The Great Supernatural Rewatch Project - Skin
Apr 10, 2017 17:25:26 GMT -5
Mystique, hunenka, and 1 more like this
Post by luxshine on Apr 10, 2017 17:25:26 GMT -5
I'm going to try to keep updating this on Mondays, at least until I reach the last episode I have tallied (Right now is Dead Man's Blood)
Full disclaimer here. This is, bar none, my favorite episode of season 1. I love it, and I could rewatch it a thousand times.
But it is also one of the darkest re:The brother’s relationship and what they know about each other.
So… it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
General stuff
The cold opening always intrigued me. I was absolutely convinced that the girl HAD to be a demon or something like that, especially when I saw Jensen turn around, knife in hand. And it’s a great opening, because for the first time we see the Winchesters the way the ‘normal’ people
Anyway, once we get back to one week in the past, we have Dean and Sam talking about their future stops. Well, Dean talking and Sam not listening which is weird because not two episodes ago, Sam was all gung-ho on finding John as fast as possible.
The exchange starts like this:
Given the revelation last episode about the Winchesters’ money, I do wonder where the PalmPilot came from. Anyway, I am not counting Dean’s “Sam wears women’s underwear” as an insult from Dean TOWARDS Sam, since it’s obvious that he is saying something outrageous just to check if Sam is paying attention. It is also interesting given what we will learn further back in The End about Dean and pink panties, but whatever.
Also, it’s interesting that Sam is not even faking to care where they are going. Despite this being HIS search for revenge, he’s right now, pretty happy to go back to a bit of normal life, ignoring Dean.
So Sam is keeping in touch with his friends at Stanford, and the following dialogue will go on the Secrets and lies section because it pretty much tells us what is Sam’s position regarding lies. However, the short of it is that Sam will keep in touch with his friends (for now), keeping appearances of being perfectly normal (Which is Sam’s song and dance, never, ever show that he’s not like the average citizen) while Dean thinks that it’s better not to have ties to anyone who is not a hunter since they don’t understand the life, to what Sam calls him antisocial.
S
Now… in the light of The Purge speech? This is pretty important because here? We have Sam recognizing that his brother IS always alone. And Dean is pretty ok with it, since it’s his lot on life. SAM is the one who can’t picture being alone, cut from his friends; his 'normal’ friends, and I put this as a qualifier because as I said, this season, Sam’s quest to be 'normal’, and thus, ignore the heroic call, is pretty significant. Especially as we’re seeing that the first 5 seasons ended up being Sam’s heroic journey (as said by Krikpe when comparing Sam with Luke Skywalker and Dean to Han Solo)
Anyway, Sam finds an email from 'this girl who was a friend of mine ’ (That particular line bothers me because it doesn’t sound natural) and then decides that THEY have to go and help.
This is a very important exchange. First, Dean is pointing something quite true. Sam’s friends don’t know Sam very well, so it sets to reason that Sam might be wrong about Zack (He isn’t because then we wouldn’t have a show), and then Sam declares that they’re going to St. Louis. He’s not asking, he’s not even offering the possibility (Hey, I gotta see if I can help, we have to go to St. Louis’) but stating without a doubt 'We’re goin’“.
To this, Dean automatically balks, but, in the end, for no other reason than the fact that Sam says so? They go to St. Louis.
Which marks, again, how SAM is NOT cowed by his brother, or is afraid to make Dean obey him. He doesn’t even need a half-baked excuse like 'look, let’s check. Maybe Zack was possessed’. It’s just 'they’re my friends, we’re going to see them, and that’s it’.
And they go, where they find that yes, Becky’s trouble is pretty much one of their cases and Sam immediately volunteers them to investigate without warning Dean.
The following scene, when they go to the scene of the crime, is very contrived. There’s no real reason for them to go there WITH Becky, or for Sam to have told her that Dean was a cop, especially as the real important piece of evidence, the tape, was already in Becky’s hands, and she had done it before Sam came in. Without them going together? Becky can’t get mad at Sam and Dean later, so, as I said..pretty contrived, just to continue the plot.
This is, so far, Sam’s hunt. It’s his case, as he leads completely, so he gets to see the real first clue they have, the silver eyes of the doppleganger.
I make a small pause here to say that, joking with Becky, Sam has a very stereotypically sexist moment to get her out of the room… tells her to go to the kitchen, fetch some beers and make them some sandwiches. It is a humorous break, but it tell us exactly what is the humor level of the writers.
Anyway, they continue investigating and with the second attack., they find the shapeshifter’s trail, and then Sam gets hit with the contrived consequences of his lie (that are touched on the lies section) before they actually find the Shapeshifter’s lair and we get a really classic moment of both characters holding the idjit ball.
Because the last thing one would do when chasing a shapeshifter, is to separate.
Of course, there’s also the thing that for once? We see the boys encountering something they had never seen before. It is a bit sad, actually, considering Bloodlines, but at the same time, it is very interesting to see how they make deductions with only the skin residue left and start adapting accordingly.
(It also gives Adam Glass et. al a good defense. While we, as fandom, have been complaining that shapeshifters MUST shed their skin, what Dean says is "Maybe it (the shapeshifter) sheds, so it’s not really word of Chuck that Shifters shed, since it was ONE shifter, and the guys were assuming things.)
The idjit ball moment is enough for the shapeshifter to get Dean off camera, and attack Sam who practically immediately realizes that it is not Dean. Unfortunately, not fast enough to stop the shifter from getting access to the Impala arsenal. (I do have to keep a count on the many times that someone tries to fool Sam by pretending to be Dean and how many times they have succeeded. So far, it’s 1/1, since here he wasn’t fooled, and 9 years from now, he will be fooled by Gadreel)
And here we get to the moment that makes it hard to decide if this is a filler episode focused on Sam -who has been the leader in the investigation- or a filler episode focused on Dean because the shifter speech as Dean? Is gut wrenching and it shows a side of Dean that has been the cornerstone of Dean’s characterization for 9 years.
Let’s take it apart here, since it doesn’t fit any of the subjects that I usually cover.
This is interesting, since we will learn later that the shifter’s family was terrible. But apparently, the Winchesters are worse than being shunned and hunted as a freak.
