I believe there was a wee-ish Jared one, of him in a graduation robe holding a plaque or something.

Bev! See you soon! Remind me that I have something for you!

Yes, I think that there was a high school graduation picture of Jared.

BTW, I love that in Dean's imagination his mom has garden gnomes. (Naturally, when I saw them I thought that they were evil. And possibly concealing cameras.)

Something bemuses me. Dean was constructing the world he expected if the demon never came. So, if Sam grew up the typical suburban kid, played soccer, took first prize at the science fair, was well-known and well thought of at school and in and around Lawrence, would he have been the guy at Stanford that Jess was attracted to?

I tend to think that it was his rough edges, the hint of darkness and a sort of confidence, combined with his deep concern for others and a wish to belong that made Jess notice him.

Well, that, and the fact that otherwise she'd have pretty much had to date the basketball team or shorter men. That's a tall woman.

I understand that the world Dean saw was his construct of "happy" for Sam and his mom, if not really for himself. But I think he ignored or failed to consider realities in his construct.

smonster! You should have been here last night! But we'll be moseying over to the hotel as soon as people are mobile and sufficiently caffeinated.

Oh, and sadly the director's cut for next week's SPN isn't up -- but there is one for Smallville that features Super!Helo -- and seriously - one of the shots is EXACTLY the shot that appeared in the previouslies for BSG 5million times.

I'm more ::flail:: than coherent right now, so I'll probably repeat some people...

What killed me the most, I think, other than the manly tears at Dad's graveside, was the swiftness of the decision to sacrifice, to surrender his happiness for all of those lives, and all the potential future lives. There wasn't a lot of gnashing and rending, just a little moment of "Man, why does it have to be me?"

I agree with whoever said that Dean is maybe in an unfortunate headspace for what may be coming.

In conclusion, oh, Dean...

The Manly Ackles Tears converted Zenkitty, we think. And frankly, who can blame her? Also, the non-SPN fans were surprised at the high quantity of actual flailing. (I thought I was being subtle...)

Also, the non-SPN fans were surprised at the high quantity of actual flailing. (I thought I was being subtle...)

BWAH!!

I damn near whacked Daisy a few times last week with the flailing. It's probably a good thing we didn't watch Friday Night Lights together.

Dean was - wow. Yeah.

the Dean-as-mother trope. He's utterly invested his self-worth in what he can give to others--family and/or strangers. If he's not giving, saving, hunting, he's not really of any value to anyone, that he can see.

his perception of himself as an underachiever skating by on charrm, with a tenuous grip on ethics was a glimpse of how he undervalues himself in regard to the rest of his family. And that at some level, he's still taking on blame for things going wrong, even in his perfect dream world.

Those. Yes.

Meg, one has to admit, had a point about his ability to self-torture.

Just SO many callbacks here. Really, it's a companion piece to Houses of the Holy, with side companionship to In My Time of Dying (ZEPPELIN FOR THE WIN!).

And (as Plei articulated Elsewhere), it makes the previous two eps much less fluffy and stand-alone. Dean has been so good at fitting into other lifestyles - he's been searching for a way out of hunting, a way to lay the burden down. (Which has been true since IMTOD - yay Zep - but is, of course, coming to a head as we come to the end of the season.)

I think all three of the last eps emphasize that Dean has no idea of how to be a "normal" adult. Both the movie production and the prison set, where he did fit in, are far from normal adult populations, in their own way, and in his dream world, he wasn't really acting as an adult.

He doesn't go to work, he never really connects with Carmen (and never has sex with her), and he has no real adult relationship with Sam. Instead, he spends his time in his mother's house, eating food she prepares for him, and doing "kid" stuff like mowing her lawn. Even before it turned out not to be real, it wasn't a sustainable adult life; it was more playing catchup on all the stuff he missed because she died.

Jack! Look! It's Jack!