Hey, so, I’m listening to SPN then & now podcast. Last episode they review the last episode of season 7. They have Bob Singer on, and he’s talking about looking forward to season 8, and he mentions that they had a huge fight in the writers room about Benny. Basically one writer dug their heels in and insisted that Dean would never be friends with a vampire, that he would have killed him as soon as they escaped purgatory. The writer threw such a fit that Singer finally had to say “you know what, we’re doing this, you don’t want to write it, fine, write something else.”
So I looked into it and the only S8 writers who didn’t write post-purgatory Benny scenes were Thompson, Glass, and Dabb. I don’t think it’s Thompson because of Charlie’s line “Did you break up with someone too?” from LARP and the real girl, like he understands this is a real relationship that Dean cares about. It could be Glass, but all I know about him is he was in an earlier episode of the podcast (to discuss his unfortunate dog episode) and seems pretty chill and humble. Also this was only his second season with the show. But Dabb/Loflin wrote an episode with a Benny flashback and then split up! And then Loflin writes Citizen Fang?! Is this what their fight was about?
Sorry this post would be better suited for my own blog if I had an active one. I just wanted to maybe get some other eyes on/opinions on my theory.
Ho ho ho! *Rubs hands together* I love the idea of an SPN writer telling on themselves that they never bothered to actually watch the fucking source material and learn that Dean risking his life to defend a vampire happens by fucking 2x03.
Okay so. I'm gonna try to do this carefully by process of elimination through all the season 8 writers.
Jeremy Carver - (8x01, 8x23) Easily eliminated from the running because he was the one doing the running. He was showrunner.
Ben Edlund - (8x05 Blood Brother, 8x13 Everybody Hates Hitler, 8x21 The Great Escapist) Another easy elimination based on "Blood Brother".
Bucklemming - (8x03 Heartache, 8x07 A Little Slice of Kevin, 8x15, 8x19 Taxi Driver) Ross-Lemming is Singer's wife, so he probably wouldn't just talk shit about her/her writing partner. Plus 8x19 contains Dean and Benny's emotional goodbye with Dean promising to bring Benny back, and telling Sam he buried Benny instead of burning his bones in the hopes he would come back someday. This attitude from Dean is fundamentally at odds with the position of the writer described.
Adam Glass - (8x06 Southern Comfort, 8x12 As Time Goes By, 8x18 Freaks and Geeks) 8x06 opens with Sam and Dean arguing about Benny, and Dean pointing out that they just let Kate the werewolf go with zero issues. 8x18 seems to eliminate Glass from the running completely, given Dean defends innocent vampires again in this episode.
Robbie Thompson - (8x04 Bitten, 8x11 LARP and the Real Girl, 8x17 Goodbye Stranger, 8x20 Pac Man Fever). I agree with you about the breakup line about Benny from 8x11. Additionally, in 8x04, Sam and Dean let Kate the Werewolf go and they're both in agreement on it from the beginning. Sam actually provides all the caveats to letting her go. Dean is barely paying attention, focused on Kate and her friends claiming he says "awesome" too much. Zero worries about Kate.
Jenny Klein - (8x10 Torn and Frayed) I debated on this one a little more, but ultimately, I doubt it was Klein for two reasons. First, because she only contributed 1 episode to season 8, and it was her fourth credit in the whole series (1 episode writer credit each for season 5, 6, and 7. I doubt she would dig her heels in in the writer's room (if she was even there for this) against Carver and Singer. Second, there is also another fight between Sam and Dean over Benny at the beginning of her episode, 8x10, which splits them up when Dean refuses to agree to cut ties with Benny after Sam issues an ultimatum. So despite Sam getting to pretend he's been so horribly wronged and that he did nothing wrong (which in itself just ends up reflecting poorly on him since he won't hear Dean out about Martin), I don't think it was Klein.
This leaves, as predicted, Dabb and Loflin by process of elimination.
Andrew Dabb - (8x02 w/Loflin, 8x08 Hunteri Heroici, 8x14 Trial and Error, 8x22 Clip Show)
Daniel Loflin - (8x02 w/Dabb, 8x09 Citizen Fang, 8x16 Remember The Titans)
Dabb and Loflin are also particualrly good candidates. In fact. I am 100% sure based on the story that this is about Dabb.
First, unlike Klein, Dabblin would be comfortable throwing their weight around, because they were credited as producers by this point.
Second, prior to season 8, one of their episodes was the infamous "7x03 The Girl Next Door". Maybe one of them felt they had constructed some sort of seminal work there (lmaooo) and felt that Benny's existence was somehow "undoing" that.
Third, and most importantly, Citizen Fang would have been an important episode for the season, because it temporarily splits the brothers up. The writers room would have wanted to assign this episode as soon as possible and had it being worked on. If Dabb and Loflin were assigned this episode or if, Loflin really wanted this episode and Dabb really really didn't because he fundamentally disagreed with the idea that Dean would protect a vampire and that that would put him at odds with Sam, then that would finally explain Dabblin's sudden split after four seasons of co-authorship, and Singer's particular wording "you don’t want to write it, fine, write something else".
The idea of Benny causing them to split as a writing team because Dabb refused to be party to Citizen Fang is fascinating.
Nothing about Citizen Fang shows confusion or handwringing regarding Dean's moral position on Benny. His attitude is extremely consistent. Loflin seems extremely certain of how Dean feels about Benny and the ethics of protecting him and shows him justifying his position without compromise.