Here, the shifter is losing himself to Dean’s personality (Something that I will forever insist would’ve made an interesting subplot, but it’s not a dropped plot but a missing chance) as we can see by the shift from "he” to “I”. And yes, of course Dean had dreams of his own (dreams that aren’t mentioned here, but later we find out that he at some point wanted to be a firefighter, much, much later we will find out that he did learn to play the guitar. And… that’s about it) but John needed him.
This is a very strange sense of responsibility, that goes hand in hand with parentification. Why John needed Dean? Here, we can assume Dean!Shifter meant as moral support, but later on with Something Wicked, a Very Winchester Christmas, After School Special and Bad Boys? We also know that John required a babysitter. Someone who could take care of Sam, while he was out working which is… really unfair to Dean. And shows that yes, the parentification was stated from the beginning of the series and it did affect how Dean thought. Notice, he never says 'I had to take care of you’ -implying that it was Sam’s fault, or that Dean resents Sam himself for this. Which leads us to:
Sam, in Dean’s view, is blameless. He’s not to be blamed for Dean’s childhood situation, but envied because he could leave. (This, at least for me, made Dark Side of the Moon more painful). So, not only Sam is blameless, but Sam deserves a future, where Dean is a freak that will always end up alone. This has been constant -and very reinforced- all the way up until season 9, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it continues to be the case in season 10. It is, after all, what Dean tells Sam in season 8’s Trial and Error, and later in season 9 Holy Terror. It was not something 'gradual’ that was caused by the events in the series, it is something that existed since before all that happened. Even before Sam revealed his powers, Dean thought of himself as a Freak who deserved to be alone.
Sam left, Dad left, everyone leaves Dean, no matter what he does. If he does the right thing, he ends up alone, if he does the wrong thing, he ends up alone. It’s not that Dean wants to be alone, it’s that he has decided, it’s his destiny. Because he always ends up the same way.
The shifter ends with what has been Dean’s biggest informed trait so far in the series, his 'he’ll try to sleep with every girl he meets’ reputation. And yes, it might be true that Dean wanted to get to know Becky better, but given the shifter’s M.O. and that we haven’t seen Dean try to even kiss any of the female witnesses of the week, Dean’s horn dog status remains in the 'tell’ column. They keep telling us he's a horn dog, we still haven’t seen him BE one. (I mean, we will. I remember season 3, and 4, and that horrible episode in season 6 , and then the one in season 9, but so far, it seems to be just a thing that is being repeated just to see if we believe it)
So the shifter goes to see Becky, and he, by virtue of using Dean’s charm -and we know it’s Dean’s charm, as they mind-melded- gets inside the house and does exactly what Dean has done every other episode (Except for Bloody Mary where it was Sam the one who did it), and tells Becky the truth. And while he does that, he lets his true story shine when Becky makes the mistake of calling the shifter a Freak. And then he goes all psycho crazy, because he needs to be crazy psycho for the case to work.
Dean gets out of the ropes the shapeshifter left him, and frees Sam, while making clear that he didn’t listen to what the shifter told Sam, and then we get the narrative reason why the shifter choose Dean instead of Sam. And no, it’s not that he got the 'handsome one’. It is that, to be able to save Becky, Sam calls the cops and gives them DEAN description. If the places had been switched, Dean wouldn’t have wanted to do that to Sam (he doesn’t want to do it to himself) but, more importantly? At this point the series is trying to sell us that Sam CAN go back to his normal life once he avenges Jess. That’s his drive, and that’s what he keeps telling he’s going to do. Can’t get in pre-law and be a star student in Stanford if he’s the suspect of torturing and almost killing one of his friends. So the fact that Dean was chosen, was an out of universe way to keep Sam’s future open.
And then we get the horrifying, but great, sequence of the shapeshifter shedding his skin. I miss those great effects in Supernatural.
The brothers see that Dean is now actively being chased as a suspect for attempted murder and then Sam wants to… apparently rest for the night, as he claims that they can check on Becky in the morning, while Dean wants to find the shapeshifter right then and there, because he wants revenge. After all, it’s personal for him now. Sam at first is not convinced -he repeats twice that they have no weapons- but finally accept so they have to go back to Becky’s in order to find the Imapala and their arsenal.
While Sam goes to Becky’s house, Dean goes back to the sewers. Which is a good think, because if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t see that now the Shifter looks like Becky (his shifting becomes really fast in this last sequence) and thus, now Sam is in danger.
This, once again, shows the problems that Kirkpe and co. have by balancing the hero act between two characters when they had only considered one hero in the first place. Dean ends up saving Sam more often than not because Sam has to be the one who hears the monster gloat.
The shifter then says something that puzzled me at the time, and still does:
Now, we know that the shapeshiter mindmelded with Dean and with Becky. From Dean he got all what Dean feels about his life situation, but we already heard that, and in that dialogue, there was nothing to show that Dean feels that Sam doesn’t appreciate him -to the contrary, to be honest. And Becky didn’t know Dean enough to know if Sam appreciated him or not.
So we’ve got two possible interpretations: Either Dean does think that Sam doesn’t appreciate him -and he keeps that so deeply buried inside his psyche that he doesn’t even register it most of the time- or the shapeshifter came to that conclusion himself, after reading all of Dean’s memories. Both are equally supported by what we know of this episode, but if it is the second? It’s the first time in universe that someone tells Sam that he doesn’t know what he has in his brother.
Sam and the doppleganger fight -and I’ll cover that a bit more in the violence section due to the fact that for some reason that I still don’t understand people use gifs from this fight to claim that Dean beats his brother, and the doppleganger gets the upper hand. If it is because Sam is not fighting as hard as he can against someone who looks like his brother, or because what the doppleganger said it’s true (“Even when we were kids, I always kicked your ass.”) is up to debate.
Dean arrives, in the nick of time, to shoot the shifter. And as I said in the original first watch review, it is telling that he doesn’t even hesitate. He just shoots the monster wearing his face. I still think that is a small foreshadowing to his self hate, but it could be just that he knows it’s not him.
Monster dead, we go to the epilogue which has a couple of problematic things on the way Sam says goodbye to Becky.
In here, Sam doesn’t say that hunting is something that he does. It’s his family thing, not his. He keeps separating himself, and acts as if he was doing it for Dean, not for himself -obviously he didn’t say that Jess was killed by a demon, or that he’s looking to avenge her. The impression he gives his friend? Is that he’s doing it for Dean.
