The Great Supernatural Rewatch Project - Asylum
Aug 7, 2017 20:35:13 GMT -5
Mystique and onali like this
Post by luxshine on Aug 7, 2017 20:35:13 GMT -5
I am so sorry I let this go so long without an update, but I was in San Diego Comic Con mood (pre convention is a headless chicken dance, post San Diego is a bit of a depression given that the con is over) But, here we are again. I wil admit this episode is one of those I dreaded due to a lot of fandom discourse over it.
So let’s explore the Asylum together.
General stuff
I really, really miss these cold openings when someone got killed because they were idiots. Case in point, our two policemen exploring the asylum looking for trespassers. And of course, the younger cop gets possessed (Seriously, it’s very obvious he was affected, even before his nose starts bleeding) and goes home to his wife.
Now, this is very important. They were fighting before. She SAYS that he’s still mad. That they’re still ignoring each other. There was anger in the younger cop against her before, and, by her words, he was angrier at her than she at him.
And then he shoots her.
But enough about the creepy asylum, let’s go to the brothers and their search for John
This episode has a bit of a continuity issue, as it is the tenth episode and just now the brothers remember that their father has friends and thus, they start looking for him in their contact list. This is funny, because it’s the first clear idea that we have of an organized Hunter network, that we know (hindsight) that Kripke wasn’t fond of, and yet, it was introduced in the very first season and it’s something very logical.
As they argue about it (and that goes under emotional violence, as Sam was not in his best moment there), John texts them a message with coordinates, sending them to the Asylum that he had researched before.
As an aside? I really miss those times when John’s diary had notes about all these hunts… the hunts he wanted to do but hadn’t gotten to do. Pity they lost that in the future seasons.
In any case, the brothers do go to Rockford, and start investigating by interrogating the surviving cop with a very peculiar bad cop, good cop routine… that we have to cover in the Violence section.
They travel to the Asylum and start investigating, as Dean keeps reading on John’s diary (By the way, the page order changes. In the previous scene, the page before the Asylum scrap was the Wendigo page… now, it’s filled with notes, but no Wendigo drawing). They keep going into the creepy looking place, while Sam consistently ignores every single attempt by Dean to make light about the situation, because Sam is still angry that John is not there and wants to leave, again.
To find out what happened in the Asylum, Sam goes undercover with a psychiatrist, son of the dead guy. He does it so badly that he ends up having a session where they talk about Dean, that we don’t get to hear. However, this is a very common narrative trick. Psychiatrist are 'good’ doctors. They tell the truth (when they’re not the evil guy in the episode) and get our characters to face their truths. So we know, thanks to this, that Sam’s real problems are not that his girlfriend died because he didn’t warn her about the supernatural, or that John abandoned him and Dean, or that he just got to meet his dead mother. No. Sam’s problem? Is Dean. And we’re supposed to side with him on that despite not hearing what Sam really thinks of Dean.
We also learn that in 64 the patients in the asylum rioted, kept a bunch of doctors hostages, killed everyone and themselves, and some bodies, including the body of Chief of Staff James Ellicot were never found.
Anyway, we cut out to the worst date in the story of bad dates, as a guy takes a girl to an impromptu exploration of the abandoned mental asylum. Gavin, the guy, at first seems to be very brave, and he leaves his date alone, only to get caught by the ghost of one of the female patients.
While this happens, Sam and Dean get in the hospital, ready to find all the bodies and burn their bones, to let them rest.
It’s a very effective scene, by the way, really focusing on the strengths of the show as a horror show. Kim Manner’s style is pretty obvious as we follow Sam in the shadowy rooms, as he records everything trying to find the ghosts around while Dean is manning the salt shotgun.
They meet with Kat, the girl, who tells them that Gavin is missing, so they have to look for him. Sam and Dean separate, Dean going with Kat, Sam going alone. Sam finds him, unconscious, in one of the rooms, and he tells Sam that the female ghost kissed him and said something to her.
Kat gets attacked by another patient, and separated from Dean by a closed door.
Sam and Gavin arrive, and Sam tells Kat that she has to face the ghost and hear what he has to say. Unlike Gavin, who ran, Kat manages to get calm, long enough for the ghost to whisper in her ear 137, which she tells the brothers.
Dean tells Sam he’ll go and look for room 137, while Sam gets the kids out of the Asylum. This causes Sam to get even more reasons to be annoyed at Dean, as Kat assumes Dean is his boss. They discover that it’s impossible to leave.
