Sam/Dean in 9x13 (spoilers)...Contextualizing the brothers' current issues

[morganlucas41]

So these are my somewhat disjointed thoughts on the humdinger of a Sam/Dean closing conversation in 913, and my attempts to contextualize it in terms of the boys' overall characterization. I'm just trying to make sense of it all and this is what I've come up with, though it's far from conclusive. SPOILERS through 913 but none beyond that.

Comments

[morganlucas41]

I think the worst thing Cas did to Sam, and to the brothers personally, was breaking Sam's wall. I also think that he repaired Sam's wall by taking the hallucinations on himself, and that he's redeemed himself for his actions.

Sam and Cas do have a conversation in 7.21 where they discuss what Cas did, and the affect that had on Sam - Sam acknowledges that Cas was always trying to help.

I don't think anyone thinks that Sam being soulless was intentional on Sam or Cas's part. It has always bothered me that Dean included that in the list of things Sam needed to atone for - because it wasn't at all his fault. But Dean says that exactly once. He does not continually blame Sam for Cas's actions.

Sam and Dean also have a conversation in 822, I think, where Sam says Dean should take it easy on Cas, because he's Cas. It indicates that Sam trusts him and thinks Dean should, too.

Dean trusts Gadreel over Sam's decision to move on

Dean had NO WAY of knowing that Sam had decided to "move on." All he knew was that was Sam was dying and he did make the choice for Sam to live, but there was no way he could have known that Sam had decided to die. The "Dean" that we see inside Sam's head is INSIDE Sam's head. Real!Dean had no idea what Sam was thinking, except that Sam had chosen to stop the trials, himself, while fully aware - so how would Dean know that Sam had made up his mind to just die?

(Also, as a minor point - Cas only came in early S6, to Sam OR to Dean, when they mentioned the heavenly weapons. This underscored how "not human" Cas had become. Also, I think it's completely unfair to say that Cas "came between" Sam and Dean in S4 when Cas only ever tried to convince Dean to get Sam to stop drinking demon blood and using his powers, which would have been a GOOD thing. And Sam, Dean and Cas all fought the apocalypse together after that so I really don't see why that's relevant.)

[percysowner]

Gadreel showed Dean the conversation that Sam had with Death where he said he was ready to go if Death could promise no one would bring him back and he wouldn't hurt anyone. So yes, Dean knew Sam was ready to die and trusted that an angel possessing Sam was better than Sam finding the peace he was ready to have.

[morganlucas41]

Dean decided that having Sam alive was worth anything. He didn't want to let an angel possess him, but chose that for Sam because he thought Sam being alive was the most important thing. They are now dealing with the consequences of that action.

[ladykorana]

Which is interesting, because Dean would rather have a dead Sam than a Sam on demon blood.

I think that moment is forgotten by a lot of people (not implying that you are one of them, just pointing it out.)

[morganlucas41]

Yeah...I mentioned that in my post. It is interesting, because that is one of the only (the only?) times Dean has ever expressed a willingness to let Sam die. I'm not sure what would have to happen on the show currently for him to ever be in that place again. So many things have happened TO Sam over the past few seasons, and he's been so close to the brink of death, through no fault of his own, really.