Which is a pretty shitty image to give especially when later on we have this:
Here it is. Canonical proof that Dean? Wants Sam to have his normal life. He is not saying that Sam can’t have it, the one who says that, is Sam, who, for the first time, admits that he didn’t feel like he fit in Santford. Sam the one who, by saying goodbye to Becky, is temporarily saying goodbye to his normal life.
Dean calls him a freak then, but I don’t count this as an emotional violent moment here because contextually? Thanks to the shifter we know that Dean himself thinks he’s a freak. And Dean’s next line is to call himself a freak too. It’s a clumsy, but heartfelt, way of saying 'you fit with me, because we’re family and I will never leave you alone, even if you leave me’ and not an insult, as some might believe.
And with that, and Dean making a joke of his own funeral, we end Skin.
Violence
This is another episode where there is no violence between the brothers BUT there’s a fight scene between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. (Or their stunt doubles. Take your pick)
It is a very well choreographed scene by the way, and one that sets certain very, very dark precedents for the future (In particular the Sex and Violence fight, where a possessed Dean can beat a Demon Blood powered Sam, and the When the Leeve Breaks, where Sam chokes Dean to finish the fight), as well as tell us that yes, the brothers trained together, usually by fighting each other.
But it is important to note, that no, it is not Dean choking Sam, or trying to hurt Sam. And thus, this particular fight has no place in any 'Dean hits Sam’ argument.
Emotional Violence
The scene where Sam and Dean arrive at Becky’s is very interesting in many ways. First, we know that Becky and her brother are the kind of people that Sam likes and respect. Rich, college student -as opposed to poor, depending on college loans, students- and, in a bit that at first I wanted to chalk to cultural differences… Sam doesn’t introduce Dean to Becky.
Dean has to introduce himself. Now, this would be harmless and maybe me overreacting, if it wasn’t for the fact that a) In the Pilot we already had the implication that Sam didn’t mention Dean at all outside of 'I have an older brother’, b) we have been made aware also that Sam is ashamed of his family in general, and c) with his easy lie later that his brother is a cop, we can also assume that he NEVER talked about his family to his friend, as Becky didn’t say something like 'I thought your brother was a (whatever job Dean used as cover, like John being a traveling salesman). This is more proof that, for Sam, his 'real’ life, and his family life should be kept as apart as possible.
At least in this episode, it’s hard not to realize that for the two (four) years that Sam was at Stanford? He was ashamed of his brother to the point of almost erasing him from his life.
And Dean grins at takes it, rolling with the punches.
There’s also the fact that, after Sam calls an APB against Dean -to save Becky- he doesn’t seem very sympathetic to either the fact that Dean is now officially a fugitive, that Dean is trying to see the bright side of it (Dean’s comment that the picture on tv is not a good one is welcomed with a traditional bitchface and an exasperated sigh) or Dean’s comments about how he is upset at the fact that the shapeshifter took his shape, and his car:
It might not be a whole speech on how Dean’s feelings do not matter, but the idea is clear. you are not to feel upset for this, you can’t complain over this, how you feel is not important because there are other things we have to do.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
I said before, that this is the episode that give us a first seat view to Sam’s view about lies, and it comes not 3 minutes in:
Ok, so Sam uses the Obi-Wan Kenobi approach, the 'It’s the truth from a certain point of view’ idea. Dean, on the other hand, calls it the way it is, a lie. Now, he doesn’t condemn Sam, or tell him he’s wrong. In fact, he supports lying… as long as Sam is not fooling himself and admits that yes, he’s lying.
Only that later? We will learn that Dean? Is not telling the full story to Sam either. We will learn the full story is that when Dean has told the truth he’s been rejected. Is he then trying to protect Sam from the same pain? That’s a possible interpretation, but of course, it’s not canon as we really don’t know. We only know that Dean HAS told the truth to civilians -more than once, really, as he also did it in Wendigo, Dead in the Water, the poltergeist case for Frank in Phantom Traveler, Phantom Traveler AND Bloody Mary- so he is lying here TO Sam, and later in the episode, we will get to know his reasons.
Anyway, later on, Sam keeps lying for his own benefit:
This is a very stupid thing to do. Yes, the boys constantly pretend to be cops but they also try to keep their involvement as secret as possible. Sam is a pre-law student, and Rebecca WAS his classmate. He should have known that Rebecca WOULD mention the out-of-state cop that came to help her brother to her lawyers, because that’s the kind of thing law students do.
Dean calls him out on this, too, but drops the subject quickly and instead focuses on the investigation.
Still, the lie doesn’t hold for long - and it really makes the whole scene at Zach’s house with Becky feel like a Shaggy Dog moment- and we get this:
There are a lot of things going on here. First, the real, and “unfair” reaction by Rebecca (Who I’ve been calling Becky because that’s what Sam called her first and then it stuck). She is Right to be angry at Sam. Because yes, Sam lied to her and put her brother’s case at risk. With THREE people entering a closed crime scene? Even if they did find someone else’s DNA that could in some other case exonerate Zach, now that was render useless and thus only the first evidence, which is Zach’s DNA, would be used.
But instead of using this as a way to show that hey, honesty is for the best and we should be as honest as possible with our 'clients’, the writers choose this to justify Sam’s lies, by having Dean tell him that yes, it is necessary to lie to your friends so they won’t reject you…. or be without friends.
Which is funny, since as I said, Dean tends to tell people the truth when asked point blank, and Sam is the one who invents excuses. Except in Bugs, when for no real reason, the brother’s position about how to tell mundane about the supernatural turns around completely. We’ll see that later.
For now, the end result is that the universe is telling us “Sam is right to lie, even when it causes problems for other people, because he needs to protect his feelings” . Keep that in mind, and also keep in mind that the show rewards him for it, since at the end Becky forgives him for everything.
Speeches and Apologies
No speeches or apologies here. And Sam didn’t tell Dean what the shape shifter said about Dean’s feelings.
Final Tally
This episode is a bit hard for me to classify. It is filler, of course, but, is it centered on Sam and his relationship with his friends from Stanford and his cutting all the ties with the past? Or on Dean’s hidden fears? This is something similar to Scarecrow and Croatoan, also written by John Shiban, but given the time that Sam’s issues take, I’m going to put it as a Sam focused filler on the countdown.
