Supernatural - 2x1 "In My Time of Dying" Rewatch
Added 2024-02-18 11:28:57 +0000 UTC
Comments
Such a great episode all around!... Great re-reaction and closing analysis too, Shelley, appreciate what you've said and your turnaround about John at the end section there. I've said repeatedly that John had been unfairly judged because of the narrative purpose of this show - i.e. his journey in this story - his character in general and his treatment towards Dean specifically. Narratively speaking, Dean needed to treat Sam as a son too so that he would mirror John and what John had chosen to do in this episode. If John hadn't impressed upon Dean early on in his life to put Sam above all else and to care about Sam extensively, then Dean wouldn't be in the position mentally to have made a similar deal - i.e. to resurrect Sam - and the story wouldn't have worked out. Normal siblings' love wouldn't work organically to reach that point, it had to be more - it had to be codependency on Dean's side. Eric Kripke covered all bases and it made perfect sense narratively of how John treated Dean, to get the desired outcome, which would be then repeated later on by Dean himself. The progression of the story makes perfect sense this way. Unfortunately, this made John the character unsympathetic, thus being judged harshly by some viewers and/or fans. As a parent, John dying for Dean, or more specifically sacrificing himself to save Dean is not that remarkable in normal circumstances. It is even expected of him. What makes his sacrifice "more" than expected or extraordinary, imo, is that he KNOWS what is waiting for him at the end of that line - that he will end up tortured in hell FOR ETERNITY. THAT elevates his sacrifice in my opinion to a higher degree from the regular parent-sacrificing perspective. And about the YED and Tessa, I don't take it as "possessing" her even though the optics are similar. The intention of the scene is more complicated than mere possession. YED needed to resurrect Dean which he couldn't do without a deal being made (I guess a crossroad deal is the prerequisite). In the absence of a deal, he needed a reaper's powers. So he "forced himself" into Tessa and hijacked her powers instead. We saw an iteration of this with Asmodeus injecting himself with Gabriel's angelic grace for his shapeshifting ability in another version of this scenario in the more recent season. At this point of the story, demons possessing angels without there being actual vessels' bodies makes it hard to present the mechanism of it TO the audience, so I give the show a pass in "copying" the possession method instead when technically there is no actual corporeal body to possess. In short: it was for optic/visual reasons rather than for narrative ones, i.e. plot point reasons.
rose mnor
2024-02-27 14:02:22 +0000 UTCLoved watching your reaction to this one Shelley! And I love how much you enjoyed the episode. Your thoughts on it were really interesting, and I’m glad it helped you like Lebanon more. And … this is why Season 2 is my favorite, it just has so many bangers. Everything is so raw for Sam and Dean in the early seasons, and while they both have hugely important moments later, these years are the foundation of everything to come. This is one of my favorite episodes of the entire series because it gives us so much great stuff with all of the characters. I think this episode is where I got officially hooked into the show, once and for all. This is where I began to love Sam as much as Dean, seeing him so desperate to try and help, or at least communicate with, Dea, and how angry he gets at John when he thinks he isn’t taking Dean's problem seriously enough make me love him. It’s so sad to me how Dean doesn’t remember seeing how desperate Sam was to save him, especially with his insecure he is about their relationship for the next … like, 9 years. I also love seeing how Sam can sense, and even hear Dean on some level (or they just share a brain with "Hoodo priest"). This is a great episode for Dean, too. It highlights his love for his family (which we already knew, but I love seeing it play out), how necessary he was as a buffer between John and Sam and the toll that can take on him, but also how much both of them love him, too. This is also where Dean starts picking up that feeling that he is on borrowed/stollen time, which I hate. This is also a really telling John episode. He loved Dean enough to initiate trading the colt, which he’d been hunting forever, and potentially any chance at revenge to save his life. And when Azazie won’t take the Deal, John chooses giving up revenge and going to hell to save Dean. This is why I can never fully write John off, he loved Dean enough to go to hell for him, and that means something. And yet, he puts a huge burden on him, again. We also get a good look at John and Sam's dynamic. It’s interesting to me how quickly Sam backs down when John stays calm and just says, "Can we not fight?" Obviously, Sam helped escalate their fights, but I think John's attitude and refusal to share his motivations were where their biggest issues came from.
Sare
2024-02-20 01:38:29 +0000 UTCI think personally this is my third fave season opener. I think it's 4x01, 13x01 and then 2x01 for me. I remember absolutely loving it immediately when I first watched it.
