e_juliana | D'oh!!!

So powerful is the Firewall of Flail (tm

minim_calibre) that it took me 2 days to really process a small detail about the latest episode of SPN (which most of my flist will have already caught and think I'm dumbass for thinking this is big, but it hit me hard, and whoa I love this show) (and yes, it took me that long to catch up via ahem-delay):

Dean would have been right to waste that guy. True, we don't know if the kid was possessed at the time of the potential waste-age, but odds are good that he was, aren't they? There was no shown change in his demeanour, unlike the other times we've seen the demon take possession (the shift in body posture & intent, etc.), so the implied assumption is that he was already possessed, yes?

So. Dean was absolutely correct in his instinct to execute him, and Sammy's visions are suspect as a result.

BUT.

Sammy was also correct in attempting to stop Dean from killing the kid, because Dean doing so would have meant him taking yet another step from his... I would have said humanity, but that's more of a Buffyverse implication (in my head). Dean taking another step away from Sam, really - away from being able to feel and love, toward a more sociopathic kind of lifestyle, which is always fun. Actually, Dean taking another step away from Dean.

Still, it throws Sam's essential ambiguity into (ever sharper) relief. Out of the 4 (?) kids (all boys, yes?) we've been shown so far - 1 is miserably fucked up and ends up wasting himself after killing his dad & uncle, 1 falls prey to the yellow-eyed demon & kills 2 (possibly more) people, 1 uses his powers in non-savory ways (not really evil, just kinda skeezy), and then there's Sam. He believes he's given these death visions to help the potentially dead people not die, and so far it's been the case, and (importantly) the people have been essentially innocent. Until this one - who may still have been innocent at the time, but was clearly not at the end of the episode.

Sam & Dean don't know that yet, though. They may not. But if they do find out, oh boy, the repercussions. Dean's already carrying this huge heavy secret about Sam, this secret that's clearly tearing him apart (at least, the carrying of is); the family is shattered and can't be rebuilt, at least not yet; Sam's essential nature is still unknown, and this is one of the first direct pointers to said nature not being entirely benign (or perhaps just easily manipulated).

eta: Of course, this was already done much better and in more detail by

blackcat333_99 in the Supernatural Newsletter, but that's why I don't do commentary often. I have not the spicy brains!

Such potential for pain. Kripke, you magnificent bastard, you'd best break my heart in the most interesting of ways.

Gods, I love this show.