Meanwhile, Dean finds room 137 and starts exploring it, finding Dr. Ellicot’s journal, which proves that the man was deranged and experimented on patients, as he reads, something interrupts him.
Sam gets a call from Dean, and leaves Kat in charge of the shotgun, as Gavin is now a nervous wreck. He goes looking to the boiler room, where there’s no sign of Dean, but a door to a secret room opens behind him. As he enters, he’s caught by the ghost of Dr. Ellicot.
Gavin and Kat break up, when Dean comes to them. Kat shoots Dean, but he manages to get down. As he realizes Sam is not with them, and that he was fooled by someone, he tells them to be careful and goes down to the basement to find Sam.
And here we get one of the polarizing scenes in the fandom.
As Dean explains about Ellicot’s rage therapy, it becomes obvious that Sam is not quite himself, but it doesn’t become obvious to Sam until Dean finds the entrance to Ellicot’s secret room, when Sam points the shotgun at him and orders him to stay away from the door.
And while the fandom is still divided upon if Sam was himself or not during this scene, the narrative makes clear that Ellicot didn’t create anger, or mind controlled people. What he did was take what was already inside the person and make it so that they were angry enough that all the mental breaks were gone. Which is why we have to do a breakdown of the scene both in the Violence and the Emotional Violence sections.
Thankfully, Dean manages to survive Sam, not let Ellicot’s rage power overwhelm him, and save the day.
Dean is tired, really tired, so Sam, who has been the focus of the episode as we analyze his anger against Dean, gets the prize both brothers were looking for: An actual call from John.
Violence
Sam is really angry this episode and while his shove to Dean during the cop interrogation scene was 'planned’, what wasn’t planned was the strength he used. In fact, it’s something that Dean himself comments on.
But the thing is, as he says this, he looms over Dean, showing that he’s taller, stronger than his brother. His body language is menacing, for no reason except… he’s mad that Dean is not bowing to his wishes. THAT is violence for no reason, and it’s the first real example we have of it between the brothers, since the only thing Dean did was… not call the FBI.
So we know right now, that Sam wants to hurt Dean. Which is really important at the beginning of the Ellicot fight.
Not only in the last 10 episodes Sam has been giving far more orders than Dean (as you can see from the previous rewatches), here we see that Sam wants to hurt Dean. The cop? he went straight to killing. And we know Sam has other means to kill Dean. But no, he wants it to hurt, because Sam is mad at Dean, and when Sam is mad, he wants others to hurt.
And of course, then he shoots him again, with a gun he fully believes its’ loaded.
Emotional Violence
Once again, Sam starts the situation badly. It’s part of the already proven pattern that he has of attacking Dean’s feelings whenever Dean fails to do something Sam wants. And while this may be unintended by the writers, the truth is that it’s starting to be a bit repetitive.
So Dean, understandably, doesn’t want to put the Feds on John’s trail. This is also because, if Sam has completely forgotten, the Feds WERE on Dean’s trail and right now, Dean is officially dead thanks to that case where Sam insisted they had to help his friends. So anything that calls the Feds’ attention to a Winchester? Spells bad news because if they realize Dean is not dead? It’s a manhunt against him since he’s a “serial killer” now. (And that’s something we will see a lot in season 2). And what does Sam do? Immediately goes to tell Dean that he should be angry at John, that John doesn’t care about Dean, and puts the finger on a wound that hasn’t closed, what happened in Kansas. And he keeps at it, even as Dean get’s the coordinates, undermining John
For no other reason than to hurt Dean.
Which makes the final scene after Ellicot gave him his rage on roids treatment even more interesting, as none of the things Sam is angry at Dean for are true. As we follow that scene, from the original violence (actually shooting Dean) to the more emotional part of the scene:
Sam is arguing that Dean only works to obey John’s orders, when we know it’s not true. Dean does it because they help people. John’s approval may be important (we will learn that later) but what really matters is 'saving people’, something that Sam always forget.
More important than that? We know now that Sam thinks Dean is pathetic. That every single thing he’s done so far, belittle Dean’s way of living, his EMP reader and his street smarts? Are because deep down, he believes that his brother is pathetic.
Not a good sign for the 'brotherly bond’.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
No secrets, lies or consequences of them in this episode, thank goodness. It’s way too heavy as it is.
Speeches and Apologies
To Sam’s credit, he does apologize at the end. However, to his detriment, this apology also marks two very important things in the pattern of how he speaks to Dean. Let’s see.
