Throwback Thursday: Dean H/C Highlights from 3x14 "Long Distance Call"
Welcome back to Throwback Thursdays! I've had a request for 3x14, "Long Distance Call", wherein Sam and Dean are increasingly desperately trying to find a way to wrangle Dean out of Hell's increasingly inevitable grasp. It is, again, not an episode that comes up a whole lot on rewatch; but I think the episode gets a bad rap for being "bad" because it's a MotW episode that just happens to be placed at the end of the season--having just rewatched it, I can tell you that actually, it's an awesome episode! And not even just because there are not one, but TWO great shots of bloodied!bondage wrists in it. (Alas they are Sam's wrists, do I didn't include them here, but trust me, worth the rewatch for that alone. Also, Sam's hair.)
3x14 Dean H/C highlights include:
sweaty!Dean, bruised!face!Dean, daddy issues, panicked!Dean, insomnia!Dean, Dean falling back on blind faith, probably the longest fight scene this show has ever had (excepting possibly Sam vs. shapeshifter!Dean in 1x06), concerned!pre-Hell Dean, Dean having a guilty phone conversation with John, Sam and Dean sharing a moment of tense solidarity in a motel room. I think Dean/hope is probably one of the most tragic ships to ever ship--and that's saying a lot in this fandom.
In Milan, Ohio, people are receiving calls from their dearly departed. Dean gets a call from his father:
To put this scene in perspective, I think it's generative to note that the first time Dean calls John, in 1x09 "Home," it's because he and Sam have returned to the original site of hell and trauma, their home in Lawrence. When Dean receives his call in 3x14, he's about a month out from the eternal trauma of Hell itself.
Um, ouch.
The way Dean's voice grinds to that low register around :48 and hitches around 1:02--I just, I can't. And then Dean receives another call from John, which serves a function similar to his conversation with Gordon Walker in 2x03 "Bloodlust," where Dean comes clean about their most recent emotional drama (in that case, John's death; in this case, Dean's imminent death), something he's unwilling to share with (or put upon) Sam.
The idea of John on the other end of the line's got him freaked, but also filled with more last-ditch hope than Sam's willing to believe in. Dean, continuing their series of minor communication breakdowns this episode, simply ascribes this to Sam's on-going feud with John. Though Sam assures him this is not the case, every emotion is a live wire, and the scene quickly escalates into a shouting match.
Dean's body language when he realizes what he's just said to Sam, about blind faith, kills me. As does, of course, Sam's desperate litany of Please don't go anywheres. ;(
There's also plenty of cut-and dry, literal H in this episode, since Dean and Bereft Father spend almost half of it attempting to fight to the death. I thought Bereft Father's introduction was pretty clever; the bumper sticker on his locker lends credence to the crocutta's threat to Sam--that he was, at that very moment, killing Dean. The sticker implies BF's combat capability, and thereby heightening the reality of the threat, and racheting up the tension of the scenes that follow.
I enjoy fight scenes as much as the next person, but this one is particularly relevant, I think, because Dean's body language (those are some vicious kicks???!) here says a lot more about where he's at emotionally right now than, well, anything he's actually said so far. Listen to his breath catch just before the clip switches over (around :30). And then the way he dismantles BF's gun and throws it aside… This is what desperation looks like. (The dialogue between Dean and Sam in this episode's tag will go on to confirm this verbally.)
Aaaaaand then we get some more Literal H, because this is the longest fight scene in existence, I'm not even kidding. And also literal C: A sweaty, confused, and ultimately disheartened Dean trades blows with Bereft Father, and then tends his wounds.
Miraculously, both Sam and Dean manage to escape the crocutta's guiles relatively unscathed. Though the monster speaks to the solitary nature of modern living, and the illusion of communication, does this apply to the Winchesters?
Because awwww, look how close they are at he beginning of this episode; look at all that uncomplicated brotherly love!
The fluidity of their whole catch/throw routine gets me every time. And their whole range of non-verbal cues, the body language in the third piece of this clip, guh. <3
...Of course, true to SPN form, the episode spends basically all 40 minutes of this episode ruthlessly complicating this.
What this episode demonstrates most strikingly is the idea that, although Sam and Dean are fighting together, fighting for the same thing, working their hardest to snatch each other from the jaws of unending peril, etc., they're not 100% on the same page--cannot be. Because as scared as Sam is about losing Dean (see 3x11 "Mystery Spot," or basically any other episode in S3), he doesn't actually understand Dean's terror here, his intense need to believe that John's come, their father's come to save him. Not really. And as much as Dean is definitely on the "don't go to Hell" boat, in the next episode, 3x15 "Time is On My Side," he's also not able to level with Sam and Sam's desperate push for keeping Dean alive. Not entirely. Because as much as you love a person, and as well as you might know them, you can't know all of them, and you can't see or feel exactly what they're feeling. I think their (wrong) expectation that you can, or should, is a big part of what's made their relationship beyond this point so painfully difficult. :(
But they try--most of the time. Dean comes forth for Sam in a big way. Because for now, all they can do is try their best. Their best is pretty good:
Okay, well, Dean begs to differ. XD But you know he doesn't really. (Not yet, anyway.)
