Review for 6x02 'Two And A Half Men'

[galathea]

Sorry, I am so very late, but I had a hellish week at work and didn't find any time to actually sit down and write in the evenings. I have been quite frustrated with the fact that I mulled over the episode all week, but wasn’t able to get any of my thoughts on paper. So, I put off watching the new episode in favour of catching up on the last one. I fear though that it doesn’t bode well for the future that I already fell behind with my reviews at the beginning of the season.

I will come right out and say that I loved Two And A Half Men by Adam Glass. A lot. It’s a well paced episode that moves the character arcs forward nicely and combines action with surprisingly palatable humour and family drama. The episode explores the compatibility of hunting and a family life and as such gives ample opportunity for the writers to contrast and compare the Winchesters' past and present. So far the season is off to a promising start. ♥



To be honest, these last two episodes felt more like the show that I fell in love with five years ago than most of the past two seasons – a down-to-earth, gritty family drama, where the characters are the story, rather than only being part of a bigger story. Not that I didn’t enjoy a lot of aspects of that bigger story, but I always felt that the writers work better on a smaller scale and that the real strength of Supernatural is the exploration of family dynamics. So, I guess it is no surprise that enjoy the current focus on the different variations of family a lot. I love how the writers extended Sam and Dean’s family with the Campbells, Lisa and Ben, thus adding new layers to the meaning of family for the brothers. It’s not only interesting to explore how Sam and Dean relate to the new characters individually, but also how their relationships with their extended families influence how they relate to each other. I am actually quite impressed that the writers managed to add all these new elements and still keep the focus on Sam and Dean, trying to find a way back together.

Furthermore, despite the fact that Sam and Dean are estranged and that there is a certain amount of wariness on Dean’s side and a lot of mystery on Sam’s side, the brotherly relationship feels lighter than it has in years. I think that both brothers found closure for some of the burdens of their past, when they managed to put an end to the 'family curse'. I also feel that even though Sam contacting Dean in Exile On Main Street has been a motivated by external factors, their coming together is more about want nowadays than about outward circumstances forcing them together, and I find that heartening. For the first time in a long while Dean genuinely wants to hunt and he wants to do it with Sam, not because he needs to protect him – I think he is finally past that – but because his brother is still the one person he trusts as his partner. And Sam clearly wants to be with Dean for Dean as a person and not only because he is family or because it is convenient. So, at the moment I feel hopeful that the show will finally allow Sam and Dean to learn how to be friends again and relate to each other in a new way, a way that isn’t only defined by the fact that they are brothers.

Now, I am aware that I felt just as enthused at the beginning of S5, where the brothers seemed to be heading into a new phase of their relationship as well, only to be severely disappointed when it all fell apart after Sam and Dean’s reunion in The End. So, I am quite prepared to eat my own words later in the season, but at the moment I am just happy that I feel so hopeful again, after I had already written the season off.

Samuel: "Sometimes I wonder about you, Sam."
Sam: "Sometimes I wonder about me, too."

The characterisation for Sam in Two And A Half Men continues well from last week’s episode, as Sam is still rather disconnected and dispassionate, especially when he is alone or with the Campbells. The fact that he is unable to muster up much compassion for the families who have been targeted by the shapeshifters gives reason to worry and the Sam of old would definitely have reacted differently to innocent babies being harmed. I find it rather reassuring though that Sam is so self-aware and open about his own detachment. In the past self-reflection hasn’t always been Sam’s strongest suit, but in S5 he took big steps towards awareness of his own flaws and I am happy to see that continued here. I am still convinced that Sam’s current detached state is a direct result of his experience in the cage and that he will need Dean to find back to himself. I really can’t wait for the reveal of what happened to him.

I think it is very interesting that although Sam emphasised to Dean just last episode that he doesn’t fly solo, he works the 'baby snatcher' case on his own, with no back-up from his new 'family'. He might check in with Samuel from time to time for information, but he doesn’t seem to be partnered with one of his cousins. I can’t help but wonder if working alone is Sam’s decision and if it is the rule rather than the exception. In that context I find it telling that Sam contacts Dean instead of the Campbells the moment he feels out of his depth with the baby situation. I mean, strictly speaking there is no reason why he would need to call his brother, specifically, to help him with this case. Why not call Samuel or one of his cousins and bring the baby to them right away? Or why not hand it over to the local child services, so they can look for relatives? After all, at that point he has no idea that the baby is a shapeshifter. The fact that Sam contacts Dean instead suggests to me that he was looking for a reason to reach out to his brother. He admitted last episode that things are better with Dean around, and I think he just seized the first opportunity to reunite with him.

