Post by luxshine on Jun 12, 2017 13:41:16 GMT -5
I’m so sorry, this is so late. But RL has been busy and this particular episode is really hard for me. In fact, it took a lot out of me emotionally.
Still, with no more stalling… Let’s go back Home with the Winchesters.
General stuff
It’s very, very weird to see the intro as the recap is very Dean heavy. So much that I think that’s one of the reasons why, despite the episode being focused on Sam for no real narrative reason that is not to push the chosen one arc, people keep listing home as a Dean focused episode. Still, the last scene is one that I want to keep in mind for the recap: Sam saying he never met Mary, and Dean’s very strong reaction to that. Dean is a Mama’s boy, he loves his mother, and there’s nothing anyone can do to break that particular bond.
(As an aside, my inner 90’s teenager is happy because the victim of the week is Denisse Richardson, Kevin Richardson’s wife. I’m a dork)
The opening is really long, before we see Backstreet’s Wife find Mary and John’s photos (Seriously John? Why did you leave those?) and the girl being scared by the flames.
And we go back to Sam and his nightmares that finally came back.
Again, we see that the one who is looking for cases is Dean, while Sam is busy with his latest vision and not paying attention to what Dean says. And then we delve into how Sam talks Dean into this hunt, but that will go on the emotional violence thread.
Anyway, Sam gets his say, and they’re on the road and in their way to the old Lawrence house.
The brothers’ interactions with Jenny are completely different from the usual in a case. Dean is overcome by the memories, and a couple of times we get excellent closeups of his eyes that are just in the verge of tears, while Sam is detached, methodical and goes straight to the point. Even the way they reach to Jenny is different. Sam goes right to the truth, and that’s how they gain entrance. This is, first and foremost, Sam’s hunt.
And this is one of the problems with the idea that it’s a ‘Dean focused episode’. Because in fact, it’s an episode designed to get Sam much needed exposition, where he will get to understand more about his past and his family. Dean is used as nothing more than a prop, an exposition tool that tells Sam what he needs to know, and who cares if this is breaking him inside? A perfect example is when Sam declares that they 'know’ the history of the house, and thus they don’t need to do their usual research as long as Dean remembers the most painful night of his whole life.
This contradicts a bit of canon, by the way, as Dead in the Water stated that Dean saw what happened to Mary.
Still, this would be a perfect moment to strengthen the bond between the brothers, show Sam worried about Dean’s state of mind. Instead, it’s only then when he says that they can interrogate John’s old friends and neighbors to figure out what happened.
So then… why have Dean remember that if not for a reminder of how Sam got out of that fire (well, a reminder for Sam. We saw it in the opening credits)
The same thing happens with Dean’s following scene, his call to John. That also happens to be the first time we see Dean cry. But as beautiful as the scene is, as heart wrenching as seeing Dean ask his father for help is… it’s also useless. Because John doesn’t answer, and he won’t arrive to save his son from the pain that will follow. In the end, it’s a filler scene whose only possible payout could be considered to come almost 13 episodes later, when John makes his deal. But we’ll talk about that when that bridge comes.
Speaking about filler scenes, a guy gets his arm chopped off.
As the brothers investigate, we end up finding out that John is considered to be 'disappeared’ by his neighbors. This is quite interesting, since later we find out the FBI is looking for him as a home terrorist, but apparently, the news never reached Lawrence. That’s really odd considering that in general, law fugitives end up becoming sort of legends in their hometowns.
In any case, a friend gives them a clue that takes them to the doorstep of one Missouri Moseley, or, as I like to call her, the perfect example of 'tell instead of show’, and a character that seems to be working on a completely different script than the rest of the cast, in particular towards her reactions to Dean as she happily informs us that Dean was a goofy looking kid that needed to be set straight (When we know she’s talking about a traumatized four year old that went through a stage of selective mutism due to PTSD) while Sam is special, and very, very powerful and worthy of her mercy.
So the poltergeist attacks again, and the brothers plus Missouri go to check what’s going on. And again, Missouri serves to highlight that here? the one who calls the shots is Sam, as whenever Dean tries to take some semblance of control? She hits him, demeans his intelligence, and in general treats him like a nuisance to the very important work she and Sam are doing.
Which is really strange, considering that of the three of them? Dean is the most experienced hunter.