Enjoy! Pull up a chair, drop a line… and if you've got an episode you'd like to throw back to, don't hesitate to ask! <3
3x14 Dean H/C highlights include:
sweaty!Dean, bruised!face!Dean, daddy issues, panicked!Dean, insomnia!Dean, Dean falling back on blind faith, probably the longest fight scene this show has ever had (excepting possibly Sam vs. shapeshifter!Dean in 1x06), concerned!pre-Hell Dean, Dean having a guilty phone conversation with John, Sam and Dean sharing a moment of tense solidarity in a motel room. I think Dean/hope is probably one of the most tragic ships to ever ship--and that's saying a lot in this fandom.
In Milan, Ohio, people are receiving calls from their dearly departed. Dean gets a call from his father:
Click to viewTo put this scene in perspective, I think it's generative to note that the first time Dean calls John, in 1x09 "Home," it's because he and Sam have returned to the original site of hell and trauma, their home in Lawrence. When Dean receives his call in 3x14, he's about a month out from the eternal trauma of Hell itself.
Um, ouch.
The way Dean's voice grinds to that low register around :48 and hitches around 1:02--I just, I can't. And then Dean receives another call from John, which serves a function similar to his conversation with Gordon Walker in 2x03 "Bloodlust," where Dean comes clean about their most recent emotional drama (in that case, John's death; in this case, Dean's imminent death), something he's unwilling to share with (or put upon) Sam.
The idea of John on the other end of the line's got him freaked, but also filled with more last-ditch hope than Sam's willing to believe in. Dean, continuing their series of minor communication breakdowns this episode, simply ascribes this to Sam's on-going feud with John. Though Sam assures him this is not the case, every emotion is a live wire, and the scene quickly escalates into a shouting match.
Dean's body language when he realizes what he's just said to Sam, about blind faith, kills me. As does, of course, Sam's desperate litany of Please don't go anywheres. ;(
There's also plenty of cut-and dry, literal H in this episode, since Dean and Bereft Father spend almost half of it attempting to fight to the death. I thought Bereft Father's introduction was pretty clever; the bumper sticker on his locker lends credence to the crocutta's threat to Sam--that he was, at that very moment, killing Dean. The sticker implies BF's combat capability, and thereby heightening the reality of the threat, and racheting up the tension of the scenes that follow.
I enjoy fight scenes as much as the next person, but this one is particularly relevant, I think, because Dean's body language (those are some vicious kicks???!) here says a lot more about where he's at emotionally right now than, well, anything he's actually said so far. Listen to his breath catch just before the clip switches over (around :30). And then the way he dismantles BF's gun and throws it aside… This is what desperation looks like. (The dialogue between Dean and Sam in this episode's tag will go on to confirm this verbally.)
Aaaaaand then we get some more Literal H, because this is the longest fight scene in existence, I'm not even kidding. And also literal C: A sweaty, confused, and ultimately disheartened Dean trades blows with Bereft Father, and then tends his wounds.
Miraculously, both Sam and Dean manage to escape the crocutta's guiles relatively unscathed. Though the monster speaks to the solitary nature of modern living, and the illusion of communication, does this apply to the Winchesters?
Because awwww, look how close they are at he beginning of this episode; look at all that uncomplicated brotherly love!
The fluidity of their whole catch/throw routine gets me every time. And their whole range of non-verbal cues, the body language in the third piece of this clip, guh. <3
...Of course, true to SPN form, the episode spends basically all 40 minutes of this episode ruthlessly complicating this.
What this episode demonstrates most strikingly is the idea that, although Sam and Dean are fighting together, fighting for the same thing, working their hardest to snatch each other from the jaws of unending peril, etc., they're not 100% on the same page--cannot be. Because as scared as Sam is about losing Dean (see 3x11 "Mystery Spot," or basically any other episode in S3), he doesn't actually understand Dean's terror here, his intense need to believe that John's come, their father's come to save him. Not really. And as much as Dean is definitely on the "don't go to Hell" boat, in the next episode, 3x15 "Time is On My Side," he's also not able to level with Sam and Sam's desperate push for keeping Dean alive. Not entirely. Because as much as you love a person, and as well as you might know them, you can't know all of them, and you can't see or feel exactly what they're feeling. I think their (wrong) expectation that you can, or should, is a big part of what's made their relationship beyond this point so painfully difficult. :(
But they try--most of the time. Dean comes forth for Sam in a big way. Because for now, all they can do is try their best. Their best is pretty good:
Okay, well, Dean begs to differ. XD But you know he doesn't really. (Not yet, anyway.)
Enjoy! Pull up a chair, drop a line… and if you've got an episode you'd like to throw back to, don't hesitate to ask! <3