Now, on first glance it might be inconsistent and unfair that Sam pulls his brother back into hunting in such a manner, although he was so adamant in his belief that Dean deserved a shot at a normal life and opted to leave him alone for a year. However, I think the situation changed radically once Sam was forced to break the silence. At that point Dean’s new life had already been disrupted, his past had caught up to him and shattered the illusion of a peaceful retirement. No matter how badly Sam wanted to give Dean an out by sheltering him, it didn’t happen. Obviously personal motives play a factor as well. I think that as long as Sam stayed away from Dean – reassured by the knowledge that his brother is well and reasonably content – it was easy for him to convince himself that he is okay without Dean. Seeing his brother again made him realise though, how much he wants Dean back in his life and since the reason why he left Dean alone in the first place has become almost immaterial, Sam is unable to just go back to the way things were before.

And I think the change in Sam’s demeanour when he is with Dean is indeed striking, especially if compared to Sam’s muted posture around the Campbells. Sam visibly lights up when he is around his brother, his voice is softer, he smiles more often and he acts more lively in general. Especially in the motel room scene, where he affectionately watches Dean taking care of the baby, we can see glimpses of the old Sam. ♥ He is also a lot more generous with praise lately where Dean is concerned. In Exile On Main Street he genuinely admired Dean’s caring personality and here he compliments Dean on being good with Bobby John. I think that’s interesting, because even though the brothers obviously value each other, they rarely express their appreciation verbally, unless they find themselves in emotionally charged situations. So, Sam’s casual praise of his brother emphasises how much he enjoys just having Dean in his life again. I quite like that.

Dean: "I can’t just lose you and Ben."
Lisa: "That’s not what I’m saying. Dean, if there’s some rule that says it has to be either or? How about we break it?"

As already mentioned before, the sheltered bubble of normality shattered for Dean when his life was once again touched by the supernatural, and it’s obvious that Dean, like Sam, is unable to just go back to the way things were before. He is on edge and short-tempered, bordering on paranoid in his worry that something could happen to Lisa and Ben, and subsequently he tends to overreact to even the simplest things. Lisa’s gentle attempts to mediate between an irritable Dean and a sullen Ben, who is unhappy with their sudden move – which, by the way, is very reminiscent of young Sam complaining about John moving them around – defuse the situation somewhat, but the atmosphere is tense in the Winchester-Braeden household. While Lisa pays deference to Dean’s experience as a hunter and reacts very level-headed to the changes he enforces on their lives, she doesn’t allow him to dictate the way they are going to live, and I love that about her. She is very clear about the fact that she intends to resume a normal life as soon as things are settled, and she has no qualms to overrule Dean’s rigid decisions where Ben is concerned.

"Somewhere along the line, I stopped being your father and became your drill sergeant", John told Sam once, and Dean echoes his father’s words when he tells Lisa later that he started to become a prison guard instead of a parent and partner. In his attempt to protect Ben and Lisa he started to become emotionally detached from them, just like John became more and more distant to his sons. However, it’s Dean’s ability to reflect on his actions and his willingness to choose a different course that sets him apart from John from the get-go. The only flaw in Dean’s thinking is that he is convinced that he has to choose between John’s way or no way at all. John has not been a particularly good role model where balancing family and hunting is concerned and since he kept his sons away from the hunter’s community, they didn’t have any other positive role models either. So it is no surprise that Dean fails to see that he doesn’t have to choose between his new family and hunting with Sam. It’s Lisa, someone with an outsider perspective, who shows Dean that there is another option available to him. ♥

Lisa’s solution to Dean’s dilemma, i.e. that Dean returns to the hunt and stays with her and Ben whenever his job allows, is simple but effective in relieving the pressure that weighs on them all. She doesn’t expect Dean to change, just allows him to be who is, without reprimand. It’s obvious that Lisa and Dean care deeply about one another and I love that Lisa realises that the only way to keep their family together is by letting Dean go, so he can return to her when he is ready. I don’t think that makes her dependent or pathetic, instead it shows real strength of character and depth of feeling on her part. ♥ Overall I am incredibly happy that for once the writers chose to forego the opportunity to create angst for Sam and Dean by killing someone close to them off, and instead opted for a hopeful resolution. It’s all I ever wanted from this storyline for Dean, and although I assume that we won’t see much of Lisa and Ben for the remainder of the season, I can live with that as long as they are not forgotten either.

Dean: "Then I think about the way we grew up. I don’t know. I kinda feel like I have a chance to do something different with Ben, you know."
Sam: "You sure about that?"

