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If the Winchester family dynamics get any more complex, my head's going to explode.
This episode handled Sam & Dean having an unexpected brother about as well as it could. Yes, the brother was real, but the version of him they met was a ghoul in disguise and their real half brother was already dead. They got to meet their brother (sort of) and find out about him, all without the danger of something I really didn't want to see: a season 5 where Sam was evil and Dean went out on hunts with his shiny new non-evil little brother.
It doesn't actually bother me that much that John fathered another child. Mary had been dead for 7 or 8 years by then, which is a more than long enough mourning period, even if he did still obviously love Mary. I'm not even surprised that John didn't tell Sam & Dean that they had a half brother because there were quite a few important things that John chose not to share with his boys. What really cheeses me off was that John could spare the time to be a father to Adam in ways that he chose not to for Sam & Dean. He never took them to baseball games on their birthdays. I doubt he ever took them on a fishing trip that wasn't actually a training exercise either. Adam got a dad, but Sam & Dean got a drill instructor and these were not widely varying times in John's life where you could say he'd changed; he was these things to them concurrently.
I can see where Sam & Dean would both be jealous. Sam was jealous that Adam got the protected life where he didn't have to know about monsters (although look where that got him) and was still in college, while Dean was jealous that Adam got a dad who did fun father/son bonding things while Dean only got orders to carry out as John's second-in-command.
On the other hand, I have a hard time reconciling the John who turned his sons into soldiers for what he believed was their own protection from the monsters in the dark, yet he left Adam and Kate with absolutely no protection at all. Yeah, he might have wanted to keep them innocent the way he couldn't Sam & Dean, yet John was always going on about how having that innocence wouldn't stop the monsters from coming after you--they saw innocent people get hurt or killed by the supernatural all the time.
As per usual this season, the first half of the episode was kind of fun. There were no angels or demons, no apocalypse, no recurring characters--just Sam & Dean working together on a hunt (I dimly remember the show having eps like that--more, please). They even did rock-paper-scissors! (Poor Dean, always with the scissors.) And Sam looked like he was having fun getting to be the big brother for a change.
Then things got all dark in the second half with Sam & Dean disagreeing on what kind of future Adam deserved to have (I loved how Adam's, "Don't I get a say in this?," was met with a resounding, "No!," from both Sam & Dean), and how it all turned out to be a moot point anyway because Adam was already dead. Dean made an interesting observation about how he tried so hard to be like John in all the superficial ways (dressing like him, listening to his music, learning to fix cars, trying to be the best hunter ever, driving his car), yet Sam was the one who had John's personality even though he clearly didn't want it. Funny how Dean has come from a lifetime of hero-worshiping John to telling Sam that Sam was exactly like John and not meaning it as a compliment.
Have you ever noticed that no matter how bad Sam gets injured on a hunt, the only medical attention he gets is maybe some EMTs slapping a bandage on him and releasing him at the scene? We've even seen Sam stitch himself up twice. Yet, Dean winds up at death's door in the hospital about once a season on average. What's up with that? The rental hospital beds too short for Jared? And does all the blood loss mean that Sam's going to want a top-up from Ruby soon?
After I was accidentally spoiled about this episode having a surprise Winchester brother, I was so totally dreading how it would play out that I can't decide if I liked this episode on its own merits, or if I just liked it because I'm so relieved it didn't suck as much as I was afraid it would. But I liked it, so I guess that's a win.
This episode handled Sam & Dean having an unexpected brother about as well as it could. Yes, the brother was real, but the version of him they met was a ghoul in disguise and their real half brother was already dead. They got to meet their brother (sort of) and find out about him, all without the danger of something I really didn't want to see: a season 5 where Sam was evil and Dean went out on hunts with his shiny new non-evil little brother.