Even so, Missouri manages to get them in by telling the truth of what’s going on, and leads them to the nursery, guiding Sam to it and explaining, while Dean is visibly uncomfortable and still trying to do his job as Missouri berates him for not having psychic powers.
Finally, she gives them the news that there are two spirits in the house, a nasty poltergeist and an unidentified spirit, to what Dean declares that there’s no one dying in the house, ever again, which means that they have to work together with her to cleanse the house.
This takes us to the third act, where the poltergeist starts attacking Sam, Dean and Missouri as they find places to put the jars with the herbs. Dean is attacked with knives, Missouri with furniture, and Sam is almost chocked by a lamp. Fortunately, Dean manages to save himself, Sam, and apparently exorcise the poltergeist with his quick thinking, which leaves the house a bit worse for wear.
Jenny arrives, and Missouri, grateful as she is for Dean saving her life, forces him to clean while paying attention to Sam’s misgivings that maybe they didn’t get the poltergeist.
Of course, Sam’s feelings were correct, and the Poltergeist attacks again.
Thankfully, Dean listened to Sam’s bad feeling and the brothers stayed to make sure, quite close, and in time to see Sam dream come true. Sam goes for the kids, while Dean saves Jenny from her main room so we finally see the flaming figure appear again, in front of Sam for the first time.
We get a GREAT parallel to the first episode, where Sam takes John place, and makes Sari ran out with her kid brother.
Now, this is important. As the kids get out and the door closes, and you can see smoke coming out of the stairs? We’re relieving Dean’s worst nightmare and fear. He’s back at the house where his mother died, his father is gone, and his baby brother, whom he got out of the fire 22 years ago? Is trapped by an evil entity there. And we get all that not through dialogue, but through Jensen’s excellent acting as he grabs an axe, his shotgun, and kicks his way inside the house.
Sam, for his part, is not doing very well against the Poltergeist that has him trapped against the wall.
When Dean manages to open the door, the flaming figure appears, towards Sam, and Dean is about to shoot it when Sam stops him. HE’s not to shoot her because… it’s Mary.
Dean lowers the gun, as he sees his mother for the first time in years, and Mary just looks at him, smiles, calls him by his name… and brushes him off to focus on Sam, who, for some reason, starts tearing up as she asks for forgiveness.
Then Mary turns back, and uses all her energy and power to get rid of the poltergeist, yelling at it to 'let go of her son’.
The day ends with Jenny giving Dean the pictures she found out, and Missouri explains to Sam that her mother destroyed herself to protect 'her boys’ (Despite the dialogue saying that it was to protect Sam, not Sam and Dean). And we keep going to get more exposition about Sam’s powers and then telling them not to be strangers, watching as they drive away.
She however, has something else to say: Sam is so powerful, but yet… he couldn’t sense John, who’s sitting on Missouri’s couch, right where Sam was a couple of scenes earlier, and we see him for the first time since the pilot.
Of course, this is a bit contradictory as later we find out that Jhon knew a bit more of Azazael’s plan than we thought, but it’s a good way to close the episode.
Violence
Despite Missouri’s punch happy attitude towards Dean, this is for the Violence between the brothers, and this is yet another episode where thankfully, they don’t fight.
Emotional Violence
It’s pretty easy to notice that when Sam says that they have to go to Kansas, Dean tenses up immediately. It’s obvious by his body language that he doesn’t want to go, and for the second time in the series, Sam claims that they have to go and Dean has to trust him. But unlike Skin, where Dean went without much of a fuzz? Here Dean puts his foot on the ground, he’s not going anywhere near Kansas without a good reason and this is the moment when Sam comes clean, about his prophetic dreams and, more importantly, how he knew Jess was going to die.
DEAN: All right, just slow down, would ya? [He stands up and begins pacing.] I mean, first you tell me that you’ve got the Shining? And then you tell me that I’ve gotta go back home? Especially when….
SAM: When what?
DEAN: [sadly] When I swore to myself that I would never go back there?
Jensen’s acting is suberb. We can see him about to break down crying not while Sam is talking (and being really insensitive to Dean’s body language) but while he’s watching Mary’s picture. It won’t be the last time Sam uses Mary and her memory to make Dean do something Sam needs to be done, but this is the first one that is obvious to us, as viewers, as not only Dean is in the verge of breaking (A first for him in the series) but also because we’re told that the issue is not that Sam has visions (Funny, as later it’s used as the 'reason’ why Dean doesn’t accept Sam) but that he had promised himself he’d never go back there.
