#s04e21

That is not to say that nothing which has happened in series four is relevant to the ending. Sam drinking demon blood was of course a major subplot throughout leading on from his working with Ruby in series three. The demon blood itself is not a vital aspect of the actual Apocalypse, as the beginning of series five makes it abundantly clear that Sam is Lucifer's vessel: the demon blood is secondary, its significance mostly ending with the death of Lilith. Even then, was it necessary that Sam kill Ruby using his psychic powers? Was there no other way? All remnant of psychic powers and addiction blood are removed from Sam in 5x01 Lucifer Rising as clearly Kripke had got bored of them, but taking a step back reminds me that all of this is God writing a story to work through his own issues.

Dean and Sam are characters in God's books doomed to repeat the story of Cain and Abel (Dean is Abel, whatever The Show says). Cain and Abel are themselves a mirror of God and his betrayal of Amara/The Darkness, his sister whom he turned on and imprisoned. Lucifer turning to the dark side in the Superverse is a result of him bearing the lock to Amara's prison, i.e. the Mark of Cain, so named because Lucifer passed it onto Cain before Cain murdered his brother. In short, God is driving Dean and Sam apart in order to manufacture a situation where one has to kill the other. To that end, even if the demon blood were not a vital part of ushering in the end-times, it functions to cause a schism between Dean and Sam, i.e. it might simply be there for the drama.

This being the case, neither Dean nor Sam is ultimately responsible for their actions, in the same way one could argue that Helen and Paris were not responsible for causing the Trojan War: everything that happened happened because of the gods and fate; humans were just pawns.

This episode begins with Sam in Bobby's panic room where Dean and Bobby trapped him at the end of the previous episode. It is not mentioned how much time has passed, but be it five minutes or five hours, Sam is not happy. Understandably so. I am sure he feels betrayed, and probably that Dean and Bobby are preventing him do what is necessary to stop the Apocalypse. He also refuses to acknowledge the possibility he might actually be doing something deserving of being locked in the panic room, at least at first. Later some of his doubts and insecurities begin to surface, only to be submerged beneath his addiction.

Sam is lit in red in the cold open, a clear indicator of danger and a colour associated with Ruby beginning with 4x01 Lazarus Rising, whereas Dean is in darkness. It is a shame it took so long for this to happen, but Dean finally gets to call Sam out for lying to him, as well as calling him weak, desperate, and pathetic.

Sam of course rejects all accountability because he is an addict who at the moment is incapable of properly acknowledging his addiction, much less the damage it is doing to himself and others. Having personal experience of somebody like this, I can recognise it immediately, as well as his turning the tables on Dean to try to make him out to be the problem in this situation. Dean's 'self-righteousness' is seriously not the issue, Sam, but this is a nice attempt at deflection. Anything to avoid taking criticism on board. An intervention would never work with somebody in Sam's position.

Dean soon gives up on trying to get through to Sam and shuts the view port, completely ignoring Sam's increasingly angry and distressed calls to let him out. It is not until Dean is at the top of the stairs that he stops with a pensive look on his face. But more on Dean later: do let us return downstairs to the panic room where Sam is being visited by the ghost of Christmas Past in the form of Alice Tear. These apparitions are not actually the people they appear to be, but aspects of Sam's subconscious manifesting themselves as people from his life in order to chide or encourage him. Quite why Alice Tear appears to Sam is not explained, nor why he should be the first visitation, but before Sam knows it he is strapped to a torture table like Ruby was in 4x10 Heaven and Hell. Alice Tear tortures Sam a little but it is soon revealed to be a hallucination and Sam is physically fine.

Sam also appears as if strapped to a crucifix, similar to the end of 4x19 Jump the Shark. Some have jumped on this to claim that Sam is a Jesus figure, but I think it takes more than a little bit of imagery to be a Jesus figure. In what ways do Sam's personality or story arc mirror Jesus? A man taking on a burden he never wanted, perhaps, but Sam's motives are self-centred whereas Jesus's were other-centred, or selfless. Dean's sacrifice of himself for Sam, his descent to Hell, and his rebirth mirror Jesus more, but I cannot see anything in Sam which really warrants a comparison with the Riz.

