![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
apocalypsosOkay, I'm awake, I'm awake. And today I'm actually going to attempt to write (yeah, let's see how that works out). But first!
John is a fucking bastard, and I dig that about him.
As much of a douchebag maneuver as that was, John probably did the best thing he could in that situation. There was no way in hell he could have ever introduced Sam and Dean to Adam. It would have been nice if that could have worked out, but in their world it never would have. The boys would have had to lie to the poor kid about hunting, about who they were, about how they lived, and the resentment bound up in this kid who's their brother who gets to have a normal life and a normal John ... those lies wouldn't have lasted long. Sam would have gotten jealous because Adam got to live that way, or even more angry at John when he, say, asked if he could go live with Kate and Adam so he could have a normal life, too. He would have spilled the beans in a heartbeat back in his teen years. Sad to say, but they probably had the best relationship they were ever going to get -- none at all.
As for Sam and Dean ...
The great thing about the episode is that I think it really brought into focus for Dean exactly why he and Sam are not getting along. I can't remember if Dean's implied as much before this season, but Sam really is just turning into a more extreme version of John, one not tempered by his need to protect his sons. And it's one thing to notice it when John's not constantly in your brain, but suddenly here they are in a situation where the entire hunt is about John and it's impossible to ignore.
Somebody elsewhere in the comments of one reaction post I read pointed out that Dean had a speech exactly like Sam's in Skin, which I'd forgotten about. It goes to show the extremes to which the two boys have swung. Dean's where Sam was when we started this shit, barely in this, only holding it together for his family. And Sam's where Dean is, in a way. Dean sounded like John back then out of hero worship, because he loved his dad in spite of his flaws, because he wanted to be a good soldier and a good hunter like John. Fast forward four years, and now Sam sounds the same way, with the added factors of higher stakes and more loved ones lost under his belt. I think there's a part of Sam that's hardening, that's seeing that John dealt with hard times by cutting off ties and sticking to family, by not making friends and keeping anybody else at arm's length.
The problem lies with Kate and Adam. John was obviously there for them, not as much as he was for Dean and Sam, apparently, but still. He visited, he took the kid to ball games, he hugged Kate for a picture eerily reminiscent of the one with him and Mary. He'd been cutting himself off for so long, and yet one taste of normal was enough to tempt him into baseball caps and T-shirts. It makes me wonder if Sam would do the same thing now, if some woman showed up with a kid of his, how he would react. I'm not sure he would react the same way John did, and yet I don't think that at this point I would find that a particularly bad thing, if he said they were better off without him right now. They probably would be.
I know a lot of people are angry the boys don't get along the way they used to, but I'm not, for a number of reasons. For one thing, if they were still as close as they were even in season one, when they were just getting used to one another again, when things weren't really that bad, I would have a hard time believing it. Who can go through even half of the awful things they've gone through in the past four years and still be as close as they are? Hell, my brother and I have never fought, but after four years of this bullshit, we definitely wouldn't even be speaking, much less in the same car together, regardless of the circumstances. Second of all, it's not in the relatively easy times when we prove just how strong our families are. It's in the tough circumstances, the painful tragedies. The Winchesters have been going through those for four years straight. It says something about their relationship that even though they're not talking to one another like they used to, even though there are lies and secrets and fights and arguments, the world is literally falling apart around them and they're still together, because family is, quite frankly, all they have in the world.
Besides, when they finally kiss and make up, it's going to be fucking EPIC.
The thing is, the boys' relationship is bound to change, and the fact that it hasn't been for the better this season is neither unreasonable nor a bad thing. They haven't hit rock bottom yet, but they're getting there. It's what they do when they get there that I think will make this storyline pay off in amazing ways. If this season has given us something to think about, it's what the Winchesters are made of. Dean wanted to be John without realizing he's Mary's son through and through. And Sam, who never even knew his mother, is John born and bred all over again.
John and Mary are a classic love story, and their boys are just like them. They'll come back together again. Have faith.
John is a fucking bastard, and I dig that about him.
As much of a douchebag maneuver as that was, John probably did the best thing he could in that situation. There was no way in hell he could have ever introduced Sam and Dean to Adam. It would have been nice if that could have worked out, but in their world it never would have. The boys would have had to lie to the poor kid about hunting, about who they were, about how they lived, and the resentment bound up in this kid who's their brother who gets to have a normal life and a normal John ... those lies wouldn't have lasted long. Sam would have gotten jealous because Adam got to live that way, or even more angry at John when he, say, asked if he could go live with Kate and Adam so he could have a normal life, too. He would have spilled the beans in a heartbeat back in his teen years. Sad to say, but they probably had the best relationship they were ever going to get -- none at all.
As for Sam and Dean ...
The great thing about the episode is that I think it really brought into focus for Dean exactly why he and Sam are not getting along. I can't remember if Dean's implied as much before this season, but Sam really is just turning into a more extreme version of John, one not tempered by his need to protect his sons. And it's one thing to notice it when John's not constantly in your brain, but suddenly here they are in a situation where the entire hunt is about John and it's impossible to ignore.