And here’s where the emotional violence comes in. Sam can’t be that blind that he doesn’t notice Dean’s very obvious discomfort. And while handing him the photo first might have been just as a prop to explain his vision, the fact that from here on, he refers to the prey as 'the thing that killed Mom and Jess’, while before this in every other episode it had been 'the thing that killed Jess’ is pretty telling.
Speaking about emotional violence, we have Missouri’s interactions with Dean, and how Sam reacts to that. Every single interaction between Dean and Missouri, she’s yelling at him, putting him down, or even hitting him, and Sam smiles, chuckles, laughs. At first it might come as enjoying Missouri’s sassy girl personality, but as the episode goes on and he never once says 'hey, Dean is having some tough moments with this hunt’ to keep her away from yelling, mistreating, or simply downplaying what Dean does. So at the end, it comes as Sam enjoying that someone is putting Dean 'in his place’.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
While I’m centering on the brother’s actions, it is important to notice that here we have Missouri lying to Dean -who asked where John was and got told that she couldn’t tell him, despite the fact that he was there- and John lying through omission.
This has the consequence that Dean has to face the house alone, and a very telling characteristic of John’s priorities, that we will discuss when we get to Faith.
Speeches and Apologies
is the first episode where Sam says out loud to someone else that he knew Jess’ life was in danger and he did nothing. However, when he retells that, there’s a very interesting thing. Unlike what one would believe going by the Bloody Mary episode (that Sam blames himself for not acting and saving Jess) his way of explaining things pretty much blows any guilt away:
This is, again, something that comes a lot around Sam’s reactions. I’m counting it as a speech, because we, as viewers, have been told that Sam feels guilty. But when it comes to show us that? Well, Sam says no, he had a good reason not to act upon his own dreams.
Final Tally
This episode is a very strange thing. Yes, it’s considered a Dean-episode, it’s usually touted as one of the best Dean-centered episodes, but the truth is… it’s only so because Jensen’s acting goes far beyond the script on showing us how much pain Dean is. The script itself doesn’t even touch Dean’s trauma, except for the phone call, and instead keeps making him the butt of everyone’s jokes. Not only that, but Sam gets the big payoff of saying goodbye to the mother that just 10 episodes ago he claimed didn’t care for, while Dean? Get’s shoved to the side by her (To this day I wonder how hard would it have been to add just a little extra line to Mary’s “Dean” or maybe, just maybe, make her say 'Stay away from my boys’ instead of 'Let go of my son’. Or why Mary didn’t interfere when Dean was being chased by knives.) So this is an arc episode that is really focused on Sam.
More importantly, with Missouri we get the beginning of a trend that may be deserving of its own counter, and that is “Side characters that seem to exist to tell Dean how much he must love and treasure his brother no matter what, or remind everyone that Dean is better than Sam”, which is a really bothersome trend that will become more noticeable as seasons advance.
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 / 3
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0 / 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 0 / 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: 1 / 4
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 / 1
Times Sam has apologized with words to Dean : 0 / 1
Times Dean has respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 5
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Dean hasn’t respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Sam hasn’t respected Dean’s boundaries and / or rules: 1 / 6
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 4
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 1 / 15
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 1 / 3
Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 3
Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 4
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
Still, with no more stalling… Let’s go back Home with the Winchesters.
General stuff
It’s very, very weird to see the intro as the recap is very Dean heavy. So much that I think that’s one of the reasons why, despite the episode being focused on Sam for no real narrative reason that is not to push the chosen one arc, people keep listing home as a Dean focused episode. Still, the last scene is one that I want to keep in mind for the recap: Sam saying he never met Mary, and Dean’s very strong reaction to that. Dean is a Mama’s boy, he loves his mother, and there’s nothing anyone can do to break that particular bond.
(As an aside, my inner 90’s teenager is happy because the victim of the week is Denisse Richardson, Kevin Richardson’s wife. I’m a dork)
The opening is really long, before we see Backstreet’s Wife find Mary and John’s photos (Seriously John? Why did you leave those?) and the girl being scared by the flames.
And we go back to Sam and his nightmares that finally came back.