I really loved the brothers’ conversation about the question if Dean, the hunter, will be able to raise a child and protect his family without turning into John in the process. I especially like the mature and honest tone between them, which has already been the trademark of most of their controversial discussions in S5. I love Sam’s gentle prodding and the way he points out to Dean that he already started to replicate some of John’s patterns – and even made up the same excuses for his actions. Sam’s arguments carry no accusation or pressure though and I think he doesn’t tell Dean anything, he doesn’t already know himself, deep down. It’s important to remember though that Dean’s situation is fundamentally different from John’s situation. John was on his own with two underage children when he chose the life of a hunter, and his choices as a parent bordered on neglect and emotional abuse. He left his children to fend for themselves for days at a time, at an age where they could have easily fallen prey to supernatural or human predators, and he forced his oldest son to grow into an adult way before his years. Dean, on the other hand, has a capable and supportive partner in Lisa, who grounds him and keeps him from losing perspective. Ben is taken care of at all times, and it’s obvious that Dean intends to protect Ben’s childhood as much as possible. So, I don’t really think that Dean is in danger of becoming a copy of John, even if he falls back on his father’s coping mechanisms under stress.

And talking about Dean as a parent: I know that some fans criticized the fact that neither brother cares to mention that Dean already has considerable parenting skills because of the way they grew up. After all, Dean co-parented Sam from a very young age on, so it could be argued that the situation with Ben shouldn’t feel all that new to him. However, I think that being a child caretaker of a younger sibling is very different from being a stepparent to someone else’s son as an adult. While, in effect, Dean filled in a parental role for Sam and certainly had semi parental authority when John was absent, I don’t think he (or Sam) ever thought of himself as Sam’s parent. He was the big brother, friend, protector, but for Dean father, with all its connotations, always referred to John. Taking care of Sam was not a choice – even though Dean shouldered that responsibility willingly – he was way too young to make any kind of informed decision in the matter, he acted on instinct and necessity. With Ben, on the other hand, Dean makes an active choice as an adult to become a parent. So, I am not surprised that the situation feels completely new to him.

In that context, I also think that it is believable that Dean isn’t exactly proficient with a baby at his hands. He might have raised Sam, but I don’t think that he has ever actually taken care of an infant. When Sam was born, Dean was four years old. In the first six months Mary took care of the baby and even if Dean started to help John with Sam immediately after Mary died, I think it stretches believability quite a bit to assume that he was able to help much with the practical side of taking care of a baby at age five. I think it’s more likely that Dean grew into his caretaker role gradually, as he and Sam grew older. From Dean’s own admission in All Hell Breaks Loose II we know that he started to take sole practical care of Sam when his brother was about four or five years old and John left them on their own for days at a time. That’s way past feeding bottles and diapers. So, overall I really see no reason why Dean should be any more experienced at handling an infant than Sam.

Samuel: "Why can’t you give me an inch of trust, Dean."
Dean: "Maybe because you two are suddenly back from the dead and I seem to be the only one who wants to know how the hell that happened. It’s just a little too much mystery with this family for me to get comfy."

I have to say that Two And A Half Men did nothing to alleviate my general unease with the Campbells, and I completely sympathise with Dean’s hostile stance towards them. Their secret paramilitary hunting base and their stand-offish behaviour really don’t inspire trust or sympathy. Anyway, I really enjoyed the intense confrontation between Dean and the Campbells. Dean’s hesitation to hand the baby over to Samuel, who wants to raise it as a hunter, is understandable, although I have to admit that I don’t really see a lot of options of how to deal with the child. They can’t kill it, they can’t give it to the authorities and not many hunters would be willing to raise a potential enemy. I think though that Dean’s objections are not only rooted in his deep mistrust towards the Campbells, but also in his own struggle with the question if a hunter should raise a child. His own earlier rejection of Ben following in his footsteps and his distressed realisation that living with a hunter already negatively affected Ben’s life, is reflected in his worry about the baby’s welfare, should it remain with the Campbells.

I love that Sam is uncomfortable with the tension between his brother and his new family and tries to mediate immediately. He even steps bodily between Dean and the others to prevent an escalation of the situation, which is an interesting mirror of the dynamics between John, Sam and Dean, where Dean used to play the peacemaker between his brother and father. I also love Dean’s explicit gesture of trust towards Sam when he hands him the baby without objection, even though he knows Sam will just give it to Samuel. While Dean is clearly wary of Sam and his association with the Campbells, he still trusts him more than all of the Campbells taken together.

