To bed with you: hospitalizations in SPN redux
In the course of looking up an older post I came across what I wrote last year about hospitalizations in SPN. I realized there had been an important change in S5, namely that Sam has finally been a patient. But I think Sam Interrupted ends up revealing a more audience-directed reason for the pattern.( Read more... )
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Dean, on the other hand, has never really wavered. If it's evil he kills it. His job is clear, and he doesn't really veer from that -- ever. Actually, in Bloodlust Dean comes to see that his absolutist code is actually a bit skewed -- that they do not simply hunt the supernatural but evil things that hurt humans. Sam though, as you point out, is definitely more easily swayed to the idea that the ends may justify the means, or "big picture" thinking. However, we see in 5.20 that Dean can sometimes mimic Sam's behavior exactly with no real justification in his own example of "big picture" thinking. The real question is are the two of them learning from their experiences in not ( ... )
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Sam's lack of hospitalization could be seen as the parallel to Dean's lack of possession, which I speculated was occurring because it hit each character's strength
Nice observation. I agree, and I'd like to expand on that thought. I think, too, that in S1/S2 Sam was so much under the care of big brother Dean (the headaches, the nightmares, the "save me or kill me" angst/begging) that hospitalizing Sam and showing it'll-all-be-okay-I-gotcha!Dean at his bedside wouldn't have been a great departure from what had already been established: Dean takes care of vulnerable!Sam. Sure it would've notched up the hurt!Sam vibe, but from a storytelling perspective, no new characterization/revelations would've been made. And economy doesn't really jive with such redundancies.
On the other hand, showing Dean be vulnerable in S1/S2 was new. Case in point "Faith". That was a seminal episode at that point in the series. It was the first time we really saw Dean hurt for a prolonged period of time. It was the first time we ( ... )
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I agree, it would have been more of the same in the first case and a form of "dream sequence" Sam in the second. In fact, I'd argue we got some of that in S5 with Dean in The End, though I felt that the portrayal wasn't so difficult to believe. Also, although not exactly "possessed" we saw the same with Dean in Yellow Fever, an episode a lot of people hated (though I'd argue the writing as much as the concept accounted for that). And then, of course, we saw a different Dean in TL as well. So while strictly speaking Dean has never been possessed, the same storytelling device has indeed been used on him.
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I agree overall with ariadnes_string on the point that, "Sam's lack of hospitalization could be seen as the parallel to Dean's lack of possession". This is indicative to me of Sam's superior ability to keep his physicality his own and Dean's superior ability to keep his mind as his own. There are many examples in different episodes of how weakness in the mind can make one susceptible to threats in the physical realm, beginning in Phantom Traveler with Sam warning Dean about fear. That emphasis on mastery of mind over matter has been there in ever increasing capacities throughout the seasons as it made itself known as the key element of the story.
In my opinion, Sam, Interrupted was the culmination of that theme and it illuminated nicely how Sam's and Dean's existing strengths and weaknesses would dictate how the final battle would play out against Lucifer in the last half of the season. What ( ... )
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What a great point. And yes, that could be true about the physicality, particularly if we consider Sam's immunity in Croatoan, although he was made vulnerable by the psychic visions and did not take easily to his powers unlike the other YED kids.
it illuminated nicely how Sam's and Dean's existing strengths and weaknesses would dictate how the final battle would play out against Lucifer in the last half of the season.
Yes, Sam had to conquer his anger and Dean had to allow the responsibility to go to the person he least wanted to put it on.
Which victory comes (or should come) first - the outer world or the inner one? Are the capabilities of the soul and mind more important than what the body can ( ... )
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