galathea | Review for 4x08 'Wishful Thinking' (Reply)

I guess sooner or later it had to happen: Wishful Thinking was the first episode this season that left me rather dissatisfied, even if I enjoyed a lot of aspects about it. It was another episode that was funny on the surface, but revealed to be rather dark just beneath. Unlike Yellow Fever though, Ben Edlund’s script turned out to be quite unbalanced, which may be a result from his cooperation with writer Lou Bollo, still it’s sad that this was the first let down in the otherwise awesome season.

It's funny, I enjoyed Wishful Thinking while watching it, but afterwards I found myself less touched than I would have expected, given the brotherly material in this episode, and it took me two rewatchings and mulling the plot over for a review to put my finger on what was bothering me. There are two main problems with this episode for me: Firstly, there’s an emotional disconnect between the MotW plot and the brother plot. The story around the wishing well was independent from what was going on with the brothers and not only did it fail to support the characters but it even opposed their storyarc in this episode. The bizarre nature of their case stood in stark contrast to their very emotional and serious issues with each other and that threw me off. I think the brother arc would have worked a lot better in a less wacky context. Secondly, the reveal of Dean remembering his time in hell doesn’t really track back very well to the rest of the season so far. I'll expand on that point further down in my review.

Dean: "I don’t want a giant, flaming, pissed-off teddy at our hands!"

It’s no secret that the humour in Supernatural is often a hit-and-miss for me and Wishful Thinking was more the latter than the first in my opinion. I just don’t find giant talking teddy bears in any way funny, not even if they are in an existential crisis. The teddy bear scenes really made me cringe and I thought the 'suicide' was distasteful rather than funny, but I guess I am in the minority with that. The only thing in Supernatural that I found even less funny so far were the slow-dancing aliens in Tall Tales.

Truth be told, on closer inspection I found most of the plot rather disturbing and not really all that amusing. Wes ended up abusing the woman he claimed to love, basically depriving her of the freedom of choice in her partner. Audrey found herself abandoned by her parents, left alone to care for her suicidal companion and forced to dispose of porn magazines and booze. That’s especially unsettling, given her young age. Todd turned from victim to bully himself as soon as he had the power to strike back and both Todd and Hope turned murderous in the end. While I guess that part of these twists reflect on the destructive nature of the curse of the wish coin, I found the events rather dark and not exactly designed to be played for a laugh, but I guess that was intentional. Ben Edlund does have a knack for dark humour, it’s just that it doesn’t always work for me.

There were a lot of parts in the episode that I did find funny though, but the humour for me was in the bemused reactions and puzzled facial expressions of the boys, rather than in the plot itself. Sam and Dean’s perplexity at the bigfoot sighting or the hilarious conversation about how to kill a teddy bear for example were just priceless. Sam’s interrogation of Candice Armstrong was another amusing highlight, with his sheer disbelief at her crazy story and the little self referential joke about writing a book called Supernatural. *g*

Sam: "I’m your brother. I just wished you'd talk to me!"

Despite the many problems of the episode, I enjoyed watching it and clearly the reason for that was the immense brotherly closeness between Sam and Dean, which felt like good old S2 characterisation. Sam’s care and worry for his brother was reminiscent of his efforts to reach Dean after John’s death, desperately trying to push Dean into opening up and sharing his burdens with him, but in the end unprepared at what to do when Dean finally does.

Their interaction in Wishful Thinking affirmed my impression that after the events at Halloween, Dean came to a new understanding with Sam and this understanding in return lead to Sam growing closer to his brother again. Dean being more accepting in regard to Sam’s powers, however hesitant and fragile that acceptance may be, and their united front against the angels, seemingly allowed Sam to overcome his detachment from his brother and direct his attention from his own problems and struggles to Dean’s. It’s typical for Sam though to push his brother into talking to him, when he himself refused to open up to Dean and lied to him for quite a while. They always have different standards for the other than for themself.

Sam: "The nightmares, the drinking. I’m with you 24/7. I know something’s going on."

