Thoughts on Sam
This episode bothered me. dotfic’s meta on it got me thinking, and I haven’t really stopped. So here’s some rambling for you.
In my canon, “Monster Movie” happened when it should have, as 4.03, not 4.05. The character arc makes much more sense that way, with Dean full of joie de vivre and Sam relieved and happy to have him back. To me, “Yellow Fever” follows much more naturally from “Metamorphosis.” And of course, I’m looking at the characterization in this episode as if it’s intentional, not merely muted in an attempt to make the story more lighthearted. (Because Show is smarter than that, right? Right?) Well.
Sam is different now. I think this has been pretty clear throughout the fourth season so far, but especially in this last episode. He was just so casual about the whole “Dean has twenty-four hours left to live” thing. A far cry from his attitude last season or in “Faith.” The difference is sort of terrifying, really. This is not how we fangirls expected Sam to act, and it’s not a new thing. This has been going on since 4.01.
It’s almost like Sam has given up, has just accepted that there are things that he can’t control, instead of trying to remake things to his will the way he always has. This has always been Sam’s way, from disagreeing with his father as a teenager, to leaving his family to go to Stanford, to his fight to save Dean in “Faith,” to fighting his own destiny in S2 and Dean’s inevitable death in S3. Sam does not accept things the way they are. He fights and shouts and argues and finds his own way. Dean has always been the one who just lets things be, from staying with his father and embracing his role as a societal outcast, all the way to S3, trying to get Sam to let him go, up to the very last moment.
Throughout S3 and now continuing, there has been this theme of Dean becoming more like Sam and Sam becoming more like Dean. Now Sam is not the only one chosen by a supernatural force-Dean has been too. Now Dean is not the only one who can casually deal out death-Sam can too. But it’s more than that. Dean wants to fight his destiny; he didn’t like being touched by an angel, he didn’t want to have any mission but his own. (Though with his speech in “Monster Movie” and clutching the Bible here, perhaps he is beginning to accept it.) And Sam…Sam let Ruby guide him. He tapped into the dark destiny he once fought and embraced it, though that, too, he tried to remake into something good. Has Sam given up? At the end of “Metamorphosis” he claimed to be making his own choice, but many loyal viewers felt uneasy, having difficulty believing that he meant it. Sam has been swept up in a current and Dean is chasing after. It scares Dean to death, almost literally-“Yellow Fever” makes that abundantly clear.
And so, Dean is dying AGAIN, and Sam cannot work up enough energy to be afraid for him. He seemed just so tired, annoyed and impatient, occasionally amused. But never worried, not the way we would expect, unless it was so well-hidden that even we obsessive fans could not see it. Dean fought-he ran from the sound of hellhounds, he slapped away the gun, he wrenched himself out of Lilith’s grip. Sam didn’t even seem to be trying very hard. He called Bobby, the man they turn to when nothing else works. Maybe it was desperation, or maybe Sam just knew that Bobby would be able to care about Dean dying, even if Sam couldn’t. (It makes me SO SAD to even contemplate this.)
Through S1 and S2, Dean was the protector, Sam the protected, and both seemed content with that. S3 was a confusion of roles and responsibilities, and then Sam was left alone for four awful months. And now he stands alone. Not protected-Dean is too confused and vulnerable, and Sam isn’t letting him take that back. But neither is he the protector, which is what I, and I think many other viewers, expected to see. We saw hints of it in the premier, with Sam’s anger when the demon in the diner threatened to drag Dean back to Hell, and when he saw the mark on Dean’s shoulder, and I certainly squeed a lot at that. But then he left Dean alone in the motel, sleeping and vulnerable. Again in “In the Beginning,” he left the motel with only a glance at his sleeping brother. At the end of “Metamorphosis” he was nearly frantic at Dean in peril, as if he was only then realizing what was happening. It seemed to hit him all at once, and perhaps was the impetus for him deciding not to use his powers anymore.
And now, this. Just the worst. :( Not what I wanted to see at all. It seems like Sam has backed off again.
I think shell-shock is part of it, Sam still living as if he’s alone. Struggling to regain what was lost. Dean does not understand. He still sees his brother the same as four months ago, doesn’t comprehend the changes that happened between. Perhaps the idea of losing Dean again terrifies Sam so much that he simply cannot cope with it, and so he shuts down, becomes just a hunter, looking for an answer without trying to deal with the emotional ramifications, without even feeling them.
Part of this is necessary, but I’m very frightened that Sam might be letting it go too far. Shutting down part of your humanity-any part, and for any reason-is only playing into Azazel’s hands. That’s what I think, anyway.
Anyway, I apologize for the incoherency of these ramblings. I’m not sure of anything one way or another. These are just some scattered thoughts and impressions. Do with them what you will.