This is the first, and last, as far as memory serves, time that Sam actually says the word 'Sorry’ to Dean. (At least until season 12). However, just as Dean expresses surprise that Sam remembers what he said, he immediately claims that he didn’t mean any of it… despite it contradicting the way in which Ellicott affected his victims. Which is to say, Sam’s apology is strange since we don’t know what he IS apologizing for. If he didn’t mean any of it, and he wasn’t in control… is he apologizing for hurting Dean’s feelings? Is he apologizing for letting Ellicot get his hands on him?
Now, people say things they don’t mean when they’re angry. That’s true. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that" is a very standard apology. However, that’s how it’s usually said. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that” or “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what I said”. Sam makes a pause, between the actual apology, and the I didn’t mean it, after Dean doesn’t seem convinced of his words.
And he doesn’t try again. His next line
Is not an assurance of the apology, but a threat. Because 'Do we need to talk about this?’ sounds more like a threat of more talking, more justification from Sam, than a real apology, which is why it doesn’t count as one on the tally and why Dean brushed him off.
Final Tally
This is a very curious episode. It is meant to be a parallel to Skin, in the sense that while in Skin we get to hear Dean’s personal problems with Sam, now it’s Sam’s turn. However the end result is very different because in Skin, the one hitting Sam is not Dean, but the shapeshifter, and more importantly, what the shapeshifter says about Dean’s anger is not an attack on Sam’s personality, but on Sam’s absence and here, we have Sam actually hitting Dean, and his anger is an attack on Dean’s personality.
Even more important, there’s another huge difference: Sam doesn’t acknowledge what he learned on Skin, or he dismissed it. The shapeshifter, channeling Dean’s thoughts, clearly said that Dean was not happy always obeying John, that he had dreams of his own and that he had not been able to fulfill them. Sam doesn’t consider any of that, for Sam, Dean is the perfect tool, and that’s something that has been present since the pilot.
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: 3 / 3
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 / 4
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0 / 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 0 / 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 / 7
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 4
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 0 / 15
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 0 / 3
Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 3
Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 5
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
So let’s explore the Asylum together.
General stuff
I really, really miss these cold openings when someone got killed because they were idiots. Case in point, our two policemen exploring the asylum looking for trespassers. And of course, the younger cop gets possessed (Seriously, it’s very obvious he was affected, even before his nose starts bleeding) and goes home to his wife.
Now, this is very important. They were fighting before. She SAYS that he’s still mad. That they’re still ignoring each other. There was anger in the younger cop against her before, and, by her words, he was angrier at her than she at him.
And then he shoots her.
But enough about the creepy asylum, let’s go to the brothers and their search for John
This episode has a bit of a continuity issue, as it is the tenth episode and just now the brothers remember that their father has friends and thus, they start looking for him in their contact list. This is funny, because it’s the first clear idea that we have of an organized Hunter network, that we know (hindsight) that Kripke wasn’t fond of, and yet, it was introduced in the very first season and it’s something very logical.
As they argue about it (and that goes under emotional violence, as Sam was not in his best moment there), John texts them a message with coordinates, sending them to the Asylum that he had researched before.
As an aside? I really miss those times when John’s diary had notes about all these hunts… the hunts he wanted to do but hadn’t gotten to do. Pity they lost that in the future seasons.
In any case, the brothers do go to Rockford, and start investigating by interrogating the surviving cop with a very peculiar bad cop, good cop routine… that we have to cover in the Violence section.
They travel to the Asylum and start investigating, as Dean keeps reading on John’s diary (By the way, the page order changes. In the previous scene, the page before the Asylum scrap was the Wendigo page… now, it’s filled with notes, but no Wendigo drawing). They keep going into the creepy looking place, while Sam consistently ignores every single attempt by Dean to make light about the situation, because Sam is still angry that John is not there and wants to leave, again.
To find out what happened in the Asylum, Sam goes undercover with a psychiatrist, son of the dead guy. He does it so badly that he ends up having a session where they talk about Dean, that we don’t get to hear. However, this is a very common narrative trick. Psychiatrist are 'good’ doctors. They tell the truth (when they’re not the evil guy in the episode) and get our characters to face their truths. So we know, thanks to this, that Sam’s real problems are not that his girlfriend died because he didn’t warn her about the supernatural, or that John abandoned him and Dean, or that he just got to meet his dead mother. No. Sam’s problem? Is Dean. And we’re supposed to side with him on that despite not hearing what Sam really thinks of Dean.
