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llywela6.01: Exile on Main Street
Supernatural is back!
Okay, so the first thing I want to say, before going any further, is that I’m not going to be writing full episode recaps this season. Probably everyone already assumed that after they petered out so early last season, but it’s as well to be completely up-front. I just don’t have either the time or the energy to put in that much work any more. I’ll try to write up a review of each episode, depending on how things go, but there won’t be anything more than that anymore, I’m afraid.
That said, on to the season premiere!
I really enjoyed the episode. I thought it was a solid season-opener that did a good job of moving on from the epic storyline of the last two seasons and establishing a new direction for the show, setting up the issues, conflicts and character dynamics that will be taken forward during the season ahead. Taken as a whole, I found the episode reassuringly intriguing and felt that there was a hell of a lot going on that probably isn’t immediately apparent to us, because it was a set-up for the season to come. I suspect that hindsight will cast a great deal of light on this episode and will eventually allow us to understand and appreciate it a lot more than we really can right now, while we remain in the dark still about just where the various story strands are heading.
Now, I haven’t really read many other reactions to the episode, not least because that way lies madness, but I’ve seen a few, enough to know that a lot of people seem pretty dissatisfied with the episode, which I think is a shame. I find myself wondering if perhaps some of the people who aren’t happy are the ones who really bought heavily into the apocalypse storyline and lost sight of the fact that this show was never actually, at its heart, about the apocalypse, even if it did get pretty bogged down by the epic battles between angels and demons for a while there. Myself, I am only too glad to leave that storyline behind at last and so welcome the change of pace this episode promises for the season ahead!
The other main criticisms I’ve seen are knee-jerk complaints about the interaction between the brothers, and while I can understand those concerns, again I think it is a hasty judgement. After all, it is only natural that they should be awkward around one another – that wasn’t poor writing or bad acting, it was deliberate characterisation and the inevitable consequence both of a year-long separation and everything that’s happened to them over the past few years! As much as we would love to see them as close as they once were, it would be foolish to expect that in this first episode of the season, starting at the moment of their reunion. No, that is something that must be built toward, slowly, in order to be meaningful; it can’t be manufactured out of thin air, not after everything, but I really believe that this season will give us that reconciliation, and that it will be all the more satisfying for having watched the brothers working to achieve it.
That isn’t to say that I don’t have my concerns, especially regarding Sam. Based on what I saw here, there is definitely something wrong with Sam. But that was very clearly the whole point of his story in this episode. Sam has hardened considerably since we last saw him, with very few moments of anything approaching his usual warmth. Through most of the episode he seemed distant, aloof, detached, emotionally disconnected – a shadow of his former self …but he was clearly written and acted that way deliberately, which means that there is a reason for it, so to simply dismiss the episode as lousy based on the way Sam was behaving would be to miss the point entirely. This was merely the groundwork being established for Sam’s arc this season, which I am going to presume will revolve around Sam slowly starting to thaw once more, as he gradually reconnects with his brother and his emotional scars begin to heal, and finding out what the hell happened to him.
The biggest problem with the way this story is set-up in the episode is that we aren’t allowed to see Sam’s point of view at all; the episode is told entirely from Dean’s perspective, which means we have no insight whatsoever into what is going on in Sam’s head, which we need in order to understand him. It also doesn’t help that the pre-season publicity for the show told us repeatedly that season six Sam was going to be a lot like season one Dean, a statement every bit as misleading as the pre-season two publicity which told us that Jo was going to be both a seasoned hunter and a love interest for Dean, only for neither of those statements to be true when we actually met the character on-screen. The only real parallel between this Sam and season one Dean is that he is advocating a return to the hunting life over his brother’s attempt at having a normal life. Other than that, this Sam bears absolutely no resemblance to the Dean of any season, and nor should he, since Sam has always been very much his own man, quite determinedly so, and has a very different personality to his brother.
The Sam we see in this episode is a Sam who is emotionally closed-off in a way that Dean has never been – but I would argue that it isn’t actually out of character for Sam to shut down in this way. As passionate and as sympathetic as the character generally is, he has always had that propensity toward narrowing his focus so much that he loses sight of everything else, up to and including the best interests of others. As far back as Scarecrow in season one, he was quite prepared to turn his back on innocent victims without so much as a second thought because his priorities lay elsewhere. What we see in this episode is a very extreme example, but nonetheless follows that same trend. When Sam is truly focused on something, he cannot see anything else. If he has spent the last year focusing all his energies on not feeling anything, whether consciously or involuntarily, repressing all emotion and channelling everything he has into the hunt as a coping mechanism for the trauma he has experienced...well, until proven otherwise, I'd say that was reason enough for him to have shut down the way that he has, and it is clear is that something happened to him to cause this. Maybe it was the time he spent in the cage with Lucifer and Michael. Maybe it was a side effect of his mysterious resurrection. Maybe it was something that happened to him since his return. Or maybe all of the above played a part. I look forward to finding out.
It also seemed to me that Sam is aware that there is something wrong with him, which is a good sign – there were several moments where he seemed to know that he should be feeling more than he was, in particular the scene where he realised that he wouldn’t have thought to try to save Dean’s neighbours, because he no longer thinks anything other than strategically, whereas his brother, following his heart, didn’t think twice about throwing himself into danger for their sake. Always the cerebral to Dean’s physical, it is almost as if Sam has forgotten how to feel that intensely, whether he has simply been repressing all emotion for so long that he can no longer access those feelings, his dissociation from them having become involuntary, or because he ‘came back wrong’ somehow. As much as I would prefer him to want Dean back for Dean’s own sake, because he misses him, I think it is significant that Sam stated aloud that this is the reason he now wants Dean to start hunting with him again: because this incident made him recognise the importance of his brother’s ability to care, his humanising influence. Dean has always been the core of Sam’s humanity and Sam knows it – they have always been one another’s anchor in that way – and the fact that he specifically asked Dean to hunt with him for that reason suggests that he also knows, intellectually, how much he needs to reconnect, even if he isn’t able to feel that need. I believe that the story of Sam’s gradual reconnection with his brother and his emotions and the world in general could be excellent, if the writers really commit to it and manage to handle it effectively.
