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

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of it is the snowball effect. He didn't call immediately, presumably because he was indisposed. When he did get the message, it was too late to call about it without looking like a dick. So he told himself he'd do it tomorrow when he worked up the nerve for the fight that was sure to occur, and just kept telling himself that he'd talk to Dean about it tomorrow until Dean was standing RIGHT THERE giving him shit about it. Yeah, it's over something serious, but that probably just made the phone call that much harder to make.

[jamjar.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can see it happening just like that

I have a lot of sympathy for Sam in Faith. He was in such denial about the whole thing.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

I can see it happening like that mostly because I'm having the same problem with my synopsis. The more I tell myself I'll work on it tomorrow, the worse it gets to actually DO it.