It's not a pet peeve. That sounds worse than it is.

[apocalypsos]

I get where it's coming from. I just think that Sam needs to learn how to SAY WHAT HE MEANS.

Let me explain. It's the fandom's attitude regarding the phone call in "Faith" and John's non-reaction to it. Like, I said, I get where it's coming from, BUT --

This is what Sam says on the phone. (As boosted from the TWoP recap.)

"Hey, Dad, it's Sam. You probably won't get this, but, ah. It's Dean. He's sick and, uh, doctors say there's nothing they can do, um, but, ah, they don't know the things we do, right? Um, so don't worry, cuz I'm-a gonna do whatever it takes to get him better."

At no time does Sam really say Dean is dying. He says he's sick and that there's nothing the doctors can do. Which, okay, if you're a normal person, you think, "OMG HE'S DYING!", but when you're a Winchester and you follow that up with, "they don't know the things we do," it kind of implies that it's supernatural in nature. And then Sam's telling him not to worry (even if he sounds a little iffy about the prospect) and that he can handle it.

On one hand, it would have been nice for John to contact them to make sure Dean was okay. On the other hand, Sam doesn't make a hard enough case for John to understand the extent of Dean's injuries, implies that the cause isn't something your average doctor can handle (like, say, an exorcism or something) and then says he can deal with it.

Assuming that's the only phone call regarding the situation that John got, what's he supposed to think? Sam didn't call him every hour on the hour bitching at him to get to the hospital to see his oldest son before he passes away. Sam didn't leave him a thousand messages about the serious nature of Dean's injuries. Sam called him once, and somehow managed to avoid the word "dying" like he was dancing around a landmine. (Which he probably was more for himself than for John -- God knows if I were talking about my brother and dying in the same sentence, I wouldn't be able to hold it together.)

Comments

[ceares.livejournal.com]

Sorry-here from SPN newsletter. Admittedly Sam wasn't very clear about the situation, but John certainly never called back to check on them. Even a voicemail from one of his phone booths would have been something.

I don't think impending death is the only circumstance which qualifies for concern for his children. I know he raised them to be tough, but still the fact that Sam called him should have told him that maybe he should be worried. It's not like they come whining to him about a hang nail or anything.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

True, but Sam's phone call isn't so much an alert as a shutdown. It's not, "Dean's dying, come soon!", it's, "You might hear some bad things about Dean but I've got this well under control, you don't have to come." And let's face it -- the last time the two of them spoke to each other, it was a bitter argument as Sam was walking out the door. I've been in the same situation with my father, and if it was anything like that, I'll bet they were both majorly reluctant to speak to one another, regardless of any sort of emergency.

The way

[andromakhe001.livejournal.com]

Yeah but the very fact that Sam called him and Dean didn't ought to have been enough. Given what Sam said and the fact that it was SAM saying it, that would have set alarm bells off left and right, even without the exact words "dying" in it--because 'dying' would be pretty much the only thing that would let Sam call John in any way shape or form leaving a message like that. John SHOULD have called, even on the outside chance he didn't get the message until 2 weeks later, to at least make sure both his sons were still breathing--there's is no reasonable excuse he didn't, imo, some slight ambiguity in the message or not.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yes, but that's IF John had his cell phone. He called them from "Asylum" from a pay phone. Who owns a cell phone and doesn't use it if they have it?

The problem is that we have no clue what John was doing when he was gone. We don't know if he could even get to a phone during that time. Considering that he doesn't even show up until "Shadow" -- and by then it's because of the demon -- I'm suspicious. Hell, I'm especially suspicious because of Dean's comment about John sneaking off to see Sam at Stanford. If he was doing that then, I highly doubt he's not watching out for them now without them even realizing it.

Did he call? No. Is he the type of guy who would call? No. Does that mean he didn't give a damn? No. There are factors we know nothing about in this situation. Until then, it's premature to jump down John's throat.

[ceares.livejournal.com]

I'll bet they were both majorly reluctant to speak to one another, regardless of any sort of emergency. Maybe so, but he didn't have to speak to Sam at all.

He could have simply called and left a message on Dean's phone. Hell he could have called one of the people he was actually in contact with-Missouri for instance and had one of them call and check.

And actually it's worse, not better if he let issues with Sam keep him from checking on Dean.

Like I said, dying isn't the point. Dean could have been blinded, crippled or mentally incapacitated(all things a doctor wouldn't necessarily be able to do anything about).

It's pretty incomprehensible to me that he loves he children, which I do believe, claims he can't bear to see them die, but never actually checks on them-that didn't protect them, look at how close Meg got to Sam.

No the fact that he doesn't contact them when they need him, but does show up when they call him about the demon is either suck ass parenting or bad writing.

I put it down to bad writing-it would have made much more sense if we found out at some point that he'd been keeping an eye on them some way, through friends or a hunting network.