Austin, Bryan Adams is in my head, damn you!

but, despite that, yeah, that's Dean. And really, that's Sam, too. What they'll do for each other that they'll do for no one else, up to and including their own father.

Plei, I got in the beginning that Dean was all "OMG, it's Sam doing these horrible things, now I must find a way to prove that this isn't true", but by the time we got to the Jo scene, i read nothing but certainty. At that point in the ep, Dean seemed (to me) to be dead certain that Sam was possessed. Even if it was the theory he was working on that wasn't proved til he doused Sam in holy water, the moment that was done, everything else was moot. That silent pause he gave Jo seemed judgmental of her doubts (and maybe he was judging and condemning his own doubts, too). Throughout the ep, he was trying to find excuses and rationalization for what Sam did, with that doubt niggling at him, and sure, he lucked out in being right, but I think what he was judging Jo for was not taking those same leaps of faith, despite the niggling.

I agree.

And

While I was looking through those videos I found I Hate Everything About You, which is really wonderfully done showing the conflicting emotions in all three Winchesters. Especially good vidding where Dean separates Sam and John.

Oh, Winchesters.

don't hurt me, Bev!

Never, sweetling.

I still believe Sam wasn't as drunk in Playthings as he wanted Dean to think he was. He seemed fairly sober a moment before when he was looking out the window as they carted off the corpse of the guy he "couldn't save." Troubled, but not reeling drunk.

I think he wasn't able to bring it up sober, didn't think Dean would let him get the words out sober, so he had enough to make it plausible and faked being falling down drunk. That explains the bad drunk act.

However, it's shot full of holes by the morning after scene, unless Sam is a weenie drunk who can't hold more than a glassful of liquor without getting completely schnockered.

Ooh, good vid (except for the always wrong use of breaking blocks and spinny transitions. Always.) thanks for the linky, Austin.

Missed this last night, but, Can I be Martin?! Not because I think I'd be a good straight-man, but just so's I can drink. (I almost said "can I be Dean", and then I got confused, thinking "Winchester", because I've been drinking in character).

As for the drunk scene in Playthings, when I watched it the first time, it wasn't so much that I thought it was horrible (mildly bad), it was just so... there, all of a sudden. No lead up of Sam at the bar, popping open a beer, couple of shots lined up. Just, bam! Sam's drunk and how long was Dean gone that Sam was able to get plastered (were there even any empties in the room?). I was even waiting for Dean to make a comment to the bartender later about how his brother must have been spending some quality time with him.

I'm not sure this can be made right in my mind.

Now I want to rewatch it.

(were there even any empties in the room?)

There was a too-short shot of what looked like a mini-bar in the room, where one would assume one could see bottles of liquor. Dean looks over at it just before he give the "are you drunk" line.

The idea that Sam's a lightweight is popular in fic, but seriously. LOOK at the guy. Sheer size alone he's got to be able to pack 'em in.

Once, in the halcyon days of my liver, I did about five shots in the space of an hour. Immense weepiness hit me at about hour three. So... perhaps the mini-bar consisted of airline-size bottles, and Sam downed a wide variety in quick succession?

Tequila, Jager, and whatever else Dean mentioned is a pretty vicious combination as well.

Also, it's TV. The amount of booze it would take to make someone Sam's size THAT drunk might be a little frightening on TV, or at least look exaggerated.

Or he could really be a lightweight. If you don't usually drink, you don't tolelate it very well, and a couple of shots of hard stuff is going to knock you flat a lot quicker than a few beers, which is what we normally see him drinking.

The drunk scene still hurts to watch. I mean, the conversation is hurty, yes, but JP's drunk acting needs SO MUCH work.

My thought watching it the first time was that JP's drunk performance reeked. Dean confirms the next morning that Sam doesn't remember anything about the promise, so it still is just bad acting. However, and it's a big however, once Sam brings up the promise again, I think this is to show us that the drunk bit was an act. Then it becomes better acting. He may have even been drunk enough to be sick, but he wasn't drunk enough to be saying those things. Hell in college, I was there on more than one occasion. Now his performance had to be drunk to sell Dean on it, drunk enough to sell us that it was possible, and yet over the top enough that at the end, we knew it was an act.

That's my theory and I'm stickin' to it.

I don't have any doubt that without those constrictions, JP could do a realistic drunk.

OK, I feel like we are falling down on the job by not talking about the hurricane named Dean.

C'mon people! We can't let the Natter folks make all the good jokes!

Aww, Sam will have to wait until 2009 to have a storm named after him... [link]

Sam is always following after Dean. Oh, Sam.