Dead Man's Blood: A Supernatural Episode Review

[sylvia_bond]

You can read my review of the Supernatural episode “Dead Man's Blood” at pinkraygun.com. Thank you!

An excerpt:

"Oh. My. Holy. Hell. It’s The DAD. The boys are shocked ghost white to find The Dad sneaking up on them. (The last time they were together, ages ago, they agreed that The Dad would be safer apart from his boys.) The Dad slips into the

Comments

[partaymon5]

Loved that episode, most especially for the family dynamics you mentioned. Plus, I've always liked the character of John: a man thrown totally out of his normal world and left with loss, and two small children to care for. Yes, the man made mistakes, but he made them out of love and fear. One thing a lot of John haters seem to forget, is that we see John and his methods through the eyes of his boys, especially Sam. A still resentful and rebellious Sam at that. When we hear John's side, during his talk with Sam, we realize that he wasn't a monster, but a man, an ex Marine, who did the best he could to keep his remaining family alive.

Plus, on the shallow side: Papa Winchester is one smoking hot man! To me, he is so obviously the sire of these boys (and yes I use 'sire' intentionally in this vampire world). Dean looks like his dad: the large heavily lashed eyes, the face shape and of course the full lips. (I've seen a picture of a younger Jeffrey Dean Morgan and the resemblance to Jensen is astounding!). Sam on the other hand, got his Daddy's size and more of his personality, albeit with a gentler nature generally. One wonders actually, just where Sam got his 'sweetness' from, since he has no recollection of his Mother. A case of nature vs. nurture maybe? I've often wondered if one of the reasons Dean so often attributes 'female' traits to Sam, is because both John and Sam are bigger than him physically. Dean is not short, but he's the smallest in his family and smaller men often try to make up for that 'perceived' lack in other ways: notably by verbal jibes. Sam's normally more PC and moral personality might also provoke this reaction in Dean.

Also interesting that Sam rarely responds to it beyond the odd face and eyeroll, especially considering just how quick and willing he is to get right in his father's face. You compared it to the 'smack down' bit, but I see it more as much more inherently male behaviour. Smack down is just acting mostly and postering. The Winchesters are much more serious in their interactions than this, if only because of their background and their chosen (or not so chosen) profession. They're not playing here, but trying to establish a pecking order in the pack. Papa is fighting to keep his place as leader, while the 'young pup' Sam, is fighting to establish his own status. Dean is not a 'yes man', so much as a good soldier a good pack member. As we learn in another episode, he disobeyed once and Sam nearly died. Dean will never do that again. Instead he rebells against everything outside the family: authority figures, women, other males. He doesn't care about them, therefore he is free to fight with them. His family - his pack - is sacred to him, and he's learned that - for him - this means obeying his father.

Sam on the other hand, never learned that lesson, and broke away from the pack to establish his status. Sam is the intellectual, and as you say, he will always question - everyone. Sam is much more like his father, in his stubborn pursuit of what he wants, and also in his reaction to loss. Sam and John fight, and go after it, without thought of anything else. Dean is the same in his own way, though he is more likely to just step aside for the family. He's more a man who lives by his gut instinct and in the moment. Dean doesn't look forward much in his life - perhaps never expecting to live long enough. That's not his focus and he's shown that he would rather die than lose any more of his family. In some ways, when Sam and John get into it, Dean is acting much more like the 'mother': stepping between the two combatants and trying to deflect the arguments. A very interesting position for someone who tries so hard to be 'macho' to the outside world.

Whoever writes some of this, is very familiar with the actual world of men: how they fight, what they say. Men fight like this, swearing and hitting and posturing without a care of 'feelings'. Feelings and being concerned about the fallout - that's a woman's viewpoint and I love that they act so 'real' about these things. Men can have a knock down, drag 'em out, punch up one moment, and the next day, they're right back to working side by side with their friend/buddy/whatever. That's the way they

[sylvia_bond]

I love your feedback and the fact that you read my review and have so much to say. Yeah, you're right in that the smack down is posturing, and the Winchesters aren't playing around here. I had a bunch of metaphors I wanted to choose from (pack leader and followers was one of them) but I didn't want to overdo those metaphors and so had to pick just one, hence the smack down, which was a lot of fun.

You've got some interesting insights about how men fight, I hadn't quite thought about it like that before. That they don't concern themselves with the fallout as much as women do. Because women tend to be more oriented towards the community and bonding within it and fighting with no care as to who gets hurt is not usually how we do it, is it. This is new for me, which is strange, seeing as I've been a woman all my life!

JDM is the living end and about the hottest thing going, all of which he brings to Papa Winchester with a smoky intensity that unsettles me. I would love to see more eps with him in it and see things from his point of view, to see it through his eyes, why he made the choices he did and how he really really feels about them. The stories we get (or the attitudes we see) towards John from each of his boys is different, I like the way you put it, Dean as the soldier (he's not really a yes man, never was) and Sam as the intellectual. Of course they're going to see The Dad through their own filter, and I'm sure we've not heard the last of the John stories they have to tell, like what about those secret weapons caches? And what other things has he not told the boys? Only KRIPKE knows! And he's not telling. Yet.