Were we being shown that the Campbells are mean unfriendly people
It was just so over the top (the female cousin laughing at the magazine, for example - it was so derisive, and the way they all just spread out through the house pawing through his things so they could mock it all). It definitely does seem as though we're not supposed to like Samuel or the rest of the Campbells.
*still not getting how Dean knowing Sam was alive precludes him from continuing his life with Lisa
I always wondered why they couldn't have a home base, even before this issue. Now that Dean has Lisa and Ben it definitely becomes a question - why would they have to live a nomadic lifestyle? Bobby has a home. Pastor Jim did. Ellen and Bill did.
I do think if Sam had returned to Dean soon after the confrontation at Stull Dean would have packed up and taken off with him again. Sam was right about that. But after some time had passed and Dean had settled into his new life it was less certain that he would have automatically walked away from them.
I rewatched this morning and when Dean hugged Sam, Sam's expression was almost patronizing. "Go ahead, hug the stuffings out of me, I'll just wait until you are done". Just felt so wrong.
I didn't take that away from Sam's look. I thought it was...something. Something reflecting that he had had the comfort this whole time knowing that Dean was alive, and in fact believing that Dean was happier than he had been than when they were together. So that this hug was for Dean, not for Sam.
Having Corin Nemec be a Campbell doesn't help me like them. He's got a smug mug.
My second viewing, my gut reaction of "Sam is a cold-hearted meanie!" changed to viewing Sam as very reserved, with a lot of things roiling under the surface. He seems now, with the hug and everything else, to be holding back. Whether because there's an ocean's depth of wild emotion hidden beneath the calm surface . . . wow, I'm suddenly reminding myself of Mal, or at least how I wrote Mal in that one embarrassing(ly) epic fic --or something else, I don't know. But I'm still seeing love there. And in some scenes, a kind of, I dunno, tired and wise patience? Which I guess is a way to back into the "Sam being mean and humouring Dean by allowing the hug". Like maybe Sam's dealt with his shit and knows Dean has a lot of catching up to do.
I still think it could be numbness from hell. Just because he did not suffer as long as Dean does not mean torture could not break him. In real life people can get permanent mental damage from a few hours of torture. I don't see numbness from days or weeks of torture in hell that included Lucifer attacking him from inside as being implausible. (I love how we take possession by Lucifer and going bodily to hell as inherently plausible. Oh show. )
So I almost posted this earlier but deleted it, but since you all are talking about it.
Jared gives a Sam expression that looks (unintentionally I believe) like a smirk and often it leaves me befuddled as to what he's thinking and often feels inappropriate to the moment.
Regardless, Sam does not wear his feelings out in the open on his face like Dean and I think there's a lot of context we're missing right now (about Sam) and it's damn difficult to interpret what's going on with him.
The Campbells seem to be relatives from hell, and yes, I am including you old man.
I'd chose Lisa and Ben too.
We do only have Grandpa Campbell's word that he got pulled down to the world of the living simultaneously with Sam being pulled up, after all...
Similarly, we only have Grandpa Campbell and cousin's words that they are not among the resurrected. The explanation of why Dean and Sam never heard of them before seems a little facile.