Of course, their track record in that department is a little hit and miss, which is the main source of my concern, especially since, going on past form, the chances are that Sam’s story will be told externally, for the first half of the season at least, with the character being viewed almost entirely from other peoples’ points of view and with little or no insight into what is going on in his head. I have to admit that the thought of this wearies me rather, not least because we have been down similar roads with Sam before, and I always feel that this style of storytelling does something of a disservice to him; Sam can be a difficult character to truly appreciate at times, and understanding what is going on in his head is crucial. Still, the potential is there for a strong storyline for Sam this season, especially if we are given access to his perspective, and I have my fingers crossed that we will see that potential fully realised.
As for Dean, well…where my inner Sam-girl was slightly perturbed but cautiously optimistic for the future, based on this episode, my inner Dean-girl was absolutely delighted with what we were given here. I loved Dean’s story in this episode, from first to last.
Telling this story from Dean’s perspective worked extremely well; he is an enormously charismatic and relatable character, and Ackles is an excellent actor, allowing us to experience with Dean the gamut of emotion he went through in the episode, reeling from one shock reveal to another and struggling to keep up. I loved the use of flashbacks to juxtapose Dean’s old life with his new, and I loved seeing him in this new life he has built. It has been a massive adjustment for him, inevitably so given how little experience he has of this kind of life (although he has always been good at blending in, and that ability has evidently stood him in good stead here) and it is clear that as happy as Lisa and Ben have made him, his grief over losing Sam and the memory of the horrors he has experienced remain with him, always lurking just beneath the surface. Nonetheless, having committed himself to this life, he has found a way to make it work – and, crucially, despite his melancholy in quieter moments, he looks more rested and relaxed than he has in years. This is the closest to real peace and contentment that Dean has ever come, and although it was bought at a horribly high price, the benefits are there for all to see. He needed this, desperately. He couldn’t have carried on as he was, not after everything he’d been through; he wouldn’t have survived. The past few seasons wore him down until there was almost nothing left, broke him, but he is in one piece again now, back on his feet, and it was Lisa and Ben who did that for him.
I really hope nothing bad ever happens to Lisa and Ben. I’m not sure I could bear it. So the certainty that Dean will eventually end up back on the road with Sam makes me rather nervous for the Braedens’ long-term chances!
I really loved what we got to see of the relationship Dean has established with Lisa, which may not be a great, epic romance in any way, but is nonetheless a relationship founded in love – the kind of love that is built on warts and all acceptance, companionship and mutual respect. Dean went to Lisa initially because he had made a promise to Sam, because he needed a refuge, needed something – someone – to cling to in his grief, because he had spent two or three years idealising her and Ben as his perfect ready-made-family, because he liked her and was attracted to her and remembered her fondly from their time together. Lisa didn’t have to take him in, but chose to do so for a similar myriad of reasons: because she is a warm-hearted person who recognised his need for refuge, because she was grateful to him for saving the world and for saving her son, because she liked that he was good with Ben, because she cared about him and was attracted to him and remembered him fondly from their time together. But none of that was any reason for them to stay together for the long haul – and Dean demonstrated by his attempts to find a way to get Sam out of hell that he did not necessarily feel bound by his promise to his brother, long-term. Dean turning up on Lisa’s doorstep and her decision to take him in was merely the starting point, the foundation on which the relationship they now have has been built – the healthiest and most mature relationship that Dean, at least, and maybe Lisa too, has ever had.
So I really liked that the episode addressed both how difficult the relationship has been at times, especially early on, and what Lisa and Ben have got out of it, as well as Dean. Dean freely admits that he was a mess when Lisa took him in, and for much of the year – owning up to drinking heavily, to suffering from nightmares, and to obsessively searching for a way to get Sam back. Most, if not all, of those issues appear to have been laid to rest by the time the episode opens, however, as although he still does not seem to be sleeping well – a problem that has been with him for several seasons now – there is no sign that he is still drinking to excess, and equally no sign that he is still buried in Sam-related research. Lisa’s warmth, strength of character and willingness to accept Dean for who and what he is, however broken, have clearly been his salvation, while in Ben he has found an outlet for all the nurturing, paternalistic instincts that were honed on Sam. And Lisa makes it clear that, however much of a wreck he has been, she feels that taking him into her family has been more than worthwhile, as he has become both the father she always wanted for her son and a partner she can love and respect.
I also really appreciated that although Dean has walked away from his old life as a hunter and committed himself to a life of domesticity with Lisa and Ben, he has not forgotten his lifetime of hunting experience; the precautions he has taken to defend his new home from supernatural attack prove that. His instincts remain as sharp as ever, and although he is no longer actively seeking hunts, he is clearly still on the alert, still very much willing to rush to the rescue if he believes someone is in danger. His response to what looked like a potential hunt showed us something of this, as we saw Dean not hesitating to conduct preliminary investigations himself upon spotting something amiss, and then, when he hit a dead end, passing information on to local law enforcement to follow up on, just in case – maybe not what we might expect, given how scathing he has been of law enforcement in the past, but nonetheless thrifty use of available resources, under the circumstances. If he seemed rather more nervous than usual while investigating that derelict hotel, that too is understandable, given that he was put very much on the spot without time to find out more about what he might be walking into, is out of practice, doesn’t have back up in this situation and also doesn’t have the luxury of being able to simply clear out of town afterward. A hunt of any kind conducted right on his doorstep is risky in a variety of ways now that he has settled down, and he has a lot to lose if it goes wrong.
