and Dean saves Lucas (Again, an important thing because it cements Lucas and Dean’s bond, even if it leaves Sam with nothing to show for), and Sam bonds more with Andrea… over Dean’s actions. And despite a lot of things I’m going to say in the next sections, it does seem that Sam realizes another big point of Dean’s emotional makeup: Dean DOES blame himself for every single person he doesn’t save. Sam sees the hunt as a triumph, as Lucas and Andrea are alive. Dean? Blames himself for Jake’s death.
(Which makes me wonder even more about future episodes, such as the one that sparked this project, The Purge. I mean, here, Sam realizes perfectly that Dean doesn't think of himself as heroic, but as a failure. Not only that, he acknowledges it. So he should know, even 9 years later, that Dean has never seen himself as someone who does 'more good than harm’)
I didn’t analyze a lot of the scenes of this episode, compared to the Pilot and Wendigo, mostly because I’m going to tackle the important ones below, and because this is a very 'by the numbers’ episode. It is, in effect, filler. Nothing on it advances the plot of the search for John -something that only seems to bother Sam, not Dean- and thus, if one skips it? It makes no difference to the overachieving arc. Which is also interesting since it’s a Dean-heavy episode. I don’t know if I should make a counter of Sam-heavy episodes that are arc-related, Sam-heavy episodes that are filler, Dean-heavy episodes that are arc-related , and Dean-heavy episodes that are filler. What do you guys think?
Violence
There isn’t a single scene in this episode that can be considered as a physical violent situation. So the counter remains in 0 for this episode.
Emotional Violence
Sam starts the episode with a lot of passive aggressiveness in the following exchange:
SAM
Closure? What closure? People don’t just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them.
DEAN
Something you want to say to me?
SAM
The trail for Dad. It’s getting colder every day.
DEAN
Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?
SAM
I don’t know. Something. Anything.
DEAN
You know what? I’m sick of this attitude. You don’t think I wanna find Dad as much as you do?
SAM
Yeah, I know you do, it’s just—
DEAN
I’m the one that’s been with him every single day for the past two years, while you’ve been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we’re gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?
SAM rolls his eyes.
Closure? What closure? People don’t just disappear, Dean. Other people just stop looking for them.
DEAN
Something you want to say to me?
SAM
The trail for Dad. It’s getting colder every day.
DEAN
Exactly. So what are we supposed to do?
SAM
I don’t know. Something. Anything.
DEAN
You know what? I’m sick of this attitude. You don’t think I wanna find Dad as much as you do?
SAM
Yeah, I know you do, it’s just—
DEAN
I’m the one that’s been with him every single day for the past two years, while you’ve been off to college going to pep rallies. We will find Dad, but until then, we’re gonna kill everything bad between here and there. Okay?
SAM rolls his eyes.
Now, in this exchange two things are very clear: First, Sam seems to be expecting Dean to fix things. There’s no laptop on Sam’s side of the table, no newspapers or anything that can hint to the fact that Sam is doing his own research on cases that John could’ve been working on, he never suggests WHAT they could be doing to find John. He is, as Dean points out, expecting DEAN to do something. Dean is the one who should be looking for Dad, in Sam’s view, and that’s… strange, given that they’re both adults, both able to do research, and, more importantly, Sam is not currently being chased by law enforcement, as we know Dean is (As per the Pilot). While I get not calling the cops on John -given that John is ALSO a fugitive- there is no real reason for Sam not to suggest it, since Sam dislikes the hunting life and disapproves it.
And by now, I think I can call this a cycle in the way the writers put these conversations between the brothers because in three episodes? we’ve had about six conversations that follow the same pattern: Sam says something passive aggressive, Dean asks him to elaborate, Sam says something that can be hurtful (In this case the 'something, anything’, implying that Dean is not doing anything to look for their dad), Dean lashes out with defensive anger and a verbal attack on Sam ('While you’ve been off to college going to pep rallies’). No Physical violence since Sam didn’t mention Mary, but it’s very telling that so far? The writers have never made Dean make a quip against Sam just because. One could count the eariler exchange about the waitress and how Sam doesn’t like 'fun’, except that with the head movement -and yes, hindsight for later episodes- we know that Dean is not saying that Sam is a bore, but that Sam should let himself have some fun instead of wallowing in grief. He is, in effect, looking after his brother, not wanting to make him feel bad, which is Sam’s goal in this dialogue.