In that context I have to mention that I feel quite uneasy about Samuel’s frequent attempts to gain Dean’s trust and affection by evoking Mary’s memory. Twice now he jumped into an anecdote about Mary as soon as it is evident that Dean has no intention to cooperate with him. The obviousness of Samuel’s gesture makes it hard to perceive it as a genuine effort to bond with his grandson, instead it comes off as an attempt at emotional manipulation. I have to wonder if that is how Samuel gained Sam’s trust as well, i.e. manipulating Sam’s need for Dean. Sam mentions to Dean that Samuel is a lot like him and while I see nothing that would confirm Sam’s assessment, it’s possible that Samuel managed to act just enough like Dean whenever he felt that Sam needed it. That would at least explain why Sam has been able to find some sort of comfort and familiarity with the Campbells. It also resonates with Sam’s behaviour in I Know What You Did Last Summer, where he started to trust Ruby because she became a stand-in for Dean to him. It’s a familiar pattern. That all being said, I don’t really like the possibility that Sam fell prey to yet another manipulation, and I hope that the writers will not go there.

And talking about trust: I am not happy about the fact that Sam told the Campbells about what happened to Dean in hell, and Sam’s guilty expression when Christian gives Dean a hard time about it, suggests that he doesn’t feel quite comfortable with it either. However, I think it’s not necessarily a given that Sam relayed any specifics about Dean’s time in hell to the Cambells or deliberately broke his brother’s trust. It’s not unreasonable to think that the apocalypse has been the subject of discussion at some point and Dean getting off the rack and starting to torture souls broke the first seal, after all. I suspect that Sam’s blood addiction and the fact that he broke the last seal are no secret to the Campbells either. And given that the hunters who confronted Sam in Free To Be You And Me learned all about Sam’s blood addiction from a demon, I doubt that it is possible to keep Dean’s particular role in the apocalypse a secret in the hunter’s community anyway. Still, I hope that at some point we will get a little more insight into the reason why Sam trusts the Campbells so much.

What else was noteworthy:

(1) A word about Dean’s accusation that Sam planned to use the baby as bait to lure the alpha shapeshifter out in the open: I don’t think Sam was outright lying to Dean when he said that that wasn’t his initial plan, mainly for two reason. Firstly, unless Sam stood outside of the motel room for quite a while, eavesdropping in on his brother and the shifter – and not lifting a finger to help Dean when he was fighting the creature – there is no way that he could have heard the shapeshifter mention their 'father'. Secondly, Sam is perfectly willing to follow an alternative course of action when Dean objects to bringing the baby to Samuel, and I don’t get any vibes of deception from Sam in that particular conversation with Dean in the car. However, he does hide something when Dean confronts him at the end of the episode, his answer is too shifty to be entirely honest. So, I think it’s possible that maybe Samuel mentions to Sam that they could use the baby as bait, when the brothers arrive at the compound – we see Samuel and Sam in conversation, away from Dean, at the beginning of the scene – and Sam went along with it instead of leaving right away.

(2) I really loved that upon being asked the baby’s name, Dean instantly says Bobby, while Sam says John. It nicely reflects on the fact that Dean became completely disillusioned with his father and instead turned to Bobby as the parental figure in his life. Sam, on the other hand, gained a new understanding of John over the last couple of years, not least because he found himself on a similar path like his father after he lost Dean. He forgave John in The Song Remains The Same and he is at peace with his father ever since, so his name choice makes perfect sense.

(3) Since I complain a lot about the crude humour in the show, I also feel compelled to point out when I am actually delighted with the comedic bits in an episode. Sam and Dean trying to tame a screaming baby? Priceless! And the grocery store scene is just hilarious! I’ve waited for this scene for six years, finally I can cross it off my list of things I want to see in Supernatural. ♥ I think there is something about the Winchesters in mundane situations that is inherently funny. They are usually so out of their depth in ordinary situations, that it doesn’t need much to give a storyline a funny spin and still keep the brothers completely in character. More of that please, dear Supernatural writers!

(4) Two And A Half Men has been written by Adam Glass, who is new to the writing staff of Supernatural, and I have to say that I am impressed by his sure grip on the characters, the subtle references to the Winchester family history and the even pacing of his script. So, I am looking forward to seeing more from him. That doesn’t change the fact though that I am still inconsolable about the loss of Jeremy Carver from the writing team.

In conclusion: Two And A Half Men is an all-around enjoyable episode that further develops the storylines that have been set-up in the season premiere. I find myself really excited for the rest of the season at the moment. There is a lot of potential in the story the writers set-up this far. I just hope the season manages to live up to that potential.