"I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry" (SPN 5.14 episode reaction)

[ariadnes_string]

“I’ll eat when I’m hungry, I’ll drink when I’m dry
If moonshine don’t kill me, I’ll live ‘til I die”
(Moonshiner, trad., Alison Moorer's version)

I liked the episode, though possibly not as much as the two other Edlund eps this season (5.04 and 5.10), but I don’t have much to say about it that hasn’t already been said better by oselle (here),

Comments

[mangokulfi]

However, to indulge in a bit of fanwank, it was interesting that it wasn’t just that Dean didn’t feel any unnatural hungers-it was that some of his usual hungers--hungers he had recently experienced-disappeared: for burgers, for sex (something he had been hungry for just last week, in his dreams, anyway).

It was if Famine was affecting Dean by playing on his hunger not to hunger, as it were-giving him his desired state of being free of desire; the common wish of people who feel too much not to feel anything at all.

I think this works for Dean not so much because his problem is that he feels/wants too much (though that too), but because his most secret yearning (though not so secret to us) has been for death (cf. 4.15) or at least a release from whatever feelings/drives are motivating him to get up and shoulder the burden of saving the world every day (cf. WIAWSNB, 5.11, etc.).

Of course, once Famine is vanquished, he’s back to the agony of caring too much-about his brother, about the fate of the world…
Huh! I definitely think you are on to something here. That makes more sense than the more superficial interpretation that the show seemed to be presenting. Either way, I just hope Dean gets some relief from all this soon. I love me some Dean!Pain but this is just getting ridiculous.

[ariadnes_string]

Glad it made some sense!

I just hope Dean gets some relief from all this soon.
Me too! I was actually thinking at the beginning of the season that Dean was getting more in touch with his body again (here)--so it's even more sad to see him sinking into this slough of despond again. As many people have said, it would be so nice to see him recognize his own strength...