Other than that… the emotional violence tally is not looking good on Sam’s part, is it? The only reason why it’s not growing is because the things he did in this episode -mostly ignoring Dean in general and getting Dean in huge problems- is not tallied, and the violence tally is still without movement.
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: 1 / 3
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0 / 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 1 / 1
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: 0 / 3
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0 / 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 2 / 2
Secrets kept by Dean: 0 / 1
Secrets kept by Sam: 0 / 1
Times Dean has blamed Sam for something :0 / 0
Times Sam has blamed Dean for something: 0 / 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 / 4
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 2
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 1 / 12
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 1 / 2
Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 2
Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 2
Arc episodes dedicated to Dean: 0 / 0
Filler episodes dedicated to Dean : 0 / 1
Arc episodes dedicated to both brothers (or to none) : 0 / 1
Filler episodes dedicated to both brothers (or to none) : 0 / 0
Dean’s Dropped Plotlines : 0 / 1
Sam’s Dropped Plotlines : 0 / 1
Full disclaimer here. This is, bar none, my favorite episode of season 1. I love it, and I could rewatch it a thousand times.
But it is also one of the darkest re:The brother’s relationship and what they know about each other.
So… it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
General stuff
The cold opening always intrigued me. I was absolutely convinced that the girl HAD to be a demon or something like that, especially when I saw Jensen turn around, knife in hand. And it’s a great opening, because for the first time we see the Winchesters the way the ‘normal’ people
Anyway, once we get back to one week in the past, we have Dean and Sam talking about their future stops. Well, Dean talking and Sam not listening which is weird because not two episodes ago, Sam was all gung-ho on finding John as fast as possible.
The exchange starts like this:
DEAN: Alright, I figure we’d hit Tucumcari by lunch, then head south, hit Bisbee by midnight. (SAM does not respond.) Sam wears women’s underwear.
SAM: I’ve been listenin’, I’m just busy. (He is checking e-mails on his PalmPilot.)
DEAN: Busy doin’ what?
SAM: Reading e-mails. (DEAN gets out of the car and starts to fill the tank with gas.)
DEAN: E-mails from who?
SAM: From my friends at Stanford.
DEAN: You’re kidding. You still keep in touch with your college buddies?
SAM: Why not?
SAM: I’ve been listenin’, I’m just busy. (He is checking e-mails on his PalmPilot.)
DEAN: Busy doin’ what?
SAM: Reading e-mails. (DEAN gets out of the car and starts to fill the tank with gas.)
DEAN: E-mails from who?
SAM: From my friends at Stanford.
DEAN: You’re kidding. You still keep in touch with your college buddies?
SAM: Why not?
Given the revelation last episode about the Winchesters’ money, I do wonder where the PalmPilot came from. Anyway, I am not counting Dean’s “Sam wears women’s underwear” as an insult from Dean TOWARDS Sam, since it’s obvious that he is saying something outrageous just to check if Sam is paying attention. It is also interesting given what we will learn further back in The End about Dean and pink panties, but whatever.
Also, it’s interesting that Sam is not even faking to care where they are going. Despite this being HIS search for revenge, he’s right now, pretty happy to go back to a bit of normal life, ignoring Dean.
So Sam is keeping in touch with his friends at Stanford, and the following dialogue will go on the Secrets and lies section because it pretty much tells us what is Sam’s position regarding lies. However, the short of it is that Sam will keep in touch with his friends (for now), keeping appearances of being perfectly normal (Which is Sam’s song and dance, never, ever show that he’s not like the average citizen) while Dean thinks that it’s better not to have ties to anyone who is not a hunter since they don’t understand the life, to what Sam calls him antisocial.
S
AM: So, what am I supposed to do, just cut everybody out of my life? (DEAN shrugs.) You’re serious?
DEAN: Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can’t get close to people, period.
SAM: You’re kind of anti-social, you know that?
DEAN: Yeah, whatever. (SAM continues to read his e-mails.)
DEAN: Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can’t get close to people, period.
SAM: You’re kind of anti-social, you know that?
DEAN: Yeah, whatever. (SAM continues to read his e-mails.)
Now… in the light of The Purge speech? This is pretty important because here? We have Sam recognizing that his brother IS always alone. And Dean is pretty ok with it, since it’s his lot on life. SAM is the one who can’t picture being alone, cut from his friends; his 'normal’ friends, and I put this as a qualifier because as I said, this season, Sam’s quest to be 'normal’, and thus, ignore the heroic call, is pretty significant. Especially as we’re seeing that the first 5 seasons ended up being Sam’s heroic journey (as said by Krikpe when comparing Sam with Luke Skywalker and Dean to Han Solo)
Anyway, Sam finds an email from 'this girl who was a friend of mine ’ (That particular line bothers me because it doesn’t sound natural) and then decides that THEY have to go and help.
SAM: I went to school with her, and her brother, Zack. She says Zack’s been charged with murder. He’s been arrested for killing his girlfriend. Rebecca says he didn’t do it, but it sounds like the cops have a pretty good case.
DEAN: Dude, what kind of people are you hangin’ out with?
SAM: No, man, I know Zack. He’s no killer.
DEAN: Well, maybe you know Zack as well as he knows you.
SAM: They’re in St. Louis. We’re goin’. (DEAN chuckles.)
DEAN: Dude, what kind of people are you hangin’ out with?
SAM: No, man, I know Zack. He’s no killer.
DEAN: Well, maybe you know Zack as well as he knows you.
SAM: They’re in St. Louis. We’re goin’. (DEAN chuckles.)
This is a very important exchange. First, Dean is pointing something quite true. Sam’s friends don’t know Sam very well, so it sets to reason that Sam might be wrong about Zack (He isn’t because then we wouldn’t have a show), and then Sam declares that they’re going to St. Louis. He’s not asking, he’s not even offering the possibility (Hey, I gotta see if I can help, we have to go to St. Louis’) but stating without a doubt 'We’re goin’“.
To this, Dean automatically balks, but, in the end, for no other reason than the fact that Sam says so? They go to St. Louis.
Which marks, again, how SAM is NOT cowed by his brother, or is afraid to make Dean obey him. He doesn’t even need a half-baked excuse like 'look, let’s check. Maybe Zack was possessed’. It’s just 'they’re my friends, we’re going to see them, and that’s it’.
And they go, where they find that yes, Becky’s trouble is pretty much one of their cases and Sam immediately volunteers them to investigate without warning Dean.