This theme carried on into Dean’s interactions with the Campbells, seen in his discomfort at having them invading his home and trampling all over the trappings of his daily life with such disdain, as well as his indignation at being treated as just another helpless innocent rather than a hunting professional in his own right, albeit retired. With the supernatural having followed him into his new life, he is caught between two worlds, neither one thing nor the other being. So, if this episode established Sam’s potential character arc as his gradual reconnection with his brother and his emotions, surely Dean’s will be the attempt to find some way to reconcile his two lives, the new and the old, seeking to achieve a balance between the two without undermining either. Whether or not it will be possible remains to be seen.
It made my heart hurt when Dean woke up in that grungy little shack, saw Sam for the first time and immediately assumed that he had died and gone to heaven. Because heaven is a grungy little shack with Sam in it. Oh Dean. But at least he now knows heaven to be on the cards for him – a year ago, he completely believed he would be going the other way when he died again!
I am in two minds over Sam’s decision to conceal his resurrection from Dean. Part of me can at least attempt to see it from Sam’s point of view. Dean was out, he finally had the family he’d always wanted, he had found a measure of peace and deserved to be allowed to keep it…viewed from the outside, from afar, especially in Sam’s current state of emotional dissociation, it would be relatively easy to view it as a logical trade-off, to convince himself that Dean was better off being kept in the dark and that Sam himself was getting by fine without his brother. The larger part of me, however, is as horrified as Dean that he was allowed to believe for a whole year that his brother was not just in hell but trapped in Lucifer’s private cage, when in fact Sam was out and getting on with his life all that time. No matter how happy Dean has been with Lisa and Ben, the knowledge of Sam’s fate has been daily agony for him, and to leave him in that state for even a day longer than absolutely necessary was downright cruel – and Sam should know that, having experienced himself the torment of knowing his brother to be in hell, if only he were in any fit state to recall the pain of that experience in full. Equally, Sam has spent much of his life railing against having the course of his life dictated by others, so it could be argued that he should know better than to do the same thing to his brother…except that hypocrisy in this area is an established character trait for Sam – and, indeed, for the Winchesters in general. In his current dispassionate state of mind, Sam is absolutely genuine in his belief that he did the right thing by Dean, whether his brother agrees or not; what he fails to recognise is that it wasn’t his decision to make.
Bobby’s part in the conspiracy to hide Sam’s return from Dean is harder to rationalise, given that he remains in full possession of all his emotional faculties. Maybe he has felt torn all this time between loyalty to Sam and loyalty to Dean, but ultimately complied with Sam’s wishes because it was the path of least resistance; maybe he did it because, like Sam, he wanted Dean to have that life so badly that he was willing to close his eyes to all other considerations, including Dean’s right to know the truth and need to be released from the torment of believing his brother to be in hell. Wishful thinking can have a lot to answer for, especially when conducted at distance. Both Sam and Bobby were simply trying, albeit clumsily, to protect Dean, to shield him from a life they felt he deserved to escape from, and it is so rare for Dean to be sheltered in that way that it would almost be sweet…you know, if it wasn’t so very wrong of them to lie to him about something so huge, to leave him in pain and to deny him his right to decide the course of his own life. Dean’s horrified reactions to the realisation that both Sam and Bobby had betrayed him in this way were beautifully played – you could really see it hitting him like a blow to the gut, sickening, although the rapid course of events did not allow him to dwell on his anger and hurt.
It made my heart hurt again that when the Djinn infected Dean and made him see his worst nightmare, what he saw was Azazel attacking his new family. After everything he has been through, up to and including the horrors of hell itself, his deepest and darkest fears still take him back to the Yellow-Eyed Demon and the loss of his family. Every bad thing that has ever happened to Dean can be traced back to that creature, and it makes perfect sense that his fear of losing his new family would be intimately bound to the memory of losing the family he once had.
Dean’s fears for Lisa and Ben, as well as his sense of commitment to the relationship he has built with them, played very much into his decision to stay with them rather than return to the hunt with Sam – and I never would have expected it, but I was glad to see him make that decision. Sam and Bobby both seem to have automatically assumed that if Dean knew Sam was alive again he would immediately drop Lisa and Ben like hot potatoes and rush back off into the hunt once more, and they used that expectation to validate their decision to withhold the truth from him. And okay, Dean’s knee-jerk reaction to the thought of Sam hunting solo provides some justification for that assumption. But it was not a given, not at any point, and the bottom line is that Dean had the right to make that choice himself, instead of them making it for him without his even knowing it, while Lisa and Ben deserve more than to be simply cast-off on the whim of a third party. Just because Sam gave Dean the push to go to Lisa in the first instance does not give him the right to dictate the course of the relationship they have formed since.
We will never now know how Dean might have reacted if Sam had come forward and revealed himself earlier, without any supernatural danger to force his hand. It is entirely possible that Dean would have automatically rejoined his brother on the road, especially if Sam had approached him early on, while he was still, by his own admission, an absolute wreck. It is equally possible, however, that after the initial euphoria of the reunion, Dean might still have chosen to remain with Lisa and Ben, that he and Sam might have mutually agreed to go their separate ways; by then Dean had already committed himself to a future with the Braedens, after all, and he trusts Sam’s ability to hunt safely and effectively without him; that break has already been made. It is even possible that Dean might have tried to persuade Sam to settle down as well, believing that they had both earned their retirement and the chance of happiness. There are many possibilities for how things might have played out.