Whatever the case, the torture was imagined as Sam is revealed to be quite whole. His hallucinations and visitations continue. 'Mary' tells Sam exactly what Sam would want to hear in that situation, i.e. that Sam is on the right path, and that Sam is strong while Dean is weak. What precisely is meant by 'Dean is weak' is uncertain: unless Sam is high on demon blood, dean can best him in a fight, and Dean is a far more accomplished and proficient hunter. Is the weakness therefore a weakness of character, i.e. that Dean is not willing to drink blood from Ruby's dead vessel to 'save the world'?

Contrary to the part of Sam's subconscious masquerading as Mary, the part masquerading as Dean calls Sam a monster and says that he always was one. Not that he is becoming a monster, but that Sam has been a monster ever since Azazel bled into his mouth. This reflects perhaps what Sam believes Dean thinks of him, or what Sam thinks of himself. He has made several references to thinking of himself as a freak throughout the show, and that he could never fit in because he was a freak. His behaviour has rarely reflected this in my opinion, meaning this is more 'tell' than 'show'. One of the reasons his angry outburst at Dean in 4x04 Metamorphosis was that Sam did not like Dean looking at him as if he were a freak etc... but this was a red herring.

In his brief conversation with poco!Sam, Sam expresses a defeatist, attitude in response to his younger self's chastisement of him for drinking demon blood and becoming what he has become. After picking myself up off the floor after Sam's 'Life doesn't turn out the way you thought it would when you're fourteen years old' line, I noticed his 'we were never going to be normal, we were never going to get away' line. On the one hand this is true, but on the other hand it sounds like a post-hoc justification. He does not want to stop drinking demon blood, but also does not believe (or want to believe) he can. Therefore he makes himself a victim of circumstance and surrenders his agency.

In her review, Paula discussed the idea that Sam used to be an important cosmic figure with a special destiny and special powers. He can also perhaps be seen as something of a false prophet, since his visions etc came from Azazel whereas real prophets' visions come from God. For Sam to then be stripped of that after Azazel's death, and for Dean to later be raised to a position of even greater cosmic importance must have stung pretty badly. While it would be disingenuous to claim his addiction is entirely rooted in wanting to be important, a good case can be made for it being an considerable factor in all this. 'Dean' even says as much during one of Sam's hallucinations: Dean was supposed to stop the apocalypse, not Sam: Sam wanted to steal Dean's thunder. This is as good as confirmed in Dean and Sam's argument before their fight at the end of the episode, which is discussed near the end of this analysis.

Just before Dean and Sam's fight later in the episode, Sam says things to the effect of wanting Dean to believe in him and trust him. Sam wants to feel important and special. Getting this validation from Dean is especially important to him as Dean has been the only constant in his life.

In spite of that, poco!Sam claims that if Sam had not gone off with Dean, Jess might still be alive, at which point I get the song Put the Blame on Mame stuck in my head. That song should be Dean's theme tune in this show, because apparently he is also to blame for Jess's death.

Perhaps more understandably, Sam also tries to use Jess's death as a justification for what he is doing now, but more understandable thought it may be, it is another post-hoc justification. It is also irrelevant: Azazel's death was vengeance for Jess, as well as for Mary and John. Lilith had nothing to do with any of that.

While all this is happening in the panic room, Dean and Bobby are upstairs discussing Sam. This seems to be an unpopular opinion, but Bobby's grouchiness grates on me very quickly. In small doses it can be amusing, but mostly it comes across as him acting like a cunny-hole because he likes making other people feel stupid. Knowing what is coming next episode as well as 5x18 Point of No Return has perhaps soured my perception of him, but even my flatmate who was a big fan of Bobby early got tired of him before this point. He just acts bitchy for no reason, as if the writers could not think of another personality trait for him. It also seems rather inappropriate and unnatural in the situation: Dean is worried about Sam and wonders how long it might take for Sam to detox, to which Bobby's response is a pissy 'Oh, let me just check. Wait, I can't, because nobody's ever done this before'. This was funny in A Bug's Life, but here a simple 'I dunno, nobody's ever done this before' would have sufficed.