The following scene, when they go to the scene of the crime, is very contrived. There’s no real reason for them to go there WITH Becky, or for Sam to have told her that Dean was a cop, especially as the real important piece of evidence, the tape, was already in Becky’s hands, and she had done it before Sam came in. Without them going together? Becky can’t get mad at Sam and Dean later, so, as I said..pretty contrived, just to continue the plot.
This is, so far, Sam’s hunt. It’s his case, as he leads completely, so he gets to see the real first clue they have, the silver eyes of the doppleganger.
I make a small pause here to say that, joking with Becky, Sam has a very stereotypically sexist moment to get her out of the room… tells her to go to the kitchen, fetch some beers and make them some sandwiches. It is a humorous break, but it tell us exactly what is the humor level of the writers.
Anyway, they continue investigating and with the second attack., they find the shapeshifter’s trail, and then Sam gets hit with the contrived consequences of his lie (that are touched on the lies section) before they actually find the Shapeshifter’s lair and we get a really classic moment of both characters holding the idjit ball.
Because the last thing one would do when chasing a shapeshifter, is to separate.
Of course, there’s also the thing that for once? We see the boys encountering something they had never seen before. It is a bit sad, actually, considering Bloodlines, but at the same time, it is very interesting to see how they make deductions with only the skin residue left and start adapting accordingly.
(It also gives Adam Glass et. al a good defense. While we, as fandom, have been complaining that shapeshifters MUST shed their skin, what Dean says is "Maybe it (the shapeshifter) sheds, so it’s not really word of Chuck that Shifters shed, since it was ONE shifter, and the guys were assuming things.)
The idjit ball moment is enough for the shapeshifter to get Dean off camera, and attack Sam who practically immediately realizes that it is not Dean. Unfortunately, not fast enough to stop the shifter from getting access to the Impala arsenal. (I do have to keep a count on the many times that someone tries to fool Sam by pretending to be Dean and how many times they have succeeded. So far, it’s 1/1, since here he wasn’t fooled, and 9 years from now, he will be fooled by Gadreel)
And here we get to the moment that makes it hard to decide if this is a filler episode focused on Sam -who has been the leader in the investigation- or a filler episode focused on Dean because the shifter speech as Dean? Is gut wrenching and it shows a side of Dean that has been the cornerstone of Dean’s characterization for 9 years.
Let’s take it apart here, since it doesn’t fit any of the subjects that I usually cover.
SHAPESHIFTER: You don’t really wanna know. (He chuckles.) I swear, the more I learn about you and your family—I thought I came from a bad background.
This is interesting, since we will learn later that the shifter’s family was terrible. But apparently, the Winchesters are worse than being shunned and hunted as a freak.
SAM: What do you mean, learn? (The shapeshifter stops. He grabs his head in pain and grimaces. A quick succession of audio clips from past episodes can be heard. SAM looks at the shapeshifter, confused. The shapeshifter relaxes and looks at SAM.)
SHAPESHIFTER: He’s sure got issues with you. You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home. With Dad. You don’t think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you?
SHAPESHIFTER: He’s sure got issues with you. You got to go to college. He had to stay home. I mean, I had to stay home. With Dad. You don’t think I had dreams of my own? But Dad needed me. Where the hell were you?
Here, the shifter is losing himself to Dean’s personality (Something that I will forever insist would’ve made an interesting subplot, but it’s not a dropped plot but a missing chance) as we can see by the shift from "he” to “I”. And yes, of course Dean had dreams of his own (dreams that aren’t mentioned here, but later we find out that he at some point wanted to be a firefighter, much, much later we will find out that he did learn to play the guitar. And… that’s about it) but John needed him.
This is a very strange sense of responsibility, that goes hand in hand with parentification. Why John needed Dean? Here, we can assume Dean!Shifter meant as moral support, but later on with Something Wicked, a Very Winchester Christmas, After School Special and Bad Boys? We also know that John required a babysitter. Someone who could take care of Sam, while he was out working which is… really unfair to Dean. And shows that yes, the parentification was stated from the beginning of the series and it did affect how Dean thought. Notice, he never says 'I had to take care of you’ -implying that it was Sam’s fault, or that Dean resents Sam himself for this. Which leads us to:
SAM: Where is my brother? (The shapeshifter leans in close to SAM.)
SHAPESHIFTER: I am your brother. See, deep down, I’m just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. Me? I know I’m a freak. And sooner or later, everybody’s gonna leave me. (He backs away.)
SHAPESHIFTER: I am your brother. See, deep down, I’m just jealous. You got friends. You could have a life. Me? I know I’m a freak. And sooner or later, everybody’s gonna leave me. (He backs away.)
Sam, in Dean’s view, is blameless. He’s not to be blamed for Dean’s childhood situation, but envied because he could leave. (This, at least for me, made Dark Side of the Moon more painful). So, not only Sam is blameless, but Sam deserves a future, where Dean is a freak that will always end up alone. This has been constant -and very reinforced- all the way up until season 9, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it continues to be the case in season 10. It is, after all, what Dean tells Sam in season 8’s Trial and Error, and later in season 9 Holy Terror. It was not something 'gradual’ that was caused by the events in the series, it is something that existed since before all that happened. Even before Sam revealed his powers, Dean thought of himself as a Freak who deserved to be alone.
SAM: What are you talkin’ about?
SHAPESHIFTER: You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me, too. No explanation, nothin’, just poof. Left me with your sorry ass. But, still, this life? It’s not without its perks. (He laughs.) I meet the nicest people. Like little Becky. You know, Dean would bang her if he had the chance. Let’s see what happens. (He smiles and covers SAM with a sheet.)
SHAPESHIFTER: You left. Hell, I did everything Dad asked me to, and he ditched me, too. No explanation, nothin’, just poof. Left me with your sorry ass. But, still, this life? It’s not without its perks. (He laughs.) I meet the nicest people. Like little Becky. You know, Dean would bang her if he had the chance. Let’s see what happens. (He smiles and covers SAM with a sheet.)
Sam left, Dad left, everyone leaves Dean, no matter what he does. If he does the right thing, he ends up alone, if he does the wrong thing, he ends up alone. It’s not that Dean wants to be alone, it’s that he has decided, it’s his destiny. Because he always ends up the same way.