As it is, Sam made the choice to conceal his resurrection from Dean, and now Dean has made the choice to stand by his new family and allow Sam to go his own way. In a strange kind of way, despite Dean’s obvious sorrow (and Sam’s less obvious disappointment, muted by his emotional dissociation), this feels like the healthiest, most mature separation they have ever had. They are not parting in anger, or because either one has issues to resolve before they can reunite, neither one has died this time, and neither one is (or appears to be) concealing anything, they are simply on different paths right now. They are parting as mature and responsible adults who will always be connected by their familial bond but have separate lives to be getting on with, which, really, is how it should be (whatever is going on with Sam notwithstanding). Their unhealthy co-dependence is well and truly over, which means that for the first time they really are ideally placed to begin to come back together not because they need each other, or because they are tied together by destiny, but because they want to be together, as equal partners – at least, I really hope that is how their relationship will progress! How that process might be tied in with their individual character arcs this season remains to be seen, but I look forward to it!
Okay, a few final, random thoughts.
1. I do not warm to the extended Campbell clan, not even a little bit. I think that was the point of them, however – we aren’t supposed to trust them, even if Sam appears to. From what little we saw, they appear to belong to that breed of hunter that is all but feral, completely cut off from the everyday world, hunting simply because it is what they do and all they know rather than with the more altruistic aim of helping people. They appear to be intensely secretive and isolationist, given that no other hunters seem to have ever heard of their family despite Samuel’s lofty claims for their ancient pedigree, and also came across as arrogant and elitist. Sam may have called them family, but there was no sign of familial affection in their interactions with him – or with each other – and they were actively dismissive of Dean. For all Samuel’s extolling of the strength, loyalty and unity of the clan, the death of the unnamed individual set to guard Dean and Lisa’s house barely even seemed to register with any of them, yet he must have been part of the extended family, since they don’t work with outsiders. It could be that this cold, businesslike familial dynamic is part of what has influenced Sam’s emotional disconnection – the evidence certainly suggests that reserve and ruthless detachment are encouraged by the clan. Even Samuel, despite welcoming Dean into the bosom of the family as his grandson, came across as a far creepier figure than the last time we met him, back before his untimely demise, although even then he was unwilling to have anything to do with outsiders. He claims to have been mysteriously pulled out of heaven in much the same way that Sam was mysteriously pulled out of hell, but we only have his word for that, and even if he and his Campbell compatriots hadn’t secreted that captured djinn away so sneakily, I would not feel inclined to trust either him or them, not yet, anyway. Time will tell just how trustworthy they do or don’t turn out to be, but for now I remain suspicious.
2. I did, however, enjoy the throwaway detail of Samuel still not being entirely up to speed with modern life, even after a year in the contemporary world – that little comment of his about ‘the intranets’ was a nifty little call back to Dean confusing the Campbells with his mention of the internet on his first trip to the past.
3. I also enjoyed Samuel acknowledging that Dean had had a lot of resurrections to contend with for one day!
4. I was saddened to see the Impala sidelined for the entire episode, yet also appreciated that subtly symbolic detail. The Impala has always been Dean’s avatar, and its current mothballed state stands symbolic of Dean’s retirement from the hunting life. The car has also always represented home and family to the Winchester brothers, and therefore Dean’s offer of it to Sam was enormously symbolic – while the fact that Sam turned the offer down spoke volumes for his current state of mind. He barely even seemed to recognise why the offer was so significant, and that, more than perhaps anything else, sets alarm bells ringing. Something is seriously wrong with Sam. Yet it is fitting, perhaps, that Sam should not take the Impala – perhaps a more symbolic return for the car lies ahead, signalling the reunion of the Winchester brothers at some point in the future. We shall have to wait and see!
5. I haven’t forgotten that when we saw Sam outside Lisa’s house at the end of 5.22, the streetlight went out. Now, that may have merely been for momentary effect in that episode and otherwise meaningless, but it also may still turn out to be significant, indicating that something supernatural is wrong with Sam after all. Time will tell!
6. I really appreciated Bobby’s oh-so characteristic reaction when Dean turned up on his doorstep with Lisa and Ben in tow, although it kind of made my heart hurt, at the same time. “Dammit, if you’re here then something’s wrong.” Yeah. ‘Nuff said.
7. Poor ol’ Sid. I loved that Dean had made a friend, and am sad that he and his wife were killed. Funny how they were killed so instantly by the djinn poison, though – it took far longer to take effect on Dean.
8. I sincerely hope that Dean and Sam remembered to remove any incriminating evidence from Sid’s house! After all, Sam might be moving on, but Dean lives there – he has a lot to lose if evidence of his presence is found at a crime scene right on his doorstep!
9. It amused me immensely when Sam said that he had tried calling Castiel, “but he’s not answering my prayers.” Hee. It is just so Supernatural to speak of prayer as just another kind of call-plan.
10. I love the new title card. I think the flamey titles from S2 remain my favourite, but this one has instantly leapt into second place.
Okay, I’m sure there is loads more I could say, but I have rambled on for more than long enough already, so if I allowed myself to pursue every tangent that occurs to me, I’d never get this thing done! I found last season hard going a lot of the time, it got so bogged down for a while there, but my appetite for the show has been well and truly whetted by the change of pace in this new season opener. It isn’t a perfect episode, not by a long shot – covering so much development in 42 minutes means that rough edges are inevitable. There have been much stronger season openers over the years…but there have also been much weaker season openers over the years. I see a lot of promise in the episode for future development, and am excited to find out whether or not even a fraction of that promise is realised in the episodes still to come.
