Comments | patita_fea: Passing observation on SPN 4.14 Sex and Violence

patita_fea

Passing observation on SPN 4.14 Sex and Violence

Feb 09, 2009 00:51

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 )

supernatural, meta

Comments 31

yourlibrarian February 9 2009, 17:12:59 UTC

That is a nice catch, about Sam's outburst in YF. I didn't take it very seriously because I figured it was Dean's fear talking, and when it comes to the YED's plans, he was an incredible pain in the ass, blocking everything.

Dean wants to be a team again, to "have each other's backs," but that's not going to happen unless they have the same goals.

Yes, which really makes one wonder how they're going to go forward from this point.

Sam still regards Dean as an authority figure to some degree.

I think what you've described there is true, but I think it leaves out the fact that Sam judges people on their competence. He knows how often they don't know what they're doing, or that they succeed through luck.

In S1, I think Dean's confidence in Nightmares was still enough to comfort him a bit. By S2, he's too well aware than Dean can't really help him. In a way, I see this as part of the fallout from John's death. Even though Sam criticized Dean for believing in him so utterly, there's a part of Sam that has always done so too, ( ... )

patita_fea February 9 2009, 19:40:28 UTC

Hey, librarian! Good to see you. :)

I think what you've described there is true, but I think it leaves out the fact that Sam judges people on their competence. He knows how often they don't know what they're doing, or that they succeed through luck.

I like where you're going with this. I noted up there that part of Dean's authority came to him as the enforcer of John's - so it fits to me that John's death would change things.

So could part of Sam's loss of faith in Dean result from years of Dean making promises he simply doesn't have the power to keep? "Nothing's going to happen to you while I'm around."

I can't help wondering in retrospect, if it wasn't just Meg who was testing Dean's resolve, but Sam himself.That right there is awesomely dark. I'm kind of in love with the idea now ( ... )

yourlibrarian February 9 2009, 22:48:06 UTC

So could part of Sam's loss of faith in Dean result from years of Dean making promises he simply doesn't have the power to keep?I think so. Sam already knew this before Dean did. And Dean already stood in his way of "ending" things twice, first when he kept Sam from going after the YED in Salvation, and again when Sam let John live in DT. Dean wanted them to live. Sam was ready to die if it meant they could finish things. As we know now, it may not have finished much, and perhaps because Dean had a broader view of hunting he knew that, whereas Sam was focused on one thing only ( ... )

patita_fea February 10 2009, 02:18:55 UTC

Dean had a broader view of hunting... whereas Sam was focused on one thing only.

This reminds me of something I wrote in a meta prior to 4.01. "Dean's life has broad themes: make Dad proud, protect Sam, save innocents, kill evil. But Sam's life is more a series of missions: get into law school, kill the demon, figure out the demon's plans, save Dean from hell."

No doubt it's horribly vain to quote myself, but I'm just really excited to see something similar to my thinky going on elsewhere.

I wonder if Dean himself would make that promise to Sam now.
I took Dean's words in "Criss Angel" - it ends bloody, or sad - as an indication that Dean would no longer promise Sam safety. I wonder if the inevitability of his descent to hell may have finally convinced him that there are some things that truly lie beyond his control.

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