There are so many great one off characters. I might have to do this exercise by season. ::contemplates creating a spreadsheet a la ita::

New death match?

How many episodes did Becky appear in? Three? Or two?

Also..I did like the editor chick.

I was just random LJ skimming (looking for D/C authors--it's a continual quest) and I bumped into someone opining that Sam does not love Dean, not like Dean loves Sam.

Now, first off, I'm not sure if I want to read her fic, but I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Sam? Not love Dean? How much are we asking of these fictional constructs? Dean obviously loves Sam with the fiery and dysfunctional rage of a very messed up boy, but just because Sam seems to be a wee bit more balanced doesn't mean he doesn't love him back...

What's he supposed to have been doing this whole time?

Mystery Spot he went off the rails. S4 he's gone off the rails because of his death and because he thought his brother was too broken to do what needed to be done and had to be protected from even trying.

He split up from him in S5, but got rebuffed when he suggested they reunite. Sure, he had heaven memories about leaving, but I believed him when he said it wasn't about leaving Dean. It was about leaving the life. And it broke his heart to see what that news did to his brother.

As did the discarding of the amulet.

And then he loved and trusted his brother enough to will him away from saying yes to Michael.

The yellow crayon Impala of brotherly love can't work one way! Sam has to feel the love for his brother as well as of his brother to snap back into control long enough to make the sacrifice.

And asking Dean to go live with Lisa, although supremely wrongheaded, was because he wanted a loved one to be happy.

Okay, not supremely wrongheaded. I suppose he couldn't ask him to chill on his own or with Bobby and not come rescue him. He had to give him something to do and hold onto. But Sam believes this is what Dean wants and deserves, and wants it for him, because he loves him, dammit.

Hmmph.

Oh, and spreadsheets for all!

Okay, spreadsheet constructed and I have my favorite one-off characters by season.

Season 1

• Haley (Wendigo)
• Andrea Barr (Dead in the Water)
• Layla (Faith)
• Officer Kathleen (The Benders)
• Sarah (Provenance)

Season 2

• Detective Ballard (The Usual Suspects)
• Sarge (Croatoan)
• Sherwin (Playthings)
• Tiny (Folsom Prison Blues)
• Carmen (What Is and What Should Never Be)

Season 3

• Tamara (The Magnificent Seven)
• Katie (The Kids Are Alright)
• Katie’s Mom (The Kids Are Alright)
• Casey (Sin City)
• Nancy (Jus in Bello) I wanted to pick The Carrigans but they’re two and I couldn’t pick just one.

Season 4

• Jamie (Monster Movie)
• Dracula (Monster Movie)
• Audrey (Wishful Thinking)
• Cara Roberts (Sex and Violence)
• Nick Munroe (Sex and Violence)

Season 5

• Jesse (I Believe the Children Are Our Future)
• Demian (The Real Ghostbusters)
• Barnes (The Real Ghostbusters)
• Kali (Hammer of the Gods)
• Death (Two Minutes to Midnight)

That's an awesome spreadsheet, ehab. I love Nancy. Aw, and Sherwin and Tiny!

Sam? Not love Dean?

This is one of those "Are we watching the same show?" moments. Sam is not as broken -- or maybe he is, but in very different ways -- as Dean, so I don't think his love appears to be as dysfunctional and sometimes desperate as Dean's, but it's been clear since S1 that he loves Dean more than anything else in his life, after Jessica is gone. More than his dad, even.

Just because he had a chance to live a different, more conventional life does not mean he doesn't love Dean just as much as Dean loves him. Sam was actually doing what children are *supposed* to do as they grow up, separating, claiming independence. It didn't work, but even if it had, I firmly believe he would have come running, tie flapping and legal briefs in the backseat, if Dean had ever needed him.

Just because Sam can continue living in a world without Dean doesn't mean he doesn't love it. And it's a weird outlook on the world that demands suttee as a declaration of devotion.

He became a psycho killer, pretty much. I love my sister, but heaven forbid I survive her, I'd like to stay sane beyond her passing.

Sam showed he loved his father, and he was fueled by vengeance, but he went with Dean in the pilot because Dean said he wanted him there, and he shot his father in his leg because Dean wanted him to do that. Dean. Big brother Dean. I don't see where that went away.

People weird.

And I checked--her D/C has no Sam.

The yellow crayon Impala of brotherly love can't work one way!

Also, the last couple of scenes in the yellow crayon montage were actually of Sam and Dean, not the Impala, so she may have started it off, but Dean was always the main thing.

Suttee? Is that like hari-kari?

Sam absolutely loved his father, although it took him longer to figure out how much he did. I think a lot of that particular love was overshadowed by resentment in the first few season. By S5, I think Sam loved John as much as Dean did in his own way.

It's almost sensible that Dean knew he couldn't survive without Sam in AHBL, not without going way dark like Sam did in Mystery Spot. What hurts is that now, I think he's mostly too tired and worn out to manifest his grief that way. Post S5 Dean is just a shell. Until they show me different, that is.

Dean was always the main thing.

Absolutely.

Suttee? Is that like hari-kari?

It's the Hindu (extinct) tradition of sacrificing the wife on the husband's funeral pyre. Hari kiri is a matter of honour. Suttee is a matter of...well, property to be honest. But I was romanticising it here.

It's almost sensible that Dean knew he couldn't survive without Sam in AHBL, not without going way dark like Sam did in Mystery Spot.

I don't think of it that way. I imagine a catatonic Dean, unable to function usefully. Sam could get out and hunt, but I'd see Dean on suicide mission after suicide mission solely aimed at getting Sam back. Or nothing. Just shutting down. Perhaps having Ruby around diverted Sam from just that (and I mean that in a positive way), but I don't think so. Mystery Spot had Sam actually killing other baddies.

So being with Lisa might be the only thing that gets Dean out of bed and out of the bottle....until they show me different, that is.

Oh, the funeral pyre. Right.

I don't think of it that way. I imagine a catatonic Dean, unable to function usefully.

I was thinking of Dean after John's death, the way he brutally threw himself into killing anything and everything. But I guess a lot of that was fueled by guilt -- his reactions in the zombie ep and in Crossroads Blues had a lot to do with how "what's dead should stay dead," meaning himself, really, and the second chances he was given in Faith and IMToD.

You could be right. All I know is this Dean is a lonely, broken little toaster, and Lisa and Ben might, yes, get him out of bed and to the dinner table, but I can't imagine much else unless enough time passes.