Again, we see that the one who is looking for cases is Dean, while Sam is busy with his latest vision and not paying attention to what Dean says. And then we delve into how Sam talks Dean into this hunt, but that will go on the emotional violence thread.
Anyway, Sam gets his say, and they’re on the road and in their way to the old Lawrence house.
The brothers’ interactions with Jenny are completely different from the usual in a case. Dean is overcome by the memories, and a couple of times we get excellent closeups of his eyes that are just in the verge of tears, while Sam is detached, methodical and goes straight to the point. Even the way they reach to Jenny is different. Sam goes right to the truth, and that’s how they gain entrance. This is, first and foremost, Sam’s hunt.
And this is one of the problems with the idea that it’s a ‘Dean focused episode’. Because in fact, it’s an episode designed to get Sam much needed exposition, where he will get to understand more about his past and his family. Dean is used as nothing more than a prop, an exposition tool that tells Sam what he needs to know, and who cares if this is breaking him inside? A perfect example is when Sam declares that they 'know’ the history of the house, and thus they don’t need to do their usual research as long as Dean remembers the most painful night of his whole life.
DEAN: Not much. I remember the fire…the heat. [He pauses for a moment.] And then I carried you out the front door.
SAM: You did?
DEAN: Yeah, what, you never knew that?
SAM: [shaking his head.] No.
DEAN: And, well, you know Dad’s story as well as I do. Mom was….was on the ceiling. And whatever put her there was long gone by the time Dad found her.
SAM: You did?
DEAN: Yeah, what, you never knew that?
SAM: [shaking his head.] No.
DEAN: And, well, you know Dad’s story as well as I do. Mom was….was on the ceiling. And whatever put her there was long gone by the time Dad found her.
This contradicts a bit of canon, by the way, as Dead in the Water stated that Dean saw what happened to Mary.
Still, this would be a perfect moment to strengthen the bond between the brothers, show Sam worried about Dean’s state of mind. Instead, it’s only then when he says that they can interrogate John’s old friends and neighbors to figure out what happened.
So then… why have Dean remember that if not for a reminder of how Sam got out of that fire (well, a reminder for Sam. We saw it in the opening credits)
The same thing happens with Dean’s following scene, his call to John. That also happens to be the first time we see Dean cry. But as beautiful as the scene is, as heart wrenching as seeing Dean ask his father for help is… it’s also useless. Because John doesn’t answer, and he won’t arrive to save his son from the pain that will follow. In the end, it’s a filler scene whose only possible payout could be considered to come almost 13 episodes later, when John makes his deal. But we’ll talk about that when that bridge comes.
Speaking about filler scenes, a guy gets his arm chopped off.
As the brothers investigate, we end up finding out that John is considered to be 'disappeared’ by his neighbors. This is quite interesting, since later we find out the FBI is looking for him as a home terrorist, but apparently, the news never reached Lawrence. That’s really odd considering that in general, law fugitives end up becoming sort of legends in their hometowns.
In any case, a friend gives them a clue that takes them to the doorstep of one Missouri Moseley, or, as I like to call her, the perfect example of 'tell instead of show’, and a character that seems to be working on a completely different script than the rest of the cast, in particular towards her reactions to Dean as she happily informs us that Dean was a goofy looking kid that needed to be set straight (When we know she’s talking about a traumatized four year old that went through a stage of selective mutism due to PTSD) while Sam is special, and very, very powerful and worthy of her mercy.
So the poltergeist attacks again, and the brothers plus Missouri go to check what’s going on. And again, Missouri serves to highlight that here? the one who calls the shots is Sam, as whenever Dean tries to take some semblance of control? She hits him, demeans his intelligence, and in general treats him like a nuisance to the very important work she and Sam are doing.
Which is really strange, considering that of the three of them? Dean is the most experienced hunter.
Even so, Missouri manages to get them in by telling the truth of what’s going on, and leads them to the nursery, guiding Sam to it and explaining, while Dean is visibly uncomfortable and still trying to do his job as Missouri berates him for not having psychic powers.
Finally, she gives them the news that there are two spirits in the house, a nasty poltergeist and an unidentified spirit, to what Dean declares that there’s no one dying in the house, ever again, which means that they have to work together with her to cleanse the house.