On the other hand, the grouchiness and bitchiness here is likely an expression of his own anxiety, but still. Calm your tits, Robert. That said, Bobby and Rufus's dynamic does amuse me greatly and it is a shame so little of it is on the show. Two ageing men snapping at each other like an old married couple sounds delightful, a bit like Bobby and old!Dean in 5x07 The Curious Case of Dean Winchester.

The most important parts of Bobby and Dean's conversations is their disagreement on what to do with Sam. Dean wants Sam to remain in the panic room until he recovers, whereas Bobby believes Sam could be a useful weapon in stopping the Apocalypse. Dean is dead set against this, preferring that Sam die as a human than survive as a monster (a decision Dean also made for himself in 3x15 Time is on My Side).

At first, it might seem like a good idea to use Sam as a weapon. After all, when he is at full power, he is currently the most powerful of the three, and perhaps rivals Cas in certain aspects. However, a second's thought reveals that this is actually very far from an idea of the good variety: Sam is being manipulated by a demon, and could just as easily turn his powers on the good guys. Besides, what would they believe would happen if Sam were to kill Lilith and stop the Apocalypse? Sam would still be at large and addicted to demon blood, having become the thing Azazel sought to make him. It would be like the ending of Game of Thrones: the Night King's dead, but now you have to deal with Dany.

Hindsight is 20-20, or so goes the saying, but surely an experienced hunter like Bobby should be more than hesitant to set a loose cannon like Sam free. Hindsight proves Dean to be right, as the first thing Sam did after Cas opened the door to the panic room was knock Bobby out with the butt of the rifle.

And what have I said many times in these analyses? A blow to the head strong enough to cause unconsciousness is strong enough to kill or cause serious brain damage. In the real world, Sam could have killed Bobby in this episode, proving him wrong and Dean right. I am starting to wonder whether Cassandra was a little relieved when Clytemnestra killed her.

This of course happens roughly halfway through the episode. Before that, Bobby somehow seems to switch from not having any idea about demonic detox to being sure it will kill Sam. How this happened is beyond me, but Bobby conveniently thinks what the plot wants him to think in this episode. I understand that Sam screaming and being tossed around the room is frightening and highly-concerning, but how did Bobby conclude that it would kill him? Part of the reason 'going cold turkey' is so difficult is because of the serious withdrawal symptoms: the body is used to functioning with a certain chemical present, and the sudden absence of that chemical causes serious disarray including physical and mental distress and illness. Withdrawal from certain drugs and medicines can be deadly, but how did Bobby come to the conclusion that 'cold turkey' (I am so sick of that phrase) was not working? What was his basis for that conclusion? Nobody has done demon detox before, how does he know?! And even if it were killing him, at least he would die human...

A sudden lull in the screaming and shouting panics Bobby and Dean, whereupon they run downstairs to find Sam getting tossed about like a ragdoll. Bobby and Dean have to restrain him and fasten him to the bed, and Paula commented on the unlikelihood of two men being enough to restrain a big man like Sam who was flailing around that much, especially when one of the men is around sixty years of age.

Bobby and Dean cannot agree on what to do with Sam. Perhaps it is partly for this reason that Dean tries to call Cas for help, though Cas left Dean shouting for him for two hours.

In the scene outside in Bobby's scrapyard, Cas is still acting the same as at the end of 4x20 The Rapture, the result of being sent to Heaven's Gulag for reëducation. In this scene, there is little left of the friendship which was developing between Dean and Cas, and Cas's behaviour is very different from that of the angel who defied orders and helped Dean defeat Lilith in 4x18 The Monster at the End of This Book. Instead, Cas uses the scene as an opportunity to essentially groom Dean into being Michael's vessel by getting him to swear allegiance and obedience to Heaven.

This is also the scene where Dean and Cas stare at each other for a very long time while the crane shot tracks up. There is no need for the two of them to stare at each other, yet they do anyway. A few weeks before writing this analysis, I watched this episode with a friend who is not especially a fan of the show. When watching this scene, she said apropos of nothing 'Oh, just kiss.'

