This is pretty much the way I'd expect Sam to be after Dean's death, if he didn't blow his own brains out immediately.

I know this isn't precisely an original thought on my part, but my belief is that Dean would be suicidal if he lost Sam because so much of his sense of self is moored in his mission statement of looking after Sam. Dean really doesn't know how to be alone. Sam, on the other hand, is a really fucking scary proposition if he were to be alone, fueled solely by rage and revenge with nothing to ground him. Dean pulls him back, keeps him from blaming himself, from being too much the drama queen, keeps him interacting with the world in a lighthearted way, and is his last remaining family contact or really, close friend. Sam, running on anger and with his psychic abilities going amok is a scary, scary possibility.

wow, I just watched some of that again. Sam is telling the truth when he "swears" they won't come after Trickster if he brings Dean back. I'm not sure I've ever seen truer honesty when he says "yes." Man I wish this had been a Jossverse show so we could have seen the thirty days Dean spent in a hell dimension. Does it negate it because Trickster took them back to Wednesday or does it still exist because Sam can still remember that Dean needs to be careful in the parking lot? Could Dean ever remember under the right circumstances and would he have been wild like Angel when he returned?

As long as they drop him oiled and naked from the ceiling, I don't care how much he remembers.

Which reminds me, I was slightly disturbed that I found the bullet removal so sexy. I mean--damn, those abs.

Sam's the only one who remembers. To the rest of the world it never happened. I hope Sam can tell Dean sometime that he had to live for three months with him dead.

I got what Morgana said about what Sam was thinking when he looked back into the room at the end. But also on his face was three months of grief. Just because you get a rewind, just because you get Dean back alive, you can't just forget those months alone, that grief, that anger and need for revenge. Sam's been tempered in a fire no one knows about but him, now. And if he can't talk about it, I think it may affect his decisions and everything he does.

He's not the same brother Dean knew "yesterday." He impotently watched Dean die for three and a half months. Then once more. His "I'm supposed to wake up" in the parking lot on the first Wednesday really broke me. And the three months following--Sam's changed. I'll be disappointed if we get the boyish, easygoing deferential guy he's been all along.

As long as they drop him oiled and naked from the ceiling, I don't care how much he remembers.

When do we get that episode?

And the three months following--Sam's changed. I'll be disappointed if we get the boyish, easygoing deferential guy he's been all along.

So much this. And you said it so well, Bev. That look back was heartbreaking.

When do we get that episode?

The Director's cut, please?

I'll be disappointed if we get the boyish, easygoing deferential guy he's been all along.

Of course, he really hasn't been easygoing for a while now.

Yeah. He came back wrong.

I do think this was a potentially huge character moment because of the amount of time that was endured by Sam. He would at least have PTSD after three months of torture, which is what it was for him. Then again, he said something about losing track of time so maybe it was more.