Supernatural is back!
Okay, so the first thing I want to say, before going any further, is that I’m not going to be writing full episode recaps this season. Probably everyone already assumed that after they petered out so early last season, but it’s as well to be completely up-front. I just don’t have either the time or the energy to put in that much work any more. I’ll try to write up a review of each episode, depending on how things go, but there won’t be anything more than that anymore, I’m afraid.
That said, on to the season premiere!
I really enjoyed the episode. I thought it was a solid season-opener that did a good job of moving on from the epic storyline of the last two seasons and establishing a new direction for the show, setting up the issues, conflicts and character dynamics that will be taken forward during the season ahead. Taken as a whole, I found the episode reassuringly intriguing and felt that there was a hell of a lot going on that probably isn’t immediately apparent to us, because it was a set-up for the season to come. I suspect that hindsight will cast a great deal of light on this episode and will eventually allow us to understand and appreciate it a lot more than we really can right now, while we remain in the dark still about just where the various story strands are heading.
Now, I haven’t really read many other reactions to the episode, not least because that way lies madness, but I’ve seen a few, enough to know that a lot of people seem pretty dissatisfied with the episode, which I think is a shame. I find myself wondering if perhaps some of the people who aren’t happy are the ones who really bought heavily into the apocalypse storyline and lost sight of the fact that this show was never actually, at its heart, about the apocalypse, even if it did get pretty bogged down by the epic battles between angels and demons for a while there. Myself, I am only too glad to leave that storyline behind at last and so welcome the change of pace this episode promises for the season ahead!
The other main criticisms I’ve seen are knee-jerk complaints about the interaction between the brothers, and while I can understand those concerns, again I think it is a hasty judgement. After all, it is only natural that they should be awkward around one another – that wasn’t poor writing or bad acting, it was deliberate characterisation and the inevitable consequence both of a year-long separation and everything that’s happened to them over the past few years! As much as we would love to see them as close as they once were, it would be foolish to expect that in this first episode of the season, starting at the moment of their reunion. No, that is something that must be built toward, slowly, in order to be meaningful; it can’t be manufactured out of thin air, not after everything, but I really believe that this season will give us that reconciliation, and that it will be all the more satisfying for having watched the brothers working to achieve it.
That isn’t to say that I don’t have my concerns, especially regarding Sam. Based on what I saw here, there is definitely something wrong with Sam. But that was very clearly the whole point of his story in this episode. Sam has hardened considerably since we last saw him, with very few moments of anything approaching his usual warmth. Through most of the episode he seemed distant, aloof, detached, emotionally disconnected – a shadow of his former self …but he was clearly written and acted that way deliberately, which means that there is a reason for it, so to simply dismiss the episode as lousy based on the way Sam was behaving would be to miss the point entirely. This was merely the groundwork being established for Sam’s arc this season, which I am going to presume will revolve around Sam slowly starting to thaw once more, as he gradually reconnects with his brother and his emotional scars begin to heal, and finding out what the hell happened to him.
The biggest problem with the way this story is set-up in the episode is that we aren’t allowed to see Sam’s point of view at all; the episode is told entirely from Dean’s perspective, which means we have no insight whatsoever into what is going on in Sam’s head, which we need in order to understand him. It also doesn’t help that the pre-season publicity for the show told us repeatedly that season six Sam was going to be a lot like season one Dean, a statement every bit as misleading as the pre-season two publicity which told us that Jo was going to be both a seasoned hunter and a love interest for Dean, only for neither of those statements to be true when we actually met the character on-screen. The only real parallel between this Sam and season one Dean is that he is advocating a return to the hunting life over his brother’s attempt at having a normal life. Other than that, this Sam bears absolutely no resemblance to the Dean of any season, and nor should he, since Sam has always been very much his own man, quite determinedly so, and has a very different personality to his brother.
The Sam we see in this episode is a Sam who is emotionally closed-off in a way that Dean has never been – but I would argue that it isn’t actually out of character for Sam to shut down in this way. As passionate and as sympathetic as the character generally is, he has always had that propensity toward narrowing his focus so much that he loses sight of everything else, up to and including the best interests of others. As far back as Scarecrow in season one, he was quite prepared to turn his back on innocent victims without so much as a second thought because his priorities lay elsewhere. What we see in this episode is a very extreme example, but nonetheless follows that same trend. When Sam is truly focused on something, he cannot see anything else. If he has spent the last year focusing all his energies on not feeling anything, whether consciously or involuntarily, repressing all emotion and channelling everything he has into the hunt as a coping mechanism for the trauma he has experienced...well, until proven otherwise, I'd say that was reason enough for him to have shut down the way that he has, and it is clear is that something happened to him to cause this. Maybe it was the time he spent in the cage with Lucifer and Michael. Maybe it was a side effect of his mysterious resurrection. Maybe it was something that happened to him since his return. Or maybe all of the above played a part. I look forward to finding out.
It also seemed to me that Sam is aware that there is something wrong with him, which is a good sign – there were several moments where he seemed to know that he should be feeling more than he was, in particular the scene where he realised that he wouldn’t have thought to try to save Dean’s neighbours, because he no longer thinks anything other than strategically, whereas his brother, following his heart, didn’t think twice about throwing himself into danger for their sake. Always the cerebral to Dean’s physical, it is almost as if Sam has forgotten how to feel that intensely, whether he has simply been repressing all emotion for so long that he can no longer access those feelings, his dissociation from them having become involuntary, or because he ‘came back wrong’ somehow. As much as I would prefer him to want Dean back for Dean’s own sake, because he misses him, I think it is significant that Sam stated aloud that this is the reason he now wants Dean to start hunting with him again: because this incident made him recognise the importance of his brother’s ability to care, his humanising influence. Dean has always been the core of Sam’s humanity and Sam knows it – they have always been one another’s anchor in that way – and the fact that he specifically asked Dean to hunt with him for that reason suggests that he also knows, intellectually, how much he needs to reconnect, even if he isn’t able to feel that need. I believe that the story of Sam’s gradual reconnection with his brother and his emotions and the world in general could be excellent, if the writers really commit to it and manage to handle it effectively.