At first I was a tad irritated at Sam’s insistence that he noticed that something is going on with Dean, since there was no indication of that in earlier episodes, but I think it is likely that we only witnessed the end phase of a process here that went on off-screen ever since Halloween, with Sam wearing Dean’s defences down and Dean trying to keep his cool up. Obviously only a couple of days passed since the events of last week’s episode and I imagine that Sam pursued the topic of Dean’s memories with the single-mindedness that is characteristic for him, if his ferventness in their opening discussion at the bar is any indication.

Sam’s surprise at Uriel’s insinuation that Dean remembers hell seemed genuine to me, and I guess in the beginning of the season he was simply too preoccupied with his own deceptions and problems, too detached from his brother to realise that Dean was hiding something. In fact Sam completely ignored the whole topic of Dean’s trip to hell after his initial inquiry in Lazarus Rising and maybe subconsciously he didn’t really want to know. It’s understandable that only now that the air between them is cleared and they seemed to have grown closer again, Sam was ready to approach that issue again.

While there has been no sign that Sam took notice of Dean’s nightmares in earlier episodes or that he acknowledged his brother’s evasiveness at times, it stands to reason that Uriel’s remark made him aware that something was off and that he started to keep close tabs on his brother over the last couple of days, observing, pushing, piecing the clues together. We didn’t really see Dean drinking more than usual over the course of the season so far, but I am willing to concede that maybe with Sam pushing and trying to break through his defences, Dean hit the bottle more often, fuelling his brother suspicions further.

So, while I can rationalise away the fact of Sam’s sudden awareness of Dean’s state of mind, despite his obliviousness earlier in the season, I would have preferred at least one intermediate episode that showed us Sam catching on slowly and then confronting his brother.

Sam: "It’s too late to go back to our old lives, Dean. I’m not that guy anymore."

One of my favourite scenes in this episode was Sam and Dean’s conversation at the wishing well. Dean’s expectation that Sam still wants a normal life just shows how desperately Dean holds onto an innocence in his brother that Sam left behind long ago. Dean still wants that normalcy, maybe not only for his brother, but also for himself, and he wants for Sam to want that normalcy as well. Dean using the 'Sammy' endearment for his baby brother in this context was especially heartbreaking. He can't (or maybe even refuses to) see that his Sammy, the kid he cared for all his life, doesn’t really exist anymore. He grew up into a hardened man, without illusions about their future.

In a lot of aspects, Sam turned into John. The loss of the person he loved most, pushed him over the edge, just like his father, and he is as focused on taking revenge on Lilith, as John was on taking revenge on the YED. His admission that all he wishes for was Lilith's bloody head on a plate, showed that clearly and while Dean tried to hide how much Sam’s wish unsettled him, it shows in his expression. For Sam there’s no turning back, only pushing forward and just like Dean I mourn the hopeful young man we met at the beginning of the show.

Dean: "The things that I saw. There aren’t words. There’s no forgetting. There’s no making it better. Because it’s right here, forever."

Dean’s admission to Sam that he does indeed remember his time in hell to the full extent came out of the blue for me to be honest, because there has been no real indication in earlier episodes that Dean suffers from some sort of post-traumatic stress. It’s just psychologically implausible to me that Dean wouldn’t show a single sign of distress at what he went through, and that he would be able to keep a perfect mask at all times. We know that he remembers flashes, maybe uncovered partial memories, yes, but a full memory? That just seems unlikely to me. Every time Dean experienced flashbacks so far, he was easily able to shake his uneasiness off and that’s consistent with someone who represses rather than someone who remembers.

It’s just hard to believe that they have mislead us throughout the season so far, not even allowing Jensen to weave in some sort of subliminal hints in his acting. So, for the time being I’ll stick with the theory that Dean remembered next to nothing of his time in hell when he came back in Lazarus Rising and that the flashes and nightmares he experienced over the last couple of weeks gradually brought back memories that he mostly shut off and pushed to the back of his mind, compartmentalisation and denial in full effect. His fear induced hallucination in Yellow Fever then again confronted him with the truth and maybe tore down some of his blocks, but his self-preservation was still intact enough to allow him to function.