This takes us to the third act, where the poltergeist starts attacking Sam, Dean and Missouri as they find places to put the jars with the herbs. Dean is attacked with knives, Missouri with furniture, and Sam is almost chocked by a lamp. Fortunately, Dean manages to save himself, Sam, and apparently exorcise the poltergeist with his quick thinking, which leaves the house a bit worse for wear.
Jenny arrives, and Missouri, grateful as she is for Dean saving her life, forces him to clean while paying attention to Sam’s misgivings that maybe they didn’t get the poltergeist.
Of course, Sam’s feelings were correct, and the Poltergeist attacks again.
Thankfully, Dean listened to Sam’s bad feeling and the brothers stayed to make sure, quite close, and in time to see Sam dream come true. Sam goes for the kids, while Dean saves Jenny from her main room so we finally see the flaming figure appear again, in front of Sam for the first time.
We get a GREAT parallel to the first episode, where Sam takes John place, and makes Sari ran out with her kid brother.
SAM: Don’t look. Don’t look! [They leave the bedroom. Outside, DEAN and JENNY rush out of the house. Inside the house, SAM rushes down the stairs and puts the kids down on the floor.] All right, Sari, take your brother outside as fast as you can, and don’t look back.
Now, this is important. As the kids get out and the door closes, and you can see smoke coming out of the stairs? We’re relieving Dean’s worst nightmare and fear. He’s back at the house where his mother died, his father is gone, and his baby brother, whom he got out of the fire 22 years ago? Is trapped by an evil entity there. And we get all that not through dialogue, but through Jensen’s excellent acting as he grabs an axe, his shotgun, and kicks his way inside the house.
Sam, for his part, is not doing very well against the Poltergeist that has him trapped against the wall.
When Dean manages to open the door, the flaming figure appears, towards Sam, and Dean is about to shoot it when Sam stops him. HE’s not to shoot her because… it’s Mary.
Dean lowers the gun, as he sees his mother for the first time in years, and Mary just looks at him, smiles, calls him by his name… and brushes him off to focus on Sam, who, for some reason, starts tearing up as she asks for forgiveness.
Then Mary turns back, and uses all her energy and power to get rid of the poltergeist, yelling at it to 'let go of her son’.
The day ends with Jenny giving Dean the pictures she found out, and Missouri explains to Sam that her mother destroyed herself to protect 'her boys’ (Despite the dialogue saying that it was to protect Sam, not Sam and Dean). And we keep going to get more exposition about Sam’s powers and then telling them not to be strangers, watching as they drive away.
She however, has something else to say: Sam is so powerful, but yet… he couldn’t sense John, who’s sitting on Missouri’s couch, right where Sam was a couple of scenes earlier, and we see him for the first time since the pilot.
JOHN: Mary’s spirit –- do you really think she saved the boys?
MISSOURI: I do. [JOHN nods sadly and twists his wedding ring on his finger.] John Winchester, I could just slap you. Why won’t you go talk to your children?
JOHN: [tearfully] I want to. You have no idea how much I wanna see ‘em. But I can’t. Not yet. Not until I know the truth. [They share a look. The screen fades to black.]
MISSOURI: I do. [JOHN nods sadly and twists his wedding ring on his finger.] John Winchester, I could just slap you. Why won’t you go talk to your children?
JOHN: [tearfully] I want to. You have no idea how much I wanna see ‘em. But I can’t. Not yet. Not until I know the truth. [They share a look. The screen fades to black.]
Of course, this is a bit contradictory as later we find out that Jhon knew a bit more of Azazael’s plan than we thought, but it’s a good way to close the episode.
Violence
Despite Missouri’s punch happy attitude towards Dean, this is for the Violence between the brothers, and this is yet another episode where thankfully, they don’t fight.
Emotional Violence
It’s pretty easy to notice that when Sam says that they have to go to Kansas, Dean tenses up immediately. It’s obvious by his body language that he doesn’t want to go, and for the second time in the series, Sam claims that they have to go and Dean has to trust him. But unlike Skin, where Dean went without much of a fuzz? Here Dean puts his foot on the ground, he’s not going anywhere near Kansas without a good reason and this is the moment when Sam comes clean, about his prophetic dreams and, more importantly, how he knew Jess was going to die.
DEAN: All right, just slow down, would ya? [He stands up and begins pacing.] I mean, first you tell me that you’ve got the Shining? And then you tell me that I’ve gotta go back home? Especially when….