In my canon, “Monster Movie” happened when it should have, as 4.03, not 4.05. The character arc makes much more sense that way, with Dean full of joie de vivre and Sam relieved and happy to have him back. To me, “Yellow Fever” follows much more naturally from “Metamorphosis.” And of course, I’m looking at the characterization in this episode as if it’s intentional, not merely muted in an attempt to make the story more lighthearted. (Because Show is smarter than that, right? Right?) Well.
Sam is different now. I think this has been pretty clear throughout the fourth season so far, but especially in this last episode. He was just so casual about the whole “Dean has twenty-four hours left to live” thing. A far cry from his attitude last season or in “Faith.” The difference is sort of terrifying, really. This is not how we fangirls expected Sam to act, and it’s not a new thing. This has been going on since 4.01.
It’s almost like Sam has given up, has just accepted that there are things that he can’t control, instead of trying to remake things to his will the way he always has. This has always been Sam’s way, from disagreeing with his father as a teenager, to leaving his family to go to Stanford, to his fight to save Dean in “Faith,” to fighting his own destiny in S2 and Dean’s inevitable death in S3. Sam does not accept things the way they are. He fights and shouts and argues and finds his own way. Dean has always been the one who just lets things be, from staying with his father and embracing his role as a societal outcast, all the way to S3, trying to get Sam to let him go, up to the very last moment.
Throughout S3 and now continuing, there has been this theme of Dean becoming more like Sam and Sam becoming more like Dean. Now Sam is not the only one chosen by a supernatural force-Dean has been too. Now Dean is not the only one who can casually deal out death-Sam can too. But it’s more than that. Dean wants to fight his destiny; he didn’t like being touched by an angel, he didn’t want to have any mission but his own. (Though with his speech in “Monster Movie” and clutching the Bible here, perhaps he is beginning to accept it.) And Sam…Sam let Ruby guide him. He tapped into the dark destiny he once fought and embraced it, though that, too, he tried to remake into something good. Has Sam given up? At the end of “Metamorphosis” he claimed to be making his own choice, but many loyal viewers felt uneasy, having difficulty believing that he meant it. Sam has been swept up in a current and Dean is chasing after. It scares Dean to death, almost literally-“Yellow Fever” makes that abundantly clear.
And so, Dean is dying AGAIN, and Sam cannot work up enough energy to be afraid for him. He seemed just so tired, annoyed and impatient, occasionally amused. But never worried, not the way we would expect, unless it was so well-hidden that even we obsessive fans could not see it. Dean fought-he ran from the sound of hellhounds, he slapped away the gun, he wrenched himself out of Lilith’s grip. Sam didn’t even seem to be trying very hard. He called Bobby, the man they turn to when nothing else works. Maybe it was desperation, or maybe Sam just knew that Bobby would be able to care about Dean dying, even if Sam couldn’t. (It makes me SO SAD to even contemplate this.)
Through S1 and S2, Dean was the protector, Sam the protected, and both seemed content with that. S3 was a confusion of roles and responsibilities, and then Sam was left alone for four awful months. And now he stands alone. Not protected-Dean is too confused and vulnerable, and Sam isn’t letting him take that back. But neither is he the protector, which is what I, and I think many other viewers, expected to see. We saw hints of it in the premier, with Sam’s anger when the demon in the diner threatened to drag Dean back to Hell, and when he saw the mark on Dean’s shoulder, and I certainly squeed a lot at that. But then he left Dean alone in the motel, sleeping and vulnerable. Again in “In the Beginning,” he left the motel with only a glance at his sleeping brother. At the end of “Metamorphosis” he was nearly frantic at Dean in peril, as if he was only then realizing what was happening. It seemed to hit him all at once, and perhaps was the impetus for him deciding not to use his powers anymore.
And now, this. Just the worst. :( Not what I wanted to see at all. It seems like Sam has backed off again.
I think shell-shock is part of it, Sam still living as if he’s alone. Struggling to regain what was lost. Dean does not understand. He still sees his brother the same as four months ago, doesn’t comprehend the changes that happened between. Perhaps the idea of losing Dean again terrifies Sam so much that he simply cannot cope with it, and so he shuts down, becomes just a hunter, looking for an answer without trying to deal with the emotional ramifications, without even feeling them.
Part of this is necessary, but I’m very frightened that Sam might be letting it go too far. Shutting down part of your humanity-any part, and for any reason-is only playing into Azazel’s hands. That’s what I think, anyway.
Anyway, I apologize for the incoherency of these ramblings. I’m not sure of anything one way or another. These are just some scattered thoughts and impressions. Do with them what you will.