I also think that by admitting to Sam that he lied about his memories and by emphasising the unwillingness to share, he tried to get his brother off his back and in the process he might have shown a greater conviction about his memories than he actually has. His admission that he remembers everything might as well refer to his realisation in Yellow Fever that all those memories do in fact exist in his subconsciousness rather than to the fact that he actually actively remembers them all at the moment. It’s one thing to know that you went through an event but an entirely different thing to confront and relive the memory of that event. Still, again there should have been at least one intermediate episode that showed us Dean struggling with returning memories, to allow for a smoother transition. I really hope the upcoming episodes shed a more satisfying light on this issue.

In any case, continuity problems aside, Dean coming out with the truth to Sam was an immensely moving scene, delivered with just the right amount of intensity from both Jensen and Jared. It was a lovely mirror of the end scene to Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things, where Dean admitted his feelings of survivors guilt and self-loathing to Sam, after his brother pushed him into talking, only for Sam to be silenced by the sheer enormity of the burden Dean carried. Now, just like back then, there’s nothing Sam can say or do to make what Dean went through all right, no matter how much he wished to share his brother’s burden. I think part of Sam needs to help his brother in order to cope with his own guilt for not saving Dean from going to hell for him, but it would also intensify Sam’s feelings of guilt indefinitely and I imagine Dean wants to protect his brother from that. Talking wouldn’t change his own situation and it would only make Sam’s worse.

I love that Dean throws back Sam’s own words from Metamorphosis back to him, that Sam won’t understand and Dean can’t make him understand. Sam’s powers and Dean’s trip to hell, both are unique experiences that have no equivalent in the other’s life that would allow the one brother to relate to what the other brother is going through and so they push each other away. But maybe the uniqueness of their situations is the one common ground they share and their love for each other can be the bridge for what separates them. Dean already made a first step towards understanding Sam last episode, maybe he will allow his brother to make one towards understanding him as well in the future.

No matter if Dean really remembers all of his torment in hell or only part of it, he shows an enormous strength and determination ever since he returned from hell. In S2 Dean was close to buckle under the burdens life threw at him, but it seems that in the end he came out of his trials stronger than ever and determined to get his brother and himself through whatever lies ahead of them. ♥

What else was noteworthy:

(1) I adored the conversation between Wes and the brothers in the Impala. Not only because we got yet another jinx between the boys, but also because I loved their combined indignation at Wes’ whiny attitude towards the unfairness of life. Dean’s admission that they have to fight tooth and nails just to keep whatever little they have, struck right home, despite the humorous overtones in that scene.

(2) It’s no secret that I have a soft spot for Dean and kids, and Dean’s interaction with Audrey and Todd was no exception. I loved especially Dean helping Todd to get rid of the bullies, despite nearly being strangled to death by him just moments before. It reminded me of The Kids Are Alright where he encouraged Ben to stand up against bullies as well. I can’t help but think that he might have done that for Sam too, when they were kids, protecting his little brother from being bullied, but maybe I just read too much fanfiction. *g*

In conclusion: I find myself in the rather odd situation that I enjoyed watching this episode but didn’t quite enjoy thinking about it, since it messed with the awesomely consistent characterisation so far. It’s never a good sign if I need to put too much effort into rationalising the characterisation and to be fair, I rarely ever had to do that for Sam and Dean in this show. I hope that some of the more fuzzy details about the exact nature of Dean’s memories will be cleared in the next couple of episodes though.

Overall I think that with the unfortunate episode switch of Monster Movie we now had 3 episodes with comedic overtones and bizarre premises within the short span of 4 weeks and that’s unusual for Supernatural. Add to that the fact that the emotions of the characters didn’t find any resonance in the MotW plotline this week, and I find myself feeling disconnected from the ongoing storyarc, despite Dean’s confession at the end. I hope that we return to a more serious tone in the next half of the season.