So the question is… Why? Why do the writers decided to establish SAM as such a judgmental person in his relationship with Dean? Especially since we know at this point, neither brother were supposed to be a vessel for any archangel, since angels weren’t in the plans for the series.
This exchange, by the way, also points out the very first time Sam blames Dean for something directly: Dean is to blame that the trail for Dad’s location has grown cold. Funnily enough, Dean comes CLOSE to recriminate Sam for the two (four in the Pilot but they don’t care) years that Sam abandoned them, but he never says the actual words, instead, he makes fun of what Sam was doing calling it 'going to pep rallies’ (i.e, meaningless fun, while we know that Sam was studying).
Later on, we have Sam, once again, making fun of Dean’s attempts to hook up with Andrea. I am putting this here, not because I think they count as actual emotional violence even if it IS Sam making fun of Dean’s actions, but because it shows how little Sam knows about Dean. YEs, part of it is that Dean’s long and really touching story with kids of all ages has not been written yet, so the writers don’t know about it (doylean reason) , but in universe? How can the man who was RAISED by his brother, who by this time must have already seen that cases that involve children ARE a hot button for Dean, assume that his brother doesn’t like children, when in the very last episode, he was quite attentive to the younger brother? Even more when, as the episode advances, we can clearly see that Dean’s interest in Lucas was not faked… and in fact, he ended up bonding more with Lucas than with Andrea.
There’s a bit in the car, right after the second scene with Lucas and Andrea, where it seems as if Dean is making fun of Sam “Oh, College Boy thinks he’s so smart” (Regarding the churches). However, both Sam and Dean laugh at that, so I’m not going to count that as Dean making fun of Sam (as opposed to the Pep rallies dig, or Sam’s constant eye rolling) since body language from both of them make it clear that neither is angry at the other.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
The biggest secret in this episode is Dean’s, and it’s a weird one. Because there’s no real reason why it should have been a secret, and the fact that Dean shares it with Lucas? Means he doesn’t keep it that close. So the weird thing is that John and Sam seem not to know this little detail. And it goes as such:
DEAN
You know, I’m thinking you can hear me, you just don’t want to talk. I don’t know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. When I was your age, I saw something.
You know, I’m thinking you can hear me, you just don’t want to talk. I don’t know exactly what happened to your dad, but I know it was something real bad. I think I know how you feel. When I was your age, I saw something.
I mentioned at the beginning that this was an episode that pointed out something that was not shown in the pilot, and was later ignored. I don’t know if it was added by the episode writer (Doubt it, since it was Sera 'Sam is the only hero of the story’ Gamble, but maybe it was Raelle Tucker, the second writer), or by Kim Manners (Who in my opinion leant more to the ensemble cast story and thus, wanted to flesh out Dean more) or by Jensen himself, but here? We get canon confirmation that Dean SAW Mary bleeding on the roof. It doesn’t quite fit with what we saw on the Pilot, where John hands Baby Sam to Dean OUTSIDE the nursery, but it clearly marks a lot on how Jensen plays Dean both in this scene and in future interactions with Mary.
So Dean saw Mary die, which is bad enough. But then, he goes on:
DEAN
Anyway. Well, maybe you don’t think anyone will listen to you, or, uh…or believe you.
Anyway. Well, maybe you don’t think anyone will listen to you, or, uh…or believe you.
This? is experience speaking. There’s a fanon tidbit going around that Dean suffered from selective mutism when he was a kid. Until this rewatch, I thought it was canon, but now I haven’t been able to find the actual source of this, so maybe the fanon comes from the fact that Lucas has selective mutism and a scene later when Dean gives more details on what he saw and what happened afterwards:
DEAN
You’re scared. It’s okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn’t feel like talking, just like you. But see, my mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too.
You’re scared. It’s okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn’t feel like talking, just like you. But see, my mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too.
And this is the reason why I count this as a secret. Because what Sam didn’t know before this (And probably still doesn’t, since it’s not clear if he heard the whole thing or not) is that Dean doesn’t hunt to AVENGE his mom, but in MEMORY of his mom. So that no one would suffer what he did.