We also learn that in 64 the patients in the asylum rioted, kept a bunch of doctors hostages, killed everyone and themselves, and some bodies, including the body of Chief of Staff James Ellicot were never found.
Anyway, we cut out to the worst date in the story of bad dates, as a guy takes a girl to an impromptu exploration of the abandoned mental asylum. Gavin, the guy, at first seems to be very brave, and he leaves his date alone, only to get caught by the ghost of one of the female patients.
While this happens, Sam and Dean get in the hospital, ready to find all the bodies and burn their bones, to let them rest.
It’s a very effective scene, by the way, really focusing on the strengths of the show as a horror show. Kim Manner’s style is pretty obvious as we follow Sam in the shadowy rooms, as he records everything trying to find the ghosts around while Dean is manning the salt shotgun.
They meet with Kat, the girl, who tells them that Gavin is missing, so they have to look for him. Sam and Dean separate, Dean going with Kat, Sam going alone. Sam finds him, unconscious, in one of the rooms, and he tells Sam that the female ghost kissed him and said something to her.
Kat gets attacked by another patient, and separated from Dean by a closed door.
Sam and Gavin arrive, and Sam tells Kat that she has to face the ghost and hear what he has to say. Unlike Gavin, who ran, Kat manages to get calm, long enough for the ghost to whisper in her ear 137, which she tells the brothers.
Dean tells Sam he’ll go and look for room 137, while Sam gets the kids out of the Asylum. This causes Sam to get even more reasons to be annoyed at Dean, as Kat assumes Dean is his boss. They discover that it’s impossible to leave.
Meanwhile, Dean finds room 137 and starts exploring it, finding Dr. Ellicot’s journal, which proves that the man was deranged and experimented on patients, as he reads, something interrupts him.
Sam gets a call from Dean, and leaves Kat in charge of the shotgun, as Gavin is now a nervous wreck. He goes looking to the boiler room, where there’s no sign of Dean, but a door to a secret room opens behind him. As he enters, he’s caught by the ghost of Dr. Ellicot.
Gavin and Kat break up, when Dean comes to them. Kat shoots Dean, but he manages to get down. As he realizes Sam is not with them, and that he was fooled by someone, he tells them to be careful and goes down to the basement to find Sam.
And here we get one of the polarizing scenes in the fandom.
As Dean explains about Ellicot’s rage therapy, it becomes obvious that Sam is not quite himself, but it doesn’t become obvious to Sam until Dean finds the entrance to Ellicot’s secret room, when Sam points the shotgun at him and orders him to stay away from the door.
And while the fandom is still divided upon if Sam was himself or not during this scene, the narrative makes clear that Ellicot didn’t create anger, or mind controlled people. What he did was take what was already inside the person and make it so that they were angry enough that all the mental breaks were gone. Which is why we have to do a breakdown of the scene both in the Violence and the Emotional Violence sections.
Thankfully, Dean manages to survive Sam, not let Ellicot’s rage power overwhelm him, and save the day.
Dean is tired, really tired, so Sam, who has been the focus of the episode as we analyze his anger against Dean, gets the prize both brothers were looking for: An actual call from John.
Violence
Sam is really angry this episode and while his shove to Dean during the cop interrogation scene was 'planned’, what wasn’t planned was the strength he used. In fact, it’s something that Dean himself comments on.
DEAN
(sitting on Impala) Shoved me kinda hard in there, buddy boy.
SAM
I had to sell it, didn’t I? It’s method acting.
(sitting on Impala) Shoved me kinda hard in there, buddy boy.
SAM
I had to sell it, didn’t I? It’s method acting.
But the thing is, as he says this, he looms over Dean, showing that he’s taller, stronger than his brother. His body language is menacing, for no reason except… he’s mad that Dean is not bowing to his wishes. THAT is violence for no reason, and it’s the first real example we have of it between the brothers, since the only thing Dean did was… not call the FBI.
So we know right now, that Sam wants to hurt Dean. Which is really important at the beginning of the Ellicot fight.
SAM
Is that an order?
DEAN
Nah, it’s more of a friendly request.
SAM
(raising his gun to point at DEAN’s chest) ’Cause I’m getting pretty tired of taking your orders.
DEAN
I knew it. Ellicott did something to you.
SAM
For once in your life, just shut your mouth.
