I would have traded Yellow Fever (not the bonus) and this episode for tortured Dean dropped naked from the ceiling and brought back to humanity by Sam.

I think there are worlds of reasons why they didn't go there, Austin, and I think all of them are related to the good of the show.

I think most audiences would have hated an episode devoted to a screaming, incoherent and ruined Dean, and a frantic, overwhelmed and desperate Sam. I think the actors would have hated it. And I think the characters would have been so irrevocably changed by the experience they could never have gotten back to hunting partners. Plus, the majority of the viewing audience would be tuning out.

Not that I wouldn't want to see at least a little of that myself, but I think the decision not to go that way was sound.

And you can still want to make him soup--make both of them soup. You heard Dean--they're miserable. Soup might make it better.

I agree, Bev. I mean, a glimpse might have been good, but then you can't stop there. And it would have been too much, not only for us, but for them.

DEAN. And Sam's look when Dean said he wouldn't describe it! BOYS.

And Dean's stance makes sense to me. I can't imagine wanting to put whatever horrors my time in Hell held into someone else's head, too, even if only by rough description. (ETA: Though I completely get Sam's wanting to know.)

I applaud Dean's coming clean about remembering. Well done scene by both of them. Would be nice to see more of it on the DVDs. I mean, I assume there was more...

Dean is really markedly older this year. It's Jensen, I think.

When the show started you had an actor barely out of his teens, with a dewy look of softness about him and a mid-20s hottie with a lot of series work under his belt. By S2, the dewy yout' had grown into his face and shoulders, his features were settling into adulthood, and the hottie had matured in the way he moved and in the depth he brought to his acting.

Now I'm seeing a mature mid-20s actor taking his character to the wall, not with histrionics but with a sense of restraint and delicacy that exposes far more of Sam's inner life and motivation than all the yelling and wing-flapping he'd been doing before. He's pulled in with his physical performance, and all that emotion and energy are concentrated behind the eyes, right there on the screen.

And the hottie walks and talks like a man, not a boy. He still has humor, and at times acts like a kid, but now it's obvious it's an act. He's not a kid, he's a man, and it shows.

...just me, then?

Hmm...maybe. I would have watched it though. On cable. Maybe I'm just a little disappointed in "the" scene after hearing so much about it. I was more moved by his scene with Mary telling her not to get out of bed.

I have to rewatch. I don't think I'm giving the episode a fair shake.

...just me, then?

Heh. Definitely not just you. :)

Austin, I feel pretty much the same way. It was interesting, but it didn't make me want to go "oh, Dean" or show or anything. I just felt like it was about damn time.

...just me, then?

So not.

I love the way you can articulate this, Bev. Because I do feel the same way about both of them, but it comes out, "SAM. DEAN. AWWW."

I love the way you can articulate this, Bev. Because I do feel the same way about both of them, but it comes out, "SAM. DEAN. AWWW."

THIS. Bev saves me when I get all, "Sam Bad, Dean Pretty."

It's so true! When I watch S1 episodes now, it's so clear how they've both changed. For the better, which is a lovely thing (not that they were bad to start with). Even JA, who started out, as Bev said, with a lot more experience than JP, has really honed Dean incredibly.

Well, I don't want to come all over fangurly. I know Refur, for example, doesn't care and doesn't want to know anything that doesn't happen onscreen. She's not interested in the actors or the set dressers or the FX process, any of that.

I have a background in acting and I always want to know how an actor reached a given point in a performance. For me, part of that is knowing, or at least glimpsing, how much of a character is the actor who portrays him, and how much is what the actor brings aside from his own personality. It's the detail maven in me rather than the big picture seeing person. So I'm just glad I don't bore you guys or put you off with my nattering.