Of course, their track record in that department is a little hit and miss, which is the main source of my concern, especially since, going on past form, the chances are that Sam’s story will be told externally, for the first half of the season at least, with the character being viewed almost entirely from other peoples’ points of view and with little or no insight into what is going on in his head. I have to admit that the thought of this wearies me rather, not least because we have been down similar roads with Sam before, and I always feel that this style of storytelling does something of a disservice to him; Sam can be a difficult character to truly appreciate at times, and understanding what is going on in his head is crucial. Still, the potential is there for a strong storyline for Sam this season, especially if we are given access to his perspective, and I have my fingers crossed that we will see that potential fully realised.
As for Dean, well…where my inner Sam-girl was slightly perturbed but cautiously optimistic for the future, based on this episode, my inner Dean-girl was absolutely delighted with what we were given here. I loved Dean’s story in this episode, from first to last.
Telling this story from Dean’s perspective worked extremely well; he is an enormously charismatic and relatable character, and Ackles is an excellent actor, allowing us to experience with Dean the gamut of emotion he went through in the episode, reeling from one shock reveal to another and struggling to keep up. I loved the use of flashbacks to juxtapose Dean’s old life with his new, and I loved seeing him in this new life he has built. It has been a massive adjustment for him, inevitably so given how little experience he has of this kind of life (although he has always been good at blending in, and that ability has evidently stood him in good stead here) and it is clear that as happy as Lisa and Ben have made him, his grief over losing Sam and the memory of the horrors he has experienced remain with him, always lurking just beneath the surface. Nonetheless, having committed himself to this life, he has found a way to make it work – and, crucially, despite his melancholy in quieter moments, he looks more rested and relaxed than he has in years. This is the closest to real peace and contentment that Dean has ever come, and although it was bought at a horribly high price, the benefits are there for all to see. He needed this, desperately. He couldn’t have carried on as he was, not after everything he’d been through; he wouldn’t have survived. The past few seasons wore him down until there was almost nothing left, broke him, but he is in one piece again now, back on his feet, and it was Lisa and Ben who did that for him.
I really hope nothing bad ever happens to Lisa and Ben. I’m not sure I could bear it. So the certainty that Dean will eventually end up back on the road with Sam makes me rather nervous for the Braedens’ long-term chances!
I really loved what we got to see of the relationship Dean has established with Lisa, which may not be a great, epic romance in any way, but is nonetheless a relationship founded in love – the kind of love that is built on warts and all acceptance, companionship and mutual respect. Dean went to Lisa initially because he had made a promise to Sam, because he needed a refuge, needed something – someone – to cling to in his grief, because he had spent two or three years idealising her and Ben as his perfect ready-made-family, because he liked her and was attracted to her and remembered her fondly from their time together. Lisa didn’t have to take him in, but chose to do so for a similar myriad of reasons: because she is a warm-hearted person who recognised his need for refuge, because she was grateful to him for saving the world and for saving her son, because she liked that he was good with Ben, because she cared about him and was attracted to him and remembered him fondly from their time together. But none of that was any reason for them to stay together for the long haul – and Dean demonstrated by his attempts to find a way to get Sam out of hell that he did not necessarily feel bound by his promise to his brother, long-term. Dean turning up on Lisa’s doorstep and her decision to take him in was merely the starting point, the foundation on which the relationship they now have has been built – the healthiest and most mature relationship that Dean, at least, and maybe Lisa too, has ever had.
So I really liked that the episode addressed both how difficult the relationship has been at times, especially early on, and what Lisa and Ben have got out of it, as well as Dean. Dean freely admits that he was a mess when Lisa took him in, and for much of the year – owning up to drinking heavily, to suffering from nightmares, and to obsessively searching for a way to get Sam back. Most, if not all, of those issues appear to have been laid to rest by the time the episode opens, however, as although he still does not seem to be sleeping well – a problem that has been with him for several seasons now – there is no sign that he is still drinking to excess, and equally no sign that he is still buried in Sam-related research. Lisa’s warmth, strength of character and willingness to accept Dean for who and what he is, however broken, have clearly been his salvation, while in Ben he has found an outlet for all the nurturing, paternalistic instincts that were honed on Sam. And Lisa makes it clear that, however much of a wreck he has been, she feels that taking him into her family has been more than worthwhile, as he has become both the father she always wanted for her son and a partner she can love and respect.
I also really appreciated that although Dean has walked away from his old life as a hunter and committed himself to a life of domesticity with Lisa and Ben, he has not forgotten his lifetime of hunting experience; the precautions he has taken to defend his new home from supernatural attack prove that. His instincts remain as sharp as ever, and although he is no longer actively seeking hunts, he is clearly still on the alert, still very much willing to rush to the rescue if he believes someone is in danger. His response to what looked like a potential hunt showed us something of this, as we saw Dean not hesitating to conduct preliminary investigations himself upon spotting something amiss, and then, when he hit a dead end, passing information on to local law enforcement to follow up on, just in case – maybe not what we might expect, given how scathing he has been of law enforcement in the past, but nonetheless thrifty use of available resources, under the circumstances. If he seemed rather more nervous than usual while investigating that derelict hotel, that too is understandable, given that he was put very much on the spot without time to find out more about what he might be walking into, is out of practice, doesn’t have back up in this situation and also doesn’t have the luxury of being able to simply clear out of town afterward. A hunt of any kind conducted right on his doorstep is risky in a variety of ways now that he has settled down, and he has a lot to lose if it goes wrong.
