Stumbling towards canonisation: episodes 6:01-6:03.
The thing that strikes me first about the first few episodes of season 3 is Dean's loneliness.
Okay, so not something new and unusual. But bear with me here.
Dean has always been lonely to a certain extent, but Dean has never been unsure. Dean's centre has always been his family, and for most of the course of the show, that family has been Sam. Throughout seasons 1-2, John had a part of that. Mary has usually had a symbolic part in it, though rarely an active one. We know, of course, who has been the main part of it; and throughout seasons 4 and 5, Bobby and Cas have come to share in it, to varying degrees and for various reasons.
But it's always been Sam. First and foremost, always Sam. So much so that Dean has never had to question the term 'family'. Sam is his definition, and Sam is his centre.
Until now.
First episode of season 6, five minutes in? We see Dean learning to lie - really lie, not just "I know you see right through me but I don't want to talk about this right now Sammy" lie. And his lies are, of course, about Sam. It's the first time Dean has said "I'm fine" and expected to be believed - said it with the full intention of deceiving, of hiding. Of having to bear this alone. "Who knew?" he says, when he realises that women (who turn out to be djinns, but hey) "specifically dig unavailable guys" - this life is full of mysteries and cover-ups to him, and he returns the favour. Who knew. Of course he does. It's alien, and he's alien, and he's alone in it, despite Lisa's general awesomeness, and despite the kid who might feel a bit like his.
Then Sam walks back in, and completely fails to give Dean back the family he wanted, "I was expecting, I don't know, a hug? Something?" Sam says, sardonic as Sam never was. It's not Dean who's failing to give the reaction here: it's Sam who's failing to be the family Dean remembers, but of course, Dean thinks at first that this must be his fault, it can't be Sam who's wrong.
Then he shows Dean the Campbells, and calls them family. And this is seriously wrong. Dean can't comprehend this word relative to these people. And he goes back from them to Lisa and Ben, and tries harder, and freaks out (not just because of the monsters, but because of the world that's been forced on him again, and the distortions to the word 'family' are part of that) and Lisa and Ben are forced further from him, until he yells at Ben and can't explain why. Just that Ben picked up his gun, and Dean doesn't want him to pick up a gun, because that's what his Dad made him do. That's how he ended up with the wrong family.
But hang on. That was the family that ended up with Sam, which is the only thing he knows how to define as family. What's going wrong here?
It doesn't matter. Dean can't think Sam is wrong. Sam is always the definition. And yet, here he is handing Dean a baby like a hot potato because he can't handle it, and mocking Dean for being able to quiet a sleeping baby (not a brotherly mocking, mind you - there's a definite edge of cruelty under there, of genuine derision). Dean deflects the reason for his ability to care for a child like it's a fault, uncomfortably blaming it on Lisa's infant niece, and on Ben, never on that one glaring omission of the baby he first learnt to handle, the one staring at him now with gigantor derisive eyes. Instead of caring for this new infant, this new potential family centre, Sam has Dean handing it over to people who are so creepy in their attitude towards the baby that I actively want the monster to turn up and claim it. People who are, technically, family.
... And then Cas turns up.
It's not an accident, I think, that we have a series of episode titles like this:
Exile on Main Street <- One man: Dean.
Two and a Half Men <- Two: Sam.
Third Man <- Enter Cas.
Weekend at Bobby's <- Enter the obvious.
One by one they walk back into Dean's life in a major way, and one by one they test Dean's new perspective on the world. And they fail to satisfy Dean's loneliness.
Cas? Cas never came when Sam called. If Dean ever called (and I don't think he ever dared to, certainly not after the first couple of weeks, based on the way Jensen played that scene with Jared when Sam said that Cas had never come - Dean sure looked like he had never tried), Cas never answered. And now he turns up, and he... doesn't answer. He isn't the Cas Dean knew. He isn't family. He has his own family (the cheek of it!) and his own concerns, and Dean is no longer his God. Cas is a fully functional angel again (as emphasised by the long shots in which he keeps disappearing and reappearing in another place, and the speed with which he moves the conversation past the points that Sam and Dean don't know, and his new impatience with the references that he doesn't understand), and there is an urgency to his life that Dean can't keep up with, and feels betrayed by.
And Sam doesn't care.
Isolation, to my mind, is the theme of the first few episodes - one by one Dean realises that those things he counted on for emotional support aren't there, aren't real, and that his idea of 'family' (the old one of Sam, or the new one of Ben and Lisa) is not going to hold any sway this year. And we know what happens soon, don't we? Bobby shoving him away, and Sam letting the vampire at him, and then Veritas. Poor old Dean. And here I was gearing up to say that isolation was the theme of season 7!