BexFangirl
2024-02-19 09:44:23 +0000 UTCAgree this episode is an absolute banger! I appreciate hearing John say to Dean that he is sorry he put so much on him. For me, though, that’s negated a bit because then he puts the absolute worst thing on him possibly needing to kill Sam. Granted, at least Dean is an adult now, not a child. But still. And that’s why I think the 300th episode needed an apology to Dean, not just Sam. So Dean could actually hear it and take it in…not just switch back to trauma mode.
AdoptDontShopPets
2024-02-18 17:26:13 +0000 UTCIt is a really good episode and sets off season 2 really well. Lots of questions and makes the viewer eager for what's to come. Smart. I am pretty sure Dean would have decided to go with her, but it's a tough choice. I just don't think he'd be able to accept being a ghost, since it's something they hunt. We know how much Dean hates having the Supernatural be part of themselves. One reason why Sam's powers bother him so much. So I don't think he'd be willing to accept being something supernatural. He knows that he wouldn't be able to help his family, because he'd be stuck to the hospital. Or to his car. But would Baby ever leave Bobby's if it weren't for Dean? Would Sam or Bobby ever fix it? I do wonder about John making that decision. There's got to be something that could be done to heal Dean. His decision making has me wondering what happened. Since he made the decision to meet with Meg and the fake colt over a show off with Yellow Eye back at the end of last season, I've wondered about John's choices.
Michele
2024-02-18 17:22:48 +0000 UTCGreat reaction Shelley, thank you! And glad you are feeling better. 💛 Agree with everything you said in the wrap up about how many important things this episode touches on. I love it for that reason. I like when Dean smashed the glass that John looks at Sam. You mentioned about Sam probably thinking he did it, but wondering if it’s something to do with Dean. But what does John think? He doesn’t react like a hunter seeing a ghost phenomenon. But he and Sam had just been fighting and i think John also thought Sam smashed the glass with his psychic powers, maybe out of anger. He doesn’t mention it but I’m sure it makes John more worried about Sam and Azazels plans for the psychic kids and probably adds to the darkside speech he gives Dean. One problem with retconning Reapers as angels is that Azazel possessed Tessa here to put Dean back in his body. Tessa said she wasn’t the appendix girl in the hospital bed: that was just an illusion in her sandbox. So she isn’t in a human body, ‘Tessa’ is just a physical representation of the reaper itself, and Azazel possesses her. There aren’t any other instances of a demon being able to possess an angel tho. Closest example is a few cases of a human vessel having both an angel and a demon at the same time: Sam with Crowley and Gadreel etc. but Tessa isn’t a human vessel here, so it’s just a weird thing left over by the retcon. As for crossroad demons Crowley tells Bobby they have the power to do almost anything but it has to be powered by the trade of a soul (🤷🏻♂️ there is a lot of hand waving about how it works exactly, so it’s mostly just whatever the writers want 😂) My favourite quote was: I made some mistakes but I always did the best I could…. I’m so proud of you. - like you say, there is a lot of stuff we forget about John as the picture gets muddier later. Plus he is a stubborn pigheaded bastard 😂 but I like the nuance shown here. A some of the next MOTWs are a bit rough for me but I love the bro developments of the season so looking forward to checking back in with you again later. Cheers 😄
MidnightSilver
2024-02-18 14:21:08 +0000 UTCSeason 2 is so underrated in my opinion - it is in my top 3. This and 4x1 are my favourite season openers and I honestly cannot choose between them. Episode 20 in this season is also a banger in opinion and one of my favourites of the whole show.
Kim Rigg
2024-02-18 14:15:58 +0000 UTComg..... I can't even fathom SPN without Dean!!!!
BunkerGirl
2024-02-18 13:25:09 +0000 UTC"But even though his arc evolves, in my mind it's not close to enough to make up for the abandonment and yes, abuse in whatever form, that John did to the boys." 100% agree. Yeah it was good of John to save Dean's life and finally acknowledge all he put on Dean (and Sam, though notably Sam doesn't get that talk from John, and John's last words were "you might have to kill your brother" so...), but IMO it's too little too late. The harm he caused his sons was way too deep and profound for any last-minute regrets to make a difference. It's not like John had any opportunity thereafter to make amends either, because he died. He never had to actually atone for his actions and behavior.