Cas is obedient to Heaven in this episode, including later when he betrays Anna, yet his facial expression when Anna is taken away indicates he is not mindlessly obeying: he is obeying against his wishes, or because he has to. He perhaps knows that what he is doing is bad, but has to do it anyway.

That said, the fact it was him who freed Sam from the panic room and thereby almost got Bobby and Dean killed by proxy in this episode is never brought up and Cas is never held accountable for his actions. This is one of the reasons I can never quite actively like Cas: he does bad things but is often not held accountable. He rarely learns from his mistakes but often repeats pretty much the same mistake, i.e. working with dubious individuals behind Dean and Sam's backs and getting people hurt or killed. He also shifts the blame for his own behaviour onto others, mostly Dean (see 15x03 Rupture, for example). In this regard he resembles Sam, but the difference between Cas and Sam is that Cas does not act out of hostility. Rather Cas is absolutely clueless about how responsibility and accountability are supposed to work. The problem is that the show never makes Cas grow out of this. His and Dean's 'divorce' in series fifteen was the perfect time for Cas to begin understanding his own culpability and agency, and that Dean is not responsible for the choices Cas makes.

The writers, however, did not force Cas down this path, but kept him as poor innocent wide-eyed Cas bullied and mistreated by anger-issues Dean. All the responsibility for the divorce arc was laid at Dean's feet: Dean, as always, ended up blaming himself, but Cas let him. This did Cas a huge disservice as a character and kept him stuck as an adolescent. Whether Cas actively intended to make Dean believe he was entirely to blame for their fall-out is debatable, but he certainly did nothing to shoulder his hefty portion of the blame. Dean was allowed to think he and his justified anger at Cas's years of stupidity were the problems, not Cas's secrets, lies, and rash behaviour which ended up with dead friends and relatives. This is mistreatment, though it stops short of active gaslighting.

I have much more time for Cas than Sam due to the fact Cas's bad behaviour is not acrimonious. It is mostly simple stupidity, naïvité, and ignorance. It should also come as no surprise to readers that I ship Dean and Cas, but I do not see them as a perfect couple. They are both severely damaged and Cas especially would need to work on himself a lot in order to avoid 'Destiel' becoming a reflection of Dean and Sam's relationship. I ship them because I see that Cas is in love with Dean from at least series six and Dean felt similarly shortly thereafter (keeping his coat in the boot, anyone? Purgatory? 13x05 Advanced Thanatology? The market research?) but they are not teenagers in a John Green novel. They are adult men with adult men problems which they need to work on as adult men. Maybe one day they could be a healthy, functioning couple, but the fact they love and eventually are in love with each other is not enough.

Long story short: Cas was not held accountable for his actions, and this prevented his growth.

Dean on the other hand is blamed for everything. He does bad things (usually with the best intentions, e.g. Ezekiel/Gadriel), but both he and the show hold him accountable. He and the show linger on his mistakes, which means the audience remembers his mistakes more readily than Sam's or Cas's.

Moving on, after Cas secretly lets Sam out, Sam rushes off to a honeymoon suite in a hotel, and soon thereafter Ruby the Bitch-Skank arrives and ruins the entire next fifteen minutes. The sequence which follows Ruby's arrival up until the end of the episode is the reason why Paula's review begins with this being where Sam jumped the shark. 'Jump the shark' means that something utterly stupid happens in a show which marks the event horizon in a decline in quality which the show never recovers from. Applied to Sam, this would mean that his actions in this sequence destroyed any likeability or relatability he might have had, and hereafter he was irredeemable.

Paula wrote her review around the time series eight was airing, and as yet Sam had made no attempt to truly apologise or show contrition for almost murdering his brother in cold blood. The final episode of series eight has Sam try to sacrifice himself to close Heaven and Hell, and includes an apology to Dean for lying to him and betraying him with Ruby. Had this signalled a fundamental change in Sam after which he showed he had learnt from his mistakes and became a better person, I would have to disagree with Paula's assertion than Sam jumped the shark here. But the how has now ended, and barring possible continuations in the future, Sam has never recovered from this.