Okay, so not something new and unusual. But bear with me here.
Dean has always been lonely to a certain extent, but Dean has never been unsure. Dean's centre has always been his family, and for most of the course of the show, that family has been Sam. Throughout seasons 1-2, John had a part of that. Mary has usually had a symbolic part in it, though rarely an active one. We know, of course, who has been the main part of it; and throughout seasons 4 and 5, Bobby and Cas have come to share in it, to varying degrees and for various reasons.
But it's always been Sam. First and foremost, always Sam. So much so that Dean has never had to question the term 'family'. Sam is his definition, and Sam is his centre.
Until now.
First episode of season 6, five minutes in? We see Dean learning to lie - really lie, not just "I know you see right through me but I don't want to talk about this right now Sammy" lie. And his lies are, of course, about Sam. It's the first time Dean has said "I'm fine" and expected to be believed - said it with the full intention of deceiving, of hiding. Of having to bear this alone. "Who knew?" he says, when he realises that women (who turn out to be djinns, but hey) "specifically dig unavailable guys" - this life is full of mysteries and cover-ups to him, and he returns the favour. Who knew. Of course he does. It's alien, and he's alien, and he's alone in it, despite Lisa's general awesomeness, and despite the kid who might feel a bit like his.
Then Sam walks back in, and completely fails to give Dean back the family he wanted, "I was expecting, I don't know, a hug? Something?" Sam says, sardonic as Sam never was. It's not Dean who's failing to give the reaction here: it's Sam who's failing to be the family Dean remembers, but of course, Dean thinks at first that this must be his fault, it can't be Sam who's wrong.
Then he shows Dean the Campbells, and calls them family. And this is seriously wrong. Dean can't comprehend this word relative to these people. And he goes back from them to Lisa and Ben, and tries harder, and freaks out (not just because of the monsters, but because of the world that's been forced on him again, and the distortions to the word 'family' are part of that) and Lisa and Ben are forced further from him, until he yells at Ben and can't explain why. Just that Ben picked up his gun, and Dean doesn't want him to pick up a gun, because that's what his Dad made him do. That's how he ended up with the wrong family.
But hang on. That was the family that ended up with Sam, which is the only thing he knows how to define as family. What's going wrong here?
It doesn't matter. Dean can't think Sam is wrong. Sam is always the definition. And yet, here he is handing Dean a baby like a hot potato because he can't handle it, and mocking Dean for being able to quiet a sleeping baby (not a brotherly mocking, mind you - there's a definite edge of cruelty under there, of genuine derision). Dean deflects the reason for his ability to care for a child like it's a fault, uncomfortably blaming it on Lisa's infant niece, and on Ben, never on that one glaring omission of the baby he first learnt to handle, the one staring at him now with gigantor derisive eyes. Instead of caring for this new infant, this new potential family centre, Sam has Dean handing it over to people who are so creepy in their attitude towards the baby that I actively want the monster to turn up and claim it. People who are, technically, family.
... And then Cas turns up.
It's not an accident, I think, that we have a series of episode titles like this:
Exile on Main Street <- One man: Dean.
Two and a Half Men <- Two: Sam.
Third Man <- Enter Cas.
Weekend at Bobby's <- Enter the obvious.
One by one they walk back into Dean's life in a major way, and one by one they test Dean's new perspective on the world. And they fail to satisfy Dean's loneliness.
Cas? Cas never came when Sam called. If Dean ever called (and I don't think he ever dared to, certainly not after the first couple of weeks, based on the way Jensen played that scene with Jared when Sam said that Cas had never come - Dean sure looked like he had never tried), Cas never answered. And now he turns up, and he... doesn't answer. He isn't the Cas Dean knew. He isn't family. He has his own family (the cheek of it!) and his own concerns, and Dean is no longer his God. Cas is a fully functional angel again (as emphasised by the long shots in which he keeps disappearing and reappearing in another place, and the speed with which he moves the conversation past the points that Sam and Dean don't know, and his new impatience with the references that he doesn't understand), and there is an urgency to his life that Dean can't keep up with, and feels betrayed by.
And Sam doesn't care.
Isolation, to my mind, is the theme of the first few episodes - one by one Dean realises that those things he counted on for emotional support aren't there, aren't real, and that his idea of 'family' (the old one of Sam, or the new one of Ben and Lisa) is not going to hold any sway this year. And we know what happens soon, don't we? Bobby shoving him away, and Sam letting the vampire at him, and then Veritas. Poor old Dean. And here I was gearing up to say that isolation was the theme of season 7!