Which is a pretty heavy secret to keep for 22 years. And we know is a secret because on Home we find out that Sam didn’t even know that Dean had pulled him out of the fire, and John… well, John took Dean shooting when he was 6 years old. Somehow, I doubt he knew -at least as far as series canon goes, not sure of secondary canon, like his diary- that Dean saw Mary die.
However, the first part of the secret, the fact that Dean watched Mary die, is open. Sam knows now, because he was listening. So, one less secret in Dean’s life.
Why Dean doesn’t talk with Sam about his feelings? Well, Sam tries to open up about it, when he mentions that Dean never said that he saw Mary die. Dean dismisses him, telling him it’s not important (A telling thing. Dean’s feelings, according to Dean himself? Are not important), but later on, we have this other exchange in the car:
SAM
But Dean, this job, I think it’s over.
DEAN
I’m not so sure.
SAM
If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter’s spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest.
DEAN
All right, so what if we take off and this thing isn’t done? You know, what if we’ve missed something? What if more people get hurt?
SAM
But why would you think that?
DEAN
Because Lucas was really scared.
SAM
That’s what this is about?
DEAN
I just don’t want to leave this town until I know the kid’s okay.
SAM
Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?
But Dean, this job, I think it’s over.
DEAN
I’m not so sure.
SAM
If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter’s spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest.
DEAN
All right, so what if we take off and this thing isn’t done? You know, what if we’ve missed something? What if more people get hurt?
SAM
But why would you think that?
DEAN
Because Lucas was really scared.
SAM
That’s what this is about?
DEAN
I just don’t want to leave this town until I know the kid’s okay.
SAM
Who are you? And what have you done with my brother?
Again, I have no idea if this was the intent of the writers but the end result is that we have a Sam that has no idea who the hell his brother is, and not only that, doesn’t listen to his brother at all. Just one episode ago, Dean told Sam, point blank, that his reason to hunt is to make sure people are safe from ghosts and demons. So of course this whole case would be about making Lucas feel safer, and make sure that Lucas and his mom won’t be hurt. Why would Sam doubt it? And, more importantly, why would he claim that Dean being worried about a little kid well being is Dean acting out of character?
Speeches and Apologies
There are no great speeches in this episode, and no apologies at all. As I said, filler episode.
Final Tally
Next episode, I will be adding a filler episodes vs. story arc episodes. Just to have a clear view on who gets more focus and where.
AS a filler episode, this is a very normal, by the numbers episode. As an individual episode, I’d say that the Lucas/Dean parallel echoes the foreshadowing the Wendigo gave us on Sam, but I feel that’s stretching the facts way too much. Also, it’s the most common monster of the series, so it’s nothing special as a monster.
Still, unlike Wendigo, here the relationship is not as balanced as it was in the previous one, as now, Sam’s little digs seem to come from nowhere, and they are far more vicious than the ones in Wendigo. Also, to my surprise, it has the first time that Sam blames Dean for something it’s not Dean’s fault. I really thought that would happen way into Season 4.
Numbers (or the TL;DR summary)
(Episode/Total so far)
Times Dean has lied to Sam or to a loved one: 0 / 0
Times Sam has lied to Dean or to a loved one: 0 / 2
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0 / 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 0 / 0
Times Dean has hit Sam in anger: 0 / 1
Times Sam has hit Dean in anger: 0 / 0
Times Dean’s lies or secrets have caused someone’s death: 0 / 0
Times Sam’s lies or secrets have caused someone’s death: 0 / 1
Times Dean has abandoned (Or wanted to abandon) a hunt in the middle for his own needs: 0 / 0
Times Sam has abandoned (Or wanted to abandon) a hunt in the middle for his own needs: 1 / 3
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0 / 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 0 / 0
Secrets kept by Dean: 1 / 1
Secrets kept by Sam: 0 / 0
Times Dean has blamed Sam for something :0 / 0
Times Sam has blamed Dean for something: 1 / 1
Times Dean has apologized with words to Sam: 0 / 0
Times Sam has apologized with words to Dean : 0 / 1
Times Dean has respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 3
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 1 / 2
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 2 / 7
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 0 / 1