The shifter ends with what has been Dean’s biggest informed trait so far in the series, his 'he’ll try to sleep with every girl he meets’ reputation. And yes, it might be true that Dean wanted to get to know Becky better, but given the shifter’s M.O. and that we haven’t seen Dean try to even kiss any of the female witnesses of the week, Dean’s horn dog status remains in the 'tell’ column. They keep telling us he's a horn dog, we still haven’t seen him BE one. (I mean, we will. I remember season 3, and 4, and that horrible episode in season 6 , and then the one in season 9, but so far, it seems to be just a thing that is being repeated just to see if we believe it)
So the shifter goes to see Becky, and he, by virtue of using Dean’s charm -and we know it’s Dean’s charm, as they mind-melded- gets inside the house and does exactly what Dean has done every other episode (Except for Bloody Mary where it was Sam the one who did it), and tells Becky the truth. And while he does that, he lets his true story shine when Becky makes the mistake of calling the shifter a Freak. And then he goes all psycho crazy, because he needs to be crazy psycho for the case to work.
Dean gets out of the ropes the shapeshifter left him, and frees Sam, while making clear that he didn’t listen to what the shifter told Sam, and then we get the narrative reason why the shifter choose Dean instead of Sam. And no, it’s not that he got the 'handsome one’. It is that, to be able to save Becky, Sam calls the cops and gives them DEAN description. If the places had been switched, Dean wouldn’t have wanted to do that to Sam (he doesn’t want to do it to himself) but, more importantly? At this point the series is trying to sell us that Sam CAN go back to his normal life once he avenges Jess. That’s his drive, and that’s what he keeps telling he’s going to do. Can’t get in pre-law and be a star student in Stanford if he’s the suspect of torturing and almost killing one of his friends. So the fact that Dean was chosen, was an out of universe way to keep Sam’s future open.
And then we get the horrifying, but great, sequence of the shapeshifter shedding his skin. I miss those great effects in Supernatural.
The brothers see that Dean is now actively being chased as a suspect for attempted murder and then Sam wants to… apparently rest for the night, as he claims that they can check on Becky in the morning, while Dean wants to find the shapeshifter right then and there, because he wants revenge. After all, it’s personal for him now. Sam at first is not convinced -he repeats twice that they have no weapons- but finally accept so they have to go back to Becky’s in order to find the Imapala and their arsenal.
While Sam goes to Becky’s house, Dean goes back to the sewers. Which is a good think, because if he hadn’t, we wouldn’t see that now the Shifter looks like Becky (his shifting becomes really fast in this last sequence) and thus, now Sam is in danger.
This, once again, shows the problems that Kirkpe and co. have by balancing the hero act between two characters when they had only considered one hero in the first place. Dean ends up saving Sam more often than not because Sam has to be the one who hears the monster gloat.
The shifter then says something that puzzled me at the time, and still does:
SHAPESHIFTER: I must say, I will be sorry to lose this skin. Your brother’s got a lot of good qualities. You should appreciate him more than you do.
Now, we know that the shapeshiter mindmelded with Dean and with Becky. From Dean he got all what Dean feels about his life situation, but we already heard that, and in that dialogue, there was nothing to show that Dean feels that Sam doesn’t appreciate him -to the contrary, to be honest. And Becky didn’t know Dean enough to know if Sam appreciated him or not.
So we’ve got two possible interpretations: Either Dean does think that Sam doesn’t appreciate him -and he keeps that so deeply buried inside his psyche that he doesn’t even register it most of the time- or the shapeshifter came to that conclusion himself, after reading all of Dean’s memories. Both are equally supported by what we know of this episode, but if it is the second? It’s the first time in universe that someone tells Sam that he doesn’t know what he has in his brother.
Sam and the doppleganger fight -and I’ll cover that a bit more in the violence section due to the fact that for some reason that I still don’t understand people use gifs from this fight to claim that Dean beats his brother, and the doppleganger gets the upper hand. If it is because Sam is not fighting as hard as he can against someone who looks like his brother, or because what the doppleganger said it’s true (“Even when we were kids, I always kicked your ass.”) is up to debate.
Dean arrives, in the nick of time, to shoot the shifter. And as I said in the original first watch review, it is telling that he doesn’t even hesitate. He just shoots the monster wearing his face. I still think that is a small foreshadowing to his self hate, but it could be just that he knows it’s not him.
Monster dead, we go to the epilogue which has a couple of problematic things on the way Sam says goodbye to Becky.
REBECCA: So, this is what you do? You and your brother—you hunt down these kinds of things?
SAM: Yeah, pretty much.
REBECCA: I can’t believe it. I mean, I saw it with my own eyes. And, I mean, does everybody at school—nobody knows that you do this?
SAM: No.
REBECCA: Did Jessica know? (SAM looks thoughtful.)
SAM: No, she didn’t.
REBECCA: Must be lonely.
SAM: Oh, no. No, it’s not so bad. Anyway, what can I do? It’s my family. (She laughs.)
REBECCA: Well, you know, Zack and me, and everybody at school—we really miss you. (She hugs him.)
SAM: (sadly) Yeah, me too. (They pull away.)
REBECCA: Well, will you call sometime?
SAM: It might not be for a little while.
SAM: Yeah, pretty much.
REBECCA: I can’t believe it. I mean, I saw it with my own eyes. And, I mean, does everybody at school—nobody knows that you do this?
SAM: No.
REBECCA: Did Jessica know? (SAM looks thoughtful.)
SAM: No, she didn’t.
REBECCA: Must be lonely.
SAM: Oh, no. No, it’s not so bad. Anyway, what can I do? It’s my family. (She laughs.)
REBECCA: Well, you know, Zack and me, and everybody at school—we really miss you. (She hugs him.)
SAM: (sadly) Yeah, me too. (They pull away.)
REBECCA: Well, will you call sometime?
SAM: It might not be for a little while.
In here, Sam doesn’t say that hunting is something that he does. It’s his family thing, not his. He keeps separating himself, and acts as if he was doing it for Dean, not for himself -obviously he didn’t say that Jess was killed by a demon, or that he’s looking to avenge her. The impression he gives his friend? Is that he’s doing it for Dean.
Which is a pretty shitty image to give especially when later on we have this:
DEAN: Sorry, man.
SAM: About what?
DEAN: I really wish things could be different, you know? I wish you could just be….Joe College.
