#sorespots

oh hello! well,

I think one of the biggest shortcomings of s3 was the fact that Sam's response to mystery spot got no screentime whatsoever. The point of the episode was just to show that Sam loves and needs Dean as much as Dean loves/needs him, and I get that, but what an insanely traumatizing thing to endure! Not only the constant watching your loved one die graphically again and again part of it but also going six months (!) without said loved one and being yanked back into a reality where it never happened.

I wanted to see Sam be afraid to fall asleep in case he woke up in a time loop again. I wanted Sam to question if what he was experiencing was real or not. I wanted him to hover over and smother Dean and get incredibly panicked if Dean went anywhere alone for awhile. I wanted his desire to save Dean from his deal take on a new urgency, a new fire, not only just to keep Dean alive but to prevent Sam from having to experience the soul-crushing bleakness of those six long months alone again. I wanted Sam to come close to understanding what Dean felt in AHBL and what he felt about Sam for their entire lives. That obsession, that need to protect and keep around. This would have been a great chance for Sam to see Dean's perspective on their relationship.

And I want Dean to be freaked out by it! He didn't live it, he doesn't understand what hell Sam experienced. I want Dean to feel guilty about how much Sam suffered without him around and to beat himself up about it in typical Dean Winchester fashion. I want Dean to be irritated with Sam treating him like he's fragile while also secretly enjoying the heightened attention. I wanted Dean to take a more active role in trying to save himself because he finally sees it as saving Sammy.

Mystery Spot and fictional codas could have been such an excellent time for each brother to finally see the other's perspective and to ruminate on the unhealthy obsession that lies at the root of what Sam and Dean mean to each other. But, alas!