Somebody elsewhere in the comments of one reaction post I read pointed out that Dean had a speech exactly like Sam's in Skin, which I'd forgotten about. It goes to show the extremes to which the two boys have swung. Dean's where Sam was when we started this shit, barely in this, only holding it together for his family. And Sam's where Dean is, in a way. Dean sounded like John back then out of hero worship, because he loved his dad in spite of his flaws, because he wanted to be a good soldier and a good hunter like John. Fast forward four years, and now Sam sounds the same way, with the added factors of higher stakes and more loved ones lost under his belt. I think there's a part of Sam that's hardening, that's seeing that John dealt with hard times by cutting off ties and sticking to family, by not making friends and keeping anybody else at arm's length.
The problem lies with Kate and Adam. John was obviously there for them, not as much as he was for Dean and Sam, apparently, but still. He visited, he took the kid to ball games, he hugged Kate for a picture eerily reminiscent of the one with him and Mary. He'd been cutting himself off for so long, and yet one taste of normal was enough to tempt him into baseball caps and T-shirts. It makes me wonder if Sam would do the same thing now, if some woman showed up with a kid of his, how he would react. I'm not sure he would react the same way John did, and yet I don't think that at this point I would find that a particularly bad thing, if he said they were better off without him right now. They probably would be.
I know a lot of people are angry the boys don't get along the way they used to, but I'm not, for a number of reasons. For one thing, if they were still as close as they were even in season one, when they were just getting used to one another again, when things weren't really that bad, I would have a hard time believing it. Who can go through even half of the awful things they've gone through in the past four years and still be as close as they are? Hell, my brother and I have never fought, but after four years of this bullshit, we definitely wouldn't even be speaking, much less in the same car together, regardless of the circumstances. Second of all, it's not in the relatively easy times when we prove just how strong our families are. It's in the tough circumstances, the painful tragedies. The Winchesters have been going through those for four years straight. It says something about their relationship that even though they're not talking to one another like they used to, even though there are lies and secrets and fights and arguments, the world is literally falling apart around them and they're still together, because family is, quite frankly, all they have in the world.
Besides, when they finally kiss and make up, it's going to be fucking EPIC.
The thing is, the boys' relationship is bound to change, and the fact that it hasn't been for the better this season is neither unreasonable nor a bad thing. They haven't hit rock bottom yet, but they're getting there. It's what they do when they get there that I think will make this storyline pay off in amazing ways. If this season has given us something to think about, it's what the Winchesters are made of. Dean wanted to be John without realizing he's Mary's son through and through. And Sam, who never even knew his mother, is John born and bred all over again.
John and Mary are a classic love story, and their boys are just like them. They'll come back together again. Have faith.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
i have faith
Date: 2009-04-24 01:03 pm (UTC)this episode was really really strong, i thought. and the flipped roles of sam and dean now compared to where they were is vividly illustrated, just as is the myth of a normal life being a safe one. the one thing i must say is john did his second family no favors by not teaching them about the monsters out there and how to defend themselves and be prepared. and it cost them everything.
what this means for sam and dean, to have had a 'normal' brother and never even met him...has got to even furthur isolate them from the 'normal' world and people around them...from fear for them, from fear of them, because dean was right too, it was all a trap from the beginning...
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 01:04 pm (UTC)But most of all i love how you put it: John and Mary are a classic love story, and their boys are just like them. They'll come back together again.
because all great love stories come out of great struggles.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 01:06 pm (UTC)I'm ridiculously happy about this season, because flesh eating monsters and ghost sicknesses aside, the schism between the boys seems perfectly logical and REAL. And of course it hurts, it's uncomfortable and not at all what anyone wants, but that's life, right? That's what happens when you go through these devastating experiences over and over again, when you're hunted and haunted and care about someone so much that everything else seems to dwindle out of proportion.
It's real, and it's angst, and it's absolutely delicious.
And yes, the kiss and make up is going to be epic! ;)
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 01:12 pm (UTC)But I'm not pleased that John had this secret family that he kept from the boys. Oh, I can understand the reasoning you lay out, but when John knew he was dying because of his deal? I have a hard time believing that he wouldn't have tipped Dean off somehow. Especially if he was trying so hard to protect Adam and Kate.
The whole thing just really doesn't sit well with me.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 01:14 pm (UTC)And hell yeah on Sam becoming more extreme than John in a lot of ways. The only thing holding Sam back from slipping into complete psycho-territory is Dean, and even that is slipping and I LOVE that. But then I also think Sam is becoming this close to saying 'fuck humanity and all their shit I'm going to blow this place'. And man, this ep just drove home the point that while all Winchesters are defined by their need for a normal life, they mostly are formed by the things that happen to them in these normal lives. John went from normal to Mary-trauma to hunter back to craving normal life (in secret) and living it via Adam. Dean went from normal life to adapting to hunting/idolizing his dad to 'this world is fucked up (like my dad) but I still wanna save it, because Hell sucks' and Sam went from hunting to normal life which blew up spectacularly into his face back to hunting with added vigilance. And I think Sam is definitely slipping on the Moral Highground he has over demons.
And I love that.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 12:54 am (UTC)The boys are like boomerangs, and I can feel they are almost at the top of the arc that they must reach in order to start swinging back. Perversely, the more heartbreaking it is when they do reach that "rock bottom," the more cathartic it will feel when they come back together.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-25 07:36 pm (UTC)