Didn't he drink hard liquor closing up the house before the jaunt out with Sid too?

I don't know. I don't remember that, but I wasn't looking for it during the montage.

We saw Dean drinking in the montage as he closed up the house, and then again as he closed up the house all suspicous after his search through the under-renovation hotel.

I don't begrudge Dean drinking beer at the cookout, because that's what you do, but twice they showed us the same nightly ritual that included a tumbler of hard liquor. And maybe I'm a lush, but evidence of one drink every night isn't awesome, but not horrid alcoholism. For sure he drank too much in the beginning, per his own words, but I get the feeling he got it under control at some point.

::sips her wine::

I think when you've been told a character needs alcohol to function and you see him with alcohol that many times in that few scenes, including ritual, it's safe to suspect he may still be a functioning alcoholic, even if he's not drunk.

If Show wanted to indicate he'd cut down on drinking they did a piss poor job of it. Short of mimosas with breakfast, he pretty much availed himself at every basically socially allowable opportunity.

True, they could have shown him in the second nightly ritual without a drink, and that would have set a completely different tone. Then again, I've always kinda wondered if he wasn't a functioning alcoholic since season 4.

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.

I TOTALLY read that look as an evil, I'm-reeling-him-in-and-playing-him look. It wasn't happy, or comforted, or homey, or awkard -- it looked smug, and pleased. This is one of the many things leading me to the "not emotionally traumed out by Hell" but "there somethin ain't RIGHT with this boy" and "Is it really SAM in thar?"

Dean's drinking -- Drinking is still his coping mechanism. Dean's a functional alcoholic, yes; the montage showed basically all the "normal" life versions of the same activities Dean has always done, only suburbanized.

He's still paranoid. Still protective of a boy, on orders. Still idealizes a mother-figure. Still drinks to cope, only a slightly better grade of beer at a BBQ of beef instead of monster, and before bed, out of a tumbler, instead of the bottle.

Living in suburbia won't change who Dean is; I'm afraid it can't. I see Dean as equilivalent to a high-level general or soldier; those survivial habits are always going to be with him, even if he has a base. And like anyone who is in a dangerous field of work, having a family is fraught with issues -- they can be hostages to enemies.

I think the writer's are writing Bobby and Sam as a little too damned naive in this instance; who in their right freakin' mind, based on the boys' past, thinks you can just try to walk away and have dependents, and think they will be safe? That's just stupid. It's a nice thought, but it's criminally naive.

At the very least, you want that dream bad enough, you gonna have to have WAY more fail-safes and defenses in place for you family. And Dean would have to be teaching Lisa and Ben some basic signs and such. To not do so is leaving them helpless.

I DAMN well know if I was to get involved with someone who I had seen fight monsters and such, I would be all "OK, you are teaching me what is what, and how to at least protect myself and my son, and our home will be as safe as I can make it."

Not to become a hunter, because Sam or Dean don't want that for any type of family they might ever have, but to be as safe and prepared as they can be, to try to have AS NORMAL A LIFE AS POSSIBLE.

Not "a normal life."

Dude, they're not normal. Well, not "typical" is a better was of saying it, more accurate. Because what the fuck is normal? They need to get rid of this false notion of normality and deal with "what makes me as realistically happy as I can be?"

I think the writer's are writing Bobby and Sam as a little too damned naive in this instance

It is curious, in Sam's case, when compared to the situation with Jimmy and his family. I get that Dean is more capable of protecting his new family than Jimmy was. Where Sam was so violently adamant that the only way to protect Claire and Amelia was to never ever see them again, here he's like "okay." And, honestly, I think Sam was wrong in Jimmy's case. And there's definitely a different headspace between the two instances for Sam. Because, there or absent, the family will be in danger.

But I think where many hunters seem to have gotten into the life by having their family torn apart, I can also see that "hunter with family" might appear no more or less safe than "ignorant civilian with family".

Oh, and Demian at TWoP is cranky.

Man, that was the most loveless recaplet ever. He makes new cold!meanie!Sam look warm and toasty.

hard-boiled eggs: I think one of the things that really sells me on Sam not being Wrong or Evil or Not Sam is the look on his face when he rushes into the house as Dean is shouting frantically for Lisa and Ben. He's all over Concerned Puppy at the idea that Dean has lost his family.

In all the scenes of Dean's new family life, his drinking didn't strike me as anything out of the ordinary. Especially the nightcap before bed. He's self-medicating, sure, but we never see him passed out or stumbling. Functional alcoholic maybe, but the emphasis for me would be on "functional".

Are we misusing "functional alcoholic"? I had to go and google it, because my initial understanding was "drinking copiously but not showing the effects, except when not drinking enough". Having a nightcap every night seems to fit better with either alcoholic or just normal (in the sense that it's a habit, not an addiction, and not leading to organ failure).

I mispelled alcholic because I just finished a bottle of bourbon.

Shit, I mispelled it again!