8.03...and also...

[ash48]

There seems to be a major sticking point about 8.03 and I feel like I just need to say this...

Comments

[fourtenpm]

ha, you've seen that complaint one too many times. pat pat.

[ash48]

Can you tell!!!?! /o\

;)

[ash48]

Hee...yeah. Lots of mixed reactions to this one. And you know me, I cool with that except when... I'M NOT! I think I was just confused why there was all this "BUT JESS WOULD HAVE BAKED SAM A CAKE!"

And yes yes! You make a great point. I'm torn between Sam just not remembering that he's had an ok life at times and maybe not ever really having and sense of "normal".

It's so revealing that Sam acted so panicked when Amelia had disappeared - who would blame him. So many important people in his life have disappeared. I'm sure that was a direct comparison to Dean just disappearing.

Oooh... thanks for the tag pickup. It was midnight and I kinda rushed this post.
<33333

[cassiopeia7]

If your life is full of pain and heartache then it taints everything else. Even the past.

I can totally believe this has happened to Sam. We know the trauma Sam has experienced. I don't need to list it. So for him to think he has NEVER had anything good in his life is totally believable. In fact, it's a sure sign that something is wrong.

Wow, spot-on observation! Definitely adopting that viewpoint!

[ash48]

Yeah, I'm thinking Sam isn't exactly all right at the moment. Neither is Dean. (hee...whenever are they?!)

But it seems plausible to me that this is fresh in his mind so this is what he remembers - above everything else that is tainted.

I also like the idea (mentioned below) that Amelia just assumed that Sam hadn't seen a b'cake before. She says that, not him. I'm thinking it's probably irrelevant whether he's had a b'day cake before. It's more about her not having disappeared (like Dean did) and him being completely relieved and overwhelmed by that. Oh Sam.

:D

[pocochina]

Agreed. I don't have a problem with his current perspective on this at all. Maybe it's a function of having watched the whole series in a short amount of time, but I've never thought of Sam's life at Stanford as being really normal, because if you're running away from something, you're still reacting to it, so Sam was being controlled to some extent by the life even when he was trying so hard to get out of it. On top of that, I kind of doubt Sam thinks about his life at Stanford a "normal" life after he found out about Brady. Those relatively good memories are poisoned for him, and it can be more painful to think about that having happened than just to let it go and focus on the present.

[de_nugis]

This. Sam's first bid at normal was defined around John's values as surely as Dean's life was, it was just defined by rebellion into the opposite. And he now knows that everything he thought was his own choice was actively manipulated by demons. This is the first time he's really struggling to figure out what life is his. And he's still, in a way, having to define it against Dean, which is much more painful and complicated but also a hell of a lot more long-run hopeful than defining against John.

[ash48]

I think you are right. His memories of Stanford have to be bitter now, with everything that has happened since then. Considering what happened to Jess and the reveal about Brady. ;)

[galathea_snb]

I think a lot of people forget that Sam's memories of Stanford have been tainted by Lucifer's reveal that he has been manipulated by demons even back then. Jess was brought to him like the proverbial sacrificial lamb and his best friend was replaced by a demon, so it's really no surprise that Sam is unable to think of Stanford as the time where he had a normal life any longer. It makes complete sense to me. :)

[ash48]

Yes. Stanford is held up as this shining example of "normal" for Sam, but his memories of it can't be glowing now. They would be well and truly tainted.