one of the things you have to understand about dean and jack is, post-tombstone at least, their dynamic kind of seesaws between âI was wrong about you and i want to continue being wrong now that i really know youâ on deanâs end (14x07 establishes that heâs literally never forgiven himself for mistreating jack), and then on jackâs end itâs like âI want you to be wrong about me too.â theyâre on the same page when it comes to the topic of jack possibly maybe being evilâand in a weird way, they almost always have been ..? and not even just them. itâs a basis for so much of jackâs other relationships - and how can it not be when your two families are a particularly preordained set of hunters and the cosmic forces that they were preordained as vessels for?
in 13x02 when dean walks in on jack stabbing his chest repeatedly, heâs rightly horrified, and this entire situation is because of jack ârecreatingâ his own horrifying moment where miriam stabbed him and nothing happened. to put it shortly, theyâre both horrified at the sheer unknown that is jack and his powers. jack says âi canât control whatever this is. i will hurt someone.â not a threat, but an acknowledgment that he is both dangerous and doesnât fully understand what he is. then, he says âif youâre rightâŠâ and trails off. they both know what it means for dean to be right in the scenario, and he says just that (probably harsher than he should, but) for all intents and purposes, he will take the responsibility of killing jack *if it ever comes to that.* (read: IF ITS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. He Was Not Just Threatening Jack I Promise).
and then thereâs everything else that follows. after jackâs first Ever kill in tombstone he says, maybe dean is right, and of course by now dean knows that he isnât so he says âif youâre a monster [for one mistake] then so are we [for our mistakes].â and dean isnât the only person to be distrustful and proven wrongâwhen they call rowena in to help jackâs 'condition' she very bluntly tells sam that, from what she knows of Lucifer, the world would be better off without his son. and what does Jack say? âyou might be right.â jack knows very well what the other end of the scale is. the fandom has a tendency to oversimplify a lot of things, often making them static or one dimensional to fit a certain idea. in this case itâs both jack and his dynamics with other people (especially dean, but everybody else counts as well).
even when heâs not being seen as an infantile stage prop, jack still isnât given much interiority for thought. heâs almost portrayed as blissfully unaware of basically everything, including his status and what it means to others. but the fact is, he knows. after his first kill and unfortunate meet with his father, he knows. maybe jack doesnât know everything about luciferâs connections to his immediate circle â ie, does he know that Lucifer burnt rowena alive? left a charred, anguished corpse behind for her to grow back from? that thatâs why she was ready to let him die? â but he still understands enough that he doesnât fault people for feeling certain ways about him; âWeâre still trying to figure that out, but Iâm trying not to be like him.â Iâm probably losing my train of thought but now that I think about it, itâs very interesting to me that jack would say âIâm trying not to be like him.â Like, not just âI promise Iâm not like him.â Nothing definite, because Jack doesnât know that he isnât like Lucifer yet, and heâs plenty of moments to show that he holds a few similarities at best.
but that gets back to my point. this whole âwill he, wonât heâ thing is pretty much the basis of jacks whole character/person, including the dynamics he forms with other characters, and he is extremely aware of it at all times. heâs not a helpless victim of random bullying. the very reason he acts the way he does is specifically because of the fact that he holds so much potential as a threat, and actively works against it.
when jack is dying, dean canât stand to be in the same room as him. after nearly two years of officiating jack as their family, he still hasnât forgiven himself for his mistreatment, and now he thinks heâll never have a chance to really make things right. when theyâre fishing, jack says heâd miss having more time with dean, and dean says âwho knew hanging out with me [of all people] would make you sentimental.â itâs very clear that dean doesnât think he deserves this kind of connection or high value from somebody he treated so poorly over something he was wrong about. and I donât think itâs by chance that this episode is flashed through deans head in the graveyard during 14x20, because what does jack say while he waits patiently to die? âYou were right all along.â
Itâs soul-crushing. The fact that it still hangs over their heads two years later after making peace with it, and it will continue hanging over their heads after they make peace again. The fact of the matter is, Dean does not want to be right anymore. He was proved wrong and he was grateful to be wrong, because he does indeed love Jack as a son and a friend. Likewise, Jack loves dean as both a friend and father figure, he loves sam and Cas, he regards all of them as his true/chosen family. He doesnât want Dean to be right either. So much of the things his hallucinations mock the attachment he has to his family and home and the role he wants to upkeep within it, and how he cannot have it anymore because of Maryâs death; or, because Dean was right, and he is the monster they always thought he was. All the guilt and attachment he feels is âjust a sneeze,â and this is who he really is.
Itâs tragic, but itâs one of those things that I feel does not get recognized enough. Dean and Jack (and everybody else) are on way more equal footing than is credited to either of them

















