thirty days of supernatural 1(d)
So Sam has had, even by Winchester standards, the actual worst day ever. But he doesn’t tell Dean any of this (lie to your brother about his own death, Sam! Because turn and turn about is fair play, or ‘cause he’s a fragile precious flower and can’t take it) and so Dean’s all shocked and appalled when Sam takes these lessons he learned at the mystery spot and tries to apply them during Jus in Bello. But he tries to pretend everything is normal, locks away those months of terrible darkness inside himself, and tries to be the person Dean wants him to be - and the civilians pay for it tenfold. In AHBL, acting on his better nature got himself killed. In JiB, reaching for that human impulse got everyone else killed. His own humanity is a danger to those around him. Ruby’s got him wrapped around her little finger already.
There’s an arguable parallel with Sam and Bela as well. In response to a fucked-up life controlled by asshole father figures (in Bela’s case, her father; in Sam’s case, Lucifer through the YED), they’re exploited by demons and then scapegoated and demonized for the whole thing, and because they’re so convinced they’re beyond saving, they make some serious asshole moves of their own. I don’t think that’s an intentional parallel so much as it is a pattern of victim-blaming fail on the part of the narrative, but READER RESPONSE THEORY. OR SOMETHING. BOOM.
Long Distance Call isn’t really notable as far as Sam’s descent is concerned, except in comparison to Time Is on My Side, but it is a really important contrast. Dean is wiling to accept morally and practically sketchy help from something cloaked as “Dad” but he’s not willing to go with Sam’s idea in the next episode. It’d be tough to overestimate just how much Sam’s whole thing is about getting even with Dean, particularly after the unintentional power play over the YED. Not necessarily in a “cause pain” kind of way, but in the sense of wanting to be a peer of his brother and father.
So when Dean rejects his idea in the next episode, it’s a rejection of Sam himself on a couple of levels. By Sam’s lights, Dean would rather go to hell than (a) agree intellectually with a plan Sam has put forth, even when he was willing to trust the phone demon or (b) become something even slightly other than human - the trait that defines Sam’s life. That’s gotta smart.
The season arc started with the explicit deconstruction of Sam’s self-image, as the other Special Children bite the dust. S3 is all about Sam rebuilding an identity, with his goal of Saving Dean as the keystone. That’s a story I’d be interested enough in on its own, but it’s a brilliantly exciting stroke that he loses there. He fails at the devil’s gate, again. He goes to the crossroads demon, the last resort of the desperate, and even it doesn’t want him. Of course it all falls apart; of course he falls.
Then he was a junkie, so. Favorite.