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Watching Sam and Dean in 2x02 gives me a strong impression of the roles reversing.
Sam has been thrashing around bitching about how he never gets to do what’s important to him, how John has oppressed him, been a bad father and deprived him having a normal life. I’m not trying to ignore Sam’s pain; it’s been hell for him to walk away from his family, to value his own needs and sanity above those of his father and brother. He desperately wanted John’s love and approval and wasn’t getting it in a form he could recognise.
Now he never will. [I’m keen on the theory that John found a loophole and is waiting for the boys to catch on and rescue him in hell. Or maybe I just can’t bear to let John go.]
Dean has been doing an excellent impression of a wise-cracking, laid back dude who is fine with his life-style, content being the perfect soldier son and happy being a hunter. We’ve seen him get between John and Sam to keep the family together and we’ve also heard how he raised Sam and supported John when he should have been being a little boy.
That’s what we see on the surface.
Underneath it’s almost exactly the other way around.
Dean never got a chance to be different, to be himself; to have his own needs met. He’s been what John needed him to be and what Sam needed him to be. It’s possible back in the pilot that when Dean asked Sammy to come with him and told him he didn’t want to go it alone that this was the first time Dean asked for something for Dean.
Dean is actually Sammy!
Sam never got to bond with John, his opinions aren’t solicited and he doesn’t get told important things. John expects him to obey without question. There’s no room for him to be anything other than what John wants him to be.
Sammy is actually Dean!
I’m just finding it clearer and clearer that Sam only thinks he is the unloved son. He is the one who got to leave, he is the one who isn’t obsessed with family, he is the one who can relate to ‘normal’ people. Where did he get those skills? He got them from being raised by two crazy people who loved him to bits.
Meanwhile Dean, who does a great job of sounding like he’s fine with his life and fine with his role is slowly cracking apart. He hasn’t been treated well by John, he’s been taken for granted, and ignored and expected to suck it up and like it. And he has, and now it’s all starting to go pear-shaped around him.
His job was to take care of Sammy, Sammy is really messed up right now and Dean can’t deal with his own problems. John isn’t there for him to be shiny and devoted at. That equals a lot of freaked out pain and anger.
Sammy already did his resentful resistance and his big ‘fuck you I’m leaving’. He’s going to concentrate on the lack of respect, love and obedience between himself and John. I can even see him going all inner and Dean-ish as he wrestles with his personal failings and guilt.
Sam has been thrashing around bitching about how he never gets to do what’s important to him, how John has oppressed him, been a bad father and deprived him having a normal life. I’m not trying to ignore Sam’s pain; it’s been hell for him to walk away from his family, to value his own needs and sanity above those of his father and brother. He desperately wanted John’s love and approval and wasn’t getting it in a form he could recognise.
Now he never will. [I’m keen on the theory that John found a loophole and is waiting for the boys to catch on and rescue him in hell. Or maybe I just can’t bear to let John go.]
Dean has been doing an excellent impression of a wise-cracking, laid back dude who is fine with his life-style, content being the perfect soldier son and happy being a hunter. We’ve seen him get between John and Sam to keep the family together and we’ve also heard how he raised Sam and supported John when he should have been being a little boy.
That’s what we see on the surface.
Underneath it’s almost exactly the other way around.
Dean never got a chance to be different, to be himself; to have his own needs met. He’s been what John needed him to be and what Sam needed him to be. It’s possible back in the pilot that when Dean asked Sammy to come with him and told him he didn’t want to go it alone that this was the first time Dean asked for something for Dean.
Dean is actually Sammy!
Sam never got to bond with John, his opinions aren’t solicited and he doesn’t get told important things. John expects him to obey without question. There’s no room for him to be anything other than what John wants him to be.
Sammy is actually Dean!
I’m just finding it clearer and clearer that Sam only thinks he is the unloved son. He is the one who got to leave, he is the one who isn’t obsessed with family, he is the one who can relate to ‘normal’ people. Where did he get those skills? He got them from being raised by two crazy people who loved him to bits.
Meanwhile Dean, who does a great job of sounding like he’s fine with his life and fine with his role is slowly cracking apart. He hasn’t been treated well by John, he’s been taken for granted, and ignored and expected to suck it up and like it. And he has, and now it’s all starting to go pear-shaped around him.
His job was to take care of Sammy, Sammy is really messed up right now and Dean can’t deal with his own problems. John isn’t there for him to be shiny and devoted at. That equals a lot of freaked out pain and anger.
Sammy already did his resentful resistance and his big ‘fuck you I’m leaving’. He’s going to concentrate on the lack of respect, love and obedience between himself and John. I can even see him going all inner and Dean-ish as he wrestles with his personal failings and guilt.
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