SPN 7x03

[rivkat]

If you didn't like the episode because (1) another dead woman, (2) Dean lying to Sam, or (3) Dean boneheadedly allowing the kid to live in direct contradiction to his rationale for killing Amy, I can't disagree with any of that, but it still worked for me.  Within the narrative, I think Dean was right--the next time her kid was in trouble, of course she was going to kill more people.  Dean knows that as well as anyone could (the things I'd do for this family, they scare me--and that was S1).  And I think he infers/projects, correctly, that eating the living is yummier and thus requires resistance, so self-interest and family protection are going to be pointing in the same direction for her--yeah, chances are she'll kill again.  (Sam may have identified with Amy, but Dean just a couple of weeks before was using his torturer's skills to find Ben and Lisa, so I'm thinking that Dean was also identifying and therefore not liking what he saw.)

At the same time, we've seen Dean unable to kill kids before, and he could at least tell himself that the kid hadn't yet become a killer and that he wasn't going to execute a kid without a record.  Also, and more importantly, hello Dean's death wish!  I've missed you!  Could he really hope for anything better than being put down as a monster by the monster whose mother he killed?  So this was a well-motivated boneheaded choice that seemed very Dean to me.

The lying to Sam is sad, but until I see differently I'm going with "Dean trusts Sam about Sam, but not so much about monsters Sam identifies with and wants to think won't kill again."

Comments

[coffeeandink]

I think this is the most interesting thing SPN's done in a long time. Though I'll be surprised if we ever see that kid again.

[starrcat]

I think that Sam has given Dean plenty of reason not to trust him about anything - let's not forget that Sam ditched Dean while suffering from hallucinations, refused to answer Dean's calls and left Dean vulnerable with no help. What if Dean had been calling because Dean was in trouble? Sam couldn't know - this is not the basis for trust.

I love most of the points you make about Dean, except that he was bonehead about allowing the child to live. I think that fight his character perfectly and as you point out, played into his death wish. A win-win situation!

And the more I think about it, the more I think that Dean's death wish arises from his own feelings of being a freak. Sam has never seen this but that isn't surprising to me as Sam rarely sees what is going on with others.

[tehomet]

Reasons one and three were the reasons this episode annoyed me. Especially three. It would be logical to either kill both Amy and her son or neither. Neither would be better, considering that Amy's choice of victim was the human version of what Dean routinely kills - rapey!drug-dealers and demons: same sh*t, different day.

But if Dean's playing the suicide long game... okay, that makes sense. Depressing sense.