SAM: No, that’s okay. You know, the truth is, even at Stanford, deep down, I never really fit in.
DEAN: Well, that’s ‘cause you’re a freak.
SAM: Yeah, thanks.
DEAN: Well, I’m a freak, too. I’m right there with ya, all the way.
SAM: About what?
DEAN: I really wish things could be different, you know? I wish you could just be….Joe College.
SAM: No, that’s okay. You know, the truth is, even at Stanford, deep down, I never really fit in.
DEAN: Well, that’s ‘cause you’re a freak.
SAM: Yeah, thanks.
DEAN: Well, I’m a freak, too. I’m right there with ya, all the way.
Here it is. Canonical proof that Dean? Wants Sam to have his normal life. He is not saying that Sam can’t have it, the one who says that, is Sam, who, for the first time, admits that he didn’t feel like he fit in Santford. Sam the one who, by saying goodbye to Becky, is temporarily saying goodbye to his normal life.
Dean calls him a freak then, but I don’t count this as an emotional violent moment here because contextually? Thanks to the shifter we know that Dean himself thinks he’s a freak. And Dean’s next line is to call himself a freak too. It’s a clumsy, but heartfelt, way of saying 'you fit with me, because we’re family and I will never leave you alone, even if you leave me’ and not an insult, as some might believe.
And with that, and Dean making a joke of his own funeral, we end Skin.
Violence
This is another episode where there is no violence between the brothers BUT there’s a fight scene between Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. (Or their stunt doubles. Take your pick)
It is a very well choreographed scene by the way, and one that sets certain very, very dark precedents for the future (In particular the Sex and Violence fight, where a possessed Dean can beat a Demon Blood powered Sam, and the When the Leeve Breaks, where Sam chokes Dean to finish the fight), as well as tell us that yes, the brothers trained together, usually by fighting each other.
But it is important to note, that no, it is not Dean choking Sam, or trying to hurt Sam. And thus, this particular fight has no place in any 'Dean hits Sam’ argument.
Emotional Violence
The scene where Sam and Dean arrive at Becky’s is very interesting in many ways. First, we know that Becky and her brother are the kind of people that Sam likes and respect. Rich, college student -as opposed to poor, depending on college loans, students- and, in a bit that at first I wanted to chalk to cultural differences… Sam doesn’t introduce Dean to Becky.
REBECCA: I didn’t think that you would come here. (DEAN steps forward and extends his hand.)
DEAN: Dean. Older brother. (She shakes his hand.)
REBECCA: Hi.
DEAN: Hi.
DEAN: Dean. Older brother. (She shakes his hand.)
REBECCA: Hi.
DEAN: Hi.
Dean has to introduce himself. Now, this would be harmless and maybe me overreacting, if it wasn’t for the fact that a) In the Pilot we already had the implication that Sam didn’t mention Dean at all outside of 'I have an older brother’, b) we have been made aware also that Sam is ashamed of his family in general, and c) with his easy lie later that his brother is a cop, we can also assume that he NEVER talked about his family to his friend, as Becky didn’t say something like 'I thought your brother was a (whatever job Dean used as cover, like John being a traveling salesman). This is more proof that, for Sam, his 'real’ life, and his family life should be kept as apart as possible.
At least in this episode, it’s hard not to realize that for the two (four) years that Sam was at Stanford? He was ashamed of his brother to the point of almost erasing him from his life.
And Dean grins at takes it, rolling with the punches.
There’s also the fact that, after Sam calls an APB against Dean -to save Becky- he doesn’t seem very sympathetic to either the fact that Dean is now officially a fugitive, that Dean is trying to see the bright side of it (Dean’s comment that the picture on tv is not a good one is welcomed with a traditional bitchface and an exasperated sigh) or Dean’s comments about how he is upset at the fact that the shapeshifter took his shape, and his car:
DEAN: (upset) The thought of him drivin’ my car.
SAM: All right, come on. (They start walking.)
DEAN: It’s killin’ me.
SAM: Let it go.
SAM: All right, come on. (They start walking.)
DEAN: It’s killin’ me.
SAM: Let it go.
It might not be a whole speech on how Dean’s feelings do not matter, but the idea is clear. you are not to feel upset for this, you can’t complain over this, how you feel is not important because there are other things we have to do.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
I said before, that this is the episode that give us a first seat view to Sam’s view about lies, and it comes not 3 minutes in:
DEAN: Well, what exactly do you tell ‘em? You know, about where you’ve been, what you’ve been doin’?
SAM: I tell ‘em I’m on a road trip with my big brother. I tell ‘em I needed some time off after Jess.
DEAN: Oh, so you lie to ‘em.
SAM: No. I just don’t tell ‘em….everything.
DEAN: Yeah, that’s called lying. I mean, hey, man, I get it, tellin’ the truth is far worse.
SAM: So, what am I supposed to do, just cut everybody out of my life? (DEAN shrugs.) You’re serious?
DEAN: Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can’t get close to people, period.
SAM: You’re kind of anti-social, you know that?
DEAN: Yeah, whatever. (SAM continues to read his e-mails.)
SAM: I tell ‘em I’m on a road trip with my big brother. I tell ‘em I needed some time off after Jess.
DEAN: Oh, so you lie to ‘em.
SAM: No. I just don’t tell ‘em….everything.
DEAN: Yeah, that’s called lying. I mean, hey, man, I get it, tellin’ the truth is far worse.
SAM: So, what am I supposed to do, just cut everybody out of my life? (DEAN shrugs.) You’re serious?
DEAN: Look, it sucks, but in a job like this, you can’t get close to people, period.
SAM: You’re kind of anti-social, you know that?
DEAN: Yeah, whatever. (SAM continues to read his e-mails.)
Ok, so Sam uses the Obi-Wan Kenobi approach, the 'It’s the truth from a certain point of view’ idea. Dean, on the other hand, calls it the way it is, a lie. Now, he doesn’t condemn Sam, or tell him he’s wrong. In fact, he supports lying… as long as Sam is not fooling himself and admits that yes, he’s lying.
Only that later? We will learn that Dean? Is not telling the full story to Sam either. We will learn the full story is that when Dean has told the truth he’s been rejected. Is he then trying to protect Sam from the same pain? That’s a possible interpretation, but of course, it’s not canon as we really don’t know. We only know that Dean HAS told the truth to civilians -more than once, really, as he also did it in Wendigo, Dead in the Water, the poltergeist case for Frank in Phantom Traveler, Phantom Traveler AND Bloody Mary- so he is lying here TO Sam, and later in the episode, we will get to know his reasons.