It doesn't actually bother me that much that John fathered another child. Mary had been dead for 7 or 8 years by then, which is a more than long enough mourning period, even if he did still obviously love Mary. I'm not even surprised that John didn't tell Sam & Dean that they had a half brother because there were quite a few important things that John chose not to share with his boys. What really cheeses me off was that John could spare the time to be a father to Adam in ways that he chose not to for Sam & Dean. He never took them to baseball games on their birthdays. I doubt he ever took them on a fishing trip that wasn't actually a training exercise either. Adam got a dad, but Sam & Dean got a drill instructor and these were not widely varying times in John's life where you could say he'd changed; he was these things to them concurrently.
I can see where Sam & Dean would both be jealous. Sam was jealous that Adam got the protected life where he didn't have to know about monsters (although look where that got him) and was still in college, while Dean was jealous that Adam got a dad who did fun father/son bonding things while Dean only got orders to carry out as John's second-in-command.
On the other hand, I have a hard time reconciling the John who turned his sons into soldiers for what he believed was their own protection from the monsters in the dark, yet he left Adam and Kate with absolutely no protection at all. Yeah, he might have wanted to keep them innocent the way he couldn't Sam & Dean, yet John was always going on about how having that innocence wouldn't stop the monsters from coming after you--they saw innocent people get hurt or killed by the supernatural all the time.
As per usual this season, the first half of the episode was kind of fun. There were no angels or demons, no apocalypse, no recurring characters--just Sam & Dean working together on a hunt (I dimly remember the show having eps like that--more, please). They even did rock-paper-scissors! (Poor Dean, always with the scissors.) And Sam looked like he was having fun getting to be the big brother for a change.
Then things got all dark in the second half with Sam & Dean disagreeing on what kind of future Adam deserved to have (I loved how Adam's, "Don't I get a say in this?," was met with a resounding, "No!," from both Sam & Dean), and how it all turned out to be a moot point anyway because Adam was already dead. Dean made an interesting observation about how he tried so hard to be like John in all the superficial ways (dressing like him, listening to his music, learning to fix cars, trying to be the best hunter ever, driving his car), yet Sam was the one who had John's personality even though he clearly didn't want it. Funny how Dean has come from a lifetime of hero-worshiping John to telling Sam that Sam was exactly like John and not meaning it as a compliment.
Have you ever noticed that no matter how bad Sam gets injured on a hunt, the only medical attention he gets is maybe some EMTs slapping a bandage on him and releasing him at the scene? We've even seen Sam stitch himself up twice. Yet, Dean winds up at death's door in the hospital about once a season on average. What's up with that? The rental hospital beds too short for Jared? And does all the blood loss mean that Sam's going to want a top-up from Ruby soon?
After I was accidentally spoiled about this episode having a surprise Winchester brother, I was so totally dreading how it would play out that I can't decide if I liked this episode on its own merits, or if I just liked it because I'm so relieved it didn't suck as much as I was afraid it would. But I liked it, so I guess that's a win.
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 01:08 pm (UTC)From:I so agree with this. Dean's been intubated, shocked, stitched, shoulder set, bullet dug out, etc,etc, while Sam stitches himself, removes a bullet himself and now Dean gives him a couple of napkins and tells him to hold pressure here. If Dean lost that much blood(and that was a LOT of blood), he'd be hooked up in a Hospital looking pale and darkeyed.Jared rocked the hell out of looking sick and woozey, but c'mon. Where's are worried Dean at Sam's hospital bed moment??????/
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 11:33 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 10:39 pm (UTC)From:Yup, this is the part I'm having trouble reconciling. John knew that innocence was no protection. He didn't even teach Adam to shoot, which he could have done without having to mention anything supernatural.
Yes, thank you. That was very telling, but something I actually missed until you pointed it out to me, that it wasn't a compliment.
Isn't it sad, to think that they had a little brother, but never actually got to meet him?
no subject
Date: 2009-04-24 11:36 pm (UTC)From:Yeah. At least they got to know him a little bit through the ghoul pretending to be him by using Adam's memories. I think it's really sad that Adam died never knowing he had brothers and not knowing his dad was dead and had been for 2 years. Who would have told him? Nobody even knew he existed, poor kid.