Something Wicked: Can someone turn in John Winchester to child services?

[dangermousie]

First off the funny.

Boy (at hotel register): King or two queens?
Dean: Two queens
Boy (gives look to Sam and Dean): I bet.

Heeee.

In less cheerful but entrancing news, we continue our "Dean is falling apart" theme.

This episode cofirms three things for me:

1. John=horrible father. Granted, not Aaron Echolls level actively evil to his kids, but still child services worthy. What kind of a parent leaves a 9 year old for three (!!!) days in charge of his 5 year old brother? With a loaded shotgun? Telling him to shoot anything that moves? It's amazing the kids' brains didn't end up on the wall. At 9, Dean shouldn't have to be a caretaker, period.

2. Dean is so Sam's mother. Seriously. He really takes care of Sam when they are kids, as their father appears to be distant and MIA. That whole bit where he gives Sam the last bowl of the cereal he wanted for himself? Welcome to Dean world. Not so bizarre and actually kinda nice when a mother does it sometimes for her kid, when it's one kid doing it for his baby brother and keeps on carrying that sort of mentality throughout adulthood (I don't count, submerge self desires into greater good)? Extremely unhealthy. And only fed by the whole "Dad is holding Sam and yelling at Dean." Ugh. Child services. That pastor person who John dropped them at? Shouldn't he have done it three days earlier. Ugh. Much as crying Dean is always a sexy thing, messing up your kids is not a good thing. The whole Dean telling Sam that John just looked at him differently after? Ugh again. This is a freaking kid. Good Lord. But now at least we know why Dean is always so into obeying orders.

3. Dean to issues as I to chocolate. Meaning loving it, always getting more of it, and thinking about it to an unreasonable degree. Boy needs therapy. Not everything is your fault. stop blaming yourself for everything (and he really does like kids, doesn't he?) Go watch "Good Will Hunting" and repeat "It's not my fault" until it sinks in, k?

I have to say, when Dean goes angry cold, as when he finds out who the Striga is, he is scary. And really hot.

Comments

[podgie.livejournal.com]

This episode made me laugh my pants off. I love how many people think that they're gay together. My favorite was in Bugs, when Dean actually pretended they were :D

I never stopped wonder why Dean threw out the food that he had originally given to Sam. If they're always low on money, don't they want to try to eat all the food they can get instead of throwing out a bowl of perfectly good whatever that was?

and holy mother of god that kid was hot

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Which kid?

I think they could deal with missing a bowl of spagettios.

[podgie.livejournal.com]

Which kid?

The blonde one that they used as bait for the demon.

I think they could deal with missing a bowl of spagettios.

Meh. Most of the points that I was going to argue for why it would have been unDean-like to throw out the spagettios are parts of episodes that you haven't seen yet, and I don't want to spoil. :o]

[mycenae.livejournal.com]

I totally had the same reaction to Dean tossing the rejected dinner. I was very indignant that limited food was being wasted. My dad just pointed out that Spagetti-Os aren't actually food. *sigh*

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Heeee. Maybe Dean was just going to skip dinner. I remember when I was little, when I didn't want to eat something, I'd try to toss it away when Mom wasn't looking, and justify it to myself with 'well, I won't eat any dinner so it's the same as if I ate it.'

[podgie.livejournal.com]

It just stumped me because Dean's really not one to waste food. In Bugs and Nightmare, he stuffed himself full of all of the free food he could get.

Esspecially when they were little, before Dean knew how to steal credit cards and cheat at poker and all that. They were pretty low on money and I just figured he, being the uber responsible and father-pleasing person he is, wouldn't want to waste it.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

What kind of a parent leaves a 9 year old for three (!!!) days in charge of his 5 year old brother?

And it seems fairly par for the course for Dean. What made me angry is the fact that John blew up at Dean then. He had no right. This is a 9 year old we're talking about, not 17 year old. Dean never got to be a kid because his father didn't let him and when he DID try to sneak out and be normal, something bad happened. It explains a lot of why Dean is so zeroed in on looking after Sam.

Dean is so Sam's mother

Which is why, though it hasn't really come up, I feel that Dean probably took Sam leaving extremely hard. Dean was a lot more of a parent than John ever was and for Sam to walk out as though Dean had no say must have been hard.