Anyway, later on, Sam keeps lying for his own benefit:
SAM: You know, maybe we could see the crime scene. Zack’s house.
DEAN: We could.
REBECCA: Why? I mean, what could you do?
SAM: Well, me, not much. But Dean’s a cop. (DEAN laughs.)
DEAN: We could.
REBECCA: Why? I mean, what could you do?
SAM: Well, me, not much. But Dean’s a cop. (DEAN laughs.)
This is a very stupid thing to do. Yes, the boys constantly pretend to be cops but they also try to keep their involvement as secret as possible. Sam is a pre-law student, and Rebecca WAS his classmate. He should have known that Rebecca WOULD mention the out-of-state cop that came to help her brother to her lawyers, because that’s the kind of thing law students do.
Dean calls him out on this, too, but drops the subject quickly and instead focuses on the investigation.
Still, the lie doesn’t hold for long - and it really makes the whole scene at Zach’s house with Becky feel like a Shaggy Dog moment- and we get this:
REBECCA: Where are you?
SAM: We’re near Zack’s, we’re just checkin’ some things out.
REBECCA: Well, look, Sam, just stop, ‘cause I really don’t need your help anymore.
SAM: What are you talkin’ about?
REBECCA: I told the lawyers that we went to the crime scene. (SAM scoffs.)
SAM: Why would you do that?
REBECCA: Well, I told them that we were with a police officer. And they checked it out, and they told me that there is no Detective Dean Winchester.
SAM: Bec—
REBECCA: No, I don’t understand why you would lie to me about something like that.
SAM: We’re tryin’ to help.
REBECCA: Oh, trying to help? Do you realize that that was a sealed crime scene? This could have just ruined Zack’s case.
SAM: Bec, I’m sorry, but—
REBECCA: No, goodbye, Sam. (She hangs up. DEAN walks over to SAM, who looks disappointed.)
DEAN: I hate to say it, but that’s exactly what I’m talkin’ about. You lie to your friends because if they knew the real you, they’d be freaked. It’s just—it’d be easier if—
SAM: If I was like you.
DEAN: Hey, man, like it or not, we are not like other people. But I’ll tell you one thing. This whole gig—it ain’t without perks. (He holds up a gun. SAM takes it and puts it in the back of his jeans. They walk away.)
SAM: We’re near Zack’s, we’re just checkin’ some things out.
REBECCA: Well, look, Sam, just stop, ‘cause I really don’t need your help anymore.
SAM: What are you talkin’ about?
REBECCA: I told the lawyers that we went to the crime scene. (SAM scoffs.)
SAM: Why would you do that?
REBECCA: Well, I told them that we were with a police officer. And they checked it out, and they told me that there is no Detective Dean Winchester.
SAM: Bec—
REBECCA: No, I don’t understand why you would lie to me about something like that.
SAM: We’re tryin’ to help.
REBECCA: Oh, trying to help? Do you realize that that was a sealed crime scene? This could have just ruined Zack’s case.
SAM: Bec, I’m sorry, but—
REBECCA: No, goodbye, Sam. (She hangs up. DEAN walks over to SAM, who looks disappointed.)
DEAN: I hate to say it, but that’s exactly what I’m talkin’ about. You lie to your friends because if they knew the real you, they’d be freaked. It’s just—it’d be easier if—
SAM: If I was like you.
DEAN: Hey, man, like it or not, we are not like other people. But I’ll tell you one thing. This whole gig—it ain’t without perks. (He holds up a gun. SAM takes it and puts it in the back of his jeans. They walk away.)
There are a lot of things going on here. First, the real, and “unfair” reaction by Rebecca (Who I’ve been calling Becky because that’s what Sam called her first and then it stuck). She is Right to be angry at Sam. Because yes, Sam lied to her and put her brother’s case at risk. With THREE people entering a closed crime scene? Even if they did find someone else’s DNA that could in some other case exonerate Zach, now that was render useless and thus only the first evidence, which is Zach’s DNA, would be used.
But instead of using this as a way to show that hey, honesty is for the best and we should be as honest as possible with our 'clients’, the writers choose this to justify Sam’s lies, by having Dean tell him that yes, it is necessary to lie to your friends so they won’t reject you…. or be without friends.
Which is funny, since as I said, Dean tends to tell people the truth when asked point blank, and Sam is the one who invents excuses. Except in Bugs, when for no real reason, the brother’s position about how to tell mundane about the supernatural turns around completely. We’ll see that later.
For now, the end result is that the universe is telling us “Sam is right to lie, even when it causes problems for other people, because he needs to protect his feelings” . Keep that in mind, and also keep in mind that the show rewards him for it, since at the end Becky forgives him for everything.
Speeches and Apologies
No speeches or apologies here. And Sam didn’t tell Dean what the shape shifter said about Dean’s feelings.
Final Tally
This episode is a bit hard for me to classify. It is filler, of course, but, is it centered on Sam and his relationship with his friends from Stanford and his cutting all the ties with the past? Or on Dean’s hidden fears? This is something similar to Scarecrow and Croatoan, also written by John Shiban, but given the time that Sam’s issues take, I’m going to put it as a Sam focused filler on the countdown.
Other than that… the emotional violence tally is not looking good on Sam’s part, is it? The only reason why it’s not growing is because the things he did in this episode -mostly ignoring Dean in general and getting Dean in huge problems- is not tallied, and the violence tally is still without movement.
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: 1 / 3
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0 / 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 1 / 1
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: 0 / 3
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0 / 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 2 / 2
Secrets kept by Dean: 0 / 1
Secrets kept by Sam: 0 / 1
Times Dean has blamed Sam for something :0 / 0
Times Sam has blamed Dean for something: 0 / 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 / 4
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 2
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 1 / 12
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 1 / 2
Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 2
Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 2
Arc episodes dedicated to Dean: 0 / 0
Filler episodes dedicated to Dean : 0 / 1
Arc episodes dedicated to both brothers (or to none) : 0 / 1
Filler episodes dedicated to both brothers (or to none) : 0 / 0
Dean’s Dropped Plotlines : 0 / 1
Sam’s Dropped Plotlines : 0 / 1