This theme carried on into Dean’s interactions with the Campbells, seen in his discomfort at having them invading his home and trampling all over the trappings of his daily life with such disdain, as well as his indignation at being treated as just another helpless innocent rather than a hunting professional in his own right, albeit retired. With the supernatural having followed him into his new life, he is caught between two worlds, neither one thing nor the other being. So, if this episode established Sam’s potential character arc as his gradual reconnection with his brother and his emotions, surely Dean’s will be the attempt to find some way to reconcile his two lives, the new and the old, seeking to achieve a balance between the two without undermining either. Whether or not it will be possible remains to be seen.
It made my heart hurt when Dean woke up in that grungy little shack, saw Sam for the first time and immediately assumed that he had died and gone to heaven. Because heaven is a grungy little shack with Sam in it. Oh Dean. But at least he now knows heaven to be on the cards for him – a year ago, he completely believed he would be going the other way when he died again!
I am in two minds over Sam’s decision to conceal his resurrection from Dean. Part of me can at least attempt to see it from Sam’s point of view. Dean was out, he finally had the family he’d always wanted, he had found a measure of peace and deserved to be allowed to keep it…viewed from the outside, from afar, especially in Sam’s current state of emotional dissociation, it would be relatively easy to view it as a logical trade-off, to convince himself that Dean was better off being kept in the dark and that Sam himself was getting by fine without his brother. The larger part of me, however, is as horrified as Dean that he was allowed to believe for a whole year that his brother was not just in hell but trapped in Lucifer’s private cage, when in fact Sam was out and getting on with his life all that time. No matter how happy Dean has been with Lisa and Ben, the knowledge of Sam’s fate has been daily agony for him, and to leave him in that state for even a day longer than absolutely necessary was downright cruel – and Sam should know that, having experienced himself the torment of knowing his brother to be in hell, if only he were in any fit state to recall the pain of that experience in full. Equally, Sam has spent much of his life railing against having the course of his life dictated by others, so it could be argued that he should know better than to do the same thing to his brother…except that hypocrisy in this area is an established character trait for Sam – and, indeed, for the Winchesters in general. In his current dispassionate state of mind, Sam is absolutely genuine in his belief that he did the right thing by Dean, whether his brother agrees or not; what he fails to recognise is that it wasn’t his decision to make.
Bobby’s part in the conspiracy to hide Sam’s return from Dean is harder to rationalise, given that he remains in full possession of all his emotional faculties. Maybe he has felt torn all this time between loyalty to Sam and loyalty to Dean, but ultimately complied with Sam’s wishes because it was the path of least resistance; maybe he did it because, like Sam, he wanted Dean to have that life so badly that he was willing to close his eyes to all other considerations, including Dean’s right to know the truth and need to be released from the torment of believing his brother to be in hell. Wishful thinking can have a lot to answer for, especially when conducted at distance. Both Sam and Bobby were simply trying, albeit clumsily, to protect Dean, to shield him from a life they felt he deserved to escape from, and it is so rare for Dean to be sheltered in that way that it would almost be sweet…you know, if it wasn’t so very wrong of them to lie to him about something so huge, to leave him in pain and to deny him his right to decide the course of his own life. Dean’s horrified reactions to the realisation that both Sam and Bobby had betrayed him in this way were beautifully played – you could really see it hitting him like a blow to the gut, sickening, although the rapid course of events did not allow him to dwell on his anger and hurt.
It made my heart hurt again that when the Djinn infected Dean and made him see his worst nightmare, what he saw was Azazel attacking his new family. After everything he has been through, up to and including the horrors of hell itself, his deepest and darkest fears still take him back to the Yellow-Eyed Demon and the loss of his family. Every bad thing that has ever happened to Dean can be traced back to that creature, and it makes perfect sense that his fear of losing his new family would be intimately bound to the memory of losing the family he once had.
Dean’s fears for Lisa and Ben, as well as his sense of commitment to the relationship he has built with them, played very much into his decision to stay with them rather than return to the hunt with Sam – and I never would have expected it, but I was glad to see him make that decision. Sam and Bobby both seem to have automatically assumed that if Dean knew Sam was alive again he would immediately drop Lisa and Ben like hot potatoes and rush back off into the hunt once more, and they used that expectation to validate their decision to withhold the truth from him. And okay, Dean’s knee-jerk reaction to the thought of Sam hunting solo provides some justification for that assumption. But it was not a given, not at any point, and the bottom line is that Dean had the right to make that choice himself, instead of them making it for him without his even knowing it, while Lisa and Ben deserve more than to be simply cast-off on the whim of a third party. Just because Sam gave Dean the push to go to Lisa in the first instance does not give him the right to dictate the course of the relationship they have formed since.
We will never now know how Dean might have reacted if Sam had come forward and revealed himself earlier, without any supernatural danger to force his hand. It is entirely possible that Dean would have automatically rejoined his brother on the road, especially if Sam had approached him early on, while he was still, by his own admission, an absolute wreck. It is equally possible, however, that after the initial euphoria of the reunion, Dean might still have chosen to remain with Lisa and Ben, that he and Sam might have mutually agreed to go their separate ways; by then Dean had already committed himself to a future with the Braedens, after all, and he trusts Sam’s ability to hunt safely and effectively without him; that break has already been made. It is even possible that Dean might have tried to persuade Sam to settle down as well, believing that they had both earned their retirement and the chance of happiness. There are many possibilities for how things might have played out.