Ruby appears in the hotel room with a made-up story about how she had been deep undercover looking for Lilith for the last three weeks and was not checking her messages. Anybody with a pulse should have been able to see that for the lying lie it was, and Ruby's absence was part of a ploy to show Sam how much he needs her. Sam soon drinks some of Ruby's blood and then they presumably have coitus. Afterwards, Ruby talks about how only a tiny number of seals remain unbroken (while also talking about recently broken seals which remind me of the film Cabin in the Woods). She also gives Lilith's origin story, she being the first demon Lucifer made because Lucifer in the Superverse is a petty bish.

Apropos Lilith, it is a shame the show gave Lilith a Judaeo-Christian origin rather than having her be an entity from an older mythology. I am really no fan of the show trying to make everything work in a Judaeo-Christian framework, including pre-Abrahamic gods of Europe, Africa, and Asia. And why do they all eat people? More on this nonsense in 5x19 Hammer of the Gods.

After finding Sam has escaped and almost killed Bobby, Dean finds out where Sam is. He enters the hotel room when Sam is absent and finds Ruby. He almost gets the drop on her, but then a fight breaks out between the two of them which is broken up when Sam returns. Sam, of course, takes Ruby's side again (betraying one's family is one of the gravest sins in all faiths and mythologies, Sam, just sayin). Sam tells Ruby to go which leaves him and Dean alone together.

After finding Sam has escaped and almost killed Bobby, Dean finds out where Sam is. He enters the hotel room when Sam is absent and finds Ruby. He almost gets the drop on her, but then a fight breaks out between the two of them which is broken up when Sam returns. Sam, of course, takes Ruby's side again (betraying one's family is one of the gravest sins in all faiths and mythologies, Sam, just sayin). Sam tells Ruby to go which leaves him and Dean alone together.

What follows next is Dean's attempts to get Sam to see reason, to ditch the bitch and the demon blood and to go after Lilith with Dean. Sam, on the other hand, laments the fact that Dean does not trust him and hopes they can make things right. Pfft. The subtext of all this is Sam has absolutely no interest whatsoever in working with Dean or doing anything the way Dean thinks they should do things because Sam puts no values whatever on Dean's plans or thoughts. Dean is beneath him and should do what Sam says and wants.

At the same time, however, Sam claims that Dean is always pushing him around and telling him what to do. Sam wants at once to be seen as powerful and competent, but at the same times wants sympathy and understanding for having supposedly been a helpless victim whose agency and choices were stripped from him. Now that Sam has power, he is able to make the choices he was supposedly never allowed to make, and because he is so intelligent and strong, the choices he makes are the correct ones. If only Dean would see how marvellous Sam was, and if only Dean could join Sam in his delusions of grandeur.

Dean's distrust and refusal to coöperate infuriates Sam because it wears away the flimsy illusion of righteousness he has woven about himself. The Sam who Sam has become does not want Dean's trust because he values his brother and the relationship they had, but because it would be confirmation that Sam is on the right path. It would be an ego boost, too. Without that, Sam feels untrustworthy and perhaps generally unworthy.

If the show had leant into the curve and actually allowed Sam to be seen as the villain, none of this would be an issue. Cersei in Game of Thrones is a villain and the show never pretends otherwise. Sam is going to bleed a woman dry in the next episode, drink her blood, then start the Apocalypse, but none of it is really his fault. He was manipulated and he wanted to save his brother and Dean was overbearing and he had the best intentions and I just sicked a bit in my mouth.

Lots of people watching House of the Dragon have complained that bad things Rhaenyra does are either justified or explained away as not her fault or the fault of the men around her. She is not really to blame, the show supposedly wants us to think. I do not fully agree, but she is definitely presented as far more sympathetic than her counterpart in Fire & Blood. In the book, her stupidity (and Viserys's weakness) was one of the triggers of a civil war and the near extinction of the dragons, yet I still like the role her character plays in the book. She is not a 'villain' any more than Alicent et al, but she is hardly a hero.

