Fandomhermit

First of all the pilot and first couple of episodes are truly amazing in terms of the fact that pretty much all the themes, all the points of contention, all the main ways of interacting the brothers have are consistent throughout pretty much the rest of the show. It comes off as almost a bit on the nose rewatching it because ouch the dialogue is sooo stiff 😭 but it WORKS!

second of all, it will always now and forevermore devestate me that sam who is very clearly loyal to Jessica was assaulted by a woman before Jessica died, like and that's NEVER resolved for him. Which is just. Ouch adding another layer of guilt and repressed emotion to his experiences.

third, i'm not sure if it's ever explicitely said but it feels like John absolutely engineered a way to get the brothers back together so Dean could keep an eye on Sam, while john fully chased leads on the demon, as he probably caught wind of the Plans tm and in full winchester fashion decided he had to be the self sacrificing hero- thereby leaving his sons COMPLETELY open and vulnerable and UN PREPARED for everything that went on from there.

fourth, I actually LIKE early season Dean which is always so suprising for me when i rewatch an early season episode. He's got emotions, he can be vulnerable, he's sweet with women and not just some strange caricture, he's funny, and while you can see some shadow of the repressed, manipulative and traumatized man he becomes later on, he's genuinely an interesting character.

fifth, the way the show treats women and all characters in general is soo good. I don't know where everything got lost on the wayside but the women were fully fleshed breathing people and not just carictures with boobs. There was a heavy focus on "who's really the monster, the monster or humans?" And that's important. However it does make the supernatural truly a blantantly open secret, and i'll never really understand the whole hearted dedication to being all hush hush later on. Sam and dean also aren't these infallible perfect hunters either, they are constantly goofing up, getting caught, getting told off etc etc which adds a layer of realism to what they are doing.

sixth, Sam is REALLY interesting, as always my fav character. I think a lot of non sam fans look at early season sam and see this angry, raging monster of a person who's whiny and just needs to "man up" and stop causing trouble. But i actually find it to be a very realistic representation of a young guy being thrown head first back into a life he never wanted after a deeply traumatic experience, wrestling with survivors guilt,isolation, twenty other kinds of guilt, psychic powers he doesn't understand, horrific nightmares and an inability to sleep, and trying to readjust and accept a life he never wanted, as well as dealing with a raging sense of injustice and anger he doesn't know where to direct or process.

seventh, Dean is actually almost a complete contrast to sam in early seasons. He's open about the fact he's dealing with guilt, guilt at bringing sam back into the life, guilt at how sad his brother is over jessica, and of course the raging guilt at the amount of people he has accidentally let die/couldn't save over the course of his life. But it's something he can handle, something that's his old friend. He's not particularly angry, he's heavily repressed of course, but not to the levels he is later on. For the most part he's just like... well the gang is all back together, we just need to find dad and it'll be hunky dory! Simultaneously he and sam are both adjusting to John not being around. Sam is getting used to the Dean that isn't constantly trying to bend backwards to obey John, because even when john was gone when they were young, dean would still have been trying to obey his father's rules. Dean is getting used to be a full grown adult and having sam by his side WITHOUT neccessarily feeling the full weight of john's rules and expectations on his back.

eighth (and perhaps something easy to miss) is that dean and sam are at completely different points in their development. When DEAN was 21/22 he had long ago fully commited himself to their life, condemned himself to the roles he would always continue to play. He was Sam's guardian, he was a protector, he would always tread in his father's footsteps, no room for doubt except for buried deeply in his heart. Now at 26, when the show starts, he's fully in the groove, been hunting by himself or just with john for two years, and this is gonna be the rest if his life. He can't understand Sam's inability to just fully commit, all in, because though Sam has been fully raised in the life, he wasn't subject to the same weight of responsibility. And at 22 Sam's dealing with heavy whiplash and trauma, and a whole alternate life he had laid out ahead of him crumbling. And from my own experience, life is a lot harder when you feel like you could have had options, things you could have done differently, a life you could lead away from the path you are treading, and it crumbles to pieces, and you see the ashes in your rearview mirror so to speak.