DEAN
What are you gunna do, Sam? Gun’s filled with rock salt. It’s not gunna kill me.
SAM shoots DEAN in the chest. The shot blasts him backwards through the hidden door to fall on the floor.
SAM
No. But it will hurt like hell.
Is that an order?
DEAN
Nah, it’s more of a friendly request.
SAM
(raising his gun to point at DEAN’s chest) ’Cause I’m getting pretty tired of taking your orders.
DEAN
I knew it. Ellicott did something to you.
SAM
For once in your life, just shut your mouth.
DEAN
What are you gunna do, Sam? Gun’s filled with rock salt. It’s not gunna kill me.
SAM shoots DEAN in the chest. The shot blasts him backwards through the hidden door to fall on the floor.
SAM
No. But it will hurt like hell.
Not only in the last 10 episodes Sam has been giving far more orders than Dean (as you can see from the previous rewatches), here we see that Sam wants to hurt Dean. The cop? he went straight to killing. And we know Sam has other means to kill Dean. But no, he wants it to hurt, because Sam is mad at Dean, and when Sam is mad, he wants others to hurt.
And of course, then he shoots him again, with a gun he fully believes its’ loaded.
Emotional Violence
Once again, Sam starts the situation badly. It’s part of the already proven pattern that he has of attacking Dean’s feelings whenever Dean fails to do something Sam wants. And while this may be unintended by the writers, the truth is that it’s starting to be a bit repetitive.
SAM
You know, maybe we should call the Feds. File a missing person’s.
DEAN
We’ve talked about this. Dad’d be pissed if we put the Feds on his tail.
SAM
I don’t care anymore.
Cellphone rings. DEAN crosses the room.
SAM
After all that happened back in Kansas, I mean…he should’ve been there, Dean. You said so yourself. You tried to call him and…nothing.
DEAN
I know! (He rummages through his duffel) Where the hell is my cellphone?
SAM
You know, he could be dead for all we know.
DEAN
Don’t say that! He’s not dead! He’s – he’s…
SAM
He’s what? He’s hiding? He’s busy?
You know, maybe we should call the Feds. File a missing person’s.
DEAN
We’ve talked about this. Dad’d be pissed if we put the Feds on his tail.
SAM
I don’t care anymore.
Cellphone rings. DEAN crosses the room.
SAM
After all that happened back in Kansas, I mean…he should’ve been there, Dean. You said so yourself. You tried to call him and…nothing.
DEAN
I know! (He rummages through his duffel) Where the hell is my cellphone?
SAM
You know, he could be dead for all we know.
DEAN
Don’t say that! He’s not dead! He’s – he’s…
SAM
He’s what? He’s hiding? He’s busy?
So Dean, understandably, doesn’t want to put the Feds on John’s trail. This is also because, if Sam has completely forgotten, the Feds WERE on Dean’s trail and right now, Dean is officially dead thanks to that case where Sam insisted they had to help his friends. So anything that calls the Feds’ attention to a Winchester? Spells bad news because if they realize Dean is not dead? It’s a manhunt against him since he’s a “serial killer” now. (And that’s something we will see a lot in season 2). And what does Sam do? Immediately goes to tell Dean that he should be angry at John, that John doesn’t care about Dean, and puts the finger on a wound that hasn’t closed, what happened in Kansas. And he keeps at it, even as Dean get’s the coordinates, undermining John
SAM
The man can barely work a toaster, Dean.
The man can barely work a toaster, Dean.
For no other reason than to hurt Dean.
Which makes the final scene after Ellicot gave him his rage on roids treatment even more interesting, as none of the things Sam is angry at Dean for are true. As we follow that scene, from the original violence (actually shooting Dean) to the more emotional part of the scene:
DEAN lies on the floor, coming to and gasping for breath.
DEAN
Sam!
SAM stands over him.
DEAN
We gotta burn Ellicott’s bones and all this will be over, and you’ll be back to normal.
SAM
I am normal. I’m just telling the truth for the first time. I mean, why are we even here? ’Cause you’re following Dad’s orders like a good little solider? Because you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval?
DEAN
This isn’t you talking, Sam.
SAM
That’s the difference between you and me. I have a mind of my own. I’m not pathetic, like you.
DEAN
Sam!
SAM stands over him.
DEAN
We gotta burn Ellicott’s bones and all this will be over, and you’ll be back to normal.
