I think it’s been made perfectly clear that there will be a good vs. evil showdown before season four winds down. With Castiel, Anna, Lilith, Ruby, Uriel, Alastair, and all of those seals in play, something has to give. Another interesting aspect of that though, is the possibility of a little Sam and Dean battle on the undercard. Since the return from the winter break, the angels and demons story has been left to simmer on the back burner. But little hints keep popping up that suggest that things are going to get a whole lot worse for the brothers Winchester before they get better.
Something is definitely amiss with Sam. In a post about “After School Special” I mentioned his oddly quick trigger finger in the big battle with the bus driver. And then last week, in “Sex And Violence“, we see him running off after sleeping with the good doctor without so much as a goodbye. That’s not the Sam we’ve come to know over the last four seasons. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, because I’ve been waiting for some Dark Sam for a good three years now, but I think these are all signs.
And I posit that it’s leading to a showdown because of that uncomfortable ending from last week, which Cate brought up in her post. That was not like either of them. They can both say ‘siren this’ and ‘siren that’ all they want, but a lot of what they were saying when under the spell was true. Suddenly, they’ve got issues, and big ones. The lying to each other, even though they both know that the other one is lying, is only going to serve to make those issues fester. And that can’t end well. The question is, how ugly is it going to get?
What do you think? Will this all just get diffused over a cold brew, parked under a bridge in the middle of nowhere? Or are TV’s best brothers headed for a falling out? My best guess is that they’ll be back together, with things ironed out by the end of the season. After all, the recent ratings successes are screaming for that fifth season. But the path getting to that resolution certainly looks to be a bumpy one.
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Feb 11, 2009 @ 08:00 EST5EDT
I don’t think it will be that easy. I think we may have a cliffhanger of them against one another. That will make for a hell of a story, so I’m all for it. The bottom line is that neither one is “evil”, but they have both had so much to deal with in a very short time. Dean in Hell, Sam discovering his “demonality.” Its going to be a wild ride, that’s for sure.
Something has *been* amiss with Sam since Dean came back. If you take what Sam said about Dean in 4.14 and look back to the beginning of the season, there are some characterization choices that suddenly make a whole lot more sense. 4.06 “Yellow Fever” is the best example I can think of, with Sam being almost completely uninterested and unsympathetic when Dean is about to die in a matter of hours. Sam’s been resentful of Dean coming back since the moment he found out about it, and that came out in subtle ways throughout the first half of the season. As much as I sometimes complain about the individual writers, they really seem to work well with the characterization arc they’re given.
Also (SPOILER ALERT) Ausiello said that the last three episodes of the season are going to be Sam vs. Dean. Whether that will resolve to them taking on the apocalypse together or will lead to them splitting up come season 5 is the big question.
*POST AUTHOR*
Ahhhh, my dodging of spoilers is foiled by having to monitor all the comments! Kidding, but I had not heard that bit about the last three episodes. It is welcome news though.
The difference for me in the early season examples of Sam weirdness is that I chalked most of that up to guilt, more than changes in Sam. He knew Dean wasn’t going to like what he had been up to with Ruby, and didn’t know how to deal with it. Now though, I think we are seeing the actual changes in Sam. It has me very excited for the show to return.
As much as I like the idea of Sam vs Dean rolling right into season five, I still come down on the side of them getting back together before the end of this season, if for nothing more than the most pragmatic reason. As far as I know, season five still hasn’t been given the go ahead. And I can’t imagine anyone would want to risk ending the series on that note.
Don’t you hate how they drag the renewal announcement out to the last minute every year? Although I can’t imagine they wouldn’t renew it this year since the show has actually *increased* its audience something like 20-25%. But I’m with you, I’d really like to see them get back together at the end of the season, but what I’d most like to see is both of them doing it willingly and without reservation and there’s no way that’s going to happen, I don’t think, based on what we’ve seen so far.
I remember back when “Yellow Fever” aired, a couple of fans I know pointed to an interview Jared did during the very early part of the season where he said that he was playing Sam as somewhat resentful of Dean returning. I’m really impressed at how the writers and producers were building to that confrontation in “Sex and Violence” all along. I’ve heard complaints that while we’ve seen examples of what Dean was saying about Sam sneaking around and lying, that what Sam said about Dean being weak and holding him back wasn’t shown nearly as well. Some fans seemed to think that it came too far out of left field and that the writers have been giving us too much of Dean’s POV this year. I don’t agree, but, then again, I am a hardcore Deangirl.
I think Sam holding back any feelings about Dean holding him back makes perfect sense. Sam grew up the golden boy. He was the good brother. To be thrust into a situation where the expectations for him are completely unknown would have to be difficult for him to express. Dean is his big brother, he’s always looked up to him and expected him to take the reins on the family business. But now he has this extra kick, and the only person he feels comfortable talking about it with is Ruby. I’m sure we’ll have an episode that better examines what they were up to while Dean was in hell. Typical good writers that they are, its being held from us to make the discomfort for the brothers and the viewers all the more apparent.
Watching how well all the pieces fit makes me really feel for the writers, producers, directors, etc., being on The CW, where they will continue to get zero respect for the incredible work they do with this program. Why is this network always overlooked by the Academy for Television Arts and Sciences? They had no trouble embracing cable, but The CW (and the WB before it) have never been worthy despite some damn good programming. Is it because of their target audience?
It hasn’t?! Well you’re the ratings man, isn’t Supernatural one of the highest rated series the CW has? They’d be nuts to drop it. Of course I’m biased…*sigh* A cliffhanger with them going their separate ways would be interesting, but maybe too much like the end of last season, so I’m going to bet they don’t do it for that reason.