SAM: When what?
DEAN: [sadly] When I swore to myself that I would never go back there?
Jensen’s acting is suberb. We can see him about to break down crying not while Sam is talking (and being really insensitive to Dean’s body language) but while he’s watching Mary’s picture. It won’t be the last time Sam uses Mary and her memory to make Dean do something Sam needs to be done, but this is the first one that is obvious to us, as viewers, as not only Dean is in the verge of breaking (A first for him in the series) but also because we’re told that the issue is not that Sam has visions (Funny, as later it’s used as the 'reason’ why Dean doesn’t accept Sam) but that he had promised himself he’d never go back there.
And here’s where the emotional violence comes in. Sam can’t be that blind that he doesn’t notice Dean’s very obvious discomfort. And while handing him the photo first might have been just as a prop to explain his vision, the fact that from here on, he refers to the prey as 'the thing that killed Mom and Jess’, while before this in every other episode it had been 'the thing that killed Jess’ is pretty telling.
Speaking about emotional violence, we have Missouri’s interactions with Dean, and how Sam reacts to that. Every single interaction between Dean and Missouri, she’s yelling at him, putting him down, or even hitting him, and Sam smiles, chuckles, laughs. At first it might come as enjoying Missouri’s sassy girl personality, but as the episode goes on and he never once says 'hey, Dean is having some tough moments with this hunt’ to keep her away from yelling, mistreating, or simply downplaying what Dean does. So at the end, it comes as Sam enjoying that someone is putting Dean 'in his place’.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
While I’m centering on the brother’s actions, it is important to notice that here we have Missouri lying to Dean -who asked where John was and got told that she couldn’t tell him, despite the fact that he was there- and John lying through omission.
This has the consequence that Dean has to face the house alone, and a very telling characteristic of John’s priorities, that we will discuss when we get to Faith.
Speeches and Apologies
is the first episode where Sam says out loud to someone else that he knew Jess’ life was in danger and he did nothing. However, when he retells that, there’s a very interesting thing. Unlike what one would believe going by the Bloody Mary episode (that Sam blames himself for not acting and saving Jess) his way of explaining things pretty much blows any guilt away:
SAM: No, I dreamt about the blood dripping, her on the ceiling, the fire, everything, and I didn’t do anything about it ‘cause I didn’t believe it. And now I’m dreaming about that tree, about our house, and about some woman inside screaming for help. I mean, that’s where it all started, man, this has to mean something, right?
This is, again, something that comes a lot around Sam’s reactions. I’m counting it as a speech, because we, as viewers, have been told that Sam feels guilty. But when it comes to show us that? Well, Sam says no, he had a good reason not to act upon his own dreams.
Final Tally
This episode is a very strange thing. Yes, it’s considered a Dean-episode, it’s usually touted as one of the best Dean-centered episodes, but the truth is… it’s only so because Jensen’s acting goes far beyond the script on showing us how much pain Dean is. The script itself doesn’t even touch Dean’s trauma, except for the phone call, and instead keeps making him the butt of everyone’s jokes. Not only that, but Sam gets the big payoff of saying goodbye to the mother that just 10 episodes ago he claimed didn’t care for, while Dean? Get’s shoved to the side by her (To this day I wonder how hard would it have been to add just a little extra line to Mary’s “Dean” or maybe, just maybe, make her say 'Stay away from my boys’ instead of 'Let go of my son’. Or why Mary didn’t interfere when Dean was being chased by knives.) So this is an arc episode that is really focused on Sam.
More importantly, with Missouri we get the beginning of a trend that may be deserving of its own counter, and that is “Side characters that seem to exist to tell Dean how much he must love and treasure his brother no matter what, or remind everyone that Dean is better than Sam”, which is a really bothersome trend that will become more noticeable as seasons advance.
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 / 3
Times Dean has been caught in a lie : 0 / 0
Times Sam has been caught in a lie: 0 / 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: 1 / 4
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 / 1
Times Sam has apologized with words to Dean : 0 / 1
Times Dean has respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 5
Times Sam has respected Dean’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Dean hasn’t respected Sam’s boundaries and/or rules: 0 / 0
Times Sam hasn’t respected Dean’s boundaries and / or rules: 1 / 6
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 4
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 1 / 15
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 1 / 3
Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 3
Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 4
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