As it is, Sam made the choice to conceal his resurrection from Dean, and now Dean has made the choice to stand by his new family and allow Sam to go his own way. In a strange kind of way, despite Dean’s obvious sorrow (and Sam’s less obvious disappointment, muted by his emotional dissociation), this feels like the healthiest, most mature separation they have ever had. They are not parting in anger, or because either one has issues to resolve before they can reunite, neither one has died this time, and neither one is (or appears to be) concealing anything, they are simply on different paths right now. They are parting as mature and responsible adults who will always be connected by their familial bond but have separate lives to be getting on with, which, really, is how it should be (whatever is going on with Sam notwithstanding). Their unhealthy co-dependence is well and truly over, which means that for the first time they really are ideally placed to begin to come back together not because they need each other, or because they are tied together by destiny, but because they want to be together, as equal partners – at least, I really hope that is how their relationship will progress! How that process might be tied in with their individual character arcs this season remains to be seen, but I look forward to it!
Okay, a few final, random thoughts.
1. I do not warm to the extended Campbell clan, not even a little bit. I think that was the point of them, however – we aren’t supposed to trust them, even if Sam appears to. From what little we saw, they appear to belong to that breed of hunter that is all but feral, completely cut off from the everyday world, hunting simply because it is what they do and all they know rather than with the more altruistic aim of helping people. They appear to be intensely secretive and isolationist, given that no other hunters seem to have ever heard of their family despite Samuel’s lofty claims for their ancient pedigree, and also came across as arrogant and elitist. Sam may have called them family, but there was no sign of familial affection in their interactions with him – or with each other – and they were actively dismissive of Dean. For all Samuel’s extolling of the strength, loyalty and unity of the clan, the death of the unnamed individual set to guard Dean and Lisa’s house barely even seemed to register with any of them, yet he must have been part of the extended family, since they don’t work with outsiders. It could be that this cold, businesslike familial dynamic is part of what has influenced Sam’s emotional disconnection – the evidence certainly suggests that reserve and ruthless detachment are encouraged by the clan. Even Samuel, despite welcoming Dean into the bosom of the family as his grandson, came across as a far creepier figure than the last time we met him, back before his untimely demise, although even then he was unwilling to have anything to do with outsiders. He claims to have been mysteriously pulled out of heaven in much the same way that Sam was mysteriously pulled out of hell, but we only have his word for that, and even if he and his Campbell compatriots hadn’t secreted that captured djinn away so sneakily, I would not feel inclined to trust either him or them, not yet, anyway. Time will tell just how trustworthy they do or don’t turn out to be, but for now I remain suspicious.
2. I did, however, enjoy the throwaway detail of Samuel still not being entirely up to speed with modern life, even after a year in the contemporary world – that little comment of his about ‘the intranets’ was a nifty little call back to Dean confusing the Campbells with his mention of the internet on his first trip to the past.
3. I also enjoyed Samuel acknowledging that Dean had had a lot of resurrections to contend with for one day!
4. I was saddened to see the Impala sidelined for the entire episode, yet also appreciated that subtly symbolic detail. The Impala has always been Dean’s avatar, and its current mothballed state stands symbolic of Dean’s retirement from the hunting life. The car has also always represented home and family to the Winchester brothers, and therefore Dean’s offer of it to Sam was enormously symbolic – while the fact that Sam turned the offer down spoke volumes for his current state of mind. He barely even seemed to recognise why the offer was so significant, and that, more than perhaps anything else, sets alarm bells ringing. Something is seriously wrong with Sam. Yet it is fitting, perhaps, that Sam should not take the Impala – perhaps a more symbolic return for the car lies ahead, signalling the reunion of the Winchester brothers at some point in the future. We shall have to wait and see!
5. I haven’t forgotten that when we saw Sam outside Lisa’s house at the end of 5.22, the streetlight went out. Now, that may have merely been for momentary effect in that episode and otherwise meaningless, but it also may still turn out to be significant, indicating that something supernatural is wrong with Sam after all. Time will tell!
6. I really appreciated Bobby’s oh-so characteristic reaction when Dean turned up on his doorstep with Lisa and Ben in tow, although it kind of made my heart hurt, at the same time. “Dammit, if you’re here then something’s wrong.” Yeah. ‘Nuff said.
7. Poor ol’ Sid. I loved that Dean had made a friend, and am sad that he and his wife were killed. Funny how they were killed so instantly by the djinn poison, though – it took far longer to take effect on Dean.
8. I sincerely hope that Dean and Sam remembered to remove any incriminating evidence from Sid’s house! After all, Sam might be moving on, but Dean lives there – he has a lot to lose if evidence of his presence is found at a crime scene right on his doorstep!
9. It amused me immensely when Sam said that he had tried calling Castiel, “but he’s not answering my prayers.” Hee. It is just so Supernatural to speak of prayer as just another kind of call-plan.
10. I love the new title card. I think the flamey titles from S2 remain my favourite, but this one has instantly leapt into second place.
Okay, I’m sure there is loads more I could say, but I have rambled on for more than long enough already, so if I allowed myself to pursue every tangent that occurs to me, I’d never get this thing done! I found last season hard going a lot of the time, it got so bogged down for a while there, but my appetite for the show has been well and truly whetted by the change of pace in this new season opener. It isn’t a perfect episode, not by a long shot – covering so much development in 42 minutes means that rough edges are inevitable. There have been much stronger season openers over the years…but there have also been much weaker season openers over the years. I see a lot of promise in the episode for future development, and am excited to find out whether or not even a fraction of that promise is realised in the episodes still to come.
