Passing observation on SPN 4.14 Sex and Violence
There's a handy little YouTube clip chronicling Dean's hallucinations while suffering from ghost sickness. I hadn't watched 4.06 since it aired, really, so I figured I'd revisit some of the bits I liked.
And then I noticed some rather disturbing echoes of this ep in 4.14.
( Spoilers for all aired episodes )
And then I noticed some rather disturbing echoes of this ep in 4.14.
( Spoilers for all aired episodes )
Comments 31
Interesting analysis - mostly I agree, although I think season 3's issues got shortcircuited by the writers' strike.
About season 4 - I would point out that it isn't a question of Dean saying because "Dean" said so - it's a question that, on pretty good authority (for Dean) it's because God said so. Uriel has threatened to smite Sam if he "becomes more trouble than he's worth" and very specifically told him not to use his powers.
Assuming that that is what Sam's dong with Ruby, he's got bigger worries than Dean.
As far as your point about Dean - I don't think in the normal course of things Dean would have too many problems with Sam asserting himself, it's just that the way he's asserting himself right now is going to get him smited and possibly affect the apocolypse.
So, while I see the power struggle you describe, I personally am not sure Sam's picked the best time to assert his independence.
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I don't think in the normal course of things Dean would have too many problems with Sam asserting himself, it's just that the way he's asserting himself right now is going to get him smited and possibly affect the apocolypse.
This is a very good point - context is everything. In S1, Dean was willing to let Sam go his own way, but three years later he's sure as hell not willing to let him get himself killed.
And you're right that Dean isn't the biggest roadblock to Sam using his powers. But I wonder if he isn't the roadblock whose good opinion matters most to Sam.
I personally am not sure Sam's picked the best time to assert his independence.
I think he's just picked an incredibly dangerous way to do it. If he'd independently, just for himself, decided not to pursue the powers because they were playing with fire (a la "Metamorphosis"), then I can't see anyone but Ruby having a problem with it.
Again, thanks for reading!
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And just when they finally were starting to be on the same page about Sam's powers (because he was trying, he WAS), Dean hauled them off of apocalypse duty to go on The Epic Hunting Trips of Denial, ignoring the fact that there was even a war going on when all Sam wants to do it END it.
I was just telling someone last night that I feel a very Stanford-like break-up coming on. *wibble*
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Minor quibble, but: I'm not exactly sure I'd characterize him this way. Not when he had a full-time flunky devoted to his welfare and the development of his power.
But from Sam's point of view, yeah, he had finally figured out how to navigate the scary territory of life without Dean. Just when he's steady on his feet again, the rug gets pulled out from under him. I guess it's sort of like a guy recently finished his freshman year of college coming home for the summer and having to answer to his parents again.
Dean hauled them off of apocalypse duty to go on The Epic Hunting Trips of Denial.Here again, I think this is definitely Sam's perception. But if Sam ever truly had a solid lead on Lilith, the seals, or the apocalypse, I can't see him sticking around to hunt ghosties, no matter what Dean said. He'd pull a "Hunted" in two seconds flat and go take care of business. So he's not here on these hunts because Dean's dragging him. He's here because he hasn't got any better ideas ( ... )
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Dean craves SUCCESS. Sam craves CONTROL.
Everything that's gone on with Dean for the last six months or more has been totally outside Sam's control. He couldn't stop him going to hell, he couldn't bring him back, he couldn't help carry the burden of the memories, he couldn't say a damn thing to make it better when Dean confessed... I think you're right that Dean has become a constant reminder of Sam's failures.
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He's not the jailer hitching the ball and chain to Sam's ankle. He is the ball and chain. A burden and a liability. His only power over Sam is to slow him down and hold him back.
Which is just plain awesome for Dean, considering it's not only Sam self-destructing he's worried about, but the angels getting all smitey on him c/o Cas' warning/threat at the end of ITB. Dean's got to stop Sam, be his savior, but how can he do that when Sam himself is fighting him, seeing Dean as the ball & chain? Sometimes I wonder if Dean can even change anything and Sam's fall from grace is as inevitable as Mary's deal. Dean couldn't stop that either ( ... )
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I'd never thought of it quite that way. Very nice thinky thoughts. Makes me ponder in horror for the boys.
If I wasn't positively confident of a S5, I'd be damn near hysterical by now.
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I love, love, love the parallel that you drew between God/Castiel and John/boys. And not just because it makes me grin to think of John being equated with God.
We've already had John compared to God once before, during Dean and Anna's conversation about wandering, sick for home and waiting for orders from a father they don't understand. It's a relationship modeled on blind faith and obedience, and one that Dean and Anna ultimately found unsatisfying. I wonder if Castiel will decide the same?
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Twice actually, Cas makes a comparison too in the Halloween ep. "When your father gave you an order, did you not obey?" Granted, it was more in passing than the overly emo Anna and Dean heart-to-heart, but I'm counting it.
Daddy is God, especially to a child. I think, more predominantly in Dean, but Sam too even if he's not quite as obvious or it's not in the same way as Dean (for Sam, Dean is pretty much the stand-in Daddy aka God figure for the perpetually absent John. Which puts a whole different spin on Sam's revisit to challenging, even mocking, Dean while he was under Siren-spell, doesn't it?), Dean is still that 4-yr-old rushing his brother out of the house because his daddy told him to. Protect Sam at all costs, which twistedly morphed into Stop Sam Or Else (by John in 201, then again from God Himself by way of Castiel in 403). Too bad d(D)addy also kind of sucks. Dean thinks John kind of sucked (as we're reminded in 410) and we're recently reminded again Sam thinks ( ... )
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I like what you said about Sam refusing to be a passenger in his own life, but I also believe that's been a theme for him since day one. It's just lately he's coming up against forces so much bigger than he is, it's almost impossible to maintain control of his own destiny.
If Dean starts becoming more pro-active and assertive in his own life, picking actual GOALS in this war, rather than just running from hunt to random hunt, maybe Sam would feel more like he's got a partnerIt occurs to me that the Boyz are pretty much in the same place they were at the beginning of season two. (Colt's gone, no leads on Azazel's whereabouts, no bargaining power, no nothing.) This time, Dean believes they can't go after Lilith without Sam risking his soul, they don't know where she is or where/what the seals are, which seals she'll go after... They got nothing. So in the meantime, the one thing Dean can do - fix the car/save some people - is what he's going to throw himself into ( ... )
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I agree with you on this one. Considering Sam's outburst to Ruby; that he doesn't know where to start or where to find the seals, it is only natural that they fall back on to what works: hunting. It was during the course of hunting that John picked up the YED's trail, it was while hunting that Dean understands the warning John imparted regarding Sam; it is clear that hunting is the way for them to get the answers and not just for the sake of saving people.
What Sam has wants is for Dean to follow him like he followed John, not for Dean.
*nods vehemently.* Like most youngest children, Sam wants to be the focus and Dean's unswerving obedience to John is in the way of this. He was struggling to be the centre for Dean and for Dean to submit to his wants before John's. Some of his reactions (e.g. like leaving for California during Scarecrow) is similar to the tantrum and sulks characteristic of many youngest children ( ... )
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