It's Henriksen, named after Lance.

So far, IO9 people have brought up Ellen and Jo and John.

I've found that people seem to miss characters more than they analyse the impact deaths (or continued appearances) would have on the plot.

Gabriel was a lot of fun every time he appeared, but he didn't appear that many times. And jimmying him into the plot many times a season would have been more awkward than finding a way to get Castiel in as a recurring character. If he doesn't have power, how much fun is he? If he does have power, what is he doing? What side is he on? Why is he not fixing everything or killing everything or doing similar wide-ranging powerful actions?

Didn't his conversion and death...well, wasn't it the only goddamned non-sucky thing that happened that episode?

I do think Ellen and Jo should have been in the series more before they died, but I think they died well, with agency and impact, and each of their reappearances were well-considered and sad.

Maybe that's the problem. Not that people died, but that they weren't around more before they did. But I do think Gabriel didn't have a place in the boys' lives.

It's Henriksen, named after Lance.

That's funny, because when I first typed it, I thought, "No, I'm confusing that with that actor named Henriksen," Except I spelled his name wrong, too. Oops.

Brady's death seemed really significant to me, because it had so many levels. They were killing a powerful demon, yeah, but it had the feel of a hit, as well as personal vengeance. Their complete calm was incredible ("You see, Brady, we're the ones you should be afraid of."), and the damp, shadowed alley created the atmosphere of a hit, but Sam twisting that knife was so raw and personal and clearly satisfying to him, it was chilling.

That said, the death that hit me hardest was probably John's, until Ellen and Jo died.

Brady's death seemed really significant to me, because it had so many levels.

Oh, yes. I need to rewatch, so I don't know how much of this is canon and how much is my own headcanon, but Brady was probably the closest friend Sam ever had who wasn't Dean.

Brady was probably the closest friend Sam ever had who wasn't Dean.

Based on the dialogue in the episode, it seemed so to me because Brady talks about Sam trying to help him and intervene with the drugging, etc. And Sam was so very betrayed, it seemed more personal to me.

And Sam was so very betrayed, it seemed more personal to me.

Oh, yes. That demon was responsible for the death not just of Jess, but of the real Brady. It becomes more and more heartbreaking the more I think about it.

I loved the whole thing because there was so much to it -- not just Winchesters killing someone who betrayed them, like Ruby, which was accomplished in the heat of the moment without a lot of fanfare, or something dramatic like Jo and Ellen, but this weird combination of everything, and then staged really well, too. They took him to that alley to kill him, there was nothing not-planned about it.

I've gone back to very few scenes and put text on them, but that little speech to Brady? Fuck yeah. I love it. I love how Dean calls Sam, at about the biggest Jared has ever been, calls don't-call-me-Sammy--calls him Sammy, and he responds without hesitation--that yes, they are the threat. And whatever Brady is spouting off just before the end, if you were worried Sam wouldn't clear the salt lines because of something he'd done himself--he's fine. That's Sam WInchester, Dean's brother Sam, Mary and John's son. That's Sam, and no matter how many demons clustered around him as he grew up (and we don't find out about all the rest for a while), he grew up good. He grew up to beat the devil and save the world and to cast off his destiny as a soldier, general, or vessel.

And Dean has his back. And even though he gets suicidal--somehow Sam's plan doesn't feel like that, but Dean has a way of seeming like he's killing himself every now and again, especially if it's underscoring how much more other people deserve to live than he does.

Unrelated to all that, I'm tormenting myself with a fic series (the one where Cas becomes obsessed with holiday sweaters and celebrating St Patrick's days and every little thing...where the writer hooked Sam up with *a* Sarah that wasn't the Sarah, but she's clearly gone back and fixed that. She just wrote a story where they take Sam to his first baseball game, and this big thing, and I just think of the end of Swan Song, where they talk about the concerts and the Jayhawks games they went to in-between hunts, and I just feel this author is hinging on their whole lives having been miserable and so unrewarding before she came along, and she's pairing them up and fixing the whole thing up. Yes, parts were horrible, but Sam got his soccer trophy! They saw some games--no, they didn't list pro baseball, but the implication is they did stuff. They pulled moments out of their journeys, and had some fun, and some good memories too. Maybe not heavenly, but yellow-crayonish.

It's not all on you, ficwriter, to fix twenty odd years of their lives with your fuzzy attitude to canon. Hmmph.

Why do people pretend for a second that this is not a manip? Nothing funky showing, but deliberately sexy pose, young Jensen manipped into a Josh Elliot Freshmen magazine cover photo.

If you paid two cents of attention, you dig that there are a couple screamingly horrible things (I still prefer to believe the polka dot shirt pics are manips too) he did, but not this...surely...

Boys being adorable. Also, I have never heard that song before.