SAM
I am normal. I’m just telling the truth for the first time. I mean, why are we even here? ’Cause you’re following Dad’s orders like a good little solider? Because you always do what he says without question? Are you that desperate for his approval?
DEAN
This isn’t you talking, Sam.
SAM
That’s the difference between you and me. I have a mind of my own. I’m not pathetic, like you.
Sam is arguing that Dean only works to obey John’s orders, when we know it’s not true. Dean does it because they help people. John’s approval may be important (we will learn that later) but what really matters is 'saving people’, something that Sam always forget.
More important than that? We know now that Sam thinks Dean is pathetic. That every single thing he’s done so far, belittle Dean’s way of living, his EMP reader and his street smarts? Are because deep down, he believes that his brother is pathetic.
Not a good sign for the 'brotherly bond’.
Secrets, Lies (and their consequences)
No secrets, lies or consequences of them in this episode, thank goodness. It’s way too heavy as it is.
Speeches and Apologies
To Sam’s credit, he does apologize at the end. However, to his detriment, this apology also marks two very important things in the pattern of how he speaks to Dean. Let’s see.
SAM
Hey, Dean?
DEAN turns to look at him.
SAM
I’m sorry, man. I said some awful things back there.
DEAN
You remember all that?
SAM
Yeah. It’s like I couldn’t control it. But I didn’t mean it, any of it.
DEAN
You didn’t, huh?
SAM
No, of course not! Do we need to talk about this?
DEAN
(moving to get in the Impala) No. I’m not really in the sharing and caring kinda mood. I just wanna get some sleep.
Hey, Dean?
DEAN turns to look at him.
SAM
I’m sorry, man. I said some awful things back there.
DEAN
You remember all that?
SAM
Yeah. It’s like I couldn’t control it. But I didn’t mean it, any of it.
DEAN
You didn’t, huh?
SAM
No, of course not! Do we need to talk about this?
DEAN
(moving to get in the Impala) No. I’m not really in the sharing and caring kinda mood. I just wanna get some sleep.
This is the first, and last, as far as memory serves, time that Sam actually says the word 'Sorry’ to Dean. (At least until season 12). However, just as Dean expresses surprise that Sam remembers what he said, he immediately claims that he didn’t mean any of it… despite it contradicting the way in which Ellicott affected his victims. Which is to say, Sam’s apology is strange since we don’t know what he IS apologizing for. If he didn’t mean any of it, and he wasn’t in control… is he apologizing for hurting Dean’s feelings? Is he apologizing for letting Ellicot get his hands on him?
Now, people say things they don’t mean when they’re angry. That’s true. "I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that" is a very standard apology. However, that’s how it’s usually said. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that” or “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean what I said”. Sam makes a pause, between the actual apology, and the I didn’t mean it, after Dean doesn’t seem convinced of his words.
And he doesn’t try again. His next line
SAM
No, of course not! Do we need to talk about this?
No, of course not! Do we need to talk about this?
Is not an assurance of the apology, but a threat. Because 'Do we need to talk about this?’ sounds more like a threat of more talking, more justification from Sam, than a real apology, which is why it doesn’t count as one on the tally and why Dean brushed him off.
Final Tally
This is a very curious episode. It is meant to be a parallel to Skin, in the sense that while in Skin we get to hear Dean’s personal problems with Sam, now it’s Sam’s turn. However the end result is very different because in Skin, the one hitting Sam is not Dean, but the shapeshifter, and more importantly, what the shapeshifter says about Dean’s anger is not an attack on Sam’s personality, but on Sam’s absence and here, we have Sam actually hitting Dean, and his anger is an attack on Dean’s personality.
Even more important, there’s another huge difference: Sam doesn’t acknowledge what he learned on Skin, or he dismissed it. The shapeshifter, channeling Dean’s thoughts, clearly said that Dean was not happy always obeying John, that he had dreams of his own and that he had not been able to fulfill them. Sam doesn’t consider any of that, for Sam, Dean is the perfect tool, and that’s something that has been present since the pilot.
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: 3 / 3
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 / 4
Times Dean forced Sam to do something : 0 / 0
Times Sam forced Dean to do something: 0 / 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 / 7
Times Dean has made fun of something Sam does or has: 0 / 4
Times Sam has made fun of something Dean does or has: 0 / 15
Times we focus on Dean’s needs: 0 / 0
Times we focus on Sam’s needs: 0 / 3
Arc episodes dedicated to Sam: 0 / 3
Filler episodes dedicated to Sam: 1 / 5
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