I have to say, when Dean goes angry cold, as when he finds out who the Striga is, he is scary. And really hot.

Also when Dean nearly beats Meg to death later on, scary. And hot. There's such an untapped rage to Dean that when he gets going you know he means every word he's saying. HE knows he means it too, and it scares him. His mantra has been "repress, repress, repress" for so long that when he's unleashed, he causes a lot of damage.

And sadly, what Dean really needs is someone to take care of him. I think that's why he triggers the "needs a shoulder to lean on" syndrome a lot more than Sam does. Sam is fairly well put together and can function fairly well. Dean just can't.

[podgie.livejournal.com]

Which is why, though it hasn't really come up, I feel that Dean probably took Sam leaving extremely hard.

Oh, it has come up. I think Dean's mentioned it atleast once ever episode. It bothers him a lot.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Dean may have mentioned it frequently, but he has never really gotten to the depth of how it affected him yet. I'm still not sure Sam gets what his walking out did to Dean.

[podgie.livejournal.com]

It feels so mean saying it but I can't wait for Dean to finally confront Sam about everything. It's going to cause lots of brotherly fights that will make them weaker to fight a demon and they'll get hurt or something.

Even though I feel like Dean's holding a lot inside, like his confrontations for Sam and when he always talks about how he hates normal families and would choose his family over a normal one and everything, part of me feels like everything he says is the truth and he really does prefer demon hunting and the life his father's forced him into over a normal life. Man, he's hard to read. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But it's not like Dean has a lot to compare hunting to. In the normal life, his mother combusted. It strikes me that Dean's attitude is a 'I can't have normal so might as well like the abnormal'

[podgie.livejournal.com]

*nods* I just can't tell whether the reason that he mentions it so often to Sam is because he's trying to cover up his true feelings on missing out on a normal life, or whether he's telling the truth.. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Dean never got to be a kid because his father didn't let him and when he DID try to sneak out and be normal, something bad happened.

exactly. It looks like Sam did get to have some sort of childhood, but not Dean. And the sad thing is, Dean laments the loss of innocence on the part of Sam, not his own. When Sam says he wishes he didn't have to lose his (Sam's) innocence, what does Dean say? Does he say "I wish I didn't have to either." No, he says "I wish you didn't have to either." It's never about Dean's wants. Unhealthy.

"needs a shoulder to lean on" syndrome a lot more than Sam does

Dean is just this magnetic disaster, really.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

Which all goes hand in hand with Dean having severe self worth issues. That's why he's so pitiful in "Devil's Trap" when he doesn't know what to do and thinks he's lost his father and then John tries to kill him (technically the demon in John's body, but it's all the same for Dean). Dean doesn't seem to think he has a right to be happy.

my 2c about John Winchester ..

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

I'm totally in the minority here but I don't like John Winchester much at all.

I'm convinced he's an evil demon - although that's probably because the actor rubs me the wrong way and reminds me of a stubbley Robert Downey Jr :P I didn't like him when he guested on Grey's Anatomy and I know that most people think that he is The Hot but I also think he's a crappy parent.

I adore the relationship between Sam and Dean beyond the telling - err in a fraternal sense, hate all that Wincest crap - but when it comes to John Winchester, I find myself feeling very harsh. To be honest, I prefer Aaron Echolls as a character but maybe that's because Harry Hamlin was so amazing at portraying him. *shrug*

Re: my 2c about John Winchester ..

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think I like him a smidgeon better than you do, but yes, John=awful parent. I like Aaron better as a character (he is so awful but so damn entertaining, I kept longing for him to pop back up on screen), but he is a worse person IMO. He's actively horrible towards Logan, after all.

a stubbley Robert Downey Jr :P

Heeeee. I like RDjr though :)

And agreed on Sam and Dean relationship.

[aliterati.livejournal.com]

Hey, I'll be in town this weekend. Will you have any hours to spare? ;p

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, dahlink. For you, any time. Btw, mind if I link your Fiza/MK post?

[aliterati.livejournal.com]

No at all, please do. I was wondering what you thought of it. ;p