In the show, she still does a lot of stupid stuff, but the audience is invited to like her and support her claim over Aegon's. In a mirror situation to Sam in this show, she is supposed to be a 'villain' yet she is presented as likeable and a victim of the men around her. The amelioration of her character has been to her detriment. I do like Rhaenyra in the show, but through no fault of the actor's, she has been made less vivid and visceral. I thoroughly hope the writers really are going to give her the same kind of villain arc Game of Thrones tried and failed to give Danaerys, but I worry they are too dead-set on presenting the women as ultimately good and the men as bed.

By the way, the House of the Dragon fandom reminds me a lot of the Supernatural fandom. I have no especial preference for either faction in House of the Dragon and generally like all of those horrible, horrible people (although Viserys did choose Rhaenyra to succeed him). Watching Team Green and Team Black tear into each other and the characters, however, is a lot like how it must have been for fans watching Deangirls and Samgirls go at each other in the early years of the show. The visceral hatred some people have of either Rhaenyra, Alicent, or Criston makes my distaste for Sam feel validated.

As for Sam, this episode should be the culmination of his villain arc, but the show refuses to represent it as such. Sam could have been a villain and Supernatural could have been great. Sam can scheme, connive, fall victim to a demon's feminine wiles (whatever one of those is) and be an irredeemable douche to his brother. If we were not invited to see him as a helpless victim nor to see Dean as the real baddie, this would be fine. Sam could even have been personally likeable and fallen to the 'dark side', and that would still have been a good story. Sam's story has unfortunately not been either of these things for me. I do not find him personally likeable like Dean, nor do I find enjoy his role in the story like Cersei's.

Having read this far, it should be obvious to you, Dear Reader, that I hold Sam mostly to blame for this situation. Well, Ruby really, but Sam needs to take his lumps. But might Dean have helped the situation a little if his communication tactics had been slightly different? His arguments have always been factually correct, i.e. that Ruby is a demon, that demons lie, that Sam's powers (coming from Azazel originally) might lead him to a bad place etc. Objectively this is all true, but Sam is subjective to the situation and does not seem to care much about facts at the moment. Might it have helped if Dean had talked a little more about his time in Hell and the fact that he was becoming a demon? Might this have changed Sam's perception of what was happening to him if Dean had discussed the fact Dean had been on a similar path in Hell and recognised some of the signs?

Even if the writers had remembered that Dean had been to Hell, and why he had been to Hell, this probably would not have helped. By the time Dean found out Ruby already had her claws deep in Sam and he was addicted to demon blood. Whatever the case, Sam was in no mood to negotiate on anything in the final scene, but rather wants Dean to believe in him because 'I'm the only one who can do this'. When Dean refuses to and says Sam is not the one who is going to stop Lilith, Sam's façade collapses and the jealousy referred to earlier is instantly apparent: 'Oh right, the angels think it's you.' Resentment and a bit of mockery are apparent in Sam, especially when he follows this up with calling Dean 'weak'. Dean picks up on this as a dig at his Hell trauma, and his own self-restraint begins failing.

Dean starts trying to boss Sam around (the first time I remember him doing so), and this causes Sam to snap. 'Stop bossing me around, Dean' he moans, sounding exactly like a stroppy teenager. At this point, Sam is 26, had been independent at university for a few years, and has been shown to not let himself be bossed around by anybody in this show.

Loads of episodes in series one and two happened because Sam wanted to go and investigate those things. Dean did not want to go to the house Mary died in, but they still went there in 1x09 Home because Sam wanted to. Dean did not want to go to a faith healer in 1x12 Faith, but Sam did, so off to the faith healer they went. Dean wanted to investigate the deaths in 1x11 Scarecrow but Sam did not, so Sam ran off and met Meg.

Lie after lie comes out of Sam's mouth in this scene: Dean does not 'call the shots', nor does Sam let him 'take the wheel'. Or perhaps Sam does let Dean 'take the wheel', but this is because Sam does not want the accountability. He has shown on numerous occasions that he can 'take the wheel' if he wants to. He just chooses not to. Sam also most assuredly does not trust Dean, meaning that all of this is an attempt at emotional manipulation.

This is not the last time Sam will attempt to manipulate Dean like this, with the next occasion being in 5x05 Fallen Idols where Sam seriously gaslights Dean about the events of the past two years or more and makes it all out to be Dean's fault anyway. ...For reason he brings up in this argument.

