Why? He hasn't been back at all, or they wouldn't have taken us up to the present time

Because he told his brother he settled down with someone and he didn't? That's not weird to you? But, if he did do that, wouldn't he just haul ass to go keep playing with his delusion? Or maybe he only thinks he's in Texas, dunno.

And he drove away after he saw her inside with Don.

To their local bar. He wasn't trying really hard to get back out of her life. It did make her seeing him predictable.

I'm not sure what you're truing to say here

I'm saying he's going to want that life back, just like he told Dean he wanted it back. That's not a phone conversation or a text message discussion. If you're the sort of person who drives across the US in whoever's stolen car (do they have two cars now?) that's clearly no hurdle. So we have a guy that has been romantically alone for ten years, and the woman he made an emotional sacrifice for to let her not just pick him because of recency, but has spent weeks with her husband with whom she was very in love, and decides she needs him?

Why wouldn't he pop one (very large) state over to see the woman he's willing to give up hunting and his brother for? What does he value more highly right now than her? The tablet they have no leads on? He's been pretty clear about his priorities. The second woman he's ever loved needs him and he can't get her on the phone. What should he do?

But he did settle down with her! Not for long, it turns out, but I'm assuming they were also co-habitating at the motel for a bit before they found the house. And if she hadn't gotten the call about Don, he'd probably still be there, in my mind.

I get what you're saying about him leaving like that to be with her, but it's still a leap for me. Leave that night, sure. Leave that hour, sure. Not even tell Martin, who you're abandoning in the woods, that something came up? Not very Sam to me.

But he did settle down with her!

Unless he made it up, which was what I said was really creepy. How his making all that up about a woman you actually know not creepy? I could give myself a panic attack thinking about someone doing that to me, and then appearing at my window with a gun months after the last time we saw each other (or broke up earlier than he fantasises, or whatever). That's horrible.

So far their portrayal of the relationship, be it true or false, has a number of people thinking there's something weird about it--that he's compelled, that he made it up, that he's insane--whole jobby. All that is why I wouldn't be surprised that he dropped everything to rush to her aid. Because if it's real, it's reading so weird that people think it's not real. And not real in a bad way, not in a comforting yourself on a rainy day way. And those are the sorts of situations I'd imagine illogical behaviour stemming from. Something that viewers can't even agree is normal.

Oh, I see. I'm now assuming he actually did move in with her, until it's explicitly shown otherwise, so that's what I didn't get.

Were you saying there was a non-creepy interpretation of any of those memories not being true? I can't wrap my mind around that, especially if I put myself into her place. There's not a thought he's had I want a guy having about me without me.

Like I said, I don't see those memories as particularly saccharine outside of the park one. There was conflict in all of the rest of them.

If he had been having flashbacks where she stared lovingly up at him and said, "You're all I ever wanted, Sam," and they had moved into a little cottage with a trellis covered in climbing roses, and there was a montage of them laughing, and kissing, and waking up together, then yeah. Creepy, and sad. But I don't think that's what they were going for.

I think *now* that the flashbacks were given that odd, dreamy look for reasons not related to the plot, which is just a mistake on their part, because so many fans think there's something off about them.

Do you think it's not disturbing to make them up because they're not saccharine? I'm not saying I'd be freaked out if it happened to me because he was thinking nice things about being with me--if a guy is making up anything about being with me, then I'm skeeved.

However, I also think that most of those memories were positive for Sam, but that makes it no more or less weird for me, especially with the gun in the garden capper.

I'm going to go on record with hallucinating memories is bad, involving other people in them is worse.

I do think it's not just the awful presentation (many people I read were hoping they were false, in order to justify the craptasticness of the visuals), but also the proximity of some of them to "I was running away into my head" comments from last week, and other apparently false clues of the timings and provoking of the flashbacks.

I think it's probably not as wish-fulfilling to imagine a realistic relationship with obstacles to overcome, but I don't think it's necessarily creepy. Like, I said, I believe the relationship was real until they say different, so it's a moot point for me.

"Running away in his head" could also mean that now he knows or believes he was deluded to think he could have a normal relationship, or that a relationship wasn't going to be as fraught as his life otherwise. As in, maybe he simply thought normal life with a woman would be easy, and he learned it really wasn't any less complicated (emotionally) than life as a hunter.

I'm willing to see how it plays out, either way, and for now I'm just glad Dean didn't drive to Texas to steal Amelia's phone.

Not even tell Martin, who you're abandoning in the woods, that something came up? Not very Sam to me.

I've seen him pull an uncommunicative vanishing act on Dean and Bobby often enough that I'm not terribly surprised he'd leave Crazy Martin in the lurch. While Sam is moved by noble purposes more often than self-interest, I really don't think consideration for other people is a major component of his make-up.

He's in Louisiana, she's in Texas. It's not right around the corner.

Depends where in Louisiana and where in Texas. (Signed, married to someone born in East Texas.)