Laurel
2024-02-18 13:16:58 +0000 UTCWhen Sam is saying to John I felt dean, he wasn't talking about the glass breaking, he was talking about when dean's heart stopped and he went to his room and ghost dean told him don't worry Sammy I am not going anywhere, if you rewind you can see Sam looking towards ghost dean's direction and stare for a bit, when the glass broke maybe Sam thought it could be his powers but outside dean's room he actually felt dean's presence and that confirmed it for him, I believe that's just because he's a psychic like Missouri who could sense spirits in their old house, not because they're soulmates, i don't think if the situation was reversed that dean would've felt sam's presence, in that scene where dean figures out Tessa is a reaper and confronts her she tells him that it's his time to go and that he's living on a borrowed time already, referring to him getting an extra life from that gay teacher in the episode faith (the only previous episode with a reaper), so technically dean's time isn't this episode, his time was back in faith and he's been cheating death since then, that must be very annoying to reapers, imagine dean was only in the show for the first 12 episodes lol. You have to remember that by that point the demons believed that john will be the one to break the first seal in hell so they really needed him dead but not just dead, they need him to go to hell, if he died naturally or they kill him they risk his soul going to heaven where they have no control so instead of killing him they need to hurt dean so badly that john gets desperate enough to make a deal, damning his soul forever to be tortured in hell until it breaks and starts torturing others himself, little did they know john wasn't the rightous man who would break the first seal, it was dean!! My quote would be "you're living on a borrowed time, already" Yeah at least dean had a goodbye scene with john, Sam never got to say goodbye and that's why in 14x13 Lebanon we get more scenes with Sam and john but even in this goodbye scene it's mostly john talking, I still think there are lots of things that dean should've said to truly have closure but he never had the chance. The show doesn't clarify exactly how much john knew about Sam but the comics do, wether you choose to take it as canon or not is totally up to you but it's definitely a fun read. The only pet peeve I have with this great episode is how demons are able to possess reapers who are a faction of angels! Even a higher rank demon like Azazel shouldn't be allowed to posses angels
Hasnaa
2024-02-18 12:56:14 +0000 UTCWonderfully put, and I agree with everything you've said here.
BunkerGirl
2024-02-18 12:55:43 +0000 UTCI think Dean definitely would've gone with Tessa if Azazel hadn't swooped in when he did. He had a pretty long time one on one with her to talk him through it (Dean figured out it was a reaper after him when the kid died, which was at 5:11 p.m., and he woke up not long before John died at 10:41 a.m.), and as we saw, while Tessa was extremely empathetic she was also pragmatic and laid things out plainly. I think Dean really responded to that, particularly since it was such a different experience to the last reaper he was in contact with, and I'm sure there's been a lingering sense of borrowed time he's had since Faith (sweet Layla being a victim of that I'm sure only added to that feeling). And of course, at this point in the show the stakes in terms of global catastrophe are very very low as far as Dean's aware. He has no clue about angels or apocalypses or god or anything, so the idea of leaving the fight to Sam, John, and the other hunters wouldn't have been nearly as hard to wrap his brain around as it would have been later on. Not to mention, as he said just days (to him) prior, he's tired. Obviously his goal was to have Sam at his side, but there was a big part of him I think that *wanted* to give up the fight. To be *allowed* to. Tessa being there and telling him it's his time to go, that she wasn't there artificially or through any fault of his own, I think that gave him the "excuse" he needed. Not so much in terms of accepting fate or whatever, but that he did all he could to stay alive, far more than even Tessa anticipated. So yeah, particularly since the alternative was slowly losing his mind over the decades and becoming the thing he hunts, I think he absolutely was about to tell Tessa he would go with her.
Laurel
2024-02-18 12:49:15 +0000 UTCThis was such an amazing episode in SO many ways!!!! Re Azazel making the deal, remember he already knows that he needs a righteous man to break in hell to start the seals breaking... and later in s4 On the Head of a Pin, he tells Dean, 'It was supposed to be your father." Azazel probably thought he had it in the bag with this deal and getting John in hell. I agree that was a poor choice of final words to Dean from John... But I guess the writers really wanted us to wonder wtf he whispered AND wtf he meant lol. Kim Manners did an awesome job directing. So many good shots and angles and mood. Well done to all involved for sure. I have a lot of mixed feelings about John. I respect what he did here for Dean, but on the other hand, a father should be absolutely willing to die for his child. I was raised in a very abusive home at the hands of my father, so I'm sure that skews my view to a point. But even though his arc evolves, in my mind it's not close to enough to make up for the abandonment and yes, abuse in whatever form, that John did to the boys. (Maybe especially to Dean, by dumping so much on him at such a young age ) I blame John for almost every single one of the insecurities Dean took with him for the rest of his life. And I hate John for THAT. PS I love Tessa too, and think Dean was about to agree to go with her.
BunkerGirl
2024-02-18 12:44:22 +0000 UTC