Dean is not buying the manipulation and things quickly degenerate. Dean calls Sam a monster, which to be fair is not far from the mark. The fact that this plays into Sam's insecurities does not detract from that, and one is reminded of self-fulfilling prophecies. Sam is not inherently a monster, but he has indeed become one. This is not something Sam is able to hear, though (see above RE: refusal to acknowledge criticism), and Dean calling him a monster begins the fight which ends the episode.

If perhaps my discussion of the subtext in their conversation seems a bit OTT, have a quick watch of this video on the subject of subtext and what viewers can actually read into what characters say:

I have little to say on the fight itself, except that it is surprising nobody came in to see what all the noise was about. In a fair fight, I expect Dean would probably win, like in 4x14 Sex and Violence, but Sam is superpowered in this scene and bests Dean easily enough. It almost reminds me of when Buffy fought Ted, that is how overpowered Dean seems. Had the fight ended when Dean was on the floor, things would have been bad enough, but perhaps not irretrievably broken.

Things had got out of hand, tension were high, etc etc etc. Even if Sam had killed Dean in that fight, it would have been more akin to manslaughter than murder. ...although it would have still been murder, especially since Sam started the fight. But Sam waited until he had won the fight and Dean was defenceless on the floor. Rather than shooting him or something, Sam made the cold-blooded choice to commit to the considerably lengthier process of strangling him to death. Sam really wanted Dean dead.

Some people have asked me why I hate Sam so much. This right here is one of the reasons. Moreover, as Paula's commenter Arafel wrote, Sam essentially had to make a choice between his crack dealer and his brother, and chose his crack dealer after almost murdering his brother. Another reason is that he is never held properly accountable for it. Some might say Dean forgave him after the events of 5x22 Swan Song, but that really is a cop-out. Bobby essentially calls Dean a pussy for this in the next episode, and then it is never brought up again. Because of this, the show missed out on a lot and alienated some viewers from one of the protagonists.

Having said this, bad relationships really can be like this. Years of arguments, resentment, co-dependence etc can come to a head in a violent crisis where it seems the relationship has to come to an end. Except it continues exactly as before until the next violent crisis. It would be acceptable if the show somehow acknowledged the poisonous nature of Dean and Sam's relationship, but instead it tries to make us think they actually love each other really and do not mean to hurt each other so everything is okay in the end.

Sam wanted Dean dead, and this is glossed over for the sake of keeping the brothers together. As a result, a few episodes' time will see Dean sitting across the table from the man who tried to kill him in cold blood and ...nothing. Why does this go nowhere? I am hardly being a pussy for expecting such a life-changing moment to have some actual impact on the narrative and the characters. After all, Bad Wolves has a song named Remember When about the time the singer's twin brother killed him (he was resuscitated in hospital).

I see Dean and Sam's brother bond as a fabrication and a marketing tool. There is too much acrimony and mistreatment for me to ever be able to see it as a positive thing, whatever the show tries to tell me.

Dean telling Sam to never come back after Sam tried to kill him has been likened to John telling Sam to never come back when he went to university. Dean has also apparently tried bossing Sam around, thereby driving Sam away, just like John. I have no tolerance for bullies and abusers acting like victims, so I merely raised that comment in order to guffaw at its ridiculousness.

After a bumper-size analysis this week, it is finally time to draw things to a well-deserved close. It is a shame the show did not truly have the gonadal fortitude to carry through with Sam becoming a monster: after all, that was the point of episode like 4x04 Metamorphosis, was it not? Its hesitance to make Sam anything other than a victim hamstrung it. The lack of consequences, guilt, and regret for Sam almost killing his brother was the event horizon for many viewers (myself included).

Other than that, I remember still being excited about the next episode when I first got this far in the show. The stakes are high and the conflict between the brothers might lead to them failing to stop the Apocalypse (although as we learn later, this was out of their hands).

Here endeth the analysis. You can read more of my analyses here:

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

Series 4

Sundry

You can read Paula’s review here and Demian’s here.

P.S JUST KISS!!